My Favorite Prospect Became a Serviceable Major Leaguer

 It's been a whole two years since I donated my Luis Torrens collection to Torrens' family.

In the time since I've been too preoccupied with real life to keep up with his playing career. I knew he had been traded to the New York Mets and became a surprisingly important piece during their current contention window. I still rooted for him but I wasn't going to be tuning into every Mets game.

Then the news of Torrens' two year extension came across my feed.

Catcher Luis Torrens and the New York Mets are in agreement on a two-year extension, league source tells The Athletic. He is set to make $11.5 million for 2027 and 2028.

— Will Sammon (@WillSammon) May 2, 2026

I know that's not Kyle Tucker money, but guaranteed money and multiple years for a back-up catcher is huge. Especially for someone whose career looked like it was on its last legs as recently as 3 years ago.

On top of that Torrens currently has nine years of MLB service time. One more and he'll qualify for a pension (and also 10-and-5 rights). Absolutely huge for him and his family.

Despite all of the setbacks and multiple years of lost development (I hate the San Diego Padres AJ Preller for ruining his development, may they never win anything ever while he's still there), he's managed to salvage his career and reach his potential as a quality contributor for a New York based major league baseball team with championship aspirations.

Exactly the career outlook we had for him in 2014, right everyone?

I'm guessing that to most "prospectors" in the hobby this is a failure but for me this is a very successful career. Most prospects and hopefuls in the minors could only dream to carve out a big league career like Torrens has. No matter the talent evaluations or pedigree.

The traits that made him an elite prospect have kept him at the highest level of the game.

His arm is still as strong as ever and most of his highlights are him gunning down would-be base stealers. I haven't looked at his Baseball Savant page but I'd be surprised if his defensive metrics weren't red. He can just flat out catch.

As a hitter unfortunately he isn't the "he has a sneaky high OBP with some nice pop for a catcher" type threat I thought he could be, but he's had his moments here and there. Look it's 2026, there's only maybe two catchers in the whole league that can hit at an elite level and maybe six overall you could consider fine. You pay for the glove and take what you can get with the bat.

I do kind of find it funny how shortly after I move on from the Torrens collection he quietly turns into an actual major leaguer. If all it took for him to turn into a solid major leaguer was for me to stop collecting him I would've done it a whole lot sooner. Although looking at how absolutely nuts the world of parallels have become I think I got out at the right time.

Although I do wonder if there's a hardcore Mets collector out there who's confused at why they can't find any of the low numbered earlier prospect cards of Torrens even though he was seemingly in everything prospect related in 2014.

Then again considering how shit the Steve Cohen era Mets have been maybe there isn't a soul out there who wants to remember this period in card form.

Whatever. Torrens rules and I'll always be there to root for him to succeed. Far away in the distance.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care.

Indifference, Not Dislike

 So there's a bat blog around going into cards that collectors have that feature teams they dislike.

This is an interesting topic to me because my collection's been combed over infinity times and whittled down to what is the most bare bones but also the best version of itself it's ever been.

In theory cards that have negative attributes to them shouldn't be allowed to exist on my property. Any that I do come across are quickly jettisoned.

But I figure I might as well try to have a crack at it. But unlike others I feel like I need to start with defining what I "dislike" and kind of alter the prompt a bit.

For my purposes I'm going to swap out "dislike" with "disinterest".

Simply because I don't have teams I dislike. 

Instead what I have are a bunch of teams that have me feeling absolutely nothing towards them. I can't even remember they exist half of the time and I need to pull up a list of all 30 MLB teams like a moron.

You're all free to disagree but I think that might even be harsher than if I disliked these teams. Being disliked implies there's a quality to make it worth caring about. These teams are the already chewed gum of MLB teams with no flavor or discern-able characteristic to them.

I'm going to call out teams first and then give my various reasons why they exist. In cases where the reasons are the same I'll just lump them together.

Group 1: Tampa Bay Rays, Miami Marlins, Seattle Mariners, Milwaukee Brewers, Cleveland Guardians

Why These Teams Exist in My Collection: TTMs/Ichiro/IPs/Sega Card Gen

Be honest, are you ever excited if you pull cards of these teams from packs?

Would you notice or care if they got relegated to the minor leagues?

They exist and to their credit they usually have just enough talent to be in the conversation for playoff contention thanks to some combination of the 2nd and 3rd wild card spots and the league overall being so diluted that there's this third tier of unspectacular mush.

But even after they get in the playoffs you know they're just there to be fodder that's sent packing by a bigger market team that put in the money and resources to actually be a championship contender.

These teams not being particularly interesting is due to no fault on the part of the players. They can't pick who they're drafted by or who gives them what they think is the best opportunity to succeed in their career. 

Some great players I like played for these teams and some cards from sets I like happened to include them. So it goes.

Group 2: Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Pittsburgh Pirates

Why These Teams Exist in My Collection: Japanese MLBers/Exclusive Food Issues/TTM/Sega Card Gen

I'm not sure I can imagine these teams folding or being relegated to the minor leagues just because the eternal futility of the Angels is mildly hilarious and the Pirates are absolutely rich in terms of just baseball history (in ways the Guardians absolutely aren't).

But I will absolutely put up with irrelevant teams bogged down by shitty ownership for five of the uniquest cards I've got.

Group 3: Washington Nationals

Why This Team Exists in My Collection: Bryce Harper/Adam Dunn

The run the Nationals had in the 2010's made it really easy to forget that this franchise has been pretty bad for the rest of its existence. They were terrible as the Montreal Expos, and outside of the 2010's their existence as the Nationals have been forgettable.

After cleaning house with the front office that just wasn't cutting it anymore they're finally righting the ship to make the most of James Woods' prime. But until they show drastic improvement I don't see any reason for people to have Nationals cards in their collection except for guys like Bryce Harper, Stephen Strasburg, Juan Soto or Ryan Zimmerman from that 2010's window of contention.

Although the irony that Harper, who did not win a ring with the Nationals, being the reason why they exist in my collection is not lost on me. Him as a National will always feel just right to me even if it ends up being that he spent more of his career in Philadelphia.

Group 4: Arizona Diamondbacks, St. Louis Cardinals, Minnesota Twins

Why These Teams Exist in My Collection: They don't anymore

Little update since I made that post where I looked at my collection by team.

These teams don't occupy space in my collection anymore.

They join the Baltimore Orioles, Cincinnati Reds, Kansas City Royals and Athletics as teams with no representation in my collection. I've penned Rob Manfred a follow-up letter recommending that these teams be contracted too.

Unrelated Scan

So there you have it.

I probably outed myself as a big market team supremacist with this post but I'm not really going to deny that. I just genuinely feel like the bigger market teams put the better product out on the field than the teams in the smaller markets do because they have the financial muscle (and ownership that wants to win) to do so. It's a consequence of the reality we live in, but that doesn't change the optics of it all.

Anyway the barrier of entry into my shoebox is the highest it's ever been, and the quotas these cards need to meet in order to stick around are even higher. The perceptions I have on the teams do matter a little but ultimately I'm someone who roots for the names on the back of the jersey, not the front.

Unrelated Scan

Just the way I like it because I have clear reasons for all of them for blogposts like this.

Big thanks to Shlabotnik Report and Not Another Baseball Card Blog for getting this idea going and to Night Owl Cards and Chronicles of Fuji for passing it around.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care.

Yup, Goal Met

 So about a week into 2026 I was able to get an autograph. 

Cosplayer: 凪咲 (Nagisa)

Of a cosplayer at that.

Kind of expected. This is more or less how this goal was accomplished last year too.

The polaroid is dated from December 30th, 2025 but that's just because the cosplayer originally made it with the intend to sell it at the winter Comiket convention held between December 30th and 31st.

Unfortunately it looks like they ended up with leftover inventory that they sold online later. Which is how I got mine.

That's also how a lot of the other polaroids I got in the weeks to follow came about.

Cosplayer: 東雲氷 (Shinonome Koori)

Cosplayer: カド吉 (Kadokichi)

Cosplayer: 猫西めめ (Nekonishi Meme)

Cosplayer: 天音ありぃ (Amane Allie)

Cosplayer: 幸春るいか (Yukiharu Ruika)

Cosplayer: みくる澪 (Mikuru Mio)

Cosplayer: 雛月あや (Hinatsuki Aya)

Cosplayer: まなせせな (Manase Sena)

Cosplayer: えびせんべい (Ebisenbei)

Cosplayer: ぐりこ (Glico)

Cosplayer: かいむ (Kaimu)

Cosplayer: たっぷりめろこ (Tappuri Meroko)

In addition to these I did get a few polaroids from cosplayers working at various bars and Maid Cafe's in Tokyo (my current equivalent of IP autographs I guess) but the thing is that those were taken on the spot and not everyone is comfortable with unedited raw photographs of their faces being put out there. Especially not in Japanese culture.

Which I totally get. I've since gone back and deleted a lot of scans of polaroids in past blogposts that weren't edited and polished photos simply printed on polaroids like the ones seen in this post.

There's a lot I could say about this new round of polaroids but the biggest thing for me is just how nice a lot of these cosplayers are. A lot of these orders take a while to be fulfilled, and whenever there's a delay they're quick to respond and make up for the lost time with bonuses. I can really tell they think a lot about the people willing to support them.

Cosplayers: SU (left) and Yui (right)

Also I like all of these the same but I do have point out that I was pleasantly surprised I got a "dual auto" here in 2026.

A lot of the time these polaroids of cosplayers are solo, just because arranging a two-person anything is often difficult.  So getting my first dual autograph in a while was fun. Although I technically got a few in 2025 but due to the aforementioned privacy reasons I didn't share them, but those are easier to arrange given that it's simply taking a polaroid of two people already present and asking them to sign it when it's ready like a minute later.

Cosplayer: はたのゆう (Hatano Yu)

Other notables I was able to add would also include this special card.

Cosplayer: はたのゆう (Hatano Yu)

It's special because it's double sided and signed on both sides to boot.

It's not uncommon for cosplayers to make cards but they're not so much the collectible card variety, usually they're more like business cards with QR codes somewhere that goes to a page that has a link to all of the cosplayer's social media profiles. So this one is neat just based on the novelty and also it's really thick and sturdy. This cost a pretty penny to make for sure.

Anyway thanks to the cosplayers for once again helping me with my goal.

And as always thank you (the readers) for stopping by and take care.

Went Bin Diving, Found God

 Simple "show and tell" post today.

Munetaka Murakami's been on absolute tear in the later half of April.

It's been great and fun for mostly two reasons.

Seeing Murakami thrive and demolish baseballs after a whole winter where his value was suppressed to nothing, and seeing a whole Chicago White Sox team and fanbase rejuvenated with hope after years of historically dogshit baseball.

There's still a lot of questions and concerns over the long haul about sustainability and contract extensions and whatnot, but time will tell us where that all goes anyway. In the moment I'm having lots of fun seeing Murakami sock dingers (tied for the MLB lead as of the time this post was being written), walk a lot and overturn calls with ABS.

So much so that I went bin diving at a card shop where I usually get trading cards (think Yu-Gi-Oh! and the like) from because they're one of the few that I knew had Dream Order cards.

As you can see I picked up 5 copies of the regular foils and 2 of the parallels. The foils were 39 JPY each (roughly 24 cents USD) and the parallels were 89 JPY each (roughly 56 cents USD).

I'll keep one parallel then probably distribute the rest as Zapping fodder.

Then inevitably say bye to the parallel I kept for myself later down the line when I get a Murakami card I want to keep that shows him in a Chicago White Sox uniform (preferably in one of those slick black jerseys or the red City Connect jersey).

Parallel

Because no offense to Murakami or the photographer but this picture is ass. It makes Murakami look huskier than he is, and even worse he's fielding. Also these cards warp like they're chrome cards from 2010.

But for now this will have to do because it was really cheap.

Which is more or less the whole reason I went to a gaming card shop and not a regular sports card shop.

A shop dedicated to sports cards would've seen the tear Murakami's on and added a comma to the price tags. The gaming card shop only see's slow-moving almost dead inventory, not helped by rumors that the Dream Order card game is probably discontinued. Although for me that makes these extra fun because that means they're neat cards from a short-lived baseball themed card game.

Dream Order's supposed replacement. Came free with a bag of chips.

Deals in the loony world of sports cards are hard to come by these days. Enough that I made this quick post when in years past I wouldn't have.

But when they happen, it's pretty fun and stress-free knowing I can't lose.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care.

Consume. Always Consume. Must Consume.

 Maybe it's just because of my habits as a consumer or the way my algorithms have been set up for me but I'm kind of thinking everything in the world is an ad.

I'm being sold on investments with unfavorable returns, a dentist with minimal wait times (citation needed), a car with 0% APR financing, etc...

I'm being sold on brands like Apple, Nike and Neymar.

I'm also being sold on ideas like the idea AI revolution is truly going to uproot and change the world like the internet did, or various political ideologies.

So to get away from the shitty mall that is the modern internet, I go outside for a walk and there's billboards everywhere telling me about a new soda or something.

Some days I talk with colleagues at work who tell me about a movie saw that they recommend, other days I talk with friends who tell me about a allergy medication that did wonders for them, every once in a while a family member recommends me a ramen shop.

AAAAhhhhhhhhh, even people who are in my personal life are pitching me bullshit.

Some of what I mentioned about could be classified as genuine interactions with other people and the outside world, but I'm so jaded now that word of mouth also feels like advertising.

I'm just so tired. Tired of all of it.

Is the human experience to solely be a consumer and taxpayer and nothing else?

Now look, I don't want this post to turn into some left wing critique of capitalism.

I'm merely questioning if there is more to life than money and goods/services/experiences we get in exchange for money.

Notice how I lumped experiences in because I know people will try to point to that. When the reality is that experiences can be exchanged for money like goods and services (it's kind of a mix of both and quickly becoming paywalled anyway, have you seen ticket prices for events recently?!).

Some people will inevitably try to say their family and close loved ones give their life a boost in quality but again, the ones in my life are all pitching me on bullshit. It can be as minor as an episode of a TV show I'll never watch but look under the surface and they're trying to communicate some kind of idea or experience that was transmitted to them via that TV show episode.

It's a pitch.

Not a sales pitch perse, but something my brain has to process in regards to thinking whether or not I want to buy into it, and I'm tired of having to look into each interaction with people with questionable ROIs in my life and weigh the pros and cons of what was communicated to me like I'm an investment banker.

Plus I'm lucky enough to have what folks would traditionally deem as "loved ones". Meanwhile there are millions of sad lonely broke people out there who've been banished from polite society for good reasons who think ChatGPT is their only friend. Think how under attack they are at all times given they're even more likely to think a sales pitch is genuine human interaction.

Is simply being Kenny not good enough? Do I have to be Kenny the consumer at all times? Can I be Kenny the human? What does being human even mean anymore? Did it ever mean anything at all? Do I still have to put effort to give life meaning for myself? Because that sounds hard and I'd rather watch Batman the Animated Series.

Thank you all for listening to my pitch that the human experience is consumerism on steroids.

Take care.

A One Card Wonder

 Despite being the person many of you associate with Sega Card Gen, I've never taken as much time as I really should've to talk about the cards. There's a lot of cool stuff to be explored with that short lived but still fascinating set. Like how it was originally licensed by Upper Deck in 2009 but Topps took over in 2010. But the issue is that the posts range between things that absolutely cannot be covered in a single blogpost, or are too short to be worth devoting a blogpost to.

Well the flip-side to the latter is that those are easier to write so let's do one today.

Enerio del Rosario is (as far as I can tell) someone who had their ONLY card showing them as a major leaguer in the 2012 Sega Card Gen set. He has a few MiLB cards but no rookie cards or anything of him in the show.

In concept that's cool but in practice I think that might be hell. Imagine wanting to secure a ton of copies of your only baseball card as a big leaguer for your friends, family and loved ones who're all proud to know you made it to the top but it was only printed once and distributed across the world and written in a language that you can't read.

Or at least that's what I'd think EdR's thoughts are on his card. Assuming he even knows it exists at all.

By 2012 EdR had already had a few cups of coffee as a big leaguer since he debuted in 2010. But he unfortunately fell into reliever purgatory and since Topps wasn't able to put a rookie card logo on him he never got a card in a flagship product.

Add to it, EdR would never return to the big leagues after the 2012 season (not performing very well on the 2012 Astros will do that to you) so that was the end of that.

EdR did play in the Mexican League in 2013 but his career ended not long after that. Considering he'd been a pro since 2005 it was more like he was a very late bloomer who got a few chances to see if he could really stick near the end of a window that was quickly slamming shut.

Personally I think that it's at least great that his inclusion in the Card Gen set means he did get something to be recognized as a big leaguer. It provides a rare example of a one card wonder in one of the most exclusive sets ever.

None of these players are EdR, but this gif is still peak 2012 Astros

Remember, the Astros in 2012 were tanking and bad. Gone were solid guys who made the team respectable like Hunter Pence and Michael Bourn. They were running out warm bodies seeing which ones were worth keeping when they reached their arb-years, punting on the season and trying to secure a high draft pick to add to their rebuild.

I don't want to be mean but he's admittedly the type of forgotten, overall not very impressive (resume-wise) player who exemplified the rebuilding Astros. If nothing else including him is a perfect point-in-time thing for any hardcore Astros fans who watched that era.

Though to Sega and Topps' credit their selections in the 2012 Astros team set also included Jose Altuve and JD Martinez who would be very key names in the league in the years to come.

I still have a copy of EdR for myself as it's in a special cellophane pack that was distributed to beginners who were new to the game for free, and I'm kinda glad. Because every time I look at it and my now-tidier Card Gen collection, I know this card serves multiple special purposes just because of what it is and who's on it.

Also the way the card sums him up as a "Decent middle reliever" is really funny to me.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care.

Bat Blog Around: Cardmaxxing to not get Mogged

 So back in early March Night Owl Cards blogged about which player showed up the most for each team in his collection.

I get the feeling that unless you're an absolute nut with an Excel spreadsheet where your brain is, this would be hard to do. But in my case I have the fortune of having a collection that's down to its very very littlest core. So I was able to sort through and come up with each team leader.

Please note before we go in that I only considered the team/the MLB team the minor league team was affiliated with that particular year specified on the card as part of the tallies. Stuff like NPB era cards, Team USA or Perfect Game did not enter into these MLB totals. Oh also dupes (if any) count.

Similar to Night Owl, the order will go from the team/player with the most cards then I'll work my way down. Also I'll put in the 2nd place runner up for each team too as these will serve as tie-breakers for when I have multiple teams/players with the same number of cards.

1. Colorado Rockies

Kyle Freeland - 12 Cards

I dismantled my Freeland collection but I still have 12 cards I found too neat to move on from.
Still have my Freeland jersey too.

Runner Up: Troy Tulowitzki - 9 Cards

2. Washington Nationals

Bryce Harper - 9 Cards

Runner Up: Adam Dunn - 1 Card

These 10 cards are all of the Nationals cards I currently have in my collection. The Harpers singlehandedly forced this team in my top 3 and above the team I expected to be in second place.

3. New York Yankees

Dellin Betances - 8 Cards

I've come full circle.

Betances was my first ever player collection and despite all of the ups and downs and purges, he's back on top with a whopping 8 cards. If it's not Luis Torrens I'm at least glad it's Betances representing the Bronx for me.

Runner Up: Anthony Seigler - 7 Cards

4. Seattle Mariners

Ichiro Suzuki - 7 Cards

Ichiro being on top for the Mariners just feels right. Also worth noting that I also have 5 cards of Ichiro as a Yankee, which would put him on top on a bunch of other teams as we'll see later on in this list.

Runner Ups: Lucas Luetge/John Jaso/Hisashi Iwakuma/Brandon League/Ken Griffey Jr. - 1 Card

5. Houston Astros

Hunter Pence - 5 Cards

Runner Up: Brian Bogusevic - 2 Cards

6. Texas Rangers

Yoshinori Tateyama - 3 Cards

Runner Ups: Derek Holland/Joey Gallo - 2 Cards

7. Boston Red Sox

Junichi Tazawa - 3 Cards

Runner Ups: Ryan Lavarnway/Jarrod Saltalamacchia/Rafael Devers 1 Card

8. New York Mets

Amed Rosario - 3 Cards

Runner Up: Ezequiel Zabaleta - 1 Card

9. Toronto Blue Jays

Jose Bautista - 3 Cards

Runner Up: None

If you see "None" for any team's runner up it means that I have absolutely no other cards of that team in my possession.

10. Los Angeles Dodgers

Pedro Guerrero/John Richy - 2 Cards

Runner Ups: Ron Cey/Diego Cartaya/Jose De Leon/Walker Buehler/Clayton Kershaw - 1 Card

11. Chicago White Sox

Chris Sale/Addison Reed - 2 Cards

Runner Up: None

12. Miami Marlins

Josh Johnson - 2 Cards

Runner Ups: Ichiro Suzuki/Nate Eovaldi/Andrew Heaney/Trevor Rogers/Tom Koehler/Giancarlo Stanton/Anibal Sanchez - 1 Card

Why do I have so many Marlins cards?

13. Tampa Bay Rays

David Price - 2 Cards

Runner Up: Blake Snell/Garrett Whitley - 1 Card

14a. Arizona Diamondbacks

Ian Kennedy - 2 Cards

Runner Up: Paul Goldschmidt - 1 Card

14b. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

Shohei Ohtani - 2 Cards

Runner Up: Mike Trout - 1 Card

These runner ups were supposed to serve as tie-breakers but I failed to account for how something like this could happen. Oh well.

14c. San Diego Padres

Robbie Erlin - 2 Cards

Runner Up: Max Fried - 1 Card

Okay now begins the half of the list where I only have one card of the top player(s), as such we're saying bye-bye to the runner-ups and going by teams I have the most singletons of.

17. Philadelphia Phillies

Hunter Pence/Roy Halladay/JA Happ/Jose Pujols - 1 card

Pence is the only player to claim top honors on multiple teams.

18a. Chicago Cubs

Alfonso Soriano/Adbert Alzolay/Miguel Amaya - 1 Card

18b. Milwaukee Brewers

Norichika Aoki/Prince Fielder/Rollie Fingers - 1 Card

18c. San Francisco Giants

Hunter Pence/Masanori Murakami/Dick Estelle - 1 Card

Congrats to Pence on the three-peat.

21a. Atlanta Braves

Trae Young - 2 Cards

The actual answer is Craig Kimbrel and Jose Constanza with 1 card apiece but I like Trae more.

21b. Cleveland Guardians

Clint Frazier/Nolan Jones - 1 Card

21c. Minnesota Twins

Joe Mauer/Vance Worley - 1 Card

21d. Pittsburgh Pirates

Akinori Iwamura/Zach Duke - 1 Card

21e. St. Louis Cardinals

Chuck Taylor/Nolan Gorman - 1 Card

26. Detroit Tigers

Doug Fister - 1 Card

27-30. Baltimore Orioles/Cincinnati Reds/Kansas City Royals/Athletics

I own 0 cards of any of these teams. I've penned Rob Manfred a letter recommending that they be contracted.

With all of this laid out like this, I think it's really easy to see which era of baseball I was the most invested in.

Overall this was a fun way to sort through and take stock of the current iteration of my collection. It was fun to be reminded that I still somehow had 5 Leonardo Molina cards or 3 Wilkerman Garcia cards or 3 Yeicok Calderon cards. I can also easily see a world where a bunch of these teams with only a card or two to represent them end up with 0 in the future.

So big thanks to Night Owl for the inspiration and as always thanks for stopping by.

Take care.