Weekend TTM Roundup: 10/6-10/11

This week I didn't get a whole lot of returns (I only got one actually), but it was a very special one.

Received On: 10/6/2014

My only return this week was from former Yankees farmhand Ryan Bicondoa.
Bicondoa was signed as a non-drafted free agent by the New York Yankees in 2002. He was a pretty dominant starter at Western Kentucky University before turning pro and he was a big reason why the 2002 Staten Island Yankees managed to win the championships. Bicondoa went 6-4 with a 1.90 ERA in 85.1 innings and even threw three complete games during his time as a Baby Bomber.
In 2003 Bicondoa was promoted to Tampa but was traded midway through the season for Armando Benitez who was boo'd out of the Mets bullpen and into the Yankees. Bicondoa was assigned to the St. Lucie Mets for the remainder of 2003 but he found himself in indie ball for the next two seasons (still better than being a Met). Then in 2006 the Chicago Cubs took a chance on him and he appeared in eight games for the high-A Daytona Cubs before being released. He went back to indie ball and stuck around for a few years before finally retiring for good in 2012. He is now a coach for a high school baseball team and lives with his wife Jodi and his two sons Taylor and Tyler.

In addition to the signature, Mr. Bicondoa also sent along this note. Making this return even more special.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care :).

Sources:
*http://www.wkusports.com/sports/m-basebl/spec-rel/052802aab.html
*http://pinstripedprospects.com/2014/si15-catching-up-with-former-si-yanks-pitcher-ryan-bicondoa-2420
*http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1696&dat=20030717&id=Y_IaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=NEgEAAAAIBAJ&pg=1862,1756665
*http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=bicond001rya
*http://www.leaguelineup.com/miscinfo.asp?menuid=30&url=sdohs

2014 TTM Count: 213

More LUIIIIISSSSSSSSSSS

So I went out and got a few more piece of the Torrens rainbow.

Starting us off is this blue refractor. I don't know why my scanner suddenly hates blue refractors, but it can no longer scan these properly as this is way more prettier and shinier in person than this scan would have you believe. Or am I simply in denial?

Ironically I think I spent more on this blue ref that's limited to 250 than I did for the purple ref that's numbered to 199. But that's what happens when it's sold out on COMC I guess.

Next up is the gold refractor. In my last progress report I made a comment about how I'll need a bunch of gold to pay for this rainbow. In hindsight I've come to realize how lame that is and would like to apologize to all of you who had to suffer through it.

BTW out of all of the Torrens card I picked up online this gold was possibly sent to me the neatest. It came in a new sleeve, new top-loader, and the seller even threw in a few cards to serve as protectors, all in a bubble mailer of course. Only package that's really topped it so far is the super which came in a screwdown.

And finally, my latest Torrens pickup was this printing plate. Now before you get all excited let me just say that this is the printing plate for the minis.

In late 2013 Topps/Bowman decided to piss off completists release Bowman Chrome mini. A complete set of every prospect card in 2013 Bowman, Bowman Chrome and Bowman Draft, only miniaturized. It also came with a few parallels and has become the bane of my existence for making my chase for the rainbow harder.

That said I consider the minis and the regular sized cards to be separate entities so I don't go insane or bankrupt (or both). Yet I decided to pick up this plate. The main reason for that is because the seller didn't properly state that this was the mini version in the description (although I was admittedly too lazy to look at the scan of the back). Oh well, it never hurts to add another 1/1 of LUIIIIISSSSSSSSSSS, especially now that he's put himself on a lot of radars and will have more eyes on him going forward. Hopefully I'll be able to add the full sized plate sometime soon.

So with that I only need 6 2 more pieces of the full sized rainbow. Which includes the parallel I dreaded having to tackle the most, the accursed yellow refractor that only was only available in retail packs. What makes it worse is that they're numbered to 10. GAH!

As always thanks for stopping by and take care :).

Luis Torrens Named 4th Best Prospect In The NYPL

Recently BaseballAmerican unveiled it's list of the top 20 prospects in every league in the minors. And on the top 20 New York-Penn League prospects, blog hero Luis Torrens made an appearance at number 4.

Now I'm sure we all know that number four is far too low for a player of LUIIIIISSSSSSSSSSS' caliber (unless we're talking about batting orders), but I respect Baseball America's choice to put Marcos Molina, Reynaldo Lopez and Amed Rosario in front of Luis. Their decision is wrong of course, but I respect it. #Scorin'Torrens

Still, I am pretty happy for Luis. He's the only Staten Island Yankee who managed to make it onto the NYPL top 20 (Hensley just missed making it due to lack of service time) and has opened quite a fair number of eyes here in 2014. By this time next year he'll hopefully be in the list of the top 20 Florida State League prospects.

I'm so happy in fact, that I've already begun planning another contest. Stay tuned for updates on my next giveaway.

Anyway as always thanks for stopping by and take care :).