In Person Autograph - Dillon Tate

A relative unknown at the start of the college baseball season, Dillon Tate has rocketed up the draft boards and is now generally regarded as a surefire Top 5 selection in the upcoming June draft. Tate is currently a junior at UC Santa Barbara, and being in the Big West Conference, was sure to make an appearance at Long Beach State or Cal State Fullerton this year. I had long ago marked this weekend down as the date when I could hopefully get him to sign my 2 USA cards. I made the trek postgame after the Fullerton/UCSB contest last night and after what was probably a 40 minute wait, Tate happily signed for everyone who asked.

 

Since the release of the 2014 USA box set, Panini has also come out with a USA Stars & Stripes set. I was able to pick up the Tate base card from that set as well, which I also got signed.

 

 

In Person Autograph - Blake Rutherford

Currently a junior at Chaminade, Blake Rutherford has long been regarded as one of the top prep prospects in the Class of 2016. The outfielder committed to UCLA when he was a freshman and is a frequent visitor to UCLA baseball games. A veteran of several USA teams, I happened to get Blake's card signed earlier this month when Vanderbilt was in town. I recognized Blake before the game, but he was in a hurry to get seated with his family and promised he would sign later. Typically, this means you are out of luck as the odds of a person remembering you are slim to none. To my total surprise, as he was leaving the game, Blake came over to where I was seated and knocked out both the base card and the U18 Team card. Thank you for being a true stand up guy.

 

 

Blake's signature has changed since his freshman year, when he used to give a full signature. A mutual acquaintance noted that with the shortened signature, the autograph reads a little like Babe Ruth. One can only hope that his baseball career is a fraction as successful as that of the Sultan of Swat.

In Person Autograph - Brian Schales

The Major League Baseball draft doesn't hold the same appeal as that of their NFL or NBA counterparts, mainly due to lack of name recognition and the immediacy of impact. Even the top draft picks typically don't make the big leagues until years down the road. Even so, I devour draft news and like to have a handle on who the top players are in the country. It was thus a total shock to me last year when the Marlins drafted Brian Schales in the fourth round of the 2014 draft. A shortstop at Edison High with a scholarship to Long Beach State, Schales was never mentioned as a top prospect in any publication or news site that I had visited. I recall that neither MLB.com or Baseball America even had a scouting report on him that day, which is uncommon for a top 5 round draft selection.

Still, I was very familiar with Schales since he was a freshman, as a friend at work had a nephew the same grade and on the same high school team. He sounded like a solid ball player, but I had no idea he had pro potential coming out of high school. Being a pretty high draft, I was thinking that there could be a chance that he could have a Bowman Draft and/or Donruss Elite card. When the checklists for both products came out, it was to my glee (and horror) that Schales was included in both products. While on the one hand, it would be cool to get his card, the horror would be in knowing there would be who knows how many parallel versions of the same card (turns out, waaaaay too many).

I've been able to pick up a bunch of the Bowman Draft and Donruss Elite base cards and I was able to get Brian to sign some at his high school alumni game. I asked, and it sounded like I was the first person to ever have him sign his baseball card. In fact, he had never seen his Donruss Elite card before and I gladly offered one up to him.  

In Person Autograph - Dominic Smith

Serra High and Orange Lutheran are roughly 35 miles away from each other so it was an absolute shock when Dominic Smith made an appearance at the Orange Lutheran alumni game over the weekend. The 2013 Mets first rounder had been staying with former OLu alum Jason Martin and decided to tag along for the game. The surprise appearance required me to make the trek back home to dig out some cards to get signed. Smith was extremely polite and humble and had no issues with signing everything I had, which was a lot. It was great to get an autograph of a local player who plays on an East Coast team that I would otherwise not have had the chance to acquire.

In Person Autograph - Kolby Allard and Lucas Herbert

With all the high schools across the country, the odds of having any one ball player making a Team USA roster are remote at best. What does that say about San Clemente High which happens to have TWO players from last year's 18Usquad? With my newly acquired Team USA base set from the previous post, I headed out to a fall ball game this evening in the hopes of snagging my first two autographs from the set, battery mates Kolby Allard and Lucas Herbert.

Allard is generally considered the top prep pitcher in the Class of 2015. If all goes well for him this season, he will never set foot on the UCLA campus. If that is the case, he will join a long list of UCLA signees who went straight to the pros. The autograph didn't turn out the greatest as it was signed in the dark.

Herbert is another UCLA commit, and the Bruins are expected to have a hole at catcher next season so there is a chance he winds up in school. An interesting tidbit from tonight's contest is that Lucas called his own game behind the plate. It's rare to see a college catcher allowed to call his own game, much less a high school catcher. I thought this signature turned out really well.

The base set also includes a team photo of the 15U, 18U, and Collegiate teams. It's basically a checklist that lists the roster on the back. In recent years, I've tried to get as many of the players to sign on their respective team card. The first two signatures took up a lot of space so I'm not sure how many more will be able to fit.

Box Break - 2014 Panini USA Baseball

The yearly Team USA products are generally one of my favorites. The autos and jerseys aren't that big a deal to me, as I am after the base cards to get IP autographs. For whatever the reason (perhaps the $90!! box price), I haven't seen as many of the base cards offered through the various online sources, and with the autograph season right around the corner, I've been getting a bit nervous.

The base set of 81 cards has been going online for ~$30 which seems a bit much to me. I've had a $100 Amazon Gift card from work just lying around, so I decided to bite the bullet and pick up a box for roughly $100 after tax and shipping. Sigh (I am rationalizing this as a free purchase). Trust me, boxes are definitely NOT my thing. Why spend money on a crapshoot when I can spend the same amount of money and knowingly purchase what I want? Anyways, the box arrived in the mail today, and here are the results:

Personally, I don't think the base cards have as nice of a design as last year's product, but beggars can't be choosers. Turang, Cameron, and Funkhouser look to be the top prospects from the 15U, 18U, and Collegiate teams, respectively. Turang is the son of former big leaguer Brian Turang, and Cameron is the son of long time major leaguer Mike Cameron.

Each box promises 9 "hits", 7 being autographs and 2 memorabilia cards. Of the 4 base autos I received, I was most pleased with the Garza and Molnar, two local products who I have seen pitch in the past. I have the ticket stub from Garza's first collegiate win for Cal State Fullerton, and I saw Molnar pitch a no-hitter last year. I happened to be scoring the game, and he signed the scorecard for me afterwards.

The three additional autos are of players I have not heard of before. I do like the look of the Gold AU, even if it is a sticker auto.

Last but not least are the 2 memorabilia pieces. I am not familiar with L.T. Tolbert (apparently he is committed to South Carolina), but the Jumbo Jersey Patch numbered out of 20 is probably my favorite card from the box. Just a beautiful looking card. 

It appears that around 20 of the 65 unique player cards are of guys that may be in my area this year. As such, I will try to keep a running track of any IP successes during the year.

Early Christmas Present from Brad at Red Sox Fan In Nebraska

I generally have a good idea of my ongoing trades, but in my stack of mail last week was an envelope from Nebraska. Now, I know I had just completed a trade with Brad from Red Sox Fan In Nebraska, but I had already received my end of the trade. Looking at the last name, I was sure that it was from Brad, and I was thinking that maybe he had found a couple more of my set needs. When I opened up the envelope, I instead found this...

Whaddya know, a 1998 Red Sox Score #15 Shane Mack! It has probably been a few years since I have been able to add any new cards to the Mack collection, so I was pretty fired up when I saw it. Thank you Brad for taking the time to look over my wantlist and surprising me with the card. Your generosity will definitely be remembered in the future!