Shiny Battery

Too wiped out for a real post tonight, so here's a couple of shinies sent to me from Night Owl.

Purple Hanson pitches

to Bronze McCann

Both numbered to 599 for some reason. Bronze... Purple... I guess Topps has to mix it up every once in a while. Thanks Owlie.

Taste the Rainbow

In my one card review of Finest, I complained that the design of 2010 Finest was horrible, awfully boring, but maybe the refractors looked good. I found some refractors in the quarter box the other day so here's a comparison of a few of the different flavors of this year's refractors.

Here's a base card of Longoria. Evan is surrounded by a sea of gray gloom.

Here's the base refractor. These are numbered to 599 each. The dull gray is replaced by reflective silver. The logo in the background pops a little more. Nick looks releaved to be out of the dark.

The blue refractors look fantastic. These are numbered to 299 each. The background is a pretty solid blue unlike the next card.

Green refractors are umbered to 99. The scan looks a little better than the actual card. Since refractor technology has that holographic rainbow sheen to it, sometimes the rainbow drowns out the actual color. This one here especially looks more orangy violet than green. It doesn't overpower the blue refractor though.

There are also  red refractors numbered to 25 and one of one purple refractors  but those didn't end up in any quarter box I know of. I'm sure they are breathtakingly beautiful, which is why they had to be artificially made scarce so the plebes can't get a hold of them and harm the product's 'value'. Gotta keep them box prices high, at least in the first couple of months of release.

Free Money and Sex

No one seems to be interested in my Random Braves posts so I thought a new title might draw some interest. This one is current Brave #5, if you're keeping track.

This isn't strictly a Braves card, but it's a card of a Braves player. Brooks Conrad beat out Joe Thurston this spring for the last bench spot on the roster. I don't think he actually had a card of him in a Braves uniform (Well, maybe Gwinnett Braves) so a Bowman Chrome First Year refractor will have to do.

I'm so used to the Braves bringing up home grown talent that I was surprised to find out that Brooks started off in the Astros organization and has bounced all over the place since then. He's done a pretty good job off the bench for the Bravos. Last year he got off to a great start when he was called up and was getting extra base hits right and left. Brooks knocked himself another double last night coming off the bench. After suffering through a few Chris Woodwards off the bench in recent years I must say I'm happy with Brooks at the moment. 

The Collection is Slowly Building

I found this last night while scrounging for some trade bait. Now I officially have a base card, rookie card and a refractor of Casey segregated and in my Braves collection. I have more, it's just a matter of finding them now. I really need to clear out some junky old Rangers cards to make some more room in the box. Yep, I'm feeling good about ol' Casey. I wish I could say the same about the pitching staff. Whooo-eee, there's been some real stinkeroos plopped out by the hurlers recently.

Mirror Image Chipper Refractor

I sort of took this weekend off (the Jon Stewart show at the Cobb Auditorium was awesome) so I'm posting a simple one-card post to get kick started for the week. Here's a '97 Bowman's Best Mirror Image refractor I picked up last Friday. This card is a shiny mess. Four subjects, stuff crammed in every corner, even the legalese has to be put on the front and back just to cram it all in. It's got my beloved Chipper on it though, so who cares. Chipper is paired up with Adrian Beltre, who was the hot third base prospect at the time. There are quite a few cards pairing up Chipper and Adrian, too bad Adrian never lived up to his potential. Or at least, never lived up to that one career year that got him paid. The back (or front, actually) of the card pair up Matt Williams with Russell Branyan. Each prospect ended up a full level in talent below the Vet he was paired off with as is so often the case. Who cares, though. I bought it for the Chipper and the shiny.

In a weird bit of synchronicity, I checked Wax Heaven this morning to see that Mario posted the Jose Cruz/ Griffey Jr. version of this card as well. Strange 'cause I scanned the cards last night and was just too lazy to post. Crazy wild stuff happenin' on teh interwebs today...

Old Blaster Break - 2007 Bowman Draft Picks

This was the last blaster I opened from 2007. I had cards scanned and ready to post when 2008 Topps went live and I kinda got distracted after that. My 2008 frenzy has subsided, and other than maybe Finest, I'm not going to go crazy over any new product until A&G or Goudey or whatever retro product is on the slate for this year hits the shelves. Now I can catch up on stuff like this and you guys can get a break from the "all Heritage - all the time" format I've had for the past couple of weeks. Here's the results from a pretty successful blaster break:

Black & Green border Rookie cards - 15
BDP12 Cameron Maybin RC
BDP17 Jon Knott
BDP18 Joba Chamberlain RC
BDP22 Sean Gallagher
BDP24 Dennis Dove
BDP27 Ben Francisco
BDP28 Doug Slaten RC
BDP34 Matt Brown RC
BDP36 Carlos Gomez RC
BDP40 Andy LaRoche
BDP43 Yunel Escobar
BDP46 Homer Bailey
BDP48 Angel Sanchez RC
BDP51 Kevin Slowey
BDP52 Brendan Ryan

Not a bad group of rookies including true rookie cards of Joba and Maybin. I got the Yunel Escobar card too which was a highlight for me at least. (RC means a true rookie card according to the February 2008 Beckett Rookie Card Issue)

Black & Red border Veteran card - 1
237 Barry Bonds

Yeah, got another one of these too...

White and Blue border Prospect cards - 16
BDPP6 Ed Easley
BDPP14 Travis D'Arnaud
BDPP18 Eric Sogard
BDPP21 Austin Gallagher
BDPP40 Jeremy Hefner
BDPP41 Reynaldo Navarro
BDPP45 Ryan Pope
BDPP46 Josh Horton
BDPP49 Jonathan LuCroy
BDPP55 David Price
BDPP59 Wendell Fairley
BDPP69 Clay Buchholz
BDPP77 Clayton Kershaw
BDPP82 Robinzon Diaz
BDPP90 Alcides Escobar
BDPP103 Jay Bruce

I got the #1 rookie card in Joba and now the #1 Draft Pick in David Price. Nice. Jay Bruce is also a nice prospect for the Reds (even though Corey Patterson just stole his job). The Clay Buchholz card is cool, but it's apparently not even his first Bowman card. He's nowhere to be found in the Beckett Rookie Issue either so who knows what his first card is. Makes you think about his 2008 MLB RC logo cards, doesn't it?

Gold & Green border Rookie cards - 15
BDP34 Matt Brown RC
BDP40 Andy LaRoche

I already pulled the regular black border version of both these cards in the box. My philosophy with this set since there's so many parallels is to just get one of each card regardless of whether it's thick, chrome or plain so this is a bummer.

Gold and Blue border Prospect cards - 5
BDPP30 Justin Jackson
BDPP54 Jason Heyward
BDPP64 Matt LaPorta
BDPP73 Kevin Mulvey
BDPP93 Adrian Cardenas

Three 2007 first round picks, including the coveted Jason Heyward. Matt LaPorta is no slouch either and could hit 30 homers for the Brewers sometime in the next few years. Beckett says Heyward is best compared to Ken Griffey Jr. (!!!) then qualifies it with "of recent seasons". I don't know whether I should be happy or angry at Beckett.

Chrome Black & Green border Rookie cards - 4
BDP22 Sean Gallagher
BDP27 Ben Francisco
BDP34 Matt Brown RC
BDP46 Homer Bailey

Only four black border RC Chromes in the box. I did hit the Matt Brown Trifecta though. Beckett compares him to Jeff Cirillo. Oh goody.

Chrome Black & Red border Veteran card - 1
237 Barry Bonds

At least I didn't get the Gold parallel card...

Chrome White and Blue border Prospect cards - 10
BDPP2 Karl Bolt
BDPP3 Corey Brown
BDPP4 Tyler Mach
BDPP7 Cory Luebke
BDPP8 Darin Mastroianni
BDPP16 John Ely
BDPP30 Justin Jackson
BDPP88 German Duran
BDPP99 Evan Longoria
BDPP100 Wladimir Balentien

The only two I've heard of out of this lot are Longoria and Balentien and they are both Futures Game cards. On a completely unrelated note, while looking for some of these players in the Beckett, I noticed that the player Elijah Dukes is compared to is Toe Nash. Ouch.

Chrome White and Blue border Prospect cards - 1
BDPP18 Eric Sogard

I finally pulled a refractor! Eric was a second round pick of the Padres out of Arizona State last year. Here's a pretty cool ESPN chat with Eric from the College World Series right after he got drafted. I like this card. With the ivy in the background ( is he at Wrigley?) along with Eric's hipster glasses and goatee, it looks like he's about to to play a folk set on his acoustic guitar at an organic coffee shop. "I gave my love a cherry, that had no stone..."

Relic Card - All Star Futures Game Jersey - 1
BDPP89 J.R. Towles

Refractor AND a relic! Jackpot! Towles is one of those players I would have never ever heard of if not for baseball cards. I immediately became a fan once I saw his odd looking Bowman Heritage prospects card, and Chris Harris has a great take on his Topps Heritage RC. J.R. is expected to take over for Brad Ausmus behind the plate for the 'Stros this year and could be a sleeper in your fantasy drafts. A nice hit, I'll be watching J.R. this year to see if he can repeat that 1.007 OPS he put up in 14 games with the Astros last year. (hint: he won't)


Not a shabby break at all. I almost with I had a recent Beckett lying around so I could drool over the book values of the Joba and Price. The good thing is that blasters of this stuff are still pretty readily available if you want to take a break from the new stuff and go chasing rookies and picks.

The Big Refractor Mountains

(with extreme apologies to Harry McClintock)

One evening as the sun went down and my auctions were all ending
On the message board came a cardboard junkie and he said boys I'm not trading
I'm headin for a land that's far away where autograph ink flows like fountains
So come with me we'll go and see the Big Refractor Mountains

In the Big Refractor Mountains there's a land that's fair and bright
Where the short prints grow on bushes and your pulls are out of sight
Where the want lists are all empty and the sun shines every day
On the waived shipping fees and the jersey card trees
No more corner dings on your Diamond Kings
In the Big Refractor Mountains

In the Big Refractor Mountains all the snipers never beat
Your bid for the Phil Rizzuto card with the piece of Yankee seat
The cases are all full of vintage cards that you need for your set
And the dealer guy says you can buy
Them all half off, he's got to fly
To the Big Refractor Mountains

In the Big Refractor Mountains Paypal's server doesn't crash
They'll never lock out your account and swipe your hard-earned cash
The feedback is all positive and the eBayers are all kind
There's a lake of Yoo-hoo and of Mountain Dew
You can paddle all around 'em with Rod Carew
In the Big Refractor Mountains

In the Big Refractor Mountains you never pull a double
Unless you can flip it for twice the cash without any trouble
There ain't no PSA Qualifiers, no OCs, STs or MKs
I'm a goin to stay where you rip packs all day
Where they hung the schmuck who outbid you by a buck
On those Big Refractor Mountains

I'll see you all this coming fall in the Big Refractor Mountains!

(this bit of silliness was inspired by this post by Ben)