Thursday, February 8, 2018

It's and there's still pack searchers at Target.

 Cards are back! Baseball is almost back! So yeah found some 2018 Topps last Tuesday a day early.


I didn't pull this card, Tony L of Off Hiatus sent it to me but I'll get there eventually. 


When I pulled up to Target with my Publix fried chicken meal ready to be destroyed in the food court. I saw this creeper searching packs and knew there had to be new cards so I grabbed 4 fresh ones. 


Nothing to great in there, trust me. That might be the only 8 dollars I spend on flagship this year. I paid 5 bucks for a team set on EBay then Tony sent me a whole other one plus that gloriously shining Albies RC shown above. 



I still scour EBay occasionally and scored my first Kyle Wright AUTO for about 6 bucks. 


Hit up the local monthly card show at the flea market and scooped up my first sampling of Topps Fire out of a 5/$1 box from my pal Whitey.


Ooh


Ahhh


My favorite player as a kid is a Hall of Famer. I'm officially old. 


Man this is almost a cool card but Donruss sucks so so bad.


Picked up this Dansby auto for ten. Crazy how far prices came down after a rough rookie campaign. 



I also picked up a couple hundred 2015/16/17 Stadium Club for cheap there as I am building those 3 sets. I need to finish up my want lists for those, if anyone has any for trade or needs any let me know as I have a lot of extras. 



Monday, January 29, 2018

2018 Atlanta Braves Preview Part 1 - Starting pitching

Is this the most boring offseason of all time? Yes, well I guess unless your a Yankees or a Brewers fan. God forbid your one of the 16 Marlins fans in the world, if you are just know I feel for you. But alas Winter is releasing it's cruel grasp on the world and we are only 2 weeks out from Pitchers and Catchers reporting! Of course that immediately starts the all too long Spring Training schedule but hey at least there's no WBC this year so it'll be 5 painful weeks until Opening Day instead of 6!


The Braves are loaded with young major league ready talent and that should keep the veteran retreads to a minimum this year. Gone are the Adonis Garcias, Erick Aybars, Bartolo Colons and Jonny Gomes' of the world. Enter Ozzie Albies, Luiz Gohara, Ronald Acuna (maybe not just yet, but soon) and Max Fried amongst other top prospects ready to showcase their talents in the Show.


With so many free agents still standing in the unemployment line and the Braves payroll hovering right around $100 million one or two signings could drastically change this outlook but I believe FanGraphs' ZIPs projections had Atlanta as a 79 win team. Not bad but not going to catch the Nats either. Let's take  a look at who will lead us to a glorious 80-ish win season! Playing the Marlins, Phillies and Mets 57 times should help!

ROTATION


Julio Teheran - The Braves ace and former top prospect has suffered something akin to prospect fatigue at the big league level. Braves fans are a fickle bunch and if they see the words "Number One Prospect" they expect superstar or bust and while a superstar Julio is not he's a 2 x All Star who recently passed Steve Avery in career bWAR. I know, I know Avery had shoulder issues and never got a chance to live up to his potential but the point is Teheran is better than Braves fans would have you believe despite the fact he'll probably never be a true ace. For his contract however a number 2/3 pitcher is just fine. The guy has a career 3.59 ERA (shoot me) and is going to give you a solid start every 5 days.



Mike Foltynewicz - Another former top prospect Folty as he's known around these parts was actually the Braves most valuable pitcher last season recording 1.8 fWAR. Steamer has him projected at 1.6 this year which seems about right, the guy has all the talent in the world as he runs it up to the upper 90s with ease he just has to put it all together. Everyone and their mother wants to ship him to the bullpen to be the "closer" but he's most valuable as a starter and that's where he'll stay for the time being. This will be his fourth season with the Braves, his 3rd as a full time starter so maybe he can turn the corner.



Brandon McCarthy - He would've been the Braves best pitcher last year if he were on the team producing 2.4 fWAR. He came over in the MASH unit trade with Kazmir for Kemp and others and should slot in the 2nd or 3rd slot in the rotation.


Sean Newcomb - A cold weather arm from Baaaahston, Newk will be entering his 2nd MLB season and seems to have a leg up on the competition for a rotation spot having spun exactly 100 inning last year. Like Folty he has all the stuff in the world but will strike out the side one inning then walk the bases loaded the next. Frustrating stuff but the fact is the guy has only pitched 450 professional innings and like I said was a cold weather arm. Which is why the Braves are still so high on him, I ran into now MLB pitching coach Chuck Hernandez in 2016 when he was the Braves roving minor league pitching coordinator at a backfield game in Lakeland and he was nice enough to answer a bunch of my stupid questions and we chatted for about 5 or 10 minutes about all the studs the Braves had in the minors at the time, out of all them he seemed most excited about Newcomb because of the raw potential. I am really high on the kid and am looking forward to what he does with a full season at the big league level.


This is where it gets tricky.. Luiz Gohara seems to have the inside track for the 5th starter spot after coming up late last year and showing off his ridiculous stuff, he was the hardest throwing LH SP in the major leagues last season after all but he's just 21 and has a stable of horses right on his tail for that very same spot.


Luiz Gohara - CC Sabathia Jr. makes 99 look easy as can be, and while he "only" has 2 pitches from talking to him after his Florida State League debut last season he actually throws 3 different versions of his slider according to the man himself. A hard slider, a softer version of it and a slurvy version depending on the batter and situation. The guy has barely over a 100 innings above A ball and could probably benefit from some time in Triple A if he were to struggle in Spring but he has as much raw talent as pitcher in the system and clearly has the stuff to put away big league hitters.


Max Fried - Now 2 full seasons removed from his Tommy John surgery, Fried had a rough start to 2017 in Double A but silenced all the doubters once he made his major league debut and looked great in doing so with 26 solid innings. He then went to the Arizona Fall League and absolutely dominated there, so he'll be coming into Spring Training with all the confidence in the world. While my money's on Touki Toussaint, Fried is not far behind for best curveball in the system and his fastball seems to have returned all of it's velocity. Unfortunately he suffered a few hiccups due to blisters last season so hopefully those don't pop up again.

Lucas Sims - Drafted all the way back in the stone ages - 2012 when men were men by God! Anyways Sims is a starter for now but has been pegged by several publications as destined for the bullpen. After 6 seasons as a full time starter though I doubt the Braves ship him out there just yet especially after he showed flashes last year in the bigs but then again with the guys listed before him and Soroka, Allard, Wright and a whole bunch more on the way it would not surprise me if he didn't head out to left field.


OK I was going to blaze through this tonight but it's midnight so I will make this a 3 parter instead with Position players tomorrow and bullpen whenever the hell I feel like it.



PS- Aaron Blair and Matt Wisler also still exist...




Monday, August 28, 2017

Flea Market Card Show

Went to my monthly flea market card show last weekend and got stuck in one vendor's boxes.


He had a bunch of 2017 Stadium Club for 5/$1. I loaded up as I'm building the set. Some great photos in this set.


Also grabbed a few 2016 Stadium Club out of a 8 for 1 box. 


Sepia love. If you need any of these let me know as they are all dupes in my set.


This black foil Tim Raines is probably my favorite out of the entire bunch. Great shot of old Olympic Stadium.



I'll add these into my set build unless someone needs them.



Something great about dugout shots.


If you know me you know I'm glad to see Dansby smashing since his return from AAA. Kolby Allard is having a hell of a year at Double A.


Maitan is starting to come around at Danville and Ozzie Albies is raking lately at 20 in the big leagues.


This one set me back a whole buck.



Missed these last year. The phoenix design is super 90's


Stoked on this kid, my first card of his. He's looked great in limited time in preseason. FINE ME LATER!


First 2017 Football cards, you know I'm riding with my Falcons, got Julio at 7 in my first fantasy draft yesterday so I was stoked on that. 

Sunday, March 19, 2017

Spring Training Overload

I've been to alot of games this Spring, 3 Braves big league games, a Rays game, a Braves minor league spring training game yesterday and the first workout. I think I've been to a ballpark every weekend since ST started.


I got this card signed by Willy Adames at the Rays game I went to down in BFE, I mean Port Charlotte. Nice kid who seemed surprised me and a buddy recognized him without his jersey.


Ran into former Brave Mallex Smith at the Rays game as well, super nice guy. Wish him the best of luck in Tampa this year, I might actually go to some of their games this year to see him play.


Here's a photo from the Braves / Phillies game in Clearwater a couple weeks ago.



Got recent pickup Adam Brett Walker to sign this card. Doubt he makes the team but he's shown off his plus power in ST so far. Big kid


My daughter actually got this one signed for me, Demeritte was in big league camp until recently but was reassigned to Mississippi. An excellent glove with plus power but just strikes out too much for now to make an impact with the big club. 


I've been in South Florida for work 3 of the past 4 weeks, the only good part is the card shop down there. This Muller parallel is one of a stack of cards I've picked up there in my 4 or 5 trips over there.


Shiny Chipper rookie reprint? OK


I caught Biddle's only inning of work at Big League ST in Clearwater as a Brave against his hometown team and the team that drafted him in the first round all the way back in 2010. He was making his first appearance since Tommy John and was hitting 94 with a solid breaking ball working for him.


I've seen Kemp a couple times this Spring and he looks more like the rookie card on the left than the Fatt Kemp of the last couple years. Hopefully he and Freeman can keep up what they had going on at the end of last year and the Braves can surprise some people this season.


2 Top Prospects from Georgia.


Always love thick cards like these especially when I can grab them out of a quarter box. Freeman will be in the MVP race again this year. 



Pretty excited the Braves brought back old favorite Kris Medlen on a minor league deal, he's recovering from injury and I don't think he's pitched yet but that's enough for me to pick up some of his cards again.



Sunday, March 5, 2017

2016 Gypsy Queen SPs

Finally sorting through my trade box after falling way behind on return packages. Skyline need either one of these?

I also have 100 or so 2017 flagship base I have no use for so if your building the set let me know and I'll try to help out. 



Wednesday, March 1, 2017

New? New to me anyways

Heritage came out today but I haven't found any yet. I'm usually a little behind on newer releases anyway. For example..


This is my first Topps Laser card I can't find it on ebay and they have a 1:400+ pull rate so for 2 bucks this is a nice addition to my FF5 PC.


Love the clean look on the inside. I'll have to check but I think this is my first booklet card. 


Hobby continuation card? Guess these came in silver packs that cheap non box busting collectors like myself never get to open buy its still the same card right?


2 more products I'll never open. My very first Gold Label card and my 2nd or 3rd 2016 Triple Threads which is super thick. 


Glad I've been able to pick up the Dansby rookies in the wild instead of on the net. Much cheaper that way. 


Finally tracked one of these down. I guess this year's EEE cards are all serial numbered. Ridiculous, hope to get this one signed soon.


Ooh shiny


Hopefully this guy's elbow heals up fully soon


I wouldn't mind this comp panning out, love Bogaerts game. Red Sox are stacked. 


One of my favorite Braves farm hands. Anyone know what these black gold refractors are called?


A common theme of the Braves rebuild is buying low on former 1st round picks.


Never seen this set before but was glad to pick up these 3 on the cheap. 


90's Stadium Club insert of Chipper. Yes please. 


Old gold refractor with awesome throw back socks.


Minis!


That purple blue Sutton is /250. Can never pass up critter Ginter minis


2 dollar autos.  Stadium Club ftw


1st Bowman 2 bucks!?


Hey man this guy has like power man


I got all of these plus some not shown for $30. STEAL


/99


Another recent waiver wire pickup with pop in the bat. Read he's a solid first baseman as well.


My first ever batch of Asia black refractors. I feel like Zippy Zippy. THanks for reading!