Parallel-Insanity

So with the release of 2014 Bowman Draft and Bowman's horrible decision to include Luis Torrens, I now have a new rainbow to chase. And boy is it fugly.

In 2014 Bowman Draft, Luis Torrens has the following...

Paper Rainbow:
Base
Red
Blue
Black
Asia-Exclusive Black
Green
Silver Ice
Red Ice
Purple Ice
White Ice
Orange Ice
Four different printing plates.

Chrome Rainbow:
Base
Refractor
Super-Jumbo Refractor (WTF?)
Blue
Black
Green
Blue Wave
Red Wave
Silver Wave
Black Wave
Gold
Orange
Purple
Red
Superfractor
Four different printing plates.

If my math is correct (and it usually isn't) then that's a total of 34 different colored cards I'd theoretically need to get from this one product. THIRTY-FOUR!

Now I'm one who's usually willing to forgive parallels because having parallels in moderation can be a good thing since it stimulates a good chase. But this is a bit too excessive for even me.
I mean, of the 34 different parallels I listed up there:
*Eleven of them are 1/1's.
Eight printing plates, a 1/1 Black paper parallel, the White Ice paper parallel and of course the superfractor.

*Seven of them are exclusive to certain types of boxes/continents.
The black paper, black refractors and white ice parallels are exclusive to hobby boxes.
The orange ice paper parallels are exclusive to the jumbo boxes.
The green paper parallels and "super-jumbo refractors" are exclusive to the super jumbo boxes.
The Asia-exclusive black paper parallels are only found in 2014 Bowman Draft Asia Edition.

*Two of them are pretty much the same
The black 1/1 paper parallel and the Asia-exlusive black paper parallel are pretty much the same except that one has 1/1 stamped on the back.

Now those three bulletpoints alone are scary. But here's the scariest part, it could've been worse. A LOT worse. Looking through just the Chrome parallels I can name at least six parallels Bowman could've included to drive collectors even more insane.

Actually no, that's not the scariest part. The scariest part is that all of these parallels are for recently drafted minor leaguers in the 2014 Bowman Draft set. Even though I'm a prospect head, I can't imagine anybody sane actually willing to invest so much time and money into players that have yet to reach the majors and whose value only comes from "potential." (Note, families and close friends of the card subjects do not count).

Now, I understand why Topps/Bowman does this. They need certain parallels to be exclusive to certain kinds of boxes so they can move more units. What's the point in buying a box that's three times more expensive if the contents are the same? They need a gimmick to help out sales on their new Super Jumbo boxes while also making sure hobby boxes and regular jumbo boxes keep selling. But knowing that doesn't help. In fact I dare say that it makes it worse.

Looking at that giant list again I'm suddenly reminded of Night Owl's post about the impossible Puig checklist. He mentioned how Yasiel Puig had 42 different cards in 2013 Topps Update. And yes that's quite a task but keep in mind that those 42 cards can be divided into four different entities, US46 (and its parallels), US250 (and its parallels & short print variations), US330 (and its parallels), and finally inserts (and one autograph). This time you've got 34 different variations for basically one card. And if you're going after a player with an autograph (the autographs have 34 parallels too) or an insert in this set (inserts have parallels too) or an insert autograph you're probably going need to track down nearly 100 different cards when it's all said and done.

Then I'm reminded of one more part of that Night Owl post. The very end where he reminisced on how there was a time when you could accumulate every card of a player with just one card. Now by the time I came into this hobby parallels were already engrained into the collecting world so I've never known a world where there weren't any parallels. In fact, what's pretty disappointing is that almost all of the players I chose to focus on have parallels.

*Luis Torrens - He has at least 34 parallels in this product alone
*Dellin Betaces - Just Rookies, Tri-Star & Upper Deck made a complete Betances collection impossible
*Hiroki Kuroda - His Hiroshima Carp era cards even have parallels!
*Jack Chesbro - Even Chesbro T206es have parallels (Piedmont backs, Sweet Caporal backs, etc...)

Okay at this point I'm just rambling about some minor #FirstWorldProblem that doesn't have an effect on the world in any way and I apologize for that. It's just that ever since I read that Night Owl post, there's been a small part of my brain going "man, it'd be nice to say I own every Luis/Dellin/Big Hirok/Cervelli card in this year's *insert product name here* with just one card." And these 34 new cards are basically Topps/Bowman's way of giving me the finger.

What's worse is that I'm sure they're not done here. Now that Torrens is on the map (in addition to the previous accolades he was recently picked as the ninth best prospect on Baseball Prospectus' top 10 Yankees prospects list) it's only a matter of time before he's inserted into products like Pro Debut and Heritage Minors, two products that also keep adding more parallels with every new edition.

So to all of you future player collectors out there, go for guys who aren't highly touted at all and yet managed to make it to the majors and stay there (like Shane Greene). Otherwise you'll have to track down 1000 of their pre-rookie cards and then 2000 more after they make it to the majors.
And to all you future team collectors out there. Just give up now and look for another hobby. It's better for your health (and wallet).

Anyway thanks for stopping by and tolerating my negativity (or not).
Take care everybody :).

Wob Balked!

A while back I said I was going to stop doing trade posts because I'm too lazy (also because I no longer trade with people, I just Zap people and they surprise me back), but today I received a package from Bob Walk The Plank that's so great that that rule can be broken. Now Bob Walk The Plank has sent me a lot of great cards in these past few months that I've integrated into other planned posts but this latest one just demands to be seen immediately.
I mean take a look at this!

THAT, my friends, is Luis Torrens' black On Fire die-cut auto from 2014 Leaf Valiant. Why's it so special? Well...

It might be a little hard to see but this fine specimen is numbered THREE OUT OF FIVE!
Matt knows that Zippy goes Zappy for Torrens, and boy am I Zappy for this card. It's the second Torrens I have that's numbered to five and they're both numbered 3/5.

Matt, I don't know what you had to do get this (was it the eBay auction that only went for under $10 shipped?) and I have no idea how I'm going to pay you back. Well okay I have a few ideas. Or at least I did until I saw the other cards Matt sent along.

Yep, BWTP included those four A-Rod relics with the Torrenator. And they're all from special sets. The Topps 60 & Gypsy Queen relics are from 2011, the year I came into this hobby.
The ASG relic is from 2005 Topps, the very first pack of cards I ever got was 2005 Topps (series 2).
The Turkey Relic, well, I don't have any special ties to 2005 TR but the original Turkey Red featured some greats who played for the Highlanders, so there's that!

Thanks a lot for the great cards Matt, they're wonderful!

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

Introducing The Torrenterion Collection

Recently I put up a new page on my blog that I like to call the Torrenterion Collection (aka my Luis Torrens Collection). I've gathered and posted all of my Luis Torrens PC pieces on the page. It's listed in chronological order from the Torrenators' first cards to his latest cards.
I would like to say, for the record, that even if you come across or come into possession of a Torrens card and you want to send it my way but already see it on that page, just send it to me anyway. I'll never say no to giving a good Torrenator a good home, my home.

Now onto some recent pickups.
As expected progress on my LUIIIIISSSSSSSSSSS 2013 Bowman Chrome rainbow stopped but I've slowly accumulated a few of his other cards in recent times.

Like this Gold Prismatic 1/1 auto from 2014 Leaf Metal Draft that I referred to as Omega Luis when the Wampa attacked.
As you can see it's Leaf's answer to the superfractor in the Bowman brand, right down to the way the card looks with those weird (yet cool) circle things that make the card shine. Literally.
Now even though this card is cool and all I do have two major problems with it. One is that it uses the same picture Panini used for the Torrenatrix's base card in 2013 Panini Perennial Prizm Draft. Second, this thing is called a "gold prismatic" refractor. See when I think of the word "prism" in the cardboard world I don't think of Leaf, I think of Panini. So the only conclusion I can draw from this is that Leaf is now trying to be the poor man's Panini, and that's not good (although it's very appropriate).

As you can see it is indeed a 1/1 and my third Torrens 1/1 in my collection.

Next is this die cut from 2013 Panini Elite Extra Edition. Torrens die cuts from EEE don't appear too often and the autographed versions are all redemptions that have yet to be "redeemed" (no way I'm wasting money on a code though, I'll wait until a live one pops up).

This one is Torrens' most recent non-licensed card. It's from the very ignored and very forgettable Leaf Valiant. Naturally there are like a billion different variations of Torrens alone that I don't have the time or money to chase. Ugh. Despite that I do like the way this card looks. You don't see too many die-cuts shaped like flames.

This particular one is the orange parallel of these On Fire die-cut autographs. I decided to go after this particular one out of both desperation and because orange is the best color to go with when it comes to flames. Although I hate how this is numbered to 50. Not because it's numbered, exactly, but because when I think of orange chrome-y parallels, I think of them being numbered to 25 thanks to Bowman.
So thanks a lot of Leaf, first you try to be the poor man's Panini and then you don't even try to be the poor man's Bowman. I expect you to make up for your blunders by living up to your company name and including marijuana leaves in your future products. I'll have the Zig Zags ready.

I picked up this green die-cut because it was cheap. Even though it's green it's not numbered and apparently the base version of this die-cut auto insert. See this is why I no longer bother to keep up with parallels and just go after them at random.

Pulled in the very last pack of my 2014 Bowman Draft hobby box. This card is just so cool. I was really worried that Bowman was going to use a pic of Torrens that they already used before but instead we get this really awesome shot of Torrens in catching gear in presumably the GCL (hence the fences).

So anyway thanks again for stopping by to witness me just showing off my latest LUIIIIISSSSSSSSSS cards :).
As always thanks for stopping by and take care :).

Revisiting Profiles: John Frill

Alright, it is time to revisit John Frill.
Just who was John Frill?
How did his professional baseball career go?
What kind of pitches did Frill throw?
What was his life like before baseball?
What was his life like after baseball?

These are the questions I dared to ask when I decided to look up Frill The Thrill.

Much like Lefty Davis, a lot of information about John Frill has been lost over time. But lets try and uncover as much as we possibly can.
John Edmond Frill was born on April 3rd, 1879 in Reading, PA. Frill was a left-handed pitcher who batted right. By 1906 he had become a professional baseball player as he played for the Springfield Ponies in 1906. In 1907 he spent some time in East Liverpool but spent the end of the season with the Newark Sailors. Frill spent the following two seasons in Newark and was allegedly a star pitcher for the Sailors/Clevelands (I say allegedly because I haven't been able to confirm whether or not BR Bullpen's claims are accurate). On August 6th, 1909 John Frill was sold to the New York Highlanders for $2,500 (adjusted for inflation that's aprox. $63,225.45 today).

He started the 1910 season with the Highlanders and made his MLB debut on April 16th, 1910 against the Boston Red Sox. John Frill out dueled Frank Arellanes and the Highlanders won 4-2. The victory was also the first Highlanders win of the 1910 season. During the 1910 season John Frill appeared in 10 games for the Highlanders and started five of them. He struck out 27 batters while only walking five batters and pitched to a 1.85 FIP (per Baseball Reference). There aren't too many reports about John Frill's outings or his time with the Highlanders but if his 60 ERA+ and -0.9 bWAR are any indication then it's no surprise that the Highlanders sold him to the Jersey City Skeeters on July 13th, 1910.

Frill spent the rest of the 1910 season and the 1911 season with the Skeeters. In 1912 he returned to the majors twice, first as a member of the St. Louis Browns where he started three games but only lasted 4.1 innings between all three outings combined. He and his 20.77 ERA were picked up off the waiver wire by the Cincinnati Reds on August 5th, 1912 where he fared a little better, but his stint with the Reds would be his final one as a major league baseball player. After his time with the Reds he spent the next three seasons playing for the Buffalo Bisons, Jersey City Skeeters (again), Toronto Maple Leafs (haha), Syracuse Stars and the Albany Senators. Overall Frill was a solid pitcher in the minors but was sort of a AAAA guy during his stints in the majors.
According to a few sources John Frill was drafted by the US government in 1917 and fought in World War I in 1917 and possibly parts of 1918. On September 28th, 1918, John Frill died due to influenza at the age of 39 in Westerly, Rhode Island.

And that was all I was able to come up with (again I'm NOT as diligent as Thom over at the fantastic site Baseball History Daily so who knows what I might've been able to uncover if I had gone the extra distance and looked up old newspaper archives). But for a handful of Google searches I think I managed to answer close to four of the six questions I had. Of course the two I didn't answer were about his personal life before his playing days (and I guess his post-baseball life wasn't exactly answered very well either) and what he threw but I wasn't really expecting to find much about that sort of information ranyway so I'll just appreciate what I could get.

Hopefully you all enjoyed this post (I sure enjoyed digging up old bits of baseball knowledge again).
And as always thanks for stopping by and take care :).

Sources:
*http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/f/frilljo01.shtml
*http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=frill-001joh
*https://baseballrevisited.wordpress.com/2014/02/14/baseball-and-the-saturday-evening-post-april-16-1910/
*http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/John_Frill
*http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=46057322
*https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K8W4-MS7

*http://www.legendaryauctions.com/1910_11_m116_sporting_life_john_frill___300_subjec-lot90868.aspx
*http://sports.ha.com/itm/baseball-collectibles/photos/1913-buffalo-bisons-imperial-cabinet-photograph-thrilling-international-league-artifact-pictures-the-members-of-the-club-t/a/709-19607.s#Photo

It's Been Swell

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.

Anyway, thanks for stopping by and take care :).

Cole World

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 :).

Weekend TTM Roundup 11/10-11/15

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 :).

2014 TTM Count: 228

Sources:
*http://yankees.lhblogs.com/2014/11/14/winter-league-notes-tyler-austin-resting-left-knee-injury/
*http://rollingthunder.mlblogs.com/2014/11/09/tyler-austin-carted-off-in-arizona-fall-league/
*http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/prospects/watch/y2014/#list=nyy

Heartbroken

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

Torren' Up Cards

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 :).

A Card From... Amazon?

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 :).

OT: 10th Anniversary

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 :).

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 :).

Weekend TTM Roundup: 9/22-9/27

Well this was yet another slow week for TTM returns, but luckily some managed to come back.

Received On: 9/26/2014

Like former Yankees farmhand Eric Wordekemper.
Wordekemper was drafted by the New York Yankees in the 46th round of the 2005 MLB Player Draft. He climbed through the system and managed to get as high as AAA until 2011. The righty was primarily a reliever during his professional career as he only made a few spot starts and was even the closer on a few minor league squads. He finished his professional baseball career with a pretty solid 2.73 ERA and a 1.267 WHIP. He is currently an undergraduate assistant coach at Creighton University (the same college Wordekemper attended before being drafted) and has his eyes set on returning to professional baseball very soon. I hope the former Staten Island Yankee makes a full recovery (apparently he had Tommy John not too long ago) and hope he finds himself in pro ball soon.

Received On: 9/27/2014

And my last return this week is my first return from an active major leaguer in quite a while.
Nate Eovaldi was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 11th round of the 2008 MLB Player Draft and slowly made his way up through the system as the team wanted to be careful with the righty who had just had Tommy John surgery in his junior year of high school. He quickly became one of the organization's top prospects and even made his MLB debut with the Dodgers in 2011. In 2012 he was traded to the Miami Marlins in exchange for Hanley Ramirez and Randy Choate after going 1-6 with a 4.15 ERA. He took a huge step forward in 2013 as he used his improved high-90's fastball to boost his strikeout rate and drop his walk rate. Going forward it looked like Eovaldi was going to give Jose Fernandez a run for his money as the best pitcher on the Marlins pitching staff. However here in 2014 things have not gone as smoothly for Eovaldi. At least if you just look at his mainstream numbers anyway (6-13 with 4.44 ERA), however his strikeout rate has not dramatically gotten worse than last year and he has recorded a career high 137 strike-outs (and counting) so far and his FIP is actually better than last year. So while this may seem like a down year for Eovaldi, I have high hopes for him (and the entire Marlins pitching staff in general) going into 2015.

So big thanks to Eric Wordekemper and Nate Eovaldi for keeping my weekly TTM run alive.

And thank you (the readers) for stopping by. As always, take care :).

2014 TTM Total: 208

Super (Lucky)

So I obtained one card.

SUPER!!!1!!

That's right, I bought the non-autographed version of Luis Torrens' superfractor from 2013 Bowman Chrome. Considering how I appear to have started a Torrens super collection I knew that if I let this card slip it would haunt me forever.

Back

Now shortly after I purchased this superfractor, I lit up and started having deep(-ish?) thoughts. Mainly how I've been so lucky/fortunate/blessed(?).
The fact that I'm in a financially stable position where I can spend money on baseball cards itself is something I need to be more grateful for. I mean right now the economy is pretty bad and lots and lots of people are struggling to provide food and shelter for their families, and then there are the third world countries where life is even worse. And yet here I am spending vast amounts of money on pictures of men like it's my birthright.
I should also probably express gratitude to my (now former) job for giving a lazy bum like me a considerable amount of hours and quite a lot of overtime money. Or at least just enough pay so that I can actually buy these pricey cards and trips to SI.

Now looking through the perspective of a collector, not only do I consider myself fortunate to have had the funds to obtain these cards, but the fact that I was able to come across both the super and red kind of blows my mind.
As of this post I currently have both the superfractor and a red refractor of Luis Torrens, both are considered to be the hardest pieces to obtain in any Chrome rainbow, and yet here they are in my collection. I've seen dozens of collectors have rainbows come to complete stops because they were never able to acquire these last two pieces.
Also, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that since Torrens was in 2013 Bowman Chrome and not Bowman or Bowman Draft, I don't have to go after any paper Bowman cards. YEAH!

BTW, this is the SECOND superfractor I've ever owned (and my NINTH 1/1 card overall). My first was a super of a Red Sock (of course), Ryan Pressly that I pulled myself in 2011 (I traded it away in 2012).

Now from the perspective of a fan I've also been blessed. I mean how many fans can claim to have met their favorite player in person? I know thousands of people consider Derek Jeter to be their favorite player, but I wonder what percentage of Jeter's fan base has actually had the opportunity to meet him in person, exchange fist pumps (or awkward handshakes) and have a conversation with him. I got to meet Luis quite a fair number of times in 2014 and although he's likely to forget all about me by 2015, I'll never forget how willing he was to put up with this insane fanboy.

Anyway apologies for making no sense and bantering throughout this whole post. I just wanted to express how grateful I am to be able to have such a great hobby and life(?). Although whether or not I expressed it properly is up to interpretation (I failed didn't I?). Also I really wanted to show off my new superfractor.

Now the only question (other than will I go for the rest of the rainbow, minus the plates, which is a definite YES) is, how the hell am I going to store this super?

Like this?

Now THIS is a glove box ;)

Ah screw it, I'll decide later.

As always thanks for stopping by and reading all of this Mary Jane-inspired text.
Take care ya'll :).

Y.O.L.O (Pt. II?)

I'm sure we all have at least one of these kinds of framed cards in our collection. A&G is a product that the vast majority of people on this blogosphere enjoys and the hits in it pretty much ALL come in frames and other products like Gypsy Queen and T206 also offer framed cards from time to time as well.

I've had two framed cards of Francisco Cervelli for a while now. An autograph from 2010 Topps 206 and a bat relic from 2011 A&G. I've had some trouble storing these because the frames are bulky and they stretch out the holders in my binder pages. And well... that's that type of thing I don't like.
So I decided to do this.

One could say I "destroyed" these cards (I certainly destroyed the resale value on these) but I say that I liberated these cards.
After seeing these minis entombed in those plastic chambers for so long, it's honestly quite refreshing to see them out.

I don't know about you but I like how my Cervy page is now set up. And yes I know that the relic mini is leaning.

So remember folks, don't be afraid to destroy your cards every once in a while.

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

My First Japan-Fractor!

Hiya guys, I've been picking up a bunch of cards recently but I wanted to blog about this one in particular before the others.

As collectors I'm sure we all know about how Topps, Bowman and the other companies have started going crazy with parallels. You've got parallel cards that are available in every color known to man, you've got exclusive parallels given out at conventions like the National, you've got parallels are distributed exclusively online, and now you've also got parallels that are only available in other countries.

BEHOLD!
This is what is commonly referred to as a "Japan-fractor." These refractors are exclusive to products that had special Asian versions released in Japan, Taiwan, China, South Korea, and various other parts of Asia.
These Japan-fractors were first introduced to the collecting world in 2012 when the Japanese Edition of Bowman Sterling hit the market.

Photo Courtesy of Tatami Imports, Toronto

These special refractors feature a unique design that somewhat resembles the patterns (for lack of a better word) on tatami mats (traditional Japanese flooring mats made out of straw).
These refractors are always low-numbered parallels. If memory recalls the non-auto'd refractors in Bowman Sterling (both 2012 and 2013 versions) were numbered to 25, the autographed versions were numbered to five, and in 2014 Bowman Platinum these non-auto Japan-fractors are numbered to 35 (as of this moment I'm not sure if there are autographed ones).

Its so pretty!

Anyway the Gary Sanchez Japan-fractor above is from the Asian Edition of 2014 Bowman Platinum. To my knowledge it is now the third time a product has featured Japan-fractors. And I'm 100% sure that it's the first Japan-fractor in my collection. Considering how I'm a Japanese guy who spent one third of his life (so far) in Japan, this is LONG overdue.

It's numbered to 35!

I picked it up on eBay for $4.20 (hehe, 420) and most of it went to shipping. Ironically enough the seller was actually based in the US but no matter, I have my first Japan-fractor (technically it's my second Japan-fractor but I traded the first one I had months ago) and I can sleep well at night knowing that this post will give some of you team/player collectors nightmares about cards that you had no idea had existed (and never wanted to know they existed) and have little-to-no chance of ever obtaining. Thus causing them haunt your want lists for the rest of your lives. You're welcome.

I can't stop looking at it!

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

One more time ;)

OT: Tick, Tick, BOOM!

As a human being, I enjoy listening to music.

I listen to a little bit of everything and find (or try to find) enjoyment in every genre (and sub-genre) that exists (even in languages I can't understand) but I do have my favorites.
One of the my favorite musical acts ever is the Swedish rock band The Hives.

I was first introduced to The Hive five back in 2007. They had just released their fourth album "The Black And White Album" and the lead single from that album Tick Tick Boom was really taking off after being used in movies, tv shows and commercials (no, I'm not ashamed to admit that I started liking a band after they got big). I loved how energetic the song was and how the band just came at you at full force.
Naturally I got interested in the rest of their music and thanks to the internet and some local mom and pop record stores I soon had their entire discography in my iPod.

The band consists of six members. Lead singer Howlin' Pelle Almqvist, guitarist Nicholaus Arson, guitarist Vigilante Carlstroem, bassist Dr. Matt Destruction, drummer Chris Dangerous and the mysterious Randy Fitzsimmons. Boy, and I thought the Americans gave their children weird names.
(Yes, I'm aware that those are all stage names the band members decided to give themselves).

Anyway, you're all probably wondering why I'm talking about a Swedish rock band that performs all their songs in English. Well I'll tell you why.

I picked up this card of Pelle Almqvist on eBay that's why. After reading Dime Box Nick's posts about cards that feature music acts I went out searching for some of my favorite recording artists who've been immortalized on cardboard. Now I suppose that this technically doesn't count since this is a playing card and you can find playing cards for lots of bands, but considering how The Hives don't have cards (playing ones or otherwise) I'll take what I can get.
Now one of the things on my bucket list is to see The Hives in person (their live performances are truly fantastic) and try to get Pelle's autograph on it.
And speaking of autographs...

I also picked up this signed booklet of the five-some's latest album Lex Hives (released in 2012). I only got the booklet but I already bought the CD on release day so I don't mind :).

This is the first time I ever went out of my way to collect anything other than CDs related to my favorite artists. Luckily I didn't suffer a huge financial hit this time but some of the other bands and artists I really like are going for a lot, so I'll probably wait until they fall into obscurity like the trillions of musical acts that came before them.

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