Jun3rd

MLB Briefs

By Cardcollectingrambler | Posted at 2:18 pm | Filed Under MLB, Cards, Cardcollectingrambler

MLB Briefs photos

Guest post by Cardcollectingrambler from Break Open Another Box!

Josh Hamilton has been on fire in ’08, batting .326 (2nd in AL), 14 HR (1st in AL) & 61 RBI (1st in MLB). After being drafted first overall by Tampa Bay back in ’99, Hamilton spent the next 7 seasons in the minors, while dealing with injuries & drug problems. He finally made it to the bigs in ’07, and played 90 games with the Reds, hitting .292 with 19 HR & 47 RBI. He was dealt to the Rangers for the ’08 season, and locked up the starting CF spot in Spring Training.

Hamilton’s hottest rookie-year card is his 99 Topps Traded Autograph, which averaged $181.92 TAC in May (two of them sold on ebay on 6/1 for $242.75 & $214.95).

If Hamilton can keep up this pace, I expect that his TT Auto will continue to rise, but it probably won’t reach the level of guys like Miguel Cabrera’s TT Auto, just because of his age (he turned 29 last month). He doesn’t have the potential to reach the career stats that some of these younger guys have, which I think will hurt his values in the long run.

Ian Kinsler, the Rangers’ lead-off hitting second baseman, is batting .300 with 7 HR, 34 RBI & 15 SB. The 25-year-old Kinsler had 14 HR & 11 SB in ’06 (his first year), and 20 HR & 23 SB in ’07, making him one of only 6 player that year to achieve 20 HR-20 SB, despite having less than 500 AB due to injury.

Kinsler’s 05 Bowman Chrome Ref RC averaged $11.28 in May, down from around $18 TAC in March. Want to pick up one of his more limited rookie parallels? Expect to pay around $20-25 for his 05 Bowman Chrome Blue Ref #’d 150. One of his 05 Bowman Chrome Gold Ref #’d 50 sold for $106 TAC in April.

Kinsler’s 20-20 potential (or maybe even 30-30?) is a rare talent that shouldn’t be overlooked. If he can keep his batting average up around .300, you can expect him to score tons of runs with Josh Hamilton batting two spots behind him.

Marlins’ starter Ricky Nolasco gained a little hobby attention a couple of seasons ago, but has since fallen into utter obscurity. After missing most of ’07 due to injury, Nolasco is back and looking pretty good in recent. His first 5 starts in ’08 weren’t very impressive, as he posted a 7.46 ERA with 3.55 BB/9IP & 4.97 K’s/9IP. His next 5 were completely a different story. He had a 2.76 ERA, 3.37 BB/9IP & 7.06 K’s/9IP, including handing Brandon Webb his first loss of the year.

Nolasco has one base rookie autograph card, his 04 Bowman’s Best Auto RC. I haven’t been watching it’s auction activity recently, but the few times that I’ve done a search I noticed that you can probably pick these cards up for around $4-8 TAC.

Please check out my blog, Break Open Another Box!, for more of my ramblings!

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One Response to “MLB Briefs”

thehamiltonian on July 10th, 2008 2:29 pm

Hamilton just turned 27 last month. Unless you were talking about Cabrera, in which case I have no idea how old he is.

His (Hamilton’s) stuff has been red hot for the last month or so for sure. A huge showing in the Home Run Derby might give it another bump up as well.

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