He Can Only Go Up From Here; Card Show Recap #23

During a brief yet productive trip to my weekly sports card show on Sunday, I, with full knowledge of his disastrous performance against the Cardinals on Saturday, purchased my very first autograph of Craig Kimbrel.

Truth be told, this card has been a long time coming. I've been avidly collecting cards of the 7-time All-Star for well over a year and a half. In spite of his struggles, to put it kindly, since joining the Chicago Cubs, I can't give up on the most talented closer of this generation so easily.

From a positive standpoint, there's an incredibly low likelihood of Kimbrel further regressing in 2020 to the point where his ERA is worse than what he has with the Cubs this season (6.53). One can hope that Kimbrel will only improve from here, making this the perfect time to land my first autograph of his.

For less than the price of a blaster box, I landed this gorgeous on-card autograph from 2018 Topps Museum, serial numbered 16/25 copies. Throughout his extended free agency period, I was skeptical to purchase a Kimbrel auto due to his unknown fate.

Now that he's officially a member of the Cubs, however, I felt this was the perfect time to make this major addition to The Kimbrel Collection. Plus, the price point wasn't too shabby either.

More so than a position player and even a starter, a relief pitcher is going to experience his fair share of struggles if he doesn't pitch in an MLB game for 8 months. This partially explains the 31-year old's poor performance with the Cubs.

With Kimbrel under contract through 2021 and a vesting option in-place for 2022, Cubs fans want nothing more than for the 2011 NL Rookie of the Year to return to his prime.

His years with Atlanta and final 2 seasons in Boston proved that Kimbrel could be at the same level as legends like Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman.

Though he basically lost the entire 2018 season, I have faith in Craig Kimbrel. I mean, if I'm going to collect him avidly and purchase an auto of his after that performance, it's pretty clear that I believe in his abilities.