Followup Thoughts About Torrens The Padre

So following my initial post about Torrens going to San Diego, I really began thinking about the positives of Luis Torrens leaving via the Rule 5 Draft.

Yes it stinks that he's not a Yankees prospect at the moment, but...

In some ways it's worth it just to see Torrens on an official MLB roster.

No Torrens probably won't make it out of spring training with the Padres, yes he could still come back to the Yankees, and yes he could still be claimed by another time by being placed on waivers before having a chance to return to the Yankees.

But you know what. Seeing Torrens in a position where he's that close is something. And it's clear that the Padres are serious about seeing what they have in Torrens. I doubt that they went out of their way to send cash and Josh VanMeter (SOURCE) to the Reds just to lose him before next March. Although it's still unclear how high the Padres are on Torrens (at least right now), they might send something back to the Yankees to keep him long term. We at least know that Torrens is now worth a double-A infielder and cash. I've heard that the Padres may try and keep him on the roster like how the Diamondbacks kept Rule 5 pick Oscar Hernandez on the roster a few years ago, we'll see. It all depends on what happens when Torrens reports to San Diego's training camp.

So my last post about Torrens going to San Diego was primarily about my thoughts. Now I'd like to share what Torrens himself thought of his Rule 5 selection. Thanks to Twitter I managed to find one Marcos Grunfeld who interviewed Torrens. He's followed by Torrens' official Twitter and Torrens' father so he's legit.

Also heads up, I'm going to embed Tweets written in Spanish. My Spanish stinks so I've translated these Tweets into English using Google Translate. If any of you have better translations, I'd be happy to change them.

Luis Torrens, escogido hoy en draft de regla V: "Estaba entrenando y cuando llegué, veo muchos mensajes en mi teléfono y dije qué es esto"

— Marcos Grunfeld M. (@bvenezolano) December 8, 2016

Luis Torrens, picked today in draft rule V: "I was training and when I arrived, I see many messages on my phone and I said what this is."

Luis Torrens: "Me habían dicho que tenía chance de ser escogido pero no me lo esperaba porque he jugado poco".

— Marcos Grunfeld M. (@bvenezolano) December 8, 2016

Luis Torrens: "I was told that I had a chance to be chosen but I did not expect it because I played little."

Torrens: "Me han gustado los Yankees toda la vida pero desde que uno entra aquí, te dicen que esto es un negocio y uno quiere estar en MLB"

— Marcos Grunfeld M. (@bvenezolano) December 8, 2016

Torrens: "I've liked the Yankees all my life but since one comes in here, they tell you this is a business and you want to be in MLB."

Luis Torrens: "Si los Padres me eligieron sabiendo mi historial es porque me conocen y me quieren con ellos"

— Marcos Grunfeld M. (@bvenezolano) December 8, 2016

Luis Torrens: "If the Padres chose me knowing my history is because they know me and want me with them."

There were some more interesting tweets and there is a full interview somewhere but unfortunately I was unable to access the link.

Still, I'm glad I was able to get Torrens' perspective on this experience. I'm sure he's feeling a whirlwind of emotions now that he's on a faster track to the big leagues (you know, as opposed to in the Yankees org). Whether or not he's ready is debatable (he's not), but it's nice to see anyway. As you can see Torrens is really humble about being picked at all even though he's Torrens.

Based on this whole thing I can say three things without a doubt.

1). Torrens was coveted. You don't get picked second overall in any baseball draft for nothing. Even with the injury history, teams were in on his massive potential and high caliber talent.

2). Torrens' trade value at least has a floor now. Torrens was traded for cash and an infielder on the verge of making it to double-A. If the Padres want to start making a package to send to NYY to keep Torrens, that's where they can start. Where it goes is a mystery.

3). Former Yankee Cesar Vargas is on the San Diego Padres roster. And that makes me think even more positively about the Padres.

You know what, Torrens on the Padres isn't bad at all. I hope it continues.

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

El Padre

The Rule 5 Draft has come and gone. As the dust settles we are left with worry, fear, grief, or in some cases, hope.

With the 2nd pick in the 2016 Rule 5 Draft, the #Reds take catcher Luis Torrens, No. 17 on #Yankees Top 30: https://t.co/OtO7aH1DiZ pic.twitter.com/HJTKwHrnSt

— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) December 8, 2016

Yesterday, Luis Torrens was taken by the Cincinnati Reds second overall in the 2016 Rule 5 Draft.

Looks strongly like C Luis Torrens (Reds pick) is headed to SD.

— JJ Cooper (@jjcoop36) December 8, 2016

Torrens was then traded to the San Diego Padres shortly after being drafted for a player to be named later and cash.

First thing's first. Torrens is (for now) no longer a Yankee. He's currently in the care of the Padres. Honestly the Padres fit into the teams I don't like or dislike so the fact that he's on there is good in my books. Better than the Reds who suck in my opinion.

Second, Torrens was traded to the Padres, but the requirement for him to be on the 25-man roster (or MLB DL) throughout the entire 2017 season for the Padres to keep him remains. Either that or give up something to the Yankees to keep Torrens.

Third, it's because of that that I'm pretty confident he'll be back in pinstripes. Torrens is a 20 year old catcher who's yet to reach high-A. He won't stay on the 25 man roster no matter how much of an improvement he is over whoever the Padres have now. Is he the type of player worth giving up an asset for to keep? IDK, we'll see if the Padres think so in a few months.

And if Torrens doesn't come back. Well, just add this Rule 5 Draft to the long list of things where 2016 went wrong.

So what if Torrens doesn't come back? What am I going to do with my Torrens collection? Am I going to switch to being a Padres fan? Will I be able to keep my soul after turning into a Padres fan?

Well if Torrens doesn't come back, I'll wish him the best in San Diego. I won't be able to see him because the Padres affiliates are like a million miles away, but maybe just maybe I can squeeze his MLB debut into a trip out west (I've actually never been to California so...).

So how about turning into a Padres fan if Torrens stays in San Diego? Well it wouldn't be the worst thing. I know Padres fans complain about being mediocre all of the time and only having a mediocre farm system to show for it, but they now have Luis Torrens in their ranks and that's all I need. I honestly don't care for the big league Padres and just focusing on Torrens would be quite good. I don't think I can really care about the non-Torrens Padres.

As for my collection I have three options. This is all assuming Torrens is lost to the Padres forever.
One is to just keep collecting him, Padres and all.
Another is to just focus on his Yankees era stuff.
The third option is to just burn my entire collection.

The problem with the second one is that it's really easy to be all like "I'll only collect his Yankees-era cards" now, but then be really tempted when a really nice Padres card of his pops up. And since he'll be in Padres unis, the prices should be far cheaper. I'm going to stick with the first option and see where it goes from there. Right now, Torrens has still yet to have an official card since 2014.

So what about the post-Torrens Yankees? No really, what about them? At this point in time all of my favorite players are scattered about. The Yankees have been the team I've invested the most time and cardboard money into, will that end? Meh, they still have Thairo Estrada but not much else for me. I don't know, what are the odds the other international free agent guys like Nelson Gomez, Wilkerman Garcia and Dermis Garcia can change that in the upcoming years? Seeing how low of a priority even Estrada is for me, I doubt it.

In all, no I'm not a Padres fan. I'm not quite a Yankees fan. I'm a Luis Torrens (and various other players) fan. And this blog will continue to reflect that. So you can keep your Padres-era Dave Winfields and Yankees-era Dave Winfields, I am not interested in those.

I'd like to end this post on one final note. I awoke on Wednesday following the Rule 5 Draft to DMs and Tweets about Torrens being taken and my well being because of it lol (thanks to all who cared :)). But the real collector who needed help might've been The Lost Collector seeing as how his PC guy Ty Hensley was taken by the Tampa Bay Rays in the triple-A portion of the Rule 5 Draft. When it comes to the minor league portion, once a player is taken they're gone. Barring a trade, Hensley isn't coming back.

There were other Yankees prospects who were taken in the Rule 5 and the Yankees took two in the Rule 5 but at the moment I don't have to care because as far as team allegiances are concerned, I'm a free agent.

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

Spooky Visuals (Sorta)

Happy Halloween Folks!

I'm guessing that many of you are out doing halloween related activities with your offspring or off to some party with your significant other and/or close associates.

I hope that your evening festivities go well and that you all drink responsibly.

I'm going to be spending this Halloween like I always do, staying at home as myself (because nothing is scarier than not being white in western civilization).

For those of you who're like me and just staying home, here's a cool video (short film) I found very awesome. It's called "The Life and Death of a Pumpkin" made by Blame Society Films (the guys who make the Chad Vader, Beer & Board Games and Welcome To The Basement videos). It's pretty good.

Have a safe and happy halloween filled with fun, candy and women in scantily clad clothing.

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

Into The Sunset (BIG HIROK)

So I kind of already said farewell to BIG HIROK back in 2015 when he officially went back to Japan.  Or I thought I did. When I deleted my account on a picture hosting site I used to use it ruined a lot of posts to the point where I just deleted them. I think that happened to my goodbye Hirok post.

Regardless, this time I can do a proper one.

Now the last time goodbyes were sent to Hiroki Kuroda, it was less somber due to how he was still going to pitch as a professional, just in another country than the one I currently live in. No big deal, considering how I have deep ties to Japan, it's the land of my ancestors. I lived there for crying out loud.

But this time Hiroki Kuroda is hanging up his spikes for good.

Yes, after 20 years of bi-continental baseball, Big Hirok has announced his retirement from professional baseball after the end of this season. Which isn't much longer as the Japan Series (the NPB equivalent of the World Series) is about to start (by the time this post goes up it will probably have started).

Hiroki Kuroda had a 3.43 FIP (3.09 ERA) in 151.2 IP in Japan for his final season stats courtesy of ヌルデータ. Going 10-8 in the process as well (lack of run support continues for Hirok). He could totally continue pitching without any problems (even in the majors) if he wanted to, but he feels as though he can't reach the high standards he set for himself anymore (like not being able to throw complete games anymore).

I've already gone on record saying that I think Big Hirok is the most successful Japanese pitcher to ever come stateside, and I've seen nothing brought up to make me think otherwise.

Let's put it like this. Kuroda was here and being Big Hirok after Dice-K fell from grace (and the Igawa debacle too). Japanese pitchers didn't have the best reputation in the late 2000's because of failures/flame-outs like Dice-K, Igawa, Irabu and Nomo (the guy everybody mistakenly thinks is the best Japanese MLB pitcher ever). Kuroda stayed the same during his entire MLB tenure and gave his team lots of innings and few runs per outing. All accumulating to what were usually like 200+ IP, 3-4 ERA seasons. And he did this consistently. He never fell off.

I mean do you think teams would've been as willing to dish out massive deals for Yu Darvish or Masahiro Tanaka (or Shohei Ohtani) if Big Hirok hadn't been there to basically show that Japanese pitchers can be just as durable and good as the best of them? I really doubt it. Hirok kept Hirok'ing the competition and front offices took notice. The game of baseball owes Hirok a lot of debt.

Anyway this reminded me that I had a whole series dedicated to Hiroki Kuroda that ended after like two posts lol. About his legacy both here and in Japan. His role in Kershaw's development (and Kershaw's role in his adjustment to American ball), the loyalty he still has to this day about the very team that gave him a shot at pro ball, etc... He's got stories that need to be chronicled and told. Sadly the only guy wanting to undertake that task has a lousy work ethic.

Also this means that my low-key goal of getting a certified Hiroki Kuroda autograph made by a Japanese company (BBM, Epoch, etc...) is likely ruined because his prices will skyrocket. As if they aren't already SMH.

But if this means I can get more sets dedicated to Big Hirok, I'll take it.

Anyway thanks a ton for the memories and your immense (but likely forever under appreciated) role in baseball Hiroki Kuroda. Hopefully you and the Carp can win it all in the Japan Series and go out into the sunset with some hardware and lots of alcohol showers.

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

Hirok >>> Nomo

What I've Been Listening To... (Pt. 1?)

For a large portion of my life music was pretty significant to me. In school I was the guy who tried listening to a bunch of music and expanding my horizons (thank you Internet) and to this day I try to accomplish that even if I don't have enough time to venture out into the music world like I used to before.

I try and find at least one song I really like in every genre no matter how far removed it is from my usual playlist. Good music is good music.

I've mentioned that two of my favorite songs of all time are Somebody Told Me by The Killers and Instant Crush by Daft Punk. They still are, I just wanted to bring them up again because they're great. I've also showcased on this blog some of my other favorites like The Hives and J. Cole.

Today I thought I'd share some stuff I've been listening to recently. I'm somewhat curious to know what some of you think of these. Especially those of you who I have frequent conversations about music with (you know who you are!), I expect you people who fall into this category to listen to all of these and respond with feedback for each song ;).

When I said I try to expand my horizons, I meant it. To the point where I'm willing to go to foreign lands. Here's Italian superstar Franco Battiato. I assume most of you have heard of him at one point (especially if you're Italian), if not, well stop it and go listen to him, your biases against Sicily be damned.

I'm not too familiar with Georgia (the country) but this is a key song in a Georgian film titled Lullaby (called Lavnana in Georgian), in which a young girl is kidnapped from a wealthy family that helped two strangers whom they didn't know were thieves. She comes back years later but has no recollection of her original life or her heritage. But she does remember this lullaby from her mother. Yes, the movie is a tearjerker.

This is the Japanese band frederic and their song Oddloop. Which is a combination of the Japanese word odoru (dance) and the English word loop.

This is basically Japanese ska music. Very energetic, danceable, my girlfriend really liked it. She especially liked the emotionless girls dancing even though it's really evident that they must've cracked up laughing a ton of times during this video shoot. Contrary to what stereotypes will have you believe, the Japanese do have emotions, they're just subdued because we Japanese can communicate telepathically with each other.

Those of you in the indie rock scene have probably heard of Frightened Rabbit before. They're a rock band from Scotland and they make some pretty neat stuff. Although most of the time I have no idea what the plot (if there is one) of their songs are. This is a pretty chill song that contrasts nicely with a music video that has way too much going on in it.

Helsinki is in this bitch!
Finnish hip hop duo JVG are apparently pretty big in their home country (side note, you'd be surprised how widespread hip hop is in Finland). I have no idea what native Finnish people think of hip hop or this duo (the like to dislike ratio on this video is trying to tell me something!) but I thought this was pretty fun. I always say that mindless club songs are better enjoyed when you have no idea what the song is saying because it doesn't matter anyway. And foreign songs are the best way to make sure your brain doesn't interpret what's being said.

Presenting British indie rock band Catfish and the Bottlemen. A name that reminds me of Echo and the Bunnymen and a sound that reminds me of Kings of Leon. This song is pretty good, I enjoyed it. Apparently this is based on a conversation the lead singer Van McCann had with an ex-girlfriend about how she never got to know her mother who passed away too soon. And yet it's so upbeat.

Billy Murray man, if you try and go back to American pop music from the early 20th century expect to see a lot of him. He made a ton of music way back when and while he's gotten some flack over the years for, well, a lot of things I think it's rather charming. There's just something quaint about music that harkens back to when the Cubs had yet to win their first World Series, and before advanced microphones that practically made Frank Sinatra (and various other crooners') career(s).

Some hipsters from Brooklyn going through an existential crisis at the ripe old age of... twenty-something (these guys are barely 30 yet).

Singer-songwriter Cara Salimando is one of my favorite female performers in a genre I usually don't pay attention to for being boring.

I'll end with something really good. The most listened to song on my iPod (out of these songs) in the form of Lord Huron's Lonesome Dreams. For those of you who just scrolled down here without listening to the songs I posted I at least want people to listen to this. It's peaceful, relaxing, and a nice blend of country and folk, combing the best of both genres. It makes me want to hike up a mountain in the morning to see a beautiful sunrise.

And those were some music I've been into recently. Tune in next time for when I have another set of 10 tracks I want to share (and force Tony to listen to).

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

Fare Thee Well My Friend

The other day the cruel hand of fate took away something that had been with me for years.

My iPod Nano (6th Gen).

I purchased this Nano way back in 2010. In Japan at that. It's been through a lot with me.

This was the third iPod I had ever owned (my previous iPod Classic had died and an iPod Shuffle was one of the biggest mistakes I had ever made as a consumer).

It was with me for a big chunk (mostly later half) of my high school days. I still remember how there was this one time when I accidentally dropped it in a public bathroom after I had done a number 2 in it before school. Worst yet, I hadn't flushed yet. Having to reach in and take it out was an, interesting, experience. Despite that it was sturdy for a large number of years though.

Hundreds upon hundreds of songs have been in this iPod (albeit at different times). Maybe even thousands. Living in Japan (one of the few places on Earth that still uses CDs, even to this day) had it's benefits as it gave me a steady supply of ripped MP3 files for pretty low prices (I had access to a lot of mom-and-pop music stores in Japan) without me having to resort to being a thief.

This was the iPod that was in my pocket when I graduated from high school (I don't keep wallets or iPods or phones in my book bag unattended).

This was the iPod that went with me to Yokohama for my one year of college in Japan.

This was the iPod that came with me when I came back to the US in 2013. It stuck it out with me throughout my first two years of community college and it was also there when I entered my current four year college.

It provided me with hours upon hours of entertainment/music to entertain me during long boring conversations er, I mean train rides.

In fact, I had two songs on this iPod that had reached the 1,000 play count plateau. The Killers' Somebody Told Me (my favorite song EVER!) and Daft Punk's Instant Crush (my second favorite song ever, probably).

Now the only remnants of what was once my iPod is a white screen of death and a library of what was once inside when I connect it to iTunes.

I suppose I could take it to an Apple Store to see what can be done about it, but I'd assume the answer is zero. This is a six year old device, what are they going to do about it?

I guess I could see if anyone has ever successfully fixed this by themselves but I'm not too handy when it comes to electronics so... :P.

For now I'll keep it as is as a momento.

Now begins the search for a new iPod.  I went to a local Apple Store to ask about any iPods they had, the ones they had were around $150. Yikes. I know what I'm getting myself on X-Mas though.

But for me this brings up the question, how do people listen to music nowadays? My iPhone definitely can't serve as an iPod because all of the apps and the two pictures I took take up most of my phone's memory. And that's to say nothing of how the battery would be annihilated if I listened to music on this thing like I did with my iPod.

I understand that young people nowadays use streaming or something but screw that. I'm a 20-something who grew up in the 2000's, meaning I need a device that plays digitally compressed audio files at my command that I don't have to waste data on.

And no I am not getting a CD player, cassette player or record player. I am not lugging around machinery popularized during the last century.

Oh well. Thanks for lasting nearly a decade though iPod. You lasted three more years that I thought you would, that's for sure.

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

Getting Closer Now

Whenever a card I really need towards my collection pops up, I've found that I immediately pounce it.

Such was the case last week when this red autograph of Luis Torrens from 2014 Leaf Metal Draft popped up on eBay.

It's numbered 4 of 5 and was one of the last big/key cards I needed from this particular product.

For now I only need the base autograph (which I understand is a short print) and two printing plates to complete the whole entire master rainbow. Wish me luck everybody.

Torrens has had some good and bad moments since being called back up to Charleston. He's not hitting as much as he did in Staten Island (suffered a pretty bad slump in July actually) but he's still not without promise. After all, this year is just seeing if Torrens can stay healthy. Next year is when it'll be key to see how his development can take a step forward. Plus on a brighter note he did hit his first dinger of the year in Charleston.

In the meantime there was this cool little video on Torrens done by an intern at a local news group. If you've ever wondered what Torrens' voice sounds like and how far his English has come, here's your chance to find out.

And Torrens has also managed to make it onto MLB.com's top 10 catching prospects list at number 10. For the record, Torrens is also now the 17th best Yankees prospect according to MLB.com after all of the trades the Yankees made (I'll talk about those prospects another time). By this time next year the future Ted Williams/Johnny Bench hybrid will be the 17th best prospect in all of baseball no doubt.

Now I suppose that's where the story would usually end, but here's the thing. The seller actually threw in some nice bonus cards. I wanted to touch upon two of them.

And that was my latest Torrens pickup. Been a while since I picked one up actually. Hopefully I can track down the remaining three I need one day. As for now, I'm just glad I was actually able to leave the base version as the last remaining piece I needed for a rainbow.

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

A Strong Forceful Post

I'll admit that I don't exactly care for a lot of Topps' Star Wars offerings. Most of them are centered on the original trilogy, the prequel trilogy and the current ongoing trilogy. That's good and all but that's not exactly what I'm looking for.

But this. This is exactly what I'm looking for. Kanan Jarrus is one of the main characters in Star Wars Rebels (the animated cartoon that takes place between Episode 3 and Episode 4, roughly a decade after the events in Episode 3). He's tied for my favorite Star Wars character ever with Captain Rex. And obviously I just had to get his cards.

And yes I said cards, as in plural. These Kanans come from 2016 Topps Star Wars Evolution. In person these cards are pretty shiny. I understand that there are parallels (because of course there are) but I just picked up these base cards for fairly cheap.

Kanan even had a manu-relic. A commemorative flag patch. I'll be honest, I'm impressed and I like this card. I can like manu-relics when it's impossible to create legitimate relics in the first place.

Kanan even had this insert in the Lightsaber Evolution subset. It primarily describes how Kanan has kept himself hidden and how he keeps his lightsaber split into two pieces so he's not easily identified as a Jedi.

With this last Kanan insert I actually took advantage of a combined shipping deal and got some other cool Star Wars stuff.

Like this Attax card of my other favorite Star Wars character ever, Captain Rex. This is really cool because he doesn't have his helmet on. This is also an earlier version of Rex as the helmet he's got is his phase I helmet, and looks relatively clean (it becomes riddled with tally marks later).

For the record, Rex has two cards in Star Wars evolutions. A manu-relic numbered to 50 that is overpriced on eBay, and an autograph card signed by Rex's voice actor Bradley Dee Baker (who is one of the coolest mofos ever for the record). I'll obtain them eventually but for now, this Attax will do. I'm always game for Attax cards of cool clones.

Anyway those were my latest Star Wars pickups.

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

ICHIRO ICHIRO ICHIRO

3,000 HITS. 3,000 MAJOR LEAGUE HITS!

As always thanks for stopping by :).

#IchiroForever

10 For 10

I've really tried to limit my spending on baseball cards and baseball related things in generally in recent times. I've got bills to pay.

But for some things, I need to say YOLO (don't judge me) and get them. Right then and there. Although if I can be real for a second, I managed to get a slight discount thanks to the seller accepting my best offer.

That my friends is my latest Luis Torrens acquisition. A 1/1 at that.

But what the back doesn't tell you is that this plate was used to make the paper Luis Torrens cards in 2014 BDP&P. Want to know how I know?

If you look at the upper left hand corner the logo is just the normal Bowman brand logo and not the Bowman Chrome logo which has the word Chrome underneath the baseball with a B.

For comparison's sake here's the black printing plate used for the chrome Luis Torrens cards in 2014 BDP&P. See how this one is mirrored and uses a different Bowman logo? Also notice how I can actually (sort've) read the name Luis Torrens on the bottom?

Anyway, this is the 10th 1/1 Luis Torrens card to enter my collection (sorry DefGav, I'm limiting that count to official cards from card companies). Here's to at least 10 more in the near future.

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

Triple Rainbow!

Last month I blogged about attempting my first non-Luis Torrens rainbow of Thairo Estrada. I was able to acquire eight of the 10 non-printing plate refractors from 2014 Bowman Chrome Mini and only needed one more card.

A month (and then some) later, this finally arrived. The green refractor numbered to 15 that I needed to complete the plate-less rainbow.

I confirmed it with Gavin from Baseball Card Breakdown who built his own 2014 Bowman Chrome mini rainbow with Gavin Lavalley that the plate-less rainbow is just the following 10 cards.

All adding up to this...

Woof. Not bad for my first non-Luis Torrens rainbow eh?

As of this post Thairo Estrada has already been promoted to high-A Tampa and he's pretty much been the Ben Zobrist of the Tampa Yankees. The team keeps moving him about because of the infield log jam and it doesn't matter, he just hits and hits and hits. I've already pegged Thairo as the next Cano. And so far my comparison has yet to look absurd.

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

Balls x3...

So I went to my third baseball game of the season (second at home in Staten Island) yesterday.

It was the rubber game between last year's NYPL Championship teams, the Staten Island Yankees and the West Virginia Black Bears.

The starter for this game was Drew Finley, who I asked to inscribe my Bowman Chrome card. Maybe I should make this a thing?

Finley wasn't quite at his best but he did get the job done. Last time out Finley was part of a 10 inning no hitter. This time he went 5.2 innings pitched allowing five hits and two runs (both earned). Like the 10 inning no hitter, Josh Roeder came in to relieve Finley and threw the rest of 4.1 innings of the game.

I managed to get the Yankees' second rounder in this year's draft, Nick Solak.
All told Solak went 2-4 with a walk and came home in the bottom of the 10th on a wild pitch to win the game for the Yankees (ha! take that BWTP!). He also broke up the no-hitter that the Black Bears had through the first five innings.

Kane Sweeney's an intriguing prospect who has potential with the bat. But in this game's case Sweeney was mainly walking as he walked four times in five at bats. All in due time I suppose.

Now of course I got to see Luis Torrens again. Prior to this game Torrens had not been playing for a few games and according to Torrens' father he was resting his legs as his legs were a bit fatigued after not catching for over a year. But it was still nice to see him.

Bang! I got his autograph on a ball too. The first autograph I've gotten on a ball in like two years.
I prepared two pens and the first one died before Torrens got to write (hence why there are other blue lines on the left side), so my behind was saved by my second pen. This is the first time I had a player sign a game used (or practice used) ball and I love it. I also gave Torrens a program of the 2014 NYPL All Star Game (when he was an All Star) and a spare black paper parallel from 2014 Bowman Draft Asia Edition that I had.

By the time this post goes up the SI Yankees should be on a four game trip to Vermont and Hudson Valley. Torrens may or may not return to Staten Island after this trip. So it was really cool to see Torrens again and get as much stuff signed as I did (although I'm worried I pushed it).

Now those of you who read the title may notice that I alluded to there being three balls. Well, one was the Torrens above. The others?

Well one was this ordinary NYPL ball I found in the stands before the game. Ironically it was how I discovered the other ball that I asked Torrens to sign. Is this a sign that I need to use it to ask another player for his autograph? More likely, it's a sign that it's almost time for a random giveaway.

The other ball was this cool promotional giveaway ball. This was given out by the Staten Island Yankees to the first 2,500 guests in attendance to commemorate 15 years of Staten Island Yankees baseball at Richmond County Savings Bank Ballpark.

Pretty cool stuff. I'm not used to balls but it's a nice change of pace from cards every now and then.

This was another game where I left early due to personal reasons (i.e. a migraine that started to affect me). Plus I can't really stay during these 7 PM night games too long anyway considering my long commute back. It might've been the correct choice because the game went into extra innings (again).

Looking at the box score it was a solid result since the Yankees won in extra innings. Finley was reportedly not at his best but let's hope it's just a slight hiccup. Torrens should be back in the lineup relatively soon. Fingers crossed.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care of your balls (thank goodness nobody reads blogposts on Saturdays).

2016 IP Count: 15

Hark, A Card From 2002!

After spending a few years in the hobby and accumulating a certain number of cards, you start to notice a pattern.

If you go to card shows or card shops, or even engage in trades (blind or otherwise) with collectors, you notice that cards from a certain era are lacking.

Of course cards from the 1920's are nonexistent (really, chances are most collectors have a gap from their T206/T205 to their '33 Goudey) but that's to be expected. I'm referring to more to the 2000's. The pretty dark decade that brought the world countless horrible tragedies (basically your typical decade).

After the 80's and 90's when everything was overproduced, you'd expect for there to be more 2000's era cards right? Well so far that's not been the case. At least not for me.

You see I'm working on this small project where I'm trying to build the Yankees prospect team sets for all of the regular Bowman products (Bowman, Bowman Chrome and Bowman Draft) ever released. Finding these cards from the 2010's to today are easy and cheap. Finding these cards from the 2000's to 2010 is difficult and costly.

In general cards released in the 2000's are hard to come by. In all my three years in this hobby, I've acquired approximately five Bowman prospect base cards from the 2000's. That is absurd. Why is it that I've accumulated more T206es during that span of time?

Well part of it is likely because I actively went after T206es and didn't go after 2000's cards.

That said, why should I have to go after 2000's cards? People chuck 80's and 90's cards at each other because they can't get rid of the stuff, why are the 2000's so different? Why are they scarcer? Where are all of the 2000's cards? Especially the mid-2000's? Weren't there collectors in the 2000's? Did collectors chuck all of these in the river?

If the blogs focused on cards and the various stories I've heard about people and their time in this hobby are any indication, a lot of people who collect cards today weren't collecting in the 2000's. Whether it was because they had to focus on college, jobs or child-rearing, a lot of people who've come back to collecting today weren't collecting in the 2000's.

That might apply to vendors too. How else can you explain why my semi-local card show (that I've been going to for 3+ years) has a ton of junk wax cards from when porno-staches were all the rage, but almost none from the mid-2000's?

I suppose that if I wanted to I could go to places like COMC or eBay or Just Commons, but even then there comes that irksome feeling that I'm overpaying. I got a Brett Gardner 2005 Bowman base card for less than 50 cents a few years back. I refuse to pay more than that for flameouts who didn't pan out. And yes I'm aware that those inflated prices are due to scarcity.

I keep hearing rumors about how Bowman keeps pumping out more and more of their products in recent times due to some predetermined algorithm based on the number of the preorders they get. If that's true, it certainly explains why Bowman prospect cards from the 2010's to today are so plentiful and can be had for dirt cheap.

As such cards from previous eras might have smaller print runs. Not too small, but just small enough that these never show up.

Ugh, I'm probably over thinking this. Point is there aren't too many 2000's era cards I see too often and I want to change that.

A few days ago I got that Brandon Weeden 2002 Bowman Chrome autograph from eBay. It's now the oldest Bowman brand certified autograph I own and a key back in time to 2002.

Weeden was a two-sport player in high school but he became a pro baseball player first after being drafted in the second round by the Yankees in 2002. Weeden had the potential to be a pretty good reliever/closer but he was traded the following year for Kevin Brown (que Night Owl's disgust). Weeden gave pro baseball a shot for a few years but hung it up for good after the 2006 season. Weeden then went to Oklahoma State University and went back to football. Weeden was drafted by the Cleveland Browns with the 22nd overall pick in the first round of the 2012 NFL Draft, ten years after his MLB draft. Currently he's a quarterback for the Houston Texans. Not too bad of a career move I suppose.

Hopefully I can track down other cards from the flagship 2002 Bowman products. That year several notable prospects from the Yankees' past could be found on cardboard like Drew Henson, Nick Johnson, John-Ford Griffin and Shelley Duncan.

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

Getting P(-T)WNed (Part VI)

So I got a mailer from P-Town Tom the other day. That can only mean one thing. Goodies!

PTT and I get along quite well due to how we tend to focus on similar players and aspects of our favorite baseball organizations (prospects and young major leaguers). Of course PTT's Cubbies are homegrown AND on the rise so he has a reason to watch major league baseball again. Meanwhile I have to stow away in the minors hoping they push the veterans out of the clubhouse (sans A-Rod).

Anyway PTT's packages are always a delight. He's sent me Wampas, T205's, tons of LUIIIISSSSSSSSSSSes and now he's sent me something really special.

Like this Jorge Mateo card from 2015 Leaf Ultimate Draft.

It's my first certified Mateo autograph and this means I've finally completed the trifecta of IP, TTM and certified. And yes I said that the IP auto was a signature a friend of mine got for me and that it wouldn't count, but it counts now.

Woof, what a sight! The fact that all of these signatures are written in different colors makes it even better IMO.

Of course PTT's goodies didn't stop there.

But unfortunately the scans were lost to the sands of time. Though rest assured Tom, they were excellent.

And that was my package from PTT. He got me good. Luckily I've gathered a big enough pile of Cubbies to send his way. Expect a Zapping soon PTT :)! Thanks for the cards too.

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

Take care.

Three In A Row

So after my first and second purchases to kick start this year, I picked up one more baseball card on eBay.

It's nothing too fancy (it came in a PWE) but it is something I wasn't going to turn down.

The card itself is a 2007 Choice NY-Penn League Top Prospects card of Zach (Zachary) McAllister. McAllister was originally a third round draft pick by the Yankees back in 2006 but he was traded to the Clevelands in the Austin Kearns trade (*blech*). He's carved out a nice career for himself as a reliever although it looks like he and the Clevelands may part ways (Yankees reunion maybe?, the NYY always want bullpen arms).

Z-Mac was one of the two Staten Island Yankee representatives in the 2007 Choice NYPL Top Prospects set.

The other was Dellin Betances.

So after all these years (all two of them) these two are back together and reunited in my collection.

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

My First Baseball Card Purchase Of The Year...

...hasn't arrived yet so here's my second baseball card purchase of the year.

A week or so ago I finally snapped and decided to buy some things on eBay. And by "things" I'm of course referring to baseball cards. I know I said I'm on a six month no-baseball card goal but I never said that those six months had to be consecutive. I've got three months down, I can get the remaining three out of the eight months we still have in 2016 (there's only eight more months of 2016 BTW).

So yeah my first purchase isn't here yet, so instead here's my second one that arrived faster and is probably a lot more appropriate given what this blog is about.

See what I mean?

I finally tracked down one of the two remaining non-printing plate Luis Torrens parallels I needed from 2014 Bowman Draft. This particular specimen is the silver wave variety.

And it's numbered 18/25. The reason I've been after this for so long is because these are really overpriced for somer reason. Outside of a few stray auctions I missed out on these are only readily available as Buy It Nows for like $15 + shipping. Considering how I got the shimmer refractor (numbered to 15) for less I'm not paying that.

But then I found a pretty good lot deal on eBay where the crown jewel was the silver wave and it was accompanied by lots and lots of Torrenses. You want to know how many?

Excluding the silver wave there were 65 Luis Torrens inside the lot.

I was too lazy to scan them but there were five normal refractors.
There was one silver ice parallel.
There were 14 chrome base cards.
And finally there were 45 paper base cards.

In all I paid around $20 for this lot. If you exclude shipping it evens out to roughly $10 for the silver wave and $7 for everything else, which is decent I suppose. At the very least it doesn't hurt to have a giant stack of Torrens cards ready for if/when I ever see him again and want to just give him some cards.

Anyway with the silver wave now in my possession all I need is the superfractor and I'll have completed the 2014 Bowman Draft Top Prospects Chrome Luis Torrens rainbow (minus the plates).

For now the one printing plate I do have will have to fill the gap. Note that this excludes the paper cards.

Only one more chrome parallel to go...

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