Five players whose cards you should watch heading into 2015

It’s #OpeningNight and the mood is right.

OK, that’s the opening line to TGIF theme song from back in the day, but it certainly applies. After a long winter of snow, ice, slush, gripping winds and more snow, baseball is back.

A few players stood during this season’s spring training, making some guys well known to more than just prospectors and die-hards.

Here’s a look at five players from spring training to keep an eye on this season whose cards you may want to grab – although they are getting pricier by the minute.

Taijuan Walker, Seattle Mariners

Walker’s cards have a lot to gain. Throughout the spring, his cards have steadily risen in price, in large part to his spectacular numbers. He threw 25.1 innings and gave up one earned run. That equates to an ERA of 0.36. He also walked just four guys. Walker is 22 years old and gets to learn from one of the best pitchers in the game, Felix Hernandez.

With the Mariners poised to make a run for the AL West title this season, Walker’s cards are warm right now and could get hot.

Jon Gray, Colorado Rockies

Gray is another pitcher who got attention this spring. He was reassigned to triple-A before the end of the practice session, but still many are awaiting his MLB debut. Gray’s last Spring Training outing was, but shouldn’t scare too many. The scary part is that he should end up pitching in Colorado one day -- that’s never been good for any pitcher.

Joc Pederson, Los Angeles Dodgers

The Dodgers seem to have a plethora of players so the rookies had to fight and scrap their way onto the 25-man roster. Pederson seems to have done that, and even won the starting centerfield position. He hit six home runs in 60 at-bats this spring, and hit slugged .750. He is not, however, one of the cheaper autographs to grab. But his Rookie Cards will appear in 2015 products

Mookie Betts, Boston Red Sox

The Red Sox are another team that is loaded with talent – they even have Rusney Castillo starting in Triple-A. Betts is one of their young studs that could shine this year, and the Red Sox are going to give him the chance. Betts hit .451 with a 1.295 OPS this spring.

By the way, his Rookie Cards appear in 2014, but there aren’t many autos because of his late call up.

Kris Bryant, Chicago Cubs

I feel like a teenage girl, ‘I can’t even’ with Bryant. Bryant was sensational, amazing, legendary this spring. He hit nine home runs in 44 plate appearances. He slugged 1.175 with an OPS of 1.652. And, he will start the season in Triple-A. However, it’s likely we see Bryant sooner rather than later with the Cubs.

But, getting an autograph card of his will set you back on the secondary market as they going for hundreds, if not thousands. Pulling one of his autographs from a pack is like finding a unicorn.

That's the way the (C)rookie crumbles.

Yesterday I posted a hobby box break of 2011 Topps Pro Debut baseball cards and it got me thinking (read:made me want to go on a rant) more about the whole rookie card logo. This is the second product release containing minor league players, and it looks like it would be the second release of 4 or 5 total products with such players.

Later in the year we are scheduled to see a likely Pro Debut Series 2, as well as Topps Heritage Minor League and Bowman Platinum which are all slated to contain minor league autographs of top prospects. While I think it is great to include top prospects in products, I don't think it's great to have them sign 500 "First Year" cards, Pro Debut cards, Bowman Chrome, Topps Chrome, Bowman Drafts Picks & Prospects, Topps Heritage, Platinum, etc.

Doesn't that seem like a bit much? Now compound that with the fact that we will have 3 Bowman sets that look IDENTICAL, and Topps Series 1, 2, and Update look IDENTICAL to Pro Debut. They must really think we are suckers. I don't care to have 40 different color base prospect
Gary Sanchez cards. Don't forget about the printing plates for each of those 40 different cards that look the same from every set. Oh and the autograph versions.


With all those autographs you then have those same cards as base cards, then parallel versions of each of those cards, 4 printing plates of each, and on and on. But as if that wasn't enough of an issue, now what happens when you have 50 cards from all these sets of a player in a given year such as 2011 and he then gets called up to the majors. Well, back in the day you would be holding his rookie cards. Now, you are holding what will inevitably be his least desirable cards simply because they are not the "RC" logo cards. There is one exception- Bowman Chrome.

The only card collectors seem to chase regardless of what year are the Bowman Chrome autographs. They have become the be all end all rookie/prospect cards. If you ask me, Topps should see this as an opportunity to right the ship now and eliminate some of these other minor league releases and make these prospects and prospect autos from Bowman and Bowman Chrome worth the price of the product.

Collectors know that most of these minor league guys don't make it so why push products of "could be's" when you can integrate new ideas into fresh sets of the veterans and include a subset of Top Prospects in each one?

There was a reason that Fleer, Donruss, Score, and Upper Deck lost the rights to producing major league baseball cards. It was because the market was flooded and the cards were worth nothing. Example being look at the Sammy Sosa and Ken Griffey Jr RC's, there are a bazillion of those floating around, and while no one wants a Sosa one now, Griffey Jr is still a desirable rookie card.

So now, we as collectors are left with a bazillion minor league sets or cards that pretty much look like everything else, they might be prospects or they might be rookies. But the bottom line is it's not a rookie without that logo, so pick what you buy wisely.

Topps needs to slow down these minor league cards because I have a feeling I am not the only one that is not interested and would rather see another major league set put out.

I bought some vintage

Well, this is my version of vintage. There are very few cards from 20+ years ago that I want, and once I have real money to get them I probably will pick one up here and there but for now I'll stick with 1990's vintage for funsies.

I was at the card shop yesterday and SOMEONE who will remain nameless (since I know he will read this) dangled two cards in front of me and I had to have them. So I kinda stole them. Well borrowed, they are on my tab. For the record, I think a tab at a card shop is far better than a tab at a bar. Just sayin'.

So here are the two cards I stole/borrowed:

Both are from a ten card Prospects subset in 1995 Fleer.

Baby Derek Jeter (who is wearing Robbie Cano's #24!)



Baby Alex Rodriguez


I can never resist a card of a player I like from when they were just coming up. The baby faces will get me every time. Maybe that's part of the girly side of my collection, picking up cards when the players looked like adorable little kids. Either way, it doesn't hurt my collection by adding two future Hall of Famers (I still think A-Rod has a chance).

I actually completed a trade for a bunch of Derek Jeter cards that I have been meaning to get around to scanning. They are amazing. Perhaps that will be my showcase this weekend.

Anyone pick up any new cards at their local card shop this week?

I knew this day was coming

When I started collecting Jamie Hoffman's cards two years ago, I just knew that one day he would become a Yankee.

Today, is that day. The Yankees picked him up in the Rule 5 draft.

The reality is about two years ago, I had this idea that I could be a prospector. I would look around and find a real sleeper. I am spending money on Jose Tabata cards, but he wasn't a sleeper. He was a Yankees prospect who went crazy and was recently named an Arizona Fall player of the year or something.

Still, I thought I could find someone good and latched on to Jamie Hoffman for about a week. I ended up with two xfractor, a refractor and two chrome cards of Hoffman's 2006 Bowman


Last year, he hit .278 with 10 homers and 71 RBIs in double-A.

This season, he split time and hit .291 in double- and triple-A with 10 homers and 64 RBIs. In 14 games with the Dodgers, he hit just .182 with a homer, two doubles and seven RBIs.

Hoffman is 25.

I'm a sucker for this kind of stuff

I love seeing high school athletes succeed in college and beyond. The first taste of that was when I worked in New York and I got to see Ray Rice (I didn't cover his games often) go to Rutgers and now with Baltimore Ravens.

There aren't many that make it to that level, but I still enjoy the success stories. When it comes to baseball, there are very few who have made it to the big leagues from where I work now in southern New Jersey. However, I did two stories this year on South Jersey guys making it to the show and being successful. The first was San Diego Padres' Greg Burke, who also had a stint with the Atlantic City Surf, an independent minor league team that doesn't exist anymore.

The second was on AL Rookie of the Year Andrew Bailey. Both fun to talk to, but it's hard to be in a bad mood when enjoying the success they had this year.

Next up on the radar of guys from this area is Anaheim Angels prospect Mike Trout. I've seen him play, and he's a heck of an athlete. I covered a few of his basketball games last year and he's a beast. I also saw him on Thanksgiving as he was at his high school's Thanskgiving rivalry game.

I did a little search on eBay and found prospect cards for him already.



Why all our local kids end up with California teams, I'll never know (there's another in the Giants organization), but if he makes it to the big club, I am sure MLB Extra Innings will have get even more subscribers from here.

My venture in prospecting

I've tried my hands at prospecting twice. The first time was around 1998 or 1999 and I was looking for the hottest newcomer. There was one name that stuck out for me - Erubiel Durazo.

I bought several of rookie cards off eBay thinking, perhaps I can add something good to my collection. Instead, I've ended up bookends or something.

My second attempt at prospecting was more expensive. This time I decided I would go for a Yankees prospect because what better way to start a new player collection is to get all his prospect cards from the beginning. I checked eBay, Naxcom, sportlots, everything to find all the cards I can on this guy.

Jose Tabata. That was guy. Over the last two years he was one of the highest touted prospects for the Yankees. He was projected to be the Yankees centerfielder in a few years, possibly 2010.

Even though he was only in Tampa, scouts couldn't stop talking about him.

Then, he went to Trenton.

Him and Austin Jackson were side-by-side and Jackson outshined Tabata.

Instead, Tabata -- once an untouchable -- nearly had a nervous breakdown. He left the field one night in Trenton and wanted to go home.

The Yankees ended up trading him to Pittsburgh for Xavier Nady and Damaso Marte.

Now, I stare at my Tabata cards and think, now what?