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.  

Redemption Blues

It's a commonly held feeling amongst card collectors that redemption cards really stink.  I have always held the philosophy that redemption cards are not good cards and therefore should be sold or traded as quickly as possibly.  For years this worked beautifully and kept me away from making posts about sitting and waiting for a card, or yelling and screaming about how the redemption went unfilled and the card company substituted several undesirable cards in place of the card I should have received.

This year I actually redeem my redemption cards.  Huge mistake.  They seemed like they would be cool cards to own at the time and it's not like they were top dollar cards either.  The first redemption I pulled this year was an autographed Postseason Relic from Anibel Sanchez.

This should be a cool card, right?  Almost a year after redeeming this card it is still sitting on the redemption dashboard on the Topps website as "Pending".  Will this card ever show up?  I am anticipating a package from Topps filled with a nice apology letter and an autograph of Mike Leake.  There is better hope for my other redemption card which came out of my Topps Update box.

Again, a cool card, but not a top dollar card.  Teheran seems like a goos signer too, so I hold out hope that this card might one day find its way into my mailbox.  After pulling these two cards I have decided that any 2015 redemption cards I pull will be traded or sold.  I am not sure what I was thinking this year, but it probably has not worked out for the best.  To illustrate how poorly the redemption system at Topps works, I actually ended up with a third redemption card this year that I did not post.

I picked this redemption card up from a frequent trade partner on Facebook knowing that the cards had been signed and were already out on the market.  That was sometime early in December.  Almost a month and a half later we have.......

A nice card of Rays second baseman Nick Franklin.  The fact that there have been several of these on Ebay for the last couple of months, but it took weeks to fill a redemption speaks to the fact that the problem with redemption cards goes beyond the fact that players sometimes simply do not honor their promises to sign and return cards.  Processing cards that are clearly in stock and signed should not take weeks and just adds to the frustration of collectors who are already trying to wait patiently for their cards.  Redemption cards, no thank you.

Pair of Bulls and CarGo

I am working on catching up with a few 2014 releases I have not delved too far into over the past month or two.  Working out a few Cardinals cards from Triple Threads still, but I did start working on a few former Durham Bulls who appeared in the card set.  One of the tricky parts about this year's Triple Threads set was it's timing around the trade deadline.  For example, Joe Kelly appears in the set as a Cardinal, but is actually a Red Sox now.  I have ran into several Cardinals collectors who are still collecting Joe Kelly cards and are trying to also track the cards down.  Same with several Red Sox collectors I know.  Allen Craig, former Cardinal and current Red Sox, seems to be following a similar trend on his Triple Threads cards.  It seems to be a trend in more than a few places this year. 

The card I spent the most time seeking out from the Triple Threads set was the Nick Franklin Jumbo Jersey card.  There are also some patch versions of this card which were my initial target, but I missed out on them all.  Similar to the Craig and Kelly cards, Franklin was traded at the the deadline for Rays star pitcher David Price.  Similar to Craig and Kelly, there seems to be a little bit of competition for the his cards.  Especially the patch versions which feature some nice Mariners pieces. 

While the overall numbers do not blow people away with Franklin, he has been rated as high as the #44 prospect by Baseball Prospectus.  He still has not produced at the big league level, but I saw him several times in Durham during their playoff series games against both the Columbus Clippers and the Paw Sox.  The ball looked good coming off his bat and he had several big hits and a home rum or two to boot (a long loud foul too).  He got a cup of coffee in Tampa in September and will be a little surprised if he is back in Durham next year.  On to the card....After missing out on the patch pieces I ended up settling for this number......

It's got a nice dark navy piece of jersey and is numbered out of just 36.  Franklin does not have any autographs in the Triple Threads set, just the jersey and patch pieces.  I am hoping Topps will throw a Franklin autograph into their Traded set later this fall.  Franklin has always been a pretty signer.  Besides the Franklin I picked up one more former Durham Bull...

This Matt Moore card was dirt cheap.  I know he is out for the year with Tommy John, but he was good before the surgery and the bounce back rate on elbows is pretty good.  I am sure we will see Matt Moore back with the Rays next spring and he will be just fine.  Although if the Rays sent him to Durham for a little conditioning I would not complain. 

I bought both the Moore and Franklin from the same seller on Ebay and can never pass up on free shipping.   This CarGo jumbo jersey card was slightly more than $2.  The stripe is crooked, but hey there is a stripe.  More Triple Threads cards to come. 

A New Bull and a Tar Heel

I picked up three new autographs this weekend from two players with local connections to the Raleigh-Durham area.  Let's start off with a new player to my collection, new Ray and current Durham Bulls infielder Nick Franklin.  The second baseman came over to the Rays in the David Price trade and caused a little bit of disappointment amongst the Rays faithful.  I will admit that I had anticipated a huge haul of prospects for Price, but I think I am starting to finally wrap my head around what the team got in return.

Franklin actually appeared in Durham earlier this summer in the Triple A All-Star game playing for the Mariners Pacific Coast League affiliate the Tacoma Rainiers.  While his Major League stats leave a lot to be desired, Franklin has been a very successful player in the Minors and has remained a top 100 prospect throughout his career.  His overall career line in the minors stands at .284/.361/.450.  Throw in almost 200 extra base hits in 500 minor league games and you have a pretty good prospect. Perhaps a call up to Tampa this September?  I think so.

Nick Franklin has several autographs out on the secondary market and I managed to snag two copies of his Bowman Inception card from last year.  I have a huge chunk of this set, but no Franklin until this weekend.....

Now I have two.  The same person who was selling these Nick Franklin cards also had a Colin Moran autograph up that nobody was going to bid on.  He's a Tar Heel and he has not hit much of anything in the minors, but a $1 autograph is hard to pass by......

Let's change that statement a little bit.  Moran hit .296 with a .344 on-base at two minor league stops. The former Heel also had a .397 slugging in both stops.  That's 7 home runs and 27 doubles from a player who was considered the "best power hitter" in the previous summer's amateur draft.  The Marlins, who originally drafted him, passed him on to the Astros at the trade deadline.