Roughly 24 Hours Later

I got some new cards to get signed, so I took a trip to Staten Island yesterday.

Yesterday was a matchup between the Staten Island Yankees and Vermont Lake Monsters (Oakland A's affiliate). Boy was it hot (though according to the forecast today's going to be even worse, yay).

Autographs

Yesterday I got four autographs. Before we start, let me just explain what the title of this post means as it ties into my autographs. A few of the guys in the recently released 2019 Charleston Riverdogs teamset were in Staten Island. I ordered them on Monday. They got to me on Thursday. Roughly 24 later, they were all signed. Woof.

Starting us off is Mitchell Robinson.
Robinson was drafted by the New York Knicks in the second round of the 2018 NBA Player Draft...
wait, that's not right.
Robinson was drafted by the New York Yankees in the 21st round of the 2018 MLB Player Draft. Robinson is a Canadian third baseman who was drafted out of the University of British Columbia (in Canada). Prior to the draft he was given reps at 1st and catcher, but since turning pro he's been used pretty much exclusively at third. According to PinstripedProspects he grew up a Blue Jays fan who considers Vernon Wells and Brett Lawrie to be two of the players he looks up to.

Next up is the versatile right-handed pitcher, Anderson Muñoz.
Muñoz is a Venezuelan pitcher who's been used both as a starter and as a reliever this season (often depending on how the rest of the pitching staffs look). Muñoz was originally signed by the Minnesota Twins as a non-drafted international free agent, but he was released in early 2018. The Yankees then scooped him up. According to PinstripedProspects he has to the potential to be another Jonathan Loaisiga type (another guy another team gave up on pretty quickly) thanks to his fastball, curveball and changeup.

Next up is one of my personal favorites on this year's squad, Aaron McGarity.
McGarity was drafted by the New York Yankees in the 15th round of the 2017 MLB Player Draft. Robert Pimpsner of PinstripedProspects had him pegged as one of the five under-the-radar type prospects that stood out in minor league spring training. Mainly because McGarity's curveballs can be really nasty. Personally I like him because he's one of the cool members of this year's bullpen (they're all really cool TBH), and though him repeating SI worries me, I just hope he can really take off using 2019 as a spring board.

Finally we'll end on a guy who even I had barely heard of before he got assigned to Staten Island (I'm a terrible prospector). Much to my detriment because Pasteur's a more interesting prospect than that first sentence gives him credit for.
Isaiah Pasteur was drafted by the Yankees in the 13th round of the 2018 MLB Player Draft. Pasteur is an outfielder who was more of an infielder prior to turning pro. Drafted out of George Washington University, Pasteur is a solid hitter with slightly above average speed. He was also noted for his defense (hopefully that translates to the OF too), and Mike Axisa of River Ave Blues (RIP) noted that he was one of the most intriguing college senior position players in the 2018 draft class. Although Everson Pereira's injury has kept him in Staten Island, he's prime promotion material back to Charleston if there's another OF shakeup in the middle levels.

And that wraps up the autographs. I honestly liked this four-man haul because A). it was enough for me to get all four in one game, and B). I wanted to know more about these guys in particular and this gave me a great excuse to delve into that while also getting to introduce all of you to these guys too.

The Game

Alright so the game itself... whoo boy.
Okay so the biggest positive is that I got to see another major leaguer in the flesh.

This time it was former Colorado Rockies pitcher/current Yankees org pitcher, Rex Brothers.
Brothers was signed as a free agent by the Yankees and has been used as relief depth stashed away at triple-A Scranton should the Yankees ever need him (and given how shitty Holder/Cessa looked that didn't seem like a stretch). Unfortunately Brothers suffered a bit of an injury and he was starting his rehab back to Scranton last night. He pitched one inning (the first inning actually) and only needed 14 pitches (eight of which were strikes).
And no, I didn't have any cards of his (I think I sent out everything I had as a TTM request in Spring Training), so I didn't even try with an autograph.

The Yankees deploying the Opener strategy seemed to work before it very well didn't. After Brothers, Wellington Diaz came in. His first time through the order was just fine. He allowed some contact but for the most part he was okay. Then his second time through the Lake Monsters came and he ended up getting chased out of the game after letting up five runs in the fifth inning. I like Diaz so I hope yesterday was just an anomaly. Doesn't help that the humidity made RCBB surprisingly dinger happy for once.

All in all the Yankees lost to the Lake Monsters by a final of 8-5 (BOX SCORE). Sucks, hope they win tomorrow.

And that was the latest game I went to. I'm still surprised getting the four done was that easy. Woof.

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

2019 IP Auto Count: 25