Don't be afraid of the Future - 2013 edition

All-Star Future's Game that is.  Check out this photo of players involved in the 2006 edition of the game held in Pittsburgh.

Troy Tulowitzki, Cameron Maybin, Hunter Pence, Alex Gordon, Billy Butler, Nick Adenhart, Howie Kendrick, Ryan Braun.  (2006 07 09) 

First there is the sadness of seeing Nick Adenhart (#21 removing his cap) in the photo with the rest of the superstars.  You see all that talent standing around him and....well you just wonder.  

Braun, Tulo, and Pence went 1-2-3 in the 2007 Rookie of the Year voting.

The World Team that day featured future 2010 NL MVP Joey Votto. 
Gio Gonzalez and Carlos Carrasco were the Phillies reps in 2006.  Other players that took the field that day included Stephen Drew, Nolan Reimold, Neil Walker, Phil Hughes, Homer Bailey, CarGo, Yovani Gallardo, and Pablo Sandoval.   

Last Years Futures Game included Manny Machado, Jurickson Profar, Billy Hamilton, Wil Myers, Mike Olt, Nick Castellanos, Zack Wheeler and many others.  

This year the Futures Game will  be held at 2pm (edt) Sunday July 14 at the Mets home Citi Field and Team Phungo will be there!!! Tickets to the showcase can be found on Stubhub for as little as $6 for SRO. 

  
The 2013 Futures Game will air on ESPN2.

Don't be afraid of the Future...

All-Star Future's Game that is.  Just check out this photo of a few guys that were involved in the 2006 edition of the game which was held in Pittsburgh.

Troy Tulowitzki, Cameron Maybin, Hunter Pence, Alex Gordon, Billy Butler, Nick Adenhart, Howie Kendrick, Ryan Braun.  (2006 07 09) 

First there is the sadness of seeing Nick Adenhart (#21 removing his cap) in the photo with the rest of the superstars.  You see all that talent standing around him and....well you just wonder.  

Braun, Tulo, and Pence went 1-2-3 in the 2007 Rookie of the Year voting.


The World Team that day featured future 2010 NL MVP Joey Votto. 
Gio Gonzalez and Carlos Carrasco were the Phillies reps in 2006.  Other players that took the field that day included Stephen Drew, Nolan Reimold, Neil Walker, Phil Hughes, Homer Bailey, CarGo, Yovani Gallardo, and Pablo Sandoval.   
  
The host team Royals own Wil Myers will be one of the players to watch in the 2012 Futures Game.  The Orioles are sending Dylan Bundy and Manny Machado who are both highly rated prospects. Reds speedster Billy Hamilton is on the roster as well.  The Phils are sending two lower level prospects to the game Lisalverto Bonilla and Julio Rodriguez.  Both players are pitchers at AA Reading.


The 2012 Futures Game will air Sunday July 7 at 5p East on ESPN2.

Baseball America Futures Game coverage here.

STS Profile - Billy Butler: Swag from Saints Case Break

2007 UD Ultimate Collection Rookie Signature #108 Billy Butler (#d 146/299)

As I feared, this weeks auto turned out to be a tough one. For the first time in STS! history we had to go to a HINT to get for the Autograph to be Identified.

This auto came from a group break run by Dan over at Saints of the Cheap Seats. Prior to this break the only breaks I entered were budget breaks that were run by Thorzul and others. The bounty from the break came in this week and included a Carl Yastrzemski jersey card and a Ryan Freel base card.

2007 UD Ultimate Collection #13 Ryan Freel
2007 UD Ultimate Collection Star Materials #SM-CY Carl Yastrzemski

I am pretty happy with the cards I received in the break. Billy Butler is a good young player for the Royals, who would be more widely known if he played in a higher proifle city. He has seen increased playing time each of his 3 major league seasons and finished 2009 with 21 homers and a .301 BA. His OPS+ for 2009 was 124.

I knew this would be a tough auto for several reasons

1) It is a particularly bad auto perhaps in the HoF of bad autos - and once we started running down the K names that was definitely trouble.

2) Butler is a young player that is really not well known - and he runs below the top tier of prospects.

3) The card gives a slightly misleading hint - Butler is a first baseman as a major leaguer. He played a variety of positions on his way through the Royals system, including outfield.
4) He plays for the Kansas City Royals who many of us don't think about.

I initially thought that Butler had written the ""B"'s in his name off of the sticker, but that is not the case. The sticker is clearly large enough on both the top and bottom to contain the full letter. Butler simply doesn't always close the top and bottom of his B's. I checked a handful of his other autos and this seems to be as bad as it gets for him - His signatures vary greatly in readability, although you can see a pattern where the clear UD sticker autos that are significantly worse.

Bonus

If you went right down the middle you were good. There were 3 base cards of active players and a Then and Now insert of Herb Score and Kerry Wood (who was active in 09). Our Mathematician over at Nachos Grande correctly calculated that 4 cards would emerge from the pack, as did Wax Ripper - each will receive a single as their bonus.

Later this week I plan on posting the contents of 4 other packs of the 04 Heritage as part of a Faux Blaster report.


Spot the Sig! standings after four innings.

We have a rookie in the game, Brian from Play at the Plate lines a double for figuring out this tough auto after the hint. We are almost half way through the game and it remains anybody's game.

Paul's Random Stuff - Mets: one run scored. Men at 2nd and 3rd.
Autographed Cards - Royals: one run scored. Men at 2nd and 3rd.
Night Owl - Dodgers: Men on First and 2nd
Nachos Grande - Reds: Bases Loaded
The Wax Ripper - Yankees: Men on first and 2nd.
Play at the Plate - Rangers: Elvis Andrus hits a Double into the game to put a man in scoring position for our newest STS entry.
In Search of Pat the Bat - PHILLIES: Man on First
Thought and Sox - Boston Red Sox: Man on First
Beardy - Orioles: On Deck
Indians Baseball Cards Always - Indians: On Deck
Padrographs - Padres: On Deck
Cardboard Junkie - Braves: On Deck

Thanks all for participating in this particularly challenging installment of Spot the Sig!

A new Spot the Sig! autograph will be presented for the contest on Sunday Night, All are welcome to join the game at anytime. If you need more Spot the Sig! details click here.