August 2019 Graphing of the Mudcats At Wood Ducks

The first series in Kinston after I got back from the National was between the Mudcats and Wood Ducks.  I took a bunch of the cards that I found at the National, and got them signed.

This Tristen Lutz was in a box at the National for $2.00.  It turned out really well, and I was happy to get it signed.

I continued to work on my Mudcats set when I got these cards signed by Christian Taugnet and Pat McInerney. 

These Mario Feliciano cards turned out great.  I thought I had gotten him earlier in the season, but I guess I didn't.

I was able to get Brice Turang on a 2019 Pro Debut.  He signed a lot better for us during this series than the past one, so I was able to get some 50/50s done, as well.

I got these two Lutz cards from the National as well.  The left one is the glossy version of his 2018 Heritage Minors, and the right one is a 2017 Bowman Chrome refractor.

I liked this Stars and Stripes relic that I found cheap in a relic/auto box at the show.  I got Devin Hairston to sign it, and I hope to add some of the other guys to it.

My friend, Ben, gave me this Brewers autograph card.  I got it signed by Payton Henry, and it turned out well.

I found more Phil Bickford cards than anything at the National.  I was able to get them all signed, and of course, they all look great.

They're all parallels, and will look awesome in my album.

I was disappointed that there weren't more places that had Bowman parallels at the National, but I was able to find some good stuff.

I finished up my Yanio cards when I got this last custom card signed.  I got it from a Rangers fan that I 50/50 with, and got all of his stuff done.

I found some nice Eric Jenkins cards while at the show.  The above card is a mini 2017 Bowman.  I found some of these of Leody Taveras and Anderson Tejeda that I will put away.

Both of these parallels of EJ turned out well.

I was really happy when I found this 2016 Bowman Chrome Orange Shimmer refractor in a quarter box at the show.  I ran into a bunch of them and hoped there would be someone in there who I could get to sign.  When I saw this Jairo Beras, I was stoked.  I also found this Rize card at a booth that had a bunch of there, and some Perfect Game cards.

These two Michael Matuella cards turned out well.  I like the black refractor from 2015 Bowman Chrome (left).

I had seen someone at a Wood Ducks game with the Bubba Thompson on the left.  I was glad to find one at the National.  I also found the blue parallel from 2017 Bowman.  The blue parallels look great when signed.

Speaking of blue parallels, these two Noah Bremers really look great.  I don't know why I didn't have any of these before, but I was glad to add them now.

Graphing The Wood Ducks vs A Stacked Dash Squad

Whatever bubonic plague I was suffering from on Monday wasn't going to keep me from my goal of graphing the Winston-Salem Dash when they came to town.  This is the team that I was most looking forward to seeing this season, mostly because of their manager.  Future Hall of Famer, Omar Vizquel was named the manager of the Dash during the off-season, and I had to make sure that I got him on a baseball.

Because I was pushing for the ball, I couldn't present my book for him to sign as well, but luckily, CHris made sure he signed my two best cards.  I found both of these cards at the Chantilly show, and was so glad they turned out well.  I had bought a pack of Steadtler pens for the Bowman Hi Tex, but they didn't get here in time.  The blue Sharpie worked just fine, and I was really happy Chris thought to make sure those were the two he signed.

An unexpected highlight of the night was that White Sox prospect, Gavin Sheets, wasn't in the lineup.  So, while the game was going on, he had to wait by the fence to come onto the field.  While he was waiting, I chatted with him for a bit about his being in Winston.  He actually attended Wake Forest University, so it was a bit of a homecoming for him.  Sheets was really nice, and friendly.  He came back by at the end of the game and signed for us.

I had gotten Dylan Cease before, when I was at Andrew's last season.  He was with South Bend, and was traded.  He signed 2 per for us.  I really was glad to get a 2013 Perfect Game card out of my box.  I'll be sitting on a ton of those for a while, I think.

Micker Adolfo doesn't have much of a signature, but I was able to get him taken care of.  I also used up another card from my 2017 Carolina League Top Prospects set.

I finished off all of the Michael Matuellas that I had, which was nice.

I also took some custom cards in a 50/50, and they turned out great.  This Ledarious Clark might be my favorite of the bunch.

I got a good many of the customs done, but the other guy ended up with more (the guys who don't sign duplicates like Taveras).  I'll have a few to work on for a while.

In this series, I missed out on Dane Dunning and Blake Rutherford.  I wanted to catch a second game, but due to being sick, I decided I would stay home, get better and try again another time.

In all, I got Omar Vizquel x 2, Gavin Sheets x 5, Micker Adolfo x 4, TiQuan Forbes x 3, Luis Basabe x 4, Dylan Cease x 4, Michael Matuella x 7, Spike Owen x 2, Jonathan Hernandez x 2, Christian Torres x 2, Ledarious Clark x 2, Josh Altmann x 2, CD Pelham x 3, Anderson Tejeda x 3, Leody Taveras x 1 and Ricky Valencia x 2.

And I got a Gold Glove Award ROMLB signed by Vizquel.

Graphing the Wood Ducks Home Opener and More

Much like the Orioles season, my graphing season has gotten off to a rocky start.  Unlike the Orioles season, however, I expect my graphing to improve.  I was all gung-ho on the season starting, then winter decided that it wanted to stick around, and in turn, I have gotten really sick.  I have already bypassed two games due to illness, and it has set me back a little bit on taking care of some 50/50s, and getting some stuff for myself signed.

I have gotten a lot of stuff done, though, and I am fairly happy with the results so far.  The above 2017 Bowman Holiday Edition Ugly Christmas Sweater parallel might be one of the coolest cards I have gotten so far.

I caught the Wood Ducks home opener last Thursday (April 12) against Myrtle Beach, with my son and my brother.  Myrtle Beach didn't have many guys with available cards that I could find in my boxes, so this was primarily a means to knock out some of my Wood Ducks cards before some scheduled 50/50s came in.  I knocked out a lot of my Hickory team sets, and finished the Elite die cut Lemoine I had sitting since last year.

I did really well with Leody Taveras and Jake Lemoine.  Anything else I get signed by them wil be either 50/50s or for trades because I knocked them out early.

I had found quite a few guys at the Chantilly show, like the 2015 Bowman green refractor of Michael Matuella.  The card looks really sharp.  I have gotten everything signed by Matuella that I had built up over the off-season.  I have learned that getting pitchers to sign is tough because they don't always come out of the bullpen onto the field before the game.  I can foresee that I will end up with extra Jake Lemoine cards by the end of the season, so I may hand off quite a few cards to kids at games.

I had to buy Walker Weickel's cards off of Sportlots; I also had to bust two sets to get James Jones's cards that you see above.  I found out that he was the former outfielder, so I searched my boxes for his stuff, to no avail.  Luckily, my friend, Gerard, sent me some others for 50/50s, so I can replace the ones I removed from the sets.

After the 4 games I have been to, Spike Owen already seems like he doesn't really like signing.  I have gotten him on the cards that I especially wanted, so I doubt I will bother him much more throughout the season.

This Stars and Stripes Lemoine turned out really nicely, except the scan doesn't show the auto very well.

I kept missing Blaine Prescott during the earlier games I went to, but I finally got him on Saturday.

I completely missed Chuck LeBlanc in my Bowman box.  Mainly because I was looking for Chuck and not Charles LeBlanc.  He's a strict two-per, so I need a few more trips to the park to finish him off.

I found the green Beras and Tejeda at the Chantilly show.  It appears that was the theme of this series of graphing; green parallels.

Finally, I only was able to get two Pelicans on cards.  I tried to get Alex Lange, but he wouldn't sign.  I found two of the Bryan Hudson and the one DJ Wilson at the Chantilly show in dime boxes.  I was glad to at least get those done.

In all, during the Myrtle Beach Series, I got: Spike Owen x 8, Michael Matuella x 8, Jake Lemoine x 9, Alex Kowalczyk x 1, Leody Taveras x 8, Chuck LeBlanc x 4, Brendon Davis x 3, Jairo Beras x 2, Anderson Tejeda x 8, Blaine Prescott x 3, Carlos Maldonado x 1, Ricky Valencia x 2, Preston Scott x 1, Walker Weickel x 4, Christian Torres x 1, Steve Mintz x 3, Emerson Martinez x 1, James Jones x 2, Kenny Hook x 2, Jonathan Hernandez x 3, Jairo Beras x 2, Bryan Hudson x 2 and DJ Wilson x 1.

Graphing The Wood Ducks Exhibition Game

A new season is upon us, and I had the opportunity to see the new-look Wood Ducks take on Mount Olive University last night in an exhibition game.  Last season, the exhibition game rained out.  Last night started off warm, but the temperature dropped and the wind picked up.  I had to go to the team store and buy a hoodie because I left mine at home.

I was really excited about this season's roster because there are a bunch of Rangers prospects who came up to start the season.  Jake Lemoine is one who made the jump from Hickory.  I got the above 2015 Elite Extra Edition die cut numbered to 25 signed.

There are a few holdovers from last season's Carolina League Co-Champions.  I was able to get 6 cards from the team set signed.  Emerson Martinez was really happy to see Chris last night.  He even "signed" Chris's nose during the post-game autograph session.

I had purchased the late edition of the 2017 Hickory team set, as I knew a lot of those guys would be on the Wood Ducks roster this season.  I knocked out a bunch of them last night.

Three of the early 2017 Hickory set got signed, as did one from the 2016 set.  I don't have many of the 16s remaining who are still with the Rangers.

Anderson Tejeda is one of the higher Rangers prospects on the Wood Ducks this season.  I was able to get my South Atlantic League card taken care of, which helped with that set.

This Jake Lemoine Stars and Stripes Crusade insert turned out really nicely.  I had hoped to add a few cards from that series to the album, and Lemoine turns out to be the first.

I picked up a bunch of Panini Contenders cards from my LCS, and took care of several last night.  I especially like the School Colors versions; they look really cool signed.

Leody Taveras is another high-end prospect who will be in Kinston this year.  He signs two per, but I had help last night, and he signed everything I had during the post-game autograph session.

I know some folks will enjoy the Panini Contenders cards of Michael Matuella, since he played for Duke.

Spike Owen only signed pre-game, and only signed 2-per.  He most likely will be like Howard Johnson was last season; so it will take me a while to knock out everything I have for him.  Carlos Maldonado has a few nice cards, but the only one I had in my collection as of last night was the 2007 Upper Deck.  I believe I ordered some of his stuff off of Sportlots.

Also, Matthew Whatley is one of the Rangers newest prospects.  He was drafted last June, and is already at High A.  He completely bypassed A ball (Hickory).

Finally, Jairo Beras is back with the Wood Ducks to continue his transformation into a pitcher.  He was demoted to Hickory last season to work on transitioning to a pitcher.  I'm interested in seeing his progress this season.

I had some help getting autographs last night, my brother Andy, his fiancee Camryn and my son Chris all helped out.

I ended up with: Josh Altmann x 3, Edgar Arredondo x 2, Jairo Beras x 6, Ledarious Clark x 3, Brendon Davis x 1, Kaleb Fontenot x 2, Jonathan Hernandez x 1, Alex Kowalczyk x 1, Chuck LeBlanc x 1, Jake Lemoine x 8, Carlos Maldonado x 4, Emerson Martinez x 3, Michael Matuella x 12, Christian Torres x 2, Matthew Whatley x 5, Ricky Valencia x 3, CD Pelham x 4, Preston Scott x 2, Jacob Shortslef x 2, Walker Weickel x 2, Spike Owen x 4, Leody Taveras x 12 and Anderson Tejeda x 10.  In all, we got 93 cards signed.  Some of which were 50/50s for my friend, Gerard.  My next game is Thursday, April 12; the Wood Ducks home opener against Myrtle Beach.