2008 Tristar Projections High # Series

There are five cards per pack with the off-chance of pulling autos, serially-numbered parallels, "ProDebut" cards, and "Reflectives (whatever in the heck THOSE are):"

Ah, yes, remember when you were young (or go ask your Mom or Dad), and the 'high-numbered' cards were the ones to get. Why? Because they came out later in the season and not as many were produced. Or so that's what traditional convention holds. I can only assume companies are banking on the nod to yesteryear with these 'ooo, ahhh, high series' cards. In today's world of digital media and imaging, nothing is rare anymore that is newly produced. Sure, find some of Babe Ruth's hair, maybe. But even that relies on an OLD find. Cards today can be produced in any quantity any time. So why did I buy it? Well, it came 'free' in a multi-pack repack thingy I bought.

Pictured above, we have Jonathan Herrera (Tulsa Drillers) and Michael Watt (GCL Dodgers). I will give some credit to the folks at Tristar. At least they shelled out the cash to be allowed to mention the pro team that drafted the various players. I absolutely HATE all those stupid "TEAM USA" cards that never tell you who drafted the guy, so you have no idea what team to lump him with. In any case, Herrera was drafted by Colorado and Watt by the Dodgers (which worked well for him, I guess, given he was already on their Minor League team).


Now, we find Scott Carroll (Billings Mustangs), Josh Geer (San Antonio Missions), and Danny Duffy (AZL Royals). Is Danny Duffy any relation to Mike Duffy? I wonder. Another thing I like about the cards is the photo credits on the back of each one. That begs the question: If I go to an MiLB game and take photos of the players, can I submit those to Tristar for possible future use? That would be cool. Though the bragging rights would only encompass a relatively small personal circle for me. Well, Carroll went to Cinn City, Geer to San Diego, and Duffy to KC.

I suppose I will be on the hunt for Tribers in this set, and these seen today will be allocated to their corresponding MLB team.

Halloween Special

For Halloween night, I found the scariest pack imaginable to open. The pack that sane men fear. The pack that causes collectors to wail in dismay and horror. The pack that has lured many a soul to its lair before GOBBLING up their money and KILLING their hopes and dreams. You know what I'm talking about... That most evil and nefarious of packs....



TRISTAR HIDDEN TREASURES!!!

Find the Wagner my ass! YOU'LL FIND NOTHING BUT SORROW!!! So let's open it already!

1992 Upper Deck Pete Harnisch #635

Pete suffers from clinical depression that started when he quit chewing tobacco. See? I told you - this will all end in tears.

1992 Upper Deck Wally Backman #350

Phillies cards make Tampa Rays fans cry. Woe! Woe and despair!

1984 Topps Bill Almon #241 1984 Topps Bill Almon #241

AAAAAAH! Bill Almon has a doppelgänger! He's a Pod Person! Ruuuuuun!

1985 Topps Gary Carter #230

A world where Gary Carter is in the Hall of Fame and Dale Murphy isn't even allowed to enter the city limits of Cooperstown is a world that scares me. This must be the 1 per pack "Star" card. Meh. Even if he is an Expo and not a Met.

1986 Donruss Paul Molitor #124

Wait! A happy ending!An '86 Mollie card! JOOOOOY! Everything turned out all right in the end. And you were so worried.

SPECIAL BONUS!

A 1991 mini three card pack like what I opened up for Halloween last year! Hooray!

Willie Stargell Puzzle .52 .53 .54

Dick Perez' signature.

176 Brook Jacoby

The trade of Brook, Brett Butler and Rick Behenna for Len Barker was a bloodbath for the Braves.

41 Phil Plantier

For everyone who bought up piles of his rookie cards, this card is a nightmare.

91 Dickie Thon!

There is nothing but joy and candy and happiness and rainbows with Dickie Thon! SAY IT WITH ME! DICKIE THON!

Happy Halloween!

Tristar Hidden Treasures (not!)

Quite awhile ago, my good friend Mike over at BadWax, sent me this pack as a "reward" for something or other... I hadn't seen this before... but I'm Canadian, and these are hockey cards, so how bad could it be? Right? AND... I could find a 1951/52 Parkhurst Gordie Freakin' Howe!!!! I could... maybe... no. Not a snowball's chance in H-E-Double hockey sticks....
They try and build you up on the wrapper. Memorabilia! Autographs! Rookies! Vintage!

I'll show you their idea of vintage....


1993/94 Classic Draft Picks Denis Metlyuk. Denis spent one year in Hershey, and the rest in Mother Russia. A high 2nd round pick wasted on this never was by Philadelphia.
1993/94 Upper Deck Pat Elynuik. Pat played 4 years for the Winnipeg Jets.... and that's all I got.

1991/92 Pro Set Robert Reichel - a Flame! Robert won an Olympic gold medal... and is still playing in Europe.

1990/91 Score Canadian Memorial Cup Champions tribute.

This was a cheap ploy to add yet another card of Eric Lindros in their set. That's Eric Lindros. Anyone? Bueller? Think Akili Smith. Todd VanPoppel. You get the idea.

1989/90 OPC Bill Ranford.

Not exactly a Patrick Roy RC... in fact, not even a Bill Ranford RC....

Okay. So it sucked big time. What did you expect ? A '52 Parkie of Gordie Howe?

2008 Tristar Projections

While at Wal-Mart (yes, again.. Look, there is not much in the way of big-town card shopping around these here parts.. LOL), I spotted one of the 16-packs-per-box chase package for a 1954 and/or 1957 pack of Topps/Bowman. I decided to plunk down the twenty bucks, and basically waste my money in the name of opening packs for APAD. :-)

The first pack out of the box is a 2008 Tristar Pro-Jections. The pack has 8 cards per pack, and one may find "Pro Debut" cards, Mirror cards, etc.


The cards themselves are actually pretty nicely laid out. The player is featured as a "cut-out" with no background. There is a red stripe that runs across the midsection of the card that has baseball stitching (my guess would be stockphoto.com). The player's name is in silver foil, as is the team name. The upper right corner features the TriStar Projections logo, and the bottom center of the card features the minor league team logo (or MLB team logo if the player has been invited to the bigs).


I actually pulled a mirror card in this pack - Wilmer Font of the Rangers. The mirror card is a very nice 'throwback' to the days when parallels were simple!


As you can see, Casey Crosby has nothing better to do than study the cup in his hand - perhaps he is contemplating his future as big leaguer and drug testing....

It's a neat pack of cards, and a nice break from the 'big boys' who seem to have forgotten what collectors actually like...

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Repack Box Remorse: Chapter 1

Was looking at blaster boxes at my local Wal-Mart (one of two in the area) and couldn't find any Upper Deck or Heritage, so to fill my hankerin' for some rectangular cardboard, I picked up a box of 16 mixed packs for $19.95 plus a Bonus Item. Bonus Items could be keychains, wristbands, cards or other odd items. After reading about so many of these repack boxes turning out to be worthless, I should have turned and run out the door. But no, a pack of 2005 UD All-Star Classics was looking back at me. This is a set I have been curious about since I saw this post. There were a couple other moderately interesting packs showing in the other three windows, so I got it.

Needless to say, the rest of what was inside was rather disappointing. I am not going to post everything at once, but will show them in subsequent posts. As an intro, here is the first one, a Tristar Uncover The Babe pack. I stole the wrapper image from --David.

Inside I got these:

1984 Steve Carlton - OK, HOF pitcher, semi-vintage card...
1984 Garry Templeton - Some corner damage. Makes you wonder where they get these.
1986 Jerry Hairston
1987 John Moses - who?
1990 Leaf Dante Bichette
and the last card shown is the Bonus Item - Royal Rookies auto of Pirates prospect Aron Weston.

At least it wasn't a wristband.

Draft Pick World Series: Bowman vs. Tristar - Game 7

Here it is, Game 7, the one for all the marbles. Bowman's mangaged to take it to the limit despite a sub-par box and a TriStar product with TWO hits. We'll go through this last pack card by card. Since there is only 6 cards in TriStar and 7 in Bowman, let's assume that it's a 0-0 tie in the bottom of the third and Bowman's up.

Bottom of the Third: Bowman 0, Tristar 0

Bowman:BDP28 Doug Slaten RC

He;s a solid relief pitcher for the D-Backs, and it appears to be a true rookie card, but can a rookie of a middle reliever really make it in Game 7 of the World Series? Nah.

Top of the Fourth: Bowman 0, TriStar 0

TriStar: 8 Ryan Dent

A sandwich pick of the Red Sox, Ryan was a good debut in the rookie league. If his name was Arthur, he'd be worth at least a run.

Bottom of the Fourth: Bowman 0, Tristar 0

Bowman: BDP36 Carlos Gomez RC

It's telling that the Mets traded Lastings Milledge and kept him. Supposedly he's faster than Jose Reyes, yipe. He has Bowman prospect cards in '06, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. A walk, a steal, a ground out to second advancing the runner and a SAC fly gets a run home for Bowman.

Top of the Fifth: Bowman 1, TriStar 0

TriStar: 53 Matt Wieters

The number five overall pick in the draft by the Orloles, this catcher from Georgia Tech got a 6 million dollar signing bonus thanks to Scott Boras. The official site of Minor League Baseball (who licensed this set, by the way) ranks him the 21st best prospect in the minors. Georgia Tech alum, huge prospect, and check out that cool minor league logo. Ironbirds! Two run jack to deep left field.

Bottom of the Fifth: Bowman 1, Tristar 2

Bowman: BDPP85 Chrome Geovany Soto

Bowman needed to step up here with a good chrome card and instead they give me a Futures game card with a photo of Geovany's fat butt. 1-2-3 inning for Bowman.

Top of the Sixth: Bowman 1, TriStar 2

TriStar: PT-CL2 Chris Lubanski ProTential

Another #5 overall pick, this time by the Royals. Only problem is he was picked in 2003. He's only 22 and still has lots of promise, but not quite enough. Double to the gap, runner advanced to third, but TriStar can't knock him home.

Bottom of the Sixth: Bowman 1, Tristar 2

Bowman: BDP22 Chrome Sean Gallagher RC

Bowman needed to step up here and they blew it. Gallagher is still real young and might end up a good pitcher for someone, but right now he's a long reliever with a huge ERA. He also has cards going back to 2004. Swing and a miss. Bowman needs their draft picks to step up big time now.

Top of the Seventh: Bowman 1, TriStar 2

TriStar: 11 Jason Heyward

GRAND SLAM! Jason is the whole reason I'm buying these draft cards. The #14 overall pick by the Braves, he has big time power and has been compared to Fred McGriff and Derrek Lee. Expect to see him in left field at Turner Field sometime in the next 5 years or so unless Teixieira moves on and he takes over at first.. Things are looking gloomy in the Bowman dougout.

Bottom of the Seventh: Bowman 1, Tristar 6

Bowman: BDPP58 Gold Jarrod Parker

Big time pitching prospect picked #9 overall by the D-Backs. Top ten picks equal runs, but the fact that he passed up a scholarship to Georgia Tech to sign kills the rally.

Top of the Eighth: Bowman 3, TriStar 6

TriStar: 62 Trystan Magnuson

Y'm not analizyng ani one named Trystan wyth a Y. Whi do parents do these thyngs.

Bottom of the Eighth: Bowman 3, Tristar 6

Bowman: BDPP58 Jarrod Parker

Bowman, Bowman, Bowman. Why do you do these things. Top ten pick or not, you had a golden opportunity and you gave me a double in a pack. Kid Gleason is pulling his hair out while Chick Gandil shuffles his feet and whistles innocently. Buck Weaver's not making the same mistake twice, he's running to go tell Eisner about the fix.

Top of the Ninth Bowman 3, TriStar 6

TriStar: 87 Austin Romine

High School catcher picked up in the second round by the Yankees. He could take over for Posada in a half dozen years, but not good enough to add to TriStar's lead.

Bottom of the Ninth: Bowman 3, Tristar 6

The Bowman faithful are on their feet, they need a big rally to take the championship. Another Heyward would win the series for them. Here's the pitch...

Bowman: BDPP10 Brandon Hamilton

And the dream dies. A sandwich pick for the Tigers (who have had pretty good luck selecting pitchers to be fair) but a Google search came up with a photographer, a Canadian League cornerback and a Scottish Duke before the pitcher. Go Crazy, TriStar, Go Crazy!

Final Score: Tristar 6, Bowman 3.

TriStar wins the series 4-3.

TriStar Prospects Plus is the Draft Pick set of 2007! Go out and buy some now! HAY! Put down that box of Elite! That stuff costs 150 bucks, what are you nuts?? I don't CARE if it's pretty, it's expensive and it's crap! Put the credit card away! YOUR BIG HIT WILL BE A TOM OSBORNE AUTOGRAPH, JUST YOU WAIT!!!!!

Draft Pick World Series: Bowman vs. Tristar - Game 6

It's game six in the Draft Pick World Series, and everything's on the line for Bowman. The MLB licensed, non-ugly foilboard Bowman is clearly the superior set, but they've had a terrible blaster so far with no refractors and two Barry Bonds cards. Why Topps thought it was appropriate to let a veteran try to sneak into a Futures game is beyond me, but it has clearly cost them in the series. Meanwhile TriStar has come out of nowhere with a championship performance so far and has stepped up with not one but TWO autographs out of their blaster. This has been a season for the underdogs however as preseason favorite Donruss Elite Extra sits on the the sideline unbought with their $8 a pack price tag. Can Bowman step it up with the final two games in their home park or will TriStar score the huge upset? Game six will tell, Play Ball!

TriStar:
35 Corey Luebke
94 David Mailman
85 Anthony Rizzo
82 Carmen Angelini
66 Daniel Duffy
49 Beau Mills

Not a great showing by TriStar in game 6. Half the pack is players picked in the 6th round or greater. Beau Mills looks to be the pick of the pack. Beau is the first round selection of the Indians at #13 overall. The big slugger from Lewis & Clark is considered the best hitting player out of college in last year's draft. His pop also played for the 'Spos in the early 80's and is now a coach for the Red Sox. Daniel Duffy is a high school pither picked by the Royals in the 3rd round. Anthony Rizzo is not only a first baseman in the Red Sox organization, but his namesake directed the immortal Duck and Cover safety film. David Mailman is another Sox farmhand while 10th rounder shortstop Carmen Angelini managed to extort a million dollar signing bonus out of the Yankees due to his full scholarship to Rice. Time will tell if he's the heir apparent to Jeter, or a mid level prospect thrown in on a future trade for a high priced veteran. A good omen for this pack is Corey Luebke, a Buckeye pitcher picked by the Padres. Corey had a great debut in the minors and was eventually promoted to High-A ball where he led his team to the championship. Can he do the same for TriStar? Time for Bowman to counter...

Bowman:
BDP17 Jon Knott
BDP18 Joba Chamberlain
BDPP 79 Chrome Chuck Lofgren
BDPP87 Chrome Bryan Anderson
BDPP6 Gold Ed Easley
Checklist
BDPP70 Emiliano Fruto
BDPP50 Sean Doolittle

It's weird how both of these packs had draft picks of players who had famous namesakes. TriStar had the Duck and Cover dude, while both Doolittle and Easley have authors who share their name. Well, mostly share their name... a Google search for Ed will come up with E.D. at any rate. Sean Doolittle is a first baseman from the University of Virginia who didn't do much at Kane County last year. He was a first founder for the A's last year and according to the bio on the back of the card, the Braves took him in 2004 but he didn't sign. Grrrr... Easley is a catcher from Mississippi State picked up by the D-Backs in the draft. The Jon Knott card officially kills any faith I had in the MLB Rookie card logo. Not only do I already have his 2004 Cracker Jack card, but he played nine games with the Padres that year! I guess he is still a rookie under official guidelines since he's only played in 19 MLB games, but come on already. He is also pictured in an Orioles uni, but he's already bounced to the Twins on a minor league contract. Not much in this pack except for that one guy...

JOBA

Not even three more futures cards with the photos all taken from the exact same spot can undermine the power of Joba. Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects officially has a game 6 moment:


The series is all tied, tune in tomorrow for the deciding game 7!

Draft Pick World Series: Bowman vs. Tristar - Game 5

The series is all tied up and it's the crucial game five. Whoever loses has to pull off two wins in a row, while the winner can cruise to victory with just one good pack. For the rest of the series I'll take the packs one at a time to build artificial suspense since I ripped all these packs last week anyway and I know exactly what's about to happen. That's right, this is all a ruse, scripted just like a reality series. You don't care though, you just want to see the cards. So onward! Here's pack 5!

Bowman:
BDP22 Sean Gallagher
BDP43 Yunel Escobar
BDPP81 Chrome Michael Madsen
BDPP51 Chrome Mike McDade
BDP2 Gold Matt Chico
BDPP31 Scott Carroll
BDPP83 Jeff Niemann

It appears that Bowman didn't get all the money they were promised by Arnold Rothstein and are kicking it up a notch in the series. Eddie Cicotte, um, I mean Matt Chico is pitching a great game and there's even a Futures game card that has a picture that isn't from that exact same 3rd base angle as all the others. There are two draft picks, Carroll was a third rounder for the Reds and McDade was a 6th rounder for the Blue Jays. After the first couple of rounds it gets increasingly difficult to find any information on these guys, a Google search for Mike McDade came up with some dude's MySpace page. The real winner though is Yunel Escobar, he (along with Jason Heyward and maybe Joba) is one of the few cards that could win one of these games all by himself. This is a nice looking card too with Yunel taking a big hack in a spring training game. TriStar is going to have to come up big to beat this.

TriStar:
74 Nathan Vineyard
61 Joe Savery
FH-MB2 Michael Burgess
28 Daniel Moskos
30 Max Scherzer
24 Grant Desme

Out of nowhere! A second auto! The rumors were true!!! The autograph is of Washington's Michael Burgess. No, not that one. The other one. He tore up the rookie league last year and is already listed as the Nats' #4 prospect by Baseball America. He's only 19 and needs seasoning, so he might not get caught up in Washington's current glut of outfielders. Very sweet.
There's also a card of #4 overall pick Daniel Moskos. Moskos is a hard throwing lefty (nice!) picked up by the Pirates (uh oh) and could end up as their closer one day. There's even a card of Nathan Vineyard, who went to high school right up the road from me. Not even Yunel can save Bowman from this pack. TriStar wins game 5 and leads the series 3-2. Bowman's in deep trouble, they could really use a refractor right about now.

Draft Pick World Series: Bowman vs. Tristar - Game 4

Bowman almost seems to be throwing the series the way things have gone so far. No refractors, no real spectacular rookies and two lousy Bonds cards. If I want to pull a Bonds, I'll buy an Updates and Highlights pack, thanks. I half expect to pull an Abe Attell card out of Bowman tonight. TriStar has a slight advantage due to a smaller checklist that is almost exclusively draft picks, but they've used up their guaranteed autograph trump card already. It's still wide open, let's open up pack 4:

Bowman:
BDP34 Matt Brown
BDP51 Kevin Slowey
BDPP Chrome Danny Rams
BDPP Chrome Chris Coghlan
BDP54 Gold Mark Reynolds
BDPP97 Brent Lillibridge
BDPP108 Carlos Gonzalez

TriStar:
98 Mitch Hilligoss
46 Will Kline
PT-MS Max Scherzer
64 Matt LaPorta
42 Kevin Ahrens
45 Andrew Brackman

Bowman did better this time. Three green RC's and a draft pick ain't bad. Brown and Reynolds appear to be true RCs, and Reynolds could be in the mix at third for the D-Backs next year. The best is Kevin Slowey, who pitched well for the Twins last year and could be a part of their rotation soon. Danny Rams is another Twins farmhand, the 18 year old catching prospect was taken in the second round last year. Now that I've noticed it, I'm getting irritated that all the photos of the Futures game players are in the batters box from the third base side. Three of these cards should doom this pack, but one is of Braves center field prospect Brent Lillibridge. Brent is actually a shortstop, but he's blocked by Yunel Escobar and has been thrown into the mix in the battle to replace Andruw Jones.

From what I've seen so far, the Protential inserts out of TriStar feature hot prospects from last year's draft. Max Scherzer fits that bill, he was the D-Backs' first round pick in '06 and looks like he could eventually end up being a decent starter one day. He's got a long way to go as he pitched with AA Mobile last year. The draft picks are all decent, but Andrew Brackman had Tommy John surgery almost immediately after getting drafted by the Yankees. Matt LaPorta is probably the best card out of the pack, but he's a Florida Gator, so I can't get too exited about it. I actually saw Mitch Hilligoss play last August against the Rome Braves. I don't remember what he did on the field, but he signed some autographs for some kids right in front of where I was sitting.

This was a hard one to judge, but a Brave trumps a Gator. Bowman ties the series 2-2.

Oh, and Happy Birthday Elvis!!!

Draft Pick World Series: Bowman vs. Tristar - Game 3

Ok, after a little weekend break it's time to continue the World Series of Draft Pick sets. We're all tied up after two games so it's anyone's series. Let's rip.

Bowman:
BDP27 Ben Francisco
237 Arrrrrrggghhhhh
BDPP110 Chrome Justin Upton
BDP51 Chrome Kevin Slowey
BDP10 Gold Glen Perkins
BDPP106 Michael Saunders
BDPP52 Charlie Culberson

TriStar
1 David Price
89 Brad Suttle
68 Mitch Canham
34 Jackson Williams
16 Jordan Zimmerman
72 Julio Borbon

No inserts in TriStar this time, but some interesting stuff nonetheless. David Price was the #1 overall pick by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The big lefty from Vanderbilt looks like he could be a dominant pitcher in the majors one day. Suttle is a third baseman picked in the 4th round by the Yankees. Can you say trade bait? Mitch Canham was a catcher for the Beavers. Yeah, I snickered at that too. I think Jackson Williams is this guy from Oklahoma, but a Google search for "jackson williams" gets about 18 billion hits. Can you believe there's already been a pitcher named Jordan Zimmerman in the majors? This guy here was drafted out of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point by the Nationals in the second round last year, which basically means he's penciled in as their opening day starter. Borbon is a fantastic baseball name, and Julio looks like he could be a decent outfielder for the Rangers one day. All in all a really good pack with some nice prospects in there including the number one overall. Can you imagine if Price delivers as advertised and the Rays hold on to Kazmir? Yankers and Sawks will have have to hold onto their butts in the East.

Here's basically all I have to say about the Bowman pack:


No red cards in the rookie packs. Topps fails at life. TriStar leads the series, 2-1.

Draft Pick World Series: Bowman vs. Tristar - Game 2

Game one was a slaughter for TriStar. Barry Bonds sunk Bowman and then a David Kopp auto piled on the hurting. Bowman gets a chance to redeem itself today though and even up the series. Let's Play Ball!

Bowman:
BDP52 Brendan Ryan
BDP24 Dennis Dove
BDPP89 Chrome J.R. Towles
BDP34 Chrome Matt Brown
BDP32 Gold Nate Schierholtz
Checklist
BDPP14 Travis d'Arnaud
BDPP107 Cameron Maybin

Tristar:
29 Wendell Fairley
18 Kellen Kulbacki
PT-GR Greg Reynolds Protential
80 Colby Rasmus
54 Sean Doolittle
56 Barry Enright

Jeez, another Cameron Maybin? I know he's a serious prospect but does he need to be in both green and blue sets? Not much else in the Bowman pack. Brendan Ryan apparently pissed off LaRussa and the Cards just signed Cesar Izturis to play short. Dennis Dove is a reliever who has been outrighted to the minors this offseason. Matt Brown got a 5 at bat cup of coffee with the Angels this year. Pretty lackluster pack, and JR Towles' photo of his back is not nearly as interesting as his Bowman Heritage card.

Not much in the TriStar pack either though. Colby Rasmus is the best prospect, but it's not a "Pro Debut" card, so that makes this just another minor league issue. Wendell Fairley is an interesting prospect, but we probalby won't hear anything from him for a few years. The insert card is pretty blah, a minor league pitcher who just had shoulder surgery.

Two average packs here, with not much to propel either on top. Tie goes to Bowman, they have one more card per pack plus their design is waaaaaaay better than TriStar. I understand foil stamping is just a part of the hobby nowadays, but was it really necessary to put a foil name on a foil background?? It's like they're trying to make us go blind. Bowman ties the series by default.