A.J. Puk

       






Profile

A.J. Puk is a pitcher with the Oakland Athletics who made his debut in 2019 and was ultimately bit by 2020 and had to be shutdown for shoulder surgery.  He was born in Cedar Rapids and after he graduated from Washington High School* he attended Florida for college and was a part of the Gators 2015 College World Series run.  He was the 6th** pick in the 2016 draft.

* Notables from Washington HS: Grant Wood (Painter), Dedric Ward (NFL), Ashton Kutcher (Actor), William Shirer (Author),  Adrian Arrington (NFL), Frank Baker (NFL)

** Other high Iowa draft picks: Jeff Clement (3rd Marshalltown), Mike King (4th Morningside), Tim Costo (8th UofI)

Personal Notes

One thing that comes to mind when I see A.J. Puk is that Iowa has four distinct seasons.  Its hot in the summer, cold in the winter, and spring and fall are just wonderful (when you get them).  However, baseball and seasons don't mix.  This is why you'll never see a great Iowa/ISU baseball team, as players drift to warmer climates to compete year round.  That's why Mike Trout was drafted late in the 1st, lack of exposure compared to his southern opponents.



Collection Notes

I have 17/1190 (1%) cards in my collection.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2024 WNBA - Iowa Connections

Image
With the highly anticipated 2024 WNBA ready to start today, let's look at the Iowa Connections in the WNBA this season, including this Fever rookie named Caitlin.  Washington Mystics    Julie Vanloo - Signed letter of intent to play with Iowa State in 2011 but the Belgium was not granted international eligibility from the NCAA. This is her first season with the WNBA.   Dallas Wings   Stephanie Soares - The #4 pick in the 2023 draft out of Iowa State, Soares will be playing her first season in the WNBA after missing laster year with an ACL injury.   Las Vegas Aces   Kiah Stokes - From Cedar Rapids, Kiah will be in her 10th season in WNBA. She won 3 NCAA titles with UConn and the last 2 titles with Las Vegas.   Megan Gustafson - Megan was AP Player of the Year with Iowa in 2019 and has played previous season with Dallas, Washington and Phoenix. This offseason she was Finals MVP for the London Lions in the WBBL final....
Read more

TCdb vs. Beckett - First Impressions

 So I post a couple of weeks ago that I was starting to play around with TCdb.  I've been a loyal Beckett user for years now, and have become more down on it lately.  For collectors like me, it seems that TCdb has gathered a pretty decent sized following and positive reviews.  But how will it work for this collection?  Here's what I found. TCdb Pros Cost You can't complain about the cost (free!).   Its like some of the other big services I use for my collecting, mainly wikipedia and [sport name]-reference.com in that they provide so much information but I just don't know how they do it well.   The Checklists The database is very comparable to Beckett.  Beckett does have some cards that TCdb doesn't have, and visa-versa.  Notable for this blog, Beckett does not list the 2017 Panini Iowa set, and TCdb doesn't have all the Iowa Hawkeye Football team sets from the late 80's, early 90's.   Rankings! After I enter in my card for...
Read more

NFL Playoffs: Iowa Connections and Wild Card Round Results

Image
   Wild Card Weekend Picks (5-1): Miami (7) over  Kansas City  (4)   Buffalo (6) over Pittsburgh (2) Houston  (4) over Cleveland (2) Detroit  (7) over LA Rams (6) Tampa (7) over Philly (4) Green Bay  (7) over Dallas (2) Five for six is pretty good, but how do we justify that Kansas City win over Miami?  I think we can point to two factors that boosted KC's Iowa score.  First, KC is Caitlin Clark's favorite team, and she was unable to see the game as she was routing Indiana at the same time (on Fox, where this game was on Peacock).  Second, KC imported some good old Iowa weather for the game, and we appreciate that as well.
Read more