Monday Morning Autograph - Johnny Field

 

Today's Autograph: 2014 Bowman Chrome Johnny Field 

Why Do I Own The Card: I first saw Johnny Field play at USA Baseball while he was a college baseball player at the University of Arizona. I ran into him again a few years later after he was drafted by the Rays and ended up playing with the Durham Bulls. In fact, beyond owning a bunch of Johnny Field baseball cards, I also own a game-used Johnny Field baseball bat.  

It's autographed.  

Back of the Card: 

Johnny Field's Career In A Haiku:

U of A Baseball 

Team USA, Tampa Bay Rays

Real Estate Agent (seriously) 

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.  

2016 Durham Bulls Team Set

I cannot tell you how long these cards have been out, and I bought them the first week they were for sale, but for some reason they did not get posted at any point during the season.  I actually found them a few days back while I was putting away a few other cards in a box I have with different minor league team sets and minor league single cards.  For those who have seen my card room in person, you'd be hard pressed to believe this, but I actually put the cards right away when I got home from the game.

Not sure what was happening that week that would make me do such a thing.  Usually they sit on a shelf or my desk for a week or two before they are put into some sort of stack and shuffled away to a box.  Found the International League All-Star set too, that will be later in the week.  Like tomorrow.

Here are the cards with a little commentary......

There are a lot of solid names in the first batch of cards:

• Blake Snell is one of the Rays top pitching prospects and will spend the entire 2017 season in Tampa after beginning last season with the Bulls.  
• Motter was traded from the Rays this offseason to the Mariners along with Richie Shaffer in the second row.  The M's have Motter on their roster at the moment, it would be nice to see him get some playing time.  Shaffer went to the Mariners, was released and signed by the Phillies, and was released again and signed by the Reds.  
• Mahtook, Franklin, and Maile have all spent time in the Majors.  Not sure what their roles will be next year, but each of them would seem to have a decent shot of being in Tampa.  At the same time, it won't shock me if all three are back in Durham.  
• Schultz is sort of the hidden gem out of this group.  He attended college at a small school in North Carolina (High Point) and was drafted by the Rays in the 14th Round of the 2013 Draft.  Since he has struck out more than 11 batters per 9 in almost 80 starts through four different levels of Minor League ball.  His last two seasons he struck out more than 160 in 130 innings.  He's one to watch.  

There are some older players in this grouping of cards along with some fringy prospects.  Decker, Arencibia, Sappington have all seen a decent amount of playing time in the Majors.  Varona is a Cuban defector who seems like he will likely be a AAAA player, Floro has a little potential for the next level as a ground ball specialist out of the bullpen, and Belletti would also be a bullpen arm.  That really leaves two players to chat about.....

• Robertson was a highly regarded prospect in the A's system before he was traded for Ben Zobrist.  He's just 22 and played his first season in Triple A last year.  He had a decent .259/.358/.356 line.  Obviously the OBP makes up for the average, but that slugging percentage is too low.  The Rays have another hot shortstop prospect, Willy Adames, who should be in Durham in 2017.  Curious to see what happens to Robertson.
• Field was apart of Arizona's College World Series winner a few seasons back and has made his was through the Rays system in the past three seasons.  He has some pop in his bat for a little a guy, more than 50 extra base hits last year and a slugging percentage over .450, but his OBP has dropped significantly since getting past A Ball.  In two A ball stops Field was at .367 and .396, since he has gone .329, .301, and 338.  You can't steal first.  

This grouping of cards is all older guys with limited potential in the Majors.  The whole group is over 25, while some Rays fans consider Seitzer somewhat of a prospect, he is not.  Nope.  

Last three.  The mascot, but not the one from the movie, Wool E. Bull is one of the better sports mascots around in any sport.  Really good.  Snyder has been the pitching coach the last few seasons.  He went to UNC, so there is a local connection, and he seems to give my son a ball (we often sit near the bullpen) almost every time we are at the game.  Ozzie Timmons is Ozzie Timmons, pretty awesome.  

A Bauer Outage

It has been a while since I have done a USA Baseball autograph, but I found a really cool card from the Upper Deck years cheap on Ebay last week.  Upper Deck did not hold the license for the USA Baseball team for very long, but they made some really nice products during their brief run.  I like these By The Letter cards, which they normally put into the SP Authentic set, and have never added one of these from a USA Baseball player.  As a Cardinals fan I have looked into the Kolten Wong version of this card, but have never tracked one down for the right price.

As an added bonus, for exactly $0.99, I also added a copy of the Johnny Field 2012 USA Baseball autograph pictured below:

This is my second copy of this card featuring the Rays prospect during his time with the USA Baseball College Team.  He helped the University of Arizona win a National Championship during his time in college.  He should be a Durham Bulls player next year, I thought he might have been up at this end of this year.  Never happened.  Definitely a player I am looking to work on this offseason.

Number 997.....

It's a dreary Monday and I am not feeling too terrific today, so I am going to give you a short, simple, and sweet post for your reading enjoyment.  This offseason I added several players to "People Whom I Collect List" and now that the season has started I cannot let you, my loyal readers down, with a poor effort on players I might have introduced you too during the long off season.

Here's a player I hope to see in Durham towards the end of the summer.  Last year Johnny Field took home the Rays Minor League Player of the Year and managed to hit an even .300 with a .376 OBP, and .488 slugging at two stops in Low A and High A.  I am guessing he's going to spend the whole season with Double A Montgomery, but I can be optimistic right?  On to the baseball cards....

I have already picked up a bunch of the Johnny Field cards out of last year's Bowman Draft product and some of his USA Baseball autographs from Panini, so my card today is going to have to tide you over until Topps, Leaf, or Panini decides to make a 2015 Johnny Field card.....

This Field card comes from the unlicensed 2013 Donruss Elite product and features him wearing his college uniform with the Arizona Wildcats logos airbrushed off.  Not the most attractive card, and at 725 copies not the hardest to find, but if you're going to collect a player even these types of cards are nice to add to the collection.  This would actually be a cool card if Donruss had left the college logos on the uniforms, like they did in the Donruss Elite sets from 2007-2010.  I guess after 2010 they became more unlicensed than they previously were......

closer to 1000......

A Notch Down

There are so going to be a lot of new faces next season on the Rays, which means I am also going to see a lot of change with my local team the Durham Bulls.  The biggest change will be the switch in managers after Charlie Montoyo, who managed the team for eight seasons, left the Bulls to become the new third base coach for the Rays.  Last week the Bulls named Jared Sandberg as their new manager.  Bulls fans rightly seem excited about their new leader as he has shown great skill in working with some of the Rays lower minor league teams.

With the big league roster, and the Triple A roster, somewhat of a toss up at this point I have decided to go down a notch or two in the Rays system to find a player to collect this off season.  I decided to work a little bit on last year's Rays Minor League Player of the Year Winner Johnny Field.  I actually saw Johnny Field a few years back while he was playing here for USA Baseball.

Field attended the University of Arizona and was on the College All-Star team.  While playing for the Wildcats he helped lead the team to the 2012 College World Series Championship.  Honestly, at the time Field did not stand out for me on that team which also featured Carlos Rodon, Trea Turner, Marco Gonzales, and some guy named Kris Bryant.  Pretty impressive group of players.

Last year in two stops, Bowling Green and Port Charlotte, Field hit .300/.376/.488 with 12 home runs, 8 triples, and 36 doubles.  Seems a safe bet that Field will reach the Durham Bulls sooner than later, so we are to the point where I am out looking for his cards.  I added one back in November, but picked up two more in the last month.

My two latest adds are both USA Baseball cards.....

First up is this autograph from the 2013 Panini USA Baseball set.  Kind of an interesting card since it is a rehash of the Certified Brand which was made by Pinnacle in the late 1990s.  It was actually a Leaf product at some point in the early 2000s, but Pinnacle went bankrupt and obviously someone owns the rights to all of the old products even if it is two different companies now.  The card is limited to just 299 copies, and while it is a sticker autograph, it is really well done.  

This last card is from the 2012 edition of Panini's USA Baseball autographs which were released within the Prime Cuts set.  While the Prime Cuts set was a bit of a disappointment, the USA Baseball autographs were incredible.  Pretty simple design with the player standing in front of a flag, not Rex-Kwon-Do in face flag, but a flag with an on-card signature.  Lots of other good players in this set besides Johnny Field.  

Both Field autographs were very affordable, but there are still several other autographs of this Rays Minor League Player of the Year that I would love to add to my collection.  Most of them are USA Baseball autographs, but hopefully Topps will put a few of his autographs in the 2015 products.  At least give me one in Bowman or Topps Pro Debut.  

Rays Prospect or Player From Ken Griffey's Winning Run?

Back in college I played some mean games of Ken Griffey's Winning Run on the Super Nintendo.  I think that somewhere in there Xbox came out, the Game Cube, and Nintendo 64, but I just kept playing my SNES and loved a lot of the sports games.  Winning Run was my favorite baseball game. It's only shortcoming was that the game featured made up player names.  The Cardinals had Dee Majors and Bill Peters instead of Ray Lankford and Brian Jordan.  It was still a fun game to play.  The game even had some pretty good depictions of the MLB stadiums.

One of my projects for this off season is to start a few new player collections.  Obviously some happen because of trades and free agent signings.  The Cardinals traded for Jason Hayward, so naturally I will buy or trade for a few of his cards.  Besides picking up player collections from off season transactions I can also look down the minor league systems of the Rays and Cardinals a bit.  Last season the Rays Minor League Player of the Year was A Ball outfielder Johnny Field.  That name sounds a lot like one of the players off of the Ken Griffey Winning Run Baseball game, but that's seriously the guys name.

Field was drafted by the Rays out of the University of Arizona and spent last year split between the team's two A ball teams in Charlotte and Bowling Green posting a .300/.376.488 mark with 13 home runs, 36 doubles, 58 RBIs, and 23 steals.  Seems like the sort of person who could end up in Durham with the Bulls sooner than later, so I am starting to dabble a little bit with his cards.  Picked up a pretty good one for card number one of the Johnny Field collection.

This is the gold version of Johnny Field's 2014 Bowman Chrome autograph.  The card is limited to just a total of 50 copies.  While Field is in A ball he actually has quite a few autographs out on the secondary market.  He spent a few summers hanging out in Cary, North Carolina playing for the USA Baseball program and has a fair number of autographed and relic cards from Panini's USA Baseball set.  I have several more Field cards en route and will posting a few more cards of the Rays prospect over the next week or two...