Wee Willie & The Highlanders

That sounds like a great band name doesn't it?

So recently Bob Walk The Plank sent me what's most likely the last card I receive via trade in 2015.

BWTP sent me this 1/1 printing plate of the legendary lumberjack himself, Wee Willie Keeler.

I knew that something was coming my way because BWTP said he found something cool for me. I never thought it'd be something THIS cool though.

What's really cool about this is that the card says he's from the NEW YORK BASEBALL CLUB.
During Keeler's 19 year career he was a member of the NY Highlanders, NY Giants and BK Dodgers. I choose to believe that this is a Highlanders card because if it was a Dodgers card it would've said BROOKLYN BASEBALL CLUB. And the New York could also be the Giants but the Giants stink, so this is a Highlanders card by default. And I refuse to think otherwise. Any argument you bring up will be repelled by my "Keeler spent more time as a Highlander than with any other team" argument. So there.

So now that my inner 7 year old has confirmed that this is a Highlanders card. I thought this would be a good enough time to revisit my Highlanders collection.

This Keeler is the latest addition to that stagnant collection in months. I was hoping the first Keeler added to this collection would be of the tobacco card variety but my limited impulses called for other things.

A few months ago this was sent to me by Nick The Dimebox King. I've been meaning to give this a proper post but that's for a future Revisiting Profiles post I guess.

This is from the 1980 Nostalgic Enterprises set commemorating the 1903 NY Highlanders. And it's freaking awesome.

I believe Nick sent me all of the Nostalgic Enterprise cards I have (all two of them). Which is no surprise since he's probably the only guy who can find these.

And after that we have my Jack Chesbro PC. Unlike Keeler there's no mystery which team Chesbro's supposed to be on, because almost nobody remembers Chesbro as a Pirate or as a Red Sock. And that suits me just fine.

And now back to Willie Keeler. A guy who should be in monument park but isn't. Hard to say what 2016 has in store, but hopefully my Highlanders PC takes a few steps forward somehow.

Big thanks to BWTP for the plate, Nick for the Deering and AJ for the unscanned Chesbro (the felt thing was excluded because the Highlanders did not last until 1914).

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

Estradin' Up Cards

Like P-Town Tom I have what I'd consider my two most favorite prospects in my favorite team's organization.

Like PTT, both of my favorite prospects are liable to be traded away at any given moment. But unlike PTT I haven't had to say goodbye to either of them yet.

Obviously my number one guy is Luis Torrens. I've completed two rainbows of him. I've been in touch with his father. I named my freaking blog after him.

But there is another prospect I like that's not too far behind Torrens in my personal favorite rankings.

Hell yes, Thairo Estrada.

Like Torrens, Estrada is a Yankees prospect who has yet to celebrate his 20th birthday (Estrada & Torrens were both born in 1996) who also hails from Venezuela. And like Torrens he made a big impression on me and also gave me his batting gloves.

Unlike Torrens I don't really see myself going all gung-ho over Thairo Estrada's cards. At least not all of them. I have a superfractor that's been signed by him personally. Which, for the record, was the only card to make it onto my Prime 9, most important binder page. I don't really think I need to go after much else.

Although I do have to admit that he'd be a lot easier to super collect (he's only been in two mainstream sets so far).

The card above is a special card distributed solely at the 2015 NYPL All Star Game in Aberdeen this year (note the logo on the bottom right). The picture used is the same exact one used for Thairo's card in the 2015 SIY team set, but the different back (well it's sort of different) makes up for it.

Personally the way I'm not 100% into super collecting Thairo Estrada is why I like collecting him. As a guy who feels obligated to collect everything Torrens, I've felt burned out (or close to it) several times. Of course I'm not burned out because cool Torrens cards pop up only once every other month.

I like having a PC guy who I can just be like "no, I don't need to scoop up all of his cards and I'm okay with that." Although I probably will make a small effort to pick up Thairo Estrada's MiLB issued cards in the future since they're the coolest.

So in conclusion. In the event that Luis Torrens gets traded away (God forbid), I'll either end up switching allegiances to whatever team he goes to, or switch to Estradin' Up Cards. As of this moment they are both very likely.

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

Instead Of A Box... Pt. 2

So the other day a post of mine went up before it was even completed. It was supposed to be a "I got all four NYY prospect autographs from 2015 Bowman Draft for the price of a box along with some cool cards I had recently gotten in the mail" but before I got half of the four subjects I accidentally pressed the publish button. Which is pretty much why in that post I never explained exactly how much I had spent on the cards I obtained.

Well here's part two to tie up the loose ends.

Here's Kyle Holder.
Those of you who read my blog during the summer knows that I got to see him a lot in Staten Island. In a sentence I'd say that he showed both glimpses of brilliance and glimpses of mediocrity.

He's really good defensively and I can definitely recall him making some really flashy plays at shortstop. Offensively he struggled but I'd say that he was probably a little fatigued after a full season of college ball, and he appeared to have been struggled with some sort of injury later in the season. What he does in 2016 will be a lot more telling of his future than what he did in 2015 I'm sure.

And here's the Yankees' third rounder in 2015/fourth pick/fourth prospect autograph in 2015 Bowman Draft, Drew Finley.

Out of all of the players the Yankees drafted in 2015, Finley is the closest to being the high upside, some risk player who was drafted. He was one of the few high school selections the Yankees made and they managed to convince him to forgo his commitment to USC. Armed with a low-90's fastball, a change up and curveball, the son of Steve Finley looks like he could be a quality arm for the Yankees.

Finley was the lone NYY autograph subject I didn't see in SI in 2015 and I was compensated for it by being able to acquire two of his autos for the price of one lol.

And with that here are the four NYY prospects in 2015 Bowman Draft.

YOUR NEW CORE FOUR!

All four autographs cost me roughly $55. Which isn't bad considering I got them out of desperation right as as the product came out. Truth be told however, I wouldn't be surprised to see some people get all four for less than half of that next year (patience is a virtue).

Now a jumbo box is around $130, so using the rest of the budget I had tucked away for one I bought a hobby box. As most of you already know, Rex is due to go on one more adventure. Only this time there's no pressure as the four BIG cards have been obtained.

What will Rex find? Who knows. Hopefully we can land something good like a Jeff Hendrix base card (i.e. the last really important card from 2015 Bowman Draft I need).

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

Weekend TTM Roundup: 12/21-12/26

Received On: 12/26/2015

The only return I've gotten these past two weeks came courtesy of none other than THE Aaron Judge.

Judge was drafted by the New York Yankees in 2013 as one of the compensation picks between the first and second round.
Since then he's ascended as one of New York's top prospects and a guy who has quite a fair number of people excited.

I've spoken about Judge in the past and for the most part nothing has changed. He is NOT going to be Giancarlo Stanton. His ceiling is an everyday right fielder who can hit 20-ish home runs. That's not Stanton (who hit 3 home runs in only 12 at-bats against the Blue Jays in 2015), but that's incredibly good compared to what the Yankees have produced in recent memory. And that's pretty much going to be a perfectly suitable replacement for Carlos Beltran.

Judge's 2015 didn't exactly end on a high note as he struggled after a promotion to triple-A but there is still plenty of time and potential for him to be in the big leagues as early as next September.

Anyway big thanks to Mr. Aaron Judge for what could potentially be my last TTM return of 2015.

And as always thanks to you (the readers) for stopping by :).

Take care.

2015 TTM Count: 239

Go, Go, Go!

So something pretty odd happened. I completed a rainbow.

Yep, I completed another Luis Torrens rainbow just in time to say that I completed TWO rainbows in one year.

It's really interesting (to me) how this all came together. Prior to this month I had four of the seven colors of the rainbow (the 1/1 on the left, the red, the refractor and the base). But then I was browsing eBay when I noticed that the VERY elusive green prism refractor had popped up.

For those of you who don't know the green refractors were retail only parallels. Making them quite difficult to find due to how they weren't easy pulls to begin with in addition to how it's unclear how many people actually bought the retail version of 2013 Prizm Draft.

Anyway I managed to win the auction for the green prism refractor. At the same time I noticed that the very rare gold refractor was also up on eBay, this time as a Buy It Now listing.

#'d 08/10

The price was fairly reasonable so I pounced on it. Now I had three of the BIG pieces (the 1/1, the /10 gold and retail refractors) out of the way, there was only one more parallel keeping me from completing the rainbow.

#'d 01/75

The blue refractor which had happened to be available on COMC for a reduced price. Naturally I swooped in and bought it (along with a few other cards). Earlier today it finally arrived.

And here I sit. Looking upon the SECOND Luis Torrens rainbow I've completed. And this time this is really complete as 2013 Panini Prizm Draft didn't release printing plates. It begins and ends with these seven cards. #Blessed

I'm still quite surprised that this managed to come together. On the same day (technically) no less. But then again, I live in the 21st century with the internet.

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