Scantastic

I only have three cards in my "scanned" folder right now, so let's clean it out, shall we?!

I am never this low on scans, and I guess I attribute it to moving and getting very few packages/TTMs lately...which is fine by me for now while I get settled. I actually have a box of 2016 Topps Bunt due at my house today. While I'm not necessarily a fan of the digital product, I was able to score a full hobby box for $25. Ripping 36 packs for a little more than a blaster? That was too good to pass up.

Anyhow, all three cards in my scanned folder happen to be Bowman autos of some solid Yankees prospects.

Here are just two of the glutton of shortstops the Yankees have in the minors. Kyle Holder is a whiz with the glove and was selected by the Yankees in the first round of last year's draft. While he didn't hit much last year, he's holding his own in low-A, hitting at a .275-ish clip. With his D, if he can hit .260-.280, he'll be an everyday SS in the Bigs.

Wilkerman Garcia was very hyped up heading into the season, ready to follow Jorge Mateo as the next big Yankees SS prospect. He had a great year as a 17-year-old in the GCL. He was aggressively pushed up to Pulaski as an 18-year-old this season, and has struggled a bit, hitting below .200. Still, he's just 18 and getting regular at bats, so the results aren't super important right now. He still projects well and is rated 12th in the Yankees system by MLB.com, which is impressive after their trade deadline haul.

Domingo Acevedo is one of the better pitchers in the system, and he's had an impressive year. He's a large kid - 6'7", but has shown very good control, striking out 102 while walking just 22 in 92 innings between Charleston and Tampa. I'd expect him to head to Trenton soon, as he's just getting back from the DL. It'll be fun when 6'7" Acedveo pitches eight strong innings then hands a lead over to 6'8" Dellin Betances.

Ok, the scanned folder is officially empty, but I know it won't stay that way for long!

Napkin Doon defaces the card of the year

Napkin Doon has defaced the Card of the Year ™, a crime punishable by banishment from the blogging community. However, he hasn’t done a blog post in over two years, so I guess that isn’t going to work. Next worst punishment: being featured on my blog.

Why he did it, we’ll never know. Actually, I do know. He is a Rangers fan, and hates Jose Bautista. He hates him so much he asked me to get him an NY Post from the day that Rougned Odor punched Bautista in the face. I obliged, and Napkin Doon sent me some cards in return.

Outside of this custom work of art, there were great Yankees in the batch:

Three Jose Canseco Yankee cards for my Unofficial Jose Canseco Yankees PC. I needed these.

My favorite card of the bunch is easily this framed Gypsy Queen Gary Sanchez. Little did Nap know he was sending me a cool parallel of a one day AL MVP.

Here is another future MVP, Jorge Mateo, on yellow Bowman parallel. His prospect status has cooled down a lot, but I’m still going to gobble up his cards.

Wow, another MVP. This time, MVP of the 1999 ALCS. This is not one of the cooler insert sets of the 1990s, although I’m sure Adidas would disagree.

I like Oscar Gamble. A lot. He had some goofy hair. But why can’t I get Tino in an Archives set?

Speaking of Tino!

Boom. Love this vintage. Elston Howard, one of the most underrated Yankees of all time.

This Bernie is sweet. Eat your heart out, Mike Trout.

And the best of the rest!

Napkin Doon, next time put your high-end artistic skills to work in a more positive way, ok?

Well...at least Pineda is still here?

A few minutes ago, I read a piece on River Ave Blues (my favorite Yankees blog) about the fact that the Yankees have an abundance of upper level hitters (did I just say that?), but are lacking in the pitching department. Then, news broke that Nathan Eovaldi needs about 12 elbow surgeries.

Well, the Yankees do have a young starter – just 27 – with top of the rotation stuff. The only problem is that he’s wildly inconsistent and constantly frustrating. He is one of the those pitchers than can strike out 10 men in five innings, yet give up 9 hits and 6 runs – all with two outs. It’s no secret his inconsistency has frustrated Yankee coaches. He has been on the cusp of taking it to the next level, but just levels off or goes backwards, for whatever reason. I’m not sure if he is lazy, lacks confidence, doesn’t work hard, or what. Maybe that’s not fair. Maybe it’s none of those things. I don’t know. All I know is there is a good pitcher in there with ugly stats.

The good news is, he’s under control for another season, which is really helpful given Eovaldi’s injury and a thin starting pitching market. The fact of the matter is, there aren’t many better options than Pineda. Maybe Chad Green and/or Luis Cessa will eventually replace him in the rotation, but with question marks around Luis Severino and the lack of upper level pitching prospects, Pineda is going to get the change to keep going out there every five days.

I started collecting Pineda after the 2012 trade, and really accumulated a lot of his cards while he was injured for two years. I can’t say I hound his cards like I do Tino or Ty Hensley, but I will always take Pinedas I don’t have, and will always pounce on a good deal. Here is autograph #13 that I own, as well as unique Pineda #141.

Well, that was an interesting weekend

It was an interesting weekend in the Bronx.

First off, Alex Rodriguez was honored Friday night, playing his last game for New York. I definitely don’t think it’s his last MLB game. I think he’ll play again, just not for the Yankees. But he had a decent send-off, including an RBI double in his first at bat, and came off the field to a nice ovation in the 9^th inning.

The Yankees then wasted no time calling up two top prospects, Tyler Austin and Aaron Judge. The day started off by honoring the 1996 Yankees, one of my favorite teams ever. I was in 7^th grade when they won that World Series, and it’s definitely one of the defining moments of my sports childhood. Obviously, Tino Martinez was a part of that team, and here’s a new Tino I’ve been waiting to show off:

This is from Panini National Treasure. I have actually preferred this bat relic to the jersey patch version, as the jersey is definitely from his Tampa Bay days.

The Yankees went from honoring the past on Friday night and Saturday morning to ringing in the future with two massive swings of the bat on Saturday afternoon. The aforementioned Austin and Judge got their first major league hits, and they did it in dramatic fashion, with each bashing a HR. As if that wasn’t enough, the homers were back-to-back in their first career at bats. Man, you just can’t predict baseball, Suzyn.

Sunday saw Judge homer again, as well as a moonshot by Gary Sanchez, another top prospect. Boy, this is fun is so far. Sadly, Luis Severino, their former top pitching prospect, didn’t get the memo. He’s had a rough season, and yesterday was not good – falling to 1-8 with a 7.19 ERA. He allowed 7 ERs while strike out 7 in 3.2 innings. Man, he’s got a bit too much Pineda in him. Still, he’s learning, and I think the Yankees are wise to keep him as a starter and letting him iron things out in AAA. He did that once and came up and pitched much better, although yesterday was a step back. If all else fails, his stuff did play up well in the pen a few weeks ago, but it’s too early for that.

Here’s a nice Severino from Panini Immaculate Collection that is new to my collection. I hope we see him again in September with some newfound confidence.

So what does this all mean? I don’t know. But what I do know is that it’s been fun watching Gary Sanchez, Tyler Austin, and Aaron Judge play these last few days. More young reinforcements are on their way, and hopefully they can keep within striking distance of a playoff spot. Wouldn’t that be something?

Goodbye, Alex

Alex Rodriguez is playing his last game for the Yankees tonight.

It’s been a series of ups and downs for him while a member of the Yankees. We all know he did many questionable things off the field that very likely affected his performance on the field. It frustrates me because he had all the talent in the world, and similar to Barry Bonds, had he stayed clean we’d be celebrating him for his accomplishments, other than celebrating the fact that he is no longer in the game, as many fans surely are.

For a while in the mid-2000s, he was the greatest player I had ever seen. He had the whole package, and it was astounding to see him put it together and watch it every day, especially in 2005 and 2007, his two MVP seasons with the Yankees. I am sure Seattle and Texas fans each felt that way as well, but watching him each day was incredibly impressive, something I didn't get a change to see before he arrived in NY.

Yesterday I watched a few highlights of his, and it’s easy to forget how well he moved around those years. Before he really bulked up and before the bad hips and other ailments, he was so light on his feet and quick in any direction. I tend to have a short term memory when it comes to baseball, so it’s easy for me to forget the player of the past when watching the player of the present.

I’ll never forget where I was the day the Yankees acquired Alex. My friends had come up to visit me at Syracuse, and once the report popped up on ESPN that ARod was headed to the Yankees – a bomb that was dropped out of nowhere – it was so surreal. My friends had just left and were headed back home, so I called them from my Nokia cell phone and told them. I just remember a collective, “wait, what?”

Luckily I got to see Rodriguez play many times in-person over the next few seasons, and was fortunate enough to be in attendance for his 500^th HR. Obviously that doesn’t quite mean as much now, but it was very cool to see in person.

I’m not sure if this is it for Alex, or if he’ll decide to play again. Regardless, it’s been a pleasure watching him day in and day out, right or wrong, clean or unclean. New York, and baseball, just got a little less interesting.

Zippy Zapped and it feels so good

I'm seriously contemplating not giving Zippy Zappy my new address.

It's not that I don't appreciate his packages. It's that they are too good! When I moved, I had to basically use one whole truck just to bring cards ZZ has sent me.

I'm kidding, of course. I would never say no to one of the epic Zappings. He definitely puts a lot of thought into his package, and the layer of personalization is a large part of what make these great.

He always throws in some from Staten Island Yankee goodies, which is cool. Even though I live close, I never make it out to the SI games, but ZZ always has me covered:

But the best part was this cool anniversary set from SI's 2000 Championship.

Great looking set! The cards all fold out and are perforated, but I haven't separated them.

Speaking of great looking sets, there was also a complete 2015 SI Yankees team set. I know I commented several times to ZZ how much I like the look of this set. I intend to use a few of them for TTM purposes.

A Jeter Lego guy! I'm definitely going to let my little guy play with this. No sense keeping it in a box.

Zippy makes some cool customs that he uses for in-person and TTM autographs. He was nice enough to give me a SIGNED one of Yankees stud pitching prospect James Kaprielian. Just fantastic! Except I read "Jimmy Key" when I look at his signature.

Here are a couple of unsigned customs. I love the '85-themed Kaprielian. Nice touch with the Draft logo too!

As if that wasn't a lot, he sent along a re-pack hobby box, as he's done in the past. It's always such a fun break. Imagine, packs upon packs containing cards of your team/guys you collect.

There's a bit of everything in there too. Hits after hits! I'm not sure what the odds were of this re-pack box, but I'm pretty sure I obliterated them:

ZZ, do you want this Tyler Austin back when he comes up in a couple days and wins AL Player of the Week right away?

Boomer? Sheffield? F yeah. Great cards!

Man, I miss you Ty Hensley. Come back.

Were there autos, you ask? There. Were. Autos. Feast your eyes upon signature after signature:

Man, I forgot all about the Battle Creek Yankees!

There were Tinos too! This Bowman's Best background looks like the wallpaper in my new foyer. (I used the word 'foyer' on a card blog. Is that allowed?)

If you like shiny, there was plenty of that too:

 

 

Prospects? Of course. ZZ's knowledge of the Yankee system dwarfs mine, but I know enough to get excited when I get a Thairo Estrada.

Or a Luis Severino.

Or a Jorge Mateo.

Or a Kyle Holder.

Hey Topps, make inserts that look as sweet as this. I dare you.

Honestly, Zippy Zappy, your generosity always astounds me, and this re-pack hobby box was no exception. From the big hits to the minor league issues, they all have a place in my collection. Thank you!