The Last of the Nows

With the two Topps NOW cards recently arriving, that's likely the last of them for this season. I say "likely" because perhaps there will be one for any interesting post-season awards, like if Miguel Andujar somehow beats out Ohtani for AL ROY.

Regardless, it's two good ones, so let's see what I got.

Luuuuuuke. The first is of Yankees out-of-nowhere sensation Luke Voit. I was glad to see him get a Yankees card, although this one is a team card, so technically not of him. I also thought his Topps NOW would be his RC, but it turns out he had a card in 2017 Update with the Cardinals. Rats!

It's a great shot of him being enthusiastic after one of his many homers this past September.

The back of the card lists out all 12 players who hit 10 or more homers for the Yankees in 2018, a new MLB record.

The next Topps NOW is the first official card of Justus Sheffield as a Big Leaguer, chronicling his ML Debut. I guess it's not technically a RC because he hasn't been featured in a base set yet. What a dumb rule. This is a card of him on an MLB mound in a regular season MLB game. It should be a rookie card, especially if he's not going to make it in any 2018 products.

Regardless, it was another fun year of buying Topps Now cards. I didn't buy as many as I did in 2016 and 2017, but still came away with some good ones.

Cards on Cards turned 10, so he gave us presents

Last month, Kerry from Cards on Cards celebrated his 10-year blogging anniversary. That is certainly a nice round number. Cards on Cards has been a mainstay since I've been here, and is always a great source for some great baseball and basketball cards.

To celebrate his anniversary, Kerry gave us presents. That's right. We should be showering him with cards, but instead he hosted an extremely generous group break for his readers.

I was lucky enough to snag the Yankees, and came away with some excellent cards.

I was actually most excited about the 2018 Bowman Yankees. I was unable to find any Bowman in my retail attempts, and Kerry sent a bunch of the cards I would have hoped to get had I busted some myself, including Gleyber Torres.

There were also some shiny Yankees prospects cards. Justus Sheffield is rocking JA Happ's #34. Domingo Acevedo actually spent time with the Yankees a few games ago, but didn't see any game action.

Here are two new Aaron Judge cards I didn't have yet!

And some 2017 Allen & Ginters. I can't tell what design is what with this product anymore.

Minor Leaguers were abundant, especially since some of the boxes Kerry busted were Team Best products.

Along with some newer minor league issues as well.

1999 Stadium Club was one of the main boxes as well. I've always loved this card of Paul O'Neill and Chuck Knoblauch, mostly because I want to know what Paulie said to him when they got back to the dugout. I'm sure Paul was very friendly about it. It looks like the catch was made though!

Kerry, thanks for this generous package, and congrats on the big 1-0!

Prospects will break your heart

Yesterday, Baseball America released their pre-season Top 100 prospect list. Despite graduating guys like Clint Frazier to the Big Leagues and trading away James Kaprielian, Dustin Fowler, Jorge Guzman, and Jorge Mateo, the Yankees still landed six prospects in the top 100:

6. SS Gleyber Torres
38. OF Estevan Florial
41. LHP Justus Sheffield
59. 3B Miguel Andujar
77. RHP Albert Abreu
81. RHP Chance Adams

What’s interesting here is that at least four of them could help the Yankees in 2018 (Torres, Sheffield, Andujar, and Adams), while Florial and Abreu are a little further off.

As exciting as that is, it’s hard not to be reminded that prospects will, without fail, break your heart. I’d love for each of the six guys mentioned above to be All-Stars, but that’s just now how life in baseball works. If the Yankees get one All-Star (Torres?) and a few solid major league contributors from this list, it’s successful. Heck, one All-Star alone is successful.

That’s not to poo poo on these guys or rain on their parades. I hope they all develop into something. But looking back over the course of this blog from its start in 2011, I can count handfuls of guys I was excited about. Looking back, it’s hard to image that excitement now.

Each of these guys were highly regarded at one point or another, especially through the early stages of this blog. Some were probably built up a little too much as a result of a poor farm system for a few years.

That’s not to say any of these guys are bad players. They just didn’t make it (or haven’t yet), like many others who came before them. Montero was huge prospect ranked right alongside Bryce Harper and Mike Trout. Banuelos was the little lefty that could that ran into injury problems. Mason Williams had a few cups of coffee. Bichette came out of the gates strong but never could replicate that early success. Refsnyder hit in the minors but never got regular opportunities in the Majors.

It seems like forever ago that these guys were the next big thing, and I’m curious what I’ll be writing about the six guys on this year's Top 100 list in another six years.

Gleyber's comin'

Last year at this time, it was tough to get a Gleyber Torres card. At least one of him on the Yankees. He made his way into 2016 Bowman Draft as a member of the Yanks, which I believe was his first non-Cubs issue.

While his cards are still selling for quite a bit given he plays for NY and is one of the top prospects in baseball, they aren't quite as tough to come by anymore given he's been included in more and more sets.

In fact, my COMC Black Friday order included three such cards from 2017:

First, 2017 Bowman. Pretty basic card, but I like it.

Slightly cooler and a bit louder is Bowman Platinum. It's shiny and I like the design, as I usually do for Platinum.

And my favorite Gleyber addition is easily this Bowman Chrome Talent Pipeline. When I first saw this card, I was expecting it to have Blake Rutherford or James Kaprielian on it - guys no longer in the Yankees system. Upon further inspection, I was happy to see it include current farmhands Justus Sheffield and Clint Frazier. That instantly made the card more appealing.

Hopefully Torres makes his ML Debut this season, and that he earns an official RC at some point. That would be very cool.

Don't Judge Napkin Doon

With JBF's Big Fun Game kicking off, it's only fitting to post some cards Napkin Doon sent my way last week. Napkin Doon actually started the Big Fun Game back when he was a real, live blogger. I once selected a 1958 Topps Bob Clemente, only to have it stolen from my hands. It still hurts. That's the beauty and agony of the Big Fun Game.

The highlight of the package is this Topps Throwback Thursday Aaron Judge. This is one of those  sets that Topps prints on demand. There were 1,329 of this particular set printed, the most of any #TBT set so far. The subject matter was rookies, so not a surprise. Joining Judge in this set was Swanson, Bell, Moncada, Bregman, and Benitendi. I think most are expecting Benitendi to win AL ROY, but Judge is certainly making some noise in the season's first month.

I appreciate Nap breaking up his set and sending this to me, as it's a very cool card that I probably wouldn't have come across otherwise.

 

Doon also sent four team bags jam-packed with cards. There were about 75 Don Mattingly cards of all shapes and sizes. I asked Napkin where he got these, and he replied, "I liquidated my 401K in the late '80s to invest in Mattingly and become a millionaire." Actually, he got these in a junk wax lot he won at his LCS, Cleve's. That was probably the story of the dude whose cards these used to be. I hope Nap kept a few Mattinglys for himself, just in case that guy ended up being right.

It wasn't just all Mattinglys. There were some more Gypsy Queen, which I'm digging. The Green Batances is cool, and here's another one of those missing backplate cards.

I will say, I did always like GQ framed parallels. I don't think they have those any more, but keep me honest, people.

Some Tinos! Love the first Heritage one.

 

A badass Flair David Cone. I think the first trade Doon and I ever made was centered around some of these Flair cards.

Nap knows I like prospects, and was kind enough to send me a few Justus Sheffields as well, among others.

I'll finish off with a Masahiro Tanaka RC.

Nap, appreciate you thinking of me. As soon as Rance Mulliniks is given a Topps #TBT, I'll repay the favor.

Let there be Justus

I’m not usually one for grabbing autographs of players featured in another team’s uniform, but with the influx of prospects into the Yankees system as the result of their trade deadline deals, I’ve softened my stance a little. I want to add a few signatures of these guys now, as I’m not sure when we’ll see them on Yankees cards.

The first auto from the July crop I’ve been fortunate enough to add is that of Justus Sheffield. Some have sad that he is Gary’s nephew, although that looks to a myth. So far, the lefty has been phenomenal with the Yankees, going 3-1 with a 1.73 ERA and 27 Ks in 26 innings. He was just bumped up from high-A Tampa to AA Trenton, where I assume he’ll begin next season. MLB.com has him as the Yankees top pitching prospect, which is certainly true while James Kaprielian is on the shelf with an injury.

Hopefully I can add autographs of Clint Frazier, Gleyber Torres, and Dillon Tate in the near future, but this will hold me over for now.