Those Other Ginter Cards Part 1

A while back Topps started selling an anniversary version of the Allen & Ginter cards with black backgrounds instead of the usual white.  The black background cards were celebrating the tenth anniversary of the product.  The boxes were not prohibitively expensive, but sometimes I get really tired of the whole rehash thing, such as making the cards a different color, adding chrome to the cards.  Sometimes I will dabble into those products, but I usual limit myself by just picking up some interesting singles, or not opening a box and buying the base set.

The set has kind of grown on me over time.  A few of the card groups I am in on Facebook had collectors post pictures of cards from the set.  Very nice.  While I am not going to assemble a set in this case, I am going to put together a nice group of Cardinals, Rays, and former Durham Bulls.  I started by picking up four of the cards pretty cheap off of COMC.

Obviously a good start to the assembling the Cardinals and Rays portion of the full size set.  Still plenty of cards still left to find, especially considering I still haven't touched the minis.  The Cardinals team set looks like it has 14 cards, leaving me 10 short.  The Rays team set has only 5, so 4 away from finishing.  I am going to have to sort through the big list to track down all of the Durham Bulls, but all five Rays cards would also fit into that category too.  

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.  

 

#MyCardMonday

I picked up a really cool Jason Heyward card about two weeks ago and I have been dying to post it on here, but have not had the chance to do so yet.  I picked this card up off of Ebay, after being a little bit reluctant to do so at first, I think it is a really cool item.  Here's a look at the card....

This card was a giveaway from Topps during the National Card Convention this summer in Chicago.  I have seen plenty of Card Show/Card Convention exclusives and usually avoid them, but I love the Ginter set and was really intrigued by this one since it was not being passed off as an Ebay 1/1 or somehow/someway exclusive.  Instead, I was able to pick this card up for just a few dollars.

I was halfway expecting the card to be thicker given the cutout looks on the side of the card, but this is actually the regular card stock that Topps used this summer for Ginter.  The back does not have a stamp, or special markings to show that it came from the National Card Convention.....

Overall a really cool card.  Not sure how many different players were passed out in all, but I have seen a few others floating around in trade rooms on Facebook and auctions on Ebay.  There is at least another Cardinals player in the set, Michael Wacha, so I will have to work on adding that card to my collection.  Cool looking card for less than $5 and definitely worth looking into if you have a favorite current player or team you collect.

2015 Topps Heritage Part 2

I am on to the base set for the second half of my Topps Heritage post.  The 425 non-short-printed base cards are usually not too hard to find, but those 75 short prints and different variations always seem to take most of the summer to put together.  However, I am going to need a little bit of work to put together the 425 base cards.  I have not quite finished putting sorting the cards I pulled out of my two boxes and retail packs, but I am guessing I am going to need more than 50 base cards and 50 short prints.  

In going through the stacks of base cards and sorting them into a set I have narrowed my favorite cards down to three based on my baseball rooting and viewing interests....

First card that I love in the base set is Jason Heyward.  I know this is somehow airbrushed, but I am hoping this is a great year for Heyward and the Cardinals.  Pujols is gone, Holliday and Wainwright are getting older, it's time for a new star to take over for the Cardinals.  I have started to dabble in Heyward cards, but have not gone all in quite yet.  Still slightly nervous that he won't live up to expectations or he won't sign with the team at the end of the year.  Anyway, this is the first Heyward card in a Cardinals uniform that I have added to my collection and I am hoping there are many more to come.  Great card and easy favorite out of the Cardinals cards.  

Second card favorite card goes to former Duke Blue Devil Marcus Stroman.  I enjoyed watching The Stro Show during his time in Durham and also at USA Baseball.  I have followed him through the Minors and into the Majors last season.  This will be Stroman's first full season in Toronto and he should have a good year for a good Blue Jays team.  If you are on Twitter be sure to give Stroman a follow.  He is easily one of my favorite players to follow and you will appreciate how hard he works at his craft.  

Last card goes for a former Durham Bulls player B.J. Upton.  I am guessing we are probably down to our last card of the Braves outfielder with B.J. on the card instead of Melvin.  Upton was the star player of the Durham Bulls when I first moved to North Carolina a decade ago.  The first opening day I went to at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park was ended on an Upton walk off Grand Slam.  B.J. has had a rough couple of years with the Braves, and while I am guessing a turn around will likely not happen for B.J., but I hope he at least puts up respectable numbers.  

Perhaps I have Turned the Corner....

The Cardinals made a trade for Jason Heyward earlier this off season and I immediately went out and added an autograph of the Gold Glove right fielder to my collection.  After this season Heyward can become a free agent and seems to owe the Cardinals little in the way of negotiating leverage.  Yes, I could go out and pick up a bunch of Heyward cards, but would might have to trade or sell a bunch of them at the end of the year.  At least that was my original intention.

For the third time during the last month I am introducing you to another Jason Heyward autograph.  At what point do you just admit you have turned the corner and gone from:

"I am just picking up an autograph of Jason Heyward for my collection"

to

"Yes, I collect Jason Heyward cards"

Oh, here's the card:

The Cardinals have been pretty successful at trading for potential free agents and managed to keep almost all of the big names.  Jim Edmonds, Scott Rolen, Mark McGwire, and Matt Holliday are on the top of my head this morning.  I would love to see Heyward have a great year in St. Louis and the Cardinals reward him with a nice long term contract.  I may only be three Heyward autographs into a collection, but I have had fun picking up these three cards and have picked out a few more that would look nice in my collection.

Have I turned the corner on Heyward?  Sure, let's hope it's a good summer for the Cardinals newest outfielder.  

Cautiously Heyward Part 2 or I Love Topps Tek

I swear I am not going to all in yet on Jason Heyward.  I might have picked up a few autographs of the new Cardinals outfielder over the past few weeks, but really I am not all in.  My acquisition of my latest Heyward is partially inspired by his trade to the Cardinals, but the card also comes from another 90s redo.  Last week I picked up a David Thompson card that was inspired by the 1998 Skybox EX-2001 set.  Tonight's Jason Heyward autograph comes from the 2014 Topps High Tek set which was inspired by the 1998 Topps Tek set.  If you have followed my blog from its beginnings you might remember that one of my first projects was putting together a complete set of the mega Topps set.  Here's the newest Heyward autograph.....

The cards are similar to the 1998 Topps Tek set, but still not quite the same.  It's one of those sets that was really unique and probably cannot be duplicated.  Still I really like the looks of this card and I love the fact that the autographs in this set are all on-card autographs.  There are some really nice ones out there floating around.  There are definitely more of these Topps Tek cards on the way and maybe another Heyward card or two also, but I swear I am not collecting his cards yet.....

Cautiously Heyward

I have been adding a few new players to my collection and filling in the pieces with my baseball offseason.  The inevitable trade or free agent signing always shifts some of those plans around.  Just today the Rays trade Sean Rodriguez and I barely flinched.  Two weeks ago there was a little bigger ripple in my collection when the Cardinals and Braves swapped Shelby Miller and Jason Hayward.  By that afternoon you could already see the hobby wheels spinning.  Cardinals collectors tracking down every Hayward card they could get their hands on all the while selling and trading off their collections of beautifully signed Shelby Miller cards.

I was approached by a Braves collector of two about Heyward, but I am moving slowly.  More on that in a minute.  I will miss Shelby Miller as a Cardinal.  While he was not the most talented arm in the rotation, he was a solid pitcher who just never quite lived up to the hype that he generated as a first round draft pick of the team.  I will listen on my Shelby cards, but I still really enjoyed collecting his cards and love his signature.  Now that Shelby is not on the Cardinals, if you do not own his autograph, you should check them out just for the coolness of that 'graph.  They're a lot cheaper at the moment.

As for Jason Heyward, I picked up my first autograph of the All-Star right fielder this past week.....

The card is awesome.  A Topps Tribute card signed on-card in blue ink and numbered out of just 50.  Incredible add to my collection.  So, will you see a lot more of Heyward in this space?  I am moving cautiously with Heyward.  He is only signed for one more season and could be sitting at the top of lots of off season shopping lists next season.  The Cardinals do have a good track record of singing players like Heyward, free agents to be, to contracts after trades.  McGwire, Edmonds, Rolen, and Holliday are just a few examples of players who came to St. Louis in trades, but stuck around a lot longer after signing.  As a younger collector I rushed out to find every McGwire card I could possibly find.  Luckily McGwire signed back with the team before the end of the year.  The same thing happened with the other three players.

This time around the stakes seem a little bit higher for both Heyward and the Cardinals.  Heyward is trying to prove he still has some thunder in his bat and is worth a long term nine digit contract.  The Cardinals are trying to fill the void in the teams offense.  While I am waiting for this all to play out, I am cautiously optimistic about Heyward, a few cards at a time.

30 Year Top 50: 2010 Bowman

#33-Looking to buy a set for future?  This is your post.  The 2010 Bowman set mainly revolves around three big cards of players appearing all in only their third professional seasons.  However, this set appears this high in my countdown because of the flashes of brilliance shown by the key rookie players in this set.  Think about that for a second.  Of the hundreds of sets that have been released over the past thirty years I am trying to pick out the best fifty.  This set, three years old, potentially has three rookie cards that are already more important to the hobby of baseball cards than Chipper Jones, Pedro Martinez, Jim Thome, Manny Ramirez, Roberto Alomar, Craig Biggio, Joe Mauer, Josh Hamilton, Matt Kemp, Felix Hernandez, Barry Larkin, Barry Bonds, Randy Johnson, Tino Martinez, Robin Ventura, Jeff Bagwell, Mike Mussina, and a few others I am sure I am missing from the previous entries in this series of blog posts.  Let's look at each card.

2010 Bowman Buster Posey

This card is the most underrated of the three rookie cards in this set.  Underrated.  In three seasons in the Majors, Posey has won the Rookie of the Year, Two World Series titles, a batting average crown, and will have an MVP award sometimes later this week.  Pretty impressive resume given he has played just three seasons and one of them was lost to a really bad leg injury sustained in a collision blocking the plate.  Posey isn't going to fool anyone into thinking he's a great defensive player, but a quick glance at his Baseball Reference page shows he has similar numbers at 25 to Mike Piazza, Yogi Berra, Gabby Harnett, and Carlton Fisk.  Underrated.  

2010 Bowman Jason Heyward

Of the big three rookies in this set this is the card I am most unsure on.  I figure that at worse Heyward is a solid and productive Major League outfielder.  However, for those who regularly check out the Braves there are definitely some flashes of brilliance which make Braves fans drool.  The first half of his 2010 rookie season was incredible.  Heyward trialed off in the second half of the season, had a down year in 2011, but responded nicely this past season to post career highs in several offensive categories and won a Gold Glove.  It's also easy to forget that Heyward just turned 23 at the end of last season.  Plenty of time for Heyward to grow as a player.  His cards have trailed off in value over the past year, so picking up one or two nice cards and putting them away for a few years may not be bad notion.  

2010 Bowman Stephen Strasburg

I won't call Strasburg's cards underrated, but you should put a few of these away in your collection soon.  Strasburg has pitched parts of three seasons and looked pretty untouchable along the way.  I can't imagine the Nationals will place many restrictions on him next year and I have little reason to doubt he will not be anything less than stellar.  Card really doesn't need much selling.  Awesome player, awesome card.  Buy one, trade for one.  You need one.  

Of course, there are other rookie cards in the set beyond Posey, Heyward, and Strasburg.  Aroldis Chapman, Madison Bumgarner, Dustin Ackley (GTHC), and Austin Jackson also appear.

Like the 2010 Bowman Set?  Not appearing in my Top 50 is the rest of the 2010 Topps baseball card lineup.  I had to pick one and I went with Bowman.  However, if you were going to ask me to point a year to buy up singles, wax, etc.  I would say you cannot go wrong with the potential contained within the 2010 card releases.  Topps did a great job of putting Posey, Strasburg, and Posey cards throughout their products during the 2010 calendar.  Collectors should also check out rookie cards from Mike Stanton, Starlin Castro, Aroldis Chapman, Madison Bumgarner, and Mike Trout.  Here are a few sets you can find some of these players in:

2010 National Chicle Buster Posey

2010 Topps Chrome Mike Stanton 

2010 Topps 206 Stephen Strasburg 

2010 Topps Update Jason Heyward

 2010 Bowman Prospects & Draft Picks

2010 Topps Pro Debut Mike Trout