Set Appreciation Post #20 - 2012 Topps Pro Debut

No special guests or Aaron Boone memes for this set appreciation post, just baseball cards of players wearing Minor League uniforms. As a person who follows and watches Minor League baseball, these are always fun sets to flip through. This was the third Pro Debut set, so it was still a relatively new product at this point. More than a decade removed from its release, there are plenty of players on the checklist who are in the prime of their carer or beyond.  

Let's get it.  

The 2012 Topps design has always been fairly low on my list, easily the bottom quartile of all their base sets. It's just uninspired and looks like they did not put much thought or effort into this design. Someone came up with this five minutes before pitching it to some higher-up. The photography is fine, it's not Stadium Club or anything. You better believe I am going to count the bad design towards the final rating at the end of the post.  

It gets worse.  

There are no statistics on the back of the card. I almost want to stop the post here and just tell you to avoid ever touching this set. Add in that Topps is calling Dante Bichette a "dynamic offensive" player. That is only making things worse. He couldn't hit a beach ball outside of Denver.  

This set is really a hit or miss product. The good names are great, but there are a lot of former highly regarded prospects who never panned out or lived up to the hype. As a fan of the Minor Leagues, I am going to try to stick to the success stories for the cards I show off. The percentage of players who did not make it is really high, even for a Pro Debut product.  

The best three cards in the set are no-brainers. Like decade into their careers and they are Hall of Fame trajectory type players.  

First, we have Syracuse SkyChiefs outfielder Bryce Harper.  

Bryce Harper was in Triple A less than a month during the 2012 season before the Nationals called him up to the Majors. I usually make a point to see players like Harper when they roll through Durham, but he did not make it that far into the schedule. Despite the miss on my part, this is a cool card. I miss the SkyChiefs, who had a train as a mascot. You can see it on his batting helmet. There is story there, but I am not going to tell it on my blog. Cool card and a cheap Harper rookie if you don't own one. 

One of the other really good cards belongs to Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado.  

Arenado is shown here with the Modesto Nuts of the California League. That's A Ball and Arenado is 20 years old in this picture. Arenado was actually on Modesto in 2011, his 2012 season was spent with Tulsa in the Double A Texas League. Who would have guessed this guy would go on to hit 300 home runs and win 10 Gold Gloves? 

Baseball America rated him the 42nd best prospect right along side fellow third baseman Mike Olt and Will Middlebrooks in their 2012 Prospect Guide.  

Oops, missed out on that one.  

Last up of the really good cards is Manny Machado of the Fredrick Keys.  

I will not listen to your Manny Machado slander about him not being a future Hall of Famer.  

A few other really good players in this set......

We've got Jose Ramirez. Probably also a Hall of Famer, or getting really close. The card shows him with the Indians entry into the 2011 Arizona League team. Ramirez is an 18 year old on this card, one the youngest players featured in this Pro Debut set. This card is why this set is fun to look at years later.  

We've also got what feels like an air brushed Gerrit Cole.  

Cole was actually in college in 2011. He went to UCLA and was selected by the Pirates with the first overall pick in the MLB Draft. Cole did end up playing with the Bradenton Marauders during the 2012 season, but he was only there for a few starts before the Pirates promoted him all the way up to their Triple A team.  

Locally, we've got Christian Yelich playing for the Greensboro Grasshoppers.  

Yelich is another really young player in this set, only 19 in this picture. Turned out to be a pretty good player. Why do the Greensboro cards never have the players posing with the bat dogs?  

Many teams have bat dogs these days, Greensboro was the originator.  

Let me move on to the Cardinals and Durham Bulls portion of the post. 

There are a lot of Durham Bulls in this set. There are not many Cardinals players in this set. At least not many who made it to the Majors.  It was a toss up between Shelby Miller and Matt Adams. 

I am going with Matt Adams, because you can see his uniform.  

I have always liked the Springfield Cardinals uniforms. The Cardinals should do this with all their Minor League affiliates. Two birds on the bat with the city name in the Cardinals script. 

My best memories of Matt Adams on the Cardinals include his home run off of Clayton Kershaw in the 2014 NLDS.......

There was also that time FanGraphs wrote an article about how bad Matt Adams was playing left field and fellow Cardinals outfielder Tommy Pham liked the article post on Twitter.  

On to the Durham Bulls portion of the post. There are a lot of them.    

Some former Bulls are in the base set, but were on the Royals at the time this product was released......

You can't read the names, because it's 2012 Topps, but this is Wil Myers and Mike Montgomery.  

Montgomery recorded the final out in Game 7 for the Chicago Cubs in 2016 World Series, so I should probably ignore all his cards, but he also threw a no-hitter for the Durham Bulls at a game I attended. Seeing a no-hitter is pretty cool, so I just try to ignore his Cubs cards. 

I have also sacrificed a Durham Bulls card from this set for an in-person autograph for my son.  

Never replaced it, not sure I ever will.  

There is also a card of Taylor Motter in the set, but he is on the Princeton Rays and not the Durham Bulls. He looks weird with short hair.  Motter does not have any certified autographs, but I have an in-person autograph copy of the card that I prefer to the unsigned copy.  

There are also two Tim Beckham cards, which both show him on the Durham Bulls.  The first is a relic card.  

There are parallels of this card with patch pieces, but they've always been really expensive when they've shown up and the patch pieces are just the blue trim from the middle and sleeve areas of Beckham's jersey.  If I ever saw a patch piece from the Bulls logo, I would be all over it.  

Last Tim Beckham card......

Easily my favorite Durham Bulls card, as well as my favorite card overall in this entire set.  

Let's make one more stop with this set and then I will assign it a rating.  

Pro Debut products usually come with a few autographs per box. The 2012 Pro Debut set was no different, but the autograph checklist is terrible. I have autographs of Drew Hutchinson, Charlie Tilson, and Matt Adams, and they are three of the better names available.  

So, how does the 2012 Pro Debut set rate?  

I had been ranking the sets featured in my Set Appreciation posts, but I am going to stop that today.  Instead, I am going to rate the set on a 1-5 scale based on its design, quality of checklist, insets, value and price, and also an overall. 

Today's rating scale is using the Durham Bulls beloved mascot, Wool E. Bull.  

The design is really bad and the lack of stats on the back of the cards is really hard to get past for me. I gave the set 1 Wool E. Bull for design and I felt like that might be generous. The checklist has some strong names, but it is really top heavy. There are a few other solid names in this set that I did not bring up in the post, my time is limited, but there are a lot of failed prospects here. More than other Pro Debut sets. 

My two highest ratings were for inserts and value. While the autograph checklist is terrible, I am a sucker for those manufactured patch cards with the Minor League logos. I know that there are few Minor League card collectors floating around on Blogger, but those are universally loved and were a great concept. The value offered here is good too. There are really cheap boxes and packs of cards that you can find on the discount table at shops and shows.  

Overall, I give this set two Wool E. Bulls.  There are better Pro Debut sets out there. 

Topps Now, But Never Again

Topps is now making cards that feature in season highlights the day after they happen.  Jake Arrieta throws a no-hitter, Topps Now card.  Melvin Upton has a walk off hit, Topps Now.  Supposedly Topps got the idea for the Topps Now cards from this scene from SpaceBalls.

Since its inception Topps Now has drawn a lot of talk around social media.  Some good, some not good.  Recently I took the Topps Now plunge.  At $9.99 a card I was expecting something really cool.  I received my envelope a week, or two, ago and all I can say is "sigh".  Let me review a few reasons for my sigh of disappointment.  

1. Shoddy Packaging - Seriously, a $10 card with no penny sleeve in the cheapest, flimsiest Ultra Pro that money can possibly buy.  If someone had sent a card like this off of Ebay the would at least get a stern message about their packaging.  Luckily in this case nothing happened to my card, but if you have not bought from Topps Now, just beware that this is how your card is shipped.

2. Remind Me What's So Special? - I took Bryce out of his flimsy Ultra Pro to scan him, he's felling better in a penny sleeve and a sturdier top loader.  I had to check out the front and back of the card, but outside of the date on the front of the card I cannot really find anything that sets the card apart to make it special.  Is there a serial number?  No.  Is there some sort of cool certification statement on the back?  No.  So, it's printed on some sort of cool card stock, something?  No.  Anything?  No.

3. So This Will Be Great For Team Collectors? - Some of this is a little bit tricky.  If you are going to make roughly two cards a day, there are going to be days where there are some really tough choices.  As a Cardinals fan, I was happy to see Jaime Garcia get a card for his near no-hitter, but I have also been disappointed that Topps has missed getting a card of Aledmys Diaz out.  You know, the rookie shortstop is has been hitting .400 during April and leading the world in OPS, OPS+, and WAR.  So, maybe I am biased.  I asked around.

I decided that I would check out a Cubs collector or two who had said something about Topps Now cards.  After all, nobody is having a better season than the Cubs....Both liked the Arrieta no-hit card that Topps put out the day after, but that was sort of a no-brainer.  Both mentioned a few different plays and games that could have been a Topps Now card, but both wondered why Dexter Fowler had gone unnoticed for the first month of the season?  Fowler has had a spectacular start to the season, several huge games, yet nothing.

Dropping down further in the standings, there are several other collectors who have teams that currently reside near the bottom of their divisions.  For example, as a Durham Bulls fan and collector, I have the chance to interact with a lot of Rays collectors.  Many have expressed doubts about the Rays getting a Topps Now card anytime soon short of a no-hitter.  After all, Drew Smyly accomplished almost the same thing that Jaime Garcia got a Topps Now card for, but where is his card?

I bought two Topps Now cards, but never again.

2014 Snorting Bull Awards: Goat of the Year

2014 Goat of the Year 

Last year there was a clear winner, in the form of Alex Rodriguez for this award.  I spent a lot of time thinking about this award for 2014, but there was not a player who was a clear and dry no brain winner.  ARod's play has declined, there have been loads of steroid problems off the field, and the values of his cards have plummeted over the last two years.  ARod did not play this year and his cards did not drop anymore so I am going to let him off the hook.  

There were a few steroid rumblings during the past year with players like Ryan Braun and Johnny Peralta, but their card values did not really seem to be hurt by their suspensions and time away from the game.  Peralta played fine for the Cardinals, but Braun had an off year for the Brewers.  Braun had career lows in almost every category, but his cards are still selling and doing quite well.  Sure there are still a few bargains out there, but generally his cards seem to sell for roughly the same prices now as they did last year.  Steroid user for Goat of the Year?  No.  

I also considered a few players who had declining performance on the field.  Joey Votto and Evan Longoria both received careful looks.  Both franchise players had power outages during the 2014 season and set career lows in several categories.  Both players saw the values of their cards fall during the 2014 season, but the fall in card pricing was not drastic.  Both players remain very popular in the hobby and ares still highly collectable.

So, who is my Goat of the Year?  Be prepared for a little bit of outrage out of some people.  I am going with Bryce Harper.  I know, I know, but hear me out for a couple of minutes.


1.  Falling Prices

While there are still some very strong Harper autograph sales there are also some chinks in the armor of his hobby pricing.  Several years ago collectors could hardly scratch a Harper autograph for anything less than $100.  There are still many Harper autographs that still sell for big dollars, but those are either rookie cards or low print, high end products.  Want a base autograph of Harper out of a Topps set?  The price is now just about half of what it used to be a few years ago.  For patient collectors, who are willing to wait out the right autograph, Harper autographs are now starting to drift below $50.

Want to take a shot on a redemption card and you can find things for even less than this.  In person autographs are all the way down into the 20s, but there is more to Harper receiving this award than card prices that are declining.  So, what can possibly stop the decline of prices on Harper cards?  I am not sure there is much that can slow this trend down.


2.  Falling Performance

I understand that Bryce Harper is a really young player with plenty of potential.  I have watched plenty of Minor League baseball and I can see that he is more than capable of being a very special player.  I also understand that we are only three years into his career.  Again, plenty of time to grow as a player.  Especially for a player who is only 22.  However, Harper's career seemed to take a step back last year.  Sites like FanGraphs are optimistic that Harper can bounce back in 2015, but how long can a .275 average with 25 home runs is going to justify autographs that sell over $100?  That question is already starting to be answered.


3.  It's A Business, Take It Out on Your Fans

Harper is a young player and he has signed a ton of autographs in his career already.  As a long time collector I am always appreciative of the players who take time to sign for fans.  Whether they sign for fans at the park, outside the stadium, answer fan mail and letters....it takes a person literally seconds to sign their name and it can mean so much.  I recently ran into a Nationals fan, locally in Raleigh, who was really upset at Harper for skipping out on the Nationals Fan Fest this past month.  They had planned on attending the event for months and they were disappointed that Harper bailed on the event.  Why you ask?  Surely there was a great reason not to spend an afternoon talking and signing for your loyal fans.  Nope.  If you have not been following Harper this offseason, he's filed a grievance (and settled with a 2 year $7 million contract) over his arbitration rights.  There are several articles floating around the internet about Harper skipping the FanFest, and while an excuse was offered by the Harper/Boras camp, nobody is really buying.

Dear #Nats fans, Mr Harper couldn't see you due to his temper tantrum @Bharper3407 http://t.co/m8zBY0fAzc
— Chris Miller (@MillerChris0886) December 14, 2014

If Harper wants to kick the A logo behind home plate in Atlanta that's fine, but kicking the fans that show up and support you?

There have been some bad missteps by Harper this year and his status in the hobby has certainly started to erode.  Personally, I own Harper cards and have a copy of his rookie Bowman autograph.  I would love nothing more than for Harper to come out and hit 30 home runs this year, but given what transpired this year I have my doubts.  In the meantime, the falling card prices, declining performance on the field, and mistreatment of fans off of it have earned Bryce Harper my Goat of the Year.


FYI- The goat of the year is named after this fine fellow.

2014 Topps Heritage Base Set

Last post for a few days on the 2014 Topps Heritage set.  I love the base set for this year's set which is based on the 1965 Topps design.  Pretty spectacular looking cards and I really am looking forward to seeing this set put all together.  Here's my quick spin through this cool looking set:

 

Again, the base set borrows the design from the 1965 Topps set.  One of my personal vintage favorites.  There are some great looking cards in this set, but the Eric Sogard is really cool.  The glasses of Eric Sogard are highly underrated and are cool to see on a baseball card.  The set also features some players showing off some cool hair. 

My personal favorites are the Bryce Harper comb over and the Colby Rasmus mullet.  Harper always seem to have cool hair.  We've gone from mohawk early on in his career to this...Well played.  Colby I am not so sure about.  The hair looks like something from Kenny Powers.  Perhaps Colby has a future as a gym teacher in North Carolina.  

There are also cool prospects cards in the set.  Both Enny Romero and Tim Beckham had rookie cards long ago, but it's nice to see a pair of Durham Bulls players on the same card.  I believe all of the teams have a pair of prospects in the set.  The Cardinals have a prospects card with Kolten Wong and Audry Perez.  They also have a split prospect card featuring Kevin Siegrist and Giants prospect Heath Hembree. 

 

The League Leaders cards are cool too and a great copy from the originals in the 1965 set.  The backs are cool too and again a great copy.  Sorry I did not put a scan up on the back of the card.  

The World Series cards are also a great throwback to the 1965 Topps set.  Well, the Cardinals won the 1964 World Series so the final outcome of the cards in the 65 set was better.  There are still good cards in the Heritage set for Cardinals fans.  I like this Wacha card from Game 2 of the Series.  

There are also some great update cards in Heritage.  Plenty of players in new uniforms and Topps actually did a pretty good job on these cards.  Yes they are airbrushed, but they are well done.  It was nice to see a Jhonny Peralta and Peter Bourjos in a Cardinals uni. 

My Top 50 On Cardboard- #19 Bryce Harper

My Top 50 On Cardboard
#19
Bryce Harper

2011 Bowman Bryce Harper

I have been around long enough to see my fair share of rookie card crazes come and go over the past thirty years.  Some of those crazes were worthy of the hype, while others looked silly and misguided in retrospect.  Overall, the craze over a rookie card, or cards, often leads to disappointment in the long run.  Even when players meet or exceed the hype, it just seems like it can be difficult at times to justify the prices that collectors will often slap on "the next big thing".  For one summer Harper was the biggest thing around the hobby.  In fact, I could probably argue his rookie cards might have caused the biggest craze of them all and get plenty of people to go along in agreement.

Hobby Impact-
If I revisited this list again in another thirty years I would venture to say that Harper would likely merit consideration without viewing the rest of his career.  Harper has made a journey from high schooler to Major Leaguer in a short time, but the hype and intrigue into his cards has been tremendous to say the least.  The summer of 2011 will always in my mind be the summer of Bryce Harper.  The summer when any card set featuring a card of the Nationals outfielder either sold out quickly or was priced to match the enthusiasm of collectors.  Wal Mart actually sold out of retail packs and for once in my lifetime they may have been enough demand to actually meet the supply of packs and boxes out on the market.

While I am not a huge Harper fan, and did not guzzle the Harper Kool-Aid during the summer of 2011, I did have a little sip.  Reasonably, just in case.  You never know.  I picked up one Harper autograph and also managed to store away all of his base cards and a few inserts too.  While the slide has already started on the price of some of Harper's cards I still think he will have a huge impact on the hobby over the next 15 to 20 years.  While it's hard to always live up to the hype, it's also hard to fall too far off the hobby radar once you are as popular as Harper has become.

2011 Bowman Bryce Harper Autograph

This is my one toe dip into the crazy realm of Bryce Harper cards.  While the price and demand of Harper autographs has cool slightly, this card still remains in high demand and is still pretty valuable.  If nothing else the Bowman Bryce Harper card will be one of those iconic baseball cards that everyone owned at some point, or wished they had owned.

On The Field Impact-
Here's where the debate around Harper get a little bit interesting.  In Harper's first two seasons in the Majors he has posted lines of .270/.340/.477 and .274/.368/.486 with roughly 20 homers and 60 RBIs.  While this has been going on most people interested in watching young rising Major League talent have  had their eyes on Mike Trout.  The natural conclusion that most people have reached has been that Trout is a far greater player than Harper.  True statement.  However, they are different players and they are different ages.

On Baseball Reference his Similar Batters include such notables as Armando Rios, Benny Agbayani, and Chris Shelton.  We all know how those players turned out, but when age is factored into the equation you get the idea that few players have reached the Majors at the age that Harper has and met much success at all.  Factoring in age, his similar hitters at age 20 include Ken Griffey Jr, Mickey Mantle, and Al Kaline.  Not sure if he's going to be like any of them, but that's not bad company.

Harper is in his second year and is just 20 years old.  Mike Trout is 22.  While the Angels left Trout in the minors longer than Harper I do not blame the Nationals for bringing Harper all the way up to the Majors at a young age.  Harper was dominate in the Minors and the Nationals need fans.  Badly.  Harper is a guy who people pay to see and will likely to continue to pay to watch.  Again, not necessarily a fan of Harper's, but he is a fun player to watch.

When Harper first came up I watched a Nationals game one night at a bar across the street from my house.  It's an interesting place with interesting people.  Ironies of all ironies I watched the game next to a guy wearing an Expos jersey who claimed to have been following the franchise since it's time in Montreal.  He talked the talk, so I took him at his word.  He likened Harper to a talented version of Rex Hudler.  If you are not familiar with Rex Hudler he played for the Expos, Phillies Cardinals, Angels, Tigers, and probably a few others.  He was the ultimate hustle guy.

While I agree that Harper has a lot of hustle in his game I honestly do not think that Harper is that annoying.  Harper has a chance the chance to be a great player, but I hope he can harness all of that energy, hustle, and talent into a long a productive Major League career.  I think the Nationals helped him out a little at the end of this season by ditching Davey Johnson.

Favorite Card-

2013 Topps Bryce Harper Sunglasses Variation 

If only he were hitting a home run or making a diving catch in this picture.

30 year Top 50: 2011 Bowman

#26- The last set of the first half of my countdown belongs to the 2011 Bowman set which boils down to one rookie card of Bryce Harper.  You can ask many people on Twitter and Facebook, I am not a huge fan of Mr. Harper's.  I tend to be skeptical of rookie cards in terms of initial value and tend to favor investing in high end cards for proven and Hall of Fame talent.  That's not to say that Harper won't reach that level, but at this point I am not drinking the Kool-Aid.

2011 Bowman Bryce Harper

There is only one card that allowed this set to make my countdown and only one card worth posting in this space.  The 2011 Bowman Bryce Harper base rookie card.  There are the usual assortment of parallels and inserts that collectors also love in this set, but this card, the autograph too, were something very special for many people for one summer.  For many, the summer of 2011 has also spilled over into 2012.  Bryce Harper made people crazy for this set and the potential star in waiting has many people hoping that his card live up to the hype.

For me, this card is very reminiscent of the 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. card.  I was in middle school when the 1989 Upper Deck set was released and remember the craziness surrounding that card.  Collectors dropped three digits on a card that featured a twenty year old outfielder that had hardly played in the majors.  Kids traded away whole collections of eighties wax for one copy.  The card took a roller coaster ride as far as value goes over the course of Griffey's career and is much lower today than it was at it's peek.  I think it's a part of the reason that I am skeptical about rookie cards retaining value.

A few times over the past couple months I'd run into a collector who were interested in trading for a Harper rookie (the autographed version) card and I'd ask them a question:  You are trying to trade for the autograph of a young talented outfielder and are willing to pay a high price to obtain this card.  What would make this card still worth this price in 20 years?

2011 Bowman Bryce Harper Autograph

The answers range anywhere from Hall of Famer on the first ballot to great everyday Major League outfielder.  Now, think about Ken Griffey.  He had a lot of injuries in the second half of his career, played on a non-contending small market team, but still reached tons of milestones.  His cards have decreased greatly in value over the last decade.  He's still a first ballot Hall of Famer and his cards don't touch Bryce Harper's in value.  If Harper turns into a great everyday player, thinking Carlos Beltran, his cards won't touch there current level.  

So, where does that leave us with this set? It clearly belongs on this countdown based on the hype and craze it caused last summer alone, but I am not sure it will hold it's value no matter the outcome of Bryce Harper's career.  Don't get me wrong: I still have a set, or two, and a few Bryce Harper's stashed away just in case.

3 Different Trades

I've got some great cards to post this evening from three different trades that I made over the past few days.  All three trades were Facebook trades from different groups that I have joined.  Many of the groups have the same circle of people, but there are some differences in some groups.  So, without further delay I will recount my trades so far this week.  

Trade #1 

I met a Braves collector with a few days ago with some Cardinals cards that he was trying to unload.  Two in particular caught my eye.  First, I have picked up a few Topps Tribute autographs the past week since it was released and love the fact that Topps has actually put out a high end product with on-card autographs.  This card is a Matt Holliday serial numbered to /74.  The card is my third Topps Tribute autograph to go along with my Matt Kemp and Matt Moore.  I was also able to add in a Tim Hudson from an old issue of Fleer Focus and also picked up a throw in with a Ray Lankford Millennium Marks autograph.  I have the Lankford card, but I don't turn down throw ins and I don't turn down Ray Lankfords.  Going the other way was a very nice 2000 SPX Chipper autograph and a Andruw Jones autograph.  

Trade #2

I saw a post earlier this week with a Clayton Kershaw autograph and answered since the person was looking for Tigers and I had a few to burn.  I also do not have a single Clayton Kershaw autograph, relic, etc.  in my collection and I figure I should add one before the Dodgers win something and the price goes up.  The trader through in a nice Bryce Harper to boot and I sent him back a 2002 Fleer Al Kaline autograph and another nice Tigers card.  

Trade #3

I had a collector contact me during the past week about trading for a Nolan Ryan jersey card and the collector also seems to love Triple Threads cards...maybe more than me, so I turned those to cards into three pretty sweet cards.  First, I got a Fleer Platinum Lance Berkman patch.  Fleer put patches into the Nameplates inserts for a few in the mid 90's and if you look you can find some sweet patches out there in these cards.  I actually have another Berkman card like this, but I couldn't pass up this one.  I also received two more cards for my Marquee collection with two Michael Youngs.  One is a jumbo jersey and the other is a quad jersey with one small piece of patch.