Hokies in the Pros Part 2

Last time in the Hokies in the Pros series I talked about a player who has rookie cards in 2017 card sets, Chad Pinder of the Oakland Athletics. This time I'm checking on Ben Rowen, who's made major league appearances with the Rangers in 2014 and the Brewers in 2016. He's now in the Mets organization in AAA Las Vegas after being in contention for a big-league bullpen spot.

He led the Hokies bullpen in 2009 and 2010 with 68 combined appearances, posting a 9-4 career record with 97 strikeouts compared to 19 walks.

The first thing you'll notice about Ben is his submarine style delivery.  He dominated in the minors during his rise to making his Rangers debut in 2014. He made eight appearances for the Rangers but pitched in several organizations since then. He's had a few tough appearances around a string of three scoreless appearances in the Pacific Coast League in 2017. Last season he was a mid-season All-Star for the Buffalo Bisons in the International League.

These are the only two cards currently in my collection for Rowen. The beckett database lists a little over 50 cards, most of those being various parallels. His only true base card, at least from what I can tell, is his 2013 Bowman Prospects card, which is the design shown in the Chrome cards above. He also has a handful of minor league team issue cards, from his 2012 Myrtle Beach Pelicans card as his earliest card, to his International League All-star card in 2016. While I don't plan to try to pick up every parallel of the 2013 Bowman card, I do plan to try to track down the minor league cards.

Hokies in the Pros Part 1

Three former Virginia Tech Hokie baseball players appeared in the major leagues in 2016. I've talked about Jesse Hahn on this blog in multiple posts, but not the other two, Chad Pinder of the Athletics and Ben Rowen of the Mets. This is the start of an official series that I am calling 'Hokies in the Pros'.

Side note, the 2017 Hokies were ranked after winning a series against a highly regarded Nevada squad, but promptly lost four straight to Binghampton and I'm assuming dropped out of any and all polls. It was great while it lasted!

I picked up my first cards of Chad Pinder recently.

Can't say enough how glad I am that products like these exist. So awesome to see cards of minor league players in those uniforms. Pinder steadily made his way through Oakland's minor league system after being drafted in the second round of the 2013 draft. I've got these cards scanned out of order, as he hit .317 with 15 home runs and 86 RBIs for AA Midland in 2015. He started last season in AAA Nashville, where he played 107 games.

Pinder earned an August call up to the major league squad, where he played in 22 games, mainly at second base but also at shortstop and as a pinch hitter. He is fighting for a utility spot on the big league roster in spring training but it seems most likely he will start this season in AAA Nashville. He's hitting 2 for 8 so far with a home run, two RBIs and two runs scored. He also hit a home run yesterday in his only at-bat against the Italian World Baseball Classic team, but I guess that at-bat does not count for his spring training total.

I opened a blaster of 2017 Topps Series 1 shortly after its release and I was glad to see Pinder show up in one of the packs. Somehow Pinder has 203 cards already in this early part of his career. How does the player/team collector keep up with this madness? Honestly I choose to go after the base cards, inserts, and more affordable parallels and not stress about the rest unless they show up in a trade opportunity. Nothing better than a card from a player collection showing up in a pack break.

The Long Offseason

You may have noticed that my blogging in recent weeks has been essentially non-existent. Or maybe you haven't noticed because you just read whatever pops up on your feed. Or maybe you haven't noticed because my blog hasn't been around that long, and I imagine there are quite a few blogs that are short-lived and fade away as quickly as they appear. The truth is I've lacked the free time between work and family to slip away to work on the blog. I definitely don't plan to let this blog fall by the wayside. It's a great community of collectors and I've already been amazed at the generosity of the blogosphere.

My sports world has been bleak in the baseball off-season, with the other teams that I pull for struggling this winter. Virginia Tech football has fallen off to its worst season I can remember, the low-point being a 6-3 loss in double overtime to Wake Forest which I can sadly say I watched all of. It was a sad afternoon spent watching the game that went to overtime tied 0-0 and cleaning up our bonus room that was still cluttered with boxes and all the random stuff we didn't have a place for after a move from North Carolina last year. Virginia Tech basketball just lost to Radford at home. I don't think there's any more explanation needed there. The Indiana Pacers are struggling after losing Paul George over the summer to a horrific leg injury I still haven't watched, Lance Stephenson to free agency, and injuries to so many starters and rotation players that at times they've started games with several guys who couldn't even crack the rotation last season. The team having the most success is the Buffalo Bills who are clinging to playoff hopes at 7-6 with a quarterback who wasn't even with the team at the start of the season. It's just one of those years.

A bright spot in the baseball off-season was seeing one of my favorite Orioles go over to the Braves. I think it's a sign that I need to kick off a larger Markakis collection, which currently stands at a handful of cards.

One thing I miss about the fall and winter months is going to minor league games. The Greenville Drive are a short drive away, and it's been fun following the young Red Sox prospects. One player in particular, Mookie Betts, moved quickly through the ranks and looks to be a potential star. Another former Drive player to keep an eye on is Manuel Margot, who will likely start next season in High A Salem. SoxProspects.com has him as the 3rd ranked prospect in the organization. He definitely has speed and hits well enough to be a leadoff type guy down the road. 

I picked up my first cards of these guys recently. Was glad to see Mookie show up in the Topps Update set, more than once, in fact! I've added these guys to my wantlist under my player collections. I see that Mookie has a card in the Heritage High Numbers set. Will look to add that one next.

I can't guarantee daily blog posts anytime soon, but will certainly post more than once a month as I did in November. Can't even call that blogging.

Hokie Hokie Hokie Hahn

Well, the early season enthusiasm around the Virginia Tech football program has cooled down considerably over the last few weeks, and particularly after the Hokies lost 30-6 to Miami on Thursday night. It was probably the most pathetic performance I've seen from the Hokies since I really started following the team closely when I started school there in 2004. And so in this post I'm not going to talk about former Hokie football players, but on an up-and-coming major league pitcher, Jesse Hahn.

Hahn pitched for the Hokies from 2008-2010, striking out 76 batters in 73 innings in his final season. Hahn's first season happened to line up with my senior year at Tech, when I realized I'd been missing out on some great baseball my first three years, and so I tried to cram as many games in as I could. So many great teams in the ACC year to year, and take a look at the All-Tournament team from 2008. Yonder Alonso, Jemile Weeks, Buster Posey, Matt Harvey. So what if the Hokies finished 6-24 in conference play that year.

The Rays took Hahn in the 6th round of the 2010 draft, and traded him to the Padres in January of this year.

Back in July my family took in a Braves game against the San Diego Padres. I was disappointed in the days leading up to the game, as I thought we were going to miss Hahn pitching by a day. Luckily the lineup was adjusted and we were treated to a pitching matchup of Jesse Hahn and Alex Wood. Wood didn't have his best game, but the Braves couldn't get anything going against Hahn, who gave up just 1 run and 3 hits in 6 solid innings.

All of this to explain why Jesse Hahn appears to show up randomly on my want list. These three are the first of his I've added to my collection, and sadly even though the first card is from 2010 and the Bowman are from 2013, they appear to be the same image with some photoshopping. Disappointing, but it looks promising for Hahn getting more cards in the future. I was hoping for Topps Update, but it didn't happen. Maybe next year's Topps release?

An Uxpected Wonderful Football Weekend

I'm veering from my typical baseball post to share my joy from the weekend with you.  This won't happen all that often, but as I used to write a basketball blog and enjoy college and NFL football, an occasional post on another sport might slip in from time to time.

This past weekend the unexpected happened. My alma mater Virginia Tech upset the then 8th ranked Ohio State.  This would have been enough as this was as big a win for the Hokies as any they've had since I started school there in 2004. But my favorite NFL team, the Buffalo Bills, also upset the heavily favored Chicago Bears, both games on the road!  In honor of these wins, I want to share with you some of my Hokies and Bills collections.  Today I'll start with part of my Hokies collection!  Get excited!

I definitely won't cover every single Hokie that's played in the NFL here.  Sadly I have no cards of Bruce Smith and a few of the more recent Hokies in the NFL (Tyrod Taylor, David Wilson, Logan Thomas).  Most of the collection focuses on players who were there when I was in school, and some the years leading up to that.

First up we've got Corey Moore, defensive end who had 35 career sacks, and was an All-American and won the Bronko Nagurski award for college football's best defensive player in 1999.  I love this card because Corey happened to get drafted by the Bills in the 3rd round.  He didn't have a long NFL career, sadly.

We've also got Andre Davis who played receiver, scoring a touchdown in the 2000 national championship game for the Hokies against Florida State.  A great punt returner as well.  The Hokies went 39-5 while Davis played for the Hokies.  He was drafted in the 2nd round of the 2002 draft and also played for the Buffalo Bills in 2006.

Last, one of my favorite Hokies, Ernest Wilford.  He left Virginia Tech as the Hokies all-time leader in receptions.  He had a great pro career, mainly with the Jacksonville Jaguars, scoring 14 touchdowns for his career.

Next up, a great Hokie running back, Kevin Jones.  He paired with another Hokie back Lee Suggs to form a ferocious running back combo, called 'The Untouchables'.  KJ was drafted in the first round of the 2004 draft by the Detroit Lions.  He had a great rookie season but struggled with injuries during his pro career.

Another favorite of mine, the first defensive back featured here, DeAngelo Hall.  DHall did some of everything while at Virginia Tech, scoring touchdowns on offense, defense, and special teams.  He was 2nd-team All American in 2002.  Hall is still playing for the Washington Redskins and is a 3-time pro bowler.

In a future post I'll share more of my Hokies collection, showing off some autographs.  Tomorrow I'll be back with a baseball post.