cards of future past

the latest in a long line of envelopes i've received from madding at cards on cards was packed with cards featuring some players from before we knew them and some players from before they weren't really known at all.

what i mean by that is that there were several cards from 2014 bowman draft, including some black parallels that were exclusive to asia packaging. here's corey seager's top prospects insert black (or some say asia) parallel

plus those same parallels of base cards featuring grant holmes, jeff brigham, and john richy

you know seager - he's a two-time world series champion - and grant holmes just recently made it to the major leagues with the braves. brigham has, at least to me, carved out a big league career under the radar, appearing in 94 games over parts of six seasons. he's currently with the cubs after pitching for the dbacks last year. richy made it to triple-a with the phillies after being part of the chase utley trade, but didn't get any further than that. richy was the dodgers' third round pick in the 2014 draft, with holmes being their first rounder and brigham their fourth. 

that just leaves the second round, and the dodgers used that pick on alex verdugo, whose chrome prospect card

was also included in the mailing. you know verdugo, of course, as he played for the dodgers and was sent to the red sox in the mookie betts trade. he struck out to end the 2024 world series, and then played half of the 2025 season for the braves. he is currently unsigned as i understand it.

kerry included some more recent cards of someone we may eventually know - 2025 bowman jesus tillero propsect and prospect chrome inserts

he's not quite 20 years old, and has pitched in rookie league and a-ball so far. let's see what happens!

here's an actual major leaguer card of edwin rios

it's a 2020 topps chrome refractor parallel. rios showed some pop for the dodgers in 2020, hitting 17 homers plus two in the postseason. his big league run ended with the reds in 2024.

dalton rushing's big league career is just beginning, and kerry sent a 2023 bowman platinum card

of the dodgers' backup catcher. he's in a tough spot with will smith firmly entrenched, but hopefully he gets his time or is spun off and given an opportunity elsewhere.

finally, a hyeseong kim ornament insert from 2025 topps holiday

kim is another current big leaguer who should see more action in 2026 than he did last year (if he's healthy) as tommy edman will miss some time to start the season.

all in all, another great envelope full of cards from cards on cards. thanks kerry!

examples of samples and more!

at some point in the late 1990s and/or early 2000s, i subscribed to beckett. sometimes the montly price guide would come with a sample card. it's how i obtained the kobe card i sent to fuji a while back, and it's how i have a few other sample cards in my collection.

i was never lucky enough to pull a steve garvey sample, however, so i was eager to purchase this card

when i saw it listed for sale. that's a 2002 donruss team heroes card, which happens to feature a fantastic broken bat photo. it's also stamped on the back:

if only i knew someone at a tool & die shop with some foil. i have no idea how many samples of each card were made, but this one came pretty cheaply.

speaking of samples, p-town tom recently sent me some cards, including a sample from the 1986 larry fritsch negro league baseball stars set:

here's the front

this was interesting to me because a few days prior, the 2021 fritsch catalog arrived in the mail.

it's a sort of throwback to earlier collecting days - ordering from a catalog rather than through ebay or sportlots or whatever other online vendor you might prefer.

the garv and his 1972 topps high number card are featured on the topps flagship set page

and here is the page that features the negro leagues baseball stars set that the jackie robinson card would have saved you a couple of bucks on

as for the jackie, it's not a dodger card really, but i will add it to the collection regardless!  similarly, i was happy to find this card

in the same envelope from tom. that's a will smith 2018 topps heritage minors card. i don't really go seeking the heritage minor league or the topps pro debut cards of recent years, but i am happy when they show up in the mailbox. 

the dodgers are committed to smith as their primary catcher, so much so that the team traded top prospect keibert ruiz to the nationals for max scherzer and trea turner, along with josiah gray. now, the dodgers have had good fortune in recent years with the prospects they've traded outside of yordan alvarez and his monster 2019 season. we will see when it comes to ruiz, gray, and jeter downs (who the dodgers acquired along with gray in the matt kemp/yasiel puig trade), although i will not complain about losing downs since the dodgers got mookie betts in that deal and won a world series as a result.

tom included some cards of a few of those other traded dodger prospects. here's a 2017 bowman willie calhoun prospects yellow parallel

calhoun was traded to the rangers in 2017 for yu darvish. darvish helped lead the dodgers to the world series for the first time in 30 seasons, but we know the rest. still, i was happy with the trade. calhoun has been playing in the majors for four or five years, but has a negative career war.

here's a 2017 topps jose de leon card

he was traded after this card was printed but before it was released to the rays for logan forsythe who was part of the 2017 pennant winning team. de leon was traded in 2018 to the reds, who released him earlier this year. he was signed by the red sox in august. he also has a negative career war as a major leaguer. 

finally, here's a 2015 bowman draft grant holmes chrome parallel

grant holmes was going to be the second coming of don sutton with his hair, but he never made it to the majors with the dodgers. he was dealt at the 2016 trading deadline (along with frankie montas and jharel cotton) to the a's in exchange for rich hill and josh reddick. hill was a big part of the dodger rotation during his seasons with the club. montas has had some success at the big league level, and cotton has pitched for the a's and rangers in the big leagues, but holmes has yet to make it to the show.

i wish all these guys the dodgers traded success, but not at the jose guzman/john franco/sid fernandez/pedro martinez post-dodger level!  thanks tom!

building a custom 2016 panini prime cuts box of my own

i recently considered purchasing a box of 2016 panini prime cuts.  i've picked up several 2016 panini steve garvey cards and have been very happy with them.  adding to my enthusiasm was a series of posts by the daily dimwit, who returned to the blogosphere to show off some great pulls from the product.

before i pulled the trigger, however, i listened to the angel on my shoulder who reminded me that it's probably wiser to purchase singles from the product since my collection is fairly focused.  that voice also reminded me that fuji had done something similar a while back.  so, i set out to build a custom box.

there are five cards per box, but i didn't pay attention to the typical splits (if there are typical boxes of prime cuts), i just focused on five cards for less than $149.95.  that was the price i was considering paying for a box.  let's see how i did.

first up is a fairly generic eddie murray relic card, numbered to 149

it's always nice to see guys like murray featured as a dodger in products.  better that than as a met.  here, eddie is all bundled up in blue and gray and has his signature little league hat under the helmet thing going on.  we don't see that very often these days.  this card cost me $6.98 (all prices include shipping).

next up is a auto biography (fairly clever, panini) auto/relic card of don sutton

this card is numbered to 10, and pays tribute to sutton's rookie season of 1966 when he won 12 games and had an era of 2.99.  the photo is not from 1966 (sutton's hair was straight then), but it's a classic sutton action pose. too bad that the card design doesn't allow for a 'suttoning' pose.  i enjoy picking up cards of sutton, as he was the only hall of famer on the team of my youth, and has been featured in a bunch of recent sets from panini and topps.  this card cost me $17.50.

next up is another card numbered to 10 - a dual patch clayton kershaw and don drysdale card

that's two great pitchers that go great together.  obviously, sandy koufax is usually the southpaw to drysdale's, what, right-handedness?  eight years ago, i was kind of hoping that kershaw and chad billingsley would form the same sort of dodger duo, but the closest the dodgers have come to sandy and don is a year or two of kershaw and zack greinke.  this card cost me $43.00.  i probably overpaid for that one.

here's kershaw all by himself on a patch card numbered to 25

i didn't see any red number patch versions, unfortunately.  the photo selection for kershaw is about the best panini could do.  the hat logo is missing, but otherwise there are no tell-tale signs of the lacking license.  this card cost me $22.50.

last up is the big hit.  it's a corey seager dual relic/auto numbered to 49.

aside from the blank jersey (which i do still find annoying), it's an on-card auto with some jersey (or pant) piping of the 2016 national league rookie of the year.  good stuff.  this card cost me $46.67.

so, i came in at $136.65 for my five cards. there's no jackie robinson relic, but i would have been very pleased with a box that had those five cards.  and, since i was under my price point, i added a sixth card - a basic mike piazza relic numbered to 149

for $8.98.  that's not a bad box, if i do say so myself.

speaking of the daily dimwit, i won a contest he ran shortly after he showcased all that prime cuts goodness, and he sent me a few dodgers as my prize. thanks sam!

here's former dodger prospect grant holmes on a 2015 bowman's best auto card

i was hoping that holmes would be the second coming of don sutton - both on the mound and with the hair - but now he's with the a's and just getting his first taste of double-a action.

this is a 2016 topps adrian gonzalez scouting report relic card

this one features a gray swatch, and i also have a white swatch version. relic variation, yo!  by the way, the scouting report i'm thinking of has cody bellinger hot on gonzalez's tail.

finally, here's my friend yasiel puig on a 2016 topps allen & ginter relic card

i watched two of the first three dodger games this season, and i liked what i saw from puig. hopefully he can keep it up for another 150+ games.