Feeling 22

The card bubble has had its drawbacks for sure, no one likes paying inflated prices, but one of the few fringe benefits for me is that some of the rarer cards have appeared out of the woodwork.

In a previous post I showed a 1/1 printing plate auto of Luis Torrens, not too long after that I got this.

That is a black printing plate from 2014 Bowman Draft Picks and Prospects.

This is for the paper/non-chrome offering from 2014 Bowman Draft, aka the portion that has given me the more gruff than the chrome equivalent. As I'm not quite close to assembling the paper rainbow any time soon thanks to the elusive 1/1.

But eh, every little bit counts I suppose. Player collecting isn't a sprint, it's a marathon.

In the time since I acquired this plate things have gotten very interesting for Torrens. For starters he was brought back up to the big leagues after a brief stint in triple-A. Since then he's gone on an absolute tear, every other day you can see the Mariners Twitter feed showing a video of him hitting a dinger.

This recent stretch has seen him hitting seven home runs across 13 games, two of which were on June 25th where he went 2-5 with two dingers.

Absolute king shit right there.

The Mariners and their fans who do not deserve Torrens can gawk about Cal Raleigh or Night Owl's neighbor Tom Murphy all they want, Torrens is clearly the catcher of the future for the team. Or in true Seattle fashion they trade him away and enter another long playoff drought, either way Torrens' reign begins now.

With this I am now at 22 Torrens 1/1's. His jersey number at the moment! Obviously I am looking for more but we'll see what else surfaces during his hot streak and during what I want to think is the waning days of the current bubble.

In the meantime I made sure to secure another low numbered parallel that eluded me for so long, these /10 acetate things. Essentially they are just clear plastic. A gimmick for sure but I don't really mind, they're different. I let one slip away three years ago and made sure to nail this one down now that I have less patience but a little bit more money.

This is my first acetate card of the Torrenator and I'm quite glad as this gets me closer and closer to the ever elusive flagship rainbow. We'll see how things shake out I suppose but as of now I am down to just the 1/1's and any retail parallels thought to be impossible to find.

While I'm here I might as well tack on one more non-Torrens card I added because I don't think I'll ever have a chance to talk about it.

The latest heir apparent to the catching prospect from LATAM title is Antonio Gomez, signed by the New York Yankees out of Venezuela back in 2018. Gomez's immediate skill that has eyes popping right now is his arm that is an absolute cannon. FanGraphs gave it an 80 and most scouts agree it's the best of the best.

You could be prime Usain Bolt and he'd still nab you at second, his arm is just that fucking good.

Every other part of his game is a work in progress but shows great promise. He does have a fair bit of pop and depending on how his swings get unlocked going forward he could be a pleasant threat with the bat. I am particularly interested in seeing how the rest of his defensive profile looks in terms of actually catching and blocking the ball, as well as calling the game. According to scouts he's taken it upon himself to learn English so as to have better communication with pitchers. Considering how he's already stateside that's a huge plus. For a system that's seen better days with its catching prospect core, things are finally getting interesting again with Gomez at the very bottom of the ladder behind Josh Breaux, Anthony Seigler and Austin Wells. I am cautiously optimistic to see how this current core grows and develops.

I don't think Gomez is going to be my new Torrens and quite frankly I'm burnt out on doing a full player collecting thing ever again (although I will keep going for Torrens), but I did want to nab his autograph since he's one of the few new faces that I have been interested in for a while now. Fingers crossed he can be something good for the Yankees one day.

All in all, the void left behind by Torrens has been massive. The Yankees' catching prospect core disintegrated overnight in 2016 and never quite recovered, they've also been just alright since then. Or were until this year where they're just plain middling and kinda disappointing. Should've kept Torrens and Thairo Estrada.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care.

Month-End TTM Roundup: 6/7 - 7/3

 

Received On: 6/11/2021

My first return this month came from Tyler Holton.
Holton was drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 9th round of the 2018 MLB Player Draft out of Florida State. Holton is armed with a low 90's fastball, a curveball and a changeup, all of which he used to dominate in college until a UCL tear meant he needed Tommy John surgery and his 2018 season went effectively kaput. The Diamondbacks drafted him with their 9th round pick knowing that he could be a big buy-low candidate if he were to regain some of his pre-TJS form. Holton managed to make his return to the mound in 2019 and had a fairly good showing in two levels of rookie ball, striking out 56 batters in 37.2 innings. In 2021 Holton is likely looking to make up for lost time after the pandemic took away another season in his climb to the majors. Best of luck Holton.

Received On: 6/12/2021

Next up is a return from Boston Red Sox prospect, Frank German.
German was originally drafted by the New York Yankees in the fourth round of the 2018 MLB Player Draft out of the University of North Florida. German is armed with a fastball, slider and changeup and was seen as an interesting starting pitching prospect during his time with the Yankees, he was usually seen in the top 20-30 range for NYY org specific prospect rankings and for good reason given how with solid control he could put his high-90's velocity to good use and absolutely dominate right handed batters. Unfortunately a shoulder injury and a step back in terms of harnessing his breaking pitches led to him having a mixed 2019 that eventually led to him being included in the weird trade that sent Adam Ottavino to the Red Sox back in January of this year. Fingers crossed that German can regain some form with the Red Sox and be a threat in the AL East for years to come.

Received On: 6/25/2021

Here's a super cool return from top Dodgers prospect Diego Cartaya!
Cartaya was signed out of Maracay, Venezuela by the Los Angeles Dodgers as a non-drafted international free agent back in 2018. Cartaya was seen going into the international free agent signing period as the absolute best IFA prospect, a lot of that value mostly tied to him being a catcher who can hit and actually catch. So simple, yet in such low supply nowadays. As of when this post is due to be published Cartaya is still 19 and has already made it stateside, the Dodgers thought so highly of him that they had him on the alternative site squad last year. That's an incredible desire to see just how good their crown jewel is. I blogged about how good Cartaya is last year when I bought a certified autograph and wrote an ode to him. Out of all of the requests I sent out this year I had this pegged as the longest of the long shots, instead Mr. Cartaya was nice enough to send it back to me in 11 days. What a world.

Received On: 6/26/2021

Next up is a my first ever soccer/futball return from Meaghan Nally.
Nally was drafted by the Portland Thorns out of Georgetown University in the third round (25th overall) of the 2020 National Women's Soccer League draft. Reading Nally's collegiate career is pretty incredible since the defender had a highly successful and decorated run with the Georgetown Hoyas, most of which the official Hoyas site has written very nicely. Nally was a crucial part of three Big East Championship titles and was a two-time Big East Defensive Player of the Year winner. She also set the program record fewest goals allowed, most shutouts, most consecutive wins and most wins across 2017 and 2018. In short most write-ups have her as a brick wall who can also be an offensive threat and she has the credentials to back it up and then some, incredibly impressive.

And those were my returns this past period. Big thanks to Ms. Nally and Mr. Holton, German, and Cartaya for the awesome autographs.

As always thank you (the readers) for stopping by. Take care.

2021 TTM Count: 25

Sources:
*https://www.milb.com/player/tyler-holton-663947
*https://www.milb.com/player/frank-german-681464
*https://www.mlb.com/prospects/2020/redsox/frank-german-681464
*https://www.milb.com/player/diego-cartaya-682616
*https://www.mlb.com/prospects/dodgers/diego-cartaya-682616
*https://guhoyas.com/sports/womens-soccer/roster/meaghan-nally/11035
*https://www.timbers.com/players/meaghan-nally
*https://guhoyas.com/news/2020/1/16/womens-soccer-meaghan-nally-selected-by-portland-thorns-in-2020-nwsl-draft