Whither Jay Bruce?

Topps Series 2 comes out in about three weeks. I haven't quite gotten around to previewing it yet and I don't want to get into that now. I don't know a whole lot about the nuts and bolts of actually producing cards but you'd think with three weeks to go, Topps has to be deep in the process of printing and packaging these cards, right? Well, check out the sell sheet, specifically this page. I know what you're thinking... why the hell do we need Silk cards?? Does anyone even collect those things? Don't worry about that, it's not important now. Check out the card they have featured as their "rookie" card example.


That's Jay Bruce. Reds fans and people who follow baseball closely recognize him as the Reds' top prospect and someone who could be a star very soon. There's only one problem: he still hasn't been called up to the big leagues. For some reason, this rookie of the year caliber prospect is hopelessly blocked by Corey Patterson. Now, I like Corey. He's an Atlanta native and the high school he went to is right down the road from where I live. He's got some serious talent, but let's face facts, he hasn't put it together yet and right now he stinks. Leadoff hitters should not be hitting .200 with a .260 on base percentage. Meanwhile Jay is mashing in Triple-A Louisville, Jerry Hairston is stealing at bats from Patterson and Dusty Baker isn't even thinking about calling up Bruce.

Now this is pretty bad for the Reds, sure, but what about Topps? Did Topps just get Alex Gordon'd again? Will we be seeing cut out cards going for three figures on eBay? Will there be a run on Wal-Mart Blasters? Will Keith Olbermann be spending all his Democratic Primary overtime checks on Bruce cards? Probably not, actually. Bruce isn't in the Series two preliminary checklist, although Topps probably wanted him to take up one of the "TBA" slots. Kosuke Fukudome isn't going to carry this set. Topps is also inserting rookie redemption cards into boxes this year like they've done with Finest. This is a disaster for people who actually want to collect the set, but it gives Topps a chance to wait out Dusty Baker and release that Bruce card after all. Why they can't just wait until Series 3 Updates & Highlights to introduce Jay to the card world, I don't know. It means less decent rookies for the end of the year product and 20 short prints for the set collectors to worry about. Plus there's gonna be a gimmick card, you know there is... Clinton/McCain Campaign 2008 card, maybe?