While You Were Away...

During the nearly three months that I stepped away from baseball, baseball cards, and baseball card blogging, the Cubs tried desperately to stay in the deceivingly tight National League Central chase.  I say "deceivingly" because although the North Siders were well within striking distance of the crown until nearly the bitter end, it never truly felt as though they stood a chance in coming out on top.  The team simply felt flat and flawed while the Cardinals worked their devil magic and the Brewers went on yet another unstoppable September bender.  Of course, that doesn't mean that the club simply mailed it in and gave up the fight; au contraire, they made some roster moves down the stretch that screamed "go home, fat lady!"

Since most of my collecting and writing interests are based around my Cubs All-Time Roster Collection, I will now take this opportunity to show off the cards that were added to my marquee binder as a result of these desperation moves, even if it took me until the last few days to finally get around to physically doing so.  Again, I was on a baseball vacation when all of this went down and the shit hit the proverbial fan at Wrigley this September.

Let's begin with the biggy.  When both of the Cubs starting middle infielders (Javy Baez and *blech* Addison Russell) went down with separate (eventual) season-ending injuries on back to back days in the early days of September, Theo Epstein and Co. were forced to get creative with their roster construction.  Especially seeing as AAA shortstop, Dixon Machado, was already on the MiLB disabled list.  With few realistic options, a "go big or go home" type move was necessary:

Thus, the Cubs' number one prospect, Nico Hoerner became the first member of the 2018 draft class to reach the Major Leagues, barely a year after he was selected in the first round the previous June.  For a franchise that even made Kris Bryant go year-to-year and rung-to-rung on the minor league ladder, this was an exceptionally rapid turnaround.  Of course, for the Cubs, it was either go against their normal development schedule or officially wave the white flag; I must say, it was a pleasantly surprising commitment to competing.

Nico did his part to try and save 2019 - slashing .282/.305/.436 in 82 PA's as the sudden starting shortstop - alas, it was not to be.  However, the move gave us Cubs fans a glimmer of hope and me, specifically, the chance to add this eye-catching blue 2019 Bowman parallel (#'ed /499) to my CATRC.

Welcome to the binder, Mr. Hoerner - the 2020 season will be an interesting one to monitor for you.  Will you force the issue through Spring Training and stick on the MLB roster or will you be placed back on your previous developmental training?  We shall see.

Next up, we have another story of a guy making the best of a bad situation.  

Much has been made about the bevy of talent which came from the 2011 draft - after all, names like Baez, Francisco Lindor, Gerrit Cole, George Springer, Trevor Story, Blake Snell and many others make up the class of '11.  However, that year's second overall selection was one that several pundits thought might be better than them all; a highly-polished college starter with a ace-caliber repertoire.  That man's name was Danny Hultzen:

Unfortunately, years of injuries, arm troubles, and several surgeries kept him from making the Majors.  In fact, by 2017, Danny was completely out of professional baseball and seemed like just another blue chip bust.

However, the Cubs coaxed Hultzen out of semi-retirement in 2018 and, after a full year of rest and recovery, the Chicago front office saw enough in his stuff to promote him straight to AAA-Iowa after just 8 appearances for the Mesa rookie league team.  Then, the lefty made mince meat out of his competition in the homer-happy Pacific Coast League in 2019 (1.26 ERA in 14.1 IP with 0 HR's), which was impressive enough to finally earn him that long awaited call-up to the Show for September.  

During a Cubs season dominated by negatives, Danny's comeback was a welcome bit of wholesome fresh air.  Also, for the record, Hultzen didn't give up a single run in his 3.1 innings of work and looks to have a tangible shot at grabbing a lefty pen role for 2020.  Welcome to the Windy City Danny and, more importantly (to me, anyway) welcome to my CATRC!

Luckily for me, I just so happened to find one of Danny's first mass-produced baseball cards - the 2012 Bowman Chrome Prospects single that you see above - in a discount box at my LCS.  I don't think the owner had realized that Hultzen had become Cubs property and, thus, no home team upcharge!

Lastly, the Cubs did make one further addition to the roster during my blackout period; however, tragically I do not currently have a card with which to represent him in my most treasured binder.  In fact, the young hurler doesn't have a single mainstream baseball card to his name.  Poor me, right? 

Showing just how desperate the team was for a jolt, this pitcher wasn't first called upon at the Big League level (in Chi-Town, that is) until September 1st, he still managed to make 14 appearances before the end of the season.  After showing some early success with his gravity-defying hook, Joe Maddon through this rookie right into the blazing (dumpster) fire.  I mean, he didn't have many reliable options to call upon at this point.

At any rate, the Cubs got a good look at the hulking, six foot nine (tallest Cubs pitcher ever?) lefty that they got from the Padres in the Carl Edwards, Jr. trade.  Even if he was thrust into the thick of things rather quickly, it may have given him an inside track in next year's crowded bullpen picture.  

Speaking of inside tracks, if anyone has such an inroad to acquiring one of Brad's few minor league, team issued cards, I sure would be appreciative if you'd let me know.  Like I said, Wieck has no mass-produced cards on his ledger yet, so these SGA's are my only option, at this juncture.  The 2014 seventh rounder has simply never caught the eyes of the folks at Bowman, Leaf, Onyx, Panini Prizm, etc.  With the lack of love relievers get, in general, who knows if he'll even get an MLB card, in the long run?

With that, I have now covered all the roster moves that I missed out on during my time away from baseball and blogging.  It feels quite nice to be caught up, in that regard, especially with transaction season being just days away... potentially, I could have been buried in an avalanche of tardy CATRC moves.

On that note, here's hoping that there is tidal wave of Cubs roster moves coming up in the next couple of winter months.  After two painful September collapses in a row, I think this team needs something of an overhaul if they want to reasonably compete in 2020.  At least, a new center fielder, second baseman, a starting pitcher or two, and perhaps more still should be on the "to-get" list.

Nevertheless, at this moment, I'm all caught up.  Thanks for digesting my overly tardy ranting and rambling!

via GIPHY