PWE from 2 by 3 Heroes

During my extended break, I got an PWE from 2 by 3 Heroes. He included a note saying I'd been quiet and urging me to return to posting.

Despite what these scans say, these are some great cards. They're just all shiny like and don't scan well.

A nice pair of Albert Almora cards out of Bowman Platinum

A great action shot of Welington Castillo, a chrome version of the All-Star Rookie, Anthony Rizzo

Thanks for the nudge, Jeff! Not to mention the cards...

2013 Topps Heritage Blaster

My second selection among the prize pool for my Fantasy Blaster/Blogger League was 2013 Topps Heritage.

As with the Gypsy Queen from earlier in the week, I realize doing a break is about 6 months too late so I'm only showing the non base cards. Everything is up for grabs so let me know if you need/want something or want me to take a look at your want list for the base cards.

Since this year's Heritage set mimicks the 1964 Topps set, the Flashback inserts pull topics from 1964 headlines. I pulled two, presidential election coverage and one that talks about Juan Marichal pitching back to back shutouts.

This Then & Now card lets you know (on the back) that Whitey Ford and Felix Hernandez are comparable in Shutouts. Felix Hernandez leds the Majors with 5 in 2012 and Whitey Ford Dean Chance led with 11 in 1964. Whitey Ford had 8. Guess Topps was short on Yankees inserts...

I don't know what a New Age Performer is. Isn't that like crystals and horoscopes and tarot cards and stuff like that?

I did pull four Cubs out of the box, something that would have made this box a success earlier in the year. But unlike Qypsy Queen where I didn't buy any, I actually already picked up a Cubs team set when this was released.

And last, and certainly least, the blue Wal-mart parallel that I was supposed to get. I don't think I could have gotten a worse card from the set. Not only is he a NL Central rival, but arguably one of the top 3 hated players in baseball right now.

This probably would have been a decent pull at the beginning of the season and gone for a couple of bucks towards recouping the blaster cost, but without looking, I'd say it'll cost more to ship than I'd get for it.

I haven't seen what the others have pulled yet and for all I know, they struck gold. But after two fairly disappointing blasters myself, I'm rethinking the Fantasy League for next year. Six-plus months is a long time to wait for something bound to lose value the further from the release date it gets (unless of course you get the one on a million blaster). I'd love to hear any opinions from those who participated on how to change things a little. And even from those who didn't but followed along. What would make you join next year?

A Couple of Card Show Pickups

A few weeks ago I was thumbing through a Beckett and decided to see if there were any card shows in the area besides the big CSA one that comes around a couple times of year. I needed a couple of storage boxes that I don't want to pay shipping on to buy online and thought a card show would be a good place to start.

Determined not to buy much of anything except for supplies until I finished reorganizing, I took $40 in cash and left the rest of my wallet in the car. I have no idea how much boxes and sleeves and toploaders run these days so I wanted to be safe.

The show turned out to be about 20-30 tables and after my first loop, discovered no one selling boxes. Well now what am I supposed to do a little cash in my pocket and a banquet hall in the local Best Western full of cards? Well, if you read the title of this post, you know I picked up a few things!

Everything below came from the same dealer who had a $0.50-$1 insert box and a $3 or 4 for $10 relics/autograph box. With all of the cards sorted by team, my money was spent within minutes. I pulled out a bunch of Cubs and casually sorted through some other teams looking for some trade bait. Knowing I was quite a bit off, I handed the guy my stack and said, "How close am I to getting these for $20?"

He flipped through them and said I was at about $50, which if I did the math in my head right, was around his "sticker" price. Hmmm, getting the feeling he's not going to be fun to negotiate with. I put a few things back, reshuffled the deck, handed it back and offered $30, which to my surprise, he accepted. He even gave me a 400 ct box and a couple of unused team bags because I had been asking for supplies.

I don't think I got the steal of the century, but I picked up a few cards I needed/wanted at a decent price. And it was probably still cheaper than eBay when you factor in the shipping I would have had to pay from multiple sellers to get the same stuff.

Let's start with the Cubs autographs...





2011 Tier One Tyler Colvin Autograph 336/999



Tyler Colvin isn't with the Cubs anymore but this is my first and only Tier One anything. Solid looking autograph too. Bold blue, almost every letter. Can't go wrong. 



2011 Topps Chrome Darwin Barney Autograph


I still haven't figured out how to scan Chrome cards but I promise that is what it is. This card looked so familiar to me that I couldn't decide whether I had it or it has just been sitting in one of my saved eBay searches. Remember, I was just going for supplies so I didn't bring anything resembling a list. 


2012 Bowman Prospect Mike Olt Autograph

So technically this is not a Cubs card but I couldn't pass on it. Funny how his 7-letter autograph looks longer than guys with 12+ letters. And that it looks like Matt and not Mike.

And now a bunch of Cubs inserts. I have frugally avoided 2013 cards thus far as a punishment for being unorganized/incentive to get organized but with them right in front of me I couldn't pass them up. Below you'll see a couple of Archives inserts with a Ryne Sandberg All-Star and an Anthony Rizzo tallboy? Is that what they're calling these? I don't even know the lingo, I feel like a fraud! Below those are a couple of the Home Town Heroes from this year's Bowman. I guess I should figure out which ones I still need now.

I also picked up a couple of older inserts too.

This Presidential Pastime Ronald Reagan card from 2004 Topps is now my second Cubs affiliated Reagan card to go along with my 2011 Opening Day Presidential First Pitch card.

 


2012 Topps Black Border Jairo Asencio /61

 

I picked up a couple of these black bordered cards last year so I figured I might as well keep trying to passively complete the team set.

These Welington Castillo rookie parallels were in my stack because the dealer also had one of the printing plates for this card. I thought it would be nice to pick up an instant starter rainbow but the plate was one of the ones I put back. Still good additions, and ones I needed/wanted more than the printing plate.

I also picked up this 2012 Bowman Jedd Gyorko autograph for Marcus over at all the way to the backstop, but the day after the show, he posted that he picked one up himself. Any other Padres/Gyorko fans out there want this?

So you may be thinking I got ripped off so far for $30. But keep in mind there are several more other team autographs I'm not showing off (I'll let those bloggers show off the goodies when they get them). And as usual, I saved the best (I think) for last. I've avoided a lot of Darwin Barney stuff on eBay so as to not get in to a bidding war with Paul from Wrigley Wax on something. But I didn't see him at this small card show hundreds of miles away from where he lives so I didn't feel so bad about picking this one up:

The dealer wanted $20 for this one outright because it is from the mini set, a more "in demand" set. But I successfully downplayed the horrible Cubs, Darwin Barney and the fact that he may have missed the boat on getting a high price so far away from the product release date. So either I overpaid for this and got the rest of the cards for $10 (I'm ok with that) or I talked him down on this and everything above (plus a few not shown) averages out to less than $2 per card (great for some, meh for others).

And I still had $10 in my pocket when I walked out the door...

Where Are They Now? 2010 Pro Debut Part 5

This is part five (of eight planned) of this running series where I take a look back at the future Cubs represented in the 2010 Pro Debut. You can view previous posts here:

Part One - Ryan Flaherty and Brett Jackson 

Part Two - DJ LeMahieu and Brooks Raley

Part Three - Chris Archer and Hak-Ju Lee

Part Four - Rebel Ridling and Trey McNutt

Looking back at who I've shown off so far and ahead to those yet to come, I'd have to say that Welington Castillo has been the most successful so far. It helps that he's been with the Cubs organization since 2006 and on the card he is shown on the Iowa Cubs, the Cubs Triple-A affiliate. That kind of gave him a head-start over some of the other guys featured.

In fact, shortly after this card was released, Castillo made his MLB debut. A third catcher behind Geovany Soto and Koyie Hill, Castillo played in 7 games in 2010 and 4 in 2011. But with the release of Hill after 2011 and the trade of Soto to the Rangers in 2012, Castillo saw his playing time increase and has been the starting catcher for most of the past season and a half.

This season, his .271 batting average and .350 on base percentage (unfortunately) leads the team.

Also shown with the Iowa Cubs is pitcher Jay Jackson. Even though he'd been with the Cubs organization since 2008 and with the Iowa Cubs from 2009-2012, he never got the call to the bigs. He performed well in the low levels but struggle in Triple-A. A Top 100 prospect just a few years ago, the Cubs released him prior to Opening Day this year.

The Miami Marlins signed him shortly after and he's spent time with both their Double-A (Jacksonville Suns) and Triple-A (New Orleans Zephyrs) affiliates. 

Both of these cards were signed with a little help from an SCN member with access to the Iowa Cubs a couple of years ago.

The Infield

After featuring the bullpen as a group last week, I thought I'd reveal some more customs from the 2013 team set the same way. Today, I'll be showing the starting infield.

 

I'm not sure Anthony Rizzo has lived up to the hype just yet, but he is clearly the team leader at the plate in terms of run production. Just goes to show you that the pitching staff has to be near perfect in order for this team to thrive.

 

 

I've already shown this Darwin Barney card but now that he is back from his Srping Training injury, he is the second baseman of record for the team. His glove has picked up where he left off last season, but his bat needs to catch up.

 

Luis Valbuena has split time at third with Steve Clevenger (hurt) and Cody Ransom this season. I liked this action shot of him ranging to his left.

 

Now that Rizzo is locked in long term, he's likely to be fielding crazy throws from shortstop Starlin Castro for most, if not all, of that time. Luckily, it looks like Castro managed to eat this one on a broken up double play rather than throw it away. That's Alfonso Soriano in the background making a cameo while "backing up" the play, like any good outfielder would.

 

Behind the plate we have Welington Castillo. He's second on the team in batting average among starters behind leadoff hitter, David Dejesus but unfortunately is middle of the pack or towards the bottom in the other offensive categories. He is currently third in the Majors for throwing out baserunners with 11 although the percentage drops him out of the top ten. Guess the Cubs need to give up less base runners...

 

Sorry for the negativity filling much of this post today but the Cubs just haven't been playing good baseball. Earlier in the season, even though they were still losing, the games were watchable. They even pulled out of last place for a few days. I felt like even if they were behind, there was still a chance to come back. But this week was horrible. Being swept by a division rival is awful. Hopefully we can get some of those back heading into Cincinnati...

2013 Topps Welington Castillo Cubs Factory Team Set

In 2010, Welington Castillo was part of the Pro Debut set and played in 7 games for the Cubs. In 2011, he made the Update set even though he played in just 4 games. In 2012, he was shut out by Topps. With Geovany Soto out of the picture, maybe this is the year Castillo can claw his way into the base set by making it into the Series 2 checklist.

In my opinion, this 2013 Cubs Factory Team Set card for him is a great card and deserves to be mass produced into the flagship set. 

Play at the plate?

Check.

Horizontal card?

Check.

Interleague play?

Check.

Cubs coming out on top in the play?

Let's take a look!



Phot by David Banks (Courtesy of Getty Images)

According to the caption on the Getty website:

CHICAGO, IL - JUNE 16: David Ortiz #34 of the Boston Red Sox is tagged out at home by Welington Castillo #53 of the Chicago Cubs in the first inning on June 16, 2012 at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by David Banks/Getty Images)

Check.

Excellent! According the boxscore on Baseball Reference, David Ortiz drew a two-out walk off of Cubs starter Jeff Samardzija. Red Sox catcher/cleanup hitter Jarrod Saltalamacchia followed that up with a deep line drive to the CF-RF gap. Rightfielder Reed Johnson hit the cutoff man, shortstop Starlin Castro, who relayed the ball to home in time for Castillo to apply the tag.

Think about that for a second. David Ortiz tried to score from first. With two outs, he may have been running on contact, but this wasn't a 2-out, full count opportunity where the runner is already moving. This was a big guy, trying to score from first. He has 11 stolen bases in his career. He does have 16 career triples, much more than I would have guessed, but not too many players are capable of running 270 feet safely. I don't remember the exact play, whether the ball was caroming around off the wall or maybe a bobble, but I have to wonder what the third base coach was thinking to wave him around for another 90 feet.

A quick at the back of the card makes Welington Castillo look like a grizzled veteran. However, a closer look shows it to be only a few years worth of work, but at different levels in some seasons. As I mentioned earlier, with 2008 ROY winner Geovany Soto catching games for the Cubs, it was tough to get time in behind the plate for Castillo. There's a little competition from Dioner Navarro but Castillo is the only Cubs starter currently batting over .300. Sounds like somebody we need to keep in the starting lineup!