Friday the Zapteenth

A week or so ago, I got a nice bubble mailer – or a mini zapping – as he referred to it, from Zippy Zappy himself. While I don’t think it’s fair to classify it as a “mini” anything, I have been on the receiving end of his major zaps before, so I understand what he’s saying.

Still, it was a fun, generous package.

The highlight for me was this IP Domingo German autograph. I believe Zipster said he got this from an acquaintance who knows German, and he had two cards signed. He immediately said one was for me, which was so cool.

German has a lot of talent. He came to the Yankees from the Marlins in the Martin Prado/David Phelps for Nathan Eovaldi trade in 2014. After undergoing TJ Surgery in 2015, he made his big league debut last year and was called up to the Majors again last week. He had a nice outing in mop up duty of Sonny Gray last night, firing three innings of one-hit ball while striking out three.

 

Keeping it to autographs, we’ve got two: Mark Melancon and Nathan Mikolas. The Melcancon tricked me. It looks like a sticker but it’s not…it just has the outline there, I guess for the other stickers or so they all look the same, I don’t know. But the outline definitely make me believe it was a sticker autograph until I took the card out to scan it.

I just came across this great article that Mikolas is now acoach in the Marlins system. I hadn’t heard of him since the Yankees released him after the 2016 season, so cool to see he’s now on the other side helping to prepare young players.

Sweet relic of Chien-Ming Wang. I will never forget how running the bases ruined his career.

 

TTM fodder! I am definitely going to send these three cards out for a signature. I love the Bristro card from 2017 Choice. Also, Otto and Bristro have some very pun-able names, so I hope we get to see them with the Yankees one day.

And two cards of the Baby Bombers! While the Topps NOW inserts were a bit of an odd inclusion in 2018 Topps, it’s still a new Judge card. And Topps Fire was straight <fire emoji>, so that’s a great RC of the Yankees new villain Tyler Austin.

So sure, maybe it was “mini” compared to some previous zappings, but it still packed a big punch. Thanks, ZZ!

2018 Opening Day Lineup

Opening Day! Very exciting. The Yankees stink on Opening Day, so I fully expect a loss. In fact, they've lost 6-straight Opening Days. That's bad!

But I'm excited. Hopefully this is the year to get in the W column on day 1.

Here's the lineup the Yankees will trot out there today. Best of luck to all of your teams - except the Red Sox.

LF - Brett Gardner

RF - Aaron Judge

DH - Giancarlo Stanton

C - Gary Sanchez

CF - Aaron Hicks

SS - Didi Gregorius

3B - Brandon Drury

2B - Neil Walker

1B - Tyler Austin

SP - Luis Severino

Here's what I'm thinking

Accidentally, I haven’t posted since Friday. I don’t love a few-day absence, but I haven’t gotten many new cards lately, am still working on my re-organization (or rather, just “organization) project, and have been a bit busy in both my personal and professional life. So the blog took a back seat.

And while I still haven’t gotten too many new cards, I do have a few thoughts as Opening Day is just two days away. I’m very excited, and it’s hard not to be when seeing things like this:

Still, I know everything won’t go perfectly. It never does, and the Yankees (and every other team) will need to adjust on the fly. Case in point:

Greg Bird. I really like the guy. I love his personality and I think he has the sweetest lefty swing in the game right now. Just look at his homer in the ALDS versus lefty Andrew Miller. It’s a thing of beauty.

Bird has been dubbed the Yankees 1B of the present and future, yet has missed three straight Opening Days, including this one. He should be out 6-8 weeks after foot surgery today. Hopefully the comeback is smooth and he rejoins the lineup in June and takes his place in the middle of the order, but it’s getting a bit hard to count on him. I really, really like him and want him to be part of this Yankees core over the next few years. But it also wouldn’t be unreasonable for the Yankees to start thinking about the post-Greg Bird solution at 1B, whether it’s drafting one in the first round or trading/signing for one in his prime.

Hey Bryce Harper, any interest in playing 1B?

Starting at 1B on Thursday will probably be Tyler Austin, especially against lefty J.A. Happ. Austin has always hit in the minors, and should get an extended look to be a part of the every day lineup. I’ve always liked him a lot, and would love to see him see some prolonged success in the Majors. Plus, I have a lot of cards of his!

Jacoby Ellsbury.

I’m not sure what to really say about him. He was signed to a very large contract and hasn’t lived up to it. As Brian Cashman always says, he’s the one to blame for the contract, not Ellsbury. He’s right. I would have taken the money. You would have too. Still, it’s hard to believe he’s got three years left on his Yankees deal.

What’s harder to believe is that he still keeps finding his way into current card releases. I know he’s a Yankee and all, but I can’t imagine he has a big card market. Red Sox fans likely soured on him after the Yankees deal. And Yankee fans likely wouldn’t want his Red Sox cards, nor his current cards. Personally, I wouldn’t mind is he was omitted from future releases in 2018 and beyond, but I don’t see that happening.

One guy I’m happy to see returning for his 10^th year in Pinstripes is CC Sabathia. He has now got 10 years in NY, and then 8 in Cleveland and part of 1 in Milwaukee. That makes me feel better about his chances of wearing an NY hat into Cooperstown if that day comes. I think he’ll be a HOFer – a Cy Young, a World Series, 60+ WAR, 2800+ Ks, 3.70 ERA (mostly in the AL), 7 All-Star selections, 237 wins, 10 post-season wins. It’ll be close for sure, but the numbers are there. Maybe he'll win 13 this year and get to 250. That sounds a lot better than 237.

And if you haven’t taken a listen, I recommend his R2C2 podcast with Ryan Ruocco. It’s really good. The episode with A-Rod was terrific.

Lastly, I’m excited for year 2 of Jordan Montgomery. All winter, the Yankees were thought to be seeking another SP, whether it was Gerrit Cole or a free agent like Alex Cobb. They stood their ground, and in turn, Montgomery once again joins the rotation. Maybe he’s not the sexiest name, but he had a very good rookie year and think he can be a mid-rotation starter for a long time. And he throws with his left hand!

All-in-all, should be a fun season. Can’t wait!

The scanned folder is empty

This is an unsual time for me.

With the three cards featured in this post, my scanned folder is empty. Zilch. No cards waiting to be written about (aka "showed and telled" because let's be honest, that's what my posts are).

This won't be the case for long. I have a few purchases currently en route. I have a bunch of cards from my childhood waiting to be scanned and discussed. I have an organization project which I'm actually making progress on. But for now, it's a funny feeling to look in the folder and see zero cards left.

So what do we have? Three of the last cards from my COMC Black Friday order.

At this time last year, Gary Sanchez cards were all the rage. While he's still a tremendous player, he's getting overshadowed by a few of his teammates, and his card prices have fallen into a much more manageable range, especially for base cards and non-rare inserts. Here are two that set me back a dime or so a piece, which was impossible to say last off-season.

The last is one of the many Tyler Austin cards featuring RC logos in 2017. This season is pretty much make or break for Austin. He'll play most of it at age 26, but really needs to 1. stay healthy and 2. HIT! in order to find meaningful at bats this season. I'm still a fan of his, but I also know the Yankees aren't going to wait around forever for him to contribute.

I like him a lot, and hope he finds a niche with the team, as he seems like a very good dude that is well-liked. He also just got engaged, so congrats to him!

And with that, the folder is empty. For now.

Mega fun opening a Mega Box

The term Mega Box confuses me a little bit.

The box tends to be larger than a traditional blaster, so I guess “mega” works. But then I open it and there are 7 packs, and a lot of empty space. Not so mega.

Anyhow, I recently made a Target run and was happy to find a bunch of these so-called Mega Boxes from 2017 Topps Chrome Update.

But first, I had to navigate through the carts of people’s unwanted crap. Always fun.

There were a probably 10-12 of the Chrome Update Mega Boxes, which was a nice site. I only chose one, knowing how my luck in retail usually goes.

Overall, I think I did fairly well. No SiCk HiTz, but the very first card in the first pack was this:

Nice. I also got the other rookie people tend to like.

And my best insert seeded 1:56 happened to be a Yankee #’d to 99, which doesn’t happen often.

And a Sanchez and Domingo German, so that was cool too.

The Rookie Cup inserts are seeded 1:2, and I ended up with four, so I slightly beat the odds. I was obviously most pleased with the Jeter, but the Bench and Seaver are pretty sweet too.

So while Mega Box might be a little confusing, the cards look great and they were fun to open. So I guess this qualifies as a mega success.