TTM autographs received: Michael Fulmer

The Detroit Tigers pitcher signed my two cards in blue Sharpie through his team's Autographs for a Cause program - I mailed my request out towards the end of August and got them back Nov. 10.

Featured autograph - Ross Stripling

The 26-year old righty made his MLB debut Friday night and threw 7.1 hitless innings against the San Francisco Giants - there was a kerfuffle whether he should have been left in to preserve a lead, but he was pulled and the Giants tied the game on a 2-run home run.

Regardless of an eventual 3-2 loss, Friday was a memorable day for him, his friends and family - rookies tend to come and go, but hopefully Stripling can get that first 'W' out of the way sooner than never.

Stripling was pretty much a nondescript Dodger minor leaguer a few months ago, but I pulled out his cards hoping it was him who I saw walking to his car - I think he was about to start up his car when I gestured to him with a card of his in my hand and he was nice enough to get back out and sign for me.

Stripling took a second glance at this 2013 Topps Heritage Minors black border card as he signed it for me - though it's not really for a set, I didn't have an extra copy that I could give to him.

Featured autograph - Tyler Austin

Austin was pretty accomodating otherwise in the three times I ran into him at the Arizona Fall League - I had this 2013 Topps Heritage Minors insert, which is just a little bigger than a postage stamp and another card signed the final time I saw him.

It's a temptation for me to get oddball sized [either a little larger or maybe a little smaller] trading cards signed, though I try to stick with only standard sized cards for uniformity - I had everything else I brought for Austin signed, so I wanted to see if he'd be able to fit any sort of autograph onto such a tiny card.

After four games and 12 at-bats, Austin was injured and didn't play in any more games at the AFL before going home - he is only 22, but Austin maybe one of those players who may fall short of having long term success [presumably when he reaches the Major Leagues] because of various injuries.

In the mail box - a 2013 Topps Heritage Minors set

I sorted the cards from the hand collated set by their MLB parent teams and grouped them together by their Arizona Fall League affiliations - so I have them as extras for my AFL trip in case a player with a 2013 Topps Heritage Minors card gets added.

I might have missed listing at least a player or two, but the first set of cards I'm looking to get autographed are those featuring players already on AFL rosters:

Jorge Soler 
Corey Seager 
Eddie Rosario 
Mike Freeman 
Adalberto Mejia 
Kyle Crick 
Joe Wendle 
Eduardo Rodriguez 
Jorge Alfaro 
Kyle Parker 
Byron Buxton 
Max Kepler 
Zach Jones 
Alex Meyer 
Micah Johnson 
Peter O' Brien 
Marcus Stroman 
James Ramsey 
Stephen Piscotty
Stephen Romero 
Tyler Austin 
Patrick Kivlehan 
Trevor May 

In the mail box - 2013 Topps Heritage Minors A.J. Jimenez SP #217

I thought I needed this card so I picked one up for about $4 - before the card could make it's way to me, I found out that he was hurt, so I can't get the card signed anytime soon.

The best I can do is hope Jimenez can reaches the Major Leagues in 2014 and actually travelling with the Toronto Blue Jays - just my luck, but I also pulled a Jimenez out of my recent break, so I guess I'm really out to corner the market for his 2013 Topps Heritage SP card.

2013 Topps Heritage Minors box break recap

I made a card shop trip to bust either several packs or splurge for a box - while it might not be a MLB product, I try to hold out for something like the minor league version of Topps Heritage because I feel like there is a chance to get cards of new players, even if they are still plying their trade in the minors.

This product is not without its share of flaws such as Topps using the same images from other products i.e. Jimmy Nelson and his 2013 Topps Pro Debut - it's kind of sneaky how Topps uses the same image, but just slaps on a new template to get a new card.

For the cards that have duplicate images, it would have nice to see an original image used - even if it costs a little more to buy the rights to use more than one image.

Also, more than a handful of players also have had Topps Heritage Minors cards in previous years - I assume there is a checklist planned out way in advance and as redundant as it seems, Topps just wants to have a list they don't have to worry about updating too much.

Too bad any cards of 2013 draft picks are being saved for Bowman Draft and other products - I would have like to see guys like Mark Appel [No.1], Kris Bryant [No. 2], Jonathan Gray [No.3], Clint Frazier [No.5] and Colin Moran [No.6] make their cardboard pro debuts in minor league Heritage.

Back to the actual recap, I got 187/200 of the base 1-200 set along with four dupes - the collation was pretty good and I'm not worried about the following cards I didn't pull since I have a hand collated set coming in.

3 David Dahl
4 JR Murphy
18 Rafael Montero
24 Mike Freeman
43 Tyler Naquin
65 Jake Thompson
78 Bruce Maxwell
98 Roberto Osuna
115 Edward Salcedo
145 Patrick Kivlehan
166 Cesar Hernandez
192 Taylor Jungmann
200 Oscar Taveras

I pulled 19 assorted inserts / parallels

Two Real One autographs; 1:14
#ROA-MA Matt Andriese - the autographs I pulled look fine in-hand, though from the images I posted, it looks like the autograph has bled or smeared on the sticker.
#ROA-BM Brandon Meredith - on card autographs would really be great for this product, though that maybe a pipe dream.

One Commemorative Logo Patch
#MP-JG Joey Gallo - maybe I'd rather pull a manufactured card like this than some random single-swatch game used card of some unknown minor leaguer; at least it looks like there was some effort in putting together cards like these.

Two black bordered parallels; 1:11
#107 Andrew Susac - serial #'d 07/96
#141 Ross Stripling - serial #'d 03/96

One base Venezuelan parallel; 1:24
#108 Enny Romero 

Four SP's; 1:6
#208 Chris Stratton
#212 Chase - That Golden Thunder Bat Dog
#214 Christian Bethancourt
#217 A.J. Jimenez

Six The Road To The Show inserts; 1:4
#RTTS-AM Raul Mondesi
#RTTS-CCR C.J. Cron   
#RTTS-GS Gary Sanchez 
#RTTS-BS Bubba Starling 
#RTTS-TG Taylor Guerrieri 
#RTTS-TA Tyler Austin 

Four 1964 Bazooka inserts; 1:6
#64B-BB Byron Buxton
#64B-GP Greogry Polanco
#64B-KC Kyle Crick
#64B-MD Matt Davidson  

One Be a Pro Player For a Day Contest Card

Four dupes
#46 Corey Oswalt
#130 James Paxton
#133 Trevor May
#190 Brett Bochy