Monday Morning Autograph - Mark Mulder

I own a couple of thousand autographs, the majority have never appeared on my blog. Here is a random autograph that I have never posted.

Today: 2000 Bowman Draft and Prospects Autographs Mark Mulder 

Why Do I Own This Card?

We all remember the Cardinals years of Mark Mulder? Hopefully you remember him pitching for the early 2000s Moneyball A's teams. He was traded to the Cardinals in December of 2004 for pitching prospect Dan Haren, catcher Daric Barton, and relief pitcher Kiko Calero. Mulder pitched decently in 2005, but then ran into shoulder problems which limited him to just 23 games in 2006, 2007, and 2008. It was a sad ending to an otherwise really good career. If you don't remember him on the Cardinals, do not go refresh your memory. It's not pretty, nor happy.  

The biggest highlight from his time with the Cardinals was hitting a home run on the first Opening Day at Busch Stadium III while also collecting a win against the Brewers.  

When Did I Get This card?  

I own several Mark Mulder autographs, all of them were bought post 2005 when the prices of his card tanked. 

Haiku About Mark Mulder 

Moneyball, pitcher 

Shoulder injuries, Big Trade 

Oh! What Could Have Been

Back of The Card 

Bowman cards from this era always have nice write-ups on the card backs, and this one is no different. They give mention to his college career, time with USA Baseball playing in the Pan Am Games, and his quick ascension through the Minors and into the A's starting rotation.  In all, Mulder only pitched 24 games, all in Triple A, before the A's made him a starter in the middle of the 2000 season.   

Done With Bowman Draft

Long ago I used to pick on Bowman Draft for it's poor photoshopping.  The pictures were terrible.  Some of the cards looked like something that a little kid could do on photoshop.  There were all kinds of misfires.  Here are a few:

Your pixels are showing......

Horribly out of proportion......

Players who are still wearing half of their college baseball uniforms.

Luke Weaver went to Florida State.  The Cardinals do not wear maroon.  Richie Shaffer went to Clemson his wrist bands and batting gloves are orange and purple.  Even when they got the uniforms right, they missed so many other details.  

Luckily, the good people at Topps have cleaned up Bowman Draft a little bit.  Still, I am avoiding the product.  Prospecting is always a big thing in baseball cards.  It is not very cost efficient though, especially given that I am just finding the cards of the Cardinals prospects, and some of the players I watched while they were in college.  

This year I have been looking for Will Wilson cards.  The Angels drafted him out of NC State in the middle of the first round.  

.@NCStateBaseball's Will Wilson has been drafted 15th overall in the first round of the 2019 MLB draft by the Los Angeles Angels (📷: Emma Sheppard) pic.twitter.com/xJykJ3P08u

— Technician Sports (@TechSports) June 4, 2019

Wilson was recently traded to the Giants.  Topps put him into Bowman Draft.  I have had little trouble finding his base cards and a few of the variations at little cost.  Wilson also signed cards for Bowman Draft.  That's a different story.  

I like collecting former NC State players, but anything that is in the three digit range on Will Wilson is a little much.  Especially given that the card shows Wilson in an NC State uniform photoshopped into an Angels uniform.  The green wall, orange line, and black billboards are all too familiar.  

Luckily, there are other options out there.  I still was able to find a Will Wilson autograph, it is actually in an NC State uniform, and it literally cost a fraction of the Bowman Draft card.  I have already ignored most of the Bowman Draft cards in recent years, but I might be done after this year.  

In the past I have spent time bashing Panini for not have a MLB license, and making cards that have all of the logos airbrushed off.  However, they really do a great job with the NCAA license.  Even if the Bowman Draft autographed card of Will Wilson were more affordable, I would have still picked up this Panini Contenders card of him, and probably would have preferred it over the other.  

Finally Something From The Jeremy Hellickson Trade....

I started writing in this space at some point during the Spring of 2012. One of the better young players I collected at that time was Rays pitcher Jeremy Hellickson. He had been through Durham just a few years earlier and had also won the American League Rookie of The Year in 2011.  It was a good time to collect his cards, he was in everything.  No shortage of Hellickson cards to chase down and post.

I should do a "Where Are They" post about players I wrote about five years ago.  I am going to file that idea away for later.  Back to Hellickson.  I collected his stuff.

This is a ticket from his first win.  

At some point Hellickson's shoulder fell off, he ended up back in Durham for awhile on injury rehab, and eventually the Rays traded him to the Diamondbacks for a couple of young players.  When the trade first happened, I ventured out and found a token autograph of outfielder Justin Williams, one of the players the Rays got back in the trade. 

Pretty nice autograph from Bowman Sterling.  There are some horrendous sticker autographs in this set, but this Williams autograph has a nice on card signature.  Very nice card, but that was three and half years ago.  What has happened since then?  Jeremy Hellickson has been on the Diamondbacks, Phillies, Orioles, and Nationals, while Justin Williams has gone from A Ball all the way up to Triple A.  I have not really written anything about him, nor have I done much with his cards.  

I had the chance to get a good look at Williams a few weeks ago.  Pretty impressive outfielder.  

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He's still only 22, and this is his first experience in Triple A, so I would guess he's with the Bulls the entire 2018 season.  Given how the Rays run things, I would guess he's in Durham for some time in 2019 too.  Which gives me a little bit of time to work on some Justin Williams baseball cards.  

Surprisingly, he does not have a lot of cards.  Topps made a few of him when he was first drafted by the Diamondbacks in 2013 and 2014, and his first full season with the Rays in 2015.  After a two year lull, Topps did put him in 2018 Bowman, but I am a sane person and have not touched that craziness.  

Low quantity of cards, so I started all the way back with his first Bowman card from 2013.....  

his Bowman Draft Chrome autograph.  Yes, I have been really hard on the Bowman Draft sets in the past, especially the 2013 set.  I believe that I did a post, it's somewhere around here, about how this is one of the worst airbrushed sets ever.  The airbrushing on this Williams card is not great by any means, the D-Backs script on his jersey is pretty suspect.  So small and really straight.  The batting helmet is the same style worn by the high school kids in the Perfect Game All-American program and the stripe on his pants clearly does not match with the Diamondbacks uniform.  

So, now that all of that is out of the way, I really think this is likely the toughest autograph of Williams to find, and I love that it has an on-card signature.  Interestingly, the Sterling and Draft cards were put out roughly within the same time period, late 2013, and Williams signature seems to have changed during that time.  Not markedly different, but outside of the letter "J" there are a lot of little changes.  

Back of the card. 

Always some interesting facts on the backs of the Bowman Draft cards.  Some are standard fare, like his choice of college if he had gone that route, while others are always a little bit more interesting.  Really thought it was cool that he used a wood bat during his senior year of school.  

Bowman's Best Durham Bull

Topps has just released the Bowman's Best product, taking the place of the former sticker autograph set known as Bowman Sterling. I have always really enjoyed the Bowman's Best sets and can tell you right now that I have several of the latest version en route to my house.

While the Bowman's Best name has not been it's own set in recent years, Topps has still used the name on a nice looking die-cut insert the last several years in the end of year Bowman Draft product. I know I give Bowman Draft a lot of grief about the airbrushing in the base set, but the Bowman's Best inserts have always been a plus.

Here is my latest card......>

I have also picked up the Michael Wacha card in this set.  I have had my eye on this Shaffer for most of the summer after he was promoted from the Montgomery Biscuits up to the Durham Bulls.  In half a year he almost hit 20 home runs in Triple A earning a promotion up to the Rays.  I would imagine he will be in the mix at first base next year in Tampa.  Here's the back of the card....

The card is numbered to 99.  There is another version of this card, the X-fractor version, but those are pretty hard to find.  Also slightly pricey.  It's been awhile since I have added a Shaffer card to my collection and I plan on trying to keep up with his cards even if he is not in Durham next year.  Still fun to collect the Durham Bulls players even when they have moved on to other places...

Collecting the Durham Bulls: Richie Shaffer

Two days in a row with a Richie Shaffer post.  I will leave him along the rest of this week, most likely.  A little bit of repeated information:  Shaffer was the Rays first round draft pick in the 2012 MLB Amateur Draft out of Clemson.  He has played in the Rays minor league system the past two and half years for the teams A, high A, and Double A teams.  The third baseman has increased his home runs totals each season in the minors and he seems poised to do that again this year with 9 in his first 40 games (last year he hit 19).

Shaffer's first cards appear in the late 2012 releases.  His key rookie is in the dreadfully super airbrushed Bowman Draft set.  At some point in the future Topps should write an apology letter to all of the players included in the set and reissue a new rookie card.  What pains me about the Shaffer rookie card?  The jersey airbrushing is not terrible, but the helmet is not cool, and if you are going to go ahead and change out the jersey and helmet why leave the little things untouched?  Shaffer has two wrist bands, one orange and one purple.  The crowd in background is also wearing orange shirts, and if you squint, you can even make out the C for Clemson on the guy's hat to the right of Shaffer's wrist in the picture.  Charles Barkley says......

Shaffer also has rookie cards in Panini and Leaf products which show him in a Clemson uniform, but the logos are just blanked out on the cards.....

All three rookie cards, the Leaf, Panini, and Bowman Draft, all feature an autographed version which all can be found for less than $5.  In my opinion, I like the Panini and Leaf cards better than the Bowman issues.  I'd rather see him in a Clemson uni with no logos, then a Rays uniform haphazardly placed over a Clemson one.

Since entering the Rays system in 2012 there have been plenty of Shaffer cards in Bowman products and some of the other Topps Minor League products like Pro Debut and Heritage Minor League.  The cards are readily available and really inexpensive.  I like his Stone Crabs card from last year's Pro Debut product.  I am guessing he will have a card in this year's product as a Montgomery Biscuit.

Shaffer also has a handful of autographs out on the secondary market all of them were issued in either 2012 or 2013.  I have already talked a little bit about his 2012 signatures, but I am going to throw out one from that year which is, in my opinion, his best autograph.

I am sure the photograph is probably photoshopped, but the fact that Topps made an on card signature of Shaffer is the important thing here.  The Leaf cards from 2012 are also on card, but this is Shaffer's only licensed on card autograph.  If you wanted to add a Shaffer autograph to your collection this is my 1A pick.  There is one other good one, but mainly because of the product....

 Share's Bowman Inception autograph is a sticker, but this is from a really nice product with real, non-airbrushed pictures, of players in their uniforms.  I like Shaffer's signature and he has been really consistent throughout his time signing for card manufacturers.

4 Minute Set- Bowman Draft

New Cardinals Autographs

I am really going to post a little more on Topps 2.  I promise, but time has been tight this week with my school year winding down.  Report cards, End of Grade testing, teacher evaluations....it has been a really busy week.  However, I see the light at the end of the tunnel and am looking forward to my last week of this school year.  I will also be spending a little time catching up on cards this weekend, including a few good posts on the Topps Series 2 cards.  Promise.  

In the meantime I have two other cards I picked up last week on my trip in to Big D's Card Shop to pick up and open my box of series 2 cards.  Jimmy, the owner of the store, had been looking out for cool Cardinals cards for me and ran across two really cool autographed cards.  The first card I picked up from Big D's was a Carlos Martinez autograph from last year's Topps Chrome set.  

I have another copy of this card, but this is just a really cool autograph.  Could not turn down another copy at such a great price.  The card features an on-card autograph of the Cardinals hard throwing reliever/part time starter.  My second card:

Jimmy was pretty sure that I was going to have this card, but if you remember back in the day, I had a little bit of an issue with this set.  The airbrushing in this set was pretty outrageous, but a Wacha rookie autograph is a Wacha rookie autograph regardless of the quality of airbrushing.  

Collecting the Durham Bulls: Ali Solis

The Bulls have a group of new catchers this seasons which were mainly signed as Minor League free agents including Ali Solis.  The Rays are the catcher's third team in the last three years starting with the Padres, moving on to the Pirates, before settling in with the Rays organization this year.  Solis is basically a career minor league player.  He's shown some pop at times, he had 25 doubles in 87 games in 2012 at Double A San Antonio, but has had a hard time getting on base throughout his career.  His career OBP in over 400 minor league games is just under .300 at .296.  During the first weeks of play in Durham he is following his career line to a t with a .269 batting average and a .296 on base percentage.

Despite being a career minor leaguer with an OPS under .700 Solis has some really cool cards out floating around.  He had several rookie cards in the 2011 card calendar including the Bowman base set and the Topps Heritage set.  

 

The Bowman card has all the usual variations including a cool flag variation which features Solis in front of a giant Mexican flag.  Pretty popular seller on Ebay.  Solis also appears in both the 2012 and 2013 Bowman Draft picks set as a relic card from the Futures Game.  I was shocked to find that out, but he was in the Future's Game and did get a relic card out of the appearance.  

The Solis relic cards are both inexpensive and can generally be found for less than $5 on Ebay or COMC.  While the cards have limited print runs, it appears at times that all 199 copies of this card cycle through Ebay every two months or so.  

More surprisingly than the fact that Solis has relics cards is the fact that he has really cool relic cards.  Really cool cheap relic cards.  I've seen several different copies of Solis jumbo patches, from both the 2012 and 2013 Futures Games Relic Sets, listed on Ebay.  They almost always sell for less than $10 and are a great find for the price.  I have not really seen enough of Solis to really say I am a fan of the journeyman catcher, but I think I speak for Minor League baseball fans everywhere when I say it would be nice to see a few more career Minor Leaguers (with good followings) to get a few more cool cards.  Solis cards sell, so someone really loves Solis from the past, it's just really cool that Topps made a few sweet cards for his fans to track down. 

Collecting the Durham Bulls: CJ Riefenhauser

I am a really big fan of CJ and see some good things in the future for the talented Bulls relief pitcher.  Last season the left-handed pitcher made an appearance after posting an ERA of 0.51 and a WHIP of 0.73 during the first half of the season in Double A Montgomery.  Later in the summer Riefenhauser was promoted to Durham where he posted a solid 3.05 ERA with a WHIP 1.06.  I have seen CJ pitch several times in person and think he is going to at worst be an excellent left-handed specialist out of the pen.  Much the same way the Rays have used J.P Howell and Alex Torres to neutralize left-handed batters at the end of games.

If there is a flaw in CJ's game at this point, it is consistently getting out right-handed batters.  However, I have seen some real improvement in this area over his time in Durham.  Left-handed batters posted a .122/.181/.172 line against CJ, but right-handers did not fair much better with a .183/.240/.263 line.  It seems that Durham Bulls manager Charlie Montoyo has been allowing Riefenhauser to face a good mixture of batters in the early parts of the 2014 season.   Here's an interview with CJ after his successful outing in the 2013 Futures Game. 

Card wise CJ Reifenhauser has several good options out on the market for collectors to out and find.  Of course, CJ is in all the normal team issued sets from all of the different minor league he has pitched for during his time in the Tampa organization.  He also has a nice base card in the 2012 Topps Heritage Minors.  The base card, being a Topps product, has all of the usual parallels that can be found with a Topps cards. I have been looking for a copy of the black parallel, but I have not found one for a price I am happy with yet.  Soon. 

Riefenhauser also has a really relic card from his appearance in last year's Future's game.  Topps always throws a bunch of relics and patch pieces in their Bowman Draft set and Riefenhauser made the cut last year.  I have not seen any of his cards with the huge patch pieces, but the normal small relics are cool looking with the nice orange jersey piece.  

The Rays players are always really good signers at the Major League level, and since I see Riefenhauser as a Major Leaguer, I would guess we are not too far away from possibly seeing an autograph out of CJ.  Maybe in this year's Bowman set?  It would make me happy. 

2013 Snorting Bull Awards: Worst Set of the Year

Last year I tried to do some end of the year wrap up post in December and it failed miserably.  It could be that it was because I was trying to type a blog post on my parents HP desktop instead of my trusty IMac, or it could be that 365 days of baseball cards is too much to sum up in one post.  This year I have decided to divide and expand at the same time.

Divide: the end of the year post into several posts featuring awards and superlatives for cool happening during the baseball card calendar year.

Expand: Last year's end of the year post just simple featured my favorite set and favorite autographs from 2012.  This year I am bring a little bit more to the table.

The only thing I feel like I am missing this year is an actual physical award.  The two problems with the actual trophy were:

1.Buying several trophies to give to people diverts money away from baseball cards which could be posted here

2. Is anyone at Topps going to claim Worst Set of the Year and actually display the trophy in their office?

No.  Without further delay: The Worst Set of the Year....

2013 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects

I did not do a Worst Set of the Year Award last year, but this is the second year in a row that this set has been poorly executed by Topps.  I've highlighted some of the issues with airbrushing in the past, but the Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects set is the poster child for everything that is wrong with the practice.  The card above is not too bad, but I will highlight some more interesting ones in a minute.  The prospects cards are not bad, but the draft pick card are terrible.  

My basic question for Topps production practice with this set is this: If you are the only licensed card maker, why would you rush production on cards of players when you are the only game in town?  If you waited until spring, took pictures of these players at spring training, then you are still the first company with a card on the market featuring a card of the draft pick in their Major League uniform.  That would probably be too easy and improve the quality of the product.  However, let's face it: The Bowman Draft set is just a money grab.  If you put the draft players in the Bowman set the following year Topps would have one less set to put out.

So, back to the airbrushing.  The small details are generally better than last year's Bowman Draft, but the quality of the airbrushing leaves a lot to be desired.  I've broken the airbrushing down into categories:

Category One: Is That Crayon? Or Colored Pencils?  

There are a few of these cards in the Bowman Draft set, but this card seriously looks like it was colored in by a little kid on a children's menu at IHOP.  That might be a little harsh.  The person who airbrushed this card did color inside the lines, but it seriously looks like it's a sketch.  The creme color on the Phillies uniform is off too.  The hat is really bad.


Category Two:  Pro - por - tion 

The piping around the Braves jersey is a little bit off in this card, but it's not terrible.  The Braves logo is a completely different story.  It seems rather tiny compared to the rest of the jersey and does not quite seem to fit right.  Here's what the Braves alternate uniform should actually look like....

It looks like Topps missed by just a little bit on this one......

Category Three: How'd You Mess This One Up Again? 

One of the hardest parts of airbrushing a card is getting color schemes to match up.  It's why the Phillies card on the top of the page is off, but every once in awhile it seems that Topps walks into a card which might actually have an easy color scheme to airbrush.  Take for example this Austin Nicely card.  Nicely was a pitcher last spring for the Virginia Cavaliers.  If you've never seen their uniforms, here's a picture of a Hoos home uniform.

Not far from an Astros uniform and little to no work to do on the color scheme.  How in the world did Topps manage to make his uniform off-white?  Did they try to airbrush his t-shirt?  Who drew that Astros logo?  Why doesn't the guy who airbrushes hats onto players from ESPN five minutes after they're traded not work making thousands airbrushing hats on to players for Topps?

Category Four: Are Your Pixels Showing? Dude.  

I already gave away an award for worst baseball card of the year, but this card is airbrushed so poorly that there are pixel marks showing on his hat and belt.  It's almost like his mom sent Topps a Polaroid of him pitching in high school and they turned it into a baseball card.  It would be disingenuous to take away the worst card of the year from Daniel Bard and Ty Wigginton (Wiggy to his friends), but next year I am going to hold out giving that award away too soon.  This card might be the worst picture every used on a professional baseball card.  Ever.  

Buy Local Part 1

I was looking through a box of autographed cards the other day and realized that I have put together a pretty nice collection of local, North Carolina, players over the past year.  Despite not having an MLB team, North Carolina has several minor league affiliates, a few top 20 college programs, USA Baseball, and a great high school baseball scene too.  Why not put together a few posts to highlight some of the great players and cool cards coming out of North Carolina.  So, I will start out tonight with a local high school player turned top prospect. 

2012 Bowman Chrome Corey Seager Auto

 

I actually just recently picked up this Corey Seager autograph.  I have the blue version of this card too, but Seager autographs are getting harder and harder to find and also more expensive.  A year ago you could find Seager autographed cards around $20.  After a stellar 2013 campaign in the minors his 2012 rookie cards have taken off in popularity and price.  Off brand Seager autographs, there are actually quite a few, are less expensive, but all of his Bowman cards are very nice cards and could well be worth the price if the shortstop prospect pans out for the Dodgers. 

Seager was selected out of Northwest Carrabus High School in Concord, North Carolina which is west of Raleigh-Durham towards the Charlotte area.  Seager also played for USA Baseball which is located a few minutes from my house in Cary, North Carolina.  The Dodgers selected Seager in the first round of the 2012 draft making him the second of the three Seagers to be drafted.  His older brother Kyle is the Mariners third baseman, he'll be in another post, and another older brother Justin played for UNC-Charlotte and was drafted by the Mariners in 2013. 

2012 Bowman Draft Gold Corey Seager Autograph

Going local to start off my Saturday.  I ran into a local collector looking to move some of his cards and had some interest in adding a nice card of Dodgers prospect Corey Seager.  Seager is a North Carolina product from Concord which is north of Charlotte where he was drafted by the Dodgers out of high school.  He was drafted in the first round of the 2012 draft and is viewed by many as top prospect.  Currently, he is playing shortstop for the Great Lakes Loons in the Midwest League.  Seager is putting up a .282/.349/.450 line with 4 homers in 36 games.

2012 Bowman Draft Gold Corey Seager Autograph

As far as the card goes, Seager has several autographs out on the market, but his Bowman Draft autographs are considered the best of the bunch.  My copy is the gold parallel limited to a print run of just 50.  While the 2012 Bowman sets lacked some of the pizzaz of the 2011 and 2010 editions, there are still several solid prospects in the set including this guy.  The regular version of this autograph runs in the $20 range with the colored parallels drifting north from there.  

  

2012 Bowman Draft Oscar Taveras Futures Game Jersey

2012 Bowman Draft Oscar Taveras Futures Game Jersey

I have been slowly adding to my Oscar Taveras collection this fall and picked up a cool new card of his this past week.  Taveras was the Cardinals third rated prospect behind Shelby Miller and Carlos Martinez last year before he won the Texas League MVP playing for Springfield.  The Texas League tends to be a pitching league, so for one of the league's youngest players to come in and put up a .321 average with power is quite impressive.  I am hoping he appears in St. Louis soon, but wouldn't be shocked if he hangs out in Memphis (AAA) for awhile next year.  

I have actually picked up a few other Taveras cards this summer and featured a few in this space.  His cards have really picked up momentum and are getting to be a little bit high for a player who hasn't taken a Major League at-bat.  This card is from the over airbrushed Bowman Draft set which features a set of jersey cards from the Futures game.  I really like the design of this card, which is also available in patch form.  

30 Year Top 50: 1997 Bowman

The 49th entry on my list is the 1997 Bowman set.  This set was released at the height of Bowman mania in the late 90s.  You remember the guarantee cards that Bowman used to put in packs offering to buy your set back if it wasn't at least worth $120?  I'm sure the people at Topps and the Bowman brand manager sent lots of care packages over to the people at Beckett.  Seriously, there are several Bowman sets on my list, but some of these sets haven't held up very well over time.

The 1997 set has kind of had a lot of twists and turns over the years in regards to collectability and value.  Upon its initial release the hot and trendy cards in this set belonged to Kerry Wood, Travis Lee, and Miguel Tejada.  All three players made it to the big leagues and contributed something to their teams.  Wood and Tejada obviosuly more than Lee, but there are some other good rookies in this set too.

There is also Eric Chavez, Lance Berkman, Jayson Werth,  and Aramis Ramirez.  The two best cards in my opinion however belong to the only two potential Hall of Fame players with rookies in this set.  Remarkably both cards have flown under the radar for years on card value and repsect with in the industry.  Let's take a look at the two cards.

1997 Bowman Roy Halladay RC

Halladay has the easier case to make in terms of Hall of Fame credentials, so I will get his card out of the way first.  If you are looking to add this card to your collection it will probably cost you around $5 if you are willing to look.  Beckett lists them at $12 and they sell between $4 and $7 on Ebay without shipping.  I acutally prefer the 97 regular Bowman cards over the Chrome.  I am aware that the Chrome card lists and sells for more, but I love the black border of the base set and think over time you will see that feature make these cards a little more desirable for grading.  Dark backgrounds show imperfections easier and make them more condition sensitive.  

Basically, the guy spent ten seasons pitching north of the border and flew under a lot of radars during that time.  He's played for the Phillies for the past three seasons winning fifty games and throwing a no-hitter in a playoff game.  He's not pitched the Phillies to the World Series, as he was brought in to do, but he has a playoff ERA slightly north of two with two loses to Tim Lincecum and Chris Carpenter.  

Halladay will cross 200 wins this season, or next, and is also above 2000 strikeouts.  Checking his Baseball Reference page  shows that he is already exceeded the Hall of Fame metrics using the Black Ink and Hall of Fame Monitor while he is slightly off with the other two metrics.  However, Halladay is signed for two more seasons and should further improve his overall totals.  A nod should also be given to the fact that he pitched on many third and fourth place Jays teams and still was very successful, and was also successful pitching in that tiny little park in Philadelphia.  On to the next one.

1997 Bowman Adrian Beltre RC

When this card set was released everyone was all over Scott Rolen as the third baseman of the coming generation.  Rolen played great for about seven or eight years.  Rolen hit a huge home run in the 2004 NCLS off of Roger Clemens, possibly should have won the NL MVP that season, and racked up a whole bunch of Gold Gloves.  Then he got run over by Hee Seop Choi, cried a bunch, and got traded around a few times.  About that time, up came David Wright and Ryan Zimmerman and people jumped on that bandwagon too.  Longoria a few years later.

Now, during that entire 15 year span of baseball Adrian Beltre has been a very good third baseman.  Beltre has put up over 300 home runs, 2200 hits, 1200 RBIs, been named to five All-Star teams, won four gold gloves, and finished second in MVP voting twice.  Did I mention he only turned 33 this year?    Take a few minutes to check out Beltre's Baseball Reference page.  Scroll down to the bottom and find the column that shows comparable players and these names appear: Ron Santo, Cal Ripken, Carl Yastrzemski, Al Kaline, Brooks Robinson, and Orlando Cepada.  It's money in the bank that Beltre plays five more years, at least, and the argument for putting him in the Hall of Fame is going to get louder and louder.  Back to the card.

Beltre actually has a whole bunch of rookie cards, including a very tough autographed rookie, that appeared in the Bowman set.  This is a very affordable rookie of a great player and an easy add for any collector.  Honestly, how can you go wrong spending three or four dollars to add a potential Hall of Famer's rookie card to your collection?  

Like the 1997 Bowman set?  Not appearing in my countdown is the 2003 Bowman Draft set.  This set has a similar black card design and some very solid rookies including: Jonathan Papelbon, Robinson Cano, and Ryan Howard.  At this point none of these guys are Hall of Famers, but it's another good addition to your collection.

2003 Bowman Draft Jonathan Papelbon RC