2002 Just Minors Gold Set - Junk Cards

This is a little later than I planned to post it tonight. Have you seen the Burger King ads for the angry Whopper? Well, yeah they are kind of irate. Urp. Good thing I'm slacking and showing you the junk cards int he box set instead of the next five players. One thing Just Minors has never been shy about is putting advertising stuff in their products. They're a local company, so good for them. Go buy something from them now and help the local economy! They just entered a distribution agreement with Razor so they've got some of that stuff for sale too. Here's the first of the two ads in the set:

Autographed 8x10's! I've seen (but didn't buy) the full sized version of the Sean Burroughs card on this ad. They are pretty good looking! Unfortunately there is no checklist on the card,just a request for for their catalog. For 2002, these guys were pretty web savvy. They've got their website plastered all over the front and back and they now accept PayPal payments!

The other ad card is for Action Figures! $7.95 each and you can find player selection on their web-site. The two teeny photos on the card are of Hammerin' Hank and John Elway. The back of the card is an order form identical to the other card. So why am I showing you this junk? Because...

I got a Hank figure! Just Figures that they'd use a pun for the name of their product. The box it comes in is generic and has a Hank Aaron sticker on the bottom. Here's the lineup of figures for that time.

Hank Aaron - Atlanta Braves '74
Michael Barrett - Harrisburg Senators '98
John Elway - Oneonta Yankees '82
Gabe Kapler - Jacksonville Suns '98
Ricky Williams Piedmont Boll Weevils '96-'97
Collect 'Em All!


This particular figure is from 1999, as it has a Just 99 Justifiable logo on the side. It's an interesting mix of players too. Since the company is based in Atlanta, Hank was an obvious choice. Michael Barrett is local too. Elway had some sort of endorsement deal with Just back in the early days, I remember he had a few cards in their minor league sets at the time. I guess that was Battered Fan Syndrome from what ol' Horse Face did to us in the Supa Bowl. And Ricky Williams was in fact old Weedy McSmokey. An ok selection for 1999 I guess. I got this in one of those old KMart repack monstrosities that was a big 2 foot by three foot cardboard box with a bunch of packs and such glued to the thing. I miss those KMart repacks, although they weren't exactly environmentally friendly. They were fun to look at though! You could spend more time looking through the stack of them for the exact packs you wanted than it took to open the packs. Pulling the packs off the cardboard took more time than both those other activities put together of course.


I got the fielding version of the figure, otherwise known as the one where hank is standing with his arms to his sides wearing a glove and holding a ball. Sorry the pics aren't better, that's the best my crummy little webcam can muster with the terrible lighting near my PC. If I was a normal blogger I'd be pointing out the PayPal donation button on the sidebar and saying "HINT HINT - CAMERA FUND" but I haven't quite reached the level of blogtitude yet to be smart enough to do that. All I need is a battery and maybe a cable for a CoolPix camera, I'll find one eventually and you'll get good pictures. Well there's my little tangent from the Gold set, more player profiles tomorrow!

2002 Just Minors Gold Set - Cards 6-10

Aren't you glad you chose this box instead of that horrible UD Blaster? Here's the next five can't miss prospects from 2002.

6 Boof Bonser

His momma named him John Paul, but he legally changed it to Boof in 2001. Good move, even if he never becomes an all-star pitcher, he'll still be a hobby star forever. Boof was the Giants' #2 rated prospect according to the back of the card, but he was still traded to the Twins in the 2003 offseason in the horrific A.J. Pierzynski deal. He was called up for good in 2006 and pitched effectively in 18 starts. He was somewhat less effective in his first full year in '07 and lost his starting gig last year and ended up in the bullpen. He'll be 27 this year and will probably have another shot at the Twins' rotation in Spring Training.

Career MLB totals: 96 games, 391.7 innings pitched, 18-25 record, 317 Ks, 5.12 ERA, 1.479 WHIP

7 Joe Borchard

The can't missiest of the can't miss prospects in this set. The #1 pick of the White Sox in 2000, and their #1 prospect in 2002. He was even a quarterback at Stanford. So wha hoppen? Joe had all the physical tools to succeed and made his debut with Chicago in 2002. While he could hit the absolute slop out of the ball, he had problems actually hitting the thing. He spent 63 games with the Sox in 2004, and mashed a 504 foot homer but only hit .174. The Sox gave up on him in 2006 and shipped him off to the Mariners. He didn't last long there, and was in a Marlins uniform by May. He had a little success with Florida in 2006, playing in 103 games and hitting 10 homers. He mostly played in Albuquerque in '07 however, and by 2008 he was a non-roster invitee to the Braves' Spring Training Camp. Unfortunately, after 33 games in Richmond in 2008, his elbow blew out ad he had to have Tommy John surgery. Normally this would be the end of the line for a 30-year old prospect, but the Braves apparently see something in Joe that everyone else doesn't and have resigned him for 2009 and are allowing him to rehab. Joe might end up a starter in the bigs yet, but he'll never reach the lofty expections he had in 2002.

Career MLB totals: 301 games, 26 homers, .205 average, 89 runs, 77 RBI, 65 OPS+

8 Carl Crawford

The first bona-fide star in the set. There's an interesting blurb on the back of the card: "Grew out of Josh Hamilton's shadow in 2001 with banner season". Carl made his debut with the Devil Rays in 2002 and stole 55 bags in his first full season in 2003. HE really came into his own in 2004 as he made the All-Star team and was the Devil Rays' Most Valuable Player. Carl has turned into a Fantasy League player's dream, providing a ton of steals and solid production in average, homers, RBI and runs. Crawford had an off year with the Rays in 2008 due to an injury, but performed well in the postseason as he bopped two homers in the World Series. He will be a top player in 2009 and beyond.

Career MLB totals: 925 games, 70 homers, .293 average, 559 runs, 434 RBI, 302 stolen bases, 101 OPS+

9 Juan Cruz

Juan had actually made his debut with the Cubs in 2001, logging 8 starts for Chicago. He pitched well in '01 but lost his starting job in 2002 and was sent to the bullpen. He was a disaster in 2003, and ended up with a 6.05 ERA. The Cubs shipped him off to the Braves just before the 2004 season and he turned in a brilliant season in the 'pen and lowered his ERA to 2.75. The Braves flipped him to the A's in the Tim Hudson deal and it was implosion time as the ERA ballooned back up to 7.44! He was traded again in '06 to the Diamondbacks who tried and failed to put him back in a starter role. He didn't crackthe starting rotation, but he's been extremey successful as a set up man for Arizona the past three years. Unfortunately he may have been too successful, as he's currently stuck in free agent limbo. Juan had the best season of his life in '08 with a 2.61 ERA and 71 Ks in 51 2/3rds innings. This got him an A rating in the Elias player rankings, which means a team has to give up their first round pick to the D-Backs in order to sign him. Due to the fact that the free agent market is depressed and first round draft picks are like gold, no one has been willing to pay this price yet. Juan will be pitching somewhere in '09 though as he has established himself as a dependable set-up man.

Career MLB totals: 297 games, 515 innings pitched, 29-31 record, 535 Ks, 4.00 ERA, 1.383 WHIP

10 Nelson Cruz

Nelson is probably the most interesting prospect in the set so far. Nelson was signed by the Mets and was traded to the A's in 2000. In 2002 we was still a very raw prospect but with some massive upside. The A's traded him to Milwaukee in 2004, and he made his deput with them in 2005. He was then sent to the Rangers in the Carlos Lee deal in 2006. Nelson has absolutely murdered the minor leagues since 2004, but developed a reputation as a Quad-A player since he couldn't repeat that success once he was called in to the majors. In 2008 he obliterated the Pacific Coast League, tallying 37 homers and 99 RBIs in only 103 games while sporting a .342 average and a 1.124 OPS! This time however, when he was called up to the majors he kept on hitting. In 31 games with Texas he hit another 7 homers and added a .330 average and an insane 1.030 OPS on top of it. In 2009 Nelson has a chance to finally break through as a productive starter in the majors at age 28.

Career MLB totals: 176 games, 22 homers, .251 average, 70 runs, 82 RBI, 93 OPS+

Instead of cards 11-15 tomorrow, I have a surprise... stay tuned.

2002 Just Minors Gold Set - Cards 1-5

2002 wasn't that long ago, was it? It is long enough to tell if a minor leaguer has made it or not. Since you demanded it, I'm going to open up this set and go over each of the prospects in groups of five. There are some other goodies in here too, I'll space them out to build suspense.

This set is very different from the regular 2002 Just Minors set. Along with the gold borders, each prospect's picture is done in artwork by Noah Stokes. Noah is an artist from Dalton, GA who does a lot of sports themed art. He's got a cool blog if you want to check it out! The backs are kind of plain, there's a very light copy of the picture on the front with a short paragraph about the prospect. not much to look at, but I'll scan a couple of backs if you want. It's a classy looking set and the base cards, two filler cards and three 'special' cards would look nice in 5 plastic sheets.

The plan for the next couple of weeks is to post the prospect's card and see if he has made the bigs and how successful he has been. Most of the players featured are top 10 prospects for their franchise. Some have panned out nicely, some have flopped and many have gone on to new teams. Let's begin at the beginning...

1 Willy Aybar

Willy was the Dodger's #7 prospect in 2002 according to the back. He was a free agent signing in 2000 for a whopping $1.4 million. That money got the Dodgers 69 games from Willy before shipping him off to Atlanta with Denys Baez for Wilson Betemit (who will pop up soon). The trade was pretty bad for everyone involved. Betamit was flipped to the Yankees for Scott Proctor. Baez signed with the Orioles and bombed. Aybar was productive in Betamit's super sub role in 2006, but was suspended in 2007 for substance abuse problems and missed the entire year. He was traded to the Rays in '08 for Jeff Ridgway and held down third until Evan Longoria was ready. He his a big homer in the seventh game of the ALDS, but in '09 he looks to be stuck on the Rays' bench. He will be 26 this year and could come into his own with an injury or a new start on another club.

Career MLB totals: 200 games, 15 homers, .271 average, 77 runs, 73 RBI, 101 OPS+

2 Angel Berroa

Berroa made his debut in 2001 but still had his rookie eligability in '02. Angel broke out in 2003 and won the Rookie of the Year award over Hideki Matsui by only 4 points. He never came close to matching that performance however and lost his job to Tony Pena Jr. in 2007. He was traded to the Dodgers in 2008 for Juan Rivera and was a below-average replacement for Rafael Furcal. He is currently in the Yankees organization on a minor league deal.

Career MLB totals: 711 games, 46 homers, .260 average, 319 runs, 251 RBI, 50 SB, 77 OPS+

3 Wilson Betemit

Wilson is a little frustrating for me. He was the Braves #1 prospect, but was rushed into a cup of coffee at age 19 in 2001. He then languished in the minors looking nothing like the 5-tool prospect everyone was high on before reappearing in the bigs in 2004. He was effective as a bench player in 2005 and 2006 providing some needed Chipper Jones insurance, but was swapped to L.A. in the Baez/Aybar trade. He seems to have regressed somewhat in partial seasons with the Dodgers and Yankees, and still hasn't quite hit his stride. He was traded to the White Sox this offseason in the Nick Swisher trade, and has a shot to win a starting job in Spring Training. Wilson is no longer a prospect at 27 (maybe), and is facing some make or break seasons ahead.

Career MLB totals: 496 games, 42 homers, .260 average, 145 runs, 151 RBI, 95 OPS+

4 Hank Blalock

Hank is the first All-Star in the set, and had a memorable game as he bopped the winning homer off a worthless Eric Gagne who thought it would be fun to throw heat instead of actually pitch. Hey, now it counts! Hank made his debut for the Rangers in 2002, but came into his own as their starting third baseman in 2003. He had another excellent year in '04, but slumped badly in '05 and '06. The past two years he has once again been effective when healthy, but unfortunately that hasn't been very often. Hank will be looking for a comeback year in '09 as the Rangers' DH, as Michael Young is moving to third to accomodate rookie Elvis Andrus at short.

Career MLB totals: 787 games, 127 homers, .274 average, 437 runs, 469 RBI, 104 OPS+

5 Tony Blanco

Tony was ranked as Boston's #2 ranked prospect in 2002, but he has so far had the least success in the set. He was sent to the Reds in '02 as the player to be named later in the Todd Walker trade and was later picked up by the Nationals in the minor league draft. Tony played 56 games for the Nats in '05 but barely hit his weight and has not been above Double-A since. Tony played for the Tulsa Drillers last season and so far I have not been able to find out if he's got a job for '09 lined up yet.

Career MLB totals: 56 games, 1 homer, .177 average, 7 runs, 7 RBI, 30 OPS+

Poll's closed

The 2002 Just Prospects box beat Upper Deck by about 50 votes. I got 100 people to vote in the thing though! Here is a preview of what lies within courtesy my crappy little webcam. I'll start showing off actual cards tomorrow.

Here's the box! Shall we open it?

Hey, look at that! 95% of the box is taken up by a mini helmet! So where are the cards?

There they are! Let's take them out!

Wow, just a gold factory set. How is that going to keep us busy until Heritage comes out? Don't worry, it will...

And here is one last tease of the signed mini helmet. You didn't think I'd blow the big surprise on the very first post did you? Tsk tsk. You people have no patience.

Tomorrow night: same card-time, same card-channel... The first four or five cards from the 2002 Just Prospects Gold set! It's either four or five because I haven't decided if I want to do eight posts of five cards each or torture you a little more and do 10 posts of four cards each. You'll get actual cards tomorrow though, I promise!