Opting in

As many of you have surely seen, Colbey from Cardboard Collections recently held a free group break for a couple of boxes of 2016 Donruss Optic he opened. I claimed the Yanks, hoping for a Greg Bird or Luis Severino autograph.

While that did not quite happen, it was still a success that netted me some very nice Yankees cards. ARod led the way with a few Diamond Kings, include the Refractor (Prizm? Holo?) version.

He was also in the base set.

One thing I learned is that Aroldis Champan's first name is actually Albertin. I did not know that!

It feels like forever ago that Brian McCann was on the Yankees.

I was able to score a few of the Rated Rookies, including Severino and Bird. It also feels like forever ago that Robert Refsnyder was a top Yankees prospect.

My favorite card of the break was the Mariano Rivera Masters of the Game. Just a very nice card!

I also got a few of the purple parallels, including McCann and Bird. The Bird is a particular favorite.

Thanks for the break, Colbey!

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.

A custom card contest victory

March was not been a great posting month, but hopefully I can get back to my daily posting shortly. I intend to within the next week or two.

Anyhow, I recently received a great contest package from Jeff at 2x3 Heroes last week. The contest was from several months ago, when we had to create a custom of our younger selves. Mine was this bad boy, which happened to receive the most votes.

I actually forgot about the contest, so Jeff would have been off the hook due to my increasingly faulty memory, but he’s a good dude and ended up sending it my way.

Here are the prizes he showed off that headlined the package. While none are guys I collect, there are some sweet cards and I appreciate Jeff's generosity. The Randy Johnson GQ relic is very cool, and numbered to 50. Not a bad card of a HOFer. The Springer is one of those camo SPs which I would have never seen if I hadn’t known from his post. My bro-in-law is a huge Mets fan, and while not a collector, will likely get a kick out of the John Franco auto.

 

There were some very cool Yankee cards included as well.

This Gary Sheffield is pretty cool. The fireworks are an awesome touch. I think UD First Pitch is similar to Topps Opening Day.

A couple of really cool Mantles.

I love Turkey Red. Those cards always look so awesome. I’d love Godzilla to sign this one day.

Refsnyder! I feel a little bad for him. He’s been jerked around a bit by the Yanks and really had to play out of position the last few years to get a few big league ABs. He was the best offensive prospect the Yankees had until some legit prospects made the upper levels. With that being said, he doesn’t have a true position and has little power, so it’s not hard to see why he’s been passed over. It seems like a breakup is inevitable soon, as his 40-man spot is valuable.

I’ll end with a sweet Rivera. I feel like it’s rare to get an action shot like this in an A&G. 

Jeff, thanks for the great contest!