Welcome to the Show: Richie Shaffer

On Monday night Richie Shaffer made his major league debut for the Tampa Bay Rays after doing nothing but hit home runs in the minors. He spent time in both Double A and Triple A before the call up. In Triple A for the Durham Bulls Shaffer hit .265/.359/.595 with 16 home runs and 32 RBIs in 55 games. In his debut for the Rays he started out playing first base going 0-2 with a walk, but last night he got his first major league hit. Not only was it a hit, but also his first career home run in the 7th inning against the Chicago White Sox.

Shaffer has played third mostly for his minor league career, but with Evan Longoria penciled in as the Rays everyday third basemen, Shaffer might see more reps at first base. Good luck with your career Richie Shaffer!

Awesome mail day!

Yesterday was another good day for me when I got out of work. Not only was I done for the day for work, but I was going out to eat with some really good friends of mine. Oh yeah I also had this awesome card waiting for me when I got home. Last week I saw this card posted on one of the many baseball card groups on Facebook. This group I haven't done much with, mostly because I'm afraid to get scammed and I see posts of people saying this person scammed that person. Well I thought I would take a chance on this David Price 2009 Topps Finest manufactured autograph patch. It was a great deal that I couldn't pass up on and it obviously worked out for me. This is my second autograph letter patch card (first being a Porcello) and I love these cards.

I would like to also give a shout-out to my best friend Augie for taking my laptop and cleaning it up for me. Now I write my blog while watching my Tigers!

Mail Day! David Price

I have been slacking off on writing about some of the recent cards I have received in the mail over the past week or so. Mostly due to the fact of being busy at work and that is where I can scan the cards onto my computer. Hopefully in the next week or so I will be able to get caught up on my collection.

In this year's Topps Series 1 set they released their relic cards based on players career highs. Pretty cool that they are incorporating some cool feat that each player has accomplished. Being a Detroit Tigers fan I thought I would start with adding a David Price relic. This card is shows him in his days with the Tampa Bay Rays, more specifically his Cy Young season of 2012. That season Price was dominating on the mound. He would win 20 games and as you can see on the card his ERA was 2.56 to go along with his ERA+ of 150. He would even beat out our Detroit Tigers' ace, Justin Verlander that year of Cy Young.

#MyCardMonday

I'm just like everyone else and loves to get a good autograph or relic card. I know when I look on EBay or wherever to buy cards I tend to look for one of those. I know that is only one end of the perspective in collecting. For #mycardmonday I thought I would show off my favorite non autograph or relic card.

A 2014 Topps Acetate of the Tampa Bay Rays Desmond Jennings. I am a fan of Jennings who plays a good centerfield for one of my more favorite teams. I know the acetate cards have been around for awhile, but this is the first one that I have picked up. It is a low numbered card with there only being /10.

Here is what the back of the card looks like. Just a reversed image of the front. Even the back of the card is pretty cool. All in all a cool card to have in my growing collection.

Favorite Baseball Autograph

About a year and a half ago Chris Archer of the Tampa Bay Rays was doing a signing at the USA Baseball Academy in North Carolina. With my connections to North Carolina, my brother-in-law let me know that he would bring my sister along with him to get me an autograph.

I had my choice between a baseball or a baseball card. I figured it would be easier to add a Chris Archer autograph card in the future then an autograph baseball. I believe it must of been one autograph per person so that is why my sister had to tag along. She did point out to Chris that I am a huge Detroit Tigers fan.

Chris was nice enough to personalize the baseball for me, even though he go it wrong. As you can see in the picture he said "Matt thanks for the support Rays > Tigers!" I do like the Rays, but I would say Tigers > Rays. All in all I am pretty happy with the autograph. Thank you Chris Archer!

Wouldn't be surprised

In my 25 years in life I have always been a Detroit Tigers fan. Since high school I have followed their off season moves and the trades throughout the season, but it wasn't until I went away to school that I really start looking at the Tigers' farm system and kept an eye on who they drafted. The first person that I followed was their 2nd round draft pick out of the University of Arkansas, Drew Smyly in 2010.

I believe I have stated in a preview post about me being left handed and how I tend to follow towards left handed pitchers, so Smyly was a perfect choice for me. In his first season in professional baseball Smyly was one of the best pitchers for the Tigers in their farm system (I know that doesn't say much considering the Tigers rank near the bottom in farm system every year). Between high A and AA ball he went 11-6 with a 2.07 ERA. He struck out 130 batters in 126 innings pitched. After his successful first year in professional baseball it earned him a chance to make the Tigers team out of spring training in 2012. He started out in the rotation with 18 games started before moving to the bullpen where he came out of the pen 5 times. He had a good rookie season with a ERA+ of 107. The next year he would pitch strictly out of the bullpen for the Tigers where he would have a 2.37 ERA.

In 2014 he would be moved back to the the rotation. He started out the first half of the season with Detroit before being trade in a three team traded that sent him and prospect Willy Adames to Tampa Bay Rays for David Price. (Austin Jackson went to the Seattle Mariners and the Mariners sent Nick Franklin to the Rays). His time with Detroit in 2014 was average with a ERA of 3.93 and a ERA+ of 101, but with the Rays they worked with his locations. In a small sample size of 7 start his ERA+ was 220 (100 is average). Now this past week an ESPN writer wrote saying how Smyly could be a Cy Young Candidate and be someone like Corey Kluber coming out of nowhere to win the award.

I have always respected the pitching talent that has came out of the Rays system. Most of them have spent time in the minors before the majors. If they work with him enough I believe Smyly has enough talent to be in the running for the Cy Young and I wouldn't be surprised if he wins the award sometime in his career. I wish Smyly the best with the Rays and I will continue to follow his career.

#TwoforTuesday

I'm going to try something new today. On Tuesday's I'm going to take the time to post about different baseball players that probably won't have any association with the Tigers. I will post about two players and I will try to do my best to talk about the actual baseball card.

Today my post is centered around two young pitchers, Matt Moore of the Tampa Bay Rays and Shelby Miller, formerly of the St. Louis Cardinals and now the Atlanta Braves. The cards are from the 2014 Topps Supreme Series. I really like the looks of theses cards. The things that I tend to look for is a nice autograph and I prefer on card over sticker. These are sticker autos but they will do for me. The other thing I like is a card printed on nice thick card stock. Topps Supreme has me covered.

Matt Moore is a young pitcher who will be making a comeback from Tommy John surgery and hoping to pitch as early as June this year. I remember first watching Moore pitch in the 2011 playoffs against the Texas Rangers. In his start he was dominating the Rangers. He went seven strong innings of two hit baseball. I was downstate visiting my sister at the time and was out at dinner when the game was on. I sat and watched his performance and thought this guy is going to be a star. Throw in the fact I am a fellow lefty, new favorite player to follow.

The first thing as a baseball card collector, when I am collecting autographs of non-Tigers players I like someone who has a nice clean signature or something special about their signature. Now Shelby Miller has a nice autograph. Great flow to his signature. This is a die cut autograph and the second oneof the Topps Supreme that I have (first being a Nick Castellanos). Outside of the Tigers I tend to follow the St. Louis Cardinals for my National League team. My brother-in-law (check out his blog here) is originally from St. Louis, so talking with him I adopted them as my other team. I am someone who also does fantasy baseball and with following the Cards I have drafted Miller in the past and have had some success with him. This off-season he was traded away from the Cards to the Braves for Jason Heyward. I will still have to keep my eye on him with the Braves