Wander Who You Could Be Talking About?

The Durham Bulls had a really good infielder on their team. 

I am talking about Osleivis Basabe.  

He played a little bit at second, short, and third base. Pretty good bat to go along with his versatility in the field. Osleivis call-up was a little strange and happened during a Bulls game I attended against the Memphis Redbirds a few weeks back.

The Bulls posted a video without any sound of Basabe getting pulled from the game.  

A moment Osleivis Basabe will never forget 💙🧡

Manager Michael Johns gathered the team together during last night's game to announce Osleivis was going to the Big Leagues pic.twitter.com/9GUdyNqql1

— Durham Bulls (@DurhamBulls) August 13, 2023

Strange the Rays needed a shortstop in the middle of a game. I follow the Rays pretty closely and I did not see anyone get placed on the injured list. I thought the Rays had a shortstop? His name is slipping my mind at the moment, so let's not wander off topic. 

I am just going to keep talking about Osleivis Basabe.  

I have been able to add two Basabe autographs to my collection so far.  

First up is his 2021 Bowman Chrome autograph from his time with the Rangers.  

Nice looking card of him at Spring Training. 

I know there are people out there who, in the past, probably sank a lot of money into buying up Bowman Chrome autographs of Rays shortstop prospects. However, Basabe's Bowman Chrome autograph is right around $20. You could skip a box of cards at Target or Wally World and buy an autograph of the Rays starting shortstop instead.  

A little background on Osleivis.  

Basabe was signed by the Rangers as an International Free Agent out of Venezuela in 2017 and was traded to the Rays for Nate Lowe at the end of the 2020 season. For those who confuse all the Lowes on the Rays, Nate was a first baseman. Nate played on the Rays with Brandon Lowe, who is not related to Nate. The Rays now have Josh Lowe, who is Nate's brother and also teammates with Brandon Lowe. Anyway, Osleivis has been promoted from A-Ball all the way to the Majors over the past three seasons.  

I also found a Bowman Platinum autograph of Osleivis Basabe in a Rays uniform.  

It's a sticker autograph, but it also cost me less than $5.  

I feel like Osleivis Basabe might be my go-to infielder to collect on the Rays for the foreseeable future. Although, he created some waves earlier in the season when he stole Wool E. Bull's hat while the Bulls were celebrating a walk-off hit.  

Come for Kameron Misner's game-winning hit

Stay for Osleivis Basabe stealing Wool E. Bull's hat during the celebration 😂 pic.twitter.com/bsvjnlkzLO

— Durham Bulls (@DurhamBulls) June 25, 2023

I guess I could think of worse things that a talented, young shortstop could get caught doing then running around with a mascot's hat. No MLB investigations or anything.  

In the meantime, the Bulls have Austin Shenton taking a lot of at-bats as the shortstop since Basabe was promoted to the Majors. Another really good looking prospect. Shenton is older prospect, almost 26, and drafted out of Florida International by the Mariners. The Rays picked him up in the trade for Diego Castillo. Shenton has 26 home runs and 42 doubles between Double A and Triple A this year.  

His autographs are also pretty cheap.  

Less than $5 for this Bowman Chrome.  

For this entire post, I am under $30 for three autographs of three pretty promising Rays middle infielders. Maybe some more cards of Basabe and Shenton in the future. Let's see how they play and hope they don't wander into any problems.  

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.