2018 Durham Bulls Team Set Part 1

There are thirty cards in this year's Durham Bulls team set, I am doing fifteen cards in today's post, another fifteen at some point over the weekend.  I scanned the cards in pairs, minus the fifteenth, which I will use to give a little better look at the design.....

Pretty solid design.  I like the use of team color's in the banner and name bar, but I also like that the borders of the card are white.  Feels like it has been awhile since the Bulls have had a set with a white border, I am sure I am forgetting something that happened recently.  

A little busy for my tastes, but at least it is a black and white design.  Color would be complete overload here.  You've got player name and position in the banner, biography box, vitals with the card number squeezed in on the side, three years of stats, and all the Bulls/MiLB legal/copyright stuff.  Let's a lot of stuff in a small space.

Oh, Adam Moore is a catcher.  Seems like a decent Triple A organizational depth kind of player.

Meet half of the team.

My favorite combination of players in this set.  Banda has been a favorite this year since coming over from the Diamondbacks in the Steven Souza trade and Adames has been in Durham for awhile now.  

I am guessing Adames is up for good and will likely never return to Durham outside of an injury rehab.  Banda had Tommy John, so he will definitely be back through town at some point next year.  Hard to believe the Rays are going to let a talented hard throwing left handed starter linger in Triple A too long though.  

Both of these guys were in the Majors for long runs this year.  Castillo is a nasty relief pitcher.  Just unfair.  Bauers was not as good as I thought he was going to be in the Majors, but he is still just 22.  He had some great moments at the dish this year.  

I would say both Bauers and Castillo are up for good in Tampa, but maybe Bauers gets sent back down with a slow start next year.  Could also see him getting moved to the outfield, there are other first baseman on the way.  

Coats and Field are both veteran players.  Field ended the year in the Twins system.  Coats played the whole year in Durham, but I had seen him a few times prior.....

with the White Sox Triple A team in Charlotte.  Coats has some decent upside for a guy in his late 20s.  I actually have a bunch of Field cards in old posts from when he was in college.  He was one of the first USA Baseball people I collected.  

Hazelbaker has been everywhere.  Once a Cardinal, played well with them.  Gibaut is a little under the radar.  He is a big guy who throws hard, made the Triple A All-Star game this year.  

He's a college guy, so he's already 25, but just a really good player.  I think he is up with the Rays next year and is a useful reliever for a long time.  

I had seen Micah Johnson a bunch of times with Charlotte.  Learned a lot about him this year, interesting guy off the field.  Really into art and has had his own shows.  Nice stuff if you follow him on social media.  Hu was on the Bulls last year.  

Mainly a control pitcher.  He has had some good moments with the Rays.  Kind of reminds me a lot of Matt Andriese for whatever reason.  

Two relief pitchers who have been up and down between Tampa and Durham.  

I like Kolarek better.  Lefty reliever with a funky motion.  All need pitchers like that.  

We are at the end.  My second favorite pairing.  McCarthy is a UVA grad.  I saw him a few years back at the ACC Baseball Tournament.  Nice player, not sure how he is going to fair in the Majors, but he played a great few games in the International League Championship.   All of the games were on the road in Scranton because of Hurricane Florence.  McCarthy is from Scranton.  

He is getting a Dundie for best player in a Triple A playoff series.  

Best Dundies ever.  

Lowe caught fire last year between A Ball and Double A and just kept hitting this year.  His line in Durham was pretty unreal and he ended up getting promoted up to Tampa.  He played in roughly 40-50 games with the Rays, played well, should keep an eye on him next year.  Extra base machine.  

2018 International League All-Star Set Part 1

A few new Minor League cards I picked up while attending a Durham Bulls playoff game yesterday against the Toledo Mud Hens.  The Bulls ended up winning the game 3-2 and advanced to the International League Championship where they will play Scranton, which is the Yankees Triple A team.

Before the game I visited the team store and found the set, which I am going to share with you on this post, another later in the week with the second half of the set.  Also a copy of the 2018 Durham Bulls set.  I will post that at some point too.

The International League All-Star set is 28 cards, so this post will feature the first 14 cards.  There are two Bulls in this part of the set and another in the second half, but not wearing a Bulls uniform.  I have scanned the cards in pairs and have a little blurb about each scan.

First two cards in the set belong to Willy Adames and Anthony Alford.  Adames has been on the Bulls for awhile now, and the Rays have actually given him a lot of playing time in the Majors this year.  He has done fairly well.  You have heard a decent amount from this blog over the years about Adames, so let me give Alford a little love....

Alford has been a Top 100 prospect for the last few years.  He got some pop, he's got some speed, and he has done a good job of getting on-base.  Well, until this year, which was easily his worst since the Jays drafted him out of Ole Miss in 2012.  Almost one of those guys who got onto an All-Star team because he played well in other seasons.  A slash line of .240/.312/.344 hardly screams All-Star, but he is just 23 and the Jays have already had him up to the Majors twice.  

Bauers is the second Bulls player in this half of the set, plenty of other opportunities to write about him in other posts.  

Allard is a former first round draft pick who has moved through the Braves system fast.  He's just 20 and he's basically spent the entire season in Triple A.  He's pitched well too.  I think he sometimes does not get the recognition he deserves.  Allard is not big and is much more on the finesse side.  Still, a 20 year old with a sub 3 ERA at Triple A is pretty special.  

The Braves called him up and he pitched a few games in Atlanta.  They were rough, but I still like his chances at being a good player in the long run.  

Both of these players have spent a fair amount of time in the Majors this summer.  Bieber has started 16 games and has 9 wins.  Some of his stats are not that good, which is why wins are not always a great stat, but he probably has some sort of long term future as a Major League player.  

Beeks was traded to the Rays from the Red Sox for Nathan Evoldi.  He has not appeared with the Bulls, but has managed 4 wins in just 8 games.  His numbers are also a little shaky.  See previous comment about wins.  

Cozens is a big guy who swings for the fences.  He has played 15 games for the Phillies this year and has an .095 batting average with 15 strikeouts in just 21 at bats.  Going to have to refine that swing a bit.

Borucki has thirteen starts for the Blue Jays.  He was really good in some of his previous stops in the Minors, but has had a hard time missing bats in the upper Minors and in the Majors.

 Fedde has risen through the Minors quickly.  He seems like he's a high floor, low ceiling guy who was a pretty good college pitcher at UNLV.  He has played parts of two seasons with the Nationals and has a career ERA over 7.  In the Minors, he has been good, nothing dominate.

I do not know much about Enyel De Los Santos.  He was in the Padres system and came over to the Phillies this past offseason for Freddy Galvis.  De Los Santos has had a good year for Lehigh Valley, but that's about all I know here.

 Gonsalves has done very well for the Twins Minor League teams the past few years, but has not faired well in his brief time in the Majors.  He has been a Top 100 prospect the past two seasons, so there is probably some hope he will be a good player.  He's probably at least a mid rotation guy.

Kingham has been around for awhile now and is north of 25.  He has been up with the Pirates for most of this year and has not had the best numbers.  Not sure what becomes of him, likely bullpen or a 4A guy.

 Last pair for the first half of the set.

Let me give you one number for Kopech:  He struck out 170 batters this year in 126 innings.  The arm and stuff is incredible.  He needs to keep developing obvious, plus he is out next year with Tommy John.  I would be more worried if it was a shoulder injury.  

Lugo came over in the J.D. Martinez trade, spent most of this season in Triple A.  He walked 9 times in over 500 at bats.  Not sure what his future in the Majors is with that little patience at the plate.

Although he was batting as I was typing this post and drew a walk.  Go figure.

More International League All-Stars later in the week.....

Jake from the Wil Myers Trade Part 2

I am always looking to get ahead a little bit on some of my collecting with the Durham Bulls.  Sometimes I just wait until the players get to Durham, but other times I go out and try to find their cards ahead of time if I can find them at a good price. One of the players I have started to work on a bit is first baseman Jake Bauers.

I am not quite sure what to make of him as a prospect, but he already has several cards out floating around including a few autographs.  Last year I picked up a nice looking Leaf autograph of him after he was traded to the Rays from the Padres in the Wil Myers trade.  He's also had a few certified autographs in a few licensed products I am going to look at picking up in the near future too.

Until then I found a really nice Bowman die cut of the first base prospect....

This is from the 2014 Bowman set, hence the Padres uniform.  Still a really nice looking die cut card. These Bowman Scout's Breakouts are not quite as nice as the Bowman's Best die cuts, but still a sharp looking insert.   I am guessing that he will start out this year in Double A, but hopefully will be in Durham before the end of the summer.  

Jake From The Will Myers Trade

I am still trying to catch up on all of the different trades that the Rays made this offseason.  There should be some sort of player directory created for fans watching the games early in the season.  Maybe some printable info graphics on the team website that contain really awesome facts about the players.  The same thing will likely take place at several of the Rays Minor League stadiums this spring, but minor league fans cope with change a little bit better than some of our Major League counterparts.

A few of the really highly regarded prospects that the Rays picked up from the A's, in the Zobrist trade, and the Padres, in the Myers trade, seem like they are actually a year or two away from playing for my Durham Bulls squad.  However, it is never too early to start picking up some of their cards.

One player I am looking forward to seeing in the not to distant future is first baseman Jake Bauers from the Will Myers trade.  Here's a look at his numbers after roughly 150 minor league games...

While the power is not there yet for a corner infielder I like the average and on-base percentage.  At just 19 years old in A ball there is still time for Bauers to get bigger and stronger and improve as a hitter.  In the meantime, I am going to go ahead and start looking for a few of his cards.  I found one really cool autograph this past week that was dirt cheap.  

This is a Leaf product, but they did a good job of hiding the fact that it is a non-licensed product.  Really, it's a pretty cool card.  Die-cut, autograph, sweet design.  I was happy to find out that one of the newest Rays had an autograph, but was really happy with the looks of the card too.  The High Ceiling autographs set is actually a pretty cool little collection of signatures if you are into minor leaguers.  Some of the signers include Tyler Kolek, Alex Jackson, and Joey Gallo.