August 1-6, 2023, Graphing of the Pelicans at Wood Ducks

The posts from the National have been coming at a decent enough pace, but I am still behind.  I wanted to squeeze in a couple graphing posts before I finish off the National signers this week.  There are a few cards that I got signed during this series against Myrtle Beach that I picked up at the National, so the theme is still there.  The above 2023 Bowman Chrome blue ray wave is a card I found at the top of a parallels stack at the show.  I had to pick it up, since it was one of my guys. 

I got Mesa on the Tuesday game and found out by Thursday that he had been released.  The Rangers released Andres and also Yenci Pena.  I was really sad to see Andres go. It made sense because the previous regime traded for him and he wasn't hitting. With the new draft picks coming in, they had to make room.

This Anthony Gutierrez is another card I found at the show.  The card is beautiful.  I was really excited when I found it.  I purchased it in a bulk deal along with several other inserts and parallels.

My good friend, Gerard, hooked me up with some more Dylan MacLean cards.  These turned out nicely.

Christian Hernandez was a tough one-per, but I had a lot of help, and got a bunch of his cards signed.  I was able to keep my 50/50 folks happy, which is always good.

The top two Drew Gray Panini Prizm Draft cards were pickups from the National.  I pulled the bottom left Prizm out of a blaster I bought a while back. 

The left two Jackson Ferris cards also came from the show.  He was born in Winston-Salem, so we talked about that for a little bit during a game.

The Bruce Billings 2010 Topps Pro Debut had me pulling my hair out early in the week.  I had put the cards aside prior to the start of the season when I saw that Billings was added to Myrtle Beach's staff.  I just didn't put them aside where they needed to be.  I took my friend Billy's advice and stopped looking for them, and found them in time to get them signed.

I got a ton of Corey Ray cards signed during this series.  I was excited when he was announced as a coach for Myrtle Beach, as I had a ton of my own cards and also cards from the former card shop that I needed to get out of the boxes.

There was a nice variety of Ray cards that got done during the week, ranging from 2016 to 2021.

Ray was super nice and seemed ge uinely happy to sign for us all week. It's a shame that I have to tell people that I did have several people helping me, and I wasn't putting 30+ cards in front of him aat a time.

Finally, my friend, Ben, gave me some Cubs signature cards.  I used them on (clockwise from top left) Brett Bateman, Andy Garriola, Brian Kalmer and Malcom Quintero.

In all, I got the following autographs: Gleider Figuereo x 2, Anthony Gutierrez x 4, Andres Mesa x 7, Ian Moller x 1, Buddy Bailey x 1, Drew Gray x 19, Christian Hernandez x 30, Pedro Ramirez x 8, Jefferson Rojas x 9, Corey Ray x 46, Luis Ramirez x 2, Jackson Ferris x 9, Nick Hull x 1, Ismael Mena x 17, Dylan MacLean x 7, Parker Chavers x 1, Tommy Specht x 1, Bruce Billings x 2, Danyer Cueva x 8, Brian Kalmer x 1, Brett Bateman x 1, Andy Garriola x 1 and Malcom Quintero x 1 (180 total autographs).

June 2023 Graphing of Mudcats at Wood Ducks

Before we left for vacation, Chris and I got to three games between the Mudcats and Wood Ducks. Anthony Gutierrez was finally back off of the DL.  I had a bunch of his cards to get signed, and got them done.  The above lunar crater parallel turned out great.  This is by far my favorite parallel this year.

I got the aqua lunar crater parallel (above, right) of Gutierrez signed, as well.  My friend, Gerard, ordered a bunch of parallels of Andres Mesa.  They all turned out great.  Mesa is super nice and always signs well.

The parallels turned out awesome.  I hope Gerard gets me some more for me to keep.  I got an orange refractor signed for him.  I'm ready for one of those for my album. 

I got a bunch of Wood Ducks team set cards signed during this series.  I'm not done with the set, just yet.  Still, I've made a huge dent in the set, and am looking forward to finishing it.

The team set cards look great, and look even better when signed. 

I had an assortment of Kenny Holmberg cards in the autograph books all season, and he finally came in during this series.  Holmberg is such a nice guy, I was glad to get him to sign the cards I had.

I had extra Holmberg cards that I gave out to Jessie and Billy.  I'm not sure if they saw Holmberg when he was here, but here's to hoping he comes back. 

Finally, some new Mudcats with cards were here.  I got some Jace Avina and Luis Lara 2023 Bowmans signed, along with a Will Rudy 2022 Panini Prizm Draft.

I was able to rack the three games I saw; in all, we got the following autographs: Jojo Blackmon x 1, Cam Cauley x 7, Danyer Cueva x 8, Aidan Curry x 2, Anthony Gutierrez x 40, Kenny Holmberg x 9, Jackson Leath x 4, Leandro Lopez x 4, Dylan MacLean x 2, DJ McCarty x 4, Damian Mendoza x 1, Andres Mesa x 14, Jesus Moreno x 1, Alberto Mota x 5, Konner Piotto x 4, Luis Ramirez x 1, Adrian Rodriguez x 1, Tommy Specht x 2, Jace Avina x 11, Jeferson Figueroa x 1, Luis Lara x 9, Hedbert Perez x 20, Will Rudy x 2, Jheremy Vargas x 6, Gleider Figuereo x 13, Nick Janssen x 4, Ian Moller x 5, Neal Ori x 4, Ryan Straney x 4, Matt Brosky x 4, Carlos Maldonaldo x 5, Joseph Montalvo x 5, Brock Porter x 2, Julio Valdez x 2 and Kai Wynyard x 1 (208 total autographs).

June 13 and 15, 2023, Graphing of Cannonballers at Wood Ducks

Normally, a series is 6 games, and it usually takes me all 6 to finish off what I have.  In the case of last week's series between the Wood Ducks and Cannonballers, I was able to get everything done in the two games I was able to see.

I had help, of course.  Chris came along with me, as well as my cousin, Ale.  I got some cards in from my buddies Gerard and Max.  Gerard sent me some Andres Mesa parallels and a nice 2007 Upper Deck Premier Carlos Maldonado.  Max sent me some other Maldonados, including the above 2007 Fleer.

The big news of the series was that the Wood Ducks team set came out.  I got a bunch of cards from the set signed.

Normally, the Wood Ducks wait til the last possible second to issue the team sets, but with the new Minor League collective bargaining agreement, Choice's contract is about to expire.  Or so I've heard.

There were a couple guys on Kannapolis who weren't here early in the season like Tanner McDougal, Wilber Sanchez and Niah Schultz.  I also was able to rack Jordan Sprinkle and Peyton Pallette again.

In all, I got the following autographs: Danyer Cueva x 5, Willy Espinal x 1, Gleider Figuereo x 13, Logan Frandsen x 1, Carlos Maldonaldo x 9, Andres Mesa x 21, Yeison Morrobel x 7, Tommy Specht x 3, Tanner McDougal x 2, Peyton Pallette x 28, Wilber Sanchez x 7, Jordan Sprinkle x 25, Noah Schultz x 2, Jojo Blackmon x 4, DEWD x 4, Yosy Galan x 4, Josh Gessner x 4, Dylan MacLean x 4, Damian Mendoza x 4, Jesus Moreno x 4, Ian Moller x 7, Brock Porter x 2, Brian Pozos x 4, Henrik Reinertsen x 4, Adrian Rodriguez x 2 and Ruben Sosa x 4 (175 total autographs).

May-June 2023 Graphing of Fireflies at Wood Ducks

Scanning all of these cards has been an arduous task, but I finally got it done after my scanner had to be rebooted.  Anyway, I was able to get a lot more Columbia stuff signed this week, after getting a taste last week.

Several 2023 Bowman Chrome parallels that I had ordered finally came in, so I was able to get some cool stuff signed this week, like the above Andres Mesa pearl parallel.  It had a small scratch on the surface, so I guess the seller opted to not have it graded.  That's ok with me, since I wanted to get one signed and into my album.  The card looks amazing.

I also was able to get the base chrome, as well as an aqua Lunar Crater parallel and a green grass parallel signed.  They all look really cool.

Tommy Specht was finally brought up from Arizona, and I got my Perfect Game and Panini Prizm cards taken care of.  Specht is now the second youngest player on the team, behind Gleider Figuereo.

Wyatt Sparks finally is here, after getting injured after the team set came out in 2021.  I have a couple other of these cards somewhere, but I don't know were, at this moment.  A fellow grapher sent me two of the 2022 Bowman Chrome sapphire parallels of Danyer Cueva, so I got to keep one for myself.

I finally got the 1988 Topps John Habyan signed.  My friend, Billy, gave me the 1987 Classic, which looks really cool.

Habyan cleaned me out of all of the cards of his that I had pulled over the winter.  I was hoping he would be back, and I was glad that I got these taken care of.

I finished getting the 2023 Bowman paper of Lizandro Rodriguez.  I also got the chrome 2022 Bowman of Steven Zobac.  The 2017 Panini Stars and Stripes of Wesley Scott turned out nicely, as well.  I think he said he was 15 or 16 when that photo was taken.  He also said that his mom got a ton of the cards.

I was glad to almost finish off the 2023 Columbia Fireflies team set.  I was missing two players who were in the set, but not with the team.  That got me really close.  I may have to see where the other two guys are and try to get them TTM or something.

Scanning this set was a pain.  This was the reason why the scanner had to be rebooted, but I finally got everything done.  It was crazy that this team set was $18.00.  I was glad to get it, though, because a lot of the guys who signed their cards said that it was the first time they had signed any cards for anyone.

Also, the set looks pretty cool.  I like the Fireflies colors.  Having the extra cards made it so I had folks to look for at every game, which kept me engaged the whole week.

The Wood Ducks won the series 5-1, which was great.  We also welcomed a new face into our graphing group, a great guy named Jesse.  He wants me to teach him the ropes with graphing, which I enjoy doing.  It has also been nice having someone else to chat baseball with us at games.

In all, I got the following autographs: Danyer Cueva x 6, Gleider Figuereo x 2, Carlos Maldonaldo x 1, Andres Mesa x 4, Wyatt Sparks x 1, Tommy Specht x 10, Omar Florentino x 1, John Habyan x 30, Omar Hernandez x 1, Brennon McNair x 1, Ben Kurdna x 8, Frank Mozzicato x 9, Shane Panzini x 5, Erick Pena x 15, Lizandro Rodriguez x 4, Brett Squires x 1, Levi Usher x 1, Daniel Vazquez x 7, Marcus Olivarez x 1, Tony Pena Jr x 3, Enmanuel Pire x 1, Lizandro Rodriguez x 2, Matt Schmidt x 1, Wesley Scott x 3, Steven Zobac x 16, Ian Moller x 1, Ari Adut x 1, David Hollie x 1, Cooper McKeehan x 1, Jean Ramirez x 1, Oscar Rayo x 1, Dionmy Salon x 1, Yeison Morrobel x 1, Luis Ramirez x 2, Taylor Bloye x 1, Junior Calderon x 1, Roger Leyton x 1, Shane Panzini x 2, David Sandlin x 1, Ben Sears x 1 and Samuel Valerio x 1, Kevin Varitek x 1, Nevan Dominguez x 1, Ted Elsner x 1, Eduardo Herrera x 1, Chazz Martinez x 1, Mauricio Veliz x 1 and Cam Cauley x 3 (161 total autographs).

Week of May 9-14 Graphing of Shorebirds at Wood Ducks

With the arrival of 2023 Bowman, I have some fresh product that I was happy to get into my book and get signed during this week's series against the Delmarva Shorebirds.  I could have easily skipped this series, since the Orioles sent Jackson Holliday up to Aberdeen, but I went ahead and caught the entire series, with the exception of the Wednesday early game.  Those darn education days...

I was glad to get the above Spotlight insert of Anthony Gutierrez signed; the card looks sharp!

I took some 50/50s for my friend, Aidan, so I got a couple 2023 Bowman First Editions into the album.  One was the above Gleider Figueroa, and the other was the Andres Mesa, below.

I pulled the Andres Mesa 2023 Bowman Chrome gold parallel numbered to 50 out of one of the boxes that I opened.  The card got signed immediately.  It turned out amazing.

I took some 50/50s for a guy named Ryan recently, and as a gift, he sent me the 2021 Bowman Draft chrome green refractor of Cam Cauley, above.  That card looks awesome.  I'm trying not to ask Cam much anymore, now that I have gotten his stack down to nothing.  I made the mistake of getting Dylan MacLean on the Panini Prizm tiger stripe parallel.  It was supposed to be a gift from my friend, Gerard, to Dylan, but I forgot the memo, so I got it signed.  I let Dylan know, and he told me not to worry about it.

We sat in front of Brock Porter's parents during the Saturday game, and found out that he had told his parents about us.  All good things, from what we were told, so that was cool.

Now that Jackson Holliday is gone from Delmarva, Luis Gonzalez is the only guy on the team that I had cards for, with the exception of pitching coach, Adam Bleday.  I got Gonzalez on everything I had, which was good.

I tried to get Gonzalez to sign one of the extra 2022 Heritage Minors cards with my friend, Matt's orange paint pen, but I didn't prime the pen enough, and the auto didn't come out as nicely as I had hoped it would.  Still, it is a bit of a novelty, and it will go into my album anyway.

In all, I got the following autographs: Cam Cauley x 20, Danyer Cueva x 20, Gleider Figueroa x 12, Anthony Gutierrez x 28, Dylan MacLean x 3, Carlos Maldonaldo x 1, Andres Mesa x 11, Ian Moller x 13, Brock Porter x 5 and Luis Gonzalez x 15, Yeison Morrobel x 18, Adam Bleday x 2 (148 total autographs).