Tiny hooks a brother up

Uncle Tiny recently shot a nice package my way. He knows Yanks prospects are in my wheelhouse, and is always looking out for them.

I love this Greg Bird manu-relic. It's such a bummer that Bird is out for the season. I was really looking forward to him building on a strong rookie year.

This is the tale of two Tylers. Tyler Austin was once one of the crown jewels of the Yankees system. He was ranked as the 77th best prospect in the entire game heading into the 2013 season. Since then, he's battled injuries and just hasn't raked the way he did in 2011 and 2012. By now, he was supposed to be in the Bronx or right on the cusp. Instead, he's likely headed for another year in Scranton. Maybe he'll have a big start to the season and put himself in position for a call-up the way Slade Heathcott and Mason Williams did last year. However, without an invite to Big League camp, he's certainly not someone the Yankees are counting on. Too bad.

Tyler Wade on the other hand, just keeps climbing the Yankees organizational ladder, and doing so rather quietly. He was a 4th round pick in 2013, and spent last season in A+ and AA ball, where he was on average 3 years younger than the league average. He's likely ticketed for AA to start the season, but he's spending the spring in Big League camp as a 21-year-old, which is impressive. He might not be as sexy of a prospect as Jorge Mateo, but he's closer to the Majors (for now) and has a great chance to be a useful player in the next season or two.

Brad Halsey auto. RIP, sir.

Here's the best of the rest. Leonardo Molina is super young and oozing with tools. Giambi is not young, but is young at heart for sure. I believe he's spending his spring coaching the Indians. I'll be curious to see if he ends up coaching or managing one day.

Tiny, thanks my friend!

JBF Week: Small and Shiny

Jaybarkerfan had a "claim this card" promotion on his blog a while back, and I was lucky enough to reserve this Topps mini Ivan Nova jersey relic. I love the Pinstripe, and very simple design that the card entails. Being a mini card, there isn't a lot of wasted space, but this feels well done...almost like a base card with some jersey. Sometimes inserts are designed with the intent of leaving space for a relic, but this one doesn't feel that way.

But was that all he sent? Of course not! This is JBF we're talking about it. He dominated this package with refractors and other shiny cards. It might not be a great scan, but these cards were blinding all next to each other!

 Wes also included a really nice Phil Rizzuto card for my Rizzuto PC, as well as two cards from "National Trading Card Day." With JBF, it's always National Trading Card Day!

Simply Fantastic

Weston over at Fantastic Catch is a very thoughtful guy. He always adds a little something to trade packages that is unexpected. Last time, he sent a broken down blaster box with Michael Pineda on it. This time, he sent a USA Weekend cover with Masahiro Tanaka. Very cool!

He also likes to send me Yankee prospects cards. In fact, he sent me this Leonardo Molina card, which I then sent to Molina for an auto. It now looks like this.

Here are a few other goodies.

Weston, I owe you a return package. I haven't forgotten!

TTM Success: Leonardo Molina

First, what a sweet name. Second, no relation to the Molina brothers.

Yankees prospect Leonardo Molina signed my 2014 Bowman in about six weeks time. I sent the card to the Yankees minor league complex, as Molina is currently with one of the Yanks' GCL teams.

Molina was signed by the Yankees last year for $1.4mil. He was one of the top international outfielders in last year's class. At just 16 years old, it was surprising to see him already make his US debut. According to Baseball-Reference, he's 3.7 years younger than the GCL average, so he's just a baby. When I was 16, I was playing JV ball for my high school.

While he's hitting just .200, his OBP is .100 points higher at .300, so that's a positive for a kid this young. I really look forward to seeing him develop over the next few seasons, and I hope he becomes the legit prospect many believe he will be.