Checking In

     I kinda lost track of time. It's been a little bit longer than intended since the last time I posted. And unfortunately, I've done almost nothing in terms of collecting during that time. Life has gotten really busy really fast (and will be getting even more so in the coming weeks), and I've been doing things other than collecting with my free time. 

    I was planning on waiting until the end of the regular season to do a big postseason blog post, but that's a little bit too long away for my liking, so I'll just fill y'all in with what I've been up to the last few months, and sprinkle some not very special cards into the mix.

    I've become a bit of an injury magnet the last three and a half months as compared to the rest of my life. My streak of never having broken a bone came to an end at the end of May when I was struck by an errant baseball and broke my nose. The healing process took longer than expected, but I am happy to report that I'm back to normal...

...until yesterday, when I damaged my eardrum. I didn't fully rupture it, which is obviously a good thing, but the damage I caused it will probably take about a week to heal. For right now I need to be a little bit careful with both loud noises and lifting weights....so I can't blast my hype playlist while getting those gains on the weight set for a week or so.

    I don't want to complain. After all, I got out mighty lucky with both of those injuries and am thankful they weren't worse.

    I have a new guitar I got a few months ago, and have been very slowly teaching myself how to play. I've wanted to play guitar for a long time now, and I'm glad I've finally started doing so.

    

    I am also in the process of looking for a job. I have a pretty good lead on a job opportunity, and will provide more information on the subject if I am to get it.

    Now then, what have I done with baseball cards? Almost nothing since my last post, and very little since May. 

    I got a pack of 2025 Bowman cards when they were first released. I've neglected to comment upon their new design, and will do so presently.

    I know Bowman isn't always very popular among collectors, but I actually really the design they came up with for this year. Although I find it interesting that the players' legs go through the borders.

    On a side note, I'm kinda disappointed that Andrew Painter hasn't performed well in the minors and isn't getting the call up this year as was expected. Then again, the leap from Single-A to Triple-A is a big one. He's got the stuff, he just needs a little more time.  

    I also got a pack from 1994 that peaked my interest:

1994 Fleer Extra Bases Rookie Standout #4

    These card are definitely very interesting. The dimensions are quite different than that of your typical baseball cards. 

    Let's take the 2025 Bowman Shohei Ohtani card. At 6-foot 3-inches, Shohei is a pretty tall dude, noticeable taller than the 5-foot 11-inch Tim Davis:

    Not so, according to the cards. Davis towers over Ohtani, who looks like a shrimp compared to this card. It's the same width of it's Bowman peer, but a little bit over an inch taller. 

    I kinda like the 1994 Fleer Extra Bases set for it's uniqueness. I'm not going to pursue the 400-card set, but I might look into grabbing all 20 of the Rookie Standout cards, assuming it won't be too expensive or difficult to find. 

    Well, that sums up a lot of what I've been doing rather than posting, and also the most interesting additions to the collection in the last few months. Hopefully before long I'll take a trip to the LCS -- I haven't been there in a little while. 

    I'll definitely post before the start of the postseason. I love making those predictions. Until next time, have a great rest of the week, and happy collecting!

Grant Taylor in 200 Words

     You might not know who Grant Taylor is. He was the #90 prospect on Baseball Prospectus coming into the 2025 season. Taylor was born on May 20th, 2002, in Florence Alabama. The right-handed pitcher threw at LSU before being drafted by the White Sox in the second round of the 2023 MLB June Amateur Draft. Taylor progressed through the minors quickly, needing just 20 appearances (11 starts) and 46 innings before being promoted to the majors, skipping Triple-A altogether. Perhaps he got lucky since he plays for the White Sox. Nonetheless, he possessed a 1.57 ERA on the farms. Either way, Taylor throws his fastball in the upper-90s, and reaches 100+ MPH quite often. His other pitches include a cutter, curveball, and slider. Taylor debuted on June 10th, 2025, when he threw a perfect inning in just twelve pitches. Thus far on the season, he has a 4.41 ERA in 16 1/3 innings pitched. He shows much potential as a high-leverage bullpen arm who can miss bats. I'm looking forward to seeing what Grant Taylor can do with some more big-league experience. I hope to see a long and successful career out of the promising young arm.

They Done Nico Dirty

    One of the baseball players that I specifically follow but don't mention too often on the blog is Nico Hoerner. 

(great shot they got for this card)

    I love the way Nico plays the game -- he's living proof that you don't need to hit homers to be a great player. His combination of insane defense and mad bat-to-ball skills makes him a bit of a threat to pitchers, even though they can usually rest assured that they aren't going to be serving up a homer. 

    Anyway.....Nico's been great this year; he is currently batting .287 across 86 games with 51 runs, 37 RBI, and 16 steals. He also sports the best glove among National League second basemen, leading the league in fielding percentage, putouts, and double plays.

    My point? Nico's an All-Star game snub. 

    My real point? Players such as Nico Hoerner are severely underrated.

    I don't think Nico being left out of the All-Star game is a huge deal, except that he said it would be a dream come true to make the roster. No, the real crime is how undervalued players like him are.

    They aren't particularly flashy since he's not batting .320 or hitting a bunch of homers, but his fielding is elite, as well as his speed. These factors are helping the Cubs win games.

    I don't rely heavily on advanced statistics such as WAR, but to prove a point, I suppose I'll use it.

    Seiya Suzuki (another All-Star snub, by the way) is slashing .260/.319/561 with 25 home runs and a league-leading 77 RBI in 86 games, and has a WAR of 2.1. The statistic is saying he has won the Cubs 2.1 more games than a league-average replacement.

    Nico Hoerner, on the other hand, has 3 home runs. However, his WAR is 3.5, suggesting that he has won one and a half more contests for the team than Seiya Suzuki has (versus an average backup, of course).

    Now, I don't use WAR to determine how good a player is. Suzuki has been much better on offense than Nico, and I don't think anybody would question that. 

    The thing I do appreciate about WAR is that it takes defense into account. Suzuki is a pretty bad fielder, and Nico is the best fielder at his position, which is why the stat leans in favor of Nico. 

    The bottom line is that Nico Hoerner exceeds at defense while also providing decent numbers with the bat (not to mention his miniscule 6.8% strikeout percentage). And I feel that players like that are criminally underrated since they aren't as flashy.

    But, that's just my opinion on the matter. I'd be interested in seeing how anybody else feels on the subject. 

    Until next time, have a great week, thanks for reading (and sorry for the extended rant 😂) and happy collecting!

Name My Team?

     Howdy folks! I've got a sort of a contest for y'all, although there's no prize for the winner (😔). It's just for fun.

    My fantasy football league just opened for the 2025-2026 season, and I don't know what to name 'em. 

    Last year they were Garappolos Tortoise -- since Jimmy Garoppolo was one of the few players I knew. But, with a new season comes a new name, and I'm in the mood for some fun.

    So please feel free to leave a comment with a suggestion for my fantasy football team's name. I will pick the name I like best, and choose that one for my team. Suggestions will run until Opening Day, I guess. I didn't think it through too hard before doing it (the idea came to mind like 7 minutes ago).

    Until next time, have a great week, and happy collecting!

   

COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!!!

    Holy smokes, it's been a few months by now. 

    To be a little bit more concise, it's been a few months since I went to the Frisco RoughRiders game with a few friends. 

    Pretty much from the time I started playing baseball as a little kid, I've been a catcher. I have a place in my heart for them. And so when my friendasked me if I wanted any cards to get autographed, of course I requested the Riders catcher, Cooper Johnson.

    It was a little bit tough to get his signature since Johnson was starting behind the plate that day. When I was watching him do his drills in the bullpen, he must've noticed me, because he turned to me and said he'd give me an autograph.

    Cooper was such a nice guy. I don't know if I've ever met a more polite ballplayer. It really made an impression on me that he went out of his way to sign my card when he was obviously busy. I wasn't even asking for his autograph. I was a fan of his before, but I would say I'm a bigger fan now. As far as my personal player encounters go, thisthe most pleasant of them all.

    At the game, whenever Johnson came up to bat, all the fans in the stadium chanted, 'Cooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooop!'
    I think y'all get the point. It was a very long an excited cheer.

    Since the game, Cooper Johnson has been promoted to AAA Round Rock, where he's slashing .212/.339/.283 in 30 games. At 27 years of age, he might need to get moving if he wants his chance in the big-leagues. I hope he gets there soon and can play at least a handful of games for the Rangers.

    I love adding autographs acquired in-person to my collection. Almost every minor leaguer or ex-major leaguer I've met has been very friendly. I'm even personal friends with one of them (who just retired after the 2024 season). It's special to me to be able to meet and talk to the guys I enjoy watching so much.

    That was an experience I'm glad to remember on the blog. Thanks for sharing the memory with me, have a great week, and happy collecting!

So Close But So Far

     C'mon guys, y'all were so close!

    Yesterday the Tigers and Pirates played in a doubleheader, due to Wednesday's game being postponed. Wednesday was Skubal's turn in the rotation, and Thursday Skenes'. 

    As a baseball fan, I would have been very excited to see the two toe the rubber against one another, mano e mano. But of course, this didn't happen.

    It's to be expected since neither team wouldn't want to chance losing the game their ace is starting; and they didn't. The Tigers won game one with Skubal on the mound, the Pirates game two with Skenes. Though it makes for less exciting television, I suppose it was the logical answer, even if it feels lame from a fan's perspective.

    The annoying thing is that since the series was of the interleague variety, the teams won't play each other for a while now, and we were seriously this close to seeing the two best MLB pitchers facing each other at their best. I guess people need to live with disappointments 😂

    That's all I got for today's post. I'll be back next time with some LCS grabs. Thanks for checking out the blog, remember to have a great rest of the week, and happy collecting!

I never dyed my hair

    Howdy folks!

    It's been over a month, so I figured it's probably time to post again. 

    This card is from good ol' Diamond Jesters. I had forgotten about it until it showed up about a week ago. This is the perfect card to write a short post on and get back to the blog.

    A few things about this card strike me. Firstly, Riley without a beard is downright strange. Reminds me of that 2014 Topps Charlie Blackmon card (shaking my head so hard right now).

    I love how the card says Official Trading Card of Baseball Fans Everywhere. I didn't know Leaf had it in them to make the 'Official' trading card. 

    The red is really jumping out, but kinda in a good way. I don't know what it is, but the strange color combination of red and green seems to work well with the card (and it's not even Holiday).

    Would you believe that all Matt was asking for was a card older than this one??? 

    I made a deal with myself last season that if Riley Greene bats .320 with 40 homers, I would dye my hair greene (it's a long story for those who don't know it). Unfortunately, he never did it. But I'm keeping the deal up indefinitely. Wouldn't greene hair be so nice on the blog?

    Thanks for stopping by, have a great rest of the week, and happy collecting!