Around The Card Room, Take 5

Several years ago, my favorite Durham Bulls players was Taylor Motter.  

Motter made his Major League Debut with the Rays in 2016. He was traded to the Mariners at the end of that season. Since that time Motter has played for the Twins, Tigers, Kiwoom in the Korean Baseball League, Rockies, Red Sox, Reds, and Braves. This off-season he signed with the Cardinals on a Minor League deal. 

The Cardinals train outside of Palm Beach, Florida. Motter is from Palm Beach, Florida. I don't think it was a huge surprise that he showed up to Spring Training and played really well for the Cardinals.  

Taylor Motter - St. Louis Cardinals (2)* pic.twitter.com/wjhYDXHCUF

— MLB HR Videos (@MLBHRVideos) March 18, 2023

 However, it was surprising that Taylor Motter made the Cardinals out of Spring Training.  

That sets up Taylor Motter to make the opening day roster -- and clears the right-handed bat and outfield spot for the top prospect, Jordan Walker.

Those moves has not been made. Team officials say there is still a discussion later tonight on roster. https://t.co/8mRGGATJHk

— Derrick Goold (@dgoold) March 25, 2023

I was really disappointed earlier this afternoon when the Cardinals DFA'd Motter to make room for shortstop Paul DeJong. We just a few weeks into the season, but Motter was doing his job as a role player on the team and DeJong has been horrible for (sub .200 batting average) for multiple seasons. It seems unfair, but I am hopeful Motter will catch on with a more successful baseball team.  

In the meantime, I am going to share out my favorite Taylor Motter item from my collection.  

This is a game used bat from Motter's rookie season with the Rays in 2016. 

Here is a close-up on the barrel. You can see there are a lot of marks and dings on the barrel. Obviously this bat was in use for awhile. There is not visible crack in the bat, but when you tap it on the ground it is clearly broken somewhere.  

Close-up of the autograph.  

Motter does not have any certified autographs, so this is one of the few Motter signatures in my collection.  The left-side of the autograph has a number #11, which was what Motter wore while he was with the Durham Bulls.  

This picture of Motter standing on-deck is from the 2015 season.  

Finally, here is the knob of the bat. The Tampa sticker with the uniform seems to be pretty standard issue amongst Rays players based on other game-used bats floating around the internet. 

Overall, this is one of my favorite Durham Bulls items in my card room. 

The Search For Hak Ju Lee Continues.....

 Hak Ju Lee was one of my favorite Durham Bulls players when I first started writing on this blog.  He was a great defensive shortstop with some potential on offense.  In 2013, he was the best player in the International League for the first half of April.  Hak Ju Lee played his usual great defense while hitting .422 with a .600 slugging percentage.  It was like a combination of Ted Williams and Ozzie Smith. 

Then Travis Ishikawa slid into him at second base and tore up his knee. 

It happens.  

Former first overall draft pick Tim Beckham repleaced Hak Ju Lee while he was out with the knee injury.  Beckham played well during his first year in Durham and helped spark the team to an International League Championship providing fans with one of the most memorable base running plays of the 2013 season.  

 

Hak Ju Lee was never quite the same when he returned to the Bulls.  He got some at-bats, but was never promoted to the Rays.  Lee became a fan favorite of sorts around Durham when he returned.  It's easy to love a scrappy middle infielder who is trying to overcome a major injury and make it to the Majors.  I really enjoyed collecting his cards and picked up quite a few nice ones back in the day. 

His time with the Rays ran out and Hak Ju Lee became a Minor League free agent.  Lee signed with the Giants before 2016 season and managed to play part of the season for their Triple A team.  Then, he just disappeared.  

Seriously.  

I was looking for him, but he was nowhere to be found. 

Well, it turns out that Hak Ju Lee went home to Korea.  He sat out a few years, but reappeared in 2019 with the Samsung Lions.  He's pretty popular, appearing in a video on YouTube that refers to him as the religious sect leader of the team. 

 

I love Hak Ju Lee too, but maybe something was lost in the translation there.  Maybe there's not. 

Anyway, way back at the start of the pandemic, I made a list of some Durham Bulls cards that I would like to track down for my collection.  The list included a few Hak Ju Lee cards.  I was able to find one of them a few weeks back.  

This card is from the 2013 Topps Heritage Minors set.  

 

 

Lee has several different cards in the 2013 Minor League set including a Bazooka insert and two relic cards.  With the addition of this black parallel, I have the complete run of Hak Ju Lee cards outside of the printing plates.  I don't always love the parallel cards in the early Heritage Minors set, but this is a good looking card.   

Here is the back of the card. 

 

The serial number is in the bottom left corner, only 96 copies of this card produced.  The back of the card also mentions his .422 average for the first 15 games of the season in 2013 with the Bulls. 

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.