Noobs

In a offseason flurry of pickups, I’ve brought my total of Twins players with certified autograph cards in my collection to 244, the latest being a 2010 Heritage Real One remake of Ralph Lumenti’s 1961 card. Besides the 2018 card of Aaron Slegers and this year’s Stadium Club autograph card of Willians Astudillo, the other new player cards were Bowman cards of minor leaguers (including recently deceased Ryan Costello), and there are still a few other elusive 2019 autograph cards out there. Good news: I have discovered that there are now Terry Steinbach Twins autograph cards…bad news: the only two I’ve seen are two different 1/1 Archive Signature cards.

clockwise, from top left: 2018 Topps 1983 35th Anniversary #83A-ASL Aaron Slegers (auto); 2010 Topps Heritage Real Ones #ROA-RL Ralph Lumenti (auto); 2019 Bowman Sterling #BSPA-TL Trevor Larnach (auto); 2019 Bowman Chrome Prospects #CPA-RC Ryan Costello (auto); 2019 Bowman Chrome Prospects #CPA-JA Jorge Alcala (auto); 2019 Bowman Chrome Draft #CDA-SST Spencer Steer (auto); 2019 Bowman Chrome Prospects #CPA-ABE Andrew Bechtold (auto); 2019 Bowman Sterling #BSPA-AB Akil Baddoo (auto)

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Rumbling Into The Post Season

The AL Central Champion Minnesota Twins wound up with 101 wins, the season record for team HRs, a tie for the season record for Total Bases, and their offense finished in the top three in several MLB stats. Rookie manager Rocco Baldelli has a lot to be proud of, and fans throughout Twins Territory have reason to be excited.

Looking at the playoffs, there are several players I wish were around to participate — Byron Buxton (IL, out for season), Michael Piñeda (suspended), Sam Dyson (IL, what the heck?!) — or aren’t at 100% — Max Kepler, Luis Arraez, Kyle Gibson, Ehrie Adrianza, CJ Cron, Marwin Gonzalez — but the season is long, and every team has to deal with intangibles. With some good play and a favorable bounce, things will work out.

Before the postseason starts, here are some of my latest pickups:

clockwise, from top left: 2019 Topps Major League Materials #MLM-BB Byron Buxton (jersey); 2019 Topps Major League Materials #MLM-MS Miguel Sano (jersey); 2018 Topps Major League Materials #MLM-JM Joe Mauer (jersey); 2018 Topps Major League Materials Black #MLM-JM Joe Mauer [26/99] (jersey); 2019 Topps ’84 Topps 150^th Anniversary #84R-JM Joe Mauer [136/150] (jersey); 2016 Topps Gypsy Queen #GQR-TH Torii Hunter (jersey); 2019 Topps Retro Hat Logo #RHLP-JM Joe Mauer (manu-patch); 2018 Topps Major League Materials Black #MLM-MS Miguel Sano [36/99] (jersey)