Store Credit Flips at COMC!

Hey everyone, Drew back here! Over the past few months, I've been occasionally selling a card or three on my Check Out My Collectibles store. I've been using the site for several years now for buying and selling, and have recently put all the money I earned in sales towards cards I preferred for my personal collection. Lately, the money has been going towards autographs of rising stars in baseball that I enjoy watching, and I was able to add four to my Autograph PC in the process.

2013 Topps Allen & Ginter Starling Marte Autograph

First up, I picked up a 2013 Allen & Ginter framed autograph of Pirates young 5 tool outfielder Starling Marte. Marte swings a streaky bat, but when he's on, there aren't many more dangerous hitters. At 26, he's only entering his prime, and he's already built up two very solid statistical campaigns and is on pace for his best yet in 2015. I originally drafted him in my 8 team friends fantasy baseball league, but traded him along with Pedro Alvarez for Gerrit Cole and Jayson Werth. Werth has since hit the DL, but I've been pleased with what Cole has given me. I've always liked Marte's sharp signature, and had been looking forward to getting my own copy. 

2014 Topps Stadium Club Julio Teheran Autograph

The remaining three pickups are all of current pitchers, two of the three currently struggling thus far in 2015. First, I was able to complement ranking Julio Teheran as having the second best signature in baseball today by purchasing a certified autograph out of 2014 Topps Stadium Club. Teheran had a breakout season in 2014, going 14-13 with a 2.89 ERA and 186 strikeouts, however this season has been a different ballgame for the Columbian hurler. He has a 4.33 ERA through his first eight starts, and has produced inconsistent results. Despite this, I knew it was a good time to look into his autograph, and sure enough for just over $5, it was mine.

2014 Topps Finest Yordano Ventura Autograph Refractor

Perhaps the most controversial star in baseball (outside of A-Rod) in 2015 has been the Royals' Vordano Ventura. Clearly, the sky is the limit for this kid potential wise, as fans have seen in his spectacular 2014 playoff performances. The problem has been his attitude, which may have possibly affected his delivery on the field. After placing 6th in Rookie of the Year voting, he has come out the gate rather ineffectively in 2015. His ERA currently sits at a whopping 4.56, and advanced metrics don't appear to be cutting him much slack at all. This 2014 Topps Finest rookie autograph was too nice for me to pass up, but I know there is much more to be discovered about this kid before we can judge if he's an annoying, Delmon Young-esque fluke, or something much more memorable.

2013 Topps Tier One Andrew Cashner Autograph

My final autograph pickup was of Padres's young righty Andrew Cashner. Cashner was on my fantasy team last year, and I took a liking to him after he dominated in the early goings. Unfortunately, he only made 19 starts over the course of the season, and I may have put too much trust in him. How could I not though; when he pitched to a 2.55 ERA with 93 strikeouts when he was on the hill? This year, I shied away from him in my drafts, but despite a currently league leading 7 losses he only has a 3.24 ERA. It hasn't been an overly successful season for the 28 year old, but I can easily see his potential being all too high to keep things that way. This 2013 Tier One autograph only cost me a little over $3.00 in store credit, so it was worth every penny. On a side note, the new Tier One product looks amazing in all of the pictures I've seen so far.

What do you all think of these players, as well as the current state of youth in baseball today? Also, before I go I wanted to apologize for missing this week's Ten for Tuesday, especially considering that the king of Top Ten's is having his final show tonight. The series will be resumed around the same time next week.

See Ya!

Maasterful New Signed Baseball! (...or not)

Hey guys, Drew back here! It was an epic weekend in sports, even despite a relatively lackluster "Fight of the Century" between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. I spent the weekend working and preparing for finals and school projects, but I will be done with school by May 13th, so I'm excited for that! Anyway, my dad brought me home a gift from one of his work friends last week, and it completely caught me off guard.

The surprise was a Kevin Maas signed baseball, and was from my dad's friend John T.; who has actually given me some neat baseball stuff before! I've recently become a fan of signed baseballs, and I specifically like to collect Hall of Famers and former Yankees, and Maas fulfills the latter. Maas was supposedly going to be the next Don Mattingly, and looked the part when he was first called up, smashing 10 home runs in his first 72 professional at bats. He was also made famous by a group of women in the right field bleachers (where a majority of his home runs were hit) at Yankee Stadium who would take their tops off and jump up and down whenever he would hit home runs. 

Maas would become one of the better "One Hit Wonders" in Yankees history, along with Shelley Duncan and Aaron Small in recent years. He played for the Twins in 1995 before moving on to Japan's Central League and eventually retiring. 

*UPDATE: I can't believe I didn't catch this before, but the ball is actually signed by Kerry Wood, as reader Jackson Traylor of Jackson's Autographs brought to my attention. This makes much more sense, and I'm curious to hear how that got lost in translation over time. Wood was an integral part of the 2010 Yankees team when he was traded midseason to New York, and I almost added him to my pitching staff when constructing my All Time Watched Yankees team I created and wrote about in March. I even own an autograph of Kerry's on a card I got from my friend Ethan's collection a few years ago, and still didn't catch on. Wood was a former Rookie of the Year was about as much promise as anyone in history, and although he never quite reached that potential he will still always be known for what some have considered the greatest pitching performance of all time. On April 12th of his 1998 rookie season, Wood struck out 20 batters, tied for the most in history for a single game. 

Well, I hope you all enjoyed learning about Kevin Maas, but this was my mistake for not noticing before. Thanks for pointing that out Jackson, and I'll be sure to make sure of these things before I post them in the future. Chalk it up as an error on the stat sheet for the writer.*

Thank you so much for the piece of history, John! Whether it's signed by Kevin Maas, Kerry Wood, or John Kerry, I greatly appreciate the kind gesture!

See Ya!

Joe Panik PC Pickups from JustCommons!

Hey everyone, Drew back here! About two or three weeks ago, I made my first purchase on JustCommons.com. As many of you may know, I am a big fan of COMC.com, and I even have a store on their site (shameless plug, couldn't help it). However, I've since learned that ordering base cards tends to add up quickly on COMC, and that I could find cheaper base cards on other sites. I have heard a lot of people talk up this site, and decided to give it a shot. For about $15, I was able to acquire cards of all of my PC players, as well as some set needs and much more. The purchase netted me with 7 new Joe Panik cards, which is the subject of today's post.

I finally got a hold of Panik's first Bowman card, from the 2011 Draft Picks & Prospects set. Joe started the season struggling at the plate, but he's been picking up for that over the past week. He is now batting .281 this season with 3 RBI.

From everything I've seen of Joe's past performances, his speciality seems to lie on the defensive side of the ball. He obviously made a fantastic diving stop in the World Series to start what would be a double play after it was reviewed, but he's frequently known to flash the leather and it's impressive to watch! He appears to be a pretty one dimensional threat at the plate, but is a pretty good contact hitter at that. Panik doesn't appear to have much pop in his bat, but as long as he can get hits he'll have a spot in a lineup for years to come.

Panik's 2014 Topps Heritage High Number card is his official rookie card, whereas all of the previous cards are considered prospect editions. It is my favorite card of his that has come out so far, and I would love to get my hands on one of the autographed copies. This will certainly do for now.

Finally, we have his first card of 2015, out of Topps Heritage once again. I can't wait to see his flagship debut that hopefully will be in Series 2, because this card doesn't do much for me. It is nice to have a card of Joe in his home San Francisco uniform rather than in batting practice or minor league jerseys!

With these 7 pickups, I now own 11 unique cards of Joe's in my collection. If you have any cards of his for trade, take a look at my checklist and feel free to email me at yanks1996wsc@gmail.com!

See Ya!

Corner Store Pickup! Topps Archives Auto!

Hey guys, Drew back here. About a week ago, my dad, sister, and I went into our local town to get some pizza, and along the way we went into our corner store. If you may remember, I've bought a few different cards there in the past, but haven't gotten much there in a while. However, I spotted out a card one day when I walked in, and it stayed in my mind up until last week, when I decided to pull the trigger on it! Check this out:

Out of 2001 Topps Archives, its a Don Mattingly on card auto based off of his famous 1984 Topps rookie card! The moment I first saw this card I knew one day I had to add it into my collection, and as soon as I went home I eBay searched it, and found a few for an awful lot of money. I got the card for $25 total, which certainly wasn't cheap, but was worth it for me. Mattingly is a family favorite in a house with only 2 baseball fans, and he's one of my favorite players to collect.

The card is absolutely awesome looking in person, and it makes the 3rd autograph in my collection of "Donnie Baseball"! Thanks for reading and as always, See Ya!