Vacations Are Good

I feel like I have not had a break in awhile.  I know there are plenty of people who go long stretches with no vacations, and I am a teacher so I often hear the, "you just sit around all summer" line more times than I can count.  Actually, I usually teach for a two to three month stretch before I get a vacation that usually lasts for roughly three weeks.  I have been on the same schedule for more than decade, my clock is sort of used to the schedule by now.   

I am now going to yell at a few clouds, but before I do here is a Stadium Club autograph of Brandon Lowe that I picked up.  I had not posted it yet, but here it is now....

I drove more than 3,000 miles this summer.  I went from Raleigh to St. Louis, to mid-Missouri, and then on to northern Michigan.  Eventually I ended up in Grand Rapids for a wedding before driving home (13 hours with 2 kids) the day before the beginning of the school year started.  I switched grade levels, moved classrooms, and ended up running a committee.

I feel a little stretched thin.

This is a Steven Souza autograph that I also did not get a chance to post.

This card cost me $2.00.  It's Steven Souza, but he once won the International League MVP Award in a season where he only played 90 games.  His numbers were insane. 

Friday was my last day at work for the next three weeks.  I am not going anywhere, or doing anything the least bit responsible during that time.  I am going to spend some serious time doing non-work things.  Kids going to parks and museums, home improvement projects, and baseball cards.  I have actually been planning on doing some writing on a project I have been working on for awhile with my baseball cards.

I am pretty excited about it.

This is Tanner Houck.  I once saw him pitch a no hitter.  I didn't have time to post this when I got it a few months back. 

Definitely needs a post or two next week since the project has been six years in the making.  

This picture was from way back when I started a project with my cards.  The original post is here.  My baseball card room used to be really red.  It's not that color anymore. I am going to get a little bit of rest and probably take my kids to the park first.  

I'm Just Happy To Be Here, Hope I Can Help The Ball Club

I knew from the first time that I saw Steven Souza play for the Syracuse Chiefs, the Washington Nationals Triple A team, that I needed to go out and find a few of his cards.  He was an older prospect, but absolutely one of those players who is fun to watch.  So, I went out and I found a few of his cards with the Nats.....

Next thing you know, he gets traded to the Rays, and they send him to Durham.  I got to watch a few games with Souza on the Bulls, I also had to go out and find a few cards of him in a Rays uniform.  His first two seasons in Tampa were a little rough, which made finding his cards a little easier, and a little bit easier on the old wallet.....

Then last year, Souza turned into a pretty good player for the Rays.....

which means he got traded this offseason.  It did seem like the Rays traded half of their team from last year away.  The Souza trade was pretty surprising though.  Not sure I focused on who the Rays got back from the Diamondbacks, as much as I tried to figure out who was going to be on the Rays this year.  Also, whether or not the Durham Bulls would finish higher in the American League East than the Rays.  

The Minor League baseball season has started and I got to watch pitcher Anthony Banda throw against the Gwinnett Stripers a few weeks back.   I also got to check out the Bulls new third uniforms.  

Banda is a hard throwing lefty.  Very impressed with him.  A quick look at the new Rays prospect facing Ronald Acuna.  

I have started working on a few Banda cards since seeing him make this start against Gwinnett.  He actually started his career with the Brewers, but was traded to the Diamondbacks in the Gerardo Parra deal.  He has a few Brewers cards, but they are all Panini draft type products.  Hard to really tell that they are Brewers cards.  He has had several Diamondbacks cards over the last few years, including in several of this year's Topps products.  

So far, I have added three different Anthony Banda cards.  First up.....  

The only non-2018 Banda card in this post.  The Bowman's Best cards are always a really nice looking brand.  Last year's product was no different.  On top of a nice design, I also like that this brand uses on-card autographs.  Banda always signs his first name and last name in this same top and bottom style, rather than side to side.  I have seen a few Diamondbacks and Rays collectors complain about this autograph, I do not mind it.

Next up.....

is an autograph from this year's Gypsy Queen set.  This card is really busy.  Not sure that Topps could get much more on the margins of this card.  Team name, player name, playing position, a Topps Certified autograph stamp, an MLB rookie card stamp, and some sort of Gypsy Queen logo.  And you thought people liked cards because they have pictures of baseball players.  That's sort of an after thought on this one.  Still, it has a Banda autograph.  

The goggles and tattoos appear on this card too.  Fairly certain that Topps airbrushed the tattoos off of his right arm on the Bowman's Best card.  

Last.  

A "high end" card of Banda.  This is why I don't spend money to open packs of high end products.  I like Anthony Banda, like his baseball cards, but I cannot imagine spending $300 on a box of cards and landing this autograph.  Thanks to whoever opened this card out of a pack.  This card was printed on nice stock, fairly thick card, and has a nice glossy finish.  

More Banda cards later.  

A Quick Check In On The 1983 Durham Bulls

I am having a pretty good time assembling the 1983 rehash inserts from this year's base Topps set.  I am working on the regular version of the 1983 cards, not the Chrome versions, nor the autographed versions.  However, I have decided that I am willing to take on a few of the other variants if it is a Cardinals card, or somehow connected to the Durham Bulls.  Just a few cards really fit into those two categories.  I recently found a few of the 1983 cards that have some connections to the Durham Bulls., still working on those Cardinals.  

The actual 1983 Durham Bulls finished almost 20 games below .500 and their star players were corner infielder Inocencio Guerrero and shortstop, and future Brave, Andres Thomas.

So, how do the former Durham Bulls on the 1983 Topps style cards of today compare to the star of the actual 1983 Durham Bulls?  Andres Thomas did have a six year Major League career, which is longer than any of the other players in this post, but he also had a career batting average of just .234.  He also had a negative WAR during that time.  The bar is not very high.....

First up....

This one hurts a little bit since Souza was one of those players that the Rays parted with this past offseason.  I was first introduced to Souza a few years back while he was a member of the Syracuse Chiefs.  He won the International League Player of the Year in 2014 and also made the All-Star team that summer, which took place in Durham.  

The picture is a little blurry, not one of my better efforts, but that is Souza as a Syracuse Chief.  He ended up back in Durham for a few days in 2015 on a rehab assignment.  Very good player, already better than Andres Thomas.  

Faria played for the Bulls in 2016 and 2017.  I actually got to see his Triple A debut back in July of 2016 against the Syracuse.  

Faria spent the second half of the 2017 season in Tampa, won 5 games, and struck out almost a batter an inning.  It's hard to compare a starting pitcher to a light hitting shortstop, but I am going to give Faria the nod over Andres Thomas.  

Last card, the best chance for Andres Thomas to claim superiority over a more recent Durham Bulls player.  I actually collect this player because of one catch he made in a game a few years back.  Lots of other baseball people like him because of his name.....

I went to a game a few years back on a Sunday afternoon.  The Bulls were playing the Gwinnett Braves.  The game went into extra innings and my son was eager for the contest to end since it was a run the bases day.  I am not sure how Boog did not break his hip.....

but it was a great catch.  I am not sure what sort of future Boog has in the Majors, but the A's are giving him playing time this year.  He seems like a fourth outfielder type, reminds me a little bit of Peter Bourjos, but that still probably means he is going to be better than Andres Thomas.  

I will do a little comparing to the 1983 Cardinals soon....

We've Come For Your Boxes

I went out Saturday afternoon in search of a few boxes for some of my larger 1980s baseball card sets which I have been working on for the past few weeks.  There is a large bundle of baseball card boxes in my house, but most of the modern sets are smaller than the old 792 standard Topps set of my childhood.  For this reason, most of the boxes in the closet are less than 550.  What to do?

Off to the local card shop.

Now, I was supposed to be looking for boxes and I had my six year old chaperone along to watch over my purchases.  My wife talked him up before the trip out about keeping me to only boxes.  However, I looked around a bit and found two inexpensive cards that seemed like a good fit for the old baseball card collection.

First card.

Luke Weaver had a pretty good debut last year, but is back in Memphis with the Cardinals Triple A team to start the season.  He's signed a lot of stuff this year and his cards are really affordable.  I am not a huge fan of this year's Tribute set, more in a minute, but I don't have much in the way of Major League issue Weaver cards.  

A quick run down on Tribute:  There is a pattern in the bottom lower left corner, another sort of pattern around the Tribute logo in the top left corner, and something else on the name bar.  Many design patterns, one card, my ADHD is killing me.  

Fidget spinners don't really help.  Don't buy one for you or your children.  

Second card.  

Souza is a Ray, most of the Rays players that I like were on the Durham Bulls.  Souza played for the Bulls on a rehab assignment, but never appeared for the Bulls on a Minor League assignment.  Regardless of his lack of time in Durham, I still really like him as a player based on his time with the Syracuse Chiefs.  He was by far one of the more impressive Minor League players that I have ever run across.  Obviously he is not quite as impactful at the Major League level, but the guy is still putting together a pretty good year...

The card is from last year's Triple Threads.  Not one of those cool cards that spells something out like Souz Not Suzie, but nonetheless a very nice looking card.  I like the dark backgrounds with the gold trim.

As an added post bonus I bring you this incredible video of Souza recently diving for a ball....

and yes I got boxes, but no I did not put a picture of them in this post.  Sorry to crush your spirits.  

A Rays Book

Y'all know my feelings on unlicensed products if you have been following my blog for awhile.  In summation, I am not a fan.  However, I am still opening to looking around at cards from Panini and Leaf from time to time.  They are capable of making some nice cards.  Not sure what it is about having logos on cards and uniforms, but it's just the way it is with me.  I think a lot of other people too.

One of my favorite unlicensed products every year is the National Treasures set.  No, I do not buy any boxes, but I do enjoy finding some really nice cards of players who fit into my collection: Cardinals, Rays, former Durham Bulls.  This year I have added a pair of cards from this product and I have to share one here this week from one of my favorite former Minor League players Steven Souza.

Here's a look at the outside of the book:

Really nice looking outside to the booklet.  I do not have too many of these in my collection, but a few of them feel like the outside part of the card was totally neglected in the design process.  I like the cover on the right with the serial number and the back cover on the left with the player bio.  I especially like that they made mention of his time in the minors.  I know it's tiny print: In summary Souza spent a long time in the minors with the Nationals.  (not included on the card) He was the International League Player of the Year before he was traded to the Rays.

Now, the inside of the card.....

I like the two different color patches on each side of the card with Souza diving across both jersey swatches.  It's so cool I can almost ignore the fact that his batting helmet doesn't have a Rays logo on it.  Add in the fact that I paid around $10 for a card numbered to 10 (Yes, it's Steven Souza) and this is a sweet card.

Authentic Souza

I posted my first card I picked up out of the Strata set a few days back.  I really liked the look of these cards and have been on the look out for a few other cards from this product.  My second Strata card arrived in the mail just a few days back.  A little different looking than the first Strata card which was just a straight autograph with no relic piece.

I have posted a few other Souza cards on here in the past.  While he did not come up with the Durham Bulls, I saw him in Triple A a few times with the Syracuse Chiefs (Nats Triple A team) and really enjoyed watching him play.  He was traded to the Rays last year and actually ended up playing a few games in Durham this year on injury rehab.  Back to the card....

I was curious about the jersey relics and the authentication stickers that appear on the cards.  Jersey relics were cool about fifteen years ago, but have been on the slide since.  Sure, I like cool patch cards, but I probably have a few thousand cards with a small grey or white jersey chunk on them.  The relic card has become a little stale and the authentication sticker is somebody's latest effort to freshen them up a bit.

I've heard good things and bad things about collectors looking up their relic item.  So, when I got this Strata autograph of Souza I opened the envelope and admired the autograph for a few minutes before I had to go enter the code into the MLB Authentication website.  Here's what I got......

Seems pretty legit.  Souza jersey from a game played against the Tigers in July.  The only thing that would make this card cooler would be to see if anything happened that day with Souza.  It would be a little disappointing to find out he sat on the bench, or worse, injured and not even on the active roster.  Good and bad possibilities raced through my mind.  I went to Baseball-Reference to check out the box score. 

Not a bad game for Souza.  It's not a game he hit a home run, or anything, but 1-3 for two runs scored is a nice line for just picking out a random box score and game from the Rays season.  Still have a few more Strata cards on the way.

2014 International League Top Prospects

I went to a Durham Bulls game last week and was happy to see that the team was selling off some of their old baseball cards cheap.  I could not pass that buy, so I loaded up on a few things from their team store.  Really, I love looking at minor league sets and probably need to post a few of these sets on here.  There is always some star power in these sets, but there are some fun players too.  Here's a look at last season's International League Top Prospects set.....

First couple of cards and there are a few favorites in here:

 Jesus Aguilar because he was in the Triple A All-Star game last year and seemed pretty impressive.  He also recently pulled off the hidden ball trick against the Indianapolis Indians.

Christian Bethancourt because nobody should run on him, ever.  

Hak Ju Lee because if he ever learned to hit consistently he would be awesome.  Until then his slugging percentage is .250.  (Sigh)

Kevin Kiermaier because this is fun to watch.  The Cardinals win this game?  

Steven Souza because the guy can hit......

Marcus Stroman because he is one my favorite ACC baseball players I have seen in person

Allen Webster and Mike Wright?  I have got nothing here.  I listened to this great Pixies show while I was typing this post.  Give it a listen. 

Mas Souza!

The most impressive International League player I saw last summer was Nationals prospect Steven Souza.  He spent last summer playing for the Nationals Triple A team in Syracuse.  I saw them play twice in Durham last summer, but also had a chance to see Souza play for the International League All-Star too.  What impressed with Souza?  He hit for average, he hit for speed, he runs the bases well, and plays a good outfield.  

In all Souza played only 96 games in Triple A last year, but hit .350/.432/.590 with 18 home runs, 25 doubles, and 26 steals.  It ended up being good enough to win the International League MVP and a promotion up to Washington.  While he did not hit during his brief stint up in DC, Souza did help Jordan Zimmerman seal a no-hitter with an awesome catch.  Everyone has seen that play, no video clips this morning.  

So, in a decade of watching minor league baseball I cannot think of another time that I was overly impressed with a player and then saw the Rays or Cardinals trade for the player.  When I first moved to Durham I saw Dustin Pedroia and Jon Lester play for Pawtucket.  Really impressive duo, but the Red Sox decided to hold onto the pair.  Worked out pretty well.  Joey Votto with the Reds, I could go on and on.  

With all of the trades and changes that happened with the Rays this off season I was really happy to see the team pick up Souza.  I understand that there is a lot of love for Will Myers around Durham and Tampa, but Souza is a really good talent.  

I am still not sure where he will start next year, I'd be open to an appearance in Durham, but if he starts in Tampa that's not a bad thing either.  In the meantime, I started picking up Souza cards last summer and have decided I should probably continue.   My latest Souza addition comes from the 2014 Panini National Treasures set.

I could not have made that scan more crooked.  Anyway, this is the second autographed card I have picked up from the set.  Like all Panini products I cringe slightly at the fact that there are no logos on the card.  The fact that Panini is using acetate slates instead of sticker autographs makes me slightly happier.  After his 2014 Topps Update card, this is Souza's second autograph of the year.  This card is not bare bones cheap the Topps autograph, but I suspect most of the slight mark up is due to the fact that the National Treasures set has been pretty well received by most collectors.  

I am happy to have this card in the collection and will be on the look out for some more Souza cards next year.  Hopefully we won't have to wait too long to see a Souza card with the Rays.  

Writers Block, Unblocked

Sometimes I get cards and I cannot think of anything to say worth posting.  This is way way to wind down each night and I put myself on a time limit most nights.  There are dozens of little cards that just get passed over.  For awhile I used my Facebook page and put a "Best of the Rest" post at some point every month showing off a few of the other cards I picked up that month.  Other times they walk right past the scanner and into a card box in my closet.  

I have used several posts this year on one Steven Souza, an outfield prospect for the Nationals.  I saw a Syracuse Chiefs game this summer in Durham, saw him play in the Triple A All-Star Game, and picked up a few of his cards including an autograph in Topps Update and an International League All-Star Card.  

I picked up this copy of a Souza Topps Heritage Autograph about a month ago.  Initially it skipped the scanner and went straight into the card box.  I was happy to add it to my collection, but I also understand that there is a limit to the number of Steven Souza cards y'all want to hear about. 

It's not the prettiest autograph.  Souza is a scrawler, it's on a sticker, and the autograph is cut off.  So, what made me pull this card back out?  In case you are living under a rock you probably heard that the Rays traded Snorting Bull favorite Wil Myers this afternoon to the Padres in a three team deal with the Nats.  FanGraphs actually put the two players projected numbers up, pretty comparable....

I am not sure that many Rays fans are excited about the deal, but I am staying optimistic.  Souza really impressed me last season and I am hoping he can help the team avoid a repeat of last season.  He's a fun player to watch.  Wouldn't even mind seeing him make another appearance in Durham, but just for a few games.....

All It Takes Is Patience

I have really started considering making a To Do List for my baseball cards.  We are winding down towards the end of the 2014 calendar year and I have had a great time collecting cards this year.  I have added all kinds of new cards to my collection.  Still, I get to the end of the year, look around and can always find a few things that I meant to get around to, but just never quite made it happen.  I talked about it a bit in my last post about baseball cards.  I guess the feeling is lingering through the whole weekend.  

I had a few players from the International League that I really enjoyed watching this season.  Probably my favorite player I saw in person this year at a Durham Bulls game was Nationals outfield prospect Stephen Souza.  I might have liked watching Souza play more than any Bulls player.  He's neck and neck with Mikie Mahtook.  Seriously, Souza is a better player.  It hurts to say as a Durham Bulls fan, but it's true.  

Souza was a force in the IL this year and rightfully won the MVP award with a .350/.432/.590 line with 18 home runs, 25 doubles, and 75 RBIs in 96 games this year.  I saw Souza play a few games for the Syracuse Chiefs and also saw him in the Triple A All-Star game.  He does not have a ton of cards, but he did have an autograph in the Topps Heritage Minor League set a few years back.  I have had the card on my radar, but it kind of fell through the cracks.  

In the meantime, Souza got called up to the Majors (did I mention he's been in the minors for 8 years) and struggled with the Nationals with his bat.  However, sometimes it only takes one play to make a name for yourself.  I am sure that Nationals fans will not forget the name Stephen Souza for awhile.....

It was a great play on the part of Souza.  As a fan who has watched him all year long I was not surprised that Souza made a great catch on that ball.  I have seen him make several nice plays in the outfield this year including a great sliding catch in the Triple A All-Star game.  I still was missing that Souza autograph.  However, I found another one......

This was a rather inexpensive pick up off of Ebay and I am really happy that Topps included Souza in their Update set.  While this is not even remotely the most expensive card I have added to my collection this year, it is a card that I am extremely happy to add to my collection.  I am just hopeful to see Souza get a chance to play in 2015 and see more of these cards in the future.  

As for that other Souza autograph from the Topps Heritage Minor League Set?  I have got that off my list.  Maybe I will put it up sometime next week.