Spring Swan Song - Ed Smith Stadium

Decided to hit one more Spring game before the boys head north for the Summer and brought my daughter along with me for Daddy/Daughter time. 

Don't let her stink face fool you she had a good time.  It was pouring down rain the whole way down until right before we got to the stadium the sun came out. 

She got her ball signed by 5 guys including Eddie Perez as shown here. 

Tyler Flowers also came over and signed for both of us.

We headed down to the bullpen to watch Matt Wisler warm up just before game time. Once he headed out to the mound I spotted Daniel Winkler and asked him if he could sign this card for me.

He did as well as my daughters ball, he signed for every kid waiting for him to leave the stadium as well later that night. He pitched a scoreless frame in relief, striking out the side in the eighth. 

Rain sucks but man does it make for some pretty sunsets after. 

We were already out way past get bedtime so I took my daughter down to where the players get on the buses for a few more autographs. I caught McDowell finally, almost asked him to inscribe it with "the other spitter" 

I've already gotten Wisler once this Spring but figured why not get a rookie card signed and I even gave a spare flagship rookie to a little kid that didn't have any to get signed. All told it was a great night at the ballpark and it even waited until we got in the car to begin pouring again.

Spring Training - Braves vs Pirates Champion Stadium

Went to the Braves Pirates game at Disney today. We showed up early and caught both teams BP.

I got my first 2016 card signed by rotation lock Matt Wisler.

Officially official

Andruw Jones and Dale Murphy watching BP

Adonis Garcia signing for fans. 

John Gant also signed a card I brought and is in fact skinny as a Wednesday newspaper as Ben Ingram said on the radio the other day.

Watched top prospect Josh Bell work on grounders for a while, he was out there whole BP until he hit in the last round.

Rio Ruiz warming up right before the game.

Phil Niekro just before tossing out the first pitch.

Got one more autograph that got smudged right before the game. Hopefully first half Jace from last year reappears. 

Folty right before game time.

Bud Norris to Polanco

Finally top Pirates prospect Tyler Glasnow, Jameson Taillon came on to pitch right after him.

It was a perfect day for baseball and despite paying 30 bucks for Spring tickets it was a good time despite the Braves losing 9-6. I got to see Dansby and Ozzie Albies play together for the first time and it was good to see Markakis get a homer. Thanks for stopping by. 

First Look - 2015 Bowman's Best

Bowman's Best is back this year taking the place of Sterling and Platinum. Sterling seemed to be nothing but prospect sticker autos which i'm not a fan of but Platinum was a very good looking set the last couple years so i'm sad to see it go. Bowman's Best is back and to be honest it kind of snuck up on me, I was really excited about Draft and 2 weeks later Best dropped and I didn't even notice until I started seeing cards pop up on the Bay. Well one particular card caught my eye and I jumped all over it..

Touki!!! His first autograph pictured as a Brave, I've bid on a few of his 2015 Bowman autos with him as a Diamondback but they keep going out of my range. I saw this card and knew it must be mine so I put in a higher bid and won it for less than $8 shipped. Not bad for a brand new product of a top prospect. In Touki's earlier cards he's listed as Dany Touissaint so I'm guessing that what the large "D" in his signature is signifying. 

The back is rather boring with the customary "Congratulations" spiel.

The same seller had combined shipping so I added this Wisler to the cart and got both cards for around $15. I got a Padres card signed by Matt when they played the Rays here but this is my first auto with him as a Brave. I like the simple full bleed design of these cards, the atomic refractors from this set look really sharp. I just won the Kolby Allard from this set the other day for cheap so I now have 3 of the 4 Braves in the autograph checklist. I'll wait on Braxton Davidson as I already have a few of his autos. Anyways did any of you guys buy the $100 boxes, I know for 4 hits that's not bad but I am far too cheap to take that gamble. I'll stick to cherry picking the guys I want for now.

Braves @ Rays - 8/11/2015 IP AUTO

I went to the Braves game in Tampa St. Petersburg tonight and all I got was this stinking card!

Showed up a little before 5:30 as that's the time on the Rays website that the Braves would be taking BP and walked up to a line to get in the stadium. I guess the Rays don't care if there fans get to see the home team take BP or maybe they didn't take it today.. oh well. Saw about as much Braves jerseys as Rays gear. Caught most of Atlanta's batting practice still, Jonny Gomes is a bad man in BP.

Wandered down to the visitor's dugout area with my daughter to try and snag her a ball and me some autographs, it was already packed so I was only able to grab the Wisler but that was good enough for me and my daughter got a ball so all was well. In the end the Rays won a pitcher's duel 2-0 on a 2 run homer by Kevin Kiermaier in the 7th inning. Still it was my son's first regular season Braves game and the family had a good time so no complaints here just wish the Rays would get a real baseball stadium, I might actually try to follow them if they did.

Me and my daughter at Sam's Club Tropicana Field

Card Show: Vintage, Minis and Bubblegum

Went to the card show with my daughter on Saturday and picked up a little bit of everything - $1 autos, quarter vintage, dime boxes, Pokemon cards, etc. 

Got this beat up '72 Lou Brock for a quarter because it looked well loved. It's beat up but I like it.

Couldn't turn down this '74 Dock Ellis card for 25 cents, in pretty good shape.

This '66 Mazeroski is a little banged up but had to get it of the 1960 World Series Hero

Didn't have any cards of The Big Train so I picked this one up. Love the magazine cover look.

My first '58 Topps of  Bob "Hawk" Taylor, why don't ballplayers have cool nicknames anymore? Their all just First name initial/shortened last name: J-Hey, JUP, MadBum, Cutch... boring.

Had to grab this pair of '68 Bravos, even though i'm not a big fan of the '68 design.

The guy I bought the vintage from had quarter wax packs too and I picked up a '88 Topps just because it's the year I was born and it HAD GUM INSIDE. Should I eat it, looks like a nice black mold spot there on the bottom. It was fun peeling this open even if the cards were no good.

Ultra Rare 1/1 gum stained back guys!

At least the pack had a Hall of Famer, the other guys I didn't even recognize.

I don't really like minis (hard to store) but had to get these for 5/$1

These are minis too, another Wisler whoo!

I know it's only June but it's nice to look at this card and see we got 3 of San Diego's top 5 Prospects plus Cameron Maybin for a rental and a closer (even if he is the best closer in the game)

These aren't mins but fit in nicely being prospects we got from San Diego. Matt Wisler's MLB stat line 8IP 1ER 0BB, not bad for his first start.

As always thanks for reading and i'll have more cards from the card show tomorrow.

Wisler Time: Another Debut

Matt Wisler, acquired from the Padres with Cameron Maybin for Craig Kimbrel and Melvin Upton Jr. amongst others on Opening Night, will be making his Major League debut tonight against the New York Metropolitans in a critical series if the Braves really want to contend for the division this year.

I don't have a lot of his cards, he's only been a Brave for about 2 and a half months but I like this one in a camo jersey. He has a plus fastball (93-95mph) with a good enough curve ball and a decent changeup according to scouting reports. He had pitched well in AAA, earning 2 International League player of the week nominations, up until his last start where he gave up 7 earned runs in only 3.2 innings pitched.

I'm just excited to see what he's got against a so-so Mets offense who have been terrible away from Citi Field, if you have any cards of Wisler's not shown here I want them and will trade for them.