Draft Pick World Series: Bowman vs. Tristar - Game 7

Here it is, Game 7, the one for all the marbles. Bowman's mangaged to take it to the limit despite a sub-par box and a TriStar product with TWO hits. We'll go through this last pack card by card. Since there is only 6 cards in TriStar and 7 in Bowman, let's assume that it's a 0-0 tie in the bottom of the third and Bowman's up.

Bottom of the Third: Bowman 0, Tristar 0

Bowman:BDP28 Doug Slaten RC

He;s a solid relief pitcher for the D-Backs, and it appears to be a true rookie card, but can a rookie of a middle reliever really make it in Game 7 of the World Series? Nah.

Top of the Fourth: Bowman 0, TriStar 0

TriStar: 8 Ryan Dent

A sandwich pick of the Red Sox, Ryan was a good debut in the rookie league. If his name was Arthur, he'd be worth at least a run.

Bottom of the Fourth: Bowman 0, Tristar 0

Bowman: BDP36 Carlos Gomez RC

It's telling that the Mets traded Lastings Milledge and kept him. Supposedly he's faster than Jose Reyes, yipe. He has Bowman prospect cards in '06, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. A walk, a steal, a ground out to second advancing the runner and a SAC fly gets a run home for Bowman.

Top of the Fifth: Bowman 1, TriStar 0

TriStar: 53 Matt Wieters

The number five overall pick in the draft by the Orloles, this catcher from Georgia Tech got a 6 million dollar signing bonus thanks to Scott Boras. The official site of Minor League Baseball (who licensed this set, by the way) ranks him the 21st best prospect in the minors. Georgia Tech alum, huge prospect, and check out that cool minor league logo. Ironbirds! Two run jack to deep left field.

Bottom of the Fifth: Bowman 1, Tristar 2

Bowman: BDPP85 Chrome Geovany Soto

Bowman needed to step up here with a good chrome card and instead they give me a Futures game card with a photo of Geovany's fat butt. 1-2-3 inning for Bowman.

Top of the Sixth: Bowman 1, TriStar 2

TriStar: PT-CL2 Chris Lubanski ProTential

Another #5 overall pick, this time by the Royals. Only problem is he was picked in 2003. He's only 22 and still has lots of promise, but not quite enough. Double to the gap, runner advanced to third, but TriStar can't knock him home.

Bottom of the Sixth: Bowman 1, Tristar 2

Bowman: BDP22 Chrome Sean Gallagher RC

Bowman needed to step up here and they blew it. Gallagher is still real young and might end up a good pitcher for someone, but right now he's a long reliever with a huge ERA. He also has cards going back to 2004. Swing and a miss. Bowman needs their draft picks to step up big time now.

Top of the Seventh: Bowman 1, TriStar 2

TriStar: 11 Jason Heyward

GRAND SLAM! Jason is the whole reason I'm buying these draft cards. The #14 overall pick by the Braves, he has big time power and has been compared to Fred McGriff and Derrek Lee. Expect to see him in left field at Turner Field sometime in the next 5 years or so unless Teixieira moves on and he takes over at first.. Things are looking gloomy in the Bowman dougout.

Bottom of the Seventh: Bowman 1, Tristar 6

Bowman: BDPP58 Gold Jarrod Parker

Big time pitching prospect picked #9 overall by the D-Backs. Top ten picks equal runs, but the fact that he passed up a scholarship to Georgia Tech to sign kills the rally.

Top of the Eighth: Bowman 3, TriStar 6

TriStar: 62 Trystan Magnuson

Y'm not analizyng ani one named Trystan wyth a Y. Whi do parents do these thyngs.

Bottom of the Eighth: Bowman 3, Tristar 6

Bowman: BDPP58 Jarrod Parker

Bowman, Bowman, Bowman. Why do you do these things. Top ten pick or not, you had a golden opportunity and you gave me a double in a pack. Kid Gleason is pulling his hair out while Chick Gandil shuffles his feet and whistles innocently. Buck Weaver's not making the same mistake twice, he's running to go tell Eisner about the fix.

Top of the Ninth Bowman 3, TriStar 6

TriStar: 87 Austin Romine

High School catcher picked up in the second round by the Yankees. He could take over for Posada in a half dozen years, but not good enough to add to TriStar's lead.

Bottom of the Ninth: Bowman 3, Tristar 6

The Bowman faithful are on their feet, they need a big rally to take the championship. Another Heyward would win the series for them. Here's the pitch...

Bowman: BDPP10 Brandon Hamilton

And the dream dies. A sandwich pick for the Tigers (who have had pretty good luck selecting pitchers to be fair) but a Google search came up with a photographer, a Canadian League cornerback and a Scottish Duke before the pitcher. Go Crazy, TriStar, Go Crazy!

Final Score: Tristar 6, Bowman 3.

TriStar wins the series 4-3.

TriStar Prospects Plus is the Draft Pick set of 2007! Go out and buy some now! HAY! Put down that box of Elite! That stuff costs 150 bucks, what are you nuts?? I don't CARE if it's pretty, it's expensive and it's crap! Put the credit card away! YOUR BIG HIT WILL BE A TOM OSBORNE AUTOGRAPH, JUST YOU WAIT!!!!!

Draft Pick World Series: Bowman vs. Tristar - Game 6

It's game six in the Draft Pick World Series, and everything's on the line for Bowman. The MLB licensed, non-ugly foilboard Bowman is clearly the superior set, but they've had a terrible blaster so far with no refractors and two Barry Bonds cards. Why Topps thought it was appropriate to let a veteran try to sneak into a Futures game is beyond me, but it has clearly cost them in the series. Meanwhile TriStar has come out of nowhere with a championship performance so far and has stepped up with not one but TWO autographs out of their blaster. This has been a season for the underdogs however as preseason favorite Donruss Elite Extra sits on the the sideline unbought with their $8 a pack price tag. Can Bowman step it up with the final two games in their home park or will TriStar score the huge upset? Game six will tell, Play Ball!

TriStar:
35 Corey Luebke
94 David Mailman
85 Anthony Rizzo
82 Carmen Angelini
66 Daniel Duffy
49 Beau Mills

Not a great showing by TriStar in game 6. Half the pack is players picked in the 6th round or greater. Beau Mills looks to be the pick of the pack. Beau is the first round selection of the Indians at #13 overall. The big slugger from Lewis & Clark is considered the best hitting player out of college in last year's draft. His pop also played for the 'Spos in the early 80's and is now a coach for the Red Sox. Daniel Duffy is a high school pither picked by the Royals in the 3rd round. Anthony Rizzo is not only a first baseman in the Red Sox organization, but his namesake directed the immortal Duck and Cover safety film. David Mailman is another Sox farmhand while 10th rounder shortstop Carmen Angelini managed to extort a million dollar signing bonus out of the Yankees due to his full scholarship to Rice. Time will tell if he's the heir apparent to Jeter, or a mid level prospect thrown in on a future trade for a high priced veteran. A good omen for this pack is Corey Luebke, a Buckeye pitcher picked by the Padres. Corey had a great debut in the minors and was eventually promoted to High-A ball where he led his team to the championship. Can he do the same for TriStar? Time for Bowman to counter...

Bowman:
BDP17 Jon Knott
BDP18 Joba Chamberlain
BDPP 79 Chrome Chuck Lofgren
BDPP87 Chrome Bryan Anderson
BDPP6 Gold Ed Easley
Checklist
BDPP70 Emiliano Fruto
BDPP50 Sean Doolittle

It's weird how both of these packs had draft picks of players who had famous namesakes. TriStar had the Duck and Cover dude, while both Doolittle and Easley have authors who share their name. Well, mostly share their name... a Google search for Ed will come up with E.D. at any rate. Sean Doolittle is a first baseman from the University of Virginia who didn't do much at Kane County last year. He was a first founder for the A's last year and according to the bio on the back of the card, the Braves took him in 2004 but he didn't sign. Grrrr... Easley is a catcher from Mississippi State picked up by the D-Backs in the draft. The Jon Knott card officially kills any faith I had in the MLB Rookie card logo. Not only do I already have his 2004 Cracker Jack card, but he played nine games with the Padres that year! I guess he is still a rookie under official guidelines since he's only played in 19 MLB games, but come on already. He is also pictured in an Orioles uni, but he's already bounced to the Twins on a minor league contract. Not much in this pack except for that one guy...

JOBA

Not even three more futures cards with the photos all taken from the exact same spot can undermine the power of Joba. Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects officially has a game 6 moment:


The series is all tied, tune in tomorrow for the deciding game 7!

Draft Pick World Series: Bowman vs. Tristar - Game 5

The series is all tied up and it's the crucial game five. Whoever loses has to pull off two wins in a row, while the winner can cruise to victory with just one good pack. For the rest of the series I'll take the packs one at a time to build artificial suspense since I ripped all these packs last week anyway and I know exactly what's about to happen. That's right, this is all a ruse, scripted just like a reality series. You don't care though, you just want to see the cards. So onward! Here's pack 5!

Bowman:
BDP22 Sean Gallagher
BDP43 Yunel Escobar
BDPP81 Chrome Michael Madsen
BDPP51 Chrome Mike McDade
BDP2 Gold Matt Chico
BDPP31 Scott Carroll
BDPP83 Jeff Niemann

It appears that Bowman didn't get all the money they were promised by Arnold Rothstein and are kicking it up a notch in the series. Eddie Cicotte, um, I mean Matt Chico is pitching a great game and there's even a Futures game card that has a picture that isn't from that exact same 3rd base angle as all the others. There are two draft picks, Carroll was a third rounder for the Reds and McDade was a 6th rounder for the Blue Jays. After the first couple of rounds it gets increasingly difficult to find any information on these guys, a Google search for Mike McDade came up with some dude's MySpace page. The real winner though is Yunel Escobar, he (along with Jason Heyward and maybe Joba) is one of the few cards that could win one of these games all by himself. This is a nice looking card too with Yunel taking a big hack in a spring training game. TriStar is going to have to come up big to beat this.

TriStar:
74 Nathan Vineyard
61 Joe Savery
FH-MB2 Michael Burgess
28 Daniel Moskos
30 Max Scherzer
24 Grant Desme

Out of nowhere! A second auto! The rumors were true!!! The autograph is of Washington's Michael Burgess. No, not that one. The other one. He tore up the rookie league last year and is already listed as the Nats' #4 prospect by Baseball America. He's only 19 and needs seasoning, so he might not get caught up in Washington's current glut of outfielders. Very sweet.
There's also a card of #4 overall pick Daniel Moskos. Moskos is a hard throwing lefty (nice!) picked up by the Pirates (uh oh) and could end up as their closer one day. There's even a card of Nathan Vineyard, who went to high school right up the road from me. Not even Yunel can save Bowman from this pack. TriStar wins game 5 and leads the series 3-2. Bowman's in deep trouble, they could really use a refractor right about now.

Draft Pick World Series: Bowman vs. Tristar - Game 4

Bowman almost seems to be throwing the series the way things have gone so far. No refractors, no real spectacular rookies and two lousy Bonds cards. If I want to pull a Bonds, I'll buy an Updates and Highlights pack, thanks. I half expect to pull an Abe Attell card out of Bowman tonight. TriStar has a slight advantage due to a smaller checklist that is almost exclusively draft picks, but they've used up their guaranteed autograph trump card already. It's still wide open, let's open up pack 4:

Bowman:
BDP34 Matt Brown
BDP51 Kevin Slowey
BDPP Chrome Danny Rams
BDPP Chrome Chris Coghlan
BDP54 Gold Mark Reynolds
BDPP97 Brent Lillibridge
BDPP108 Carlos Gonzalez

TriStar:
98 Mitch Hilligoss
46 Will Kline
PT-MS Max Scherzer
64 Matt LaPorta
42 Kevin Ahrens
45 Andrew Brackman

Bowman did better this time. Three green RC's and a draft pick ain't bad. Brown and Reynolds appear to be true RCs, and Reynolds could be in the mix at third for the D-Backs next year. The best is Kevin Slowey, who pitched well for the Twins last year and could be a part of their rotation soon. Danny Rams is another Twins farmhand, the 18 year old catching prospect was taken in the second round last year. Now that I've noticed it, I'm getting irritated that all the photos of the Futures game players are in the batters box from the third base side. Three of these cards should doom this pack, but one is of Braves center field prospect Brent Lillibridge. Brent is actually a shortstop, but he's blocked by Yunel Escobar and has been thrown into the mix in the battle to replace Andruw Jones.

From what I've seen so far, the Protential inserts out of TriStar feature hot prospects from last year's draft. Max Scherzer fits that bill, he was the D-Backs' first round pick in '06 and looks like he could eventually end up being a decent starter one day. He's got a long way to go as he pitched with AA Mobile last year. The draft picks are all decent, but Andrew Brackman had Tommy John surgery almost immediately after getting drafted by the Yankees. Matt LaPorta is probably the best card out of the pack, but he's a Florida Gator, so I can't get too exited about it. I actually saw Mitch Hilligoss play last August against the Rome Braves. I don't remember what he did on the field, but he signed some autographs for some kids right in front of where I was sitting.

This was a hard one to judge, but a Brave trumps a Gator. Bowman ties the series 2-2.

Oh, and Happy Birthday Elvis!!!

Draft Pick World Series: Bowman vs. Tristar - Game 3

Ok, after a little weekend break it's time to continue the World Series of Draft Pick sets. We're all tied up after two games so it's anyone's series. Let's rip.

Bowman:
BDP27 Ben Francisco
237 Arrrrrrggghhhhh
BDPP110 Chrome Justin Upton
BDP51 Chrome Kevin Slowey
BDP10 Gold Glen Perkins
BDPP106 Michael Saunders
BDPP52 Charlie Culberson

TriStar
1 David Price
89 Brad Suttle
68 Mitch Canham
34 Jackson Williams
16 Jordan Zimmerman
72 Julio Borbon

No inserts in TriStar this time, but some interesting stuff nonetheless. David Price was the #1 overall pick by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The big lefty from Vanderbilt looks like he could be a dominant pitcher in the majors one day. Suttle is a third baseman picked in the 4th round by the Yankees. Can you say trade bait? Mitch Canham was a catcher for the Beavers. Yeah, I snickered at that too. I think Jackson Williams is this guy from Oklahoma, but a Google search for "jackson williams" gets about 18 billion hits. Can you believe there's already been a pitcher named Jordan Zimmerman in the majors? This guy here was drafted out of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point by the Nationals in the second round last year, which basically means he's penciled in as their opening day starter. Borbon is a fantastic baseball name, and Julio looks like he could be a decent outfielder for the Rangers one day. All in all a really good pack with some nice prospects in there including the number one overall. Can you imagine if Price delivers as advertised and the Rays hold on to Kazmir? Yankers and Sawks will have have to hold onto their butts in the East.

Here's basically all I have to say about the Bowman pack:


No red cards in the rookie packs. Topps fails at life. TriStar leads the series, 2-1.

Draft Pick World Series: Bowman vs. Tristar - Game 2

Game one was a slaughter for TriStar. Barry Bonds sunk Bowman and then a David Kopp auto piled on the hurting. Bowman gets a chance to redeem itself today though and even up the series. Let's Play Ball!

Bowman:
BDP52 Brendan Ryan
BDP24 Dennis Dove
BDPP89 Chrome J.R. Towles
BDP34 Chrome Matt Brown
BDP32 Gold Nate Schierholtz
Checklist
BDPP14 Travis d'Arnaud
BDPP107 Cameron Maybin

Tristar:
29 Wendell Fairley
18 Kellen Kulbacki
PT-GR Greg Reynolds Protential
80 Colby Rasmus
54 Sean Doolittle
56 Barry Enright

Jeez, another Cameron Maybin? I know he's a serious prospect but does he need to be in both green and blue sets? Not much else in the Bowman pack. Brendan Ryan apparently pissed off LaRussa and the Cards just signed Cesar Izturis to play short. Dennis Dove is a reliever who has been outrighted to the minors this offseason. Matt Brown got a 5 at bat cup of coffee with the Angels this year. Pretty lackluster pack, and JR Towles' photo of his back is not nearly as interesting as his Bowman Heritage card.

Not much in the TriStar pack either though. Colby Rasmus is the best prospect, but it's not a "Pro Debut" card, so that makes this just another minor league issue. Wendell Fairley is an interesting prospect, but we probalby won't hear anything from him for a few years. The insert card is pretty blah, a minor league pitcher who just had shoulder surgery.

Two average packs here, with not much to propel either on top. Tie goes to Bowman, they have one more card per pack plus their design is waaaaaaay better than TriStar. I understand foil stamping is just a part of the hobby nowadays, but was it really necessary to put a foil name on a foil background?? It's like they're trying to make us go blind. Bowman ties the series by default.

Draft Pick World Series: Bowman vs. Tristar - Game 1

Ok, so I might have swung and missed on my first pack of '08. I don't care, I got a new Sexay Lady for the 2008 version of Twelve Days of Cardmas, an Allen & Ginter mini card and the gum was yummy. But to show you I'm a nice guy, I'll do something extra special to make up for it. A Draft Pick World Series!

A couple days ago I posted the first pack of a Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects blaster. The other seven packs in the box were scheduled to go on my blog for a set review. However, a few days before that I posted a rip of a TriStar Prospects Plus pack and the comments got me intrigued enough to find a blaster of the stuff. So now I have seven packs of Bowman and seven packs of Tristar... seven packs, seven games... hey, it's World Series time! These two blasters will hopefully help decide once and for all which is the better draft pick set. Some of you are asking, what about Donruss? Donruss has a draft pick set too, why did they get shut out of the championship series? Well, because Donruss Elite costs $125 a box and there is the very real possibility that the big hit could be Steve Spurrier. You, uh, knock yourself out with that stuff.

I have to say, Bowman is a decided favorite here. They are a licensed product and have refractors. Shiny rainbow glowy cards usually win. TriStar guarantees an auto per blaster, so the scrappy underdogs do have a trick up their sleeves. Here's Game 1 of the TriStar vs. Bowman Draft Pick World Series.

Bowman:
BDP12 Cameron Maybin
BDP40 Andy LaRoche
BDPP91 Chrome Brian Bocock
237 Chrome Indicty McJuicer
BDP39 Gold Mark McLemore
BDPP90 Alcides Escobar
BDPP59 Wendell Fairley

TriStar:
15 Tim Alderson
41 Danny Payne
FH-DK Farm Hands David Kopp Autograph
6 Rick Porcello
17 Johnathan Arencibia
99 Cale Iorg

Between pulling my guaranteed autograph from TriStar and the Wretched Bonds in Bowman, I don't have to even attempt to analyze these packs. It's Tristar in a slaughter in the first game. Not even RCs of Cameron Maybin and Andy LaRoche (who already were in past Bowman sets, incidentally) save the Bowman pack from a stinkin' Red card polluting my Rookie set. Seriously, I don't care if it's a Chipper Jones autogamer superfractor numbered 1/1 with a hundred dollar bill taped to the back of it, any red cards in these Bowman packs equals automatic loss. It's almost too bad that TriStar's automatic auto is wasted thanks to Bonds' disqualification. David Kopp is a righty pitcher from Clemson who was drafted by the Cardinals, and has a pretty unique autograph. After one game, TriStar leads 1-0 on the strength of an autograph and a stupid Bonds card.

2007 TriStar Prospects Plus

So by now we all know about Donruss getting back into the baseball card game, kinda. Their Extra Edition draft pick product hit shelves and looks like it's being pretty well received so far. I bought a pack of their Elite Extra Edition set a few years back and got an autographed rookie card. No one I'd ever heard of before though, some Red Sox infielder. Darren Pedroia or something like that. I wonder whatever happened to him? Anyway, I went into the local card shop last week for one last gasp before the Holiday and they had boxes of Donruss sitting right there on the counter. Sweet, I thought, I can get a pack to open here. Maybe I'll get another auto of some scrub like Dunston or whoever. Someone had the same idea I did, and asked if there were packs for sale. "Sorry, we're not packing these out, box sales only," was the reply. I looked at the price tag. $120 a box. Ouch. A little quick math came up with $120/24 packs a box=No Donruss for Dayf this year. I left downhearted (not really, I got all but one card I needed for my UD Masterpieces set while I was there) and wondered where on earth I could go to get my unlicensed MLB Draft pick fix? TriStar to the rescue! Three bucks a pack at Wally World! Christmas was SAVED! Hooray for Tristar!


36 Michael Main
6 Rick Porcello
PT-CLL Chin Lung Lo
74 Nathan Vineyard
61 Joe Savery
6 Ryan Dent

I do not know who ANY of these people are, even though half of them are purportedly first round draft picks from this year. I did get an insert card of Chin (misspelled Ching on the card) Lung Lo, who is a AA pitching prospect for the Rockies. The rest of them are all picks from last June's draft. They all have "Pro Debut" logos on them except Rick Porcello, who has "2007 Draft Pick" where the logo should be. Rick also has a black band on the bottom instead of red. I guess Rick signed too late in the season to play in a rookie league, thus no Pro Debut yet. He got a huge contract from the Tigers and was named Gatorade's top High School Baseball player, so I guess he pretty much has to go in the set. His grandfather is also this guy. There's also pitcher Michael Main, 1st rounder for the Rangers; pitcher Joe Savery, first round pick of the Phillies; and Ryan Dent, an infielder taked by the Red Sox with a sandwich pick after the 1st round. Nathan Vinyard is the coolest out of the pack though, it turns out he went to high school 20 minutes away from where I live over in the next county! And he got picked by the f#$% METS! Now I am downhearted. I got a cool card of a local kid though and now I'm going to be keeping an eye out on Nathan's progress.