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.

TTM Succees: Chasen Shreve

During the off-season, I was a bit disappointed to learn that the Yankees traded former top prospect Manny Banuelos to the Braves for two relievers, David Carpenter and Chasen Shreve. The once future of the rotation, traded for middle relievers?

The truth is, Banuelos never was quite right after TJ surgery. He's still young enough to rebound, but most scouts, from what I've read, are still saying that he isn't what he once was. I do wish him the best of luck in Atlanta, and I know he'll make his long awaited MLB debut this season.

One young, promising arm the Yankees got back was lefty Chasen Shreve. He made his ML debut in 2014, pitching to a 0.73 ERA in 12 innings, striking out 15. Not bad at all for a 24-year-old. Combine him with Andrew Miller, Justin Wilson, and Jacob Lindgren, and the Yanks certainly have a gluttony  of lefty relievers.

Shreve was nice enough to sign this card for me c/o spring training in about 5 weeks time. I thank Chasen for this autograph, and hope to see him in the Bronx this season.

A Christmas Zapping: Part 3

We're making some headway and are halfway through Zippy Zappy's Christmas Zapping! I've featured eleven packs so far. Here are a couple more!

Pack #12 has a PC guy Gary Sanchez on some shiny Bowman Platinum. I really like the purple-bordered Russell Martin, as I never get these Toys R Us versions.

 

Lucky pack #13 is up, and we have a hit! A Mark Teixeira framed jersey card pops out of the pack. Add in a Tex 'Spot the Error' insert, and the Yankees 1B really brought it here. With the Beltran, I suppose this must be 2014 Archives, but I've officially gotten past knowing what year is what when it comes to Archives over the last few years.

Another hockey alert! How is this getting past quality control? This pack is a little bittersweet with the appearance of Manny Banuelos. I wish the little lefty the best of luck with Atlanta.

More hockey!! This is nuts. But it's cool, it's the Rangers and it's Brad Richards. The rest of the pack was pretty fun too! The JR Murphy 2014 Finest is definitely my favorite card of the pack, although the Leaf Mattingly is riggggght behind it.

Pack #16 has a hit! And this time we have an auto of Shaeffer Hall, who has a decent signature and the name that sounds like a college dorm. And I gotta say, that Cecil Field '97 Topps of him running is gold. It's not Topps Gold, but it's gold.

Let's finish it off (pack #17) with a low-numbered Posada refractor. We've also got Jeter and my man Tino, so that's a damn fine pack. I also should mention that Brian McCann reappears after a 13-pack absence.

Good luck, Manny!

Today, the Yankees traded one of my favorite prospects, Manny Banuelos, to the Braves for two relievers.

Banuelos was once the #1 prospect in the Yankees organization, but TJ surgery and other issues limited his development. He returned in 2014, but he just wasn't the same as pre-injury.

He's still young, and I hope he's able to salvage his career and find success in Atlanta.

Prize-Town Tom delivers

My apologies to P-Town Tom, as this post is well overdue. The package fell to them bottom of a stack that I had wanted to blog about. Better late than never, right?

At the beginning of March, Tom sent me a prize package for a blog contest he ran. I never win these things, so I'm always appreciative. Tom is one of those bloggers who always hooks my son Joey up too, and this was no different.

The coolest item, to me, is this JUMBO pack of 1989 Topps. I've already put this in Joey's stash of old wax to open one day. These fat packs are awesome. I would love to see something like this now. The card showing on the front? None other than Mr. Jay Buhner.

Here's a bunch of sweet cards Tom sent for me, including these great OBAK cards for two PC guys:

And here's a bunch that will go in Joey's binder, which is filling up like crazy!

The Reggie Jackson 1982 Topps is miscut, but will still find a great home in the binder.

Tom, always appreciate your thoughtfulness. Thank you!

O Napkin Doon, O Napkin Doon! Wherefore art thou Napkin Doon?

Remember Napkin Doon? Of course you do. He only hung up his blogging boots a little over a month ago. It’s been a dark month, but the blog world keeps spinning.

Napkin sent me a package in his last days, and I’m just getting around to showing it now. But the goods are worth the wait. Nap has been a devout eTopps fan. He put a lot of time and effort into his portfolio of cards, only for Topps to neglect the concept and stop maintaining the site. Nap, sensing his cards may be gone forever, took delivery of his cards before they were gone forever.

He was nice enough to snag three cards for me – Michael Pineda, Manny Banuelos, and a 2005 Yankees team card highlighted by Randolph Johnson. The Pineda is a great addition to my PC…one of those annoying cards that would have been difficult to pick up.

 

Nap also threw in so Mo’s. I seriously need to get these cards framed.

Last but not least, some unopened junk wax that I’m going to save for my son to open one day.

Thanks, Nap. We miss you, buddy.

Thoughts on printing plates?

I really don’t have many 1/1 cards in my collection. I like them, but it’s hard for me to justify sometimes spending significant money on a 1 of 1 card when I can buy so many cards for the same price. I think I have about four or five total.

However, deals do pop up and sometimes you need to splurge. This is the case with this sweet Manny Banuelos card. It’s a 2012 Bowman’s Best Yellow Printing Plate 1/1. I put in a fairly low bid and won it.  Maybe Manny will tear it up this year and earn a call-up, and I can flip it for a lot more than I paid for it.

Printing plates are weird. I love the 1/1 angle, and to know this card was instrumental in making all of the others. On the other hand, they really aren’t much to look at, and are usually scoffed up quite a bit. I guess that’s part of the allure. One other thing I love: Manny is a lefty, so you get the reverse angle of how he would look as a righty here. I always get a kick out of that.

What’s your take on printing plates? Love 'em? Like 'em? Hate 'em?