At best he maybe a back up outfielder type or a guy that can bide his time by playing every day in AAA - hoping for a MLB call-up in case an injury happens.
I got this autograph when he played with the Lake Elsinore Storm - for whatever, random reason, I've always thought his facial features remind me of actor Mark Addy.
It's kind of an ugly card anyway, but the worst part is when the card arrived in the mail - the top right corner was bent out of shape like someone grabbed it and twisted it just a bit.
I don't know if it was damaged before it was shipped or if it was damaged during shipping - I suspected that it was because no decoys / dummy cards were used to sandwich the card and the bubble mailer used to ship the card to me was a little thin.
If it was a regular card, the damage would be more pronounced and too obvious to ignore, but the card is imperfect as is - to make the upper right part of the card a little bit more straight, I tried to flatten the card with a dumbbell.
I did contact the seller for an explanation and was offered a partial refund [minus s/h] - even though I was the one left with a damaged card, I just let things be because I'm looking to get the card signed and put it away.
A Kansas City prospect, Raul A. Mondesi hit only .211 in the minors this past season [with 24 walks and a 122 strike outs] - but with youth and potential on his side, he was still tagged by Baseball America as the Royals' number one prospect for 2015.
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I call for the player [Dwight Smith Jr. of the Mesa Solar Sox] for the ball and he throws it towards my direction - there was no one around me and I ended up with the ball; it's not quite a big deal because I'd like to think I'm all grown up, but I didn't have to worry about impulsively buying a program, a media guide or maybe a t-shirt.
Pompey has made a steady, unspectacular climb through the minors, but while he might not be a finished product, he is going to be 22 next year - he has speed to burn and if his other hitting attributes come together, he might be a top of the lineup threat for years to come.
However, there is no mistaking the fact that Judge is one large human being and sort of similar in stature the Miami Marlins' $325 million man Giancarlo Stanton - as is, looking the part is one thing, but Judge isn't quite projected to be the slugger Stanton has been.
If things fall into place, Judge maybe more of a very good MLB player [or even trade bait if it comes to that point for him as a New York Yankees' prospect] - rather than a player who can be a franchise player the Yankees can build around for years to come.
I like how his autograph 'pops' on the Team USA memorabilia card - the soon to be 24-year old New York Mets minor leaguer had a breakout season this past year and maybe ready to contribute at the MLB level in 2015.
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I think he was down to 'one per,' but was able to get my prints signed on successive nights [not without a glare from Edwards the second time] - I mumbled that the second was the last print I had for him in case he did remember getting me the night before.
I really should have just saved the $8 I spent on the packs, but I needed to justify the 20 minutes I spent at the card shop - in addition to trying to find something random in the quarter bins.
Pack one
I was 0-for-5 until I dug the Laird out of my loose stash of A-Z cards - looked at the back and saw all the fancy, non-traditional baseball stats.
I still have #135 Jake Odorizzi to check [for another Sabermetric variation] - but I think the Laird was my pull.
I do like cobbling together loose cards of the major award winners [Rookie of the Year, Cy Young and Most Valuable Player] - come awards season, I feel like I'm going to be able to make use of a few star cards [for the most part] that I'd normally overlook because I have too many in general to care about.
It's easier to do quick research with the Internet, so I looked up the cards and except for the 1965 Topps Embossed inserts of Willie Mays and Ernie Banks - the other cards were from the 1961 Golden Press set, when can sort of be defined as a vintage 'retro set' of cards.
I assume many of the cards are original - but I can't really say for all them and there might be a few reprints.
DeGrom only signed 2/4 cards, but I got some help with the two other unsigned cards - so all four cards were signed and I kept a couple for myself.
As is, maybe Conger gets an opportunity to play more, even with Jason Castro as the starting catcher in Houston - it looks like Conger might be facing a similar 'time share' situation, but it seemed like his MLB career stagnated in Anaheim.
Even though Conger was one of the Angels' top prospects for years - Chris Iannetta was just decent enough to stick around the past three seasons and there was never a sense of urgency to give Conger 400-450 at-bats to prove himself.
As is, the one-time Angels minor leaguer was traded for lefty Cesar Ramos and is now Tampa Bay Rays property - it's kind of peculiar that he was traded during the fall league [not in the off-season or even during the regular MiLB season perhaps].
While a player like Sappington is a pro and it's probably not as awkward as it might seem to the casual fan - I'm curious how it goes down where someone has to pull you aside and say you are part of a new organization, particularly when you are a player who might be trying to catch up after a disappointing year.
Not really knowing what to do with the rest of the cards past the 'key guys,' I started to get the cards signed in-person / TTM bit by bit - to this day I still hold out hope that I can get cards from the set signed, like the pair of cards I got inked up by the former MLB second baseman.
He maybe a clogger on the bases and also limited defensively - but he seems sort of a low key guy who just comes to the ballpark and play.
Pack one
#17 Michael Cuddyer
#22 Matt Adams
#BT-6 Troy Tulowitzki - Beam Team insert
#107 Zack Greinke
#176 Jeff Samardzija
Pack two
#105 Troy Tulowitzki
#95 Mark McGwire
#LDC-2 Greg Maddux - Legends insert
#153 Bryce Harper
#158 Hyun-Jin Ryu
Pack three
#161 Tony Gwynn
#194 Tom Seaver
#30 Andrew McCutchen
#77 Al Kaline - Rainbow parallel
#166 Mat Latos
Pack four
#11 Max Scherzer
#SCA-JSA Jarrod Saltalamacchia - auto
#91 Miguel Cabrera
#13 Stan Musial
#89 Yordano Ventura
Pack five
#130 Starlin Castro
#129 Hanley Ramirez
#59 Jonathan Schoop
#FA-5 Willie Mays - Field Access insert
#192 Brett Lawrie
Pack six
#85 Kolten Wong
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The cards featured were the ones I hoped to get him to sign in-person at some point - I'll probably keep them together to put in one of my mini-collections [beyond the glory] as a constant reminder that Taveras was supposed to be destined for stardom.
I had printed an image of the Taveras 2014 Topps Update card [#US-113, the Rookie Debut subset card] earlier in the year - it was great on Topps' part to sneak in a card of Taveras taking a curtain call after his first MLB home run in his first game.
It's amazing that the Giants didn't have Matt Cain, a past his prime Tim Lincecum was mostly unused and both of their veteran pitchers [Jake Peavy and Tim Hudson] really stunk it up - I was hoping the Royals would have one more run [literally] in them to change things around in Game 7, but the Giants still had Madison Bumgarner to close things out on his way to being named World Series MVP.
To watch the Royals lose was mildly disappointing because they had come so far and even though they snuffed out the Angels early in the Division Series - how they kept surging on was pretty impressive.
Maybe I check on the box score on ESPN when I can but I've pretty much set any interest aside besides bits and pieces I might find out - maybe I'm just weird, maybe I'm not a true baseball fan or maybe I'm just tired of all the narratives that would be pushed around the series by Fox perhaps, by the mainstream media and/or by the baseball analysts who focus on the numbers.
One thing is clear that San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Madison Bumgarner is just a beast - the guy might be some kind of country bumpkin [no offense] in more ways than one, but Bumgarner just takes the ball and sets batters down one-by-one like a machine.
In recent years, there was Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain and Tim Hudson in the Giants' rotation and while Bumgarner has always been well regarded - maybe the other guys have garnered much more of the attention.
Now it's kind of come to be that Bumgarner is the Giants' ace pitcher and there is a certain steeliness and confidence in which he pitches with that seems admirable - especially when he is only 25 years old.