CARTER'S BACK BABY!!!

     I've been waiting so long for this. My man, Evan Carter, is getting called up for tomorrow's game. 

    After a rather sad Spring Training, Evan Carter missed out on making the Opening Day roster for the Rangers. However, after a slow start in Triple-A, he's heated up a ton recently and will finally get the call. The move is likely due to Leody Taveras being put on waivers. 

    The Rangers have been pretty bad this year. Though they are .500, the offense has been downright terrible -- they cannot score runs. And let's face it; Patrick Corbin's not going to have a 3.28 ERA all season.

    I am very happy to hear of this news. I think Carter's still got star potential in him, and he deserves this chance at the big league level.

    Now, this post, aside from releasing my joy and bliss into the world, is also going to show off the latest addition to my Carter PC. This card comes from TCDB user ThemightyOx, and came in a week or two ago. Unfortunately, I misplaced the card, but just found it the other day on my desk, which pleased me.

    Ox pulled the 2025 Topps Easter holiday parallel, which he sent my way. This is a beautiful card. I actually think the colors, though not very Ranger-ish, make it look great. The glare on the photo is really bad, but I'm a bit too lazy to retake it right now.

    So thanks to Ox and congrats to Carter! Let's go win some games baby!

Brandon Pfaadt in 200 Words

     I first heard about Brandon Pfaadt right about as he was starting his major league career. The right-handed pitcher was born on October 15th, 1998, in Louisville, Kentucky. He attended Bellarmine University in Louisville, where he pitched both as a starter and bullpen arm. Pfaadt was drafted by the Diamondbacks in the 5th round of the 2020 MLB June Amateur Draft. He spent three seasons in the minor leagues, where he acquired a 25-16 record, 3.58 ERA, and 447 strikeouts in 359 1/3 innings. Arguably his best skill, his command, has carried over into the majors, as he walks just 2.2 batters per every nine innings thrown. Pfaadt got the call to the Diamondbacks in 2023, but had a very shaky first year, pitching to a 5.72 ERA. However, he has shown considerable improvement in 2024 and so far in 2025. One thing about Pfaadt that I admire is his strong faith. He has been seen reading out of his Bible before starts. Pfaadt's game plan is to work as hard as he can and trust God, letting His plan fall into action. I hope to see a long and successful career out of this kid.  

Cards From Karsal

     My good friend Karsal sent me a PWE. Karsal's blog, Collecting This 'n' That, had a giveaway, and I was the recipient of three great cards. Without further ado, here they are:

    Freddie appears to be doing a Dodger hit celebration. All the different celebrations used by teams these days intrigue me. Most of them seem to rotate celebrations multiple times every season. 

        I like the design of the Bowman Platinum cards of 2023. I'm not entirely sure why; they have a rating of 5.7 on the TCDB.
    Interestingly, the back of the card says that the WAR totals are provided by Baseball Reference. It's probably for the better since different people have different ways of calculating the stat so that it's never always the same as another person. 

    I've always taken an interest in Vaughn Grissom, and this card catches my eye immediately. It looks amazing in person; my picture really doesn't do it justice. 
    The 24-year old Grissom is still with the Red Sox, in Triple-A, where he is currently wrecking the minors. It's almost unfortunate that the Red Sox have such a good middle infield, because it might a while for Grissom to blossom in the Bigs again. I hope to see him soon. He has so much talent.

    Thank you Karsal for the great new additions to my collection! Be sure to check out Collecting This 'n' That if you haven't yet. The blog has been around since December of last year, and is a very good read.

    Thanks for checking out Don Cardwell! Have a great week, and happy collecting!

A Look Into Some of my Ridiculous Player Nicknames

   I call players by a lot of different names when communicating with friends. When you get hyped about a game, you don't have time to say a guy's full name, especially something such as Jurrangelo Cijntje. Heck, I don't even know how to pronounce that.

    Thus, I've given a number of baseball players nicknames, mostly plays on their last names. Here I'll be showing off six of my most-used player nicknames thus far in 2025. 

Tarik Skubal: Ubals

    I think I've called him Ubals on a Don Cardwell post before. This is the most common of the nicknames I've used.

Chris Sale: Saleboat

    I should probably mention that the vast majority of my nicknames are for pitchers. I don't know why, but that's the way it is.

Kristian Campbell: Camby

    Camby's been so impressive thus far that he's already gained a nickname. 

Justin Steele: Steelio

    I just randomly called him Steelio one day. Pretty sure he got smashed in that start.

Jacob deGrom: Deggy, Degasaurus

    He's got two. deGrom's name is far too good to not have any nicknames

Porter Hodge: HodgePodge

    He had a clutch hold for my fantasy team yesterday, so I gave him the nickname on the spot.

    There's a brief look into a few of the things I call players I like. This post was fun and fast to make, and hopefully before too long I can pull out one with cards (I've gotten a few PWEs that need to get posted on). Meanwhile, thanks for reading the blog, have a great week, and happy collecting!

Slowing Down

     If you were a reader of this blog at the turn of 2024, you may remember that in my New Year's post I talked of posting less. Then, out of the gates the posts kept coming. I was set to crank out 130 or so posts after February.

    But then things slowed. I haven't hit the LCS in a good month or so, and life in general just got busier. It's been over two weeks since I've posted on acquisitions; which is not to say that I have no posting material right now. Just too little time to sit down and write it.

    I'm afraid that things are just getting busier and busier, and keeping up with my daily responsibilities is becoming challenging. And so the blog and the hobby have taken a lot of the neglect. And things may stay that way for a while. 

    Of course I'll still be posting, that's not a question. My posts may be a bit fewer and farther between, but I'll be sure to continue posting steadily on the blog; at least once or twice a month, until I get some more free time. Like I said, I have plenty of posting material, and will soon get down to writing those posts and sending them off into the world periodically.

    I have some packages to send out to a couple folks, and I apologize for my delays. It's slipped my mind until recently. I'll be sure to hit the card store and get those sent out to y'all. Who knows, I'll probably come away with a post or two worth of cards as well.

    I just wanted to give y'all some explanation for my lack of posting as of late. It hasn't been months since the last post, so I know this shouldn't be any surprise, but it's time to get something out there anyway, and express my desire to give y'all a heads-up on my limited posting. This my also help me with the resolution of better quality of posts. I'm not trying to make a bunch of lame excuses. I haven't been as motivated to post lately as well.

    Before I sign off for the day, I'd like to comment on the immense improvement of the Rangers, who are now first in the AL West. Well of course, it's only been a week into the season, but I gotta find a bright spot in baseball somewhere. Heaven knows how long we'll hold down the fort. Honestly, I may have a few Texas Rangers posts mixed in with card-blogging posts in the future to make posting easier.

'Slow Down' by Chasper

Ranger Recap: Opening Day

     It's not usually a week-ish between posts for me, but I'll probably be getting used to that these coming months. I'm working on a few posts that ought to be posted soon (I'll try to get one out within a week), and as an endeavor not to go too long without posting, here comes the recap from Opening Day. Buckle up boys, this was not a fun one.

    I listened to almost the entire game on the radio as my Rangers took on Matt from Diamond Jester's Red Sox. 

    It was a really good game; it was 2-2 until the ninth inning. Though the score was low, both teams had their fair share of hits. Kyle Higashioka made me particularly happy. Wilyer Abreu, on the other hand, did not.

    I don't have a lot of nice things to say about Luke Jackson. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the man -- he just has no business playing a closer role for the Rangers. Chris Martin's getting gypped. And, unfortunately, Luke Jackson gave up a three-run home run -- to no other than Wilyer Abreu. Man, he's a good hitter.

    It's been a minute since the Rangers lost an Opening Day game, and this isn't the prettiest way to start a season. Of course, there are 161 games to go.

    Well Matt, we'll just need to settle with winning the series. 

Jac Caglianone: Ripped Off?

     I've seen this conversation before. The best example that I can think of is Jackson Holliday; a player rakes in Spring Training (in Holliday's case, batting .311 with 3 doubles, 2 triples and 2 homers in 15 spring games in 2024) and then getting left off the Opening Day roster for more development.

    The annoying thing about Holliday is that he was the top prospect going in to 2024 -- and in the minor league season of 2023 he batted .323/.442/.499 with 113 runs, 30 doubles, and 24 swiped bags in 125 games. 

    Holliday was evidently not ready for the majors -- in 60 MLB games in 2024 he batted just .190 with a .565 OPS. Though I am of complete confidence that Holliday will be fine and even a star of the game in the near future, his case represents why a team would keep a player down even if he hits well in spring.

    

    Jac Caglianone's case is a little bit different. He was drafted in the first round of the 2024 draft by the Kansas City Royals. The highest level he ever played was High-A ball, where he slashed .236/.302/.388.

    However, in 2025's Spring Training, Caglianone is batting .500/.609/1.167 with 3 homers in 14 games. This is nothing shy of amazing. Take a look at this beautiful third home run of Caglianone's spring:

    Even though Caglianone has put up other-worldly numbers in Spring Training, the Royals have announced that they will not be putting the first-baseman on the Opening Day roster or 2025. Granted, Kansas City has Vinnie Pasquantino at first base already, and though one of them could DH, the Royals have players who can hit to go in the DH role (e.g. Freddy Furmin and Salvador Perez, the duo of catchers). 

    I'm all for letting young guys with incredible talent get a crack at the majors, but with such a small sample size, perhaps his staying down is for the better. We'll just need to see.

    How do y'all feel about this, if you have an opinion? Is Caglianone getting ripped off, or is this a smart move by the Royals? Please let me know in the comments.

    Unfortunately, I don't have any of Jac Caglianone's baseball cards, so I've got nothing to show off. Nonetheless, I promise I'll have plenty of cards for the next post. Meanwhile, thank you for reading Don Cardwell, have a great weekend, and happy collecting!