Project Durham Bulls #33 - Casey Gillaspie

2016-2017 Durham Bulls 

Background- 

Gillaspie was selected by the Rays in the first round of the 2014 MLB Draft out of Wichita State.  While in college, he excelled as a hitter in several wood bat summer leagues, as well as having a great junior season with the Shockers.  Gillaspie reached Triple A with the Bulls in the middle of the 2016 season after starting the season with Montgomery in the Southern League.  In 85 games with the Rays Double A team he hit .270/.387/.454 with 11 home runs and 21 doubles earning him a promotion up to the Bulls.  Gillaspie continued to hit well during the second half of 2016 in Durham.  He had 22 extra base hits with a .307/389/.520 slash line in just 47 games in Triple A.  Gillaspie returned to the Bulls in 2017, but struggled at the plate, as his average sunk below .230 and his on base dipped below .300.  The Rays traded Casey Gillaspie at the end of July for White Sox relief pitcher Dan Jennings.  The White Sox stuck him with their Triple A team in Charlotte, where he has remained since the trade.  

Card- 

Gillaspie first appeared in the 2014 Bowman Draft set, but did not sign anything in the set.  This 2015 Bowman Chrome card was his first licensed autograph card.  There are a bunch of Leaf products from 2014 with Gillaspie autographs, but they have the logos airbrushed off of the card.  A couple of the Leaf cards have cool patch pieces or inscriptions, but outside of that there is little to make them desirable cards.  Considering that the card market has not yet adjusted to the fact that Gillaspie seems like a AAAA player, many of his autographed cards still sell for upwards of $10, I went with this Bowman Chrome card simply based on the fact that it was the nicest card I could find for less than $5.  He actually has some sweet Panini cards which have him in his college Wichita State uniform, but those are in the group of cards that are north of $10.   

Big Dawg Cardboard

If I had to rank the best players who appeared on the Durham Bulls last season first baseman Casey Gillaspie would have to rank at the the top of the list.  He was not in the Bull City for the full season, but in just over 200 plate appearances he put up a .307/.389/.520 slash line with 7 home runs, 2 triples, 13 doubles, and 23 RBIs.  I would guess that the former first round pick of the Rays starts the 2017 season in Durham, but he might not be there for very long.

Naturally, I had taken stock of the Casey Gillaspie cards in my collection and felt like it was a little bit on the flimsy and light side, so I picked up a copy of his Bowman Chrome autograph from 2015 to improve what was in my Durham Bulls autograph box....

Considering that the Rays just traded first base prospect Richie Shaffer to the Mariners, it probably means that Gillaspie has a pretty good shot at getting some playing time in Tampa sooner than later.  Excited to add this nice looking autographed card and looking forward to seeing him next season, at least for a short time, in Durham.

Snorting Bull Awards: Worst Set of the Year

WORST CARD SET OF THE YEAR

We are meeting here too often.  This is how awards get named after people, or in this case a set, and it's not really a good thing.  Mental note: If Topps releases this set again next year and it is truly garbage again my award for Worst Card Set of the Year will be renamed after this product.  Really there is no need for this sort of thing to happen.  We've discussed airbrushing in several different posts over the years and no matter how it is done, collectors can all agree that it is not a good thing for the set.

So, if you worked at Topps and you wanted to showcase the talent that was drafted in the amateur baseball draft how would you go about doing this?  There are several good examples, a few mediocre examples, and a ton of poor examples.  The poor examples are mainly recent.  Here's how I view some of the draft cards over the years:


The Good: 1992 Topps Stadium Club Dome

These are sort of a classic in many circles.  Manny Ramirez was at Duke Chapel.  Shawn Green was in his backyard.  Nothing wrong with these cards.  I like Shawn Green in a t-shirt and a hat from his high school a lot better than an airbrushed Blue Jays uni.


The Bad: Leaf Products 

Leaf is always pretty good about getting draftees to sign for their different products.  They take the logos off of stuff, but they are not adding stuff either.  Treat Turner autograph?  Yes, please.  Why did you take the NC State logo off of his cap?  Disappointing, but not a deal breaker.

The Ugly (and winner of Worst Card Set two years running) Bowman Draft

I am not sure if this picture was taken while Turner was in college or playing somewhere in the minors, but he was clearly not on the Padres at the time it was taken.  It brings up the first problem with the Bowman Draft set: Quality.  

The SD logo on the hat is goofy and the jersey is off too.  I understand that almost every Topps set these days has some airbrushing, we all have bad days, but Bowman Draft just takes it to a different level.  Is there a card in the set which Topps does not airbrush?  I am not sure that there is. 

This Trea Turner is not quite as bad as the base card in the Bowman Draft set, but it still is not great.  This looks a lot like a USA Baseball photo.  The helmet is not quite right for NC State.  The earflaps on their helmets are a little bit less padded.  Almost a dead ringer for the USA Baseball helmets though and that dirt spot on the front of his jersey has a strange shape, but it's in the same spot as the number on is US National team jersey.  Pretty hard to get those dirt spots to cooperate with your airbrushing.  Even when Topps tries really really hard it is hard to make a quality product when you have to airbrush every single card.  

I had also thought about picking up a copy of the Luke Weaver card who was the Cardinals first round draft pick out of Florida State.  I saw the pitcher a few times the last couple of years with both FSU and USA Baseball.  His rookie card in Bowman Draft is inexcusably sloppy which is my second adjective I would use to describe this product.  

The Cardinals logo on his jersey is pretty bad, the hat is okay, but if you are going to go ahead and airbrush those two items on his jersey what is preventing you from fixing his maroon socks, belt, and undershirt showing on the card.  Seriously just airbrush the whole thing.  If I had been airbrushing him I would have put him smack dab in the middle of Busch Stadium.  What stopping you?  

Finally there is this awesome number Topps pulled on Casey Gillaspie cards which illustrates a total lack of consistency within the Bowman Draft product.  Gillaspie was the Rays first round pick out of Wichita State.  If you have never seen Wichita State play they have unique uniforms and they are probably pretty difficult to airbrush.  Topps actually waited until he reached the minors to take a photo of the power hitter first baseman.........

This insert card is not too bad.  The color scheme and design certainly fit with the Rays.  The helmet might be slightly off, but not bad.  What I do not understand is how you can create a decent photograph for one card and then completely miss on another card of the same player.  Here is Gillaspie's regular base card in the Bowman Draft set.....

I am not sure where this picture was taken, but the hat logo is terrible and the jersey logo is not much better.  I just do not understand why, if you are going to use airbrushing, you would not choose a card that is easy to work into something that looks good.  

I know that for many collectors the Bowman Draft product is the end of the calendar year and in many ways a celebration of the card year.  One final Bowman product and the first look at a few young stars before the new card year starts.   However, until Topps does something to change the quality and consistency in the product and clean up the sloppiness the Bowman Draft product will not be a serious set of baseball cards.  

It appears that other collectors are also down on this product too.  The set has not been out for very long and the set is already selling for just a little more than $5. 

Topps needs to seriously pull the plug on this product and do a complete revamp of what they are doing in this set.  I am not sure that Topps can ever really admit that they do something wrong, they are the only licensed card company in the game, but this would be a great set to either discontinue or go out on a limb and do something creative with.  In the meantime, I am prepared to rename the award for Worst Card Set of the Year to the Bowman Draft Worst Card Set of the Year Award.  As sure as the night is dark and water is wet, Topps will release this product again next year with all of the same flaws it has had the past several years running.

It's come to this...Leaf Cards.

You can feel the air getting colder outside and the baseball season has ended.  There are only a few card releases left on the calendar and the majority of 2014 cards have been opened and sorted.  Back in the day things would be ramping up for the 2015 Topps products to drop sometime around the holiday shopping season.  Instead the new year products drop in February which means I will probably walk down deserted streets in 2 inches of snow to the Target to buy a few packs of the new cards before I venture into my local card shop to open a jumbo.

So what is there to do right now?  Yes, I will do a little bit of work on Bowman Draft.  That Panini Draft product might be a little intriguing.  Maybe.  I have made a few trades of late and have a few cards I am keeping a close eye out for (TJ Warren in an NC State uniform and Rays acetate cards), but really I am not sure what I really need to add to close out the year.  Maybe I will spend some time Tuesday finding some holes to fill in for 2014, but really.......

I found two autographs that a collector on Facebook was unloading cheaply and decided to bite on both cards.  They're Leaf cards.  I have gone on enough rants already about unlicensed cards, so I will spare you a little bit here.  Basically, there are a few college players from the 2014 draft I have been interested in, but had not really thought to go the Leaf route.  There's the two NC State players (Rodon and Turner) and the Cardinals and Rays have a few players stuck in there too.  I picked up one of each.

First up is former NC State star, and White Sox first round draft pick, Carlos Rodon.  This is the blue copy of his Leaf Draft card.  Yes, I noticed that Rodon is wearing a White Sox uniform with no logos on the card.  I am happy to have a copy of a Rodon autograph as a pro.  Rodon made it all the way up to Triple A Charlotte last year and will not be surprised if he makes it up to the Majors quickly in 2015.  I dare say he might start there, but I honestly think he's back in the International League for a few starts.  He has looked good so far in the minors.....

I also picked up a card of Rays top draft pick Casey Gillaspie.  He's already considered the team's best prospect and was selected 20th overall out of Wichita State.

Gillespie seems to have plenty of power, but is really really slow.  You do not have to run fast however when the ball is on the other side of the fence.  He still might be another year or two away from Tampa, but this looks like a pretty good swing.....

The Gillaspie card is from the same set as the Rodon, but this is the base look for the autographs.  While Gillaspie is considered the Rays best prospect at the moment, it's not like the players in their system are world beaters around the card industry.  Still this card has been selling for more than $10 on Ebay, which is pretty good for a non-lisenced autograph of a non-big name prospect.  Maybe he's going to be pretty good.  Time will tell.