These past few months have been some of the best for me as a collector. I started blogging and found a new way to yammer at strangers about nothing, I found several new team collectors I can dump my unwanted cards onto, and I've also gotten some of the best cards and support I could've ever hoped to get from this wonderful blogosphere.
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. I'll be sure to remember all of the fun and excitement most of this whole run has brought me And I'd like to thank all of you who made it possible and as enjoyable as the experience could've been. Thank you.
I am of course talking about how my streak of consecutive weeks with a TTM return came to a halt this week. After what felt like an glorious infinite number of weeks where I got at least one TTM return in my mailbox, I didn't get one in the final week of November. But I suppose that is to be expected when one stops sending out TTM requests in mid-August. And even if my 2014 TTM haul ended with last week's Saltalamacchia return, I'd say that this run and this year in general was a huge success. Especially since one of my goals this year was to get more returns than I got in 2013 (which I did :)). Of course it's going to be hard to top this year come 2015 but thankfully I already have a stack of potential MiLB TTMs with more on the way when I get my hands on the soon to be released Bowman Draft and Elite Extra Edition (provided that Panini releases it). And I do genuinely want to thank all the players who signed for me and those of you who left positive comments on my TTM posts. It really means a lot to me since a lot of the posts were admittedly rushed and kind of air-mailed and yet you guys kept coming and left comments.
Now with that I'd like to make this announcement.
I'll be sending most of out my year-end Holiday Zaps a little earlier than usual this year. Reason being that I'm going to be spending the holidays overseas and I'll be too busy to really send packages out during mid-December. I sent wave one of these Holiday Zaps out yesterday to ten different zip codes. Wave two is ready and will be shipped out on either Monday or Tuesday. I'm putting the finishing touches on wave three but I'm waiting on a few pieces to arrive from COMC so those of you in wave three might have to wait until the second or third week of December. Sorry.
A while back the Dime Box king overlord blogged about some cool cards he acquired that featured a lot of musicians. I was so intrigued that I decided to pull the trigger on a little something that was on my watch list. That something is this cool card of my favorite rapper, J. Cole (feat. Wale who's also a pretty good rapper IMO).
Growing up I was a pretty big fan of hip hop. Unfortunately when people think of hip hop they think of idiots reinforcing negative stereotypes and bragging about how much money they have and how much sex they have because in today's world it's only the negative aspects of a music genre that ever gets attention, but there is more to the genre than people (including a large number of hip hop fans) probably think.
One of my favorite mix-tapes of all time
Back in 2010, there was a brief moment of time where it looked like a new generation of rappers had arrived and were going to bring some much needed thought, depth and passion back into the mainstream hip hop scene, and J. Cole was going to be one of the spearheads of the movement and establish himself as one of the biggest names in the industry.
Unfortunately things did not go that way. Jermaine Lamarr Cole's momentum pretty much vanished by the time his second album dropped/this card was released and the rest of the movement dissolved into a bunch of sell-outs, b-listers and guys that disappeared entirely (although Kendrick Lamar turned out okay). Now I could go on and explain why I think that happened but I'll spare you all from my college thesis on the matter. I'll just say that despite the "what ifs" and a few missteps, I'm still a big fan of J. Cole.
I love this back so much
Anyway I love the back of this cool oddball. With the important details above like which event these cards were being distributed at, and some of J. Cole's bio. And yes, J. Cole was in fact born in Germany (he was raised in Fayetteville, North Carolina though). I thought it was really cool how they presented the albums J. Cole released like stats on a baseball card. And of course no one can front on that cute little cartoon on the lower left hand corner.
Between this and the cool team issued Phillies cards The Phillies Room is always blogging about, I think I can safely say that Philadelphia sure makes some great cards.
Now to finish out this post I was going to share my top five favorite J. Cole songs but I figure I'd just randomly share a few songs I really like by him. Also I'd like to mention that his next album 2014 Forest Hills Drive, is going to be released next month on December 9th. I can't wait!
As always thanks for stopping by and take care :).
Well this was a slow week. This week was so slow that I almost prepared a post on how my streak of consecutive weeks with a TTM return came to a halt but then I got one at the very last possible minute. On Saturday around lunchtime.
Received On: 11/15/2014
But oh what a return it was.
It was from Tyler Austin who was one of the seven prospects the Yankees sent over to the Arizona Fall League.
Tyler Austin first put himself on the map after a breakout 2012 but his 2013 was derailed by injuries and he found himself being overshadowed by newer, more promising prospects that have entered the system. In 2014 he managed to escape having another season being lost due to injuries and had himself a very good second half. Enough to put him back on a few radars.
Offensively Austin provides some pop and hits for a pretty high average. Defensively he's not great in right field but he's not terrible either.
Austin has played both the infield and outfield in his profession career so far. For all we know he could possibly offer some versatility between RF and 1st ala Nick Swisher.
Austin had himself a pretty great AFL-stint before it abruptly ended when he collided with Greg Bird and suffered what appeared to be a bone bruise. From what I've read it doesn't appear to be as serious as the wrist injury that slowed down Austin's progress in 2013.
Anyway if Austin being sent to the AFL is any indication, it appears as though the Yankees still see promise in Austin. At this point the Yankees' previous draft strategy of going after high risk high reward guys out of high school is gone and sooner or later Austin (as well as Williams and Heathcott to an extent) will just be remnants of that bygone era but I'm sure the Yankees will take anything they can still get from what's left. Hopefully Austin continues to progress and makes it to the bigs and doesn't have to suffer the fate of having the system pass him by.
Received On: 11/15/2014
I've heard stories of just how cool Austin is and finally experienced it first hand when I saw that he also signed the bonus card I sent to him as a gift for me.
Hopefully Austin makes a full recovery and sees some time in the bigs next year. After all, the Yankees have outfield issues that won't disappear even with Chris Young and Eury Perez in the mix.
As always thanks for stopping by and take care :).
As some of you may have heard, Francisco Cervelli (the guy this blog was named after) has been traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Justin Wilson.
Needless to say I'm pretty saddened by this. Cervelli is a fierce competitor with a great personality and immense passion for the game. He is an above average backup catcher (both offensively and defensively) and would probably even be a starter for terrible/mediocre teams. He was a homegrown product and was also a fan favorite amongst Yankees fans, which is quite an accomplishment given how most backup catchers are often completely ignored and how ignorant Yankee fans can be. In a way this move was sort of inevitable given how the Yankees had three catchers competing for the backup catcher job. But inevitable or not, it still hurts :'(.
In exchange for Cervelli the Yankees got reliever Justin Wilson. I already know I'll be biased against this guy regardless of how well he performs (and yes, I'm aware of Wilson's talent). Not just because he was traded for Cervelli but because he could also be a potential threat to the all-home grown Yankees bullpen. I don't want aliens from the 29 other farm systems in the bullpen anymore when the Yankees have the five-headed monster (and a few other guys) waiting in the wings.
So so long Cervelli, good luck in Pittsburgh. Hopefully you'll be reunited with fellow ex-Yankee Jose Tabata in Pittsburgh at various parts of the 2015 season.
And for those of you who are curious I will (sort of) continue to collect Cervelli. I don't hate the Pirates and wouldn't mind having his post-Yankees era cards in my collection. If Topps chooses to release a Cervelli card at all that is. Now that he's no longer with the big market Bankees and with the small market Pirates, it'll probably be a miracle if he gets a Topps Update card between now and when Cervelli hits free agency.
Also, before I forget, I looked at the feedback I got from you guys yesterday and I've gone and renamed my blog.
Everybody, I welcome you all to the not-really new and barely improved, Torren' Up Cards :). Grammatically it doesn't make sense but much like the classic 80's hit Take One Me, it sounds great doesn't it? Hopefully I'll be able to use this name a lot longer.
As always thanks for stopping by and take care :). Also appreciate the players you like on your team while they're still there, you never know when they'll be out the door. #RIPCervelli
So now that the baseball year is mainly over (the Arizona Fall League, and various winter leagues in Latin America are still going on) everybody and their grandmothers are doing year-in review posts for their favorite players/teams/farm systems etc... and I was going to do one as well, but gave up halfway through the post.
So instead I'll talk about one thing that's made me very happy recently. The "emergence" of Luis Torrens.
By that I don't mean that Luis Torrens finally became a good player. No that happened a long time ago. What I mean is that LUIIIIISSSSSSSSSSS has started getting more praise amongst prospectors doing those year-in-review posts. I mentioned a while back that he was picked as the fourth best prospect in the New York-Penn League by Baseball America. I forgot to mention that he's currently the tenth best prospect in the Yankees organization on MLB.com's list. And now I'm going to bring up that he was also ranked ninth on Baseball America's Top 10 Yankees prospect list.
It's pretty surprising to see that it took this long for people to take notice of his greatness considering how he was basically the best international free-agent prospect the Yankees brought in in 2013. In terms of buzz he was, at best, one of the names people threw in when they wanted to illustrate how deep the Yankees' catching depth was. I guess everybody was too busy calling the Yankees farm system one of the most depleted and worst systems in the majors to care. Still, better late than never. Or more accurately it's better that Luis gets praise after I've acquired most of his cards while he's still undervalued hehe ;).
Now I said I wasn't going to do a recap, but I figure I'd do a brief one for LUIIIIISSSSSSSSSSS to at least explain why he's started to get attention.
Torrens' 2014 season didn't exactly begin on a high note. He was aggressively moved up to Charleston but looked a bit overmatched and shoulder injuries got him sent down to Staten Island on a rehab assignment. He spent a few games in the GCL and then stayed in Staten Island for the rest of the year. And in all honesty the NYPL was a more appropriate level for the catcher who had just turned 18, despite the fact that that's still well below the average age in the NYPL. He thrived in Staten Island and was easily the team's best player and had the highest ceiling out of everybody on the team. During his time as a Baby Bomber (48 games) he had a 20-game hitting streak and was batting a little below .400 which earned him a nod to the 2014 NYPL All Star Game. He cooled off a bit and finished the season with a .339 wOBA and 115 wRC+ (SI Yankee stats only from fangraphs) which means that his overall offensive production was above average and he created roughly 15% more runs than the average player in the league. His .135 ISO was a pretty nice stat as well that at least backed up the reports about how Torrens' bat has some pop in it, something that scouts questioned back in 2013.
Torrens himself said that defense was a big priority in 2014 and all reports indicate that he did take huge steps forward behind the plate. A vast majority of scouts have raved about his defense even though he's only been a full time catcher for two years. Baseball America even picked him as the best defensive catcher in the Yankees org this year. According to Baseball Reference he gunned down 39% of would-be base stealers throughout the year (Charleston & Staten Island combined). And although his stint in Charleston wasn't exactly a bright one he did have a 1.000 fielding percentage and did not commit a single error. Of course those don't really mean anything given the small sample size but I just wanted to share those very pretty numbers. His fielding percentage as a Staten Island Yankee was a very good .992 BTW.
Overall Torrens did slow down during the final stretch (most likely due to fatigue) which most scouts were expecting since he hasn't filled out yet. Much like last year scouts will observe how much more strength Torrens can add to prepare himself for longer, more physically demanding seasons as a catcher. However his progress in 2014 indicates that his bat is coming along and he's at least proven that he does have a future behind the plate.
Oh and for those of you who don't know Torrens was originally an infielder (I think some referred to him as David Wright-lite) before the Yankees converted him into a catcher after signing him. Hence why he still works on his defense (especially blocking pitches and reducing passed balls).
Torrens will most likely start 2015 in either Charleston or Tampa. A lot of professional scouts say that he'll probably be in Charleston with a promotion to Tampa later in the season, but when I last spoke to Torrens about where he plans on going next he said he has his sights set on Tampa. And who knows, the Yankees might aggressively push Torrens again if he has a great spring.
While I admit that it's usually best to take minor league numbers and praise with a grain of salt (especially when it comes to the lower levels of the minors like the NYPL), I don't care. I'm all for calling Luis Torrens Posada's heir and saying that he'll join Bill Dickey, Yogi Berra, Elston Howard, Thurman Munson and Jorge Posada in the proud lineage of great Yankees catchers. I'm calling it right now. He will succeed where Dioner Navarro, Francisco Cervelli (*tear*), Jesus Montero, Austin Romine, John Ryan Murphy and Gary Sanchez (too early?) all failed.
With that I'd like to ask you all this question. Should I just go ahead and rename this blog Torren' Up Cards?
As always thanks for stopping by and take care :).
When you read the words "I picked this/these card(s) up online" you probably think of eBay, COMC or JustCommons. And until recently the first two sites were basically where my online pick-ups all originated from. Then last week happened and I picked up this on Amazon.
This is a Red Prizms parallel of Luis Torrens from 2013 Panini Prizm Perennial Draft Picks. It's numbered 82/100 and it's very shiny.
I'm still not sure how I found this. I guess I was bored and decided to see if Amazon had any of the Torrens cards I needed and by sheer luck I found this. Four dollars later (shipping fees included), this baby was mine. With this I've obtained two sixths of the Torrens 2013 PPPDP rainbow and three of the other four I need are on my radar (for now).
Moving on, I'd like to take this time to make an announcement. A while back I mentioned that I would be hosting another contest, unfortunately I'll have to cancel it. I will host a contest eventually, but it'll probably be sometime in early 2015. The reason for that is that I just don't have any decent prizes to give away right now, so I'll have to wait until I get some kick-ass cards worthy of being prizes.
As always thanks for stopping by and take care :).
Although I'm a little late on this, I just found out that one of my favorite albums of all time just celebrated it's 10th anniversary.
That album is,
Hot Fuss by The Killers.
I was going to write a long post about how great this album is but every draft ended up making me look like a wannabe music critic who just comes off as a pretentious snob so I'll just say this.
I like this album, and it's ten years old now. Here's to another ten.
As always thanks for stopping by and take care :).
