2018 Topps Opening Day blaster box

If the base design was more original, rather than looking like flagship Topps, then Opening Day would be much more interesting rather than redundant - OD is a cheap product with all sorts of fun inserts and I guess if I wanted baseball cards, maybe these are an alternative the non-MLB licensed Panini Donruss.

I see myself as a low end collector, though it doesn't mean I can't be a 'card snob' and an insecurity I might have is pulling MLB rookie logo cards out of a cheaper version of the flagship Topps product - it probably won't ever happen where any number of guys with rookie cards in this year's class will turn into Clayton Kershaw or Mike Trout, but I don't want it where if that does happen, I end holding 'Opening Day' version (s) of a base rookie instead of the 'flagship' ones.

But go figure, one of the reasons I grabbed a $10 blaster was to chase after a Shohei Ohtani rookie card, which isn't in Topps Series I - OD sets with his cards may have been selling on ebay for $15, so I could have gone that route for a cheap RC of the pitcher / DH, but it's a more exciting to pull one if I have the chance.

Pack one

#153 Addison Russell

#84 Starling Marte

#BOD-MK Mikie Mahtook - Before Opening Day insert

#191 Matt Wieters - Yellow Printing Plate 1 of 1; I was hoping this was Bryce Harper or at least Daniel Murphy, but my first printing plate pull made this blaster pretty good already.

I realize the Wieters is probably only worth just about what I paid for the entire box - but I like the metallic texture of printing plates, especially when the player's image is visible.

#89 Jeff Samardizija

#189 Steven Souza Jr.

#95 Dexter Fowler

Pack two

#97 Kevin Kiermaier

#197 Parker Bridwell

#8 A.J. Pollock

#M-11 Paws - Mascots insert

#195 Marcell Ozuna

#52 Justin Verlander

#152 Jake Arrieta

Pack three

#108 Marcus Stroman

#15 Adam Jones

#115 Ryan McMahon

#TTC-YD YMCA Dance - Team Traditions & Celebrations insert

#45 Trevor Story

#145 Zach Britton

#32 Raisel Iglesias

Pack four

#29 Carlos Rodon

#129 Francisco Mejia

#42 Jon Gray

#ODB-PP Opening Day in Pittsburgh - Opening Day insert

#132 Walker Buehler

#27 Ian Happ

#127 Victor Robles

Pack five

#142 Paul Goldschmidt

#58 Cody Bellinger

#158 Corey Kluber

#BDO-MT Mike Trout - Before Opening Day insert

#24 Kyle Schwarber

#124 Nicky Delmonico

#9 Jake Lamb

Pack six

#69 Jacob DeGrom

#169 Kenley Jansen

#18 Trey Mancini - Opening Day Edition parallel

#M-17 Mr. Met - Mascots insert

#109 Anthony Rendon

#4 Mike Trout

#104 Nomar Mazara

Pack seven

#80 Maikel Franco

#90 Hunter Pence

#190 Cole Hamels

#TTC-RM Rally Monkey - Team Traditions & Celebrations insert

#59 Corey Seager

#159 Edwin Encarnacion

#68 Noah Syndergaard

Pack eight

#57 Yasiel Puig

#157 Jesse Winker

#49 Yulieski Gurriel

#M-1 Sluggerrr - Mascots insert

#168 Yu Darvish

#176 Aroldis Chapman

#76 Khris Davis

Pack nine

#149 Xander Bogaerts

#46 Miguel Cabrera

#146 Chris Davis

#BOD-MS Miguel Sano - Before Opening Day insert

#87 Hunter Renfroe

#187 Matt Carpenter

#94 Adam Wainwright

Pack 10

#37 Carlos Carrasco

#137 Miguel Andujar

#23 Willson Contreras

#ODB-CL Opening Day in Cleveland - Opening Day insert

#194 Alex Colome

#100 Joey Gallo

#200 Shohei Ohtani - I pulled a 1 of 1 printing plate, a Bridwell base, a Trout insert, a Trout base, a Rally Monkey insert and this card I was looking for, so why don't I have strong feelings about Opening Day again?

Pack 11

#123 Chance Sisco

#12 Nick Markakis

#112 Max Scherzer

#TTC-KC King’s Court - Team’s Traditions & Celebrations

#65 Joe Mauer

#165 Alcides Escobar

#39 Francisco Lindor

The Angels could use off-season help

As a fan, I bang the drum for the Angels so I have something to look for as far as a big league team to collect - with the exception of all-world Mike Trout and Albert Pujols however, the Angels have really been hard to watch in recent seasons.

With the big league team presumably desperate to contend with Trout 'just' entering his prime years - the Angels need to fill some big holes sooner than never.

With injuries knocking out starting pitchers left and right for much of the year [and maybe through next year] -  the team was forced to start guys like the corpse of Tim Lincecum, Ghoulish Chacin, something called a 'Brett Oberholtzer' and Jeff Weaver.

Picking up a Jose Quintana or Chris Sale is totally unrealistic, but I can dream about that No. 1 or No. 2 guy the Angels have not had in recent seasons - the team would probably need to empty their barren farm system to get one of those guys and so be it, since there should be no particular minor leaguer the Angels must hold onto.

The obvious problem is every other team looking to get Quintana or Sale has a deeper set of prospects to trade off - maybe outfield prospect Jahmai Jones, a couple of pitchers [Nate Smith and/or Grayson Long] and money is just not going to get anything done.

As far as position players, the Angels need a second baseman and longtime Cincinnati Red Brandon Phillips may help - he is going to be 36, but he's a guy that has put up counting numbers with the bat and you take what you can get [hopefully his OPS+ gets a bit north of 100] if you can trot him out at second base for at least 130 games in 2017.

Finally the Angels probably need a competent veteran catcher - after Geovany Soto didn't play much due to injuries, Jett Bandy did emerge as a viable semi-regular option while Carlos Perez kind of plateaued as a strictly a backup guy with limited upside.

The Angels might need to go out and get Matt Wieters - he was never the great hitting all-around catcher people anticipated as he made his way to the Major Leagues, but if the 30-year old is healthy to play 120 games behind the plate, he probably does enough good things to be an asset.

Another option would be Brian McCann, who would give the Angels lineup a lefty hitter with pop to lengthen the lineup a little bit in addition to the usual Trout and Pujols power duo - maybe money and a prospect of some sort would get McCann to Anaheim.

A caveat is McCann is going to be 33, an age where many catchers seemingly crater with the bat - will the Angels be able to give McCann time at DH [Pujols] or first base [C.J. Cron] to get his bat into the lineup when he's not catching.

Ranking the 30 MLB teams on my watch - Baltimore Orioles #15 of 30

Chris Davis, Manny Machado and Adam Jones make this team go round and round - though it remains to be seen whether Davis can duplicate his monster season, whether Machado can recover from the leg injury he suffered and whether Adam Jones can continue to be a center fielder with the ability to hit with some pop.

I do wonder what happened to Nick Markakis - he bounced back to play 160 games this past season but isn't the rising star he once was in his mid 20's, especially when he had a .356 slugging percentage.

Is the corpse of Brian Roberts still haunting the team ?] - it's been suspect that he hasn't been able to play a full season since 2009.

I'm sure he is still a fan favorite with the Orioles, even though he has only gotten to play on a sporadic basis - but I wonder if he was doing something in his mid 20's that caught up with him in his 30's.

Has Matt Wieters' star dimmed [?] - once annointed a future superstar at catcher, he's been a decent player who hasn't quite lived up to the massive hype and had a down season with the bat in 2013.

2009 Upper Deck Series One and Two combo blaster recap

My irrational longing for card #U35 picturing Matt Wieters led me to this lone blaster at a Target for $19.99 - it seems like the only baseball blasters were Fan Paks and one blaster of 2009 Topps T-206.

I had a $25 gift card [which was passed down to me for my birthday as an impromptu present from my father] burning a hole in my pocket - I looked for the Upper Deck Series 1&2 combo packs blaster box at another Target and couldn't find it.

When I finally found one, it just felt right to pick it up - though I could be looking for a base card [maybe worth $7-$10 right now] of the next Eric Munson and not the next Thurman Munson.

There are 10 packs in each blaster featuring 18 cards per clear plastic wrap pack - including two Generation Now inserts, two Upper Deck Update cards and one 20th Anniversary insert.

The Upper Deck Update cards seem like UD's response to Topps' inclusion black/Throwback parallels in retail blasters - as far as I know, the Update cards [50 in the set] from Upper Deck only come in Series I&II combo fat packs and in blaster boxes.

I started ripping once I got in the car - after nine packs and 162 cards in, I was down to my last clear plastic wrap pack and conceded this break might very well be a 'bust,' since I hadn't pulled the Wieters card that had been the object of my lust.

Seriously, was I going to be stuck with the packaging - as the only tangible thing picturing Wieters I could keep?

Seriously, why do I care about a base, non-autograph, non-serial numbered or limited parallel card of an overhyped top prospect - who did have a solid, if unspectacular rookie year.

Instead of thumbing through the cards from the front, for the last pack, I thumbed from the back - the first Update card was Mat Latos and second Update card, in the final pack was Wieters.

Last pack

36 Daniel Cabrera
99 Johnny Cueto
116 Todd Helton
221 Jason Kendall
400 Jesus Flores
421 Mat Gamel
435 Chicago White Sox - Team Leaders subset
U35 Matt Wieters
GN 27 Joba Chamberlain - Generation Now insert
U21 Mat Latos
GN 13 Chase Utley - Generation Now insert
2131 Pluto - 20th Anniversary insert
#630 Ryan Speier
646 Dallas McPherson
623 Seth Smith
881 Jason LaRue
976 Prince Fielder
871 Khalil Greene

I didn't faint or anything like that but was relieved I had the card in my fat, grubby hands - frickin' mission accomplished, Chief.