Welcome to the show, Adam Warren

Tonight, RHP Adam Warren makes his MLB debut. With two starters suddenly on the DL, the Yanks have been forced to call up reinforcements from AAA Scanton-Wilkes Barre. Unfortunately, Manny Banuelos is out with a sore elbow, so Adam Warren gets the call.

Warren is a big righty out of UNC who projects as a back of the rotation starter. I'd love to see him come in and have a few solid starts and give the team a boost.

I've gotten Warren twice TTM, so that makes me like him even more. Good luck tonight, Adam!

Rags auto from the Dime Box master

This took me forever to post, mostly out of sheer laziness. Nick from Dime Boxes pulled this sweet 2012 Archives Dave Righetti auto. Now, he didn't get it from a dime box, although I wouldn't put it past him. I saw the card and wanted it. One, I love 1986 Topps, and two, I didn’t have a Rags auto, so I contacted Mr. Dime Box himself about it. We hammered out a trade, and I could not be happier with the card.

I like Rags' signature. It’s a little goofy and loopy, but so is the name Righetti, so it fits in perfectly.

Nick also sent me an awesome assortment of Yanks, some I’m certain coming for hapless dime boxes all over the Chicago area that don't know what hit 'em.
 

Here is an assortment of cards he sent, including some oddballs that I haven’t seen before, and a large assortment of 1988 Pacific Legends cards.

Thanks for a great deal, Nick!

Tino Tuesday #46: 1991 Bowman #257

I can't say this is my favorite early Bowman Tino Martinez. I like it better than 1989, but less than 1992. However, as a player collector, it's a necessary card to own.

It was really the last year of the cardboard stock, as they went a glossier in 1992 forward. It feels like an early or mid-80s card. The purples and blues don't really do it for me, but the player's name is very legible. On Bowman cards, which are filled with young players and prospects, I'd prefer that the player's position be on the front of the card since many are unknown to the average collector.

Tino's pose is pretty generic. It was definitely from spring training, as he didn't make his MLB debut until later in 1991. The clouds in the background are pretty cool.

Overall, not my favorite Bowman, but not the worst either.

A careless Series Two card

I was flipping through a few 2012 Topps Series Two cards and noticed this Vlad Guerrero. It’s a checklist card noting his accomplish as the All Time Domincan Hits Leader. Certainly a feat worthy of celebration.  

Upon closer look at the card and the text below Vlad’s name, Topps carelessly covered up part of the word “All” with the Orioles logo. It’s a minor detail, but it looks sloppy. It could have been easily avoided by shifting the text over to the right, or down, or even stacking it and making it two rows. The designer of the card should have been more cognizant of this as well. Have a little pride in your work

Contest Winnings from Robert - Part 2

The second part of my prize from Robert at $30 A Week Habit was two packs of Series Two. I’m going to go out on a limb and say Robert picked these up at Walmart, as each pack contained a blue parallel.

I was happy to find this card as the blue parallel in the first pack. Yu Darvish! It’s my second Darvish, as I pulled a Bowman RC earlier this year.

I also received a Tim Lincecum A Cut Above insert, and a Golden Giveaway code which netted me a truly sweet, very rare Padres coin.

Contest Winnings from Robert - Part 1

I recently won a contest over at $30 A Week Habit. I seem to have good luck with contests over there. Anyhow, Robert was kind enough to send me a few packs and a stack of Yanks. I’m going to be pretty busy this weekend, so I’ll use the cards he sent as fodder to get me through a few posts.

I’ll start with the Jumbo pack of Topps Archives. Last year, I won a contest from Robert as well, and pulled this Starlin Castro relic. As someone who never pulls relics, this was awesome. 

 Well, Robert has the magic touch, as I pulled another relic this time! A BJ Upton jersey card. It’s already spoken for in a trade, but still very cool. That’s two relics I’ve pulled this year from Archives, which is awesome.

I also snagged a Don Mattingly SP. 

Tomorrow I’ll show off two packs of Series Two that Robert got me. No hits, but a cool parallel of a rookie who is a pretty big deal.

Father's Day card haul

For my first Father’s Day, I received a few gift cards. The little lady wanted to buy me baseball cards, but she didn’t know how to pick them out, so she gave me strict instructions to buy them with the gift cards. I used part of one to buy a hanger box and two jumbo packs of 2012 Topps Series Two. I hadn’t gotten any Series Two yet, so I wanted to see what they were all about.

Overall, I didn’t pull anything out of the norm, but I got a nice assortment of cards represented in Series Two. I like the inserts a lot more than Series One. I did pull an Andruw Jones gold foil card that was damaged. At first I was thinking that I was going to send it to Topps to replace, but now that I think about it, I don’t really care about the damage. Not worth the hassle.

I did get three Golden Giveaway codes and unlocked three lame coins that don’t even have chocolate in the middle.

TTM Success: Danny Hultzen

Most TTMs I send out are of Yankees, whether it’s past, present, or future players. However, occasionally I will send to other players I am fans of, or even top prospects on the cusp of the Major Leagues that I’ve been keeping an eye on.

I just got a success from Mariners prospect Danny Hultzen. The #2 overall selection in the 2011 draft, he was ranked as the #21 prospect in all of baseball coming into this season by Baseball Ameria, and he’s pitched well in Double A this year. He sports an 8-3 record with a 1.19 ERA in 75 innings pitched. The M’s have a lot of young pitching prospects poised to help the big league club, and Hultzen will help sooner rather than later.

He signed this card for me in nine days in care of the Jackson Generals.