A Christmas Card Now

I did a few of the Topps Now cards this year, not as into the whole thing as some other collectors, but I found some nice cards that fit my collection.  I have a of the cards still on my radar at this point, mainly some of the former Durham Bulls that have ended up spread throughout the league.  Not in any rush to get them, but if they pop up and are the right price I would be happy to pick them up.

In the meantime, I picked up an unexpected Topps Now card a few days back in the mail.  I like classy gestures, and it was nice to see Topps send out a bonus card to all of the collectors who bought a Topps Now card at some point this past summer.  Or at least that's what I think they did based on a few different discussions around Twitter and Facebook.

Here is the card which is two sided....

The front has Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant and Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez.  The Topps Now cards usually have a specific event attached to them, but nothing is mentioned on here as to why they are being celebrated.  The Bryant side looks like the final play from the World Series, the Sanchez?  I must admit though that I did not follow along with the Yankees too closely this year.  He hit a bushel of home runs....

The back has Ichiro, 3000th hit, and David Ortiz, who was retiring.  I must say that this was a really cool free card to pick up from Topps and a nice way to thank collectors.  It even has a cool snowflake print around the edges to give it that holiday feel.

The card was enclosed in a holiday card from Topps.  The front of the card.....

and the inside of the card.....

Again, very appreciative of the cool holiday card.  Great way to reward collectors at the end of the year.  

An Online Set? Why not.

The baseball season starts and I always have to check out the rosters for my teams to find a few projects for the season.  New players, new cards.  Old players, new cards.  All sorts of combinations of those words.  So, this post started sometime last fall when the Cardinals brought up outfielder Tommy Pham.  He's been in their system forever, just never stayed healthy.

He had a good end of the season and had a nice Postseason moment when he hit a home run against the Cubs in Game 1 of the NLDS.

and all of the Cardinals collectors lost their minds over Tommy Pham cards.  He has an autograph in the 2015 Topps set, but they are fairly expensive.  I decided to wait for the excitement over Tommy Pham to die down a little.  I went on Ebay, put a few of his cards on my watch list, and kind of ignored them for awhile.  

Prices came down a little bit on a few of his cards and I found a really cool looking Topps card of Pham that I thought looked really cool.  There was a Buy It Now and also one or two floating around in auctions.  

Pretty nice card.  I didn't know much about this card when I first started watching it, so I did a little digging and found that there was also a Stephen Piscotty card in this set.  Then I found out there were only 13 cards in the whole set.  Then I found a set for $10.  I bought them all.  They are all numbered out of 99 and are print run 99.  Pretty cool.  I guess Topps sold these sets in their online store.  Kind of cutting out the card shops there big guy....

The cards are also oversized at 5x7.  Not only are they postcard sized, but they also appear to be made out of the same material as the common postcard.  Perhaps an Office Max Brand index card.  The cards are really thin and the George Springer card has a little ding on the bottom right corner.  Here's a look at the other 12 cards...... 

Things I Am Sorting....Part 1

Again, I have been back a week and in case you have not been following along, I am spending more time working on the cards that are already here in my collection.  In my quest to reorganize my cards from team boxes into sets, I figured it might be cool to share some of the cards that I am sorting out.  Always fun to look back at what you picked up out of a wax box, or from your local card shop, long ago.

While I said there was less focus on new things not coming in immediately, I am going to set that aside for tonight's post.  Today, I am going share a few things that have recently been added to my collection, but they are still here inside of my house taking up space and time.

So, let's start with the easy stuff.  I have spent some time this week straighten out my autographs.  I added a few new autographs from some of the early Topps releases and never filed them away into my boxes.  Some of them I pulled myself out of boxes, but I have been trying to fill in holes by trading and buying too.  I have actually only worked on Topps Series 1, Heritage, and Gypsy Queen.  Still, there have been other products released by Topps and Panini recently.  Not bothering with packs.  Here are two Cardinal additions:

The Carpenter card is from Topps Museum Collection.  Museum has been around for a few years and is always loaded with sticker autographs.  There are some Cardinals and Rays in this product, but stickers...... I found this Matt Carpenter autograph on Twitter on a picture posted by Brent and Becca.  They are case breakers in Arkansas, fun to follow when new cards come out, and sometimes you pick off cards before they list them on Ebay.  That's how Matt Carpenter ended up in my collection.

I also picked up an Ozzie Smith autograph from Legacies.  Nice card, nice signature.  It's Ozzie.  There are other autographs too, but I am not posting all of them.  Check out my Instagram for more of these types of cards and a picture of a street named Cypress Hill that I drove down last week.  Sorry, no B Real or Sen Dog.

On to the real challenge.  I have been spending a lot of time the past few weeks working on some early and mid 1980s sets.  Next week I am hoping to spend time working on some 1986 and 1987 sets, but this week I am skipping the eighties to work on this year's Gypsy Queen cards.  They came out a few weeks ago......

The design is alright this year.  Not sure about the red letters on the bottom of the card.  I am saying that and I love the color red.  The trim is kind of an orange color, which looks nice with the tanish/brownish card color, but then the red is just too much.  I am in really good shape with the base set and have a good start on the minis.  The other cool thing that I found while sorting out my Gypsy Queen cards was a variation of Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant.

Pretty cool pull.  I am not sure what the odds are exactly on pulling the full sized variation card, but I am pretty happy to land the card.  Enough with new cards, next week I am going to post some nice 1980s cards.

2015 Snorting Bull Awards Newcomer of the Year

Pretty easy choice for this award this year.  I should really come up with some eligibility rule like MLB has with players qualifying for the Rookie of Year.  My choice for this award this year had a few cards in 2014, but not too many.  This year the player had a ton of cards and collectors seemed to love each and every one of them.  Easy choice.....

2015 Newcomer of the Year

Kris Bryant

Bryant spent the first few weeks of the season with the Iowa Cubs, but made a big impact after being called up to the Cubs.  26 home runs, a Rookie of the Year Award, and an NLCS appearance later Bryant is a known commodity to baseball fans across the country.  Bryant was huge in the world of baseball cards too.  I pulled a bunch of Bryant cards this year and would get trade offers galore on all of them.  Even if I was keeping them I would get a "well if you change your mind".... Bryant was huge this year and should be a popular get for collectors for the foreseeable future.  

Friday Five: Top 5 Position Player Rookies of 2015

This afternoon Topps posted their All-Rookie team on their blog.  As a kid I used to love finding the cards in the Topps sets with the little cup.  Sometimes they were good players, other years were a little leaner and there were some rather mediocre players running around with the Topps Cup on their cards.  When I sat down to plan my posts for this week I originally had the idea to make my own version of the Topps All-Rookie team.  

I would do a little comparing and contrasting with the Topps list when it was released, post a few pictures of the Rookie Cup next to some baseball cards.  It was going to be a great post.  Then I started looking at some of the stats for the rookie players.  I actually had a few notes written down from my podcast I made few weeks back where I did a little prognosticating about the awards season.  Well, there was the one guy from the Cubs who was the best rookie.  Another third baseman was on my list and about three or four shortstops.  

If Francisco Lindor could change his position to first base this would be a lot easier this year.  I still made the All-Topps post and will share tomorrow.  Seriously not an easy job given the fact that the best five rookies play two positions.  In the meantime, here are my five best rookie players....

5.  Matt Duffy 3B San Francisco Giants 

I am not sure that Duffy will hang with the rest of the players on this last in the long run, but he still had a great year.  In the long run, I think Duffy will be a solid everyday player.  Nothing flashy, but there's nothing wrong with running him out to the hot corner 150 times a year.  This year Duffy produced a .295/.334/.428 slash line along with 46 extra base hits.  

4.  Jung Ho Kang SS Pittsburgh Pirates 

Kang ended up missing the last few weeks of the season due to injury, but still had a really good run after moving over from the KBO.  In his first year with the Pirates he hit .287/.355/.461 with 41 extra bases.  Most years Kang would get a little bit more love, maybe even contended for the National League Rookie of the year.  In 2015, he's the third best shortstop on this list.  

3.  Francisco Lindor SS Cleveland Indians 

Lindor was a really good player in these parts a summer or to back when he starred for the Carolina Mudcats.  He was an exceptional defensive player, but I was never quite sure if he would hit when he reach the Majors.  He definitely held his own this summer with a .313/.353/.482 mark with 48 extra base hits and 12 steals playing part of the season with the Indians.  

2.  Carlos Correa SS Houston Astros 

Correa deservedly won the American League Rookie of the Year Award after helping the Astros win the American League West pennant.  The former number one overall pick hit .279/.245/.512 with 45 extra base hits in just under 400 at-bats.  He should be a fun player to watch for years to come in Houston.  

1.  Kris Bryant 3B Chicago Cubs 

An easy choice for the top spot on my list.  Bryant went .275/.369/.488 with 62 extra base hits during his first summer on the north side.  He should be around for a long time and should push his home run total higher than the 26 he hit during his Rookie of the Year campaign this season.  

Friday 5: Five(ish) Cards I Love In 2015 Topps Update

I opened a little bit of Topps Update last weekend and walked away with an obscene number of throwbacks.  There were other cards in the boxes outside of the all of those cool 60s and 70s Topps cards.  For this week's Friday Five I am going to work a little bit with the base set cards from the Update set.  I tried to go through and pick out just the five coolest cards from the set, but that proved a fairly tough task.  So, instead I am going with five cool things I found in my two boxes of Update using five(ish) cards.


5. Former Durham Bulls in the Majors 
The ultimate goal of a minor league team is to graduate players to the Major Leagues.  Even if they do not end up playing for the Rays in the long term, it is still cool to watch a baseball game and see somebody in there from the Bulls.  This year's Topps Update set offered several Durham Bulls, but since this post is using five(ish) cards I am going to limit this section of my blog post to exactly five cards.

First, there are the normal Minor League types who get called up to the Majors and make the team.  Mahtook was a high draft pick by the Rays out of LSU and Andriese was in the Brad Boxberger/Logan Forsythe trade with the Padres.  Both players had been with the Bulls before this season and had proven their worth to the Rays.  

Then there are a few former Durham Bulls who are good stories.  Joey Butler was a career Minor Leaguer who started the year out in Durham, but spent the majority of the summer with the Rays playing well in his first extended stay in the Majors.  Sometimes players like Butler can fly under the radar in the Update sets, great to see Topps get him a card.

Stephen Vogt has an All-Star card in the set.  He was kind of a forgotten player with the Rays and ended up being more or less dumped in a conditional trade to the A's.  Awesome to see him get a little recognition for his good play this year with a trip to the All-Star game.

and then there is this card.  Yes, Travis Shaw is a nice looking prospect for the Red Sox, but Allan Dykstra is also on the card.  Last summer he won the Triple A All-Star Game home run derby in Durham.  He signed a minor league deal with the Rays, spent time in the Majors during April, but was released in the middle of the summer.  He still has the championship belt.....

4.  Former Cardinals on the All-Star Team 

It was great to see Albert Pujols regain some of his power this summer, although his slash line was down across the board, and make the American League All-Star team.  Shelby Miller was a really good story this year.  Sure, his win-loss record was something terrible, but he still pitched well for the Braves and seems to be an important part of the team's future.  

3.  Current Cardinals All-Stars 

I really liked these cards in the Update set.  Not every team has a card like this, but I liked the idea of having a team like card show the All-Star Game representatives.  Not sure why they did not just make this a straight team card instead of assigning it to a player, this is a Trevor Rosenthal card, but I still like it.  These guys all got booed......

2.  Jason Heyward on the Cardinals 

I'm not sure if the Cardinals are going to sign Heyward.  I have enjoyed watching him play this year, but this card could be just about the last wearing a Cardinals uniform, or this could be the start of a long run of cards with him in Cardinal red.  

1.  Rookie Cards 

The best part of buying Update sets is the rookie cards.  I liked the Joey Gallo and Kris Bryant cards the best.  I swear that's Joey Gallo in all of that Gatorade.  Pretty cool card.  The Bryant card is a little simpler, but it's always nice to see a card with Wrigley Field in the background.  

 

The Greatest Box of Retail Ever

So, I ventured into the world of retail baseball card last week.  I was having an extremely busy week and needed a little mental diversion for a few minutes.  What better diversion is there from the stresses of work than opening up a few packs of baseball cards?  I cannot think of one, so I picked up a blaster box of Topps Heritage High Numbers at my local Target.

I had seen a few Hobby boxes opened the previous week at a card show in Raleigh and seen some nice pulls, nothing to write home about, but solid pulls.  I was honestly hoping for a copy of the Bryant or Jung Ho Kang rookie card.  So, I unwrapped my box and started opening packs.  I got down to the final three packs in the blaster when I stumbled across both the Bryant and Kang rookie cards in the same pack......

I was honestly very happy with my blaster the moment that I saw these two cards.  Not to say that I have no expectations for a retail box, but the bar is not exactly high.  I understand that the odds of pulling good cards is steeper.  Completely understand and I know when I am beating the odds.  Which reminds me, I did not tell you what came out of the last two packs.  Second to last pack netted me this Kris Bryant Bazooka Mini.....

This was a great retail pull.  The Bazooka minis have long odds in retail packs of Heritage High Numbers, but it's not a completely impossible pull.  The Bryant card sells for around $40 on Ebay, so combined with the rookie cards, I had more than made up the $19.99 I spent on my blaster.  But, then there was one pack left.  Just when I thought the box could not get any better......

I was stunned.  I have not pulled many cards this cool from Hobby Heritage boxes over the last fifteen years the product has been around.  I did pull a Bonds autograph numbered to 25 in 2001, but this might be second on my list.  Easily the best retail box I have ever opened.  I have seen several other collectors have some good luck on Heritage High Number retail boxes, which makes me consider going out and getting another box, but I think I will not press my luck.  No whammies.

Friday 5: Top Five Rookie Position Players

I have two Friday Five posts this week.  One this evening, Friday, and I will have another one tomorrow early in the morning.  Yes, it is technically Saturday, but this is interesting stuff....  This week I am going to look at some of the rookie players who are floating around MLB this year.  There have been a ton of young talented players called up this year with a wide spectrum of performance levels.  Originally I was going to make one post with the top 5 rookies, but decided to split the group into two so I could get a few more names into the conversation.  Tonight position players, tomorrow pitchers.    With a little under two months left in the season, there are going to be some great races for the Rookie of the Year Awards.

Here are my Top 5 Rookie Position Players:


5.  Kris Bryant Cubs 3B

I have always had some reservations about Bryant, most of which revolve around his contact rate.  There was a great Fan Graphs article at some point about it since the season started, but I first started paying attention to the stat a few years ago after sitting near a scout at a Durham Bulls game who was talking about it as a way to rule out players, contact does not guarantee success, who will likely wash it in the Majors.  I first saw Bryant a few years back at USA Baseball.  It is really hard not to love the way the ball jumps off his bat and not think he's going to be a tremendous power hitter for years to come.  However, it seems that the contact rate issues are starting to mount for the Cubs third baseman.  He leads the league in strikeouts and has a .141/.258/.269 slash line with just 2 home runs over his last month of play.  Still, Bryant's overall stats for the year are good with 14 home runs, an OPS+ of 118, and a WAR of 3.0.  He's still a young player with a limited amount of at-bats in the Majors and can still make some adjustments to how he is being pitched.  He makes my list, but is in real danger of falling off if I revisit this post and his performance does not improve.  Here's a look at that power.....

  

4.  Jung Ho Kang Pirates SS

Kang is in his first year in the MLB, but played for awhile in Korea before coming over this past off season.  Sometimes overseas veterans can be a little hard to figure out.  The Cardinals were in on the Kang bidding and I was not completely sold on him being an impact player.  However, he appears to be the real deal.  Kang has done a job for the Pirates this year spending time at both third and shortstop.  His overall line currently stands at .291/.362/.446 with 8 home runs, 2 triples, and 17 doubles.  I like that production out of Kang, but he has actually gotten better as the year has gone along.  During July he posted a .379/.443/.621 line with 3 home runs, and 8 doubles.  I am curious to see how the season ends for the shortstop.  He is certainly in the conversation for Rookie of Year this year.  

3.  Matt Duffy Giants 3B

Duffy has been a big surprise this year for the Giants.  He's was never a huge prospect for the Giants with a career minor league line of .304/.387/.413.  He got on base, but he has never hit for double digit home runs, and has never taken an at-bat in Triple A.  Like most baseball fans, I was not expecting much out of him when the Giants jumped him up from Double A to replace Pablo Sandoval.  So far this year, playing third base full time, Duffy has slashed .309/.346/.464 with an OPS+ of 128.  If you're a fan of WAR he actually leads all rookie position players in the statistic at 3.6.  Duffy should also be in the running for Rookie of the Year, but I just do not hear his name get dropped very often in that conversation.  Perhaps I am conversing with the wrong people.

2. Randal Grichuk Cardinals OF 

This spring Cardinals manager Mike Matheny compared Randal Grichuk to a Lamborghini.  I laughed.  Grichuk seemed like a tools player, but he also spent the last year bouncing between the Cardinals fourth outfield spot and Memphis.  There were some great moments for Grichuk last year, like hitting a home run off of Clayton Kershaw in the playoffs, but also lots of frustrations.  He struck out 31 times in 110 at bats, had an OBP of .278, and only walked 5 times.  This season Grichuk has just over 250 at bats with a slash line of .288/.336/..572, 40 extra base hits, and an OPS+ of 144.  He's a fun player to watch and Cardinals fans rave about his skills, especially his bat, but I need to see a little bit more before I am completely sold on Randal Grichuk.  So, why did I put him ahead of the other players if he's not a slam dunk?  I think he and Bryant actually have the highest ceiling on this list.  Kang is approaching 30, Duffy is going to be a high average/high on base with a little pop, but Grichuk and Bryant could both be something special.  They just happen to be trending in opposite directions at the moment.  He would be my pick to win the NL Rookie of the Year at the moment.  

1. Carlos Correa Astros SS

I am going out on a limb here by saying that Correa will win the American League Rookie of the Year.  He has fewer at-bats than anyone on this list, but has a slash line of .291/.345/.567 with fourteen doubles, fourteen home runs, 8 steals, and an OPS+ of 148.  Correa was the first overall draft pick by the Astros back in 2012 and has the potential to be exactly what teams hope to get out of having that first overall pick: A franchise player.  There are not too many good offensive shortstops left in the game, but Correa looks like he is going to be a great one for years to come.  At just 20 years old we are likely in for a long run out of Carlos.  I am guessing it's going to look pretty nice at the end assuming he stays healthy.  

My Best Archives Pull Was, Oh Wait....

Well, I typed up that post about the autographs and inserts that were in my Archives box yesterday, and in an attempt to save my best card for last, I actually forgot to put the card in the post.  Not too smooth, but I decided to wait until this morning to post the card.  In the meantime, I had a chance to sort out my base cards to assemble my set and found that I pulled an even cooler card than the card I had originally thought was the best card from my boxes.

Here was the card I forgot from my post yesterday.......

This card is a knock off of the 1990 Topps Frank Thomas rookie card error/variation that left his name off the front of his card.  Topps actually made a whole series of these this year and put them in packs at more than 1:1000 rate.  Pretty tough pull and they have been selling really well on Ebay.  Kind of a cool variation.  As of yesterday afternoon this was my best card from my boxes of Archives.  Then I started sorting out my base set and found this card......

I am not sure what the rate is on the short prints is in Archives, but it seems to be a pretty tough pull.  This card is currently selling north of $200 on Ebay.  I think Mr. Bryant needs a new home.

Top 10 Prospects in 2015 Bowman

Friday is usually my countdown post, but this week I am throwing in a second in honor of this year's Bowman set.  I live in the middle of North Carolina which is jammed packed with minor league teams and college teams.  I usually get a chance to see quite a few of these players on their up to the Majors, and if I do not, I usually form an opinion on them anyway.  So, here is the deal with this post:

I flipped through all of the cards in the Bowman product; base set, prospects set, chrome prospects set, autographs, inserts, everything.  I picked out the ten best players in my opinion.  I know we all want these guys to be superstars, but in some cases I willing to settle for solid contributor.  That counts for something........

10. Noah Syndergaard- He's really big and has a nice fastball and curveball.  Syndergaard should be a power arm in the Mets rotation for a long time.  I still like Matt Harvey better, but not being quite as good as Matt Harvey means you are still pretty good.  I hate comps, because they usually get people upset, but I will go John Lackey.  Similar build, fastball/curveball, and the guy won two World Series rings.  If you're a Mets fan you take that right?  

9.  Joey Gallo- I have two swing and miss hitters on my countdown.  I do not like low contact hitters because they usually do not do much in the Majors.  See Mark Reynolds.  That's not my comp by the way, I don't think......So, Joey Gallo hits a lot of home runs.  Last year in the minor the Texas third base prospect hit 41 in 126 minor league games.  He also struck out 179 times in 537 plate appearances.  He's hitting for average this year in Double A, but the K's are still there.  I am going with Adam Dunn as a comp.  Should be a fun player to watch in Arlington for years to come.  

8.  Francisco Lindor- Lindor played locally for the Carolina Mudcats last year and is the gem of the Cleveland Indians farm system.  What's he do?  He's got a little bit of pop, but not a ton.  He hits about .270-.280, steals some bases, plays good defense.  I think he's going to be an above average Major League shortstop.  He might not hit the home runs that Gallo, or some of these others players put up, but I think he's a safe prospect.  Meaning he's going to play and play a long time.  I will say his comp is Orlando Cabrera.  

7. Carlos Correa- Correa was the first overall pick in the 2012 MLB draft.  He's already missed some time with a knee injury, but also already reached Triple A by hitting .300 most of the way through the minors.  He's not got a lot of pop yet and will steal a few bases.  He's 6'4 and has a chance to fill out a little bit more.  Definitely a higher ceiling than Lindor, but he's my second best shortstop on this countdown.  I think he develops some pop he could be something really special.  If not, he's going to be like Edgar Renteria with a slash numbers.  

6. Corey Seager- I am not sure if Corey Seager is going to end up at SS, but I kind of doubt it.  He's got some power, he hits for a good average, and he gets on base.  I do not mind his defense at short, but think he'd be a good defender at 3rd.  I think at worst he is a good to above average everyday third baseman for the Dodgers for the next decade plus.  He has the potential to be a very good player though and would not be surprised if he was an All-Star caliber player for a long time.  Sounds a lot like the other Seager......

5.  Julio Urias- I am putting this guy on my list at five, but I thought about putting him at 1.  He's the youngest player on this last, at 18, but has already spent a few seasons in the minors with the Dodgers.  Basically he strikeouts about 11 hitters per 9 innings that he pitches.  The Dodgers are really careful with him, so he has not pitched a lot of innings, nor won a lot of games (5 wins in 3 seasons), but he's supposedly really impressive.  No comp here.  

4. Addison Russell- I like Russell better than the other two shortstops on the list.  He's has the good qualities of both players (steadiness and fielding of Lindor, average and OBP of Correa) with a little bit more power and pop.  Russell is the second highest Cubs prospect on this list, but it' not going to shock me if he ends up being the better of the two players in the long run.  I think he's got a lot to offer.  I will go with Alan Trammel on my comp.  

3.  Kris Bryant- I can hear the booing and hissing already along with the chants of "You're a Cardinals fan".  Note that my number 4 player was a Cub and his comp player was someone many believe to be a Hall of Famer.  Bryant has a higher ceiling than Russell, but I have more concerns with Bryant.  Mainly, I do not like players who do not make contact.  Bryant has a lot of home runs.  He is going to hit a lot of home runs.  He is also going to strike out a ton.  You remember when Ryan Howard had an OBP above .400 and hit 58 home runs?  That could be Kris Bryant.  He could also end up being an Adam Dunn, Dave Kingman type too.  Lots of home runs, lots of strikeouts.  Hopefully lots of walks...

2. Joc Pederson- He's got some of the same problems as Bryant with the strikeouts.  Pederson needs walks if he is going to be a good Major League player.  He's also already got 9 home runs in his first 40 some MLB games, so the power seems to be there.  While I do not think Pederson has 40 home run power, he is probably going to hit 30 in year and he also steals bases.  He has gone over 30 twice and 25 two times in the Minors.  Pederson has the potential to be a good power speed guy who hits 25-30 home runs a year with 25-30 steals in a season.  

1.  I think the safe choice here is to go with Pederson or Bryant at 1, but I will roll the dice a little bit and go with Buxton.  First, he's really talented, but he's also really raw.  It might be a little bit before he's in the Majors, but he has the potential to be really good when he gets there.  He's hit for average, he's gotten on base, and he has tons of speed.  The home runs are not there yet, but he has hit a lot of doubles and triples during his time in the Minors.