An Unexpected End

Every year the Durham Bulls make the playoffs.  

Every year the Durham Bulls win in the playoffs.  

This year the Durham Bulls lost in the playoffs. 

It's the first time that has happened since 2019. It was an unexpected end. They were playing the Norfolk Tides in the International League Championship and were favored to defeat the Orioles Triple A squad, who reached the playoffs by having the best record during the first half of the season. I forgot that cruddy feeling you get when your favorite team is not the one celebrating at the end of the deciding game. 

Anyway, I have worked on finding cards of several players from this year's Durham Bulls team over the past several weeks. I probably should have been looking all year, but I procrastinated. The new editions  are all scanned and ready to share. Feel free to write down a few names, a few of these players are going to be in the Majors soon.  

First up, outfielder Niko Hulsizer.  

Niko reminds me of Tyler O'Neill, except he's not on the injured list every other week.  

Niko works out. 

Niko hits long home runs. 

Tyler O'Neill is from somewhere in Canada and Niko is from (checks notes) Pennsylvania. 

Anyway, I found a Bowman Chrome autograph of the Bulls left fielder. I like that he just signs his first name "Niko" on the cards. Like there is another player named Niko in the Majors. There is not at the moment.  

Second Niko autograph below.  

This is a sticker autograph, which appears to be slightly crooked. Still like the action photo on this card. Probably a home run, since he hit the ball. All his other at-bats are either walks or strike outs.  

You a White Sox fan?  

The next player actually got traded to the White Sox a few months back, but I am still collecting his cards. The Rays don't make many bad trades, but I feel like this is one of them. I have also posted other Luis Patino cards on here before, just adding a new one to the collection.  

The Rays got Luis Patino in the Blake Snell trade. They used him as a spot starter in 2021 and 2022, but he also got a lot of starts in Durham. He's slight, but throws really hard. Never really got much of a chance with the Rays before they traded him to the White Sox. The Sox have used him several times over the past month and Luis has looked decent.  

A rare miss for the Rays, but if you're a White Sox fan, enjoy.  

Next up, a fan favorite from this year. 

Imagine Jose Altuve with a really violent swing and a more likable personality.  

Sometimes pictures on cards are deceptive, or you can't quite tell what someone looks like based on the picture. Ronny Simon is listed at 5'7, but that feels like a made-up number.  I bet he's 5'7 if he's wearing shoes and standing on a phone book for a major U.S. city. Ronny is also listed at 150 pounds, which also feels a little high. Ronny also has a huge swing with 13 home runs, 25 doubles, and almost 150 strikeouts.

Guess who was on the injured list for the Durham Bulls the entire season?  

This guy. 

Brendan was a top prospect a few years back. Made it all the way to Durham and then things went sideways. I think he was overused while he was at Louisville (the junior college) and his shoulder is now completely shot. He's going to end up being a "what could have been" type player, but those guys are still fun to collect. Especially when you can find their autograph on a Topps Tek card. Love these cards, but I did not scan both sides of it. Know you can see the autograph on the back of the card.  

I am upset McKay's career is likely not going to work out, but also upset that someone let Louisville into the ACC. Their sports teams always showing up around here, like Friday night they played NC State in football. NC State lost, because of NC State. Louisville did not really do anything to win.  

I could have made that same type of throw.  

It was not a good weekend for sports.  

A few more cards.  

The Rays got Blake Hunt in the Blake Snell trade with the Padres. Up to this season, he's been a light hitting catcher, so I did not think much of him when he got called up to the Bulls to be their backup catcher in the middle of the season. I was expecting solid defense and a .220 batting average.......

His name is Blake, but this is the best I could find on a Sunday morning.  

Anyway, Blake Hunt ended up hitting .260 for the Durham Bulls this year and had 6 home runs. Several of those came in the first week he was in Triple A. Definitely a pleasant surprise.  

I found a Bowman Chrome autograph of Blake Hunt for less than $2 and also a Panini autograph below for around $1.  

Three dollars for two autographs of a Triple A backup catcher makes me feel better about my sports teams losing. Did I mention the Cardinals game on Friday night? It was like a Bengals-Rams game. Wait, the Rams moved. It was like a Clemson-NC State game where State got a safety as their only points.  

One more player, because he is local and his high school has an amazing mascot.  

Greg Jones was the Rays first round selection in 2019 out of UNC-Wilmington. He actually went to high school in Cary, North Carolina, which is one of the large suburbs of Raleigh. There are many high schools in Cary, but Greg went to THE Cary High School.

Cary High School is noted for four things:

1. The Cary Water Tower 

2. Their annual band contest 

3. Overcrowding all the local fast food restaurants in Cary, because their campus has open lunch every day

and........

Card break. 

This is Greg's 2020 Topps Pro Debut autograph. 

Back to the story.

4. Their mascot.  

Cary High School's mascot is an Imp.  

Imps appear in German and English folklore where they are they devious and mischievous henchman of the devil.  Here is the Imp.......

The Imp was voted Sports Illustrated Best High School Mascot earlier this year.  

Sorry, there are no quality photos of Greg playing baseball in a Cary High School uniform on the internet.  

Last card.  

This is another 2020 autograph of Greg Jones. This one is from Bowman's Best and features a nice on-card signature. Greg is a toolsy player. He's fast, has some pop in his bat, and also is versitile.  The Bulls played him around the infield and also in centerfield. Buy his cards, put them in a box, and thank me in two or three years when you run across them.  

A Heard of Bulls, A College of Cardinals, And Carter Kieboom

I picked up a bunch of 2020 Topps cards a few weeks back on Twitter.  I do not buy or trade a ton of cards there, but I saw a good deal on a Mike Brosseau Stadium Club autograph and ended up with a few other good cards in the process.  

A Heard of Bulls.  

Here is the Brosseau autograph.  

I'm not sure what to think of this year's Stadium Club.  I usually like this product, but I also usually buy a few packs at some point during the year.  I am convinced that there are zero packs of baseball cards at retail stores in all of the Raleigh area.  For the moment, I have a Mike Brosseau autograph.  That's a good start.  

I am a big fan of combined shipping, so I always ask about Rays who were on the Durham Bulls and Cardinals when I buy an inexpensive card.  Here are my other former Bulls players:  

I already have one of the Lowe autographs, but these are really great cards.  I couldn't pass one of these up for a low price.  Lowe is having a great season too.  

I also received a pair of Brendan McKay 1985 Topps cards.  He's out for the season with an arm injury, but I am hoping that he can make it back at some point in 2021.  McKay is a two way player, not sure that will last long, but it is fun for the moment.  

Last former Durham Bulls card....

Meadows is a pretty good young player.  He's having a bad year, but I am still hopeful.  I really like these sepia parallels.  I know they are not serial numbered or tough pulls, but they always are pretty eye appealing to me.  

A College of Cardinals 

All three of these cards are pretty simple, but I like the looks of each of them.  I got two sepia cards and a base of Miles Mikolas.  I don't really collect these three players, but they might some of the few 2020 Cardinals cards in my collection.  

The last card in the group was Carter Kieboom.  Always love a throw-in card.  

The Super Utility Team Part 2

It's been a few days, back to some former Durham Bulls players. 

The last time I shared a card of a Durham Bulls player, it was an Inception card of Michael Brosseau, one of the current Rays players who seems to play everywhere on the field.  Really nice card too. 

Which brings me to another newer card in my collection.  I think I might have picked this up our first week at home.  A little bigger name than Brosseau.  Here is the card which is from this year's Topps Heritage set.  Love the black borders. 

I saw Brendan McKay while he was in college with Louisville, and again with the USA National College team a few summers back.  I am not sure if he is going to hit enough to stick in the Majors as a DH, but he's certainly talented enough as a pitcher.  For the moment, I just think it's neat to see the old "pitcher-dh" label on his baseball cards.  

I also like that McKay squeezed his signature into the lone light colored space on the card.  He's always had a small autograph, this card would stink he used that blue pen over a dark blue Rays uniform.  

2019 Durham Bulls Team Set

The Bulls team set came out a little later than normal this year, but I picked up a copy a few weeks back when I went to a Bulls playoff game with the little man.  The Bulls won the game, and the series, but they ended up losing in the International League finals against the Columbus Clippers (Indians). 

I only went to a handful of games this year, I felt a little disconnected from the team.  Probably does not help that the end and beginning of my schools years have been a little hectic, I switched grade levels, and my summer vacation was spent almost entirely on an almost 3,000 mile road trip.  

Some great names in this set, so let's have a look.  I scanned the cards in groups of three.  

I do not love the design.  I cannot remember the last time the Bulls used Choice, or similar company to produce their team set.  Feels like it has been a few years, the majority have been made by smaller, more local companies.  Although, the photographer for the set is from the area.  

Out of this first group, Brosseau is my favorite player.  He ended up being a pretty important player for the Rays down the stretch.  

Like the Cronenworth card on the end.  He did not get called up by the Rays at the end of the summer, but he hit .334 for the Bulls, and also appeared as a relief pitcher for the roughly a dozen games too.  He was a two way player in college at Michigan a few years back.  Not sure he could pitch in the Majors, but he's fun to watch in the Minors.  I believe that batting average ended up winning the International League batting crown.  

This is actually two groups of three.  I like that the photographer shows off some of the different home uniforms that Bulls wear.  Tan caps, blue caps, blue jerseys, white jerseys, and Dalton Kelly with the 4th of July hat.  In the first group of cards you can see Brosseau has the white front panel cap.  Not much on the players in these two groups outside of Nate Lowe on the bottom right, who has spent some time with the Rays already.  

McKay has to be the best card in the set.  Love the idea of having a two way player, although the Rays seem to really be leaning towards towards just having him pitch.  The amount of time he has spent playing in the field, or as an offensive player seems limited.  

Pruitt is my favorite veteran player on the Bulls.  He shuffled back and forth a lot this year, something like nine call ups to the Rays. 

Love the Dashenko Ricardo card.  He was an independent league player for a few years, made back to Triple A with the Bulls, and actually had some pretty decent play at times.  I believe he might have hit a home run in first Triple A game, or something like that.  

The Rays traded Nick Solak to the Rangers towards the end of the season for a pitcher.  He hit two home runs and had a ton of RBIs in a series against the Rays late in the year.  Sulser is on the Orioles now.  Slegers is still in the Rays system, I think. 

We are to the end of the set.  Kean Wong had done a lot of clutch hitting for the Bulls in the playoffs the last two years, got called up to the Rays, but was eventually claimed by the Angels.  I think that Kean might find some more playing time there, so probably for the best. 

Brady Williams was in his first year managing the Bulls.  He had some great shoes. 

That's always important. 

Last three cards.  We have the mascot.  Wool E. Bull is a great, he's better than the majority of Major League mascots, but we get to enjoy him in Durham. 

Last we have Quinton McCracken.  You might remember him from being an outfielder in the Major Leagues during the 1990s and 2000s, but to locals he was a standout defensive back and kick returner for Duke during the early 1990s.  

Let's Just Get Through This Week

Five more days during this school year and I am on vacation.  I am going to spend my vacation sleeping, traveling, and catching up on some baseball.  I have seriously neglected the Durham Bulls this year.  Have I been to a game?  No.  Have I collected any Durham Bulls cards? Well, not really many from this year's team. 

They are the best team in the International League at the moment. Seems like you can say that at some point every year.  They have some great names on the roster.  My favorite player on the current roster has to be two way player Brendan McKay.  I got to watch him a few times in college while he was playing for Louisville, and in summer baseball for the USA Baseball college national team. 

I picked up a few of his cards.  They have been sitting on my coffee table, but I have not taken the time to post them in my space here.  Waiting to go to a Bulls game.  Let me go ahead and post them ahead of time. 

Two from 2019.

I really like the 1989 Bowman style cards that are an insert in this year's Bowman set.  The cards are obviously not as big as the original set, which were the same size as the 1950s Bowman cards, but I love the simple design.  They have that Chrome finish, but I kind of wish that Topps would use some old stock on these cards. 

A Top 100 Prospects insert card.  Speaks for itself.  Very industrial looking on the bottom, with honeycomb pattern on the top.  What is even happening here?

Final card.  

I have always dabbled with the TEK brand cards from Topps.  This was from last year when Topps put out both a Topps TEK set, along with a Bowman TEK set.  I like these cards, but I only buy them as singles, and I try to stay away from trying to buy all the pattern variations.  That's ridiculous.  McKay has always had that tiny signature.