Last off-season, I started a weekly feature called “Minor League Mondays” where I’d look at one of the minor league team sets in my collection. It fell by the wayside due to time constraints, but I enjoyed it and hope to bring it back – at least through the rest of the off-season. I’m going to try to alternate between a 2012 set and an older set from my collection.
First up are the Brooklyn Cyclones: I had a lot of fun with this set – I was able to get most of the cards autographed before two late-season games in Staten Island. Almost all of the players in the New York-Penn League are in their first or second year of professional baseball. That makes it really tough to tell who’s going to reach the major leagues someday, but it also means many of them still enjoy meeting fans and signing autographs.
Brooklyn finished the year with a 45-31 record, good for second place in the McNamara Division and a playoff appearance as the wildcard team. The big “names” on the Cyclones roster in 2012 were Brandon Nimmo, the Mets’ first round draft pick in 2011, and Kevin Plawecki, a first-round pick this year. The team also had several promising pitchers – in another three or four years, maybe a few of the 2012 Cyclones will be suiting up for the Mets at Citi Field.
The Brooklyn Cyclones 2012 team set includes 35 unnumbered cards, produced by Grandstand. The fronts and backs are printed in full color on non-gloss cardstock, which is nice for autograph collectors since they don’t require any preparation to be signed.
The front photos are almost all game or practice action shots, and for the most part were taken during games where the Cyclones were wearing their standard home uniforms. The backs include a small headshot, some biographical information, and player stats (if there are any at the pro level). Somewhat surprising for a minor league team, the team mascots do not appear on cards.
Here’s the checklist:
- Matt Bowman – RHP
- Jace Boyd – 1B
- Luis Cessa – RHP
- Jonathan Clark – OF
- Julio Concepcion – OF
- Rich Donnelly – MGR
- Phillip Evans – IF
- Darwin Frias – RHP
- Juan Gamboa – IF
- Jeff Glenn – C
- Julian Hilario – RHP
- Matt Koch – RHP
- Rainy Lara – RHP
- Bobby Malek – Hitting Coach
- Luis Mateo – RHP
- John Mincone – LHP
- Brandon Nimmo – OF
- Tim Peterson – RHP
- Eudy Pina – OF
- Kevin Plawecki – C
- Dimas Ponce – IF
- Jeff Reynolds – IF
- Hansel Robles – RHP
- Richie Rodriguez – IF
- Stefan Sabol – OF
- Alex Sanchez – IF
- Paul Sewald – RHP
- Logan Taylor – RHP
- Marc Valdes – Pitching Coach
- Tyler Vanderheiden – RHP
- Beck Wheeler – RHP
- David Wynn – LHP
- Ernesto Yanez – RHP
- Gabriel Ynoa – RHP
- Nelfi Zapata – C
Brooklyn Cyclones 2012 team sets are available from Lake Country Minors for $15 or STB Sports for $16.95. I’m not sure what the status of the Cyclones’ team store is after Hurricane Sandy.
PaulHadsall.com 