An Unexpected End

Every year the Durham Bulls make the playoffs.  

Every year the Durham Bulls win in the playoffs.  

This year the Durham Bulls lost in the playoffs. 

It's the first time that has happened since 2019. It was an unexpected end. They were playing the Norfolk Tides in the International League Championship and were favored to defeat the Orioles Triple A squad, who reached the playoffs by having the best record during the first half of the season. I forgot that cruddy feeling you get when your favorite team is not the one celebrating at the end of the deciding game. 

Anyway, I have worked on finding cards of several players from this year's Durham Bulls team over the past several weeks. I probably should have been looking all year, but I procrastinated. The new editions  are all scanned and ready to share. Feel free to write down a few names, a few of these players are going to be in the Majors soon.  

First up, outfielder Niko Hulsizer.  

Niko reminds me of Tyler O'Neill, except he's not on the injured list every other week.  

Niko works out. 

Niko hits long home runs. 

Tyler O'Neill is from somewhere in Canada and Niko is from (checks notes) Pennsylvania. 

Anyway, I found a Bowman Chrome autograph of the Bulls left fielder. I like that he just signs his first name "Niko" on the cards. Like there is another player named Niko in the Majors. There is not at the moment.  

Second Niko autograph below.  

This is a sticker autograph, which appears to be slightly crooked. Still like the action photo on this card. Probably a home run, since he hit the ball. All his other at-bats are either walks or strike outs.  

You a White Sox fan?  

The next player actually got traded to the White Sox a few months back, but I am still collecting his cards. The Rays don't make many bad trades, but I feel like this is one of them. I have also posted other Luis Patino cards on here before, just adding a new one to the collection.  

The Rays got Luis Patino in the Blake Snell trade. They used him as a spot starter in 2021 and 2022, but he also got a lot of starts in Durham. He's slight, but throws really hard. Never really got much of a chance with the Rays before they traded him to the White Sox. The Sox have used him several times over the past month and Luis has looked decent.  

A rare miss for the Rays, but if you're a White Sox fan, enjoy.  

Next up, a fan favorite from this year. 

Imagine Jose Altuve with a really violent swing and a more likable personality.  

Sometimes pictures on cards are deceptive, or you can't quite tell what someone looks like based on the picture. Ronny Simon is listed at 5'7, but that feels like a made-up number.  I bet he's 5'7 if he's wearing shoes and standing on a phone book for a major U.S. city. Ronny is also listed at 150 pounds, which also feels a little high. Ronny also has a huge swing with 13 home runs, 25 doubles, and almost 150 strikeouts.

Guess who was on the injured list for the Durham Bulls the entire season?  

This guy. 

Brendan was a top prospect a few years back. Made it all the way to Durham and then things went sideways. I think he was overused while he was at Louisville (the junior college) and his shoulder is now completely shot. He's going to end up being a "what could have been" type player, but those guys are still fun to collect. Especially when you can find their autograph on a Topps Tek card. Love these cards, but I did not scan both sides of it. Know you can see the autograph on the back of the card.  

I am upset McKay's career is likely not going to work out, but also upset that someone let Louisville into the ACC. Their sports teams always showing up around here, like Friday night they played NC State in football. NC State lost, because of NC State. Louisville did not really do anything to win.  

I could have made that same type of throw.  

It was not a good weekend for sports.  

A few more cards.  

The Rays got Blake Hunt in the Blake Snell trade with the Padres. Up to this season, he's been a light hitting catcher, so I did not think much of him when he got called up to the Bulls to be their backup catcher in the middle of the season. I was expecting solid defense and a .220 batting average.......

His name is Blake, but this is the best I could find on a Sunday morning.  

Anyway, Blake Hunt ended up hitting .260 for the Durham Bulls this year and had 6 home runs. Several of those came in the first week he was in Triple A. Definitely a pleasant surprise.  

I found a Bowman Chrome autograph of Blake Hunt for less than $2 and also a Panini autograph below for around $1.  

Three dollars for two autographs of a Triple A backup catcher makes me feel better about my sports teams losing. Did I mention the Cardinals game on Friday night? It was like a Bengals-Rams game. Wait, the Rams moved. It was like a Clemson-NC State game where State got a safety as their only points.  

One more player, because he is local and his high school has an amazing mascot.  

Greg Jones was the Rays first round selection in 2019 out of UNC-Wilmington. He actually went to high school in Cary, North Carolina, which is one of the large suburbs of Raleigh. There are many high schools in Cary, but Greg went to THE Cary High School.

Cary High School is noted for four things:

1. The Cary Water Tower 

2. Their annual band contest 

3. Overcrowding all the local fast food restaurants in Cary, because their campus has open lunch every day

and........

Card break. 

This is Greg's 2020 Topps Pro Debut autograph. 

Back to the story.

4. Their mascot.  

Cary High School's mascot is an Imp.  

Imps appear in German and English folklore where they are they devious and mischievous henchman of the devil.  Here is the Imp.......

The Imp was voted Sports Illustrated Best High School Mascot earlier this year.  

Sorry, there are no quality photos of Greg playing baseball in a Cary High School uniform on the internet.  

Last card.  

This is another 2020 autograph of Greg Jones. This one is from Bowman's Best and features a nice on-card signature. Greg is a toolsy player. He's fast, has some pop in his bat, and also is versitile.  The Bulls played him around the infield and also in centerfield. Buy his cards, put them in a box, and thank me in two or three years when you run across them.  

Only $9.99, Part 1

The past two years, the Durham Bulls have had some high-end prospects on their roster. It would have been fun to own a Durham Bulls team set from one of those two years, but unfortunately a small group of Ebay sellers bought the majority of the cards and are currently selling them at a small profit.  

The sets are $9.99 in the team store.

I honestly cannot comprehend spending $40 on a Minor League team set and am a little disappointed that people actually bought these cards at that price. 

You know what they say about feeding trolls.....

Nobody on the 2023 Durham Bulls has the ceiling of Wander Franco, but they are still a really good team with several Top 100 prospects. They are currently in second place and likely won't catch the first place Norfolk Tides (Orioles) before the end of the first half.

I attended a Durham Bulls game last week and had the good fortune to find a copy of the 2023 Durham Bulls team set.  

My view for the game.  

This is the first half of my $9.99 Durham Bulls team set.  

I am actually impressed by the number of cards included. These are typically between 25-30 cards, but the 2023 Bulls set comes in at 41 cards. I scanned them in groups of 6, but also made a single card scan of one card to give you a close up of the design. There will be 19 cards in this post, 21 in the second post.  

This is the last card in the set.  

Ripken The Bat dog appears at one Durham Bulls game per home stand. The team actually borrowed the concept from the Greensboro Grasshoppers who have had bat dogs for as long as I have lived in North Carolina. That's been a few minutes.  

Ripken is a bit of a local celebrity. He also retrieves the kicking tee at NC State football games and does puck drops with the Carolina Hurricanes.  

As for the design, it's simple and I really like it for a Minor League team set. Save the flash, give me nice photos of the players. The back is similar with a simple design, but I like that there is a second picture on the back. I will have to go back and look, but I don't remember another Durham Bulls set with this feature prior to this year.  

Ripken has a write up on the back, along with a few of the other coaches and staff member included on the checklist, but the player cards have their statistics.  

First group of cards.  

Basabe, Aranda, and Taj Bradley will all be regulars in the Majors at some point.  

Brigden and Bristo are 4A players.  

Not sure about my mind is made up about Roberto Alvarez. He's a good defensive catcher, but not the best hitter. Feels like good defensive catchers always stick around. I saw him Roberto Alvarez pitch a few weeks back in a game where the Bulls were losing badly.  

He was throwing in the mid 40s.  

He did not give up a run.  

Back of the cards.  

I like that they included a details about how the player ended up in the Rays organization. International Free Agents and Draft Picks by the Rays tend to turn out pretty well, signed as a Minor League Free Agent is code for journeyman Minor Leaguer. 

Second group of cards.  

Brujan is the only prospect in this group.  

The rest of these players have all been in the Majors at some point and are trying to get back there, or spending their time shuffling between the Durham and Tampa.  

It would be nice if the Rays left Vidal Brujan up in the Majors or traded him to a team that would leave him in the Majors. Maybe at the trade deadline this year.....

Last group of cards for this post.  

Two of my favorite Bulls players are in this group. I am a big fan of Niko Hulsizer and Tristan Gray. I don't think Gray is much of a prospect at this point, but he has a huge swing and hits a ton of home runs.  Last year, Gray led all of Triple A in home runs. He's slowed down a bit this year, but still fun to watch.  

Hulsizer is one of those sleeper prospects. He's been around for awhile, but every time I see him he looks better. He's got a couple of really cheap Bowman autographs, if you're into rolling the dice on prospects.  

The rest of these players are Minor League free agents who are hanging onto their careers in Triple A.  

Here are the card backs. 

Sorry, Trevor Kelley is crooked.