What Was I Thinking?

The last day of school before the holiday break, the average elementary school classroom teacher is bombarded with cards and gifts. Many of them these days are simply gift cards. Living in a double teacher household, there is a drawer in a kitchen that has a huge stack of them. My wife organizes them with some going towards specific days or events and others are just free to use whenever.

Earlier this week, I decided to use a Target gift card to buy a box of cards. The card aisle was completely stocked. I took a few minutes to soak in all of my choices, but decided to roll the dice on a box of Panini Capstone. It looked different and after all, I was not really paying for these cards.  

Not my actual box, but it stood out from the others. 

During that time, I could have easily taken out my phone and researched the product, but the fact that it was not one of the same five or six Topps products that have been lingering on the shelves for the past few months played a large role in my decision.  

Here is the base card.  

The scan does not show the card stock, but it's nice. That is what Capstone has going for it.  Card stock. The pictures are boring and the design is really lackluster. Is that Arial font?  

This card back is nothing special, but it might be better than the front of the card.  

So, here is the good news. I pulled an autograph and the design of that card is far superior than the rest of the cards in this product. Feels like a little throwback to the Pacific baseball cards with the crown theme in the background.  

Plus, Hoy Park is having an interesting off-season. He was on the Pirates at the end of last season. At some point he was traded to the Red Sox, who traded him to the Braves, who released him. Where will Hoy Park play next year?  Thinking I might need to see someone make a Red Sox and Braves cards of him.  

These are the "base cards" that I pulled out of my blaster.  What is the best card here?  

Personally, I like the Vidal Brujan card, because he was on the Durham Bulls the last two years. The answer is actually probably Bobby Witt.  The rest of these cards are going to get taped to the door of my classroom at school. Not even kidding. Might keep that Shane McClanahan card too. 

Blue parallels.  

No serial numbers, but the little Capstone logo is in the corner is blue. I like the Arenado, but just because it's an Arenado card. Not many other reasons to like the card.  

These are two other rarer parallels.  

The Trea Turner card has a gold Capstone logo, but again no serial number.  The Josiah Gray card is some sort of textured parallel.  You can see the raised squares in the scan.  This is actually a really nice card, not even being sarcastic. Seriously.  

I also pulled three insert cards.  

These two were decent.  Nice Wander Franco card to add to the collection.  

The last insert card is bizarre.  Here is the front.  

Let's talk. Card companies need to stop putting young, twenty-somethings on cards with Hall of Famers. These types of cards just rarely age well.  So, the front of the card is not that bad, considering Panini put Rickey Henderson on the same card as some random White Sox player. Which bring me to the back, which is a slippery slope of terrible.  

So, Rickey Henderson stole bases, but Luis Robert steals runs as a defender?

Did I read that correctly?  

Seems like a huge stretch.  

This whole box of cards was a huge stretch. I don't know what I was thinking.  

Yes, 2020 Cards.

I have not been posting many cards from current releases, mainly because I am not doing anything to collect them this year.  I have not bought many packs or boxes of cards, and I think I am not even really touching current single cards either.  I was actually going to buy a pack of Topps Series 2 at the store a few days back, but I found out that there are none because everyone has gone crazy about finding a Luis Robert rookie card.

I have been buying Luis Robert cards ever since the Cardinals went cheap on trying to sign him.  They had plenty of money for Dexter Fowler though. 

Back to baseball cards. 

I have collected so few single 2020 cards, really there were all sorts of different places I could have started.  I feel like one thing that is really dampening my enthusiasm for current year cards is the fact that there is not going to be any Minor League Baseball this summer.  No new Bulls players to collect with many of the players on last year's team stuck in limbo with either being a pool player, or many not even getting that far. 

So, I decided a few Minor Leaguers would be a good place to start. 

First up is a pair of autographs from Topps Pro Debut. 

I have posted a few other Brock Deatherage cards last year, and I am really surprised that he made it back into a set this year.  The Tigers drafted him out of NC State.  I get the feeling he might be on baseball cards because of his name.  He's not on any Tigers prospect list, and he hit in the .220s last season with almost 150 strikeouts and not a lot of power. 

Still like him since he went to NC State. 

Next. 

I have been working on Elehuris Montero cards the last several years too.  Last year was a lost year with injuries for him, but he hit for average and power the prior year while he was in A Ball.  The Cardinals included him in their group of pool players.  Maybe a summer with Jose Oquendo, who is running the Minor League camp for the Cardinals, will help him bounce back next year.  The scan is not crooked, the sticker autograph is though.  

Last card that I actually bought in this post.  

Will Wilson is another NC State player, but definitely a prospect worth watching.  The Angels traded him to the Giants last year, and he is in their group of pool players.  He's a shortstop who can hit.  In college, he hit a fair number of home runs, but I could see him being more of a doubles and triples hitter in the Majors.  Trea Turner without the speed.  

Which brings me to the last two cards I received in this package.  I bought all three cards from the same buyer.  Love that combined shipping.  I also love free cards.  My feedback involved the acronym "GDTBATH", which stands for "Great Day To Be A Tar Heel", so it figures that this was one of my free cards....

I fully support Andrew Miller having a good year.  The Cardinals excel at spending money on relievers who are washed up.  Andrew Miller seems washed up.  I actually saw him pitch while he was at UNC, very good in college.  

Second freebie, which I don't get coming from a UNC person.  

Stroman is a better pitcher than Andrew Miller, and a far more interesting person.  I certain he grates on UNC fans nerves at times too, so added bonus.  I actually wish I could find a card of Stroman as an infielder, which is actually where he started when he first got to Duke. 

Anyway, happy with the three new cards, and the two freebie cards in the package.  

Two Nice Sox

Not cards that necessarily fit my collection, but two players who both appeared locally for White Sox Minor League teams and impressed.  For whatever reason, there are three different White Sox Minor League teams in North Carolina.  In their current state, the White Sox are a bit of a disaster, but there is help on the way soon.  

First up.....

is a card of outfielder Luis Robert.  The Cardinals had actually tried to sign him a few years ago when he defected from Cuba, but they missed out on him to the White Sox.  I actually have other Robert cards, slowly building a little collection.  Sometimes it's nice to branch out from usual Cardinals and Durham Bulls cards.  I like his potential.  

As for the card, this is from Bowman Tek.  Second year Topps has put out this set, not sure that I love the idea of having a Topps Tek and a Bowman Tek, seems repetitive.  Still, a pretty big fan of this 1990s/early 2000s rehash.  

Next.  

The great Eloy Jimenez.  Originally started out in the Cubs farm system, but was traded over to the South Side for Jose Quintana.  Sure most Cubs front office people would love to have that one back.   He's a really impressive prospect that made it all the way to Triple A Charlotte this year.  Jimenez had a .996 OPS as a 21 year old.  He's going to be really really good.  Jimenez will be on the White Sox at some point next season.  

Jimenez has a few Bowman cards, but they are really expensive.  If I am going to spend that much money on an autograph, I will just buy a Mike Trout.  His Panini, Leaf, and Pro Debut autographs are a little nicer.  I went with the Pro Debut since it has him in a uniform where the logos are not airbrushed off.  Great looking card.  

These Might Be Good Cubans

Three and a half years ago I went to the deciding game of the International League Championship between the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Durham Bulls.  The game was not only a chance to see a team win the Governor's Cup, it was also a chance to see heralded Red Sox prospect Rusney Castillo.  

Castillo had defected from Cuba and signed a 72 million dollar contract with the Red Sox.  I took it as a chance to see a Major League player in a Minor League stadium.  Always cool to see Major League talent up close in a smaller stadium.   

Since that last game of the 2014 playoffs, I have had the chance to watch Castillo play for the Paw Sox in 2015, 2016, and 2017.  He's halfway through his $72 million dollar contract and he's made $34 million dollars playing three season in Triple A.  Although, Castillo has played 99 games with the Red Sox, but 80 of those games were in 2015.  

While Castillo has not worked out, there have been plenty of other Cuban players who have been able to successfully make the jump to the Majors.  

Yoenis Cespedas, Jose Abreu, Yasiel Puig, Aroldis Chapman, Jose Fernandez, the list could go on and on.  

I have recently picked up cards of two former Cuban players.  Hopefully they will be joining the list of successful players above. 

First up is a Blue Jays prospect.....

easier and the cheaper of the two prospects that I am featuring in this post.  Lourdes Gurriel is the younger brother of the Astros Yuli Gurriel.  He's turning 24 this season, and he's not past Double A, but there are a lot of people who think very highly of his future.  Baseball America has him rated as a Top 100 prospect.  Since his cards are fairly inexpensive, I paid more for this card in shipping off of Ebay than I actually did for the card, I am willing to risk it.  

I also like these Bowman TEK cards.  The Topps TEK cards are better, but these are not that far behind.  Besides picking up the autographed version of this card, I also landed a base card.  

Not any difference between the cards outside of the autograph.  

Little bit bigger prospect, more expensive card, and a guy who has not played outside of the Dominican Summer League.  He did hit really well there though.....

Luis Robert (pronounced row-bear) signed last year with the White Sox.  Panini has several cards of him out in a White Sox uniform.  Well, a White Sox uniform with the logos air brushed out, because it's Panini.  I am guessing that Topps will get a Robert card into some sort of Bowman product this year.  The autographed version of whatever card they give him will cost an arm and leg.  

This International Contenders card is a little goofy with Robert wearing some sort of aqua colored worksheet.  I believe that this picture is from one of his showcase workouts.....

The opinions of Robert are mixed.  I have seen some baseball people claim that he is the next coming of Bryce Harper, or Mickey Mantle.  I have also seen baseball people cite the fact that there have been far more Cuban position players who have not measured up to the amount of money spent up front to sign them, nor do they live up to the hype.  

The White Sox have two A ball teams in North Carolina, so perhaps there is a chance that I will be able to see him play at some point this summer.  Guessing he would be a fun player to see in person.  If not this summer, he will surely end up in Charlotte in a few years.  The Knights are in the same division as the Durham Bulls and they play frequently.