Jesse Helps With The Mudcats

Unintentionally, I took almost a week off from posting.  I meant to get this post up a couple days ago, but got so busy prepping for the National, I haven't had time to sit down and write (sorry, Jesse).

My good friend, Jesse, took some Mudcats cards for me and got them signed a couple weeks ago while I was out of town on vacation. He got my other 1/1 Josh Knoth signed.  This one came in from Ebay after the Mudcats left town the last time they were here.

Jesse also took my 2024 Bowman Filippo Di Turi cards and finished him off for me.  I'm completely out of Mudcats now, which is a good thing.

Thanks for taking these for me, Jesse.  I just might have to pick you up something from the National. 

May 14-19, 2024 Graphing of the Mudcats at Wood Ducks

Last week, the Wood Ducks returned to Kinston after two weeks away to face the Mudcats.  The Mudcats have very few guys with cards, but I was able to rack anyway, since the Woodies had their team set come out on Saturday and my boxes of 2024 Bowman came in on Wednesday. 

I planned ahead and picked up a couple Josh Knoth 2023 Leaf Vivid cards.  Another was supposed to come in, but didn't get here in time. The card at the top of the page is a 1/+, which is cool.  Both of the Knoth cards scanned great.

I also got my first 2024 Bowman cards signed by Cooper Pratt.

Yhoswar Garcia was tough; he refused to sign for us a couple time.  When he did stop (finally), he his everything we had.  He probably got tired of seeing me.  Oh well, his stuff is completely done, so I won't have to bother him anymore. 

Finally, the Wood Ducks team set came out earlier than ever.  It was given out as a promotional giveaway this season.  Since the team is leaving after this season, they didn't want to get stuck with a bunch in a closet somewhere. 

The set looks nice.  It rained on Saturday, but I was able to get in and get our sets prior to the game being called.  It set up a double header for Sunday, and they were giving sets out again.  All told, I ended up with 6 of them.

The 6 sets are pretty much spoken for: one for me to get signed, one for me to keep unsigned and load into the Wood Ducks album, one for Chris, one for Gerard, one for Charlie and one for any of my group that may have missed the giveaway.

The double header on Sunday gave me 4 chances to knock cards off of the list.  I almost got everyone, save for a couple pitchers.  There are a few who have already moved up to Hickory, a couple injured guys and a couple who were bumped down to Arizona.

I also got this Bowman Heritage of Marcu Smith signed for Gerard, but he let me keep it.

The Woodies won the series 4-2, which was great, since the Mudcats always play them tough.

In all, we got the following autographs: Alejandro Rosario x 3, Josh Knoth x 4, Cooper Pratt x 6, Yophery Rodriguez x 2, Paul Bonzagni x 3, Willian Bormie x 3, Julian Brock x 3, Jorge Cortes x 3, Kolton Curtis x 3, DEWD x 3, Arturo Disla x 3, Kohl Drake x 3, Buddy Fultz x 3, Jose Gonzalez x 3, Wes Hunt x 3, Gleider Figuereo x 4, Kyle Larsen x 3, Jesus Lopez x 5, Carlos Maldonaldo x 3, Case Matter x 3, Wady Mendez x 3, Brayan Memdoza x 3, Danny Mendoza x 3, Chandler Pollard x 3, Brian Pozos x 3, Thomas St. Clair x 3, Justin Sanchez x 3, Luke Savage x 3, Marcus Smith x 4, Tommy Specht x 3, Marcos Torres x 5, Ryan Straney x 3, Josh Trentadue x 3, Echedry Vargas x 5, Kai-Noa Wynyard x 3, Juan Baez x 2, Yhoswar Garcia x 32 and Bishop Letson x 2 (152 total autographs). 

A Quick 50-50 With Dante

A very small 50/50 I did with a guy on Instagram named Dante turned out nicely. He had put on his story that he needed Shelley Duncan when Scranton-Wilkes Barre came to his area.  He split the two Duncans with me; he sent me the above 2008 Topps Update back.

I also asked him if he would take my two Clayton Andrews Mudcats team cards.  He sent them both back, so I included a few extra autos that I had.

The 50/50 worked our great, so I'm hoping Dante asks for more stuff soon.

September 14-15, 2023, Graphing of Mudcats at Wood Ducks

The first round of the Carolina League playoffs was last week, with the first game on the road at the Mudcats on Tuesday.  The second game was at home in Kinston on Thursday, my birthday.  The Wood Ducks came in with a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series.  The hope was that they would sweep and win the round on my birthday.  It didn't worm out that way, but the Wood Ducks did take the series against the Mudcats, setting up a rematch of the 2021 championship against Charleston.

There were a few Mudcat guys who I needed that weren't here the last time they came to town.  I finished off everything I had, except for Hedbert Perez, who was out for the remainder of the season with a broken leg.

Dylan O'Rae was really nice, he signed everything I had.  Daniel Guilarte also finished off everything I had pretty quickly.  By the time the Wood Ducks won the series on Friday, I was out of cards for both teams.  It was nice clearing out my box of Wood Ducks stuff, finally.

Quincy Scott gave me one of his bats and inscribed it Happy Birthday on Thursday.

We got to watch the celebration of the Wood Ducks moving on.  Their next game would be Sunday against the Riverdogs in another best-of-three series.

In all, I got the following autographs: Quincy Scott x 1, Danyer Cueva x 7, Gleider Figuereo x 6, Anthony Gutierrez x 9, Ian Moller x 1, Jace Avina x 10, Logan Henderson x 1, Daniel Guilarte x 21, Dylan O'Rae x 14, Carlos Maldonaldo x 2 and Tayden Hall x 1 (73 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).

April 18-23 2023, Graphing of Mudcats at Wood Ducks

This past week, the Mudcats visited historic Grainger Stadium to take on the Wood Ducks for a 6-game series.  The Wood Ducks lost the series 1-5, which was pretty rough.  I got to 5 of the 6 games, with Wednesday being an Education Day, with an 11am start.  I missed that one since I had to work.

I got in everything I had ordered from Ebay, as well as 11 batches of 50/50s.  I already can tell that I will be cutting down on the number of 50/50s that I take, because this was a mess.  I got everything sorted out and most of it already taken care of, however.  I just have a few loose cards that I was unable to get for folks.  Those will have to wait, unfortunately.

Still, I had a great series, with some helping hands that knocked out a few cards for me, and almost finished off a couple of the Wood Ducks.  I had some really cool cards come in like some of the 2022 Bowman Heritage (bottom left), as well as the blue parallel Anthony Gutierrez (top of post).  I got an Invicta chrome signed by Gutierrez.  That card turned out great.

I had a bunch of Danyer Cueva come in, and he was the first player to start limiting us.  I'll have to ration out the rest of the cards I have of him so I don't burn him out.  I did get the stuff that I ordered taken care of, so that was nice.

I finally got Brock Porter on is Perfect Game card, as well as a few random Woodies that I needed to finish off.  Funny thing I figured out tonight, I still need to get a Yeison Morrobel base chrome signed.  I hae a refractor and a mojo refractor, but not a base chrome.  That's a little strange.

Hedbert Perez was pretty cool.  Last season, he was pretty much one-per, so I was afraid I would be strictly limited on him, but he hit whole pages a few times on this trip.  I have only a handful of his stuff left, and won't be taking any more, so I should be able to finish him off.  He has some nice cards, though, and I was really happy with the ones that got signed.

Jacob Misiorowski was really nice.  He was a strict one-per, but signed for us every time we asked.  I finished off a bunch of cards for folks, so that worked out nicely.  I also got my pack-pulled 2022 Panini Prizm Draft pink parallel signed, which was cool.  I found the above Matthew Wood after the first game, and worked it into the book for Thursday's game and got it signed.

The Perfect Game Chase Costello was given to me by a fellow grapher who was visiting all the way from California.  Costello was really cool, and I was happy to trade the card for one of my extra Danyer cards.  Jheremy Vargas informed us that it wasn't him pictured on the front of his 2022 Heritage Minors card, so he signed the back for us.  This will be an interesting one to look back on in the album years from now.

In all, I got the following autographs: Jojo Blackmon x 2, Cam Cauley x 28, Danyer Cueva x 19, Jeferson Espinal x 3, Anthony Gutierrez x 33, Dylan MacLean x 4, Ian Moller x 16, Yeison Morrobel x 26, Brock Porter x 13, Luis Ramirez x 4, Chase Costello x 1, Jacob Misiorowski x 12, Hedbert Perez x 32, Jheremy Vargas x 7, Gleider Figueroa x 2, Andres Mesa x 2, Carlos Maldonaldo x 2 and Matt Wood x 1 (209 total autographs).

June 2022 Graphing of Mudcats at Wood Ducks

The Carolina Mudcats came back to Kinston for a 6-game series against the Wood Ducks after the Wood Ducks had been away for two weeks.  It felt like longer, with all of the stuff we had going on recently, so it was nice to get back into a groove at Grainger Stadium.

I caught all 6 games, and got to see the Woodies sweep the Mudcats, which was great.  THere were some really close games, and great pitching.

I had taken a lot of 50/50s for this series; more than usual, and was able to almost finish everything off.  Prepping on Monday was a pain, but I got it all done, and ended up doing very well, even though a lot of the Mudcat players were limiting us on signing.  I enlisted a little help here and there to polish off a few guys, and it helped.

I was also able to find Demetre Kokoris's Vancouver Canadiens team set card, which he was excited to see.  I am glad to finally add him to the autograph album.  A lot of the stuff I got done for the Wood Ducks was parallels that I got in a 50/50 from Gerard.

I finally got some of my 2022 Bowman cards out of my box when the Mudcats came.  Jackson Chourio was the highlight of the series.  He was one per every time he walked by, so we were able to get him to sign most of the games pre and post-game.  I also got him to sign a baseball after the Sunday game.

A big difference between the first series of the year between the two teams and this series was that Hedbert Perez and Jeferson Quero were limiting pretty heavily.  I was still able to get the stuff signed that I wanted signed, which was nice.

I raided my closet and found this 2019 Aberdeen team set card of Jean Carmona.  I had bought the set to get Adley Rutschmann, and ended up not even opening it once the 2020 season was canned.

In all, I got the following autographs: Jackson Chourio x 11, Jheremy Vargas x 9, Hendry Mendez x 12, Hedbert Perez x 17, Dylan MacLean x 3, Ryan Garcia x 30, Maximo Acosta x 6, Jeferson Quero x 9, Eduardo Garcia x 14, Demetre Kokoris x 3, Jean Carmona x 2, Xavier Valentin x 1, Mitch Bratt x 3, Cam Cauley x 9, Ian Moller x 4 and Jose Rodriguez x 9 (142 total autographs).

TTM Success - Andre Nnebe

Here is a former Carolina Mudcat that I saw this past season, but was unable to have sign anything.  Andre Nnebe didn't have any cards until 2021 Topps Heritage Minors came out after the minor league season was over.  I saw that he signed TTM, so I ended up getting one of my cards signed that way, instead.

Nnebe (b. 1997) was a 28th round pick in the 2019 June Amateur Draft out of Santa Clara University by the Brewers.  He has played two seasons in the minors in the Brewers system.  He has 84 hits, 10 home runs and a .241 batting average.  The Brewers allowed him to play in the Independent Leagues during the 2020 COVID season, which was pretty smart.  It kept him active, however, he did struggle with Carolina this past season.  He may stay back at Low A to start the 2022 season.

I mailed to Nnebe on January 3 and got the card back on January 13, for a 10-day TAT.  This was my first 2022 TTM success.

August 10-15, 2021 Mudcats at Wood Ducks

After being away from the Wood Ducks for almost a month, I finally was able to get back to Grainger Stadium this week and do some graphing.  I was following up the National by getting some of my purchases signed, and they all turned out great (like the above 2020 Bowman Draft sapphire parallel of Thomas Saggese).

The series started on Tuesday with the much-anticipated return of pitcher, Owen White.  He has been out all year with a broken leg, and I was finally able to get some cards signed by him.

Some more National pickups; I had to pick up every Mason Englert that I could find.  I got them done, and they turned out awesome.

Here are a couple more Saggeses.  The purple Chrome parallel was way off-center, but the card is cool.  I had actually found two purple refractors (the one of the left isn't one, it is a purple paper parallel), so Chris got the better of the two.

I had received some customs from Rangersautos on Instagram (the Valentin) and my good friend, Dugan, made a few others.  So, I had some extra stuff to get done toward the end of the series.

I finally was able to get a 2015 Stars & Stripes of Noah Campbell signed for myself, as well as a bunch of cards of the returning Antione Kelly and Micah Bello.

Sal Frelick made his debut, after being drafted in the first round of the 2021 July Amateur Draft.  He was really nice, and signed one of Dugan's customs.  Frelick was impressed with the card that Dugan made, and Dugan actually gave him one ot the end of Sunday's game.

I probably should have scanned this Antione Kelly with the others, and the Frelick right here.  Oh well, this 2020 Topps Pro Debut turned out really well.  I was glad to get it out of my graphing box, because I was afraid the season would end before I could get it signed.

The big highlight of this series was that I was finally able to get my hands on some team sets.  I have been waiting all season for them, and they arrived while I was at the National.  There are several players in the set who have moved on to Hickory and several more on the DL.  I'm hoping some of those players come back, so I can get closer to finishing the set.

We got all of the coaches and also DEWD, who finally came out of hibernation.  I didn't miss any of the active players, and I am hoping a few come off of the DL by next series (like, Cody Freeman).

The team sets are really nice, but nothing will beat the 2019 Mudcats team set.  That one might be my favorite design so far that I have seen, even though I do like the Wood Ducks sets from 2017.

Finally, we realized that Rangers roving instructor, Geno Petralli, was in town (he even got ejected from Friday's game; the umpires were that bad).  I got every Petralli card that I could find signed, so I am now out of his stuff (I think).

I had a good time getting back to Grainger Stadium and spending some time with Dugan and Billy, as well as some of the other graphers.  The season is winding down, and I know I'm going to miss this when the off-season hits.