May 2019 Graphing of Salem Red Sox at Down East Wood Ducks

While I was at my parents' the weekend of May 25, my Pro Debut boxes came in.  I got into the boxes after my trip to Hickory, but was able to use some of the cards for when the Wood Ducks were back in town against the Salem Red Sox.

I got Anderson Tejeda, Leody Taveras and JP Martinez on the Pro Debut cards, and they turned out really well.  The cards need to be prepped, as usual, but they look great when signed.

While I was in Hickory, I picked up this season's team set.  I got it after pregame autos there, so I didn't have time to prep and put the cards in the books, so these Wood Ducks were the first cards from the set that I could get done.

Salem doesn't have too many players on their roster who have cards, so I did what I could.  Chris and I got a ton of Bryan Mata cards signed, which was nice.

I was also able to get this 2015 NY-Penn League card of Victor Acosta signed.  I have had it for a couple years, so I was glad to get it out of my box.

I found out Marcus Wilson was on the Salem Roster the day we were heading out there, so I scrambled through my 2014 Bowmans and found one of his cards.  I was disappointed that I didn't have his 2013 Perfect Game card, though.

Some Random National Pickups

I didn't have as much time this year to look through bargain bins and search for too many cards that weren't on my wishlist.  Still, a few things jumped out at me, and I got some nice deals.  The above Ken Lehman card is really awesome.  I spent $20 on it, which I thought was a bit high, but I loved the design.  It is a Hires Root Beer card from 1958.  I looked some up and it does appear that I got a good deal on the card.

I bought this 2018 Pro Debut green parallel of Anderson Tejeda for $5.  The card is numbered 30/99.  I think $5 was a steal.

Finally, here are a few autos I picked up cheap.  Bubba Thompson should be a Wood Duck next year.  Cody Sedlock has had a lost season, but should be back on track now.  Zac Lowther is a really nice Orioles prospect, who is even nicer in person.  Finally, I got another Trey Mancini auto for the collection.

Graphing the Blue Rocks at the Wood Ducks

During the Carolina League season, all northern division teams come down to the Wood Ducks only once per season, with the exception of one team.  Last season, the Wilmington Blue Rocks came twice; this season, the Frederick Keys are coming twice.

Last season, I missed Chase Vallot both series, so I really wanted to make sure that I got him this time around.  I had a whole bunch of cards that I wanted to get signed, and I was successful!  I really wanted to try to get one of the Carolina League Top Prospects cards done, since I have been sitting on them since last year.

I picked up a 2017 South Atlantic League All Star set from last year when I went to Columbia a couple months ago.  I was able to get these two cards done.

Khalil Lee was probably the Royals' biggest prospect on the team this season, so I was glad he was very friendly and signed everything I had.

Bryan Brickhouse was also really nice.  He is from North Carolina, so we talked about that for a bit outside after one of the games.

I didn't realize how many Blue Rocks had cards until this series.  They seemed to have quite a few guys with cards, which I really enjoyed.  I was able to get almost everything I had done.

I also took some 50/50s for the series, and was able to get most of them done, which is always great.

Even better, I was able to get some older Topps cards out of my boxes, and get them signed.  I had a bunch of Doug Henry, but was only able to get him one time during the series.  He didn't seem all that thrilled about signing, so I didn't want to bother him.

Another person I missed last season was Abraham Nunez.  I had these cards in my box waiting for the Blue Rocks to come back, and I didn't miss him this time around.

I finally got some new Wood Ducks stuff in, as well.  One of the 50/50s I took gave me the blue refractor of Anderson Tejeda, and I also had gotten in my 2018 Pro Debut boxes.

I have some games coming up, so I should be able to have a great many cards to show off in the coming weeks.

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.