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.  

Redbird Randomness

I helped a fellow collector from one of the Facebook card groups I belong to fill a few holes in an a late 1990s set and got a few random Cardinals autographs back in return for a the help.  I actually do not have any of these cards, so in some way they filled some holes in my collection too.  Although I do not expressly have some outrageous goal of getting every Cardinals autograph card or anything, I do try to get as many of the players as I possibly can.

Keeps the amount of money and quantity of cards within reason.  So, here are the three new cards....

First up is Cardinals pitching prospect Jake Woodford.  He's in the top 20 prospects for the team, but he seems like he's not going to be on the fast track to St. Louis or anything.  The Cardinals are usually pretty big on taking college pitchers at the top of the draft, but used a sandwich pick on Woodford.  He big, he throws pretty hard, but for everything out there on him he has a ways to go to get to the Majors.  Could be a Lance Lynn type of innings eater or a middle reliever.  Pretty wide range of opinion there.  Regardless, I like his autograph.  Very nice signature.  

Not a Cardinals card, or even a player who was on the Cardinals for very long.  However, most Cardinals fan have a pretty fond opinion of Spiezio after his performance in the 2006 Postseason helped the team defeat the Mets in the NLCS and the Tigers in the World Series.  He also had this gem for the Angels in 2002 against the Giants.  

Last one.  

I was happy to see Hazelbaker get a shot with the Cardinals at the beginning of the 2016 season and it was nice to see him play well for awhile.  I had seen him play several times over the past few seasons with the Paw Sox.  Not a serious prospect, but the guy gave a lot of effort and was an enjoyable player to watch.  Some Cardinals collectors went crazy for some of his cards during the first half of the baseball season.  I simply could not bring myself to spend the money or trade the cards to land one of these during that time.  

Hazelbaker ended up shuttling between Memphis and St Louis during the back half of the season and his autographs cooled a bit.  Glad to have landed one at the right price.