Random Topps Pro Debut Card of the Week: 2010 Topps Pro Debut #225 Arodys Vizcaino

It's the first Minor League Monday of 2014!!! Let's start it off with a bang. Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Pro Debut Card of the Week:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 2010 Topps Pro Debut #225.
• Player Name, position, team: Arodys Vizcaino, pitcher, Rome Braves.
• Level-League, Team Affiliation: A-Southern Atlantic League, Atlanta Braves.
  
• Minor League Stats (stats with team depicted only): 14 G, 71.2 IP, 9-4, 25 R, 19 ER, 68 SO, 9 BB, 14 GS, 0 CG, 0 SHO, 0 SV, 1.005 WHIP, 2.39 ERA.
• Any special information about player: Signed with the Twins as a Free Agent before the 2006 season. Bats: right. Throws: right.
• Major League Debut: August 10, 2011.
• Baseball America Organizational Ranking After Season with Team: Atlanta Braves #7 prospect after the 2010 season .
• Blurb on the back: "Vizcaino wasted no time paying dividends for Atlanta, who acquired him from the Yankees in the Javier Vazquez deal after the 2009 campaign. Assigned to Rome to begin '10, he went 9-3 with a 2.34 ERA and a 7.5-1 SO/BB ratio and just one HRA in 12 starts. That earned him a June promotion to Myrtle Beach."
• Official Topps Rookie Card: n/a.
• Commentary: I'm confused. Yes, I know that this is a 2010 Topps set, and that usually tries to depict the player in the uniform of his most recent organization (Arodys Vizcaino was with the Yankees in 2009). But the blurb talks about his 2010 campaign in Rome, and it even mentions that Vizcaino was promoted to Myrtle Beach of the Carolina League before the end of the season. So now the question is, should Vizcaino have been pictured as a member of the Staten Island Yankees (the Short Season A-team of the NY-Penn League? Or was there not enough time to photoshop a Pelicans jersey onto Vizcaino? I mean two weeks ago, the subject of Minor League Mondays had spent most of his season in Altoona before a 2 game run in Indianapolis. But he (Matt Curry)is pictured in the jersey of the Indians instead of the Curve. I don't get it. What I do get is that Vizcaino did make his MLB debut in 2011, appearing in 17 games for the Braves with a 1-1 record, a 4.67 ERA, and 17 strikeouts in 17.1 innings of work. It was funny though because he had no MLB time after that, and the minor league numbers stopped in 2011 as well. It turns out that Vizcaino underwent Tommy John surgery in March of 2012, which caused him to miss the whole year. He was then traded to the Cubs in a deadline deal, with the hopes that he'd be ready for the 2013 season. But he required arthroscopic surgery on his elbow in May and needed to rehab the rest of the campaign. Despite all of this, Vizcaino was named the Cubs #4 prospect after the 2012 season, and it is hoped that he, and many of the other young prospects that the Cubs have been able to draft/sign/trade for/whatever, will lead the Cubs to the "promised land."

Next week's featured card will be: 2011 Topps Pro Debut #325. Post will arrive at 9:00 AM CST. Hope you enjoyed this week's installment of Minor League Monday.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama