April 1, 2026 • 34 mins
Baseball is officially underway and we are here for our “Small Samples, Big Reactions” segment. We discuss which players are off to a hot start and how legit is it for the hobby card market. We also do a small dive into the new Topps Transcendent release today along with the Topps Chrome Black preorders.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:09):
Hello and welcome to the Talking Cards Podcast with
Grand Salami and the Juice.
I am the Juice, along here withBert, who's fresh off his
vacation.
How are you doing?
SPEAKER_02 (00:20):
I'm doing good, man.
I'm happy to be back in 40degree Seattle and not in the 90
degree, 90% humidity.
It's not my bag, baby.
That's not my bag.
SPEAKER_01 (00:28):
Well, not only are you back, but baseball is
officially back.
And we're rolling.
We are rolling.
We got a few games in under ourbelt.
We're ready to get theoverreactions going.
We'll talk about that.
SPEAKER_02 (00:39):
We love overreacting.
We love nothing more thanoverreacting to four-game sample
sizes.
It's what the hobby revolvesaround.
SPEAKER_01 (00:46):
It's what everything revolves around in baseball.
SPEAKER_02 (00:49):
Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_01 (00:50):
You can totally tell what a 162-game season is going
to look like after four games,and we will tell you the exact
breakdown of which teams aregoing to go 162-0, who's on pace
for 82 homers.
We'll get into all of that.
But the first thing we're goingto talk about is a release that
is coming out today as of theepisode's release date.
The ultra premium product thatgoes for over$20,000 a box.
(01:15):
2025 tops transcendent.
So I'll let you talk about umhow you feel about it in like
previous years.
Uh, because there's not a lot ofinfo on this year.
There's no checklist that I seeavailable.
But when you think ofTranscendent, what do you think
about?
SPEAKER_02 (01:30):
Well, first thing I think about when I think about
Transcendent was getting backinto the hobby and joining
joining those Houdini random hitbreaks.
Did you ever join any of those?
Yeah.
That was like 2020, I think 2020Tops Transcendent, 2021 Tops
Transcendent.
It was around the time that hepulled that Abraham Lincoln cut
auto.
That was pretty sick.
SPEAKER_01 (01:47):
I remember I would join those, and um after so what
he would do is he would he wouldrip the whole case, and then
there'd be like he know how manycards there were in there.
And then after he reveals allthe cards, then he would
randomize them to everyone.
So as you're watching, you don'tknow before what you hit, you
know after.
So you see these and you'relike, oh man, I have a chance at
this a blinking autograph orthis or that.
(02:10):
So I'd be looking at it and I'dlook at the whole list and I'd
say, All right, so two out ofevery three cards are cards that
I really like and that I wouldbe glad that I paid the spot
price for.
And I joined multiple ones.
I never ever hit those two outof three cards.
The odds always worked againstme on that.
But then I think I mentionedbefore one year I did get the
one-on-one Jared Kellenickrookie auto back when he was
(02:32):
hyped guy.
That was that that made up for alot of it.
Did you sell it at the righttime, at least?
I think I told the story of whenI did the blind trade with Tom
from Real Breaks from RealSports Cards, and he sent me a
bunch of stuff.
Yeah, that's great.
That's right.
That's right.
Yeah, and it and it worked outvery nicely for me and not so
nicely for him, unfortunately.
SPEAKER_02 (02:52):
Yeah.
Anyways, that's where my headgoes when I think about
Transcendent and kind of ofcourse Transcendent back then
was a lot different back in2020, 2021.
And then it changed for thefirst time, really, last year,
into this new configuration.
Kind of a completely differentproduct in a lot of ways.
But yeah, one box per case.
Your box is gonna have eight tonine autos.
Pre-sale price right now on alot of secondary sites is like
(03:14):
upwards of$20,000,$22 to$25,000.
I've been seeing, but nochecklist.
You will get a super fractor ineach one of your boxes.
You're gonna get eight to nineautos.
There's gonna be some massivehits.
I think a lot of the a lot ofthe preview images that Tops has
shared are pretty cool.
You just kind of wonder like, isthe juice worth the squeeze?
SPEAKER_01 (03:37):
I'm uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_02 (03:37):
Yeah, is the squeeze?
SPEAKER_00 (03:39):
Oops.
I that was totallyunintentional.
SPEAKER_01 (03:45):
Anyway, yeah, so this product, obviously, to buy
a box, not for everyone to getinto a break, not for everyone.
This is the highest budget ofthe highest budget to get into,
but it's just it's fun to watch.
You know, if you like justwatching rips and seeing cool
stuff, you know, this isn't likewatching series one where you're
watching cases in cases, hopingto see like something remotely
(04:07):
cool.
Like you're gonna see a box, andyeah, it's like it's like
watching national treasures forPanini, but 10 times that in my
opinion.
SPEAKER_02 (04:15):
I know you've been looking at some of the breaks,
even though there's nochecklist, but there's breaks
being sold on Fnatic's Live, ofcourse, and other places.
What are you seeing in terms ofprices on on some of these?
SPEAKER_01 (04:25):
Uh Leyden, I've seen the best prices for so far.
I've seen teams for as low as100 to a few hundred bucks.
I don't know how these guys arepricing them out without an
actual checklist, or if theyhave some info I don't, because
I've even seen player breaks.
SPEAKER_00 (04:36):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (04:37):
So nothing makes sense to me.
It says the set size 100 cards.
I think I've seen the playerbreaks with over 250 spots or
over 200 spots.
So I don't understand.
I I know that there's cardsoutside of the main set, but to
more than double that, I don'tget where where they're getting
these uh names from.
But yeah, if you look in theright places, you can always
find a decent price and you havea decent chance to hit something
(04:57):
cool.
The singer prices.
SPEAKER_02 (04:59):
The Houdinis, those those random random hit breaks
were like$500 a spot, but theconfiguration was a lot
different.
SPEAKER_00 (05:06):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (05:06):
Now if you think about it, it's what 32 cards in
a box slash case.
And if you're pricing that outat secondary at$25,000, you're
looking at what$800,$900 a spotat minimum for one car if you do
that style of break.
Of course, not a lot of breakerson Fanatics Live are gonna run
stuff like that anymore.
It is a great product for apost-break random.
Because you're right, it's likeum it's kind of like sitting on
(05:30):
a at a crap's table when thetable gets hot.
Like it's cool when everybody'srooting for it.
It's that same style when you'rein a break and uh the case is
super hot and everyone's rootingfor it because you don't know
what what you're gonna get yet.
SPEAKER_01 (05:41):
Yeah, the Houdini breaks.
He also had the format where theVIP spot, the VIP invitation, he
would not include it because hewould resell to help the um
break price get lower.
So he was able to get them downto like 350.
I remember that.
So this year, different fromlast year, but like the years
before that, the VIP invitationis guaranteed.
So if you're in a break, makesure you're finding out if
(06:02):
they're renting it all, if it'sgoing to the non-team spot or
what's going on, because that isat least a$5,000 item.
As far as I've seen, I don'tremember where I've seen it, but
I thought it said that therewere a hundred VIP invitations
and there are 10 transcendedtier invites with that that are
just a tier above.
(06:22):
So as far as I know, that makesit 110 cases.
It doesn't really make sensewith the number of cases and
breaks I've seen available, butthat's just the info that I
can't go off of.
But yeah, it looks like there'sa lot of fun stuff.
If you look at just thepictures, everything is ultra
premium and nice.
Singles market is always gonnabe better for this.
You can find some really cheapsingles of this stuff because a
(06:45):
lot of people just like to movethis stuff and move off of it
because they join these breaksand they're not necessarily
teams or players looking to gethits on, especially if it's a
random hit break.
So you can get singles for adecent price on this.
It's not like they don't reselllike Topps Chrome or anything
like that, of course, or Bowmanor any of those.
It's definitely a uh sideproduct in that sense, but the
(07:07):
the cards are still you see someof the nicest looking cards out
of this.
SPEAKER_02 (07:10):
Yeah, it's a it's awesome stuff.
I just I think it's so sad thatwe've gotten to this level of
precedent where it's like we'reselling all of these hundreds of
thousands of dollars of breakspots without a checklist,
without pack odds, without anyinformation.
It's like, how on earth?
How on earth are people willingto fork out these kind of dollar
figures without knowing any ofthat information?
(07:30):
You know, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01 (07:32):
All right, so I'm looking it up right now.
We the hobby has a five casetranscendent, 269 spots, only
nine spots left.
Um, Iron Judge is fifteenthousand dollars.
The Otani spot, I'm looking itup right now.
I believe it was like$26,000.
You can buy a case of that forthat amount, but unlike other
(07:52):
products, Otani should not beshort printed in this.
Right.
Yeah.
Oh, he's$28,999.
He's$29,000 for Otani.
You can just use your knowledgeof past releases for 2025 to
judge whether or not somebody'sgoing to have an auto in this
product, unless it's a unlessit's a cut auto, you should
(08:13):
assume that if they're undercontract for the other products
that they're going to be signinghere, especially for those ultra
premium players.
You know, you know Judge isgonna have an auto, you know
Latani is gonna have an auto.
Uh, we see the only ones that Ican guarantee Soto, Jita, Reggie
Jackson, Johan Santana, AnthonyVolpe, because those are the
ones that they released the uhpromo pictures for.
That Santana card looks sick,though.
SPEAKER_02 (08:33):
Oh man, I wish.
Saw the duel of Ichiro andGriffey, I think.
SPEAKER_01 (08:37):
That's a pretty amazing card.
Yeah.
Uh such a good dual auto tohave, too.
All right.
Well, there's another thing thathappened this week in the car
world that we can move on to.
I don't want to spend too muchtime in Transcended because it's
not like any of us are reallygonna be buying a box or a case
of that.
And there's no checklist to gooff of.
Um, so Topps Chrome Black hadtheir pre-order this week.
(08:58):
And a lot of people noticed thaton the Topps website they had a
new captcha for when you wereputting in the order.
And I've actually heard somepositive things.
What have you heard?
SPEAKER_02 (09:09):
Yeah, I think the bots still did pretty well, but
not nearly as well as the Bowmanbasketball pre-order, which was
just an absolute bot fest and afiasco in every way.
So it sounds like a lot of, youknow, a lot of collectors who
are just trying to get boxes orcases were able to be successful
without having any kind of botto help them or anything like
that.
I think a lot of the bots gotbroken by that capture.
(09:29):
So it's encouraging seeing topsputting in some kind of anti-bot
technology, although it's justfrustrating knowing that they
absolutely have the capabilityto do it and they haven't made
that a priority, nor have theysaid anything about it publicly.
SPEAKER_01 (09:40):
So, with the amount of people having success, the
pre-order quantities areobviously going to be limited.
I think that this is definitelya step in the right direction
for for Topps.
It seems like people that reallywanted it, most of the people
that I know were able to get it,as long as you were ready to go
at at noon or when whatever timeit was for you to try to get it.
So, and this obviously wasn't asin demand as Bowman, but the
(10:02):
print run should have beenshorter.
They were both pre-orders.
So just something to thinkabout.
A Bowman, I would definitelygive it another shot when it's
release time because I'm surethe quantity will be a lot more
than just the limited quantityfor pre-orders.
I'm assuming I don't have anyscientific information to go off
of, but I'm assuming thatpre-orders that they have a much
more limited quantity than theactual release day boxes.
SPEAKER_02 (10:23):
Yeah, that's an interesting one.
I don't know.
I don't know what the um what wefound out on that front, like
what a typical ratio is betweenpre-order quantity made
available versus actual releaseday quantity made available.
But um Yeah, I don't know.
They've also been raising theprices just a tad between
pre-sale and day of release.
And I'm sure with the way thatsecondary is on Bowman
(10:44):
Basketball, they'll definitelydo the same thing for that.
And they'll probably do the samething for Topps Chrome Black,
because I think they I've beenseeing early sales on cases of
like$4,000 a case.
Prices were only what$20,probably six, twenty, seven
hundred after tax for mostpeople.
SPEAKER_01 (11:00):
That makes sense.
Yeah.
I think it was the pre-sale was$200.
Now I'm excited for thisproduct.
I'm excited for us to do ourdeep dive and breakdown closer
to release.
We are gonna see some of therookies that we have not seen
yet.
I know for one Murakami, we'regonna see, which has raised his
stock.
He doesn't really have a hobbystock right now, because he
doesn't really have a lot ofcards.
All of his cards were from, asfar as I know, like Japanese
(11:23):
releases.
So I'm excited about the set.
I love this set, it's not worththe price tag to me from just
one box.
I think that this is fun to getwith other boxes because it's
just such a quick rip.
It's hard to hit something nice.
I've had great luck with it, butI can't rely on that luck for
everything.
SPEAKER_02 (11:37):
Yeah, I think Capture Black typically is
pretty tough.
You could have some pretty dustycases of that stuff.
You know what I mean?
Like I'm I'm very hesitant as abreaker to be buying up cases at
the clip that they're going forright now because I just really
don't think the juice is worththe squeeze.
SPEAKER_01 (11:54):
But yeah, there's there's a lot of cool stuff
that's in here.
They've added some new inserts,and a big piece of news for this
too is they added the home fieldadvantage.
SPEAKER_00 (12:05):
For top scroll.
Okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (12:08):
Yeah, I love the I'm looking at 2025 right now.
So I'm looking at the wrongchecklist anyway.
Um, but so my my calculations,I'll just get rid of that for
the uh print run.
Definitely all.
I was wondering why they had theodds already.
I was surprised, but yeah, theyadded home field advantage.
I love Depth of Darkness, thatis one of my favorite inserts.
(12:29):
I love those shadow box inserts.
I'm a sucker for those.
I really need to get myself aplanetarium of cosmic for
something.
Yeah, it's just I'm a big fan ofthis set, but singles is really
the route to go.
Breaks can definitely be fun,especially because now it's two
packs.
They started that last year, Ithink.
So you do have more base cardsto go around, and even the base
cards are beautiful in this.
But yeah, it should definitelybe definitely be a fun set to
(12:53):
watch.
SPEAKER_02 (12:53):
But I wouldn't look forward to uh getting into it in
a little bit more depth when wedo our our product review.
When's it supposed to come out?
April, end of April, right?
The 30th or something?
April 29th.
Yeah.
Okay.
So it's kind of a little seriousright now for baseball products.
You know, we've just hadobviously series one Heritage,
but nothing else.
2026 coming out until probablytops chrome black.
SPEAKER_01 (13:13):
Because everyone's taking their monthly$20,000
baseball card budget and puttinga torch transcendent.
They don't have enough for fourproducts this month.
Because I guess that's soaffordable.
SPEAKER_02 (13:24):
It's so odd to me that of all months, March is one
of the quietest months so farthat we've had in the last 12
for baseball releases.
Um, and then you look at a monthlike November or December, and
it's just like release a week ortwo releases a week sometimes.
SPEAKER_01 (13:38):
Yeah.
People are spending all theirmoney on those tops now cards
for the first home run of thisplayer or whatever.
Um, yeah, I don't know why theywould do that, not try to take
advantage of baseball openingand all the buzz that goes
around with it.
SPEAKER_02 (13:53):
We should do an episode on Tops Now at some
point, because it's just to talkabout like the overall direction
of the program and what we'reseeing and stuff like that.
Because I think that'd be aninteresting study.
It seems like Topps is reallytrying to invest in Tops now.
SPEAKER_01 (14:05):
Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02 (14:05):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (14:06):
Yeah, that would definitely be a lot of talking
points on that.
Yeah, they had the Damascus now.
Yeah, the uh home field.
They got 20 players on it.
That should be a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_02 (14:16):
Those are cool.
I wonder how rare how rarethey'll be.
Well, those are gonna be stupidrare, I think.
SPEAKER_01 (14:21):
Like the Death of Darkness, well, one out of like
every five cases or so.
I think they are gonna be rightup there with that, or even more
so.
Because I'm just thinking ofTopps Chrome, how rare the
Chrome home field advantageswere.
Let's see if there's anyone.
It's it's a good checklist, too.
Not not many stinkers on it.
How many names?
20.
SPEAKER_02 (14:38):
Okay, nice.
Yeah, that Otani's gonna gocrazy.
For sure.
SPEAKER_01 (14:42):
Yeah, you could say that for anything.
You can literally say that for abase inter from three years ago.
That Otani is gonna go crazy anddid well.
All right, so let's get intoopening week of baseball.
And I'm going to call thissegment small sample, big
reactions.
We're gonna talk about a fewvets and a few rookies.
I don't really want to talkabout the guys that are like 0
(15:04):
for 12.
You know, let's stay on thepositive side for this one.
Just these small sample sizes ofguys that have made an impact
and have made a feeling, reallygood energy from them right
away.
First one I want to talk about,Mike Trout.
He is hitting currently 353.
He's got two home runs, OPS of1248.
(15:24):
So Trout is back.
That is the sentiment I'mhearing right now.
Get ready.
Trout, only a year older thanAaron Judge.
Everyone's reminding us of that.
I'm seeing everywhere.
How are you feeling, Mike Trout,on the reaction to how his
season has started?
SPEAKER_02 (15:39):
I love what I'm seeing.
It looks like he's playing witha level of energy that, I don't
know, it seems like that hehasn't had for a while.
That youthful energy that he hadwhen he came up and lit the
world on fire with a bunch ofback-to-back to back 10 war
seasons.
Yeah, I just fingers crossed,knock on wood, hope he can stay
healthy.
From a hobby perspective, it'llbe really interesting to see how
(16:00):
well he has to play to move theneedle on his card prices,
because we have seen a prettysteady decline in line with his
decline in performance.
Mike Trout, of course, is one ofthe most sold baseball players
in in modern sports cards.
So a lot of the data that youcan see on card ladder and
things like that, that trendtrout have so many data points
that you can really kind of relyon that.
And when you when you put thetrout prices against his
(16:22):
performance, it's actually quitecorrelated.
Um Yeah, I don't know.
Is it like if he played a fullseason and you know, hit 50
bombs, how much would his pricesgo up?
I think we kind of talked aboutthat hypothetical in one of the
last episodes, but you know,what would it take for him to
really move the needle?
Like, could he do anything thisyear to get back up to to peak
(16:44):
trout prices?
Peak, I don't think so.
SPEAKER_01 (16:47):
I do not think so, but I think he can really,
really get his car prices wayback up there.
But peak, uh peak was crazy.
SPEAKER_02 (16:56):
Let me ask you this, Juice.
If he if he hit 60 bombs thisyear, would his cards be what
are you supposed to call 60?
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (17:03):
That's so hard to say because he was at he was the
otani level before Otani wasOtani level.
And I think that there couldalways only really be one guy at
that level, because I think thatfor whatever reason the hobby
swarms to that one guy andreally makes him like that god
tier status.
60 bombs, though.
I don't think unless Otanireally, for whatever reason,
(17:26):
takes a backseat and like hejust becomes he he was never the
face, like everyone always saidthat about Trout.
Like, as great as he as he was,and everyone who loves baseball
appreciated what he did.
He was never like the face, likethe marketing face to like bring
baseball to that next level,too.
I think that also hurts him alittle bit.
SPEAKER_02 (17:44):
But just such a hockey darling, like in the
media and stuff like that, andhow Major League Baseball and
the media machine around itthought about Trout was always
different than the the way thehobby thought about Trout.
SPEAKER_01 (17:54):
You know what?
I think yes, if this is the bigif that I put last time, if the
Angels as a team can get to theplayoffs, because that is
something that we don't see fromTrout.
His team never got to theplayoffs.
That's the story.
SPEAKER_02 (18:10):
But that's that might be one of the only
outcomes where they make theplayoffs.
SPEAKER_01 (18:14):
But we've never seen what a playoff run Trout can do
in terms of hobby.
That is Uncharted Waters.
I would be so excited to seethat.
Everyone, everyone would be.
That's what I think it wouldtake.
I I would not be shocked becauseI go back to this pretty much
like every week or so.
Playoffs can do so much forplayers' card prices, even the
elite players.
Like when everyone said tinyprices can't go any higher, it
(18:38):
just took the playoffs to justshut everyone up and put the
wild.
SPEAKER_02 (18:42):
Bryce Harper, I don't remember what year it was.
Gosh, it would have been likethe in the last five years.
Probably more like, I don'tknow, I didn't even want to try
to say what year it was, butHarper had a really good playoff
performance one year and hisprices jumped significantly,
like more than I would havethought at the time.
Baseball, especially, is greatwhen the great players do great
things on the biggest stages.
(19:04):
You know what I mean?
Like it's always nice in a sportwhere the outcomes are so kind
of random and streaky whensomething like that happens in
the biggest moments.
Um yeah, and then a guy likeJeremy Payne, remember when he
won the uh World Series MVP?
Obviously, not like a superstarat the time, but he was one of
the top seven or eight rookiesin that 2022 class.
Then he goes and wins WorldSeries MVP, and all of a sudden
(19:26):
he's right up there with Julioand Bobby for a little while.
SPEAKER_01 (19:29):
Yeah, though it could just it could reset your
market in just such a positivedirection.
All right.
Next up, let's talk about thisguy.
He is coming out hot.
He did the same thing last year.
He came out really hot right offthe bat for the Red Sox.
He's hitting 500, two home runs,OPS 1563.
Williar or Brayu of the Red Sox.
(19:50):
So this hot start, he did thislast year.
What are you thinking about thisyear?
SPEAKER_02 (19:55):
He also had a nice little WBC, too, which I think
helped get him on the rightdirection.
It seems like the WBC has beenmore helpful for the hitters
than it has been for thepitchers, the way some of the
pitchers have thrown.
Anyways, yeah, Brayu, I don'tknow.
He can be a streaky player.
He, like you said, last year hada really good start to his
season, but then he reallysputtered out and kind of by the
(20:16):
by the second half of theseason, I don't think he was
even an everyday starteranymore.
We'll see what happens inBoston.
It seems he's got like he's gotthe path to playing time.
I don't know how high hisceiling is, though.
Like I don't I don't ever seehim being truly hobby relevant.
SPEAKER_01 (20:28):
He does play for a good market, the Red Sox.
It's just that that's reallygonna help him.
Um, but yeah, he did the samething last year, so I'm not
sure.
SPEAKER_02 (20:36):
I like the way he I like the way when he when he
turns on a pitch inside, I likethe way he kind of leans back on
it.
It's uh he's got like a reallygood looking finish, really good
looking uppercut swing.
SPEAKER_01 (20:45):
Yeah, so after seeing the same thing from him
last year, maybe he just he'sahead of the pitching curve a
little bit at the beginning ofthe year.
But I'm I'm a wait and see onhim.
I'm not like gonna all of asudden start buying his stuff up
just because of this start.
SPEAKER_02 (20:56):
It is pretty cheap, I think, for the most part,
though, you know.
But uh that's fair.
Probably not the right time tobuy.
SPEAKER_01 (21:02):
All right, the last one I'm excited about for our
vets.
This guy's hitting 417 OPS of1200 in one very clutch
three-run walk-off home run.
We're talking Lubob for the DLove.
How are you feeling so far?
I've been a fan of him for awhile.
I've just been waiting for himto turn that corner.
(21:22):
He has a special place becausehe was the rookie of like when I
really got into collecting.
What was that, 2020?
SPEAKER_00 (21:29):
Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01 (21:29):
So him along with Bob Bachet.
And now I got both of them on myMets.
SPEAKER_02 (21:33):
Gavin Lux, Aristid Sakino, that 2020 Topps rookie
class, Elon Alvarez.
SPEAKER_01 (21:39):
Yeah, I got I got nice cards of all those guys
now.
Um, but yeah, Lubob, I was justlooking.
I have a nice um Diamond Iconsout of five auto of him.
But shadow got some nice stuff.
I got a blue gold label auto,and then I actually bought off
my brother.
He was selling it on on eBay,and he's like, I got this offer.
Uh, should I take?
(22:00):
I'm like, I'll just give youthat.
SPEAKER_02 (22:01):
All right, that was a fun product.
I really enjoyed gold label.
I wish that they didn't get ridof it.
SPEAKER_01 (22:06):
Gold label, I miss it so much.
I remember I got a few boxes.
My brother got like two boxesone year, and my boxes were
hitting nothing, nothing,nothing.
And I was jealous because mybrother hit a David Wright auto
out of five.
And then in my last box, I hit ablue David Wright auto out of
10.
So we just coincidentally, youknow, his favorite player
growing up, one of my topplayers ever.
(22:29):
So we both coincidentally bothhad like these beautiful David
Wright autos out of nowhere.
And that's always remained suchlike a favorite product of mine,
and that's a card I would neversell.
SPEAKER_02 (22:37):
I like they took the gold label concept and they kind
of threw that into finest alittle bit with the tiering of
the checklist, like the classone, class two, class three, I
think is what we called it.
SPEAKER_01 (22:46):
That I never liked.
I never liked the different liketiers of the different like
rarities.
That I was never a fan of.
Kind of I don't know.
It just didn't do it for me.
SPEAKER_02 (22:55):
Way too many parallels.
That none of them, none of themwould hold value because there
was too many of them.
SPEAKER_01 (23:01):
Yeah, definitely too confusing for the average
collector.
SPEAKER_02 (23:03):
It was a confusing product to break for sure.
SPEAKER_01 (23:05):
Let's talk about some of our hot rookies.
So first we'll talk abouthitting 283.
He's only got four hits.
His OPS though, 1373.
Three out of his four hits havebeen for home runs.
SPEAKER_00 (23:16):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (23:17):
We talked we spoke about him in the last week.
Munitekamorikami.
We said if the home runs couldcome, then he's gonna be a
really fun guy to watch.
We spoke about him earlier inthe episode.
Is this hot start legit?
SPEAKER_02 (23:29):
I mean, he's probably gonna carry series too,
huh?
He's gonna be that guy.
Yeah, I think so.
I mean, especially with theJapan market and how they buy
some of their star players, evenhow they were buying, like uh
oh, what's a good example?
Trying to think.
SPEAKER_01 (23:41):
A Japan player.
SPEAKER_02 (23:42):
Um like not like a superstar player, like the
prices at which those thoseplayers were going for were
pretty crazy.
But Muniteka Murakami is a is aa big name.
Yeah, he's uh he's a beast.
I'm buying his stock, both infantasy and in the hobby.
Like you said, there's not thatmany cards of him.
But I think, yeah, how much dowe want for it?
Is it clean?
SPEAKER_01 (24:01):
I think there's literally one.
If you go on eBay, I almostbought it.
I think there's one for like$50right now.
Um, and I would I might just goon and buy that after unless you
want it.
SPEAKER_02 (24:10):
Are there any dimples or are there any edge
marks or on this?
SPEAKER_01 (24:13):
I don't know.
I literally, like I said, whenwhen we started, I was literally
looking at my cards and I waslike, oh, and then you came on.
I was like, look what I found.
SPEAKER_02 (24:21):
Well, so they did it, they posted a promo for 26
Bowman, and of course, Murakamikanji variation 55 Bowman anime
is going to be.
I mean, that's gonna be a bigcard even for the non-kanji
version.
SPEAKER_01 (24:34):
He's gonna be in top scroll black.
He's gonna be a chase in that,which is gonna be before series
two.
So that should be his firstcards.
Did he sign?
SPEAKER_02 (24:41):
Yeah.
Oh, good.
Okay, nice.
Yeah, I haven't really lookedinto black yet.
SPEAKER_01 (24:45):
Yeah, so that's definitely gonna be a chase if
if he can keep up anywhere nearthis start, he's gonna be a lot
of fun to watch.
He's all or nothing, it seems,which is what we expected.
We said that in our playerpreview episode.
But as long as those home runsare coming, you know, it doesn't
matter.
That 283 average for a home runhitter, take it.
Take it all day.
SPEAKER_02 (25:05):
Yeah, I don't know if he can maintain 286, but he's
gonna hit some bombs.
You know, I I think he'll hit ifhe stays healthy.
I think he can easily hit 40bombs as rookie year.
And with that, he could belooking at the rookie of the
year.
Yeah.
Mooney moonshots.
Mooney moonshots.
SPEAKER_01 (25:18):
I like that.
Did you see that first uh homerun of his?
SPEAKER_02 (25:21):
When you say Mooney, it makes me think of Moononori
Kawasaki.
Do you remember him?
SPEAKER_00 (25:25):
Nope.
SPEAKER_02 (25:26):
Oh my god.
Cole hero in Seattle wasfantastic.
Just a little slap hitter,played great defense, but just
had this the funniestpersonality.
Always said funny stuff ininterviews, and you could see
him messing around with histeammates.
Yeah, he was he was a cool dude.
Cool hero.
Mooney.
SPEAKER_01 (25:41):
So, next up on our rookies, another guy who's
starting off exactly in a waythat we thought he might.
Kevin McGonagall, average of357, OPS 971.
Home runs.
He was robbed of one by JacksonMerrill, though.
He was so close, pretty muchtipped his hat to him.
But yeah, he started an openingday with four hits.
(26:02):
You talked about his hit tooland what you were expecting out
of him.
It seems like he is hittingthose expectations, no pun
intended.
So I have a feeling I know whatyou're gonna say, but how are
you feeling about this uhmechanical start?
SPEAKER_02 (26:13):
And it's certainly encouraging, right?
I mean, just the quality of thatbats this guy grinds out.
He's wise beyond his years, youknow.
He's he's a rookie, but he'splaying like he's in year 10.
He's just so far above all theother guys at his age that are
coming up, in my opinion.
And he's shown that consistentlyin his somewhat short minor
league career so far.
And he's definitely shown it atthe major league level so far.
(26:34):
Pretty, pretty amazing.
The question there is alwaysgonna be the power.
Does he have the power?
You know, that's a good the factthat his uh his one almost home
run was robbed, I think, is aperfect like analogy for how
people look at him from a hobbyperspective.
Like, does he have the power?
Is he close enough?
He's close, but is he closeenough?
Is he gonna be a guy that couldeventually hit 30, maybe 40 home
runs in a year?
(26:55):
I'm not sure.
And how good of a hitter do youhave to be if you're only
hitting 20 home runs a year tobe a hobby star?
And that is the answer to thatquestion is an insanely good
hitter.
Like, can you think of any bighitters in the last 20 years
that have only hit 20 home runsa year and are like big, have
huge hobby value?
It's almost like you'd have togo back to somebody like Ricky
(27:16):
Henderson.
You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_01 (27:18):
Yeah, unless you have like another big tool to
hang your hat on, like stolen isyeah.
SPEAKER_02 (27:23):
Ichiro would be one, but yeah.
He's got more pop than Ichiro.
I think he wants to hit theball.
I mean, it's a different game,too, than when Ichiro came up.
I think he's gonna like theTigers are gonna want him to hit
the ball out of the ballpark,and I think he's gaining power
as he gets older, too, like mostguys do.
And he's he's far away from hispeak power potential usually
that you see when guys turn 27,28, 29.
SPEAKER_01 (27:45):
Yeah, he's well off his prime.
He's got plenty of time to growinto that power.
And hopefully we're gonna get abig deal.
SPEAKER_02 (27:51):
He's a beast, though.
Like, is there any question thathe's gonna be like right away
just like a an a way aboveaverage hitter at the major
league level?
It's pretty amazing.
SPEAKER_01 (28:00):
Yeah, everyone is expecting big things from this
guy.
His cards are gonna be really,really at a premium.
This is really such a fun rookieclass this year.
It's gonna be one of the bestrookie classes we've seen
hobby-wise in a while.
And yeah, I'm just that there'sso many, there's so many guys
with so much potential.
And I think it's great for somany reasons.
(28:20):
You know, when you see likethat, those years where there's
just like a couple of guys,their prices are such a premium
because the box prices stay thesame usually.
Well, or as you know, they go upevery year.
But now with it spread out, likeespecially for like breaks and
stuff, you know, breakers canreally spread out that price a
lot more and not have to focuson, okay, well, this is the
team, you know, outside of theDodgers with Otani, it should
(28:43):
really be able to spread out theprices quite a bit.
So that that should be reallyhealthy and fun for the hobby,
unless tops fanatics get evengreedier and just say, Oh, this
is such a fantastic rookieclass, just raising prices.
SPEAKER_02 (28:56):
I'm gonna ask you a question, and I before I do, I'm
gonna say I think we should makethis a topic in a future
episode.
But I want your gut reaction,Juice.
Pick one rookie class that willbe better in let's call it five
years from now, 2024, 2026,including not just series one,
but also series two.
An update, guys.
Anybody that eventually is arookie in that class, because
(29:17):
it's not 25.
SPEAKER_01 (29:18):
You know what?
I I gotta go 2026 just because Iknow 2024 had schemes, but when
we were first talking about thisyear, we were talking about all
the great pitchers, and now wehaven't even talked about these
rookie pitchers today.
We're talking about all hitters,and we still haven't seen Conic
Riffin, who is the guy that ispretty much the big shadow
looming over all these otherguys.
(29:39):
He's gonna be the benchmark asfar as we know.
But yeah, so just with all thegreat pitching and all the great
hitting, I've never seen likeit's 10 guys that that we could
probably rattle off really quickof perennial all-star potential
that that could be future hobbydarlings and guys that could be
talked about in MVP raises.
(29:59):
I don't think I've ever seenmore than like five in a year.
SPEAKER_02 (30:02):
I mean like top five versus top five from each class
looking at the top, because somuch of the price of a product
is going to be driven by the topguys, but yeah.
24 in in no particular order,it's gonna be what, Skeens,
Ellie, maybe a Jackson Churio,Yamamoto, who else?
I mean, there's Jackson Holiday,there's Jackson Merrill, there's
Wyatt Langford, a lot of peoplethink could have a big year.
(30:23):
Who am I missing from 24?
Who else would you throw inthere?
One of those guys probably.
SPEAKER_01 (30:26):
I was thinking of the Jacksons.
Um, and then you Caminero.
SPEAKER_02 (30:29):
Caminero is probably the one actually I'd put in
there.
SPEAKER_01 (30:31):
Yeah, and he's still somehow into the radar.
SPEAKER_02 (30:33):
So you got Skeens, Ellie, Churio, Caminero,
Yamamoto versus Roman, Jack,Connor.
SPEAKER_01 (30:40):
McGonagall, Mark.
I like that.
You can swap out so many names.
That's the thing.
SPEAKER_02 (30:44):
McGonagall, Weatherhole, Emerson.
And then we haven't talked aboutMizerowski, Schlitler.
SPEAKER_01 (30:54):
It's McClean.
I think you've already made 10and we can keep going.
Like I've never seen a rookieclass like that for the hobby.
SPEAKER_02 (30:59):
So that's pretty deep.
Yeah.
But it always starts deep, youknow.
Yeah.
It's it won't be as deep whenwe're talking about 2026 and
2028.
SPEAKER_01 (31:07):
Yeah.
Well, these guys, though,they're they're so good.
And I think the hot starts aredefinitely helping, uh, are
definitely skewing ourreactions, you know.
At the end of the day, these aresuch at the end of the day,
these are really small samplesizes.
There's really nothing to reallysay.
It's just, you know, hope, beoptimistic, look at the promise.
But yeah, that there's reallynot much that that we can go off
(31:30):
of.
It's just, can they actually doit on a big stage?
Yeah.
All right.
So let's talk about the lastguy.
You just mentioned his name, hisnumbers aren't as eye-popping,
but you know, he did have thatreally impressive Homer day one.
JJ Weatherholt.
He's gonna be 250 right now, onehome run, 753 OPS.
But he just looks solid.
He looks like he he belongs.
How are you feeling about him?
SPEAKER_02 (31:50):
Have you cooled on him with or definitely not
cooled on him?
He looks the part.
I love the fact that he'shitting leadoff.
I think St.
Louis is an awesome baseballtown.
JJ Weatherholt seems like anawesome baseball person.
Yeah, I'm I'm still very bullishon JJ Weatherholt.
And, you know, even though mostof the time when a guy gets the
call, I'd say sell, especiallywith given the way that he's had
(32:13):
a good start to his career.
I think JJ is one of the fewguys that I'd say hold at this
point.
SPEAKER_01 (32:17):
That's fair.
I'm feeling the same way.
You know, nothing crazy haspopped out, but he's he's done
what's been asked of him so far,and he should continue.
Hopefully he has a good year,turns into a good career.
But yeah, I would not be I don'tknow.
I I can't blame you for sellingright now.
SPEAKER_02 (32:32):
I still am unbelievably high on 2025 Bowman
as as a checklist.
I just think it's it's gone up alot.
Like you can't find a jumbo boxfor less than about 700 bucks
now.
You know, at one point you couldfind them for around 500 once
the market cooled after release,but that checklist is just
unbelievable.
(32:52):
The first Bowman checklist isjust so good compared to a
typical Bowman flagship release.
And it's it's a good mix of guysthat are already doing it.
Weatherholt, McGonagall, guysthat are already up in the big
leagues, and guys that have hugeprospect hype.
Mate, Pena, Quintero, ThomasWhite, those guys.
I I could go on on on about 2025Bowman.
(33:13):
Connor Griffin has autos.
SPEAKER_01 (33:15):
And most of those guys we can see this year as
well.
You mentioned them.
SPEAKER_00 (33:19):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (33:20):
But yeah, so for all we know, this rookie class, who
knows if like that they'll makethe cutoff or update, but it
could become even stronger forthe hobby.
SPEAKER_02 (33:27):
Yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_01 (33:28):
Well, that about does it for today, I think.
It's been a very exciting firstweek of baseball.
And yeah, any parting words,Bert?
SPEAKER_02 (33:35):
It has been a very first, uh, exciting first week
of baseball.
Looking forward to more of it.
Go, Mariners.
I'm really looking forward to usbeating the Yankees again
tonight.
It's gonna be it's gonna bephenomenal.
We can share that you and Ijuice as the season goes along.
Joining the Yankees, watchingthe Yankees lose.
SPEAKER_01 (33:51):
Yeah, and the Mariners have always been like
one of like the other teams thatI would enjoy watching, just
because you know I grew up withGriffey and then since then just
rooting for that jersey all thetime.
But yeah, rooting against theYankees, that's never difficult
to do.
Uh only thing is they they playso late for me.
So I'm uh I'm pretty much out.
SPEAKER_02 (34:08):
It's tough.
Yeah.
Well, good luck on yourtranscendent breaks.
I know you'll be showing out,you'll be liquidating your 401k,
taking out a second mortgage onyour house.
It's an investment.
Go to that or two for a personalrip.
See if you could find one ofthose golden tickets.
SPEAKER_01 (34:24):
All right.
Well, thank you so much,everyone, for listening to the
Talking Cards podcast with GrantSlami and the juice.
I am the juice.
Everyone, enjoy baseball beingback.
We do have a link in ourdescription now if you want to
send us.
It says like mail.
It's obviously not physicalmail, but you can send us a
message if you have anyquestions or comments.
And uh maybe we'll mention youor your comments on the show.
(34:45):
All right.
Well, thank you so much forlistening, everyone.
Have a good day.
SPEAKER_02 (34:47):
Awesome.
Thank you.
Hello and welcome to the Talking Cards Podcast with
Grand Salami and the Juice.
I am the Juice, along here withBert, who's fresh off his
vacation.
How are you doing?
SPEAKER_02 (00:20):
I'm doing good, man.
I'm happy to be back in 40degree Seattle and not in the 90
degree, 90% humidity.
It's not my bag, baby.
That's not my bag.
SPEAKER_01 (00:28):
Well, not only are you back, but baseball is
officially back.
And we're rolling.
We are rolling.
We got a few games in under ourbelt.
We're ready to get theoverreactions going.
We'll talk about that.
SPEAKER_02 (00:39):
We love overreacting.
We love nothing more thanoverreacting to four-game sample
sizes.
It's what the hobby revolvesaround.
SPEAKER_01 (00:46):
It's what everything revolves around in baseball.
SPEAKER_02 (00:49):
Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_01 (00:50):
You can totally tell what a 162-game season is going
to look like after four games,and we will tell you the exact
breakdown of which teams aregoing to go 162-0, who's on pace
for 82 homers.
We'll get into all of that.
But the first thing we're goingto talk about is a release that
is coming out today as of theepisode's release date.
The ultra premium product thatgoes for over$20,000 a box.
(01:15):
2025 tops transcendent.
So I'll let you talk about umhow you feel about it in like
previous years.
Uh, because there's not a lot ofinfo on this year.
There's no checklist that I seeavailable.
But when you think ofTranscendent, what do you think
about?
SPEAKER_02 (01:30):
Well, first thing I think about when I think about
Transcendent was getting backinto the hobby and joining
joining those Houdini random hitbreaks.
Did you ever join any of those?
Yeah.
That was like 2020, I think 2020Tops Transcendent, 2021 Tops
Transcendent.
It was around the time that hepulled that Abraham Lincoln cut
auto.
That was pretty sick.
SPEAKER_01 (01:47):
I remember I would join those, and um after so what
he would do is he would he wouldrip the whole case, and then
there'd be like he know how manycards there were in there.
And then after he reveals allthe cards, then he would
randomize them to everyone.
So as you're watching, you don'tknow before what you hit, you
know after.
So you see these and you'relike, oh man, I have a chance at
this a blinking autograph orthis or that.
(02:10):
So I'd be looking at it and I'dlook at the whole list and I'd
say, All right, so two out ofevery three cards are cards that
I really like and that I wouldbe glad that I paid the spot
price for.
And I joined multiple ones.
I never ever hit those two outof three cards.
The odds always worked againstme on that.
But then I think I mentionedbefore one year I did get the
one-on-one Jared Kellenickrookie auto back when he was
(02:32):
hyped guy.
That was that that made up for alot of it.
Did you sell it at the righttime, at least?
I think I told the story of whenI did the blind trade with Tom
from Real Breaks from RealSports Cards, and he sent me a
bunch of stuff.
Yeah, that's great.
That's right.
That's right.
Yeah, and it and it worked outvery nicely for me and not so
nicely for him, unfortunately.
SPEAKER_02 (02:52):
Yeah.
Anyways, that's where my headgoes when I think about
Transcendent and kind of ofcourse Transcendent back then
was a lot different back in2020, 2021.
And then it changed for thefirst time, really, last year,
into this new configuration.
Kind of a completely differentproduct in a lot of ways.
But yeah, one box per case.
Your box is gonna have eight tonine autos.
Pre-sale price right now on alot of secondary sites is like
(03:14):
upwards of$20,000,$22 to$25,000.
I've been seeing, but nochecklist.
You will get a super fractor ineach one of your boxes.
You're gonna get eight to nineautos.
There's gonna be some massivehits.
I think a lot of the a lot ofthe preview images that Tops has
shared are pretty cool.
You just kind of wonder like, isthe juice worth the squeeze?
SPEAKER_01 (03:37):
I'm uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_02 (03:37):
Yeah, is the squeeze?
SPEAKER_00 (03:39):
Oops.
I that was totallyunintentional.
SPEAKER_01 (03:45):
Anyway, yeah, so this product, obviously, to buy
a box, not for everyone to getinto a break, not for everyone.
This is the highest budget ofthe highest budget to get into,
but it's just it's fun to watch.
You know, if you like justwatching rips and seeing cool
stuff, you know, this isn't likewatching series one where you're
watching cases in cases, hopingto see like something remotely
(04:07):
cool.
Like you're gonna see a box, andyeah, it's like it's like
watching national treasures forPanini, but 10 times that in my
opinion.
SPEAKER_02 (04:15):
I know you've been looking at some of the breaks,
even though there's nochecklist, but there's breaks
being sold on Fnatic's Live, ofcourse, and other places.
What are you seeing in terms ofprices on on some of these?
SPEAKER_01 (04:25):
Uh Leyden, I've seen the best prices for so far.
I've seen teams for as low as100 to a few hundred bucks.
I don't know how these guys arepricing them out without an
actual checklist, or if theyhave some info I don't, because
I've even seen player breaks.
SPEAKER_00 (04:36):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (04:37):
So nothing makes sense to me.
It says the set size 100 cards.
I think I've seen the playerbreaks with over 250 spots or
over 200 spots.
So I don't understand.
I I know that there's cardsoutside of the main set, but to
more than double that, I don'tget where where they're getting
these uh names from.
But yeah, if you look in theright places, you can always
find a decent price and you havea decent chance to hit something
(04:57):
cool.
The singer prices.
SPEAKER_02 (04:59):
The Houdinis, those those random random hit breaks
were like$500 a spot, but theconfiguration was a lot
different.
SPEAKER_00 (05:06):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (05:06):
Now if you think about it, it's what 32 cards in
a box slash case.
And if you're pricing that outat secondary at$25,000, you're
looking at what$800,$900 a spotat minimum for one car if you do
that style of break.
Of course, not a lot of breakerson Fanatics Live are gonna run
stuff like that anymore.
It is a great product for apost-break random.
Because you're right, it's likeum it's kind of like sitting on
(05:30):
a at a crap's table when thetable gets hot.
Like it's cool when everybody'srooting for it.
It's that same style when you'rein a break and uh the case is
super hot and everyone's rootingfor it because you don't know
what what you're gonna get yet.
SPEAKER_01 (05:41):
Yeah, the Houdini breaks.
He also had the format where theVIP spot, the VIP invitation, he
would not include it because hewould resell to help the um
break price get lower.
So he was able to get them downto like 350.
I remember that.
So this year, different fromlast year, but like the years
before that, the VIP invitationis guaranteed.
So if you're in a break, makesure you're finding out if
(06:02):
they're renting it all, if it'sgoing to the non-team spot or
what's going on, because that isat least a$5,000 item.
As far as I've seen, I don'tremember where I've seen it, but
I thought it said that therewere a hundred VIP invitations
and there are 10 transcendedtier invites with that that are
just a tier above.
(06:22):
So as far as I know, that makesit 110 cases.
It doesn't really make sensewith the number of cases and
breaks I've seen available, butthat's just the info that I
can't go off of.
But yeah, it looks like there'sa lot of fun stuff.
If you look at just thepictures, everything is ultra
premium and nice.
Singles market is always gonnabe better for this.
You can find some really cheapsingles of this stuff because a
(06:45):
lot of people just like to movethis stuff and move off of it
because they join these breaksand they're not necessarily
teams or players looking to gethits on, especially if it's a
random hit break.
So you can get singles for adecent price on this.
It's not like they don't reselllike Topps Chrome or anything
like that, of course, or Bowmanor any of those.
It's definitely a uh sideproduct in that sense, but the
(07:07):
the cards are still you see someof the nicest looking cards out
of this.
SPEAKER_02 (07:10):
Yeah, it's a it's awesome stuff.
I just I think it's so sad thatwe've gotten to this level of
precedent where it's like we'reselling all of these hundreds of
thousands of dollars of breakspots without a checklist,
without pack odds, without anyinformation.
It's like, how on earth?
How on earth are people willingto fork out these kind of dollar
figures without knowing any ofthat information?
(07:30):
You know, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01 (07:32):
All right, so I'm looking it up right now.
We the hobby has a five casetranscendent, 269 spots, only
nine spots left.
Um, Iron Judge is fifteenthousand dollars.
The Otani spot, I'm looking itup right now.
I believe it was like$26,000.
You can buy a case of that forthat amount, but unlike other
(07:52):
products, Otani should not beshort printed in this.
Right.
Yeah.
Oh, he's$28,999.
He's$29,000 for Otani.
You can just use your knowledgeof past releases for 2025 to
judge whether or not somebody'sgoing to have an auto in this
product, unless it's a unlessit's a cut auto, you should
(08:13):
assume that if they're undercontract for the other products
that they're going to be signinghere, especially for those ultra
premium players.
You know, you know Judge isgonna have an auto, you know
Latani is gonna have an auto.
Uh, we see the only ones that Ican guarantee Soto, Jita, Reggie
Jackson, Johan Santana, AnthonyVolpe, because those are the
ones that they released the uhpromo pictures for.
That Santana card looks sick,though.
SPEAKER_02 (08:33):
Oh man, I wish.
Saw the duel of Ichiro andGriffey, I think.
SPEAKER_01 (08:37):
That's a pretty amazing card.
Yeah.
Uh such a good dual auto tohave, too.
All right.
Well, there's another thing thathappened this week in the car
world that we can move on to.
I don't want to spend too muchtime in Transcended because it's
not like any of us are reallygonna be buying a box or a case
of that.
And there's no checklist to gooff of.
Um, so Topps Chrome Black hadtheir pre-order this week.
(08:58):
And a lot of people noticed thaton the Topps website they had a
new captcha for when you wereputting in the order.
And I've actually heard somepositive things.
What have you heard?
SPEAKER_02 (09:09):
Yeah, I think the bots still did pretty well, but
not nearly as well as the Bowmanbasketball pre-order, which was
just an absolute bot fest and afiasco in every way.
So it sounds like a lot of, youknow, a lot of collectors who
are just trying to get boxes orcases were able to be successful
without having any kind of botto help them or anything like
that.
I think a lot of the bots gotbroken by that capture.
(09:29):
So it's encouraging seeing topsputting in some kind of anti-bot
technology, although it's justfrustrating knowing that they
absolutely have the capabilityto do it and they haven't made
that a priority, nor have theysaid anything about it publicly.
SPEAKER_01 (09:40):
So, with the amount of people having success, the
pre-order quantities areobviously going to be limited.
I think that this is definitelya step in the right direction
for for Topps.
It seems like people that reallywanted it, most of the people
that I know were able to get it,as long as you were ready to go
at at noon or when whatever timeit was for you to try to get it.
So, and this obviously wasn't asin demand as Bowman, but the
(10:02):
print run should have beenshorter.
They were both pre-orders.
So just something to thinkabout.
A Bowman, I would definitelygive it another shot when it's
release time because I'm surethe quantity will be a lot more
than just the limited quantityfor pre-orders.
I'm assuming I don't have anyscientific information to go off
of, but I'm assuming thatpre-orders that they have a much
more limited quantity than theactual release day boxes.
SPEAKER_02 (10:23):
Yeah, that's an interesting one.
I don't know.
I don't know what the um what wefound out on that front, like
what a typical ratio is betweenpre-order quantity made
available versus actual releaseday quantity made available.
But um Yeah, I don't know.
They've also been raising theprices just a tad between
pre-sale and day of release.
And I'm sure with the way thatsecondary is on Bowman
(10:44):
Basketball, they'll definitelydo the same thing for that.
And they'll probably do the samething for Topps Chrome Black,
because I think they I've beenseeing early sales on cases of
like$4,000 a case.
Prices were only what$20,probably six, twenty, seven
hundred after tax for mostpeople.
SPEAKER_01 (11:00):
That makes sense.
Yeah.
I think it was the pre-sale was$200.
Now I'm excited for thisproduct.
I'm excited for us to do ourdeep dive and breakdown closer
to release.
We are gonna see some of therookies that we have not seen
yet.
I know for one Murakami, we'regonna see, which has raised his
stock.
He doesn't really have a hobbystock right now, because he
doesn't really have a lot ofcards.
All of his cards were from, asfar as I know, like Japanese
(11:23):
releases.
So I'm excited about the set.
I love this set, it's not worththe price tag to me from just
one box.
I think that this is fun to getwith other boxes because it's
just such a quick rip.
It's hard to hit something nice.
I've had great luck with it, butI can't rely on that luck for
everything.
SPEAKER_02 (11:37):
Yeah, I think Capture Black typically is
pretty tough.
You could have some pretty dustycases of that stuff.
You know what I mean?
Like I'm I'm very hesitant as abreaker to be buying up cases at
the clip that they're going forright now because I just really
don't think the juice is worththe squeeze.
SPEAKER_01 (11:54):
But yeah, there's there's a lot of cool stuff
that's in here.
They've added some new inserts,and a big piece of news for this
too is they added the home fieldadvantage.
SPEAKER_00 (12:05):
For top scroll.
Okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (12:08):
Yeah, I love the I'm looking at 2025 right now.
So I'm looking at the wrongchecklist anyway.
Um, but so my my calculations,I'll just get rid of that for
the uh print run.
Definitely all.
I was wondering why they had theodds already.
I was surprised, but yeah, theyadded home field advantage.
I love Depth of Darkness, thatis one of my favorite inserts.
(12:29):
I love those shadow box inserts.
I'm a sucker for those.
I really need to get myself aplanetarium of cosmic for
something.
Yeah, it's just I'm a big fan ofthis set, but singles is really
the route to go.
Breaks can definitely be fun,especially because now it's two
packs.
They started that last year, Ithink.
So you do have more base cardsto go around, and even the base
cards are beautiful in this.
But yeah, it should definitelybe definitely be a fun set to
(12:53):
watch.
SPEAKER_02 (12:53):
But I wouldn't look forward to uh getting into it in
a little bit more depth when wedo our our product review.
When's it supposed to come out?
April, end of April, right?
The 30th or something?
April 29th.
Yeah.
Okay.
So it's kind of a little seriousright now for baseball products.
You know, we've just hadobviously series one Heritage,
but nothing else.
2026 coming out until probablytops chrome black.
SPEAKER_01 (13:13):
Because everyone's taking their monthly$20,000
baseball card budget and puttinga torch transcendent.
They don't have enough for fourproducts this month.
Because I guess that's soaffordable.
SPEAKER_02 (13:24):
It's so odd to me that of all months, March is one
of the quietest months so farthat we've had in the last 12
for baseball releases.
Um, and then you look at a monthlike November or December, and
it's just like release a week ortwo releases a week sometimes.
SPEAKER_01 (13:38):
Yeah.
People are spending all theirmoney on those tops now cards
for the first home run of thisplayer or whatever.
Um, yeah, I don't know why theywould do that, not try to take
advantage of baseball openingand all the buzz that goes
around with it.
SPEAKER_02 (13:53):
We should do an episode on Tops Now at some
point, because it's just to talkabout like the overall direction
of the program and what we'reseeing and stuff like that.
Because I think that'd be aninteresting study.
It seems like Topps is reallytrying to invest in Tops now.
SPEAKER_01 (14:05):
Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02 (14:05):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (14:06):
Yeah, that would definitely be a lot of talking
points on that.
Yeah, they had the Damascus now.
Yeah, the uh home field.
They got 20 players on it.
That should be a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_02 (14:16):
Those are cool.
I wonder how rare how rarethey'll be.
Well, those are gonna be stupidrare, I think.
SPEAKER_01 (14:21):
Like the Death of Darkness, well, one out of like
every five cases or so.
I think they are gonna be rightup there with that, or even more
so.
Because I'm just thinking ofTopps Chrome, how rare the
Chrome home field advantageswere.
Let's see if there's anyone.
It's it's a good checklist, too.
Not not many stinkers on it.
How many names?
20.
SPEAKER_02 (14:38):
Okay, nice.
Yeah, that Otani's gonna gocrazy.
For sure.
SPEAKER_01 (14:42):
Yeah, you could say that for anything.
You can literally say that for abase inter from three years ago.
That Otani is gonna go crazy anddid well.
All right, so let's get intoopening week of baseball.
And I'm going to call thissegment small sample, big
reactions.
We're gonna talk about a fewvets and a few rookies.
I don't really want to talkabout the guys that are like 0
(15:04):
for 12.
You know, let's stay on thepositive side for this one.
Just these small sample sizes ofguys that have made an impact
and have made a feeling, reallygood energy from them right
away.
First one I want to talk about,Mike Trout.
He is hitting currently 353.
He's got two home runs, OPS of1248.
(15:24):
So Trout is back.
That is the sentiment I'mhearing right now.
Get ready.
Trout, only a year older thanAaron Judge.
Everyone's reminding us of that.
I'm seeing everywhere.
How are you feeling, Mike Trout,on the reaction to how his
season has started?
SPEAKER_02 (15:39):
I love what I'm seeing.
It looks like he's playing witha level of energy that, I don't
know, it seems like that hehasn't had for a while.
That youthful energy that he hadwhen he came up and lit the
world on fire with a bunch ofback-to-back to back 10 war
seasons.
Yeah, I just fingers crossed,knock on wood, hope he can stay
healthy.
From a hobby perspective, it'llbe really interesting to see how
(16:00):
well he has to play to move theneedle on his card prices,
because we have seen a prettysteady decline in line with his
decline in performance.
Mike Trout, of course, is one ofthe most sold baseball players
in in modern sports cards.
So a lot of the data that youcan see on card ladder and
things like that, that trendtrout have so many data points
that you can really kind of relyon that.
And when you when you put thetrout prices against his
(16:22):
performance, it's actually quitecorrelated.
Um Yeah, I don't know.
Is it like if he played a fullseason and you know, hit 50
bombs, how much would his pricesgo up?
I think we kind of talked aboutthat hypothetical in one of the
last episodes, but you know,what would it take for him to
really move the needle?
Like, could he do anything thisyear to get back up to to peak
(16:44):
trout prices?
Peak, I don't think so.
SPEAKER_01 (16:47):
I do not think so, but I think he can really,
really get his car prices wayback up there.
But peak, uh peak was crazy.
SPEAKER_02 (16:56):
Let me ask you this, Juice.
If he if he hit 60 bombs thisyear, would his cards be what
are you supposed to call 60?
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (17:03):
That's so hard to say because he was at he was the
otani level before Otani wasOtani level.
And I think that there couldalways only really be one guy at
that level, because I think thatfor whatever reason the hobby
swarms to that one guy andreally makes him like that god
tier status.
60 bombs, though.
I don't think unless Otanireally, for whatever reason,
(17:26):
takes a backseat and like hejust becomes he he was never the
face, like everyone always saidthat about Trout.
Like, as great as he as he was,and everyone who loves baseball
appreciated what he did.
He was never like the face, likethe marketing face to like bring
baseball to that next level,too.
I think that also hurts him alittle bit.
SPEAKER_02 (17:44):
But just such a hockey darling, like in the
media and stuff like that, andhow Major League Baseball and
the media machine around itthought about Trout was always
different than the the way thehobby thought about Trout.
SPEAKER_01 (17:54):
You know what?
I think yes, if this is the bigif that I put last time, if the
Angels as a team can get to theplayoffs, because that is
something that we don't see fromTrout.
His team never got to theplayoffs.
That's the story.
SPEAKER_02 (18:10):
But that's that might be one of the only
outcomes where they make theplayoffs.
SPEAKER_01 (18:14):
But we've never seen what a playoff run Trout can do
in terms of hobby.
That is Uncharted Waters.
I would be so excited to seethat.
Everyone, everyone would be.
That's what I think it wouldtake.
I I would not be shocked becauseI go back to this pretty much
like every week or so.
Playoffs can do so much forplayers' card prices, even the
elite players.
Like when everyone said tinyprices can't go any higher, it
(18:38):
just took the playoffs to justshut everyone up and put the
wild.
SPEAKER_02 (18:42):
Bryce Harper, I don't remember what year it was.
Gosh, it would have been likethe in the last five years.
Probably more like, I don'tknow, I didn't even want to try
to say what year it was, butHarper had a really good playoff
performance one year and hisprices jumped significantly,
like more than I would havethought at the time.
Baseball, especially, is greatwhen the great players do great
things on the biggest stages.
(19:04):
You know what I mean?
Like it's always nice in a sportwhere the outcomes are so kind
of random and streaky whensomething like that happens in
the biggest moments.
Um yeah, and then a guy likeJeremy Payne, remember when he
won the uh World Series MVP?
Obviously, not like a superstarat the time, but he was one of
the top seven or eight rookiesin that 2022 class.
Then he goes and wins WorldSeries MVP, and all of a sudden
(19:26):
he's right up there with Julioand Bobby for a little while.
SPEAKER_01 (19:29):
Yeah, though it could just it could reset your
market in just such a positivedirection.
All right.
Next up, let's talk about thisguy.
He is coming out hot.
He did the same thing last year.
He came out really hot right offthe bat for the Red Sox.
He's hitting 500, two home runs,OPS 1563.
Williar or Brayu of the Red Sox.
(19:50):
So this hot start, he did thislast year.
What are you thinking about thisyear?
SPEAKER_02 (19:55):
He also had a nice little WBC, too, which I think
helped get him on the rightdirection.
It seems like the WBC has beenmore helpful for the hitters
than it has been for thepitchers, the way some of the
pitchers have thrown.
Anyways, yeah, Brayu, I don'tknow.
He can be a streaky player.
He, like you said, last year hada really good start to his
season, but then he reallysputtered out and kind of by the
(20:16):
by the second half of theseason, I don't think he was
even an everyday starteranymore.
We'll see what happens inBoston.
It seems he's got like he's gotthe path to playing time.
I don't know how high hisceiling is, though.
Like I don't I don't ever seehim being truly hobby relevant.
SPEAKER_01 (20:28):
He does play for a good market, the Red Sox.
It's just that that's reallygonna help him.
Um, but yeah, he did the samething last year, so I'm not
sure.
SPEAKER_02 (20:36):
I like the way he I like the way when he when he
turns on a pitch inside, I likethe way he kind of leans back on
it.
It's uh he's got like a reallygood looking finish, really good
looking uppercut swing.
SPEAKER_01 (20:45):
Yeah, so after seeing the same thing from him
last year, maybe he just he'sahead of the pitching curve a
little bit at the beginning ofthe year.
But I'm I'm a wait and see onhim.
I'm not like gonna all of asudden start buying his stuff up
just because of this start.
SPEAKER_02 (20:56):
It is pretty cheap, I think, for the most part,
though, you know.
But uh that's fair.
Probably not the right time tobuy.
SPEAKER_01 (21:02):
All right, the last one I'm excited about for our
vets.
This guy's hitting 417 OPS of1200 in one very clutch
three-run walk-off home run.
We're talking Lubob for the DLove.
How are you feeling so far?
I've been a fan of him for awhile.
I've just been waiting for himto turn that corner.
(21:22):
He has a special place becausehe was the rookie of like when I
really got into collecting.
What was that, 2020?
SPEAKER_00 (21:29):
Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01 (21:29):
So him along with Bob Bachet.
And now I got both of them on myMets.
SPEAKER_02 (21:33):
Gavin Lux, Aristid Sakino, that 2020 Topps rookie
class, Elon Alvarez.
SPEAKER_01 (21:39):
Yeah, I got I got nice cards of all those guys
now.
Um, but yeah, Lubob, I was justlooking.
I have a nice um Diamond Iconsout of five auto of him.
But shadow got some nice stuff.
I got a blue gold label auto,and then I actually bought off
my brother.
He was selling it on on eBay,and he's like, I got this offer.
Uh, should I take?
(22:00):
I'm like, I'll just give youthat.
SPEAKER_02 (22:01):
All right, that was a fun product.
I really enjoyed gold label.
I wish that they didn't get ridof it.
SPEAKER_01 (22:06):
Gold label, I miss it so much.
I remember I got a few boxes.
My brother got like two boxesone year, and my boxes were
hitting nothing, nothing,nothing.
And I was jealous because mybrother hit a David Wright auto
out of five.
And then in my last box, I hit ablue David Wright auto out of
10.
So we just coincidentally, youknow, his favorite player
growing up, one of my topplayers ever.
(22:29):
So we both coincidentally bothhad like these beautiful David
Wright autos out of nowhere.
And that's always remained suchlike a favorite product of mine,
and that's a card I would neversell.
SPEAKER_02 (22:37):
I like they took the gold label concept and they kind
of threw that into finest alittle bit with the tiering of
the checklist, like the classone, class two, class three, I
think is what we called it.
SPEAKER_01 (22:46):
That I never liked.
I never liked the different liketiers of the different like
rarities.
That I was never a fan of.
Kind of I don't know.
It just didn't do it for me.
SPEAKER_02 (22:55):
Way too many parallels.
That none of them, none of themwould hold value because there
was too many of them.
SPEAKER_01 (23:01):
Yeah, definitely too confusing for the average
collector.
SPEAKER_02 (23:03):
It was a confusing product to break for sure.
SPEAKER_01 (23:05):
Let's talk about some of our hot rookies.
So first we'll talk abouthitting 283.
He's only got four hits.
His OPS though, 1373.
Three out of his four hits havebeen for home runs.
SPEAKER_00 (23:16):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (23:17):
We talked we spoke about him in the last week.
Munitekamorikami.
We said if the home runs couldcome, then he's gonna be a
really fun guy to watch.
We spoke about him earlier inthe episode.
Is this hot start legit?
SPEAKER_02 (23:29):
I mean, he's probably gonna carry series too,
huh?
He's gonna be that guy.
Yeah, I think so.
I mean, especially with theJapan market and how they buy
some of their star players, evenhow they were buying, like uh
oh, what's a good example?
Trying to think.
SPEAKER_01 (23:41):
A Japan player.
SPEAKER_02 (23:42):
Um like not like a superstar player, like the
prices at which those thoseplayers were going for were
pretty crazy.
But Muniteka Murakami is a is aa big name.
Yeah, he's uh he's a beast.
I'm buying his stock, both infantasy and in the hobby.
Like you said, there's not thatmany cards of him.
But I think, yeah, how much dowe want for it?
Is it clean?
SPEAKER_01 (24:01):
I think there's literally one.
If you go on eBay, I almostbought it.
I think there's one for like$50right now.
Um, and I would I might just goon and buy that after unless you
want it.
SPEAKER_02 (24:10):
Are there any dimples or are there any edge
marks or on this?
SPEAKER_01 (24:13):
I don't know.
I literally, like I said, whenwhen we started, I was literally
looking at my cards and I waslike, oh, and then you came on.
I was like, look what I found.
SPEAKER_02 (24:21):
Well, so they did it, they posted a promo for 26
Bowman, and of course, Murakamikanji variation 55 Bowman anime
is going to be.
I mean, that's gonna be a bigcard even for the non-kanji
version.
SPEAKER_01 (24:34):
He's gonna be in top scroll black.
He's gonna be a chase in that,which is gonna be before series
two.
So that should be his firstcards.
Did he sign?
SPEAKER_02 (24:41):
Yeah.
Oh, good.
Okay, nice.
Yeah, I haven't really lookedinto black yet.
SPEAKER_01 (24:45):
Yeah, so that's definitely gonna be a chase if
if he can keep up anywhere nearthis start, he's gonna be a lot
of fun to watch.
He's all or nothing, it seems,which is what we expected.
We said that in our playerpreview episode.
But as long as those home runsare coming, you know, it doesn't
matter.
That 283 average for a home runhitter, take it.
Take it all day.
SPEAKER_02 (25:05):
Yeah, I don't know if he can maintain 286, but he's
gonna hit some bombs.
You know, I I think he'll hit ifhe stays healthy.
I think he can easily hit 40bombs as rookie year.
And with that, he could belooking at the rookie of the
year.
Yeah.
Mooney moonshots.
Mooney moonshots.
SPEAKER_01 (25:18):
I like that.
Did you see that first uh homerun of his?
SPEAKER_02 (25:21):
When you say Mooney, it makes me think of Moononori
Kawasaki.
Do you remember him?
SPEAKER_00 (25:25):
Nope.
SPEAKER_02 (25:26):
Oh my god.
Cole hero in Seattle wasfantastic.
Just a little slap hitter,played great defense, but just
had this the funniestpersonality.
Always said funny stuff ininterviews, and you could see
him messing around with histeammates.
Yeah, he was he was a cool dude.
Cool hero.
Mooney.
SPEAKER_01 (25:41):
So, next up on our rookies, another guy who's
starting off exactly in a waythat we thought he might.
Kevin McGonagall, average of357, OPS 971.
Home runs.
He was robbed of one by JacksonMerrill, though.
He was so close, pretty muchtipped his hat to him.
But yeah, he started an openingday with four hits.
(26:02):
You talked about his hit tooland what you were expecting out
of him.
It seems like he is hittingthose expectations, no pun
intended.
So I have a feeling I know whatyou're gonna say, but how are
you feeling about this uhmechanical start?
SPEAKER_02 (26:13):
And it's certainly encouraging, right?
I mean, just the quality of thatbats this guy grinds out.
He's wise beyond his years, youknow.
He's he's a rookie, but he'splaying like he's in year 10.
He's just so far above all theother guys at his age that are
coming up, in my opinion.
And he's shown that consistentlyin his somewhat short minor
league career so far.
And he's definitely shown it atthe major league level so far.
(26:34):
Pretty, pretty amazing.
The question there is alwaysgonna be the power.
Does he have the power?
You know, that's a good the factthat his uh his one almost home
run was robbed, I think, is aperfect like analogy for how
people look at him from a hobbyperspective.
Like, does he have the power?
Is he close enough?
He's close, but is he closeenough?
Is he gonna be a guy that couldeventually hit 30, maybe 40 home
runs in a year?
(26:55):
I'm not sure.
And how good of a hitter do youhave to be if you're only
hitting 20 home runs a year tobe a hobby star?
And that is the answer to thatquestion is an insanely good
hitter.
Like, can you think of any bighitters in the last 20 years
that have only hit 20 home runsa year and are like big, have
huge hobby value?
It's almost like you'd have togo back to somebody like Ricky
(27:16):
Henderson.
You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_01 (27:18):
Yeah, unless you have like another big tool to
hang your hat on, like stolen isyeah.
SPEAKER_02 (27:23):
Ichiro would be one, but yeah.
He's got more pop than Ichiro.
I think he wants to hit theball.
I mean, it's a different game,too, than when Ichiro came up.
I think he's gonna like theTigers are gonna want him to hit
the ball out of the ballpark,and I think he's gaining power
as he gets older, too, like mostguys do.
And he's he's far away from hispeak power potential usually
that you see when guys turn 27,28, 29.
SPEAKER_01 (27:45):
Yeah, he's well off his prime.
He's got plenty of time to growinto that power.
And hopefully we're gonna get abig deal.
SPEAKER_02 (27:51):
He's a beast, though.
Like, is there any question thathe's gonna be like right away
just like a an a way aboveaverage hitter at the major
league level?
It's pretty amazing.
SPEAKER_01 (28:00):
Yeah, everyone is expecting big things from this
guy.
His cards are gonna be really,really at a premium.
This is really such a fun rookieclass this year.
It's gonna be one of the bestrookie classes we've seen
hobby-wise in a while.
And yeah, I'm just that there'sso many, there's so many guys
with so much potential.
And I think it's great for somany reasons.
(28:20):
You know, when you see likethat, those years where there's
just like a couple of guys,their prices are such a premium
because the box prices stay thesame usually.
Well, or as you know, they go upevery year.
But now with it spread out, likeespecially for like breaks and
stuff, you know, breakers canreally spread out that price a
lot more and not have to focuson, okay, well, this is the
team, you know, outside of theDodgers with Otani, it should
(28:43):
really be able to spread out theprices quite a bit.
So that that should be reallyhealthy and fun for the hobby,
unless tops fanatics get evengreedier and just say, Oh, this
is such a fantastic rookieclass, just raising prices.
SPEAKER_02 (28:56):
I'm gonna ask you a question, and I before I do, I'm
gonna say I think we should makethis a topic in a future
episode.
But I want your gut reaction,Juice.
Pick one rookie class that willbe better in let's call it five
years from now, 2024, 2026,including not just series one,
but also series two.
An update, guys.
Anybody that eventually is arookie in that class, because
(29:17):
it's not 25.
SPEAKER_01 (29:18):
You know what?
I I gotta go 2026 just because Iknow 2024 had schemes, but when
we were first talking about thisyear, we were talking about all
the great pitchers, and now wehaven't even talked about these
rookie pitchers today.
We're talking about all hitters,and we still haven't seen Conic
Riffin, who is the guy that ispretty much the big shadow
looming over all these otherguys.
(29:39):
He's gonna be the benchmark asfar as we know.
But yeah, so just with all thegreat pitching and all the great
hitting, I've never seen likeit's 10 guys that that we could
probably rattle off really quickof perennial all-star potential
that that could be future hobbydarlings and guys that could be
talked about in MVP raises.
(29:59):
I don't think I've ever seenmore than like five in a year.
SPEAKER_02 (30:02):
I mean like top five versus top five from each class
looking at the top, because somuch of the price of a product
is going to be driven by the topguys, but yeah.
24 in in no particular order,it's gonna be what, Skeens,
Ellie, maybe a Jackson Churio,Yamamoto, who else?
I mean, there's Jackson Holiday,there's Jackson Merrill, there's
Wyatt Langford, a lot of peoplethink could have a big year.
(30:23):
Who am I missing from 24?
Who else would you throw inthere?
One of those guys probably.
SPEAKER_01 (30:26):
I was thinking of the Jacksons.
Um, and then you Caminero.
SPEAKER_02 (30:29):
Caminero is probably the one actually I'd put in
there.
SPEAKER_01 (30:31):
Yeah, and he's still somehow into the radar.
SPEAKER_02 (30:33):
So you got Skeens, Ellie, Churio, Caminero,
Yamamoto versus Roman, Jack,Connor.
SPEAKER_01 (30:40):
McGonagall, Mark.
I like that.
You can swap out so many names.
That's the thing.
SPEAKER_02 (30:44):
McGonagall, Weatherhole, Emerson.
And then we haven't talked aboutMizerowski, Schlitler.
SPEAKER_01 (30:54):
It's McClean.
I think you've already made 10and we can keep going.
Like I've never seen a rookieclass like that for the hobby.
SPEAKER_02 (30:59):
So that's pretty deep.
Yeah.
But it always starts deep, youknow.
Yeah.
It's it won't be as deep whenwe're talking about 2026 and
2028.
SPEAKER_01 (31:07):
Yeah.
Well, these guys, though,they're they're so good.
And I think the hot starts aredefinitely helping, uh, are
definitely skewing ourreactions, you know.
At the end of the day, these aresuch at the end of the day,
these are really small samplesizes.
There's really nothing to reallysay.
It's just, you know, hope, beoptimistic, look at the promise.
But yeah, that there's reallynot much that that we can go off
(31:30):
of.
It's just, can they actually doit on a big stage?
Yeah.
All right.
So let's talk about the lastguy.
You just mentioned his name, hisnumbers aren't as eye-popping,
but you know, he did have thatreally impressive Homer day one.
JJ Weatherholt.
He's gonna be 250 right now, onehome run, 753 OPS.
But he just looks solid.
He looks like he he belongs.
How are you feeling about him?
SPEAKER_02 (31:50):
Have you cooled on him with or definitely not
cooled on him?
He looks the part.
I love the fact that he'shitting leadoff.
I think St.
Louis is an awesome baseballtown.
JJ Weatherholt seems like anawesome baseball person.
Yeah, I'm I'm still very bullishon JJ Weatherholt.
And, you know, even though mostof the time when a guy gets the
call, I'd say sell, especiallywith given the way that he's had
(32:13):
a good start to his career.
I think JJ is one of the fewguys that I'd say hold at this
point.
SPEAKER_01 (32:17):
That's fair.
I'm feeling the same way.
You know, nothing crazy haspopped out, but he's he's done
what's been asked of him so far,and he should continue.
Hopefully he has a good year,turns into a good career.
But yeah, I would not be I don'tknow.
I I can't blame you for sellingright now.
SPEAKER_02 (32:32):
I still am unbelievably high on 2025 Bowman
as as a checklist.
I just think it's it's gone up alot.
Like you can't find a jumbo boxfor less than about 700 bucks
now.
You know, at one point you couldfind them for around 500 once
the market cooled after release,but that checklist is just
unbelievable.
(32:52):
The first Bowman checklist isjust so good compared to a
typical Bowman flagship release.
And it's it's a good mix of guysthat are already doing it.
Weatherholt, McGonagall, guysthat are already up in the big
leagues, and guys that have hugeprospect hype.
Mate, Pena, Quintero, ThomasWhite, those guys.
I I could go on on on about 2025Bowman.
(33:13):
Connor Griffin has autos.
SPEAKER_01 (33:15):
And most of those guys we can see this year as
well.
You mentioned them.
SPEAKER_00 (33:19):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (33:20):
But yeah, so for all we know, this rookie class, who
knows if like that they'll makethe cutoff or update, but it
could become even stronger forthe hobby.
SPEAKER_02 (33:27):
Yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_01 (33:28):
Well, that about does it for today, I think.
It's been a very exciting firstweek of baseball.
And yeah, any parting words,Bert?
SPEAKER_02 (33:35):
It has been a very first, uh, exciting first week
of baseball.
Looking forward to more of it.
Go, Mariners.
I'm really looking forward to usbeating the Yankees again
tonight.
It's gonna be it's gonna bephenomenal.
We can share that you and Ijuice as the season goes along.
Joining the Yankees, watchingthe Yankees lose.
SPEAKER_01 (33:51):
Yeah, and the Mariners have always been like
one of like the other teams thatI would enjoy watching, just
because you know I grew up withGriffey and then since then just
rooting for that jersey all thetime.
But yeah, rooting against theYankees, that's never difficult
to do.
Uh only thing is they they playso late for me.
So I'm uh I'm pretty much out.
SPEAKER_02 (34:08):
It's tough.
Yeah.
Well, good luck on yourtranscendent breaks.
I know you'll be showing out,you'll be liquidating your 401k,
taking out a second mortgage onyour house.
It's an investment.
Go to that or two for a personalrip.
See if you could find one ofthose golden tickets.
SPEAKER_01 (34:24):
All right.
Well, thank you so much,everyone, for listening to the
Talking Cards podcast with GrantSlami and the juice.
I am the juice.
Everyone, enjoy baseball beingback.
We do have a link in ourdescription now if you want to
send us.
It says like mail.
It's obviously not physicalmail, but you can send us a
message if you have anyquestions or comments.
And uh maybe we'll mention youor your comments on the show.
(34:45):
All right.
Well, thank you so much forlistening, everyone.
Have a good day.
SPEAKER_02 (34:47):
Awesome.
Thank you.
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