Finest? Not This Year.

I am usually a big fan of the Finest product.  If you are willing to give the title of "classic" to a modern card product, this would be a long running brand that would be worthy of that honor in the opinion of many collectors.

In recent years, I feel like the brand has done a good job of returning to its roots.  It had sort of drifted off into the wilderness at some point in the mid 2000s, but Topps did a sort of reboot with the brand in 2013 for it's 20 anniversary/birthday.  The reboot included an insert set with 2013 players on the 1993 designed cards.

Some of the others years since have also been strong.  I have not done much with the base sets, but I have still tried to find the Cardinals and Durham Bulls autographs.  Always some nice cards to add to the collection.  I think my favorite of these autographs has to be a Carlos Martinez I picked up out of the 2016 Finest set.....

Which brings me back to this year's Finest set.  I feel like we are somehow back in the wilderness again with this year's design.  The difference between the Martinez autograph and the cards below are pretty stark.  The Martinez card has a simple colored bar on the right side with a team logo.  Add in a splash of color on my copy.  Simple designs are really easy to like.

Then we have this.....

What in the world is behind the players on this card?  It looks busy and complicated.  Apart of me thinks it looks like some random piece of graffiti which could be spray painted an overpass or sound wall.  You get the point.  

I ended up with five different autographs from this year's Finest set.  I used it as a chance to pick up a pair of autographs from players who are not in my collection and two players who are a focus of mine this year.  One is here just because....  Alcantara is the first, above.  He is no longer a Cardinal, traded for Marcell Ozuna, but Topps did not airbrush him into a Marlins uniform.  Gave me sort of a mulligan to find one of his cards.  

This Shaw card was for sale with the Alcantara card.  Saved a little on shipping, neither cost me much at all.  He is not an All-Star by any means, but a solid player with the Brewers after washing out with the Red Sox.  Saw him play for Pawtucket a few times a few years back too.  Always like getting cards of players I see in Triple A.  

Last three picked up in a trade off of a Facebook group.  

I like Matt Olson and I know that I have picked a few autographs of his last year when he caught fire with the A's.  He's likely to hit 30 home runs again this year, likely to strikeout more than 150 times.  I think he's the sort of player that the "modern baseball is horrible" crowd really hates.  He hits home runs.  This is also some sort of insert card, but it cannot be that hard to find based on the trade package I gave up for this card and the two below it.  

These are the two cards that I was really interested in when I started in on the Finest cards this year.  I have become a pretty big fan of Jack Flaherty this year.  Still not an ace by any means, but he's really young and I would at least go as far as saying he's one of the top two or three pitchers on the team at the moment.  Player collecting kind of stinks nowadays, but I am interested in getting my hands on some of his autographs this year.  

Last one.  I have been working on Banda cards this year too.  He was on the Durham Bulls for awhile this year, spent a bit of time with the Rays too, but was shut down with an elbow injury a few months back.  Banda ended up having Tommy John and is out for the remainder of this year, but I am still out trying to find some more of his cards.  A few more really good ones are coming soon.  

Two-Thirds Of A Jumbo

I have taken a pass on buying any boxes of Bowman this year.  Not changing my mind for anything, but I will still end up with the set at some point in the near future.  While I am collecting a few less sets this year Bowman is still a staple set for me.  It someways I feel like I am missing out on the fun by just skipping ahead and buying a set from someone.  At the same time I can spend more time and money finding single cards from the set, or other sets later this year.

Or the cards that I am missing from sets I am putting together on the top tab.

I have already picked up two autographs from this year's Bowman set that I picked up in a trade last week.  One Rays/Durham Bulls card and one Cardinals card.  The jumbo boxes that I am skipping out on come with three autographs, but they seem to be a little pricey for whatever reason this year....

That says $199.95 if you cannot squint your eyes to read the price.  I can get some pretty nice cards for $200 even if I set aside something like $40 to buy a set.  Well, I have two-thirds of that jumbo box, I haven't spent $40 for a set yet, but I do have two cool autographs to show for my efforts....

Let's start with the Cardinals autograph.

Alcantara signed as a teenager with the Cardinals.  He has been around for a few years, and if you just look at the numbers on the stat sheet, you'd probably not think too much about him as a prospect.  Except Alcantara is one of those really raw players who is becoming more polished with time and throws in the high 90s.  His best stat is that he strikes out slightly more than a batter per inning.  I will file this card away and check back in two years or so....

Next is my Durham Bulls card.  

Honeywell started out the year in Double A Montgomery, but has been promoted to Durham a few weeks back.  He's had a bit of a rough start in Triple A, but I like Honeywell regardless....

He's a bit of a throwback player in that he is the first pitcher I can remember since Fernando Valenzuela to throw a screwball.  The screwgy.  

Pretty hard to not like this guy based on that one pitch in his arsenal.  I have still not seen Honeywell in person, but I intend to do so sometime during the next home stand.  Assuming Honeywell has not been called up, sent down, or something else.  

Meanwhile, I need to go out and find another autograph.  Still a few more Durham Bulls and Cardinals players with autographs in Bowman for me to track down.