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| You ARE LOOKING LIVE above Medlar Field in State College PA! |
We start with thanks to Tom O'Brien,who worked on my Richmond Flying Squirrels (San Francisco Giants) team set for me.
Richmond was finished in Harrisburg early this season,so I wasn't able to do them there,but Tom did my work on the Squirrels in Bowie.
Richmond was not loaded with prospects this season but Joe Panik is a top one,as is Adam Duvall,Edwin Escobar, Andrew Susac and Tom got them all for me as well as Angel Villalona.
Villalona was a huge prospect at one time before being tried for murder in the Dominican Republic and losing basically three years.
Villalona signed three cards for me and Tom reports no problems
Tom also worked on the home BaySox at this time and added Eduardo Rodriguez on his Carolina League top prospect and all star card,but the best catch was Matt Wieters on his Frederick Keys 25th anniversary card!
Thanks as always to Tom!
Next in the Hub City was the Delmarva Shorebirds (Baltimore Orioles) and their wonderfully friendly manager Luis Pujols.
Pujols had run in after run in with collectors in Hagerstown,but seemed to be most likely to sign on the first night.
Before about 12 people at the Muni,Pujols signed for one of them,I quickly moved over and nailed Pujols on his team set card before he grumpily stomped away.
I didn't see him sign the rest of the series.
Adrian Marin was very nice in signing his Delmarva card and a USA Champions card.Mychal Givens signed the same.
Some collectors have complained about Givens,but I have never had problems with him and he has always been gracious to me.
Josh Hader was the other Shorebird pickup that proved to be strong as Hader was traded to the Astros shortly thereafter in the Bud Norris trade.
This series also saw the Hagerstown team set come out and add the best Suns prospects in Pedro Severino,Brett Mooneyham,Tony Renda and Brandon Miller.
Great story on this set,as you know I trade Suns sets with Tom (Bowie),Corey (Tennessee) and Jason (Binghamton),so I have to get 4 of each player finished over the course of the year.
With the Suns,I try to get them done at once,so I don't have to bother the player again.
For Pedro Severino,he signs three and then says "Thank you" with the other and jogs into the dugout!
Language barrier?
The same thing after the same game by the clubhouse with reliever Gilberto Mendez,who signs one and tries to put the other two in his pocket!
This one I catch and get the cards back.but I did give one to Mendez later after shuffling cards and buying another team set to fill in blanks-I'll pass on that recap!
The Lynchburg Hillcats (Atlanta Braves) returned to Frederick and I only had a few cards to fill in from their team set and some players that had been called up from Rome.
The biggest catch was powerhitting outfielder Josh Elander,who was a bit of a Sharpie crusher,but nice.
Other nice pickups were David Rohm (CL All Star),Nate Hyatt (CL top prospect) and Carlos Perez.
Of all the team sets that I saw this year,Lynchburg would be my choice for set of the year with its strong hunter green border.
Derreck did the Keys during this night and added Matt Hobgood on his Delmarva card and the elusive Lex Rutledge for me on a few cards.
Thanks again to my good buddy,who I don't thank here as much because we help each other so much that the reader should figure that goes without saying.
The Kannapolis Intimidators (Chicago White Sox) entered Hagerstown with a few prospects,but not many as a large number had been promoted to Winston-Salem.
Kannapolis did have the Chi-Sox first and third rounders on the team in Tim Anderson and Jacob May and Keon Barnum,who has tons of different cards.
Anderson was quiet,May was much more talkative and Barnum was super in signing all my stuff as there was only two of there.
Those that chose to wait for Barnum later in the series would miss on that decision as Barnum was knocked cold in a play at that plate by Pedro Severino,would be carried off the field and spent the rest of the series at the hotel.
Luck in this hobby goes both ways.
I had already gotten the Binghamton Mets (New York Mets),but rode along to Harrisburg with Kendall Morris anyway.
Jason had done the B-Mets team set,but this was a chance to get the best two prospects in the Mets system.
Noah Syndergaard was dominant on the mound and nice after the game (Jason would get more of Syndergaard as the season went on) in signing his top 100 card!
The Mets top prospect-catcher Travis D'Arnaud was rounding back into shape following injury and was back in AA to do so.
D'Arnaud signed two per and was nice doing so...
The Lakewood Blue Claws (Philadelphia Phillies) moved into Hagerstown for a series,but I held off on a team set because they would be back for the last set of the year and I wanted to have something to do.
This had a bonus though as Phillies star Domonic Brown would be playing for one night for the Blue Claws.
Domonic was a favorite as a young player and I was anxious to see how he signed after being a major leaguer.
Domonic was as good as remembered as he signed and chatted.
I'm even a bigger fan now than I was before!!!
The Myrtle Beach Pelicans (Texas Rangers) were a great signing team earlier in the season and continued to do so in Frederick on their last visit.
Most of the work was on the Pelican team set and a few previous misses.
Notables included Drew Robinson,Hanser Alberto (on his minors heritage),Will Lamb and Patrick Cantwell.
The Pelicans were a terrific team and maybe the best all season that I saw.
The Reading Fightin' Phils (Philadelphia Phillies) were in Harrisburg and I survived an extra inning game to work on them and their awfully ugly uniforms.
As I have written in the past,Harrisburg has become a postgame town,so you need to get through those sometimes.
Top prospect Jesse Biddle didn't have a good game on the mound,but signed everything ( Top 100) as he did with Lakewood.
Super guy.
Sebastian Valle signed one,as is his want and Maikel Franco,the breakout player of the year in the Phillies system signed one as well.
Other Phils of note included Zach Collier,Anthony Hewitt,Seth Rosin and Brody Colvin.
Hewitt is noted for making Derreck run him down in Harrisburg in a previous visit and laughed when we recounted the story to him this time.
Tyler helped me with Billy Burns on his Potomac and Carolina League All-Star card as Burns had just been promoted.Thanks,Tyler.
We wrap up after lots of typing with thanks to Bruce Begole,who helped me with a Midwest League trip that he made to Lansing.Notable pickups included Nick Travieso,Daniel Norris,Dwight Smith Jr,Jesse Winker among others.
Thanks to Bruce for thinking of me and the help!!!
Whew,that knocked things down,but there will still be more signing front entries for the future,so stay tuned!!!
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