TTM Success - Grant Hockin

A couple cards came out of my prospects box when I got this TTM success from Grant Hockin.  I had forgotten that I had mailed to him when I got the cards in.  The 2014 Bowman (above) turned out nicely.

He also signed a 2015 Topps Heritage Minors.

Hockin (b. 1996) was a second round pick by the Indians out of Damien High School in California.  He played in the Indians system in 2014, 2017 and 2018.  He had a record of 3-7 with 53 strike outs and a 5.70 ERA.  I mailed to Hockin on January 13 and got the cards back on August 5, for a 204-day TAT.

TTM Success - Justin Nicolino

Here are a couple cards I was able to get out of my Box of Shame and signed TTM recently.  These two Justin Nicolino cards had been sent to someone who had promised to take 50/50s for me; I got all of her junk custom cards signed, but she proceeded to lose my stuff, conveniently, and not get anything signed for me.  She also hounded me constantly about whether or not players liked her terrible custom jobs.  Needless to say, once I got the partial package back of my stuff that she "found" later on, she got the block.

Anyway, I rescued two of the Justin Nicolino cards from the box and sent them off; a 2015 Topps Heritage Minors and a 2015 Bowman.

Nicolino (b. 1991) played in the majors from 2015 to 2017 for the Marlins.  He had a record of 10-13 with 86 strike outs and a 4.65 ERA.

I mailed to Nicolino on February 2 and got the cards back on April 12, for a 69-day TAT.

TTM Success - Ryan Merritt

A couple more cards came out of my minors box with this TTM success from Ryan Merritt.  I'm happy to reduce down some of these old Heritage Minors and Bowman sets, as long as it adds cards to my album.  I've done a better job keeping those cards organized, but I probably can do even better.  Graphing season is about to start, and I hope to move a bunch of stuff this year.  We'll have to see how that goes.

Merritt (b. 1992) played in the majors from 2016 to 2017 for the Indians.  He had a record of 3-0 with 13 strike outs and a 1.71 ERA.  Those are some pretty good stats for someone to have only pitched for 2 years in the majors.  I looked a little further, and Merritt pitched at Durham in 2019 to a 7.04 ERA and in the Dominican Winter League in 2020 to an ERA of 5.00.  It looks like he is out of baseball now, which is a shame.

I mailed to Merritt on November 3 and got the cards back on February 18, for a 107-day TAT.

TTM Success - Tim Berry

Several cards came out of my Orioles box when I was able to get Tim Berry to sign for me TTM.  I had his stuff put aside for a while, hoping that I would have seen him at some point, but that never happened.  I had seen earlier in the year where someone got him TTM, so I dug a bunch of cards out and sent them along.

All of the cards turned out great.  The 2015 Pro Debut at the top of this post is probably my favorite of the bunch.  He also signed 2014 Bowman, 2014 Pro Debut, 2015 Heritage Minors and 2015 Bowman.

Berry (b. 1991) was a 50th round pick by the Orioles in the 2009 June Amateur Draft out of San Marcos High School in California.  He played in the minors from 2010 to 2018 in the Orioles, Marlins, Padres and Phillies systems.  He did reach AAA, but was unable to make the jump to the majors.  He had a career record of 36-50 with 636 strike outs and a 4.77 ERA.

I mailed to Berry on December 1 and got the cards back on March 2, for a 91-day TAT.