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Sunday, July 12, 2015

Striking while the iron isn't hot

Sadly, injuries can make cards more affordable. My Michael Pineda collection flourished during his 2+ years of injury. Now, it's hard to get his better cards at a decent price, even with his up and down season.

The same tends to go for prospects. Jacob Lindren, the Yankees first pick in the 2014 draft, was on the fast track to the Major Leagues. In turn, his cards went up quite a bit with the anticipation that he'd be an important part of the Yankees bullpen.

Lindgren finally got called up, and he was ok. He had some good outings, and a few rough ones. After dominating AAA, he pitched in seven games for the big club, striking out eight but allowing three HRs. Welcome to The Show, Rook! This ain't the minors!

He was then optioned to AAA, and it later came out that he was on the DL. He had a bone spur removed from his elbow, although the timeframe for his recovery is less than 12 weeks. Still, I'm not sure how timing will work for the rest of the season and if he'll be back in time to help in September. Even if he is, he might not pitch in meaningful games. Or the Yanks will play it conservative with him. Who knows?

Still, he's just 22, and has a bright, bright future as a reliever.

Since the rocky debut, the prices of his cards have settled down quite a bit. I was able to grab his Bowman Chrome auto, as well as this Topps Pro Debut gold parallel auto for quite a bit less than I would have been a month ago. Injuries suck, but sometimes you gotta strike while guys are on the shelf.


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2 comments:

  1. RAZJuly 12, 2015 at 11:16 AM

    One of my main player collections right now is Jon Singleton, one of the Astros' struggling 1B/DH types. He spent most of the season down at AAA after struggling in Spring Training and recently got called up after the George Springer injury. He's been struggling quite a bit on the MLB club, too, and that means his cards are super cheap. I've been picking up a lot of them without any competing bids on eBay. Of course, if he never gets it turned back around his career won't take off and I'll be stuck with a bunch of cards featuring a never-was.

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  2. Zippy ZappyJuly 12, 2015 at 12:02 PM

    Nice additions.

    And I agree. Luis Torrens' injury has allowed me to scoop up a few key cards for prices that would've been way out of my league had he been healthy and hitting 1.000 in Tampa this year.

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