Featured autograph - Yordan Alvarez

He might not have had many cards back when he played in the Arizona Fall League in 2017, so I had Alvarez sign a 2015 Topps Pro Debut Fragment of the Farm Round Rock Express seat relic I'd bought at a card shop - I thought I'd turned a non-player relic into something unique even if I had to wait a couple of years before Alvarez would presumably be playing his home games at the stadium where the relic was from.

As it goes, I didn’t actually look to see which big league team Round Rock was affiliated with at the time and what level [Round Rock had been the Texas Rangers’ Triple-A farm team since 2011, when I thought it was Houston's Double-A affiliate] - it's just not a big deal, but now I had this 'weird, phantom' in-person autograph card signed by a player whose relation with the subject featured on-card was non-existent.

Alvarez reached the Triple-A level in 2018 with the Fresno Grizzlies [when the Grizzlies were affiliated with the Astros] - but was in playing in Double-A when the Fresno made its only trip to Round Rock, so I couldn't say he at least played at the ballpark as a visiting player.

Go figure, after the completion of the 2018 season, the Astros ditched Fresno and had a new agreement with Round Rock to be their Triple-A affiliate - I could finally show off this card, signed by a Cuban slugger tearing up the Pacific Coast League so far as opposed to stashing it away in a box of fails.

2015 Topps Pro Debut breaks

I picked up six packs to have some loose cards to mix in with an incoming hand collated set - there is a subtle difference with the surface of the Pro Debut cards and regular MLB Topps cards; the players' images on the Pro Debut cards have a glossy coating while the backgrounds and borders are left matte.

Pack one
#24 Forrest Wall
#107 Justin Nicolino
#144 Blake Anderson
#60 Garrett Fulenchek
#172 Jorge Alfaro
#64 Rosell Herrera
#12 Peter O'Brien
#26 Christian Arroyo

Pack two
#94 Cole Tucker
#11 Kyle Zimmer
#36 Aaron Blair
#173 Luke Jackson
#153 Francellis Montas
#15 Tim Berry
#161 Derek Fisher
#67 Jesse Winker

Pack three
#190 Jameson Taillon
#89 Joe Gatto
#181 Nick Burdi
#76 Julio Morban
#PN-KC Keury De La Cruz - Promo Night Uniforms insert
#92 Joey Gallo
#66 Michael Chavis
#44 Max Pentecost

Pack four
#152 Billy McKinney
#185 Rafael Devers
#166 Aaron Nola
#DD-2 Nick Gordon - Distinguished Debuts insert
#131 Phil Ervin
#197 Hunter Harvey
#125 Carlos Correa
#84 Mark Appel

Pack five
#143 Henry Owens
#14 Francisco Lindor
#188 Patrick Wisdom
#104 Nick Wells
#145 Ozhaino Albies
#38 Reese McGuire
#70 Raimel Tapia
#194 Chance Sisco

Pack six
#93 Mike Freeman
#175 Nick Gordon
#200 Tyler Kolek
#48 Renato Nunez
#9 Justin O'Conner
#155 Jhoan Urena
#3 Josh Hader
#154 Rob Kaminsky