Monday, October 28, 2019

IGORRRRRRR

I don't devote entire posts to certain TTM returns even though I probably should since they've slowed to a trickle in recent times. But ever since I switched to a weekly monthly format, these TTM posts focused on one particular return have since turned into a brand called, "holy fuck is this special". 


And boy is today's return special indeed.
Igor Olegovich Shestyorkin (or sometimes spelt Shesterkin) is a goaltender from Russia. He is also one of the Rangers' top prospects at this very moment.

 Shestyorkin was drafted by the New York Rangers in the fourth round of the 2014 NHL Player Draft. He then spent the next five seasons playing in the Russian KHL as a member of the SKA St. Petersburg. During which he went from a very promising goaltender to a brick fucking wall for one of the most dominant teams in the KHL.

 In Goal Magazine's Greg Balloch described Shestyorkin's approach as mature and as a safe bet to transition well to the North American game (at least in context when stacked up against Islanders prospect Ilya Sorokin). The whole piece is great because it breaks down Shestyorkin (and Sorokin)'s game down to a very thorough and easy to understand level. Such as how Shestyorkin ties to go as low as he can and cover as much of the net as he can with his pads. Among other keen observations from someone who writes for a website that focuses on the craft we call goaltending.

 For a while it wasn't clear when Shestyorkin was going to arrive in North America but then again the Rangers have King Henrik Lundqvist so it wasn't going to matter. It does matter now because exactly how much long Lundqvist stays around is a question mark. Whether or not Shestyorkin is his successor is the big question on everyone's mind.


Whether in the AHL or KHL, Shestyorkin has done nothing to really show that he's not a promising goalie in the making. This season he's playing in Hartford and getting adjusted to the North American version of hockey. The early reports on his performance in Hartford are very positive. Hartford overall is a lot more structured and better this season, but Shestyorkin's performance is a big boost no doubt.


 How will Shestyorkin affect the goaltending picture come the 2020-21 season? That's anybody's guess. It depends on three independent variables. What Lundqvist wants to do, how Alexandar Georgiev fares with more time and looks, and how Shestyorkin and press the issue going forward. Too many interesting goaltenders, this is a great problem to have.


 One last note on the letter itself. Please know that I took the time to write the request letter in Russian. Why? Honestly I've long thought that I should put in more effort myself in my letters. And what better way than by writing it in the players' native tongue. Next year I'm going to do it with Spanish. Fingers crossed that that's what helps me get some notoriously tough signer somehow lol.

 Anyway that was my latest special TTM as Shestyorkin joins a tier occupied by the likes of another fellow (then) top Rangers prospect Filip Chytil, an NPB hall of famer in Shigeru Sugishita, and a future basketball hall of famer in Vince Carter.


Best of luck to Igor going forward. I like Georgiev just fine and Hank's a legend, but I like Igor a little bit more now.

 As always for stopping by and take care :).

 Sources:
*http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=173069
*https://www.blueshirtbanter.com/2019/3/1/18229921/igor-shestyorkin-henrik-lundqvist-benoit-allaire-new-york-rangers-prospects
*https://ingoalmag.com/features/sorokin-vs-shestyorkin-style-comparison/
*https://twitter.com/aj_ranger
*https://twitter.com/AdamZHerman
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Friday, October 25, 2019

A Game That Came With A Job Fair

This past Tuesday (three days ago), I went to go see a New York Rangers game at Madison Square Garden for the first time since 2014.

The thing is that Madison Square Garden was hosting a career fair where various sports entities were participating. Even though my background isn't in sales, business management, marketing, sports communication or sports management, I figure I'd go for A). the sake of it, B). see if there is something in sports that lines up with my field, and C). because attending the job fair (and paying the fee) came with a New York Rangers ticket.

Alright so my background is in accounting. With my key interest being tax accounting (no, I will not file your taxes for you, yet). I suspected that none of the entities at the fair would have exactly what I was looking for, or really anything remotely close to it, and I was pretty much correct. By the halfway point I was more curious about if individual sports teams (or rather the ownership groups that own said teams) do their accounting work internally or outsource them to whatever Big Four accounting firm the ownership group has do their audits/tax prep. Most people didn't know because they're in different department. And it was pretty clear to both them and I that I wasn't exactly what they were looking for since I'm not in sales or marketing or that type of finance.

So in the end I basically bought a Rangers ticket that came with a job fair where I could at least practice the act people call "rubbing elbows" in preparation for future events that might actually have something. Alright, sure that's the spin.


Now onto the Rangers game.

The Rangers were hosting the Arizona Coyotes, who are off to a mixed start though I won't count them out as a wild card contender since, well, Edmonton is still in first place in that division. You expect me to think that that's going to last?

Regarding the Coyotes the only real interesting things to me going into the game were seeing Derek Stepan and Michael Grabner return to New York, as well as seeing if Clayton Keller is really as subtly terrible as advanced hockey metrics say he is.

Spoilers... all three were fairly unnoticeable.

Now regarding the Rangers I had a ton of things to look for.


The biggest being the defense, the Rangers' greatest weakness. They allow a lot of shots, their coverage reportedly isn't too great, and it results in even all time greats like King Henrik letting up a few goals because when he's forced to block like 40+ shots in a single game, the law of averages unleashes its wrath.


The defense and goaltender Alexandar Georgiev managed to limit the damage in terms of actual points for most of the game, but those who're more hockey-minded (like Shayna Goldman of The Athletic above) know that it was pretty ugly. Even a moron like me can tell you that the Rangers defense allowing seven times as many shots as the Coyotes defense did in the first period alone is not great.

Georgiev allowed three goals across three periods and OT, but looked very competent. At least to my untrained eye. I'm sure there are more nuanced ways to approach his performance but as far as I can tell he's not really the problem. Benoit Allaire (the Rangers' goaltending coach) does wonders with goaltenders and Georgiev is no exception. He's a capable NHL level backup goaltender. That's all you could ask for.


Mike Zibanejad and Artemiy Panarin are a lot of fun to watch. I almost feel bad leaving out the Breadman in my dumb Rangers post, Panarin is legit. I also got the added benefit of watching Jesper Fast (a super utility guy) and Kaapo Kakko (the second overall pick in the 2019 NHL player draft). Both looked good, though I kinda wish their roles had been reversed in this game, but whatever.

Zibanejad and Panarin (and Fast) made up the first line. With Kakko and Kreider and Pavel Buchnevich behind them along with the rest of the squad. That's fine but it made me wonder what was going come out of the other lines. As it turns out not a whole lot. Even though the season is barely a month old, I'm starting to wonder if Filip Chytil really will have to stay in Hartford until Breandan Lemieux and Ryan Strome and Chris Kreider get traded.


On a non-game related note, I remembered how at my last Rangers game the people next to me spent the whole night yammering about football (the New York Jets specifically), the Yankees and the Mets. I might be a baseball fan but the last thing I needed were a bunch of middle age dudes talking about Ryan Quigley and Derek Jeter. Fortune favored me this time because the people next to me this time were a family from France or Québec since they spoke French (though the children spoke English, and by that I mean they had British accents even though the parents had French accents). The parents spoke French the entire time while the kids spoke English and they all seemed to be enjoying themselves greatly. Wonderful. I'd much rather have a family talking in a language I can't understand about stuff that's not my business next to me (though every other word was "Rangers") than some schlub in his 30's crying about how Geno Smith ruined his fantasy team.

All in all my first Rangers game in five years was an enjoyable one. Say what you will about hockey but the constant action pretty much means that it's never boring. I never left my seat once and when I did it took me forever to finish pissing in the bathroom. It was also pretty sweet to get to watch the young Rangers I only know as the really young prospects/rookies that are going to be the core of the team (ideally) moving forward. Kaapo Kakko, Libor Hajek, Brett Howden, Jacob Fox, and Lias Andersson specifically. Although the five of them didn't get as much playing time as I would've liked. Would've loved to have watched Chytil too, but that'll have to be another day.


Oh and the Rangers lost 2 to 3 to the Coyotes in overtime. Sucks.

And no autographs because I was tired, and because MSG isn't that type of environment. I did get a program though.

So there we go, a job fair and a Rangers game. At least the game was fun.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care :).
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Friday, October 18, 2019

Torrens' 2019 Season In Review

Another year, another recap of the season that was for Luis Torrens.


The past few seasons have provided me interesting ways of tackling how to recap Torrens' season. 2017 was interesting since Torrens made his MLB debut and was liable to return to the New York Yankees at any given moment if/when the San Diego Padres needed an open roster spot, it didn't happen obviously but waiting the whole season to see if it would made it easier to track his movement. 2018 was interesting in that it'd be a true test for me to see if I could really keep up with any progress my favorite player was able to make. I don't live on the west coast, I only know 1.5 Padres fans and I know of about three Padres writers (and none of their beat writers on their MiLB affiliates), making it tough to keep up. For the most part I was able to get by on small anecdotes made every once in a while rather than day-to-day updates about how Torrens' development was coming along.

For this year's wrap up we're going to go on a month-by-month basis for anything noteworthy or significant. This blogpost was initially started in late-February, so it's really a trip back through the season that was.

January/February

Before the 2019 season even began hopes were modest and yet very reasonably high for the former Yankees backstop prospect. 2018 showed very clearly that Torrens could produce reasonably well when given consistent playing time. 2019 would (hopefully) be very much more of the same.

Torrens' 2019 began during the midst of a very successful season with his hometown Navegantes del Magallanes in the Venezuelan Winter League. For some reason his January stats aren't available but he was a big part of the team's success. Interestingly enough he wasn't just a catcher but also DH'd and saw some time at first base too. His bat is that valuable folks.


Woof.

As the Winter League neared its end, Torrens reported to the states a bit early. He stopped by Florida for a bit, played paintball with some of the Yankees' newest and brightest prospects, then later reported to Arizona for Padres Spring Training to work out and eat Chipotle.

Per Antonio Cabello's Instagram

January/February is also prospect ranking season. Obviously Torrens wasn't exactly a prospect anymore due to the weird 2017 season, but he was definitely still a valuable age-25-and-under asset to the Padres. Remember that those guys matter too.

The KLaw has spoken

During the winter there were some whispers of Torrens uttered by baseball people for the first time since 2016, and this blurb from Keith Law's chat in February reinforced what I'd heard was everybody's takeaway in late-2018, that Torrens was on the right track again. "(A)t least a quality backup" is pretty amazing, especially coming from KLaw.

Regardless as Spring Training started up, excitement was in the air, not just for the return of baseball. But for the return of Torrens.

"LOST CONNECTION Trying to reconnect" is very apt here

Thus I began looking at Padres ST looking for any signs of life/progress from Torrens. Only to be blindsided with reports about people I didn't care about named "Tatis", "Hoffman", "Paddack" and "Machado".

Torrens to New York? (January/February)

This is a little subsection I'm adding for each month where any rumblings about a potential Torrens and Yankees reunion popped up. Even if it's just speculation by bored fans (ie me).

The aforementioned paintball session with a ton of the Yankees' current prospects was a fun one. The day Torrens followed almost all of those guys on Instagram had my corner of Yankees Twitter excited for like two minutes lol. But overall there wasn't a whole lot of Torrens-Yankees connections outside of unconfirmed rumors that he might be a piece the Yankees get from the Padres in a Sonny Gray trade (Gray ended up going to the Cincinnati Reds and the Yankees ended up with Josh Stowers after the Seattle Mariners got involved).

Other than that there was just my pipe-dream that Torrens develops enough in 2019 that the Yankees trade for him to be their backup catcher in 2020 after they let Austin Romine leave as a free agent.

March

Torrens appeared in a few games in Padres spring training. Unfortunately he didn't really show much in the limited time he had to play. For the most part all of the catching reps went to guys like Francisco Mejía (the Padres' catcher of the future) and Austin Hedges (tradebait). Especially Mejía.



On March 17th, Torrens was finally optioned to minor league camp. It was inevitable that he'd be assigned to minor league camp at one point given how he was healthy and due to go to double-A to start the year anyway.

By late March it was pretty much a given that Torrens would start the season in double-A as Austin Allen and Chris Stewart took care of catching duties in triple-A. As much as I want to say that Stewart blocked Torrens, the more accurate way to describe it would be to say that the Padres wanted Allen (and Stewart) on standby just in case anything happened to Hedges/Mejía.

Torrens to New York? (March)

Nada in March. So it goes. Though for whatever it's worth, between the Padres and Yankees the two orgs had at least three catchers named Austin (Romine, Hedges and Allen).

April

The Sod Poodles' roster was finally announced on April 1st and their season began on April 4th. Madfrairs had a rundown of the Sod Poodles roster and gave a pretty positive writeup/preview of Torrens coming to the season.

From madfrairs

It confirmed that he indeed did improve defensively, as well as offensively.
Speaking of offense, Torrens' first hit of 2019 was a two-run double on April 5th. After that the hits would be scattered, but there when he played usually. For some reason Torrens was off for nearly a week in the middle of April. It doesn't appear as though the time off was injury related, rather the team wanted to play the hot hand in Webster Rivas (source: Austin Hartsfield who covers the Sod Poodle for the East Village Times). Though when Torrens did get playing time he usually delivered. Such as when he hit a two-run single on April 18th, or when he went 2-for-2 with a double and two walks on April 20th. Also he hit his first dinger of the season April 22nd.

Luis then went on a tear in late April, hitting another dinger on April 23rd then went on a streak where he made it safely to first for the rest of the games he appeared in in April (the 26th and 28th).

Torrens to New York? (April)

Tweet

Nothing major to report here, BUT when Torrens hit his first dinger the Sod Poodles official Twitter account (blue checkmark pending, at the time), tweeted "SEE YA!". A well-known Michael Kay phrase. No that's not much of anything, but I wanted to make something of it because I was bored that night.

May

Luis opened May where he ended April, with a big game where he went 2-for-4 with a dinger. By May 1st he had three home runs, which is the exact amount of dingers he hit in 2014 when he was starting to climb the prospect rankings. Looks like he's finally found some pop.

Just as important as his newfound power development was this crucial update on his arm. This Austin Hartsfield video is the first highlight I'd seen of his arm since his MLB stint in 2017. Also note that he also got some praise for his blocking ability too. All of these proved to be key developments for him in May.

Tweet

Hartsfield is also the Sod Poodles beat writer for the East Village Times, during the first week of May he listed Torrens as a player to watch going into a series vs the Arkansas Travelers.

Excerpt from the article

And for good reason as this was following the last week of April where Torrens just went on a tear. Though ironically enough in this particular series he'd only appear in one game. Thus the #HartsfieldJinx was born.

Tweet

Not much Torrens news came my way after. But the Sod Poodles' play-by-play announcer Sam Levitt had some nice things to say about him halfway through May.

All told Torrens' May was solid. His appearances dipped and so too did some of his offensive stats (at least when looked in isolation and compared to April), but hey shit happens. I don't put much weight into that stuff anyway. I wanted stuff about his defense and I got more of it in May alone that I did for most of 2018. I'll take it.

Torrens to New York? (May)

Nope.

June

The month of June start off on a high note for Torrens. He went two-for-four with a double, and had a sacrifice fly. He then went hitless in two at-bats in his next game. This would sort of be a pattern of sorts for Torrens. In one game he'd be a total monster just destroying every ball thrown in his wake, in the next he'd sort of fall a bit short. But the monster games happened frequently. Frequent enough to warrant him getting elected to the 2019 Texas League All Star Game.


Yup. This was his second All Star Game since getting picked to go to the 2014 NYPL game (which I went to) in Brooklyn. And obviously it was well deserved.

One of the more noticeable developments was just how much better Torrens was getting in June. It seemed like he was capable of throwing out runners practically every night. Any questions one might've still had about his arm following the 2015 surgery have been answered in the best way possible. His cannon is fine.


One of the more noticeable developments was just how much better Torrens was getting in June. It seemed like he was capable of throwing out runners practically every night. Any questions one might've still had about his arm following the 2015 surgery have been answered in the best way possible. His cannon is fine.



Also I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that during the last few days of June he had a power surge. Hitting dingers in two consecutive games. So not only is the greatest catcher of all time flaunting his glove, but he's finally tapping into his in-game power. It's all over for these pitches.



Stud.

Torrens To New York? (June)

Nada

July

In June Torrens matched his single-season dinger record (6 dingers), and in July he passed that. Here's a video of his ninth dinger of the season.


The balls in triple-A are definitely juiced. I'm not entirely sure how juiced the balls in double-A are though. If nothing else all of this dinger talk has/had me excited to see what Torrens can do in triple-A with the definitely juiced MLB balls they use at that level.

In all Torrens finished July with overall solid numbers and a bunch of positive reports across the board from the people who watch him daily/semi-daily. By the end of the month he'd finally reach 10 dingers across the season.

Torrens To New York (July)?

Nothing.
BTW, I'm ending this stupid subsection here because MLB adopted a SINGLE trade deadline this year where every deal ever (waiver-wire or otherwise) has to be done by 4 PM EST on July 31st. Even though minor leaguers/outright waivers don't count towards this, I'm still ending it. The whole thing ruined the trade deadline in a big way but beyond that, it means that virtually nothing else in terms of trade rumors will matter enough. So screw it, I'm not expecting any more updates on Torrens to NY related things during the last few months of the season any more than what I'd gotten during the first seven months of the year (which was jack shit).

August

August in the MiLB world is where people really start to reflect on the many months that already passed and prepare for award season. It's also promotion season. With the logjam at the big league level effectively keeping Austin Allen in triple-A El Paso until rosters expanded, Torrens was likely finishing the minor league regular season at Amarillo.


In some pretty great news, Baseball America named Torrens as the best defensive catcher in the league. No small feat, and a surefire sign that Torrens' glovework is being acknowledged. A bunch of morons are going "wElL cAn He HiT?" and while the obvious answer is to say that yes, Torrens is hitting, and the juiced balls in triple-A/the big leagues are only going to further his output, I often just lambaste Padres fans for being ignorant. They've been bad forever and they still don't know who's who in their farmsystem? Joke fans (except for like five of them including Gavin and Fuji, you're alright).


Seriously, by the end of August he had 14 dingers on the year, while he's only had 12 dingers in his entire career until 2019. Also peep the oppo-taco power.

September

Normally September would just be an afterthought but in Torrens' case, he made the most of it. For one thing he hit a dinger in the lone September regular season game he played (the last one in 2019 at that). Bringing his dinger total on the year up to 15, a new career best.
Additionally, Torrens was selected as a Post-Season All Star in the Texas League. Which I assume means that he was picked as someone who had a really good second half. It was a well deserved honor for sure given how he put up great numbers that really felt like he built upon the promise he showed in 2014 for the first time. In addition Torrens was part of a loaded Sod Poodles team that made it to the playoffs in the Texas League.


Those very Sod Poodles ended up going all the way to the Texas League championships. Torrens himself had some key moments both offensively and defensively.

I mistakenly thought that that would be the end of it. Maybe Torrens would have some nice moments in what would be an otherwise uneventful Texas League Championship Series. I was wrong. Because so many things happened at once. It was all a fucking whirlwind.

Okay so the series ended up going to five games with both the Sod Poodles and the Tulsa Drillers (Los Angeles Dodgers affiliate) tied 2-2. It all came down to a winner take all game.

The Poodles were down 1-3 as they entered the top of the ninth and down to their last three batters. Sod Poodle/Padres prospect Taylor Trammell hit a grand slam to put up the Poodles 5-3. Then Hudson Potts hit a three run dinger that pretty much put the game out of reach. The Poodles shut out the Drillers in the bottom of the ninth and won it all. Reminder, this was the Sod Poodles' inaugural season. So they won in their first year of existence. Congrats to them.


Torrens could be seen celebrating with a Venezuela flag on his shoulders. Dude is Captain Venezuela after all.

So that's fun. After years of toiling in the minors/in injury rehab/on the Padres' bench, Torrens finally got some hardware to add to his arsenal. But the fun was only starting...


Yes, mere hours after becoming a Texas League Champion, news broke that Torrens was going to be joining the big league Padres as a late-September call-up. I wasn't expecting this so it was a welcome sight. Though in hindsight it was a move that I should've seen coming.


You see, Torrens' defense was praised by writers and fans alike who said that he really improved in 2019 (which is something considering how he was always pretty good defensively before). Getting him a few big league innings as a late-game defensive specialist is a move I am 100% on board with. At least for 2019.


Torrens boarded his plane to join the Padres in Milwaukee in the wee hours of the morning on the 16th, and later in the day the team finally announced that he'd been added.


You could also see him front and center in the second pick used for the Padres' "Play ball!" tweet. A move that I think the Padres interns made just for me. Although it was obvious that he wouldn't start all 13 games left in the season, Padres manager Andy Green did confirm that he'd make a few starts at catcher to close out the season. There was also a piece in The San Diego Union-Tribune that focused on Torrens' role/long-term outlook with the Padres given his 2019. In that piece Padres bench coach/former big league backstop Rod Barajas spoke highly of Torrens, noting that he is a "spark plug" who works well with pitchers.

Torrens eventually made his 2019 MLB debut on 9/19/19 (palindrome!) in Milwaukee against the Brewers. He came in during the game and got two at-bats, in which he struck out in one of them.


Torrens later started the game on 9/20/2019 (not a palindrome, which sucks!) in San Diego. It took a while but the Padres finally got Torrens the innings they said they would. Though this was likely more of a combination of Hedges being bad at hitting and Mejía being eased back into action after some injury issues. In all Torrens saw MLB action in seven games. Seven more than he got in 2018 and about an eighth of what he got in 2017. He's slowly but surely starting to earn that MLB time folks.


Conclusion

Here in 2019 the year opened optimistically and progressed in a fantastic way. For the first time since 2014, it felt as though the world beating catching prospect was coming into his own. Only unlike 2014 (or 2017 for that matter), his MLB call-up at the end felt earned. And a mere taste of what's hopefully to come in 2020.

But also just as important, for me at least, I found this year to the year where I'd been able to follow Torrens the most since 2014 (when I was seeing him with my fucking eyes in person). A lot of that credit goes to Austin Hartsfield. He figured out my schtick as the ultimate Luis Torrens stan pretty quickly and started tailoring his tweets for me. He even wrote a wonderful piece on Torrens' well deserved return to the MLB following the Sod Poodles championship. Which those of you who follow me probably saw a lot of this summer. I am not sorry. If I see good tweets about Torrens, I will retweet/quote-tweet them. No questions asked.

Obviously I am biased, but this year was about as ideal/linear a progression any "prospect" could reasonably make. Torrens started the year with well-grounded expectations, then got better. Unfortunately he'll never be acknowledged as an elite prospect or anything (not like he can since he doesn't qualify anymore), nor will he get Rookie of the Year votes even though he's going to hit for .400+ and put up a 10-WAR season in 135 games in 2021, but he doesn't need to be. He's just him, and what that entails is being in an elite class of baseball players along with Mike Trout and Daniel Vogelbach. The future is bright.


So yeah, big thanks to the Amarillo (and Padres as a whole) beat for the awesome and comprehensive coverage this season.

And as always thank you (the readers) for stopping by. Hope this year's post did a lot more for you all than the last two did.

Sources:
*https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=torren002lui
*http://www.mlb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=l135&t=p_pbp&pid=620443
*https://eastvillagetimes.com/2019/01/padres-winter-league-report-january-4-torrens-homers-in-venezuela/
*https://www.amarillopioneer.com/blog/2019/4/1/sod-poodles-announce-roster
*https://madfriars.com/2019/04/06/2019-amarillo-sod-poodles-preseason-preview/
*https://eastvillagetimes.com/2019/05/amarillo-sod-poodles-series-preview-may-4-7-vs-arkansas-travelers/
*https://eastvillagetimes.com/2019/09/luis-torrens-is-back-in-the-majors-and-this-time-he-earned-it/
*https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/padres/story/2019-09-13/padres-minor-league-report-luis-torrens-arizona-fall-league
*https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/padres/story/2019-09-16/padres-luis-torrens-catcher-competition-kaboo-hunter-renfroe-luis-urias
*https://padres.mlblogs.com/andy-addresses-garrett-richards-ur%C3%ADas-myers-renfroe-guerra-ccb4bb683a21
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Monday, October 14, 2019

Card Show Pickups: Very Little Baseball

Earlier this month there was a card show in my local area. I wasn't originally going to go, but in the grand tradition of running into opportunities to get unique autographs for my blogging chums (like Bob Walk The Plank and Red Sox Fan in Nebraska) I lucked into a unique opportunity to give P-Town Tom something special. You can read more about that on PTT's blog.

I'm finding that another minor benefit of attending a card show is that I'm always going to bring my trade bait (or at least the "good stuff") in the event that something I WAAAANT pops up. It rarely ever does, but it's a fantastic motivator for me to take inventory of my better trade pieces from time to time. And guess what, this show was one of the few times doing such a thing worked out pretty well for me.

I arrived at the show around the time the line for the autograph had dwindled to merely like a single family being in line before me. Because I got it for Tom, that Gregg Olson autograph isn't going towards my IP total.

After the autograph I beelined for the supplies. I needed a big 11x17 toploader for the big Detroit Lions cheerleaders autographed poster I got last year, as well as a few smaller 4x6 toploaders and one of those count boxes.

I looked at various tables and bins but at this point in my collecting life $1 per sounded like an awful deal to me for cards I didn't necessarily have much use for beyond being throw-ins. Especially if I was expected to pay with cash.

Then I found the one dealer I deem as my go-to for hockey cards. They use Beckett and they specialize in east coast teams (especially the New York Rangers, New York Islanders, Buffalo Sabres and New Jersey Devils). Both of these attributes suggest that their stuff is a bit overpriced/inflated compared to eBay prices and while that's true, they're my go-to because this vender usually ends up giving me a big discount anyway because I actually go the bundles (buy more to save more) route with them. This vendor also gives me the option to pick up nearly everything I want Rangers-wise in a single swoop, which not even eBay can do to be honest. And above all else, they do baseball too so I can trade my Yankees trade bait and get back some Rangers stuff. After all, the last time I met them they traded me their Henrik Lundqvist autograph for my Derek Jeter autograph. I always get significant cards from them without having to give up any cash. I consider that a win.


The card that started off the trade this time was this Russian card of Rangers goaltending prospect Igor Shestyorkin. I had this card in my eBay wantlist for basically forever but the fact that it was going to come from venders out in Eastern Europe made me uneasy for reasons that boil down to paranoia instilled inside Americans after the Cold War. And I say this as someone who's dated Eastern Europeans, they're wonderful folks, and as someone who wasn't even alive when the Soviet Union dissolved!

Still, my go-to hockey vendor came through and had this.


I can't read a lick of any of this. But at the very least I can now say that a SKA Saint Petersburg (Sports Club of the Army) card has blessed my collection. This is my first card from Russia and woof, it's a damn nice one! Now to add one from Finland, Sweden and various other countries with their own independent hockey leagues.

My go-to pulled this out of a massive box of nothing but Rangers. This was the first time they showed me this box and I took a look through, hoping to beef up a certain collection.


Yurp, my Chytil collection. Even though I have Chytil's Young Guns rookie card, I didn't really have too many of his other rookie cards.


In a matter of minutes I plucked out 10 I needed and immediately worked them into a bigger deal.


Also I was in a bit of a splurgey mood (this is what happens when you give me the option of trading as opposed to buying) and I went for this Mika Zibanejad Young Guns rookie. In the world of hockey you can never go wrong with a Young Guns.


In the world of hockey cards you can definitely go wrong with an autograph, but since I declared that Zibanejad is the star of the 2019-20 Rangers, I put my cards where my mouth is and went for his awesome Future Watch autograph. The bad part is that it features him as a Senator. The good part is that Zibanejad doesn't have any certified Rangers autographs anyway so it doesn't matter.


After the Zibanejads were thrown-in a deal was agreed upon and I ended up throwing the go-to a fat stack of Derek Jeter cards as a thank you. They responded by throwing this Kevin Hayes autograph my way. Hayes is a former winger for the Rangers who now plays for the Philadelphia Flyers. Hayes was a great player for the Rangers when he played but as of now his legacy is being the guy who got sent to the Winnepeg Jets for Brendan Lemieux and a first round pick (as well as a conditional fourth round pick), of which the first round pick got traded back to the Jets anyway in exchange for Jacob Trouba.

So half a season of Hayes and one Neal Pionk, for Lemiux and Trouba. Yes that's a fantastic trade, 10/10, would do again. The conditional pick never materialized BTW because it was contingent on the Jets winning the Stanley Cup, which... lol.

This haul pretty much made me happy with my decision to go. I got a top Rangers prospect, lots of rookie cards of my favorite Rangers and two Rangers autographs for zero cash and instead for cards I'd been looking to move for basically forever. I'll take it.

After this trade I walked around the place looking to see if I could maybe jumpstart my Knicks collection by adding a nice cheap Kevin Knox autograph since his value is nil. Unfortunately there were zero of the Knox Prizm autographs I was after, but there was this.


This is the only card I bought with cash that day that was specifically for me. Cost me a whole $3, which isn't ideal but I'd been after this a while and I can tell you for a fact that while the card itself might be available on eBay for like $2, the shipping fee's and the taxes will bring it closer to $6, so $3 it is.

So this is what happens when a card show fails to deliver Luis Torrens, Kevin Alcantara, Osiel Rodriguez, Garrett Whitlock or Michael King cards to me. I opt for NHL Young Guns and NBA Prizms instead. Go figure.

All in all I spent $35 cash at this show. I know all of you are thinking you'd blow through that at the first vendor alone. But one big difference is that I've spent way too much money on eBay (as the FOMO posts I've been blogging about didn't fucking give that away) and oooh boy does my spending spreadsheet make me more depressed with every glance.

Now I shudder to think about if I started a spending spreadsheet for what I spent on GrubHub.

As always thanks for stopping and witness me deform into a cheap bastard.

Take care.
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Thursday, October 10, 2019

My Boy...



The Cardinals-Yankees World Series is going to be hell for all of you.
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Wednesday, October 2, 2019

The Reverse Jinx Worked

When I talked about the NPN's from Stranger Things, I mentioned how I'd yet to get any responses from baseball card products. It was true at the time but as of Monday (September 30th, 2019)...


...welp.

I'm pretty stunned that of all products, I got a return from 2019 Bowman. I was under the assumption that it'd be the type of product NPNers would be after in a heartbeat. Because getting a Wander Franco (even a base) for a mere 55 cents is a great deal. But I guess I lucked out.


Anyway the card itself is a refractor for Phillies top prospect Adonis Medina.

Medina is the fourth best prospect in the Phillies farmsystem and a borderline top 100 guy according to MLB Pipeline. Medina's ascension is largely due to the uptick in velocity in his pitches as his fastball now sits in the low 90's and can even touch the mid 90's when needed. He also has a slider and changeup which he can also use for strikes. After a 2018 season that saw him start to struggle a bit against hitters, his 2019 season was a lot of the same. He's still dynamic and when he's on he's unhittable. But at times the opposing hitters made pretty quick work of him. Though not for nothing is the fact that he racked up a ton of K's and didn't allow too many walks, that's always great to see.


I'm actually a fan of Medina since he signed for me via TTM all the way back in 2016. That's two PWE-related Medina goodies I've gotten in my lifetime. Enough to make me want to root for him to succeed. And I think he's going to need as much support as he can get given how he's bound for triple-A Lehigh Valley/quad-A Philadelphia soon, and there he'll have to adjust to the juiced ball. Yeesh.


Anyway that was my latest NPN, and my first baseball NPN. This is fun.

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