Be careful what you comment on...

... because it might just come true!

A few weeks back, I made an innocent comment on one of Collecting Cutch's post about - shockingly - Andrew McCutchen.

He was showing off a few McCutchen Yankees autographs (yes, there are a few out there). I really enjoyed Cutch's 1.5 months as a Yankee. It was awesome to see him in NY rocking the Pinstripes, although it was hot garbage he couldn't wear 22 because the corpse of Jacoby Ellsbury still had it. Anyhow, I made a simple comment, "I need to pick up a McCutchen Yankees autograph sometime."

That was it. Innocent, right?

And a few days later, a bubble mailer showed up in my mailbox. And this was in it:

Are you kidding me?! It's not like these are a dime a dozen. This was waaaay too generous. To boot, this is the EXACT autograph of McCutchen I would have targeted. Brian assured me this was a dupe for him. But still!

I was ecstatic. 

Of course, with Collecting Cutch, it never just ends there. Look at this! A giclee print of an art card by Edward Vela, signed on the back by the artist! Gorgeous.

I had seen the word "giclee" a few times, but wasn't sure what it meant. 

Hmph, well that makes sense. That is indeed what it is. Also I was pronouncing it "Gick-lee" which is very wrong.

And more and more Cutch cards. I feel like I have a nice mini-collection of him simply from the extras Brian throws into packages.

And look how far into this post I got without even showing a 2020 Topps DJ LeMahieu autograph. Nearly a perfect card. And look, he wore #26 right after Cutch did! I never thought about that.

And this absolutely beauty of a Jesus Montero card. If this were 2012, it would go for a pretty penny. Remember to sell your prospect cards, kids.

This Austin Jackson/Joey Devine card is awesome! Itr's numbered 2/2 (weird!). Austin Jackson has had a really good career. Somehow he's still just 33, although he has played for 7 teams. Still, he's a .273 career hitter, with over 1100 hits. That...is a solid big leaguer. He's made over $31Million as well. Good for him.

And least but not least, a custom from Collecting Cutch himself! I have been assured this is Yoda, not Shrek.

What a very generous gift he sent me.

Now I'm going to go find someone posting about a Trout RC and casually mention it would be nice to have one...

Prospects will break your heart

Yesterday, Baseball America released their pre-season Top 100 prospect list. Despite graduating guys like Clint Frazier to the Big Leagues and trading away James Kaprielian, Dustin Fowler, Jorge Guzman, and Jorge Mateo, the Yankees still landed six prospects in the top 100:

6. SS Gleyber Torres
38. OF Estevan Florial
41. LHP Justus Sheffield
59. 3B Miguel Andujar
77. RHP Albert Abreu
81. RHP Chance Adams

What’s interesting here is that at least four of them could help the Yankees in 2018 (Torres, Sheffield, Andujar, and Adams), while Florial and Abreu are a little further off.

As exciting as that is, it’s hard not to be reminded that prospects will, without fail, break your heart. I’d love for each of the six guys mentioned above to be All-Stars, but that’s just now how life in baseball works. If the Yankees get one All-Star (Torres?) and a few solid major league contributors from this list, it’s successful. Heck, one All-Star alone is successful.

That’s not to poo poo on these guys or rain on their parades. I hope they all develop into something. But looking back over the course of this blog from its start in 2011, I can count handfuls of guys I was excited about. Looking back, it’s hard to image that excitement now.

Each of these guys were highly regarded at one point or another, especially through the early stages of this blog. Some were probably built up a little too much as a result of a poor farm system for a few years.

That’s not to say any of these guys are bad players. They just didn’t make it (or haven’t yet), like many others who came before them. Montero was huge prospect ranked right alongside Bryce Harper and Mike Trout. Banuelos was the little lefty that could that ran into injury problems. Mason Williams had a few cups of coffee. Bichette came out of the gates strong but never could replicate that early success. Refsnyder hit in the minors but never got regular opportunities in the Majors.

It seems like forever ago that these guys were the next big thing, and I’m curious what I’ll be writing about the six guys on this year's Top 100 list in another six years.

COMC Black Friday: The Autos

Am I behind in sharing my Black Friday haul from COMC? Probably. I was going through a few envelopes, and realized that I had never posted on my last delivery, which were a bunch of Yanks purchased on Black Friday. Combine that with my lack of new cards to show off and topics to write about, and now I've got a little fodder while I wait for some darn TTMs to trickle in.

There's nothing too fancy here, as it was more bargain bin shopping, but still, a couple of neat cards that I got for super cheap prices.

Stuck in 2011, this was a card I wanted but never got. Obviously Jesus Montero is a failed prospect - and failed Big Leaguer at this point - but for awhile, he was the #3 prospect in the game behind two guys - Trout and Harper. Pretty good. I always liked the way this card looked, and it was a tough pull. In November of 2016, I bought this for a little over $1. Prospects - they'll break your heart!

Gosuke Katoh looked like he was on his way to becoming a top Yankee prospect, but he's had a tough go of it the last few seasons. He's still just 22, so perhaps he can still make some strides this season. However, it's fair to say he's quite behind a bunch of middle infield prospects right now. I've always liked him though, and am pulling for him to put it all together this year.

Drew Finley is a guy that's easy to forget about, but he's a Top 20 Yankees prospect according to MLB.com. He should get his first taste of full-season ball this year, and I wouldn't be shocked to see him become one of the Yankees better pitching prospects as the year goes on.

Lastly, a cool signed card of Angel Aguilar. I like his signature a lot. I don't know anything about this set, but it's a decent looking card.

A Fantastic PWE

Weston from the fantastic blog Fantastic Catch sent me an unexpected PWE a few weeks back. The highlight for me was two brand new Tinos that were new to my collection! I am missing a ton of cards from Tino's Cardinal years, and I needed these both.

The Topps 206 mini is pose C (of three possible poses), and the back is black Piedmont. The Donruss Studio is cool. I thought I had it, but I actually had the artist proof and not the base card, so I was pumped that I needed it.

Weston knows I love Yankee prospects, so here's a few are a few more, including a cool Pro Debut insert of the ice cream-sandwich-throwing Jesus Montero. Cripes.

Thanks, Weston!

TTM Success: Jose Campos

About a year and a half ago, the Yankees and M's swapped mega prospects. Michael Pineda and Jose Campos came to the Yankees in exchange for my personal favorite, Jesus Montero, and Hector Noesi. Thus far, the trade has been a disappointment on both sides. Pineda got hurt and missed all of 2012. However, he is about 3-4 weeks from returning, and apparently he's back to throwing in the mid-90s good off speed stuff. What a lift that would be.

Montero and Noesi have both been dreadful. In fact, Montero just got sent to the minors, and then got hurt. Part of me still wonders how he would have done as a full-time DH if the Yanks kept him.

Jose Campos was the little-known piece with a big arm coming off a good year in 2011. In 2012, he started strong at Low A Charleston, but an elbow injury shut him down for the year after just 24 innings. Many thought he was eventually going to be the best part of the deal. This year, he came back, but from what I've read hasn't shown the same stuff as he did before the injury. His velocity is down, and his breaking stuff isn't as sharp. He's still young though.

Campos signed his 2012 Bowman Chrome RC for me in about 3 weeks c/o Charleston Riverdogs. I was very happy to get this one back, and hope that he gets better as the summer progresses.

A Zipp-ity Zapp-ity doo dah trade

A few weeks ago, reader Kenny aka Zippy Zappy reached out about a possible trade. Zippy Zappy has been a frequent commenter on my blog, so I was all for it. As seen in many of his comments, he too is a Yankee fan. He mentioned he had some prospect cards and other goodies, and that he collects Cervelli, Posada, and Cano. I figured I had enough dupes around that I could help him out, and a trade was born.

Kenny’s package arrived first, as I was a slacker and took forever to send out my portion. Kenny exceeded any expectations I had by a longshot. He sent some sweet autos, a relic, and an overall large stack of awesome Yankee cards. I had been missing out by not trading with him sooner!

I’ll start with the autos. When he was my favorite Yankee prospect, I always coveted a Jesus Montero autograph. I was about 0 for 12 with him TTM. Although he’s no longer a Yankee, I’m thrilled that Kenny sent this:

These 2008 TriStar Projection cards were always a favorite of mine. I love the white, and signatures stick them very well. Kenny sent me a stack of the base cards and the foil parallels.

Here are a few more Montero and other prospects that Kenny included: 

Kenny also included two other autos of Yankee farmhands – Austin Romine and Daniel Brewer. Romine just got called back up to the Yankees to replace Frankie Cervelli. 

The Brewer is really interesting. His autographed card says “Danny Brewer”, but the base card says “Daniel Brewer.” I found that to be quite odd. 

Here is the relic that Kenny sent. I didn’t have any from 2012 A&G. 

Check out this sweet Sabathia. I have NO IDEA where this is from. It’s issued by Topps, but also co-branded with Sega. The back is in Japanese as well, and the stats appear to be some sort of rating system. It’s a very, very cool card. CC’s gut looks completely massive in this photo. For all you Dodger fans, Kenny also included a Matt Kemp Sega card. 

Here are some shiny inserts that really caught my eye. That Montero die cut is actually gold and #’d 03/25. I didn’t know there was a gold parallel for these. I couldn’t get it to scan well, but the gold is really cool…almost like a diagonal rain. 

 

Finally, Kenny added a few cards to my son’s HOF binder.

Kenny, this was a great, great trade. Thanks for being a loyal reader, and I hope to trade again soon.

Trading with Uncle Moe

I recently made a trade with our favorite Simpson’s bar-owner, Moe. Or Uncle Moe. He sent me a few Yanks from 2012 Topps Update, which was appreciated because I wasn’t really collecting at this time and didn’t have any. The highlight for me is the Jesus Montero Rookie Debut. I wish this were a whole set, instead of part of the set. I love reliving debuts. 

I’ve always loved getting cards of random players who briefly appeared in Pinstripes. They are great TTM subjects. This will be the case with this Darnell McDonald.

I love this Eric Chavez card. First off, it was taken during Boston’s Opening Day when they had that lame celebration where all the past players came out of that garage door in the outfield. Eric Chavez blasted two HRs this day in these old school NY uniforms. The Yanks won.

Moe, thanks for the trade!