2014 Donruss box topper - Stephen Strasburg #18

I saw an unopened 5x7 one-card pack and picked it up for $2 to see if I could end up with something to get signed in-person or to see if I'd pulled a certified Signatures version - I ended up with an unsigned Strasburg, which probably ends up somewhere in my oddball 'to be signed' pile, where one day I hope to pull it out if I ever run into Strasburg again [not that I haven't gotten his sig before, but I haven't seen him in-person since 2009].

Stephen Strasburg MIA?

I don't hear too much about the supposed ace of the Washington Nationals anymore though I assume he's never been quite a peach and the less national attention he gets - the more comfortable he feels as long as he can go out and dominate on the mound.

However, it's been three or four years already since Strasburg was hyped as the greatest thing since sliced bread - though pitching relatively well despite his W-L record, maybe he doesn't seem to be as sure of a thing at the ripe old age of 24.

It's not like his future is all behind him - but I wonder if fans and or experts will ever get an opportunity to talk about his talent like a Justin Verlander or Felix Hernandez any time soon.

Strasburg missed much of the 2011 season after coming back from Tommy John surgery - in 2012, wasn't allowed to finish the 2012 season and it was a strange decision for the Nationals to make, even with Strasburg's long-term interests in mind.

I guess Strasburg has to take a back seat to position player and teammate Bryce Harper on the Nationals - and apparently Strasburg is no Matt Harvey, who is the hot rookie pitcher of the moment in Major League Baseball.

More 2013 Topps - a couple of manufactured relics and a random Daniel Descalso base card

I wasn't going to be caught up in the new release hype of Topps' flagship brand but after browsing through eBay - the manufactured patch card set featuring Topps first cards / rookie cards of various star players caught my eye.

I ended up picking up two blaster boxes in addition to the 72-card hanger box I purchased at Walmart and pulled a Ryne Sandberg 1983 commemorative rookie patch relic in my first box - I've never pulled a Topps framed silk insert and while reprint cards have been sort of redundant, it's kind of neat to see various Topps first cards / rookie cards this way, from Willie Mays' first Topps card in 1952 to Yu Darvish's 2012 Topps rookie card.

Topps is definitely preying on collectors' nostalgia once again by using cards from previous years' Topps releases to come up with this 25-card insert set - however, the novelty of such inserts however is appealing, so I'll probably be caught up looking to pick up one or two more Topps Series I blasters than I already have.

In my second blaster box, I pulled a commemorative patch relic of Stephen Strasburg - not all blaster boxes will contain a rookie patch relic and while I'd rather have a rookie patch relic, this card features a nice, manufactured patch of the Washington Nationals' logo alongside a mugshot of the franchise's ace pitcher.

This Topps card [#190] is my early favorite of 2013 - it looks like Descalso's about to dunk [or in reality, caught in the air for a moment as he's trying to throw someone out of at first base].

Stephen Strasburg - just living the dream

This isn't a recent Stephen Strasburg image, but one I took during the 2009 Arizona Fall League - take a look closer at the nice orderly crowd of adults jockeying to get Strasburg's autograph.

Maybe the most refreshing thing to see Tuesday night in Strasburg's Major League debut was he came out and lived up to the hype for one night - not in a pump your chest for everybody to see kind of way, but to simply go out and dominate with zero walks allowed and 14 strikeouts in seven innings kind of way.   

What wasn't surprising, but perhaps a little depressing is this whole cottage industry - where everyone wants a piece of Strasburg [his $16,000 baseball card], everyone wants a say [maybe the pundits or experts at various 'online outlets,' Baseball America, ESPN, et al] and/or everyone is looking to sell a piece of him [Major League Baseball, Topps].

He has an entire Major League Baseball career infront of him and perhaps he'll be a superstar realized - but there isn't a novelty factor to this guy because everyone basically predicted what he was going to do from the time he signed his first professional contract.

Now after his first Major League start along the way - all Strasburg has to do is strikeout 14 or more guys the rest of his starts [throw a no-hitter and/or perfect game, strikeout 20 batters] in 2010 as a tease to what he is going to do when he actually matures as a Major League pitcher.

My purchase - a 2010 Bowman Prospects set

I wanted to see what the 2010 Bowman cards looked like, but obviously it has been an overhyped product since its release - with the lottery / rat race mentality of speculators and collectors alike chasing Stephen Strasburg's first-year [non-USA team, not unlicensed Tristar] parallels / autographed cards. 

I ended up getting a hand collated base set of the prospects [around $30 shipped from a seller on eBay] - so at least I can have a basic Stephen Strasburg first-year card for my personal collection and also get a complete set of 109 other prospect cards featuring such up-and-comers like Jose Iglesias [Boston Red Sox], Starlin Castro [Chicago Cubs], Aroldis Chapman [Cincinnati Reds], Dustin Ackley [Seattle Mariners; card looks too dark for an autograph], Donavan Tate [San Diego Padres; card looks too dark for an autograph], Hak-Ju Lee [Chicago Cubs], Wilmer Font [Texas Rangers], Brett Jackson [Chicago Cubs], Thomas Neal [San Francisco Giants], Grant Green [Oakland Athletics], et al.  

The Strasburg card should be a $10-$15 card by itself, though by the end of the year - Topps will have likely rolled the presses on releasing various basic, non-autograph MLBPA rookie cards [~Actual rookie cards people! Not just these silly 'first year' cards printed of guys who haven't thrown one pitch or had one at-bat in the Major Leagues~] of Strasburg, along with more valuable parallels/ autograph cards. 

2009 Tristar Prospects Plus box break recap

Even though the cards feature the same Stephen Strasburg sketched image [which makes him look a little sickly, a little ghostly] - just for novelty's sake, I was happy to pull a base card, a short print variation card [pictured, has a box around the card number on the back] and an Obak Update card of the professional pitching phenom. 

2009 Tristar Projections [20 packs per box, six cards per pack] - I think I'm still making up for a month during the off-season when I was out of the country and having just a little leftover spending money [after spring training] is giving me some confidence in picking up various packs / boxes. 

I was able to pick up a box of 2009 Tristar Projections for around $40 [during a special through a place that does blow out prices on some boxes / packs] - I didn't get a free preview box, like a number of card bloggers have, but these cards maybe the most attractive of Tristar's Prospect Plus series.  

In the end, these are still minor league cards, ones not officially licensed by Minor League Baseball - but once I finally had the cards in-hand, I may actually like these better than the 2010 Topps Pro Debut.

While the logos on the players' uniforms are edited out, it isn't as much of a distraction because the cards' graphics look pretty clean with foil stamping used - though it maybe subjective, the images are generally sharp with backgrounds washed out [at times, it seems like images on cards are cluttered up by stuff in the background].  

Collation may not be a card company's responsibility, but it feels so good to be only one card short [#78] of putting together the 100 card base set - sorting the cards isn't as messy if I don't have too many doubles / triples to deal with. 

I'd also rather have as many different cards towards the base set - instead of missing cards towards the base set I was expecting to pull [and end up not pulling, so now I have to find some way to get the cards without picking up another box of a particular product]. 

It looks like I got my 11 hits out of the box, including four different autographs - these cards have been out for perhaps four or five months already and I'd read some initial 'box bust' reports where people were getting four autographs of the same guy out of a box.

#44 Tommy Joseph autograph; serial #'d 08/50

#29 Matthew Davidson autograph - serial #'d 22/50

#38 Victor Black autograph; serial #'d 095/199

#50 Robert Stock autograph; serial #'d 13/25

#108 Drew Storen - Crystal Ballers; serial numbered #22/50

#116 Kristopher Hobson - Crystal Ballers

#57 Adam Warren - parallel; serial #'d 34/50

#24 Slade Heathcott serial #'d 09/50

#4 Tony Sanchez - SP variation card with a box around the number.

#115 Stephen Strasburg - Obak Update card