The Next Great Closer?

Hey guys, Drew back here. It's very difficult to think of the Yankees without mentioning the Sandman, Mariano Rivera. Over the past 20 years or so, Mo has been a part of the Yankees system, debuting back in 1995. Unfortunately, he won't be on the mound much longer, as he's already 42 years old. But when he leaves, baseball fans are going to need to find a replacement for him as the new best closer in baseball. Nobody can replace him, but a few players may come close. Aroldis Chapman is one example, Joel Hanrahan being another. And after the year Fernando Rodney is having, I wouldn't count him out either. However, above all of those contenders, I believe this guy will be that "replacement" after the end of Rivera Era:

Braves closer Craig Kimbrel is definitely one of the more intimidating young pitchers in all of baseball, and he's been extremely successful thus far into his career. It was funny, because early in the 2011 MLB season, my friend traded Jonathan Papelbon for Craig Kimbrel. He didn't even know who Kimbrel was, but he sure did end up winning the trade, as he went on to win the Rookie of the Year. With the hype that is Aroldis Chapman, people seem to be forgetting just how dominant this guy has been.

Rather than waiting for people to notice him again, I went out to eBay and picked up this beautiful rookie autograph of his out of 2011 Topps Marquee! I now have two cards from the set, the other being the 2011 American League Rookie of the Year- Jeremy Hellickson. I find it cool that I now have both the Rookies of the Year out of such a beautiful product. Hellickson hasn't shown much this year, but I'm hoping it's just a case of the Sophomore slump. 

So I ask you guys- who do you think is the next "best closer in baseball"? 

See Ya!

A Few Recent eBay Purchases!

Hey guys, Drew back here! Dang, the last couple weeks have been awful on here, I haven't had time for anything! But I'm glad to be back here for now, because I have a couple of recent additions I'd like to show you all! Take a look:

First off, I have to say that I absolutely love the look of 2011 Topps Marquee! This here is a rookie autograph card from that very product of Rays phenom rookie Jeremy Hellickson. You all know my love for some of the Rays that came through the farm system around here in New York, such as Longoria; Shields; Hellickson; and even Josh Hamilton in his short minor league stint with the Devil Rays. This card was at a fairly low price, and for what I figured, a great price for one of his rookie autographs. It's on card, numbered out of 185, and I think it just looks incredible in person! 

Of course, many of the big offseason awards have started to be announced, and that means that this guy could come home with some hardware soon. Hellickson's great rookie season (13-10 W-L, 2.95 ERA, 117 Strikeouts) may give him a chance at taking home the AL Rookie of the Year award! I feel like the biggest 3 contenders for that award are him, as well as Royals' Eric Hosmer and my beloved Yankees' Ivan Nova. I'd be happy for either Hellickson or Nova, because either way they rank pretty high on my favorite players list!

The second and final pickup to show and tell for today is this 2011 Topps Triple Threads Unity autographed relic card of 2011 Silver Slugger winner Aramis Ramirez! This card was dirt cheap, only at a couple bucks, and for the year he gave me in fantasy baseball, I owed him a quick little $4-5 dollar pickup. I never really was a big fan of his, because he always seemed so injury prone and overrated. Well, he certainly proved me wrong in 2011, batting .306 with 26 home runs and 93 RBI. At this point I would take him over the ridiculously over expensive Alex Rodriguez, but beggars can't be choosers I guess. Maybe the Yankees should've put an ounce of thought in before they signed him to a 10 year contract.

Triple Threads has always been a nice looking product to me, although some people may disagree. Sure, it's very similar year in and year out, but with the new addition of the addition autograph and autographed-relic in these "Unity" designs makes for a cool chase. Plus, there are 3 different photo variations for each player in the checklist, which can be put together to make the Unity part complete. Although it's a sticker autograph, it's really shiny and just looks great in general. Nice job, Topps!

So, hopefully this will put me back on the blogging map, but we'll see! See Ya!

October 1st White Plains Card Show Recap! Part 2!

Hey guys, Drew back here. Luckily enough, the last few days' workloads were not heavy at all, so I've got a little extra time on my hands to catch up. Following my card show review there may be a contest, so stay on the lookout for that! We'll now move on to part 2 of the show review, which will contain all of the other big "hits" I picked up there! Let's get it started...

PART 2:

MY PICKUPS!

We'll start with these two chrome prospects out of 2011 Bowman! I spent quite a bit of time searching through this one vendor's boxes of cards, because he had all sorts of newer inserts/prospect cards/parallels in there for a dollar a card. I took five of them off of his hands, one being the Bowman's Best Cano insert in the previous post. Next I got these 2 rookies, of Giants top prospect Brandon Belt, and Yankees pitching prospect Manny Banuelos. I got the Belt just for the heck of it, and the Banuelos because I didn't have much of him in my Yankees collection. I have a feeling he's going to be a good one!

The other two were out of Topps' newest high end products, Marquee and Triple Threads. Marquee is new to the hobby this year, and reminds me a lot of Stadium Club with the crisp and colorful photography taking up majority of the card. This one was of Reggie Jackson, and is the blue parallel numbered out of 299. As for Triple Threads, well, it's been Topps' most popular high end product for years now, and this year is no different. The cards don't tend to change much in design every year but with the new checklist additions and combinations it's always a risky but fun break. I got the Mark Teixeira gold parallel numbered out of 625, and it's a pretty nice card for sure. 

Next, I broke one pack the entire show, of the new Goodwin Champions product. Why? I have no idea, but I was hoping for something different, and I definitely got just that. First though, I did pull two sweet football rookies, of Cam Newton and Julio Jones! Those ones are going to stay in my collection for a while. Also, a very uncommon player I pulled was Addie Joss, a Hall of Fame pitcher whose 1.89 career ERA is the second greatest of all time! 

Then, Goodwin got weird on me. Here is a memorabilia card of female golfer Natalie Gulbis. See, this card is one of many reasons why I don't pull a whole lot of packs anymore. Then again, the pack did state that it was mixed sports. Well, if anyone is interested in the card, send me an email. 

Moving along to the better stuff, here is a 2008 Donruss Threads autograph of Yankees catching prospect Austin Romine! Romine got a cup of coffee this September, playing in 9 games total. He had 3 hits in 19 at bats, but it was nice to see him up in the big leagues, because I'm sure he'll have a spot within the next couple of years. I bought this card along with the next card for $25 in all, and I think it might be a pretty good gamble.

The other card in that group was this 2006 TriStar Prospects Plus "Farm Hands" autograph of Yankee rookie Dellin Betances! Betances, along with Romine and a few others, got to play this September with the big boys. He pitched in two games, one in which he struggled to the extreme in two thirds of an inning, and the other in which he started and threw 2 scoreless innings. Of course, I have no idea what the future will tell for Betances, but he definitely has the stuff to be a possible fourth or fifth starter very soon. This card isn't overly exciting but it was the best I could do in terms of his already fairly expensive autographs. 

The next four cards were all part of a five card purchase Dad made from my favorite vendor Hunter at the show. He always has a bin sitting around with relics/autographs/vintage all half price, which makes the deals even better. In the past Mike and I have bought some beautiful patches and autographs off of him, and I always like to see him at the shows. The first of the four cards Dad got was this 2003 Upper Deck Yankees Signature Series Dave Righetti autograph! The first thing that caught my eye when I saw this was that Righetti has a beautiful autograph! I never watched much of Rags but he was a solid player throughout the 80's, and it'll go well with the other autographs I already have in the set (Winfield, Mazzilli, Cone, Sieburn). One day I might try to get this entire set. 

Card number 2 was this 2001 Upper Deck Sweet Spot bat card of Alex Rodriguez. A-Rods been nothing but a disappoint this season, and to be honest; with the injuries he's faced in the past couple of years; for the price we paid for him he just hasn't been worth it. I've never been a big fan of his, simply because I've heard many annoying stories about him blowing people off for autographs and charging ridiculous prices for autographs just to add even more money to his insanely huge wallet. So far he's 0 for 10 in this insanely disappointing ALDS, and I really hope he can regain his form tonight to help us stay alive. Nonetheless, it's definitely a cool looking card.

Talk about a card that jumps right out at you! This card looks awesome! Numbered only 1/25 from 2009 Sweet Spot, it's a Vernon Wells 3 color patch with a whole lot of stitching. I just love cards like that. Sure, I'd rather have an entire jersey but when the card companies do patches right, they look outstanding and have an incredible appeal to collectors! This card is tradeable but I'd be looking for something nice for sure.

The last card Dad bought from Hunter was this 2001 Upper Deck Legends Willie Mays bat card! This card is so awesome! It's really cool to own any piece of memorabilia from a player of Mays' caliber, even though this one is awfully small. I love how the bat chip has the baseball seams etched into it, although many people may think it's hurting the pieces even more. Personally, I think it's cool enough that I get to own a piece of Willie Mays' bat, and I want to thank Dad for giving me that opportunity to, as well as for the other cards you bought for me! 

These last two cards were two of my more expensive pickups, the first being a 2009 Upper Deck Icons David Price rookie autograph. While James Shields dominated the Rays pitching categories this season, with an overwhelming 11 complete games, Price is definitely one of the more established pitchers in baseball. To say 2011 was an off year for him definitely makes sense, and was shown last night when he gave up 4 runs and struggled in the Rays loss to the Rangers. Regardless, I'm hoping for a bounce back year out of David next season, and wanted to get this one at a lower price while I had an opportunity to. It's a sweet looking card for sure, although the autograph is on a sticker. 

Finally, I saved this one for last because this guy is good at closing it out! Nothing better than a 2011 Topps Marquee quad relic of Mariano Rivera! I had a choice to make towards the end of the show, either to buy this card of Rivera, without patches, or an A-Rod card with patches. While the A-Rod may carry more overall value over time, I went with the Rivera simply because I'm happier to own it than I would be with the A-Rod. Sometimes its hard to remember that even though we all invest a ton of money into this hobby, you need to find ways to keep yourself happy, and there is nothing better than a beautiful looking card of one of my favorite pitchers in baseball history.

So, that'll do it for today's part of the show review. I sure hope I get to see more of Mariano tonight, perhaps closing out the game for AJ Burnett, bringing the Yankees back in the series? I know, it's unlikely, but it's always good to dream!

See Ya!