2008 Razor, Tanner Scheppers

#148 Tanner Scheppers

Here is a card that I bought off of COMC for a whopping $1.25. The only reason why I bought this card is because I had the pleasure of watching Tanner pitch in the American Association before he went to the Majors. While a couple of Wingnut players are currently playing in the Majors, I do not remember seeing them play in Wichita. But, I do remember Tanner pitching.

In 2008, Tanner was drafted in the second round by the Pirates. He and the Pirates could not agree to a contract before the deadline and Tanner re-entered the draft the following year. In order to stay fresh before the draft, Tanner signed with the St. Paul Saints. He pitched in four games with the Saints before getting drafted by the Rangers at the end of the first round. He signed that time around and his time in the American Association came to a close.

Tanner pitched in the Majors for parts of six seasons with the Rangers. During that time, he was 12-7 with 3 saves and a 4.23 ERA. His best season came in 2013 when he logged a career high 76.2 innings and responded with a 6-2 record with a save and a 1.99 ERA. That was his only Major League season with an ERA under 4.00.

Tanner pitched in Japan last year and it looks like is not playing right now. He could be injured or he might not have a team to play for. I do not know. I bet that the Saints would take him back, though.

Even though it does not mention a team anywhere on this card, I am chalking this up as a Pirate card because they drafted him in 2008.

2008 Razor, Mike Montgomery

#84 Mike Montgomery

Back in the day, Mike Montgomery was a highly touted Royals prospect. That was the main reason that I got this card signed. In 2009, he was the Roylas minor league pitcher of the year. Because of that, he was at Royals Fanfest in 2010 when he signed this card.

Unfortunately, it never worked out for Mike when he was with the Royals. I heard a few different reasons for why that was, but the main one I heard was that the Royals deemed him uncoachable. He had a private pitching coach during his time as a Royal minor leaguer and he apparently valued his advice over any of the Royals coaches. So, prior to the 2013 season, the Royals packaged him in a deal with Wil Myers and sent them to the Rays for James Shields and Wade Davis. I would say that deal worked out well for the Royals.

Mike made his Major League debut with the Mariners in 2015. He has appeared in the Majors every year since then and even won a World Series with the Cubs in 2016. To date, he is 21-25 with 3 saves and a 3.64 ERA in 152 games with 56 of those being starts. He is having a rough start to this season, but has only pitched in five games so far. Through 7.2 innings of work, he currently is 1-0 with a 5.87 ERA and 5 strikeouts.

2008 Razor, Jordy Mercer

#82 Jordy Mercer

Here is another card that I got signed at the Wilmington Blue Rocks playoff game in 2009. Jordy was playing for the visiting Lynchburg Hillcats at the time and I was lucky that my buddy was able to get this card signed for me and that it came out looking this good. I mention that last part because it was kind of raining when he got this card signed and one of the cards Jordy signed got hit with a rain drop and kind of ruined the signature. The third card he signed looked like it might not have got prepped and got pelted with two rain drops. But, at least this one came out looking great!

Looking back at my lone trip to a baseball game in Delaware, I am kind of surprised by the percentage of autographs that I got that went on to appear in the Majors. Minus a couple of Rocks that I got for my Burlington Bees team set, I would guess that at least 85% of the players that signed for me that day at least appeared in the Major Leagues. That seems pretty good for an A ball game.

As for Jordy, he is currently playing for the Tigers, but is on the IL right now (I might never get used to saying/typing IL). This is his eighth season in the Majors and he has been rather consistent so far in his career. His numbers are a bit down right now, but he typically is good for a .255 average with about 10 homers and 50 RBI.

I am pretty sure that Jordy is pictured in his Oklahoma State uniform here, which means that I most likely saw him play in college. I went to a Wichita State game in 2007 where they hosted the Cowpokes, so there is a good chance that Jordy played in that game.

That is two posts in a row of current players. That is unheard of on here. Just wait until the next post when it makes it to three straight. Just for fun, if anyone actually makes it down this far in the post, leave a comment on who you think the next player is. Here is a hint- the card is from this set. There may be prizes involved just for making a guess.

2008 Razor, Eric Hosmer

#3 Eric Hosmer

Does anyone else remember this set? If it wasn't for the cards from it that I bought to get signed, I certainly would not. I never saw any packs of this stuff and have no idea how it was distributed. Since I have none, I am sure it wasn't something you could pick up at your local big box store. A quick peek at COMC makes it look like 2008 was the only year that the company did a mass released baseball set.

Here is the card of Eric Hosmer that I got signed in Burlington, Iowa in 2009. I was on my way to the Future's Game in St. Louis and decided to veer off to the north to take in a Burlington Bees game. The Bees were a Royals affiliate at the time and play in a beautiful little ballpark that was built in 1947.

That was the first time I ever got to see Hoz play, but it certainly was not the last time. I believe I saw him play one more minor league game after that before having the pleasure to watch him play 46 times as a member of the Royals. He was a key cog during the Royals second championship in 2015 and scored the tying run in game five of the Series that sent the game into extra innings. The Royals went on to win the Series in the 12th inning and Hoz's mad dash to home in the top of the ninth is still highly regarded in Royals lore. It is simply referred to as "The Slide".

Nowadays, Eric is out west playing for the Padres. Because of that, I may never seem him play again. For whatever reason, the Padres are the franchise that I have seen play the least amount of times. In my twenty-five years of attending Major League games, I have seen the Padres play twice. I saw them play in Denver in 1996 and in San Diego in 2008. They are one of just two teams (the Phillies being the other) that I have never seen play in Kansas City.