Here One Minute......

I have been following Taylor Motter's career since he first appeared with the Durham Bulls nearly a decade ago. This was my first card of Motter on the Durham Bulls.......

Last year, Motter played for my Cardinals and even though the quantity of Cardinals cards was limited, I still collected them.  In this case, limited means one Topps Heritage card with one parallel.  

I still keep my eye out for new Motter cards. I recently found a printing plate from his 2016 Topps Update card, which is his rookie card. The plate was only a few dollars on Ebay.....

and the back of the card.......

Seems like a great addition to the Taylor Motter collection, if only the printing plate had been here for longer than a minute....... 

An update post coming soon.......

All My Wildest Dreams Come True

In the almost 20 years I have lived in North Carolina, I have thought it would be really awesome to see a favorite player with the Durham Bulls end up on the Cardinals and have a successful run with my favorite Major League team. For years, I have been hoping that someone like Evan Longoria, David Price, or Blake Snell would end up in St. Louis, but it has never happened.  

Well, this past year the Cardinals finally ended up with a favorite former Durham Bulls player when they signed Taylor Motter (mutliple times) to be a utility player and the person at the end of their bench. Not really the type of star power I was hoping for, but I was still a big fan of Motter on the Cardinals.  

Taylor Motter is good defensively at multiple positions, but can struggle with the bat. Taylor's performance on the Cardinals did not really surprise me, as he has bounced around to multiple teams over the past few seasons. 

If you are a regular reader or read my Twitter page, you know that I really wanted a Taylor Motter card on the Cardinals during the past year regardless of on-field production and my wish came true when Topps included him in their Heritage High Numbers release.  

I believe I declared this my favorite card of 2023.......

Over the past few months, I have checked on parallels for this card on Ebay and COMC, but have seen none. I figured the base card was good enough for my collection. However, last weekend I revisited my saved search "2023 Heritage Motter" one last time and I struck gold.  

I found the black parallel, which would be the rarest Motter parallel outside of the printing plates.   

This card is limited to a stated print run of just 50 copies. 

Although, it's not actually serial numbered.  

Baseball Card of the Year

Name a member of the 2023 Cardinals who played the most positions on the field?  

You may have guessed Tommy Edman, but the answer is Taylor Motter.  

Name the only Cardinals shortstop to not strikeout more than 50 times in 2023?

Tommy Edman again? Paul DeJong before he got traded?  Nope, Taylor Motter.  

We could talk more about Taylor Motter's dominance on the field in 2023, but you are all reading this blog post waiting to see the best baseball card of the year. You already know who is going to be on the card at this point.......

A great looking card of a great utility player for my favorite team.  

Did I mention that Taylor Motter was a long-running member of the Durham Bulls a few years back?

He was. 

Here is the back of the card.  

"Super Utility" isn't a title that Topps throws out on just anyone's baseball card.  The second fact is actually pretty interesting, although slightly misleading. Motter has not caught in a Major League game and only appeared as a pitcher on three different occasions. He gave up a home run to Mike Moustakas.  

I was curious about the cartoon on the side of the card. I did not know much about his performance with the Memphis Redbirds in 2023, but he stole 8 bases and hit 8 home runs in just 56 games. The 8 steals were Motter's highest total since he had 12 with the Mariners in 2017.  

I had expressed my concerns about Taylor Motter not having a Cardinals card this summer.......

I am glad that Topps followed through on a tweet with only 109 views and thousands of ignores.  

Set Appreciation Post #20 - 2012 Topps Pro Debut

No special guests or Aaron Boone memes for this set appreciation post, just baseball cards of players wearing Minor League uniforms. As a person who follows and watches Minor League baseball, these are always fun sets to flip through. This was the third Pro Debut set, so it was still a relatively new product at this point. More than a decade removed from its release, there are plenty of players on the checklist who are in the prime of their carer or beyond.  

Let's get it.  

The 2012 Topps design has always been fairly low on my list, easily the bottom quartile of all their base sets. It's just uninspired and looks like they did not put much thought or effort into this design. Someone came up with this five minutes before pitching it to some higher-up. The photography is fine, it's not Stadium Club or anything. You better believe I am going to count the bad design towards the final rating at the end of the post.  

It gets worse.  

There are no statistics on the back of the card. I almost want to stop the post here and just tell you to avoid ever touching this set. Add in that Topps is calling Dante Bichette a "dynamic offensive" player. That is only making things worse. He couldn't hit a beach ball outside of Denver.  

This set is really a hit or miss product. The good names are great, but there are a lot of former highly regarded prospects who never panned out or lived up to the hype. As a fan of the Minor Leagues, I am going to try to stick to the success stories for the cards I show off. The percentage of players who did not make it is really high, even for a Pro Debut product.  

The best three cards in the set are no-brainers. Like decade into their careers and they are Hall of Fame trajectory type players.  

First, we have Syracuse SkyChiefs outfielder Bryce Harper.  

Bryce Harper was in Triple A less than a month during the 2012 season before the Nationals called him up to the Majors. I usually make a point to see players like Harper when they roll through Durham, but he did not make it that far into the schedule. Despite the miss on my part, this is a cool card. I miss the SkyChiefs, who had a train as a mascot. You can see it on his batting helmet. There is story there, but I am not going to tell it on my blog. Cool card and a cheap Harper rookie if you don't own one. 

One of the other really good cards belongs to Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado.  

Arenado is shown here with the Modesto Nuts of the California League. That's A Ball and Arenado is 20 years old in this picture. Arenado was actually on Modesto in 2011, his 2012 season was spent with Tulsa in the Double A Texas League. Who would have guessed this guy would go on to hit 300 home runs and win 10 Gold Gloves? 

Baseball America rated him the 42nd best prospect right along side fellow third baseman Mike Olt and Will Middlebrooks in their 2012 Prospect Guide.  

Oops, missed out on that one.  

Last up of the really good cards is Manny Machado of the Fredrick Keys.  

I will not listen to your Manny Machado slander about him not being a future Hall of Famer.  

A few other really good players in this set......

We've got Jose Ramirez. Probably also a Hall of Famer, or getting really close. The card shows him with the Indians entry into the 2011 Arizona League team. Ramirez is an 18 year old on this card, one the youngest players featured in this Pro Debut set. This card is why this set is fun to look at years later.  

We've also got what feels like an air brushed Gerrit Cole.  

Cole was actually in college in 2011. He went to UCLA and was selected by the Pirates with the first overall pick in the MLB Draft. Cole did end up playing with the Bradenton Marauders during the 2012 season, but he was only there for a few starts before the Pirates promoted him all the way up to their Triple A team.  

Locally, we've got Christian Yelich playing for the Greensboro Grasshoppers.  

Yelich is another really young player in this set, only 19 in this picture. Turned out to be a pretty good player. Why do the Greensboro cards never have the players posing with the bat dogs?  

Many teams have bat dogs these days, Greensboro was the originator.  

Let me move on to the Cardinals and Durham Bulls portion of the post. 

There are a lot of Durham Bulls in this set. There are not many Cardinals players in this set. At least not many who made it to the Majors.  It was a toss up between Shelby Miller and Matt Adams. 

I am going with Matt Adams, because you can see his uniform.  

I have always liked the Springfield Cardinals uniforms. The Cardinals should do this with all their Minor League affiliates. Two birds on the bat with the city name in the Cardinals script. 

My best memories of Matt Adams on the Cardinals include his home run off of Clayton Kershaw in the 2014 NLDS.......

There was also that time FanGraphs wrote an article about how bad Matt Adams was playing left field and fellow Cardinals outfielder Tommy Pham liked the article post on Twitter.  

On to the Durham Bulls portion of the post. There are a lot of them.    

Some former Bulls are in the base set, but were on the Royals at the time this product was released......

You can't read the names, because it's 2012 Topps, but this is Wil Myers and Mike Montgomery.  

Montgomery recorded the final out in Game 7 for the Chicago Cubs in 2016 World Series, so I should probably ignore all his cards, but he also threw a no-hitter for the Durham Bulls at a game I attended. Seeing a no-hitter is pretty cool, so I just try to ignore his Cubs cards. 

I have also sacrificed a Durham Bulls card from this set for an in-person autograph for my son.  

Never replaced it, not sure I ever will.  

There is also a card of Taylor Motter in the set, but he is on the Princeton Rays and not the Durham Bulls. He looks weird with short hair.  Motter does not have any certified autographs, but I have an in-person autograph copy of the card that I prefer to the unsigned copy.  

There are also two Tim Beckham cards, which both show him on the Durham Bulls.  The first is a relic card.  

There are parallels of this card with patch pieces, but they've always been really expensive when they've shown up and the patch pieces are just the blue trim from the middle and sleeve areas of Beckham's jersey.  If I ever saw a patch piece from the Bulls logo, I would be all over it.  

Last Tim Beckham card......

Easily my favorite Durham Bulls card, as well as my favorite card overall in this entire set.  

Let's make one more stop with this set and then I will assign it a rating.  

Pro Debut products usually come with a few autographs per box. The 2012 Pro Debut set was no different, but the autograph checklist is terrible. I have autographs of Drew Hutchinson, Charlie Tilson, and Matt Adams, and they are three of the better names available.  

So, how does the 2012 Pro Debut set rate?  

I had been ranking the sets featured in my Set Appreciation posts, but I am going to stop that today.  Instead, I am going to rate the set on a 1-5 scale based on its design, quality of checklist, insets, value and price, and also an overall. 

Today's rating scale is using the Durham Bulls beloved mascot, Wool E. Bull.  

The design is really bad and the lack of stats on the back of the cards is really hard to get past for me. I gave the set 1 Wool E. Bull for design and I felt like that might be generous. The checklist has some strong names, but it is really top heavy. There are a few other solid names in this set that I did not bring up in the post, my time is limited, but there are a lot of failed prospects here. More than other Pro Debut sets. 

My two highest ratings were for inserts and value. While the autograph checklist is terrible, I am a sucker for those manufactured patch cards with the Minor League logos. I know that there are few Minor League card collectors floating around on Blogger, but those are universally loved and were a great concept. The value offered here is good too. There are really cheap boxes and packs of cards that you can find on the discount table at shops and shows.  

Overall, I give this set two Wool E. Bulls.  There are better Pro Debut sets out there. 

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. 

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.  

Motter's Magenta Hair Flow

The Rays recently traded one of my favorite former Durham Bulls to the Mariners.  It always makes me sad to see players leave and go elsewhere, but at the same time this move will likely result in Motter getting some more consistent playing time.  As a baseball fan in Durham, it has been fun to watch Motter play here the last few years.  

Taylor plays all over the field with a high level of effort and energy.  I enjoyed getting to see him get in some time with the Rays this year and was more disappointed when they sent him back down to Triple A without giving him much of a chance to stick.  The hitting hadn't come around yet at the Major League level, but a lot of other Taylor Motter goodness happened for the Rays with him in the game....

not to say that he did nothing on offense.  He is definitely a capable hitter.  This was one of my favorite moments from his time in the Majors....

hitting a home run against the Marlins which were his favorite team growing up.  Really cool.  

Even though he has moved on to the West Coast I am still excited to collect more cards of this former Durham Bulls favorite.  My most recent card, his Topps Update Magenta Printing Plate, is something I picked up last week.  I have been on the lookout for some non-base Motter cards, but with no relics or autographs, I have been focused on finding some different parallel cards.  The plate is obviously the rarest one I have, but there are a few other low numbered cards out there that I want....

So Long For Just Awhile

Watching Minor League Baseball means that there is an inevitable separation looming from the players that you spend your summers cheering.  As a resident of central North Carolina, and Durham Bulls fan, for more than a decade I have seen plenty of favorites move on to the Majors and become successful.  Whether that success comes with the Bulls parent team, the Rays or another club, it's always a good feeling to see former their players doing well.

The fact that my favorite Durham Bulls players move on does not always mean it is the easiest thing to deal with as a baseball fan.  It stinks at times.

The same thing happens to fans of Major League teams too, it just looks a little different.  Some players leave via free agency, some are traded, some are released, and some retire.  They can all be equally difficult.  I distinctly remember hanging through the 1996 Cardinals NLCS Game 7 loss to the Braves just to say I watched Ozzie Smith's last at-bat.  The game ended 15-0, but it was worth it for Ozzie.

This off-season is young, but I have already had one of these difficult moments watching two of my favorite players move on from the Durham Bulls/Rays.  It all started last Friday evening when I saw this tweet flash across the screen of my phone......

I had to step outside for a bit, take a walk, and clear my head.  For the last two seasons I had thoroughly enjoyed watching both players with the Durham Bulls.  I had seen Shaffer awhile back when he was a third baseman at Clemson, but Motter was a new player for me.  Both had a huge impact on the team and were immediately amongst the most popular players with the Bulls fan base.  

Motter played all over the field during the 2015 season and posted a great line for the Bulls....

In 127 games in 2015 Motter posted a .292/.366/.471 line with 14 home runs. 43 doubles, 72 RBIs, and 26 stolen bases.  He was not promoted to the Majors by the Rays at the end of the season after posting that line.  

Shaffer did not quite lead the International League in home runs in 2015, but that's mainly because he only played 69 games in Durham that summer.....

His final line was .270/.355/.582 with 19 home runs, 17 doubles, and 45 RBIs.  For the year, Shaffer ended up hitting a total of 26 home runs adding in the dingers he also hit in Double A Montgomery.  Shaffer did get called up in September of 2015 and managed 7 extra base hits in 74 at-bats.  Everyone knows the first hit and home run Shaffer hit against the White Sox.  It was classic....

Both players were back with the Bulls in 2016.  Motter and Shaffer both also spent time with the Rays.  Tampa utilized Motter's versatility and played him in both corner outfield spots, all four infield positions, and he even pitched a third of an inning.  Yet, he only briefly stayed up with the Rays.  Shaffer got another 48 at-bats with the Rays, had 7 more extra base hits, and managed to improve his slash line percentages from the previous season.  

For whatever reason, both players were basically buried this year in Durham.  Neither of the players performed up to their best in Triple A, but they both seemed to handle it the right way.  Motter continued to work hard, grind out at-bats, and move all over the field to wherever the team needed him.  Shaffer worked out all over the field too, including spending some time learning the outfield.  

It was clear that neither player fit into the Rays plan. 

While the trade was a little hard to take, ultimately I know that the Mariners are going to give both players a chance to win jobs and playing time.   I know that both have a really good of getting the playing time that they did not get in Tampa.  

Further, as a baseball card guy, I am really excited to continue my collection of both players.  Shaffer has had a bunch of cards already including one from his first home run.....

I am not sure if anyone can ever top this card, but I am hoping that his cards will be a regular occurrence for years to come.  For next year, I am planning on having to track down a few sweet Mariners cards of the former Clemson Tiger.  

Same with Motter.....  

who has picked up his first Topps cards late this summer, but I have had fun chasing down the different variations of the two that are floating around.  A regular role in Seattle will definitely result in more cards of the super utility player.  Besides, as someone recently pointed out to me, someone with hair like Motter's needs to be playing on the west coast.  

While I am disappointed to say that I will never see Motter and Shaffer play another game at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, I know that the trade is the best thing for both of their careers.  I am looking forward to some late nights next summer staying up to watch a few Mariners games.  I know many other Bulls and Rays fans will likely be joining in with me in watching two of their favorites succeed somewhere else....

So long for just awhile.  

I Was Hopeful For An Aledmys and.....

Card collectors sometimes like to look over the checklists of products before they come out, see what is in the set, and sometimes gleefully hope that they pull something cool they see there from a favorite player or team.  Really, how often does that happen?

I have been on the lookout for an autograph of Cardinals rookie shortstop Aledmys Diaz and had sort of formulated this plan in my mind to skip over the Topps Update product in hopes of putting the time, effort, and money into tracking down that elusive Aledmys autograph.  Welp.

I found myself walking in the door of my local card shop, The Trading Card Co-Op, and found myself standing face to face with Topps Update.  I'd like to think about what happened next as a brief moment of weakness.   Like driving through St. Louis and not stopping for Imos.....

I was trapped.  Jimmy, one of the store owners, insisted that he picked out the Aledmys Diaz card in the box.

So, before we get to the good stuff, here are some of my "hot" takes on the Topps Update set.  Let's start with a few base cards.  I will narrow the few hundred base cards down to my favorite two cards, one from each of my two primary rooting interests....

My favorite Cardinals card in the base set belongs to "rookie" pitcher Seung-Hwan Oh.  He actually spent years and years playing in both Korea and Japan before landing with the Cardinals last off season.  While Aledmys Diaz got most of the rookie spot with the Cardinals, Oh had quite the rookie season too.  I have picked up a few of his cards here later in the 2016 baseball card calendar.  Plus, I like the action shot on this card.  

My favorite Durham Bulls related card belongs to, sigh, former Rays infielder Taylor Motter.  He was actually just traded to the Mariners this week.  I am not even sure what the Rays got back in return, I have brought myself to even look up the players.  More on Motter later this week.  Cool to see a Topps base card of him with the cool long hair.  

On to other things......

My favorite insert set in Topps Update is the Fire cards.  Topps sold these last year as an online product, I picked up a Molina card off of Ebay.  Not sure I every wrote the card up on this space, but it's a pretty cool card.  The biggest difference being that the online cards were metal, these are cardboard.  Still, they look cool.  

On to the hit cards.

My two "relic" cards......

Kind of the typical Topps box.  The All-Star relics have long been a staple of the Update sets.  Jay Bruce is meh, but I pick the Padres colored uniform swatches.  The Yaz "relic" or manu card is okay.  I used to like these cards, but I am getting a little bit tired of coins and the whatnot.  The picture is cool, the card background is cool, the jumbo coin?  I could take it or leave it.  

Last card.  I bet you might have inferred from the title.....

I could not believe it when I pulled this card.  I sat and stared at for a few minutes.  When do you ever pull a card from a checklist, especially a hit card, when you buy a box?  I can hardly think of a time that it has happened to me, but I am glad this came out of one of my packs.  I am still thinking of adding another Aledmys autograph, I have my eye on one, but maybe I will be a little bit more patient with the next one....