Thursday, September 18, 2014

On the Signing Front

We return to the signing front as we begin to whittle down the two massive piles (and third smaller one) from the past season.

I'll start with a few non-baseball graphs

Former Chiefs and Cowboys running back Paul Palmer
Former Boise State quarterback Kellen Moore (Certified) via Ebay.
Former Light Heavyweight and Heavyweight Champion Michael Spinks

We traveled to Wilmington for the Carolina vs California League All-Star game and it was a long grueling day.
Upon arriving,we were able to get a few people outside the hotel which shares a parking lot with the stadium.
It was a long and hot day compounded by a stadium with zero places to eat around the area.
This day was so bad that the lovely Cherie implemented a new policy for me of bringing a small cooler with drinks for future trips.
A steamy day spent on concrete combined with an hour plus wait to get into the stadium and then another wait in line before the graphing session started.
This was truly the turning point in me attempting to take better care of myself.
I was simply worn out,flushed and running on fumes by the end of the one hour session.
Heat,concrete and hustle took it out of me to the point of having my friends become concerned about me.
I've tried to be smarter since this day,but I had it better than my friend,Fred.
Fred was so worn out that he wavered on his feet,grabbed my shoulder to manage to stay on his feet and was on the edge of passing out before we tried to get him to a place to sit.
The Wilmington GM hollered "No,it's not time yet".
My response was " If you don't get him inside to sit down,he's going to pass out right here in front of the gate!".
That scared them enough to let Fred in the door for a seat and some water,but Wilmington's staff really handled that wrong to have a line that long in exposed sun for such a long period was asking for trouble,

The session itself was productive enough with the Carolina players on one side of the concourse and the California players on the others.
Of course,we chose to hit the California guys first and though I didn't get all of them,I did pretty well.
We waited in the longest line for the most touted California Leaguer in Carlos Correa,who signed one of my two top 100's.
The Correa line often clogged,so I was glad to get my one,I guess.
I also added 2013 top 100's of Corey Seager of the Dodgers and Trevor Story of the Rockies.
I only had one of Seager's two top 100's,so he was fine.
The other nice additions were Padres prospects Hunter Renfroe,who signed everything I had, and Joe Ross,Diamondbacks prospect Brandon Drury,A's catcher Bruce Maxwell and Reds outfielders Jesse Winker and Kyle Waldrop.
I added a few Carolina prospects as the session was wrapping as I exhaustedly stumbled out of the stadium and we all would eat (a salad) for me at an overpriced,but very clean rest area before finishing the ride home.
A long,interesting and fun day that helped me straighten out a bit and learn some things too....

The next set featured the Boston Red Sox as their affiliates were in both Hagerstown and Frederick at the same time with the Greenville Drive visited Hagerstown and the Frederick Keys hosting the Salem Red Sox.
Greenville's big prospect was pitcher Trey Ball,who not only was less than friendly (he did sign two for me) he had an ERA over seven.
The Drive also had a nice prospect in outfielder Manuel Margot,who signed a Bowman Chrome,a Lowell team set card and a NY/Penn top prospect card.third baseman Carlos Asuaje,who said "no duplicate cards,my agent told me so" and pitcher Jamie Callahan,who was very nice.

The Salem Red Sox had their team set out,so I was able to start working away on that a bit,
This year's edition of the High A Sawx were not loaded with prospects with the highest rated being pitchers Pat Light,Madison Youngnier and Simon Mercedes.
Not a memorable series or many great graphs tossed into the collection.

I also got two cool cards from Corey White in Tennessee,most notably former big leaguer Joel Pineiro on his 2011 Heritage and Arodys Vizcaino on his 2011 Carolina League top prospect card.
I love getting older cards signed that I've given up on getting finished.
Corey also got Charlie Cutler from the 2013 Altoona set and Drew Gagnon from the Florida State League top prospect set...

This barely put a dent in the pile,so there will be plenty more signing fronts to come!


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