Mark Trumbo

The Angels fanbase loved him, though only times I really enjoyed his talent was when he would hit dingers - for whatever reasons, he was never a personal favorite and I was glad that he has since moved on.

I used to wonder what it was like to be a home grown talent and play for the MLB team 10-15 minutes away from where you grew up - I don't know if Trumbo was entirely comfortable with being that guy and it seemed like it was more of a burden.

I'm curious to see if Trumbo gets better and bounces back from a stress fracture in his foot - though he isn't the Angels problem anymore and general manager Jerry DiPoto may have made a shrewd move when he traded Trumbo in the offseason for couple of lefty starters [Tyler Skaggs/Hector Santiago] who look pretty decent so far.

Haven't bought any cards lately

But this coupon book might come in handy as far as some impulsive purchases - I'm going to try to find a 2014 Topps Heritage blaster box and see if I could get $5 off.

2014 Topps Opening Day pack recaps

Pack one
#1 Mike Trout
#61 Yonder Alonso
#BO-9 Joe Mauer - Breaking Out insert

#25 Torii Hunter - Opening Day Edition parallel serial #'d 0781/2014
#28 Kyle Seager
#57 Andrelton Simmons
#201 Tony Cingrani

Pack two
#63 Starling Marte
#98 Jose Altuve
#34 Jeremy Hellickson

#UP-2 Yasiel Puig - Fired Up insert
#160 Nate Schierholtz
#19 Koji Uehara
#106 Matt Moore

Pack three
#158 Nolan Arenado
#175 Trevor Plouffe
#89 Julio Teheran

#ODS-1 Mike Trout - Opening Day Stars insert; with the start of an exhibition Freeway Series between the Angels and Dodgers Thursday, let's just say pulling a couple of Trout cards were the closest I got to him on the day.
#16 Carlos Gonzalez
#114 Adam Dunn
#165 Jose Iglesias

2014 Topps Series I blaster recap

I was going to pick up a 2014 Topps Opening Day blaster since I've seen a few random breaks and it looks like cheap fun with assorted inserts to be pulled - along with possible autographs and even image variations.

However, the guaranteed lure of a commemorative patch card along with two Target Red parallels per pack steered me towards my first 2014 Topps blaster instead - even though at first I'd actually bought a blaster without the Target red parallels inserted and returned the 'dud' blaster to look for a blaster marked as having the parallels.

It seems like the idea of continuing to pick up 2014 Topps unopened packs / blasters is something I'm still interested in even though I have all the base cards from 2014 Topps Series I - maybe because there might be inserts [or specifically parallels] to still pull that are a little different than just the base cards.

With the right 2014 Topps blaster in-hand and at home, I'm going through a 'detailed' break where I list the contents from the 8-card packs - as I flip through the cards, what I start noticing is most of the cards in middle of the packs all have at least one mashed corner; maybe the cards are packed too tight and 'can't breathe.'

Is pulling a 'bunch' of cards with at least one corner mashed considered merely a bad run [?] - it looks like I have to return most of the Target red borders and other inserts and maybe a few base since they don't look to great.

The best card to come out of the blaster was from the commemorative patch pack - I pulled a 2012 Topps rookie reprint of Yu Darvish [#RCP-16] and the card is nice, even though it looks like the prices for these types of cards have bottomed out on ebay.

I stayed away from 2014 Topps Series I blasters because I thought these reprint cards were redundant, considering these are similar to last year's rookie card patches - unlike last year's version, only the image is reprinted in a 'silk' cloth material, while the actual card design is integrated as part of the border that 'holds' the image.

Maybe I'll look for more of the rookie card reprints since they are not as bulky as last year's rookie card patches and it's not as cumbersome to have in-hand I guess - I still think I should have gone with the 2014 Topps Opening Day blaster.