As One Mission Ends, Another Begins

Remember that time I blogged about how the Luis Torrens yellow refractor was sold on eBay right under my nose?

Well I was able to get in contact with the person who bought that refractor and managed to work out a deal for it.

A week later this finally arrived.

YEAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Yep. The last non-printing plate piece of the 2013 Bowman Chrome Luis Torrens rainbow finally arrived.

As you can see it's numbered 01/10.

In the eBay auction/BIN the seller set up, he wrote the following,

"This is a baseball card and everyone knows baseball is a sport with cards made for happiness."

And boy is he right about that. I'm incredibly happy to have this card and to say I have the Luis Torrens Bowman Chrome rainbow.

Of course I'm missing the plates but what can you do?

So anyway, big thanks to all of the people who've helped me build my Luis Torrens rainbow. I am still in shock that I managed to pull this off.

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

Forsaken Again

This winter has been quite a roller coaster for my fandom. It's left me very blue like this blue paper parallel of the Torrenator numbered 348/399.

Some of you can probably tell why I'm blue.
Near the end of February a blurb popped up on the New York Post that said that Luis Torrens' 2015 season was in jeopardy due to shoulder issues.
This caught a lot of people by surprise and for a while not even the Yankees knew the severity of the situation.

Assistant GM Billy Eppler says Yankees still gathering info on catching prospect Luis Torrens shoulder injury. Says nothing set yet.
— Lohud Yankees Blog (@LoHudYankees) March 2, 2015

Then it all became clearer on March 3rd.

#Yankees prospect catcher Luis Torrens out for 2015 w/ shoulder surgery scheduled for tomorrow.
— Brendan Kuty (@BrendanKutyNJ) March 3, 2015

Yep. Luis is going to miss the 2015 season to have surgery done on a torn labrum in his right shoulder. For those of you who want to know a little more about this injury, CBS New York wrote a pretty nice piece on it.

Gracias a todos por sus buenos deseos.... Un Año de Aprendizaje y Fortalecimiento 🙏 Se les Quiere Mucho ! #Amen pic.twitter.com/HiEs7EQ1Eu
— Luis Alfonso Torrens (@LuisTorrens13) March 4, 2015

Per Luis' official Twitter the operation (done by Dr. David Altchek at the Hospital For Special Surgery here in New York) was a success and now the healing time begins.

This isn't the first time that shoulder issues have cost Torrens development time. Last season he suffered a shoulder injury that caused him to miss two months worth of action.

In fact according to this article on NJ.com, Torrens' 2015 season was already in jeopardy as far back as August 2014. The article states that near the end of the season the Yankees ran some tests on Torrens and a partial tear in the labrum was found. They decided to put him on a rehabilitation program during the offseason to help him heal but when Torrens came to camp and still had shoulder issues, the team decided to have him undergo surgery.

I have no doubts that Torrens will be ready to go by 2016 but I'd be cautious going forward. If more shoulder problems arise in the future it could signal something potentially wrong.
I sincerely hope not since Torrens' arm was an absolute cannon last year.

The one good thing is that Torrens is still young. He turns 19 this May and won't even be 20 yet when the 2016 season begins. However lost development time is still a bummer. And for the 2015 season the Yankees lost a big piece of their catching depth (although he wasn't MLB bound anyway and is still in the organization, which are also pluses I guess).

A Prizm Refractor Auto from Panini Prizm

As for what this means for my Torrens collection. Nothing will really change. The only positive effect this sad turn of events can have is that I don't have to worry about Luis' prices going up. This offseason they were slowly getting there (the Torrens Bowman Chrome autos that went for $3 in the past finally reached the $5 mark), but this will slow that down considerably.
I'll still go after the Torrens cards I don't have and need. He'll still be one of the top two PC guys. And I won't be changing the name of this blog to Flamin' Up Cards anytime soon (the Flamin' is from MIGUEL FLAMES, if you're wondering).
BTW, the two cards I've featured in this post are my latest additions from COMC that just came in this morning.

Still, with no Big Hirok in the majors or LUIIIIISSSSSSSSSSS in the minors, as far as PC guys go 2015 is a lost cause for me. Not even A-Rod hitting over .400 and hitting 75 home runs will cheer me up.

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

Articles About Luis Torrens And His Injury/Sources:
*http://nypost.com/2015/02/27/cc-sabathia-happy-with-throwing-program-new-knee-brace/
*http://pinstripedprospects.com/torrens-shoulder-a-concern-5848
*http://www.nj.com/yankees/index.ssf/2015/03/which_big_yankees_prospect_needs_season-ending_sur.html
*http://www.nj.com/yankees/index.ssf/2015/03/luis_torrens_yankees_top_catching_prospect_surgery.html
*http://www.milb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20150302&content_id=110942134&fext=.jsp&vkey=news_milb&sid=milb
*http://m.yankees.mlb.com/news/article/111079276/yanks-catching-prospect-luis-torrens-to-miss-2015-season
*http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2015/03/04/sims-breaking-down-luis-torrens-season-ending-injury/
*http://www.si.com/mlb/2015/03/04/new-york-yankees-prospect-luis-torrens-injury
*http://www.pinstripealley.com/yankees-prospects-minor-leagues/2015/3/3/8144767/yankees-injuries-luis-torrens-surgery-shoulder
*http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/03/03/yankees-prospect-luis-torrens-needs-shoulder-surgery/
*http://riveraveblues.com/2015/03/report-luis-torrens-may-miss-2015-due-to-shoulder-injury-115145/
*http://bronxbaseballdaily.com/2015/03/yankees-prospect-luis-torrens-to-have-season-ending-shoulder-surgery/
*http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/yankees/luis-torrens-yankees-catching-prospect-will-miss-2015-season-1.10000632
*http://www.lohud.com/story/sports/mlb/lohud-yankees/2015/03/03/catching-prospect-luis-torrens-season-ending-surgery/24335921/
*http://web.yesnetwork.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20150303&content_id=111070140&oid=36019
*http://nypost.com/2015/03/03/yankees-luis-severino-lives-up-to-hype-in-filthy-debut-inning/