The Snorting Bull: Justin Ruggiano

Showing posts with label Justin Ruggiano. Show all posts

Sunday, August 2, 2015

2007 Durham Bulls Team Set

Just filling in a few holes from previous years. I saw this set on sale this past weekend while I was attending Friday night's during Durham Bulls game and just simply could not pass this one up. I think I now have all of the Bulls sets from every year that I have lived in North Carolina (roughly ten years). I am going to have to go back and start working on the sets from before 2005 now. This set actually has some pretty nice names in it for a Minor League team set. A bunch of these players made it up to the Majors with Zobrist being the best of the lot. Here's a look at the cards and a few thoughts on some of the players.....

Alright, a little bit hard to read and the cards have a horizontal orientation. Still fun to look at. The best card in this group belongs to Johnny Gomes on the left hand side of the middle row. I was never really a huge fan of Johnny Gomes, but he's had a decent career and won a World Series ring with the Red Sox in 2013. Long time relief pitcher J.P. Howell is below Gomes and Brent Butler is in the top right hand corner.

A few more Major Leaguers in this group too. Top right is Royals/Rays infielder Elliot Johnson. Most famously plowed over a Yankees catcher during a Spring Training and injured him somehow. Can't remember how he trucked, but it might have been Francisco Cervalli. Jeff Niemann on the middle left was a high draft pick out of Rice, had a decent year or two, and his career was then wrecked by shoulder problems. Loved watching him pitch for the Bulls, but injuries definitely did him in. Chris Richard is in the bottom right. He was first baseman for the Orioles for awhile, but ended up in Tampa with the Rays afterwards. Richard spent several years in Durham and is on the top of the franchise leader board in several offensive categories.

This is a good group of cards. Let's start with the top left card belonging to Justin Ruggiano. He's one of my favorite Bulls of all-time, and even though he's hanging out in Tacoma, I still am following his career. Shawn Riggans is in the middle of the top row. He was a pretty good catching prospect for awhile. The Zobrist card in the set is in the bottom right hand side. I also like the Gary Gaetti card to the left of the Zobrist.

Last three. Montoyo, the manager, is on the left. He managed the Bulls a long time and did a great job. Cool to add a card of his to the collection. Wool E. Bull on the right is also a sweet add. The Blue Monster in the middle? Not so great.

Friday, June 26, 2015

Two Off the List.....

Two cards are coming off my Top 10 Wanted List tonight. I started my list a few months back and it started off slowly. I have mixed up the cards a bit, some simple targets and a few hard ones, and the pace of cards coming off the list has really picked up. Tonight's two are one of each: One card that has been up for a few weeks and another that has been on the list since day 1.

Let's start off with the 10th Card on the list first....

I have already picked up all of the autographed copies of the Bowman Flashback cards, but still had one of the non-autographed cards to pick up. I pulled a few out of packs and boxes and traded for a few of the others as a lot which left me with just this Baerga. I ended up finding this in an envelope from Tim who writes the blog I Love the Smell of Cardboard in the Morning. I am putting together a return envelope and I thank you for crossing a card off of my list.

Which brings me to the second card on my list which has been there since the first day it was posted a few months ago.....

Justin Ruggiano is one of my favorite all-time former Durham Bulls players. I have a ton of his cards and enjoy collecting him. Even that year he was on the Cubs. I love the acetate cards and have been looking for an opportunity to add one of these cards of him and I finally found one last week on Ebay. I probably slightly overpaid for the card, but knocked more than $40 off of the asking original asking price of $60. It's an acetate, the first one on a 2015 card, so we have to look at the back of the card....

Just an awesome piece of cardboard. Again, thank you to Tim from I Love the Smell of Cardboard and I will update my Want List with two new cards at some point this weekend.

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Sweet Ruggiano

Everyday I wake up and spend a few minutes reading the box scores. I have four teams I check the box scores for everyday: Cardinals, Rays, Tigers, and Durham Bulls. The order usually depends on how the box scores are arranged on the web, but those four are a daily constant. I have a few other stops along my way through the box scores. I still like to check out a few ex-Cardinals: Albert, Kyle Lohse, maybe Colby Rasmus. There are a few Durham Bulls too. I still check for Jason Hammel, B.J. Upton, and maybe James Shields. My Durham Bulls constant though is Justin Ruggiano.

The Rays picked up Ruggiano in a trade with the Dodgers and ended up spending parts of five seasons with the Bulls, had a cup of coffee of two with the Rays, before he left the team as a minor league free agent. Ruggiano signed with the Astros, then the Marlins, and finally made it up to the Majors with the Fighting Fish in 2012. Ruggiano also played last season with the Marlins before he was traded to the Cubs this past off season.

While the Cubs happen to be one of my least favorite teams in the Majors, I still check out the Ruggiano line everyday (except he's now on the DL). I'm excited to see what Ruggiano can do this summer in the Friendly Confines of Wrigley. Last year he posted a team high 18 home runs for the Marlins playing in a pitcher friendly park. He could jump over 20 this year if he gets the at-bats.

I am still waiting for Ruggiano's first Cubs card. All of his 2014 cards, so far, have been Marlins cards. However, I did manage to stumble across a cool Ruggiano card recently. During his first summer as a Durham Bull (2007) he appeared for USA Baseball in the World Cup. The USA Baseball team ended up winning the gold medal during that event with Ruggiano patrolling the outfield. Upper Deck included him in their USA Baseball set in 2008 with a jersey/autograph. I recently snagged a copy:

I have a pretty big collection of Ruggiano cards and was happy to pick up this difficult to find piece as my latest addition. The card is limited to just 50 copies and is signed in red ink. The card features a small swatch of grey swatch of jersey from his playing time with USA Baseball.

Monday, July 1, 2013

Facebook Goodness

The world of Facebook trading has slowing turned into some sort of raffle frenzy which has left me trading other places. I do not chance on possibly getting a good card, I would much rather just go out and buy or trade for the pieces I want to add to my collection. Luckily, I ran into one of my favorite Facebook card people a few days back in the way of Ryan Marcus King Dee. He's one of the best card collectors on Facebook and always has plenty of cool cards for sale or trade.

This week I picked up four cards from Ryan which helped out my collection in several ways. Let's take a look at the cards that I added:

2008 Topps Triple Threads Justin Ruggiano Autograph/Jersey

I have collected Justin Ruggiano cards for several years. While Ruggiano is currently playing for the Marlins he spent quite a few years hanging out in the outfield for the Durham Bulls. Ruggiano was always a pretty good player for the Bulls, but he always seemed to be blocked for one reason or another at the big league level. Ruggiano left the Rays organization as a minor league free agent at the end of the 2011 season, played briefly in the Astros system, before landing some playing time with the Marlins. Ruggiano leads the Marlins in almost every major offensive category this season. While he has moved on to the Marlins, I still spend time searching out his cards and was happy to add another Triple Threads color variation to my collection.

2011 Bowman Platinum USA Baseball Autographs

Stroman is one of my favorite all-time college players from the ACC. He was a pitcher for the Duke Blue Devils and also played for the USA Baseball College Team. Last year he was drafted by the Bue Jays and is currently playing for their AA team in New Hampshire. Stroman should be a pretty quick riser to the majors and has tons of good, affordable autographed cards.

2012 Leaf Valiant James Ramsey Autograph

Ramsey is both a Cardinals draft pick and former ACC player at Florida State. He was a nice player at FSU, but I think the first round was a bit of a stretch for the outfielder. Ramsey has done a lot of signing since the draft and is a frequent user of inscriptions which are usually bible verses. Interestingly, he rarely uses the same one very often. I already had Romans 8:38, so this is a different (though slight) than the other version of this card that I own.

20112 Leaf Pete Rose Autograph

I have already given my two cents on Pete in this space before. Cool that he signs so much stuff, but he signs so much stuff. Might have to package a few of these together and see if I can get a non-licensed card of Pete in an Expos uniform.

Monday, March 12, 2012

Player Collection: Justin Ruggiano

I've lived in the Raleigh-Durham area now going on six and a half years. One of the best parts of living here is watching minor league baseball. Sure I miss going to Cardinals games, but road trips to Cardinals games are cool too. My primary rooting interest is the Durham Bulls (see blog title), but have also started getting around to games in Greensboro, Zebulon (Carolina Mudcats), and Burlington. It's fun getting to see great young prospects before they reach the majors. I spent my last summer watching Matt Moore. However, you hang around the minor league teams long enough you learn to love the AAAA players. Guys who are incredible in the International League and scrubby, at best, in the majors. I started a player collection two summers ago for my favorite (former) AAAA Durham Bull Justin Ruggiano. I am still trying to find a 2007 Spectrum autograph, and maybe a Triple Threads card with a patch piece, but I consider this a pretty complete collection. The best part about it is that I probably spent more on shipping these cards to my house then I actually spent on the cards. Since Justin Ruggiano has moved on to the Astros my collection will likely end and switch over to someone like Leslie Anderson this summer.