New Yankees on the Farm

The 2016 MLB Trade Deadline has come and gone and there was a whirlwind of deals being made. It's been some time since the Yankees were sellers at the trade deadline. While I, like many, may not be happy with the departure of Andrew Miller, I am thrilled with the returns that will soon be reinforcing the NY farm system. I did a quick search through some of my recent cards to find some cardboard of the newest Yankee farmhands. In no particular order, here they are.

Pieces of the Beltran, Chapman, and Miller deals from left to right.

Here is the centerpiece of the Miller deal. I hope this kid continues to develop and that he ends up wearing pinstripes in the Yankee Stadium outfield one day. This is my best card of any of the new additions. It's the gold parallel of the Top 100 from this year's Bowman and is #/50.

Here is the centerpiece of the Chapman deal and perhaps the guy that I am most excited about them acquiring. He may or may not fulfill his massive potential and he does currently play SS(where the Yankees have a lot of young talent) but it is exciting to think he may become a part of the new core of the team.

Last but not least is this guy. He is not a new farmhand, but I sure am glad to have him rejoin the team. I was a big fan while he was putting up solid numbers as a middle reliever.

Farewell and good luck to Aroldis Chapman, Andrew Miller, Carlos Beltran, and Ivan Nova. I sure hope some of this young talent ends up helping the big club, but at the least New York began the process of becoming a younger, more athletic team. Thanks for reading.

My First Look at 2016 Bowman

Tuesday, on he eve of its official release, I stumbled onto some Bowman 'value packs' at the local Target. I hurriedly picked out two and used a few of my Marketplace coupons to get $1 off each pack. I opened them and am just getting around to being able to scan them for a post.

Here is the 'exclusive' yellow parallel pack out of the first 'value pack'. I'm pretty happy with the Maeda, especially considering how dominant he has been in his first few starts.

Regular pack number 1 provided the money card. In my neck of the woods, Swanson is quite the hot commodity since the Carolina Mudcats are easily within driving distance. I'm hoping that I'll have a chance to shoot over to he stadium for either a game or one of their open practices to get this signed before he is promoted to the next level. That's also my first Chapman shown with the Yankees. The Guzman is #/99. I don't know much about that kid, but it's a relatively low numbered parallel which could end up being a decent piece of cardboard.

I really like the Vlad Guerrero squared card. I'm going to look into the rest of that checklist, it looks like a nice set.

Wow, I was beyond thrilled to pull the base Maeda from the same value pack. Piscotty is pretty decent too. Let's move along to the second value pack.

As awesome as pulling the yellow Maeda was, this pack was better. Moncada and Wade will hopefully end up with some ink on them at some point.

I'm digging the Mondesi RC. Since he made his MLB debut in the World Series, it's cool to see the WS patch on the sleeve of his uni. Compared to years past, I'm loving the Top 100 this year. It doesn't hurt to pull such a highly rated prospect, but he design is pretty sweet.

BOOM! Sitting in he middle of the second pack of my second value pack was a retail exclusive paper prospect auto. Try saying that five times fast... From my understanding, McGuire has some pretty decent potential in the Pirates system, and he's in his age 21 season this year so he still has time to develop.

The final pack was a bit anti-climactic, but it still yielded one of this year's RC Flashbacks and a unique, press conference card of new Diamondback, Zack Greinke.

Overall, I was really pleased with the packs. I always say that I'm not going to buy a lot of Bowman, but this season, I really like the design. Team that up with the fact that I am doing my best to get back into autograph hunting when I'm able to make it to the ballpark and maybe his is the set for me this year. I'll reserve judgment until I've picked up a few more packs, but my initial reaction to the product is quite positive. Thanks for reading.