Number 10 Of The 10th Best (For Now)

Sorry if that post title made you go "huh?" It needs to be taken into context to make any sense (even then it probably still won't).

As you all know Luis Torrens is my favorite player of all time. I'm sure you all have become familiar with his name because I keep bringing it up but outside of my blog he's started to make his presence known among various prospecting circles.

During the offseason when there's nothing else to write about, a bunch of top prospect rankings came out from various sources (some were good, some were bad and some were just lazy rewrites of other lists). Torrens didn't appear on too many lists this winter except for the top Yankees prospects lists. Don't worry, next year he'll be taking Buxton/Bryant's place as the best minor leaguer in all of baseball I'm sure.

On most of the Yankees prospects lists, Torrens could usually be found in the number 8-11 range.
His position largely depended on when that list was constructed. For the more recent/up to date lists Torrens has been pushed down one slot to account for Domingo German who was acquired from the Marlins in a trade.

Anyway I went to Barnes & Nobles the other day because A). it's right next to Target and B). I wanted to read the new Baseball America Prospect Handbook.
In the book he was ranked as the ninth best prospect in the Yankees org in 2014 BG (Before German) so I'm guessing he's since been bumped down to tenth best. BA also gave him a 55 grade and labeled him a high risk. Normally I'd throw a fit but then again every prospect is a risk. Yes, even Bryant.

I took a look through some other baseball related magazines/publications that had prospect lists.

Sporting Life ranked Torrens as the 10th best prospect in the Yankees org.
Athlon Sports ranked Torrens as the 9th best prospect in the Yankees org.
Baseball Prospectus just mentioned that he drew comparisons to Miguel Gonzalez, Brandon Snyder and Tomas Telis.

All four of the publications I've mentioned wrote the same bio for Luis. He spent some time in Charleston, really opened some eyes in Staten Island, is a wiz defensively despite originally being an infielder, and has good make up. That's basically been the 2014 offseason edition of the LUIIIIISSSSSSSSSSS story.

The point remains that Torrens has basically been the consensus 10th best prospect in the Yankees org all winter long. Now by this time next year I'm sure that the zero in that number will be dropped and he'll be recognized as a far more superior catcher player than Blake Swihart, Kyle Schwarber and Babe Ruth combined.

But for now that's a good starting point.

Especially since I just got this in the other day.
This is the green prismatic auto of Luis Torrens from 2014 Leaf Metal Draft.

As you can see it's numbered 10/10.
For once I actually have the parallel numbered to 10 out of the way for a rainbow I'm (kind of) working on.

As Torrens gains more and more of a following I've found that I've started to really have to wrestle with investors who just want to make a profit in the future. The good thing about that is that if Torrens unfortunately flops, I can find his cards all in a few select places and not scattered around everywhere. The bad thing is that if he pans out they're going to be very expensive. I fear that gone are the days when a Luis Torrens Bowman Chrome autograph could be had for single digits.

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

En Fuego

Last year I declared that I wasn't going to make trade posts anymore (twice actually). But this isn't as easy as one would think it is.

On one hand I don't have to spend time blogging about how I got some cards from person x, on the other hand a lot of people I send cards to take time out of their busy lives to blog about the stuff that I send them. On top of that, many customize their trade packages to suit my very weird tastes and collecting habits. Also, I might be a bit of a hypocrite seeing as how I still blog about trades made with international guys not named The Dutch Card Guy.

Now I'm grateful for any card package sent my way. The thought of somebody taking the time to put a bunch of cards into a bubble mailer and then have to deal with their local post office just to send me stuff is touching.
However, sometimes you get a package so mind-blowingly awesome that you can't help but think how much time, thought and money the other person put into that package. And for a guy like me who supposedly doesn't blog about trades, it's hard to go on and not acknowledge the other person's greatness.

Enter defgav from Baseball Card Breakdown. Although he was not involved in my Christmas wave of Zippy Zappings (nothing personal Gav, I just didn't have enough stuff to send you back in December), I accumulated enough cards for him in Japan and he was in my first Zippy Zapping wave here in 2015.

In return he sent me this purple On-Fire die cut auto from 2014 Leaf Valiant.

It's numbered 17/25 and leaves me two pieces away from a plate-less rainbow. The yellow numbered to 10 (WHY DOES IT ALWAYS HAVE TO BE THE YELLOW ONES NUMBERED TO 10?!) and the 1/1.

In addition to the purple LUIIIIISSSSSSSSSSS, he sent along a bunch of A-Rods I didn't have, some prospects and a bunch of retail parallels.

Alright, I can't budge on my no trade post rule, so here's another Torrenator I picked up recently to balance it out.
This is a orange ice parallel and its numbered 14 of 25. Now all I need is a regular silver ice and the 1/1 white ice and I'll have all five Torrenators ices.

Anyway thanks for stopping by and take care :).

Every Little Bit Counts I Guess

That shiny card you see there is a shimmer refractor from 2014 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects.
As the name of the parallel suggests, it shimmers and shines in a cool way.

I picked it up on eBay last month and so far it's been the only one I've seen hit the Bay so far. I guess it's a combination of how these parallels are exclusive to super jumbo boxes of 2014 Bowman Draft and because it's numbered to 15. IE, another gimmicky parallel designed to move an unnecessary product and piss off player collectors.

Still, the seller gave me a $3 discount and I guess every dollar I can save during my mad conquest for Torrenators is a plus. Especially since I'm conflicted on whether or not to keep going with this rainbow of LUIIIIISSSSSSSSSS. On one hand, these parallels don't seem to be popping up as much as Torrens' parallels in Bowman Chrome. On the other hand I need to save/divert funds to other cards Torrens might have in the future like Pro Debut or Heritage Minors or Platinum or Sterling. Such is the struggle/fear/anxiety for player collectors who chose to collect prospects right in the midst of the prospecting era I guess. I already have enough cards to chase, I don't need anymore. Which of course means that Torrens is going to be in all four (and more) isn't it?

Also, I appear to have let the 1/1 blank back slip by which is a bit of a bummer. Hopefully the Torrenatrix tears it up in the SAL this year so some people will start selling his rarer cards like this one.

Anyway thanks for stopping by and take care :).

Welcome To The Club

In 2014 everybody on this blogosphere was obsessed with the return of Stadium Club.

But that's not the club I'm here to talk about today.
While everybody was busy focusing on Stadium Club, I was secretly working on my own club. Two of them actually. The Luis Torrens fan club and the "People who have a T206 in their collection" club.

The latter was one that I only mentioned once (as a joke at that) but one that (I think) I was working on while on the sidelines.

Of course it all started last year when I finally picked up a T206 of my own and put myself in the club. The Hal Chase you see above (Note: The Hal Chase has been moved and so I replaced it with a scan of my beloved Chesbro).
The feeling of getting a card from a set so iconic and more importantly so old as the T206 set is quite something. And that something was powerful enough for me to keep scooping up more when the price was right and to give them away when I felt that somebody else should have the privilege of adding such a big piece of cardboard history to their collection.

And I did that three times in 2014. First with Night Owl Cards, then with The Lost Collector and near the end of the year with Waiting 'til Next Year.
I could be wrong but for the most part it looked like they didn't mind finally adding a card that's so frigging old to their respective collections.

And here in 2014 I've already introduced one more person to the club. As I gave my collecting buddy Mr. Anco in Japan a T206 for his Clevelands PC.
That's four people I've managed to introduce to the club so far. Unfortunately I came to the blogosphere too late to introduce guys like Nick or Fuji or Dan or Mark H. to the club, but despite that there will be a fifth person soon enough.

So yes, all of this was some half-assed and convoluted way to say that I've sent out another wave of Zippy Zappings, and one (maybe more?) of you guys will find your days-without-a-T206-in-my-collection streak finally broken. Enjoy the sleepless nights caused by anticipation and the disappointment when you realize it wasn't you.

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