On the signing front

We attempt to keep the signing front clear for now with an update.
This never works out over the course of the season,but my intentions are always good!

The Delmarva Shorebirds visited the Muni and I had next to no cards for them due to doing Aberdeen with Derreck and Brad last season.
Eight whole cards over the series with the best pickup being a chrome of Brian Gonzalez,who in the 3rd round last draft was the Orioles highest pick.
I also got the very nice former Expo catcher Michael Barrett on two showdown cards for Ryan and one for myself.
Barrett is the catching rover for the Nationals this season.

Next up was the West Virginia Power in Hagerstown and I only did one night of the Pirates affiliate.
One night was rained out and the second,I got back a bit late from Harrisburg and after the great recycling caper,no one really felt like going over.
I still was able to get most of the limited stuff that I had signed.
Pittsburgh first rounder Cole Tucker set a high bar as the nicest player for the season.
Tucker really liked the Bowman Red Ice card that I had and talked for quite some time.
Tucker also signed a chrome and his USA card.
The other nice additions were Jordan Luplow,who signed a chrome,Prizm,Elite and a NY/Penn prospects and Taylor Gushue,who signed a chrome and NY/Penn card.

Harrisburg meant the New Britain Rock Cats and their new affiliate in the Colorado Rockies.
The big pickup was David Dahl,who is now down to a one per,but reasonably nice about it.
I only had one,his 2015 Topps Heritage,until I get the new top 100 set that is!
The other two top prospects were very nice as Trevor Story and Tom Murphy each signed three.
Murphy said he had to be quick and I told him I could wait until later and he responded with "that's OK,I'll get them now".
Story signed a heritage,chrome and Modesto card,while Murphy signed a heritage,chrome and Asheville card.
I also got former Indian Dave Burba on a card and two showdowns for Ryan.
The other two nice additions were Tyler Massey on his 2012 heritage and former Brave Gus Schlosser on his 2013 heritage.
The best part on this trip was riding home with Kendall Morris and running into two huge traffic jams.
It took us 90 mins to move the last 7 miles or so to my house as I-81 was actually closed off.
I enjoyed the conversation with Kendall as always though,so it was still a good time.

The Greenville Drive showed me why I love this hobby.
Last year,I wrote the Lowell Spinners were the worst signing team that I did all season.
Many of the Drive were on that team,so what happened?
Great signing team with first rounders Michael Kopech and Michael Chavis being the best along with Rafael Devers,who we wrote about earlier this week.
A quick Devers story.
I paid more than I should have to get my top 100 set for 2015 here and I saw on the morning of the final game of the series that my package was in Hagerstown.
So I go to the game and ask Ryan if he could check my mailbox-no dice.
We leave at 3;25 to drop Rachel off at the house and one last mail check before I pick the lovely Cherie up at 4-no set.
3:42 as I prepare to leave-the set shows up!
I grab the set,rub the Devers card at a red light,run by the Muni,game not over,run back across town 5 minutes late,back across town and the lovely one graciously waits for 15 minutes as I wait by the bus to get Devers as the first 2015 top 100 finished.
That's dedication (or insanity by me) and severe tolerance by her!

We wrap with a short trip to Frederick with Bill Cover for the Winston-Salem Dash and I had just a few cards.
I got all but one finished with Trey Michaelczeski the biggest prospect.
The White Sox system's strength is now at AA Birmingham,so the Dash and the Low A Kannapolis Intimidators could be quite weak.
Bill and I left early in order to watch the second half of the Cavaliers-Bulls game...l

Thanks to Fred Landucci,who helped me with some Reading cards,most notably Jesse Biddle on his 2014 Top 100 among others.
First rounder Aaron Nola signed his chrome,Roman Quinn on a heritage and a silver ice and both Phillies in the Florida State prospects sets in Ethan Stewart and Logan Moore.
Fred also got Dylan Bundy on a refractor in the 1972 style when Bowie came in!
That is one sharp card!

Thanks to Derreck Chupak for doing all my Wilmington Blue Rocks stuff.
We were planning on doing that game together and when I suffered my concussion,I was out of action.
Derreck went down anyway and did all the stuff that I had for the Royals team.
The best were Cody Reed on several cards including a heritage,Eric Scoglund on a Bowman and an elite and best of all coach Brian Bocock on a 2006(!) Salem-Keizer and 2009 San Jose.
Love those old cards getting out of the box and into the binders!
Thanks for the help,buddy!

Thanks to Mark Bailey for more Devils help!
Mark got Rachel an 8 x 10 of Adam Henrique (who else?) and an 8 x 10 for me of my favorite Devil Steve Bernier along with most of this year O-Pee-Chee  Devils team set.
Thanks again,Mark,Rachel and I appreciate it so much!