We start with thanks to Tom O'brien for a few former Indians pitchers-Aaron Laffey,Tom Candiotti and Justin Masterson.
Thanks to Mike Oravec for his help in adding another player to the top 100 set in 2013's Rymer Liriano....
A trip to Harrisburg for the Reading Phillies with Bill Cover was met with a surprise as Kendall Morris awaited us in the parking lot.
Great evening watching the game and pretty productive too as Aaron Nola signed his top 100 and a Bowman as well as the top grab of the evening.
I was also pleased to add three pitchers that were originally from other organizations to add for the first time in prospects Zach Eflin,Joe Windle and Ben Lively.
All were acquired in trades in the off-season by the rebuilding Phillies.
Speedy outfielder Roman Quinn signed his 2012 Lakewood card and a Bowman and the most fun addition of all (other than Aaron Nola's top 100) was second baseman Harold Martinez.
Martinez was one of those players that I just seemed to miss a lot through the years and as a result had a whopping nine different cards for him.
I told Harold that I was sorry I had so many,but I just missed him in Hagerstown and he quickly added "I never played in Hagerstown" with a smile.
I responded that I knew that and that was the main reason that I had so many cards!
Harold was very nice in signing all nine cards.
Thanks to Fred Landucci,who got Tyler Glasnow and Josh Bell of the Altoona Curve on their top 100's from 2015 along with a few Bowmans of each.
Fred was able to get a few stragglers from the 2014 Bradenton team set and Austin Voth of the homestanding Senators on his new Bowman.
Later in that series,Fred got Harrisburg's Pedro Severino on his Bowman and Ethan Stewart of Reading for me as well.
Thanks to Brett Shaw,who got me Richmond's Kelvin Marte and two refractors from the past in Rich Blelski and Cord Sandberg at Altoona and State College....
I had very little for the West Virginia Power,but in Cole Tucker (signed a Stars and Stripes) and Connor Joe (Bowman),the Power brought in two of the nicest guys I've seen in years.
Pleasant,personable and willing to talk,both players made fans out of me!
Thanks to Brandon Diehl for getting Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez on their new top 100's.
I wound up doing Potomac,but with the 100's,I don't like to put things off-One never knows it could rain!
I managed to get Lucas Giolito on two cards (Bowman chrome and heritage in Suns uni!)when I saw the P-Nats in Frederick,
Lucas still personalizes,but is very nice and as noted in the past,the personalization doesn't bother me as much as the look of the card.
On 8 x 10's,I prefer personalizing....
The only other interesting story on this day was with Jake Johansen,who was always a nice guy as a Sun and still is,but has picked up the Giolito personalizing bug.
I had two of his new Bowman-1 for me and 1 for someone else and after signing the first,Jake asked for a name for second.
I quickly picked a trader name and he signed to them and asked if "I wanted the other one personalized".
I told him that one (chrome) was fine the way it was.
Next into Hagerstown was the Greensboro Grasshoppers and the Marlins affiliate which had one name that stood out-2014 second overall pick-Tyler Kolek.
Kolek signed all four (Top 100!) cards that I had and a ball for Craig Lindgren on day one and I was finished with the young righthander.
Michael Mader signed his Bowman,Batavia and New York/Penn top prospect cards while Brian Schales and Casey Soltis each signed their Elite and Bowman,but my favorite might have been Ryan Aper,who signed an Elite and two Batavia and then added "God Bless You".
I need all the help I can get!
The worst part was Andrew (or Drew on his cards),who blew me and Brad Adams off pre-game,post-game,walked around with his phone,saw us waiting and still stomped onto the bus.
I had other graphers tell me about his apparent hearing (or disinterest) issues.
Can;t wait to see him again in June!
Our anniversary trip to Harrisburg saw me pick up a few stragglers of New Britain from their first visit and help one of my traders.
The Eastern League released a top prospect set for the first time in years and being there allowed me to get all of the Rock Cats in the set-David Dahl,Tommy Murphy and Trevor Story.
Fred Landucci got me David Dahl's Top 100 at a game in the series before I was there.
Fred also got me a few Gavin Cecchini's and Michael Fulmer in the Binghamton series...
We wrap up with the Salem Red Sox in Frederick with one of their lesser prospect teams through the years.
I was disappointed that Manuel Margot (Top 100) was injured and not there,but their team set is out (Pretty pricey,graphers).
Biggest gets were Sam Travis (Bowman,Lowell and NY/Penn) ,Trey Ball ( 2 different Bowmans,Heritage,Greenville and Salem) and Ty Buttrey (Lowell,NY/Penn,Greenville and Salem).
Ball and Buttrey were very nice,which was unexpected after last year in Hagerstown.
The Muni can do that sometimes!
All caught up for now,but more soon with three teams in the next few days (Lynchburg,Kannapolis and Hickory!)
No comments:
Post a Comment