Latest / Cards & Categories / Ep. 115 : 2025 Topps Update Series Overview

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Ep. 115 : 2025 Topps Update Series Overview · Cards & Categories

• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome everybody to episode one fifteen of Cards
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: and Categories. I am my Cool Art from Rassball, joined
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: as always by my very good friend Jeremy Burr, also
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: from Rasball. How are you doing tonight, Buddy, First Pod
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: of November twenty twenty five.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: I am happy and sad and excited at the same time.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Baseball is over for the season, which brings me down.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: But also I love the off season. And I don't
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: know if if I told you I won a gold Glove,
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: because they were just giving him out to almost anybody.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: So I'm really excited about that as well. But now
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: kidding aside, I'm looking forward to the off season. I
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: love the business dynamic of baseball and all the moves
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: and all the implications and so it's just it's a
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: fun time of year. See everybody play in their hand
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: with what the off season is to come.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: I mean, you maybe should have gotten the al Gold
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Glove at first base over Ty France, who he was
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: a negative defender by base runs on fangrass and you know,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: barely played down the stretch. But Ty France did beat
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: out Vlad Guerrero Junior, who flashed some leather in the
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: world series that we're about to talk about, I would
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: have voted for you over Ty France.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: I appreciate that it's an empty comment, but I appreciate
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: it nonetheless.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Anytime I'm here to boost youa Okay, well, we are
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: going to get into Top's Update overview for twenty twenty five,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: into our normal portion of the pod, the Meteor portion.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: I do have to issue a little bit of a
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: correction for last week because I was talking about Alan
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: and Ginter being released on eleven three. That was actually
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: just the pre order. But you can, I think also
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: forgive us, as if you listened to last week's episode,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: you also realized the Baseball card release calendar is an
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: absolute disaster, a huge mess.
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: Right now.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: This has only gotten even I think worse with Allen
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: Ginter realizing it as a pre order, because it's still
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: supposed to be coming out in November and nobody really knows.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: We do know that TOPS Update should be coming out
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: on November twelfth, so we're a week early here to
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: give you that overview. So there will be some things
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: that will go over that probably will change in the future,
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: but you'll have to bear with us as we give
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: you that checklist overview, which should at least be able
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: to hit most of the basis for you. But before
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: we get into that, let's revisit the World Series, because
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: I mean, we have gotten to the offseason. It's been
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: I guess it's only been what four days without baseball,
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: and I still feel like a pang in my heart
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: not being able to see any baseball scores or baseball
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: on my TV. And that's how much we love the game.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: But what a World series? Right last week with the pod,
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: I posted best World Series ever and that was only.
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: Through four games. Were speaking during Game.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Five last week, and I think it might have been
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: up there because there are some arguments to be made
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: between Sam Miller said on his podcast with the wind
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: up there with Grant Brisbee that he would put it
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: like sixth or seventh of all time World Series. There's
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: other stats that have been out there that it was
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: the largest swings in championship win probability, added a stat
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: from Baseball Reference this World Series mostly because of those
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: extra innings in Game seven. Where does this World Series
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: kind of rank in your pantheon? Knowing that we've both
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: been on this earth around four decades.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we've been around a while, and I I'm not
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: going to place it a certain spot in like a list,
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: you know, because you can argue for different reasons the
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: Red Sox, you know, winning their first series and you know,
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: fifteen million years and things like that. But if I
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: just look at it on you know, the surface here,
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: this to me is one of the most memorable world
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: series in a long time. I don't, I don't. I
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: can't recall another world series that really had this impact.
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: The swings, I'd say, the worldwide coverage and it it
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: literally was one of those that was like a nail
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: bier the entire time. And you know, just when you
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: think that the Dodgers are gonna run away with it,
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: the Blue Jays show you that they should, and just
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: when you think the blue Jays have it, the Dodgers complaint.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: It was a seesaw the entire time, and I loved
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: every moment of it. It was. It was absolutely unbelievable,
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: and I I, I just I can't remember the last
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: time I had so much fun watching baseball that didn't
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: have my team in it, and like just not wanting
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: to miss a single pitch. So this has been very,
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: very fun. It was it was almost one of those.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: It was almost I was just sad to see the
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: World Series in I mean, I'll give you credit. You
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: called it correctly. You called the Dodgers in seven games.
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: I thought I was a few games early. I was
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: just wrong. The Blue Jay showed me a lot more
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: than than I expected. Yeah, I may have undrusted me
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: in them, But where's the fall for you? Because I
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: would have to say I can probably make an argument
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: for a top five World Series of all time.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean recentcy bias. I mean, it's gotta be
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: up there. It probably is one of the best ones
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: I've ever seen. Trying to think of other ones that
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: are really up there. You obviously have two thousand and
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: one Dbacks and Yankees with the walk off by the
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: Luis Gonzales. The ninety seven World Series was fantastic two
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: between the Marlins and Cleveland with that agger rent a
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: real walk off, and so you didn't necessarily get the
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: walk off situation here in the twenty twenty five World Series.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: But I mean we got pretty dang close in terms
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: of what we saw in that game seven. So I
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: still think I like it better because when you unwind it,
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: you also you had more than seven games of World Series.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: Actually you had eighteen getting games, so technically they played
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: eight games, which you know back when they used to
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: play what nine game world series eleven game World series
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: when it was first invented. Maybe we have to go
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: back to that format to satisfy the Sikos like us.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: But yeah, I think it's got to brink is the
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: best for me. When you also, I think when we
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: look back in hindsight, we're gonna have involved over almost
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: almost double digit Hall of famers. Right if you think
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: about Otani, Bets, Freeman, Kershaw, Scherzer, Vlad Guerrero is on
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: the borderline, George Springer is kind of entering that conversation
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: nowadays just because of what he's done in the playoffs.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: When you stack it on his regular season, you're looking
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: at you know, Shane Bieber is still around, Yamamoto is
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: still going pretty strong, and then on top of it,
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: you also will see where Will Smith like where his
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: career could go. And you're looking at some guys who
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: are really going to be pushing World Series or Hall
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: of Fame conversations. When you kind of put in that
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: historical context, it might really bump it up to another Notch.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah it was. I mean, for me, it's probably never
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: gonna beat the Teals eleven World Series. Uh and when
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: that that's just a big homer pick there. But yeah, yeah,
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: you're absolute right like it. It It wasn't just the
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: the the World Series itself, like the flow from game
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: to game it was I I honestly think outside of
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: maybe uh maybe game three, I'm trying to remember which
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: one was not like an absolute nail bier or absolute
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: you know, just display. But you were talking about extra
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: inning games, You're talking about pitching dominance, that you were
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: talking about comebacks like it had all of it, and
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: it was every single game. It wasn't like, I mean,
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: I call it feels an eleven World Series when it
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: was an amazing Game six and gave sephn was kind
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: of like a dud. Like this was every single game
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: and felt like somebody's back was against the wall and
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: they just they just gritted it out. The narrative just
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: continued on. I mean, I honestly, I don't know how
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: you felt. But so I was out at a restaurant
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: watching The World Series Game seven and there was only
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: like we basically shut the place down. There was like
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: six of us left. It was ten o'clock Central time,
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: and they told us we could stay. They're like, you
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: can stay as long as you want, watch the game.
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: We're closing up, no big deal. And then the game
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: got tied and we're just like, I get out, We're done.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: We just everybody walked away and you know, made their
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: way home and finished finished watching. But I I just
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: I felt this all of a sudden, I'm like, Kershaw
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: is going to come into this game. He is going
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: to win or the last game or make the save
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: on the last game of the World Series and walk
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: off in retirement. Like that might have been the only
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: thing that could have, you know, like put the icing
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: on the cake for this and made it any better.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: But it was. It was unbelievable. So I do want
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: to I want to call out who World Series MVP.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: I think Galamoto was the absolute right picky. Who was
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: the second? Like that's I think Galamoto like almost randomly
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: backed into it to a degree, Like it was kind
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: of weird, like all of a sudden, he had three
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: wins in the World Series and just looked like, you know,
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: the best picture on the planet all of a sudden,
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: Who Who's number two, Like, I mean, it has to
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: be Otani, right, based on just all the impact he had,
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: but he did kind of trail off those last few
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: games from like a big moment perspective. That's where you
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: had Freddy, you had Will, you had all these guys
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: making an impact at the last moment there.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that is I mean, it's a great question because
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: Otani would obviously be deserving of it, but that that
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: Game seven start.
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: Was really poor.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: You could tell he was not on his game, and
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: it was the first time he had started on short
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: in this entire season. And you just also look at
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: what a machine he is, like literally like a you
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: kind of beat up boop machine his way through the
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: schedule to be able to stay at peak performance, and
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: so he was not ready for that Game seven short
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: rest start. So it yeah, I think maybe you could
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: also look at Will Smith just for that homer. He
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: had a pretty solid series, you know, nothing special. You
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: could have Jerry WestEd it, like when Jerry West won
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: the Finals MVP when the Lakers lost the Finals that
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: time and given it to Vlad Guerrero Junior.
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: Just because wow.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: That that's the other thing that kind of rounds out
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: this World Series. Too, is that vlad Guerrero Junior had
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: maybe the best playoff run ever and it's going to
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: be really tough to overcome that, giving what he put
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: up throughout the playoffs and was every every big moment
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: for the Toronto Blue Jays earned every cent of that
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: five hundred million dollar contract. And I mean we talked
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: about a little bit last week where I mean, this
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: guy has really turned a corner to being I mean,
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: for a fantasy aside, like he's probably not going to
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: re enter a first round conversation for us of one
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: of the elites just because the speed isn't there.
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: But in terms of card collecting, in terms.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: Of baseball status, I mean you're looking at maybe like
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: a top five guy in the game right now. It's
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: a type of talent that will attract other players to Toronto.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: He's that kind of magnet. So I must see that
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: might have been like the right choice even if the
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: Blue Jays had lost it, because without Yamamoto. That's the
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: other factor too, is I don't think the Dodgers win
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: the World Series, So without that performance, you don't have
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: another MVP from that team right now.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: Very true. The other one, other one, I gotta get
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: your take on is because I've seen this all over
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: social media and the discussion of uh Kiner filefa Ise
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: kind of Filfa's this is the lead or lack thereof
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: at third base late in the game that could have
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: ended this, this whole thing. And you could make other
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: cases that, you know, the run should have already scored,
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: you could have got a sacrify There's there's a ton
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: of storylines there. But it was like Miguel Rojas made
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: his you know, unbelievable slash stumbling all over himself play
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: where he cut down IKF at the at the plate
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: and then you wind it back and realize IKF took
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: like a half a step off third, you know, and
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: he said that the coaches told him don't get doubled
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: off and things like that, and I'm like, yeah, I
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: don't know, Like, what's what's your take on this one?
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: Like was there a mental lapse there that should have
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: like literally the Blue Jay should have won the World
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: Series if it wasn't for a half a step.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: I mean, I can't take credit for this take, but
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: you also have to think back to Game six, that
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: Game six ending where I mean the Dodgers stole this
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: World Series multiple times. In Game six was one of
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: them where the Blue Jays had runners on second and
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: third in the bottom of the ninth down to no outs,
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: looked like they were going to rally through the crowd
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: is behind them. You have Glass now comes in first
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: pitch that ever Inclement sees.
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: He pops it up.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: The next one or the next batter then flies out
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: short to left field. Key k Hernandez makes an amazing
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: play doubles off Barger because Barger was not paying attention
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: in Game six, got doubled off there, so that is
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: kind of playing a factor. You wonder if maybe they
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: got a little tight there in game nine with kind
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: of fluff, because there's no reason for him not to
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: at least be the distance the third basement is away
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: from third and some Max Munty against kinder fluff and
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: a foot race.
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: You could probably even push it a.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: Little bit that you know, it's still win the World Series,
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: and you this Dodgers team, they've got like a Dracula
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: vampire like I think just operation to them where you've
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: got to kill them all the way dead. You've got
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: to drive the stake through the heart, and you've got
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: to put your your foot on the pedal to be
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: able to to finish them off. And I think it
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: cost the Blue Jays in the end because both both reasons.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: Like in Game six, you know, they were not paying
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: attention with the pedal down, which I get. I can
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: see where I'm saying, like this a little contradictory, but
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: you got to like find you have to be perfect
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: to be the Stodgers team.
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: I think this way it is.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: And so this is quite the dynasty I think going forward,
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: and it's just going to be an earmark in what
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: we see because mcgil rojas Man, what a here like that?
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: There's one every every every postseason, there's.
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: A guy exactly like and he necessarily didn't.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: I mean maybe it's a little David Freezian because he
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: got then the bottom of the ninth with that play
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: on defense and that homer. I did not feel great
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: with Jeff Hoffmann going for more than one nop perce.
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: Where was Chris Bassett, Like that's all I want to know.
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: The guy was like literally unbelievable out of the bullpen
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: the entire series. And I get he's your closer, not
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: your best pitcher. Yeah, I mean, I don't care where
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: you went you need to take the hot hand at
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: that at that moment. So yeah, it's it's tough that
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: the other one I want to call out. And I
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: don't know how much of the analysis you watched on this,
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: but game six Barger, who I could have argued for
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: MVP if he if this had actually come through getting
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: the ball stuck in the outfield, Paddy, I don't know
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: if you watched. I think Mark Durosa from uh MLB
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: on MLB tonight did analysis of it actually went out
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: to the padding and showed how insanely difficult it was
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: for that ball to get lodged in there. It like
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: is a one to a million shot. I I'm just like,
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: to me, that was like almost the pivotal turning point
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: because that would like the Blue Jays had all the
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: momentum there, they would have been in that game, and
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: I think they would have been able to win that
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: game if that ball had been an inch higher inch lower.
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: And that was just incredible. And then you can't think
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: forget about Andy pahe has taken out kehy Hernandez as well,
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: like that left sinner outfield in Toronto. It had some big,
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: big moments.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I mean and That's the thing about this
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: Game seven. It had absolutely everything. Like not only that
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: we haven't even touched on the Blue Jays aspect of
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: Game seven. You had the absolutely giant tater from Boba Schett,
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: the three run homer that looked like it was gonna
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: win the World Series. He stood there and watched it,
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: and I mean he also couldn't like move anymore after
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: hitting that because he was totally hobbled the entire series.
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: But you have that moment.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: You also, I think about the moments in I believe
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: it was the sixth inning or the seventh inning, I
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: don't remember exactly, but the diving plays from Vladimir Guerrero
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: Junior down the line and from Dalton Varshow in center field,
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: where I was just also thinking to when we did
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: our preview of the World Series, I was like a
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: lot look out for their defense because the Blue Jays
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: were one of the better defensive teams, the best defensive
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: team by some metrics during the season, and it shined
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: in this World Series, especially in that Game seven. You
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: saw the path forward and little old Miguel rohas that's
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: still I can't believe it when when that went out,
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: like what you're just like it was, everyone went silent
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: in the sky doome too. I'd never seen like a
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: place go from eleven to zero out of nowhere like that,
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: the way the Miguel Rojas did to that crowd, just
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: like what a moment.
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's we can go on and on. There were
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: so many moments, so many big plays. It was absolutely
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: baseball at its best. And the fact that it was
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: I'll say a you know World World Series that you
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: had Canada, you had Japan, you're the US, you had
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: everybody watching this. Uh, there's not a better thing for
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: the game. Yeah.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: And it's coming through in the metrics too, is when
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: it was the highest rated World Series in quite some time,
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: you had the global viewership, And I think this really
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: sets up MLB for a great spot. It's also kind
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: of funny because, like I think this dynasty from the
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: Dodgers despite like kind of mostly it's I think it's
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: just people shilling for the owners out there that are
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: beating this drum in terms of them being bad for baseball,
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: breaking baseball. We need a salary cap, We need to
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: reign in the Dodgers. I think it's the other way around.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: I think you need a dynasty to play at the
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: foil in baseball the way that we had for the
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: Yankees in the nineties and early two thousands, and then
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: it just I think it helps the storyline because it
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: gives people a team to anchor them against it. I think,
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: especially seeing the New England Patriots over so many years,
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: it felt the same way when you're just like, oh,
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: Tom Brady again, but you knew Tom Brady so well
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: that like you could feel good cheering against him if
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: he wasn't your your cup of tea because you just
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: knew him like the back of your hand. And it's
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: kind of the same way with these Dodgers, although I mean,
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: I'll admit they're hard for me to hate with Otani
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: and some of these like fantastic players. But I think
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: that is a factor here as we move forward in MLB,
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: is like, do they do they shoot themselves in the
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: foot by trying to reel in this Dodgers team when
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: this Dodgers team might be is what's best for baseball?
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't disagree, And you know, at the same time,
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: we know that the day's coming for the Dodgers from
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: a reckoning standpoint because of the way they've structured in
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: these contracts to make this happen. You like, you know
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: there's a day reckoning and they know it too, Like that,
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: that's fine, that's they've accepted that. That's part of their strategy. Uh,
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: they'll deal with their consequences when they're not paying a
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: Tani two million a year and uh and he's not
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: playing baseball either, So like that's okay. But you're right.
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: I think it does unify the fan bases across baseball
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: when you do have something to root for. I you know,
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: when I when I was watching in the game out
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: with a number of folks and it like when you asked,
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: who are you rooting for? I did not get the
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: I don't have a question of preference. I'm not I'm
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: rooting for a good game. That was not the response
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: I got. It was the Dodgers or the Blue Jays.
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: It was very clear whoever it was rooting for, except
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: for the one white Sox fan, that guy that goes.
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: Those guys never knew who they're rooting for.
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, baby sting, strong white Sox fan. But yeah, I
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: mean part of it too is like this team. I
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: think they've we've discussed this in terms of like the
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: way that they're kind of financed to the gills in
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: terms of you, they've got the investments to pay off
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: some of the O Tini money is going forward, and honestly,
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: I think they've probably got it set up a little
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: bit with maybe the other albatross here is probably it's
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: Mookie Betts, maybe a little bit Will Smith when you
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: look out into the future, because Yamamoto is signed forever,
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: but he's like twenty seven, twenty eight years old, so
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: you don't have to really worry like he's just a
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: Dodger for life. Freeman only has two more years left
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: on his deal. So I think this team is a
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: little more poised to reload than I think some might
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: be giving them.
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: Shrift for because.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: Baseball Perspectives put out their top ten prospects today for
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Dodgers, and it's loaded. The top portion
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: of their system is just churning out more and more talent.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: I mean, they're all outfielders, but they'll make the trades
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: to shuffle the pieces around. They did it with Michael Bush,
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So they'll find their way through.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: And when you're in this type of state too, this
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: is what the Yankees did in the early two thousands,
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: where it's like free agent pitcher, Oh, just send them
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: the Dodgers. You know, the Mike Mussina is the Andy
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: Pettitt when he came back from the Astros. Things like that,
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: where the best picture on the market, they'll just pay
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: out the Wazoo on a shorter contract and bring them in.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: So I think this team is set up for quite
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: the just the different layer of success compared to the
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: rest of the league. But I think the league can
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: catch them if they want to. They're just kind of
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: sore sports about like spending the money in Boston and
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: New York and other markets where I think they could
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: keep pace with this Dodgers team if they got off
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: their hands.
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: I think it's a possibility. But I've got money on
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: the Dodgers from.
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: Now, yeah, exactly from here on out.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: Okay, well, let's get into a few bits of news,
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: just because as we're speaking here on November fifth. I
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: don't know why I was going to say the eleventh,
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: but it's the fifth, and we are right in the
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: prime of like option pick up decline season. So most
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: of them I think have been pretty expected in terms
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: of especially you'll see, like player options get picked up
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: more often if there's ever a mutual option. I can't
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: remember the last time a mutual option was picked up,
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: but it's extremely rare. Team options also kind of in
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: the same boat. Unless it's really favorable. You don't see
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: them getting picked up quite to the same degree as
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: maybe a player option that's favorable because they signed a
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: nice contract or injured or something like that. So we've
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: got a few that I think are surprising. I want
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: to stay in my hometown, well not hometown, but down
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: the street brickley Field, Chicago Cubs. First week of the
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: off season. Let's start dumping on the Cubs roster management
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: again because they let show to Yamanaga go. They did
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: not pick up the rest of his option that they
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: had available to them.
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: I believe it was two years and twenty million apiece that.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: They had left to be able to pick up sotively affordable,
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: and you're looking at just another kind of line in
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: the sand where they well, okay, so they declined a
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: three year, fifty seven million dollar option, and then a
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: fifteen million dollar option was declined by Imanaga, which I
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: think he's going to get more than the three fifty
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: seven anyway, but it was a tough year for Emanaga,
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: So the Cubs probably saw that What are your thoughts here,
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: because like, there's lots of leading indicators in terms of
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: FIP and underlying stats for Emonaga that are showing that
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: he is not who he's cracked up to be in
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty four. But on the other hand, the Cub's
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: rotation is absolutely brutal.
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: So what were Yeah, I think that it's one of
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: those where the Cubs were valuing flexibility over reliability. I
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: guess that is the way I look at it, because
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: you know, three years for fifty seven million, that's kind
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: of a going rate for a mid mid rotation started
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: these days, and he might be goes. He's performed better
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: than that. He's always been one of those guys that
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: outperforms as peripherals, and I think that's something that we can't,
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: you know, look past. And so I'm I'm I am
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: a little surprised. Yes, things backed up a load this year,
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: but he still had a pretty reasonable season. And so
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: that's why I'm struggling with the move here, because you
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: could have just locked a guy in and you know,
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: made made other moves and so I'm not quite sure
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: I follow it. I'm I don't think they had they
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: had a huge need to free up a ton of
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: money because Kyle Tucker's coming off the board. Maybe this
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: is trying to force him to make a move for
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: for Tucker. I also saw that they announced that they,
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: you know, don't plan to add anything to the back
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: of the bullpen, which also is questionable with how that
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: back of the bullpen went. So I'm I am questioning
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: a little bit what the Cubs strategy is. It almost
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: feels like they to run for this year and they're
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: like trying to reset, which with that team and that
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: division doesn't make a lot of sense. So definitely mixed
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: messages going on from the Cubs right now. And I
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: do think Imania is gonna do better than the three
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: years in fifty seven million that that the Cubs declined.
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: I would not be shocked four years, eighty million type
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: type of deal for him. And at the end of
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: the day, you know, the Cubs, you know, they've got
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: some money tied up and some not ideal contracts here
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: going to next year. I don't know if if you
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: if you've looked at them yourselves, but they're on the
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: hook already about one hundred and sixty three million going
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: next year, with twenty eight million to Dansby Swanson, nineteen
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: million for Ian Halp, nineteen for Seya Suzuki, eighteen million
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: on Jamison taie On, and seventeen million on Matthew Boyd.
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: So they've already got some pretty pretty bad contracts on
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: the books, with the majority of the coming off the
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: books in twenty seven. Yeah, I'm just I'm not following
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: the logic here. Imanica would have been probably the best,
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: the best of all those contracts if they would have
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: just executed the options. So yeah, Chicago continues to confound.
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, they sure do.
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: And I mean I'll be interested to see where Amanic
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: Goad lands too, because I do wonder if somebody could,
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: another team could tweak.
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: That pitch mix.
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's a little tough because it's just a fastball,
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: sinker slider, but just finding a different way to execute
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: with it, because the home run ball really has always
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: been the problem with Imanaga, and I mean, if anything,
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: actually Brinkley Field suppressed it because that's why they have
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: so many lefties on that staff and had traditionally. Is
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: that just the way that the wind swirls in Wrigley
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: Field from left field, it blows in a little bit
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: more like will blow out to right field and kind
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: of keep the ball in the ballpark of lefty on
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: righty matchups. So yeah, I mean, it could get worse Freemoniga,
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: but you could also find him in a spot where
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: they figure out a different approach and Monica does unlock
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: something that was more akin to the two ninety one
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: RA with a three seventy two FIP and twenty twenty
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: four as opposed to the three seventy three ERA this
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: year with a for eighty six with phips. So it's
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: a it really took a step back.
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: I think.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: The other interesting one that we have is it does
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: look like the Blue Jays are gonna be in a
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: nice position to run it back, and especially because Shane
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: Bieber helped them out Mega by picking up his player option.
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: Where you're looking at just one year sixty million dollars
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: for Shane Bieber, former Cy Young Winner Award winner, and
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: I mean he was pretty solid in his forty and
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: a third innings returning from that Tawny John surgery this
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: year three fifty seven ERA a four to forty seven fip.
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: But he's always been somebody who is.
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: I don't know, tell us the best story for him,
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: because when you watch Bieber, you're like, oh, yeah, that
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: dude is a three and a half ear RA picture
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: just because of the control. And wow, what a gift
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: for the Toronto Blue Jays, right, yeah it is.
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: And I what surprised me because underly metrics this year
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: and I think again coming off of major injury, like,
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: I don't, I don't want to put too much into those,
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: because his fastball velosity was up compared to where it
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: had been a little bit, so that that was good news.
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: The control was what it almost always has been. So
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: those things are looking good. But it yeah, like I
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: think there were people out there that thought Bieber could
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: go on the open market and pull in a six
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: figured contract. Yeah, and so like I I don't, I
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: don't quite sorry it say it's a six figure, nine
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: figure those I know a bad path there.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: But everyone chops off the modern day inflation. You chop
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: off the last three zeros.
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: It's it's just like it doesn't matter, like we we
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: do accounting on in the thousands here. But I was
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: very surprised by this, you know, maybe he's betting on
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: himself to really bank a really strong year and come back.
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: Maybe he just absolutely loved Toronto. I do feel like
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: Shane Bieber's kind of like one of those kind of
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: guys of his own that like he might just go,
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: I don't care about the money, I just want to
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: pitch where I have fun. Like he does feel like
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: that kind of guy to me. So but yeah, absolutely
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: a gift, and this really makes it interesting to see
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: what they do with Bobashet. I think that's the big
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: news here, is that if they would have had to
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: invest some pretty significant capital and bringing in a picture
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: that wouldn't have been on a one year deal like this,
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: it would have been on a multi year deal, probably
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: at a higher annual average value as well. So I
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: think this really makes things interesting for Toronto, especially come
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: after World Series run, if you can kind of run
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: it back more or less with that team again next
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: year and have some development of these young guys. Like
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: I think that's looking pretty good. Is that having a
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: rotation with Gosman, Bieber, a Savage Barrios at the top.
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: And I know Barrios is dropped off of the years,
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: but like that's a pretty strong rotation, and I know
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: they got some young guys come up as well that
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: it would be worth giving a shot. So yeah, it'll
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: I think this is as a gift for the Blue Jays,
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: and I'm I'm rather surprised by it, but hey, for
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: a fantasy perspective in that ballpark and from that defense,
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: not such a bad thing.
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, And I mean I think it all but
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: guarantees that Boba Schett is coming back to Toronto. I mean,
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: I think maybe the one wild card would.
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: Be to see if.
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: Toronto thinks that Argin Namala or Jojo Parker is the
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: future shortstop. But then even when you're looking there, you
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: can start kind of shuffling around andres Minez to the
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: bench and finding spots for Boba Schett in the future
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: at second base, maybe even third base, you know, when
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: he's healthier in connect plant and throw the ball. But yeah,
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: this Blue Jays team, with Shane Bieber now in a
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: sixteen million dollar contract, they are set up for success
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: because the rotations rounded out pretty much at this point
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: because Ya Savage really took a step forward. And when
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: you're a team like this coming off of that World
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: Series run, you just tack on a couple of low
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: dollar veterans that are looking to ring Chase and about
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: it being about a boom. You're right back in the
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: World Series with the Blue Jays. It's going to be
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: quite the run and back squad.
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: How painful is that? Andre semena steel for the Blue
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: Jays at this point? I'm just that's that one of
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: the barrows deals are going to really hurt them for
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: a number of years here.
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it'll be I mean the Jimenez one, he's got
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: the defense to do it, so you to like live
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: up to a portion of it. You do wonder if
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: maybe they could unload it by just eating half of it,
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: you know, because somebody will, I think take it a
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: portion of that back just because he's such a slick
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: defender and good contact hitter. I mean, you look at
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: what Dansby sponsor was making, so it's a fair point.
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: So I just don't know. I mean, hey, twenty six
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: he's only making about fifteen and a half, but twenty
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: seven one jumps up to twenty three and a half million.
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: That's a pricey deal with that for another.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: Four years here, Yeah, exactly. So Okay, I think that's
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: going to wrap us up for some of the option talks.
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: If you have any you think that are going to
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: be impactful for your fantasy game out there, contact us
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: on rasball dot com, where this post will be for
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: the podcast that we are always active there in the
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: comment section, or you can email the podcast at Cards
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: Categories at gmail dot com. Let's discuss the release schedule
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: for Baseball Cards real quick before we take a break
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: and then come back to talk Tops Update, just because
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: we do have a few of shufflings there. As I
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: said at the beginning, we've got tops Allen and Ginter
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: moved to the TBD status. Also got tops Crumb up
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: date on the TBD status that. If you want a
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: little more in depth insight to that, listen to last
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: week's pod where we kind of discuss we might run
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: into the goofy scenario where we know the MVPs before
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: that release and our can chase accordingly for the MVP
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: buyback because November tenth pre order on Tops Chrome on date,
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: we don't know when the release will be. That is
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: a TBD situation. Otherwise, the rest of this month, we've
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: got today releasing Panini Select twenty twenty five Tops Update
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: next week on November twelfth, which is why we're covering
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: it today. Tops Pro debut next week as well too.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: That I would also caveat with a big question mark
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: because they shuffle around Pro debut a lot eleven nineteen
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: Panini National Treasures coming out, and then sometime in November
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: who knows who, who knows when Tops Cosmic Chrome. So
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: check out that calendar in the show notes. Check it
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: out on rasball dot com. You might also want to
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: go rasball dot com right now if you're listening, because
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: that's where you'll see the posts with some gorgeous pictures
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: of TOPS Update twenty twenty five, which we are going
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: to discuss right after this break.
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: All right, welcome back everybody.
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: We are going to get into the overview of twenty
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: twenty five TOPS Update series, which is hitting shelves everywhere
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: on November twelfth. And when we say everywhere, we meet
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: everywhere because this is one of your flagship products, goes
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: along with Series one, Series two. TOPS Update is the
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: other flagship to make up the last third poll of
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: that tent. So what we've got with TOPS Update here
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: is three hundred and fifty cards set that will be
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: on shelves in retail environments, so your Walmart's, your Targets,
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: your Myers places like that, and also your hobby shops everywhere.
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: So in the retail environments, if you're familiar with buying cards,
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: they will be coming in blasters, single packs, and value boxes,
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: probably megas eventually to all sorts of shapes and sizes.
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: Your hobby boxes and jumbos will be at your hobby
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: shops or I mean you can find it now in
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: like Lids, if you've got Lids near you in a
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: mall race, they sell hobby products at Lids now because
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: of the distribution channel through Fanatics, So if you don't
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: have a hobby store nearby, that's always an option. Obviously
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: we're gonna say go support your local hobby store, but
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: we also know some of those hobby stores are either
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: far away or maybe not always the most smolcoming so
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: and so you've got a lot of different options to
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: buy twenty twenty five Top Update series.
• 37:03
  Speaker 3: What are you initial thoughts here?
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: Because pretty standard release, I would say for flagship and
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: an update series. But what pops to you when you're
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: looking at the checklist here for twenty twenty five group?
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that this one I'm actually very intrigued by.
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: I actually stopped buy my local hobby shop just to
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: try to see by chance if you know, Tops had
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: actually send things out, but then just decided to not
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: pull the trigger. And you know everybody had them. They
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: did not, to be very clear, and if they did,
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: they probably wouldn't let me get them. But I could
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: have tried. But you know, this one is more reasonably priced.
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: And so you're talking hobby boxes, the pre sale were
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: like ninety dollars, jumble boxes just under two hundred. You
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: know you're gonna get out in the wild for your
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: hangars probably twelve thirteen, fourteen bucks, your your your blaster
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: box for twenty five and so definitely definitely a lot
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: more valuable as you go in. I think we have
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: a decent rookie checklist coming out of this one, which
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: is a start, like I don't I think it's you know,
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: it's very top and heavy with a single guy, Nick Kurtz,
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: So I think that's a big call out. He's gonna
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: be the chase within this one. But I will say
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: the top five, maybe in the top ten. This is
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: definitely one of those ones that you look down the
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: road and say like, hey, this is gonna gonna hold
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: some value because of the names there. And you can
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: definitely see the Marcelo Myers, the Drake Baldwins, the Cad Horton's,
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: Matt Shaws, Luke Keishall Cam Smith, Like, there's a number
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: of guys in here that are really interesting and you know,
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: are probably gonna be an All Star Conversations down the road.
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: So I think that there's gonna be some really really
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: good values in it. I think the other you know,
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: things to call out is we've got a few new
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: inserts coming out that are that are interesting. I won't
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: spoil that too much yet. We got a really cool
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: new autograph variant coming in which I'm really excited about.
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: And then we've got a ton of different relics, which
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: is is gonna be fun. I love that they're bringing
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: the bringing the All Star AM relics back, which I
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: think you and I both questioned a little bit last year,
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: and they came out to be realtally cool cards. And
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: so because we are still kind of in pre order
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: mystery time, we don't know what those quite look like yet,
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: but the path the past year sells anything, those will
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: be really really good. So that's my high level overview.
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: What what strikes sticks out to you? What's the one
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: or two things that you're most excited about with this set.
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean you really set the plate there. That
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: was quite the little ten thousand foot view before we
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: get into the details of the checklist. But I think
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: it is the affordability of this set that it's a
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: great set to build, it's a fun set to build,
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: and it does look like so take this with a.
• 39:47
  Speaker 3: Grain of salt.
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: The caveat that you just you just laid where we
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: aren't working with the full release date, checklist details, and
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: with how spotty things have been from tops on new releases,
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: there's certainly going to be more from coming out, even
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: though you know we're just a week out. This will
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: give you a good background on it. The one thing
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: is it does look like your hits for hobby Box
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: are one relic or auto, and then in the Jumbo
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: box you're getting two relics or autos, and I believe you,
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: actually no, it's actually one auto two relics, So you're
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: guaranteed an auto in the Jumbo box, where in the
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: Hobby Box it might be a relic or an auto.
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: And the other kind of thing that looks kind of
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: that looks nice with this set is it doesn't look
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: like there's a gimmicky relic where if you are a collector,
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: you know exactly what I'm talking about. It's the fake
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: relics where it's actually not even one of the napkin
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: patches that says it's player worn or event worn, or
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: it's never even like been a real jersey.
• 40:47
  Speaker 3: It's it's like a.
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: Fake kitchen magnet. Actually, it's maybe like one of the
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: best uses for them people have ripping them out of
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: the cards and making kitchen magets out of them, like
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: little rubbery plastic fake relics. Does look like we have
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: that in Update this year, which does help that product.
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: I'm hoping that stays true. If anything, or if it
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: is in anything, it's in retail boxes, which I can
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: live with because as long as it's not my hit
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: in a hobby box, that's fine by me. So it's
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: the ubiquity and the availability and the affordability of Tops
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: Update that I've always loved. And part of that is because,
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: like you said, there are major chases with Nick kurtz
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: Heer and some of those other rookies. But on the
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: other side the coin, you've got tons of reliever autos,
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: tons of pitcher rookies, tons of rookie debut cards which
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: are lesser rookies where it just kind of highlights the
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: day that that player debuted. It's got an RC stamp
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: on it, but it's not recognized as traditional flagship rookie card.
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: And then you've also in the bass checklist. It's pretty
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: barren in terms of stars that updates always filled with
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: guys who signed late in the off season, got traded
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: during midseason.
• 42:00
  Speaker 3: We're late additions.
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: To the roster in twenty twenty four and are getting
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: their card. So like an example here, I mean, you
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: have an Alex Radugo card for the Braves is the
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: number three card and the three hundred and fifty card checklist,
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: so you're not gonna hit some of the any big stars.
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: There's no Otani flagship cards or anything like that where
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: you can start getting those parallels. So yeah, that's what
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: I really love about Update series. With all that, I mean,
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: are you ready all ready for maybe the parallel rundown
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: Because we've covered the three hundred fifty cards, We've covered
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: the outlines of what makes update update. I think we're
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: in the position to do the pod rundown of the parallels,
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: and I've set it up. I think pretty nice for you,
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: because I've given you a nice little break to be
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: able to catch your breath.
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: You gave me a nice break here, and with all
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: the caveats, I've only found one list that appears to
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: have them all, and so I'm assuming it's right. But
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: we've come back next week and we have to read
• 42:57
  Speaker 2: off a different set of fifty. You'll just forgive us then,
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: But I am ready to rumble here, so let's get
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: into it. This is the base parallel list for twenty
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: twenty five Tops Update. And remember most of these are
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: exclusive to some product and some insert so we are
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: starting off with the Diamante foil. Those are hanger exclusives,
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: Holofoil retail exclusives. Pick Diamante foils in the hangar boxes.
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: You got the sand glitter, which is actually pretty cool,
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: card Silver Crackle foil Tops Foil pattern, which is a
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: Fanatics exclusive. You have your Gold borders out of twenty
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: twenty five. Those are always a popular one. You've got
• 43:36
  Speaker 2: your Rainbow foils and your Aqua Rainbow foils. You have
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: your aqua holofoils in retail. You got your pink holofoils
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: which are limited to eight hundred. Then you get into
• 43:47
  Speaker 2: the number but not so numbered cards Purple holofoils out
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: of one to fifty and blue rainbow foils out of
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: one fifty. Get your green holofoils out of ninety nine,
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: Green rainbow foils out of ninety nine, vintage stock out
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: of ninety nine. One of my favorites, Independence Day cards
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: out of seventy six, Gold dimente foils out of fifty,
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: gold holofoils out of fifty, in gold rainbow foils out
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: of fifty. Also some canvas parallels out of fifty. Moral
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: Day Camo out of twenty five. Then you have your
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: run of oranges in dimone hollow in rainbow foils out
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: of twenty five. Also your wood grain parallels out of
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: twenty five. You got your black diamone foil out of ten,
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: Black holofoil, black rainbow foil also out of ten. In
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: your clear variations, which are always a fun one as well,
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: get into your out of fives red diamone foil, red holofoil,
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: red rainbowfoil all out of five, your platinum holofoil out
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: of one of one, your first off the line first
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: card one of one, your foil fractor one of one,
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: and then your printing plates. As always, don't worry, there's
• 44:54
  Speaker 2: also some special ones that you're getting for your Halloween
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: parallels that we'd like to throw just in your black
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: just for fun. That's gonna be your Jackie Lanyard's ghost
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: Mummies black cats, which is hats and bats in order
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: of least comm or most common to least calm, with
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: your bats being you're one of one. Those are always
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: an odd ball one to watch out for because I
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: can't tell if they're valuable, can't tell if people want them,
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: but there's something different. So we missed Halloween this year
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: with this release. Unfortunately for Tops, I think that was
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: a big miss on their parting bringing these out. So
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: we have just a few few variations. That said, it
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: feels like a little bit less maybe than some of
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: the other releases. By like five, you were just about right.
• 45:39
  Speaker 2: I counted up forty five parallels this time. So the
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: past few products have been clocking in at mid fifties
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: and parallels, and I'm sure there's a few hiding in
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: the wings that we don't even know about because we're
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: talking a week before released. So yeah, another impossible.
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: I mean, there's nobody doing these rainbows, right and it's
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: gotta be no, yeah, exactly, it's sutten it off somewhere
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: in terms of either not doing Blaster exclusives or NACS exclusives,
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: like your carving something out, which is why lots of
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: folks are starting to just kind of stick to the
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: non like fancy parallels. If you want a true rainbow
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: where it's just the solid foil card or the solid
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: rainbow not messing around with the diamantes or any of
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: the other kind of like wood or canvas and things
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: like that. So forty five ish is what we're looking at.
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: And yeah, you did nail one of the aspects of
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: usually this is a fall release, right before right around Halloween.
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: Obviously we're missing the mark here on Tops because things
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: have been pushed back. As we covered last week, a
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: lot of it's been caused by the NBA license being
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: picked up by Tops, and even though Tops and Panini
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: are both known by fanatics, Tops and Panini still operate
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: pretty independently, so that's what's causing all these issues. Not
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: great because especially like these fun Witches hats, black Cats bats,
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: they can really pop in the black end orange, especially
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: if it's a Tomoyuku Toma Yoka Sigano rookie card or
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: other Giants cards. So, yeah, how are you feeling? Is
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: your have your vocal cords recovered or do you do you?
• 47:23
  Speaker 2: I think I think, I think I'm gonna be okay.
• 47:25
  Speaker 2: It might feel a little rough for us the podcast
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: You're up to take it easy, but they're the print
• 47:32
  Speaker 2: runs are still maintaining. Maybe maybe slighted it down from
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: the peaks here, but they still are pretty pretty hefty.
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, you do wonder what they did in
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: terms of cranking it up or down with Nick Kurtz,
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: because I bet when they began the season, Tops did
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: not expect to have a hot player like Nick Kurtz
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: to be able to throw into this product. But updated,
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: it's always like planned kind of like on the it
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: feels like where they can insert different rookies late in
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: the game, so it kind of revives it a little bit.
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: Well, and you can also see like you can almost
• 48:09
  Speaker 2: tell the time of year when they do plan this
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: because PCA is on the front of the box here,
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: and there was a time in the season where Kurts
• 48:18
  Speaker 2: was struggling and got hurt and PCA was on an
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: absolute tear and then Kurtz came back up and started
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: to tear it up and PCA started falling off. And
• 48:28
  Speaker 2: you can tell kind of that early to Midsummer would
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: have been when they were kind of figuring a lot
• 48:34
  Speaker 2: of this stuff out from the original marketing and things
• 48:36
  Speaker 2: like that. Otherwise Kurtz would be on the box, but PCA,
• 48:40
  Speaker 2: I think is on the box recognizing his first half,
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: not necessarily his second half.
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: Yes, great point right there. Okay, well, let's get into
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: some of the inserts and autos and relics that we're
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: looking forward to add this product, because well, and the
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: other parallel that you didn't talk about was the Golden Mirror,
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: which is technically I think if you want to do
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: the same the Full Rainbow, you've got to put it
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: in there. Tell people about that one autograph you were
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: excited about, because if there is kind of like one bright,
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: big thing that's gonna be I think big for Tops
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: update series, it's.
• 49:15
  Speaker 2: Going to be this. Yeah, So the one I'm really
• 49:18
  Speaker 2: excited for and I'm having trouble reading the checklist, so
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: maybe you'll figure figure out the rarity of these while
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: I talk is The Golden Mirror autograph is coming and
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: is making this first appearance in twenty twenty five, Tops
• 49:30
  Speaker 2: update these are up. These are autographs on the Golden
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: Mirror cards with gold ink, and I think this is
• 49:39
  Speaker 2: gonna be a highly highly sought after card. If you
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: think about other products that Tops put out when they
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: play I think in the Inception Space Stadium a few
• 49:49
  Speaker 2: other things like that Tier one they have gold autos
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: and they're very usually low numbered, you know, ten or
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: twenty five something like that, and I think these are
• 50:02
  Speaker 2: absolutely gonna pop on the paper cards. The one that
• 50:06
  Speaker 2: they have in a lot of articles right now is
• 50:07
  Speaker 2: a Cayl Rally card, which you know, they're actually even
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: making the kind of the box where they sign darker
• 50:14
  Speaker 2: when it usually is lighter where you sign, the box
• 50:17
  Speaker 2: is darker to really make that gold ink pop. That
• 50:20
  Speaker 2: gold ink is gonna really reflect with the back of
• 50:22
  Speaker 2: the card being that golden mirror, and also the fact
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: that it's on an image variation. So I think those
• 50:27
  Speaker 2: are gonna be really highly sought after cards. And hopefully
• 50:31
  Speaker 2: that's installed long enough for you to be able to
• 50:33
  Speaker 2: find the print run on those if it is published.
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: At this point, I don't believe it is, because all
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: of the marketing from Tops on their like Instagram and
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: their Facebook and a couple of other kind of press
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: release y type articles that are out there does not
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: state the print run. It does say super super short print.
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: So I would guess my gut tells me ten a piece,
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: maybe ten.
• 51:00
  Speaker 2: Or twenty five. It would be my guest. And I'm thinking,
• 51:02
  Speaker 2: if if you're picking out a car, there's probably two
• 51:05
  Speaker 2: one that they're gonna be the chases here, it's the
• 51:08
  Speaker 2: col Rally just because of what he has done this year,
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: and then this is gonna be the Nick Kurtz. I
• 51:13
  Speaker 2: think those two cards and the Golden Beer, Eh, nobody
• 51:18
  Speaker 2: curse about that guy. I don't know who he is.
• 51:20
  Speaker 2: He can't even pitch the World Series. Okay, those three,
• 51:25
  Speaker 2: I'll give you that one are gonna be massive, massive chases,
• 51:30
  Speaker 2: and people are gonna go crazy for him. And I'm
• 51:33
  Speaker 2: i go out on a limb here. I think those
• 51:34
  Speaker 2: are easily thousand dollars cards, if not more than that,
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: for each of those guys.
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean the autos is definitely where this entire
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: product shines, because I mean, I think you're also gonna
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: be looking at some pretty serious chases on the Stars
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: of Japan autographs, which features Hitdaki, Matsui, Ichiro Masataka Yoshida,
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: Roki Sasaki, Shoti Maniga, you Darvish, Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Obviously there's
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: no Otani there, which is a little surprising, but that
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: will be a fun set of those seven cards to
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: put together. You're also looking at some Tokyo series highlight
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: autos that again missing show hey there, but you've got
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: lots of Cubs and Dodgers, and then from there you've
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: got the typical inserts and the nineteen to ninety tops
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: inserts and chrome inserts that have their autos first pitch.
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: We've talked about this before on other update series, where
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: it's usually a celebrity featured on the first pitch, and
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: these can be big chases because of the autographs involved.
• 52:38
  Speaker 3: A little light this time.
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: Maybe it's as we get more disconnected from pop culture.
• 52:44
  Speaker 3: But I mean, even like.
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: The one that they have for the Mariners, who's Manuel Selman.
• 52:51
  Speaker 3: I looked up.
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: He's a surfer, not a huge like surf crowd out there,
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean. You know, if you're looking
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: for a little bit crossover, you've got Big Sean, the
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: rapper for the Detroit Tigers signed one of these. But
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: you know that's not on the magnitude of what we've
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: seen before with like Kendrick Lamar or some of the
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: kind of cream of the crop celebrities. Not even like
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: a last year we focused a lot on like Andy
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: Reid signed one of these for the Royal.
• 53:14
  Speaker 3: Yep, you don't have anything like that.
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: It's a little weaker first pitch auto list, but lots
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: of great autos, which also shows me that there's lots
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: of relics out there.
• 53:25
  Speaker 2: Yes, lots of lots of relics out there. I do
• 53:27
  Speaker 2: think what's interesting here and I think this is where TOPS.
• 53:30
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure they got it right or lucked out,
• 53:33
  Speaker 2: but because they are featuring the Tokyo series in the
• 53:35
  Speaker 2: Japan series in this they have a lot of Dodgers
• 53:39
  Speaker 2: autos there. Will Smith has multiple multiple autos, Ya Yoshinobo
• 53:43
  Speaker 2: Yaba Moto has multiple multiple autos. Roki Sasaki has multiple autos.
• 53:49
  Speaker 2: And I think that's actually gonna play very very well
• 53:51
  Speaker 2: for them because those are gonna be highly sought after
• 53:54
  Speaker 2: right after the World Series win. So they might have
• 53:56
  Speaker 2: missed on their their Halloween insert, but they may have
• 54:00
  Speaker 2: hit on the Dodgers being very, very heavy in the
• 54:03
  Speaker 2: autograph space this time around.
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a great point because it is going to
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: make the Dodger spots in any sorts of breaks astronomical
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: because of what you're looking at after Yamamoto's performance and
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: the market has gone through the roof for Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Okay, well,
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: let's get into some of the inserts and then we'll
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: do the relics I think after the inserts, because on
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: the insert side, you're looking at some of the standards
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: that we've had from throughout the year. In terms of flagship,
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: you're looking at some of the tops, black gold, mystical,
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: You're looking again at heavy lumber, home field advantage, the
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety design inserts Stars of MLB. You do have
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: a variation to that where you got Stars of Japan.
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: So it covers most of those players that I rattled
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: off from that auto checklist, but they cut out three
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: very key ones or there's three that are have non
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: autos and that is Otani sup In Nomo, who are
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: on the base card but not.
• 55:04
  Speaker 3: In the auto.
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: And then you're also going to be looking at some
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: of your standard oversized cards and other things that are
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: in boxes.
• 55:12
  Speaker 3: But we've got some new inserts.
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: Here, which I think is fun and I feel like
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: tops We've discussed this recently, that like the insert game
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: has been getting stepped up further and further across the
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: board in all of these products, and on top of it,
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: they're pumping out new ones that are seemingly well designed too.
• 55:32
  Speaker 2: So you got.
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: Bleacher Reachers, which we've got some in the marketing materials
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: look pretty cool. Night Terrors is another new insert I'm
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: fascinated by. There's no pictures I can find of it
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: right now, but I think that'll be a cool one
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: to collect. You've also got one called Most Valuable, and
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: then otherwise you get into some of those Tokyo series
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: highlights ones. There's another new one called Strike Zone Heroes,
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: which is all pictures. Not sure what that one's gonna
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: look like. Honestly, maybe sounds like with the lamer of
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: kind of all the ones that we've mentioned. But what
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: do you think about some of these new inserts?
• 56:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So I'm gonna make a prediction here on the
• 56:11
  Speaker 2: Night Terrors is not gonna be as excited as you want,
• 56:13
  Speaker 2: because I think it's gonna harken back to the Halloween holiday,
• 56:17
  Speaker 2: and so I think it's gonna be gimmicky. I'm just,
• 56:19
  Speaker 2: I'm just, I just have a gut feel. I'm also
• 56:21
  Speaker 2: a little concerned with Most Valuable because it feels like
• 56:25
  Speaker 2: MLB Stars or something like that, where it's just gonna
• 56:28
  Speaker 2: be like this massively overrun produced set. I could I
• 56:33
  Speaker 2: could be wrong. I'm sure it's gonna be big names
• 56:35
  Speaker 2: with with the with the pitch there Most Valuable, but
• 56:38
  Speaker 2: Bleacher Reachers to me is where it's that. I think
• 56:40
  Speaker 2: that's gonna be a fantastic card set that harkens back
• 56:44
  Speaker 2: to nineteen ninety seven Top Season's Best where they hadn
• 56:46
  Speaker 2: insert set there. I think the King Griffy Junior is
• 56:49
  Speaker 2: a very very popular card from back in the day
• 56:52
  Speaker 2: in that set, and I think that is what's really
• 56:56
  Speaker 2: good sticks out for me. Don't get me wrong, I
• 56:58
  Speaker 2: still love the home Field Vanage things like that, but
• 57:00
  Speaker 2: this one feels like it's gonna gonna be a fun
• 57:02
  Speaker 2: one to collect. You can have all the big names
• 57:05
  Speaker 2: on a really kind of cool design, has a bat
• 57:07
  Speaker 2: in the back that's been struck by lightning. You know,
• 57:10
  Speaker 2: everybody's going to have a wonderful kind of home run
• 57:13
  Speaker 2: stance if everything holds true from the nineteen ninety seven set,
• 57:19
  Speaker 2: And it's just it just is a design that the
• 57:21
  Speaker 2: pops in it, and it definitely reads nineteen nineties insert
• 57:25
  Speaker 2: and you and I both love the nineties inserts, so
• 57:28
  Speaker 2: that's it's a it harkens back to the to the
• 57:30
  Speaker 2: good old days. The one thing I don't know is
• 57:32
  Speaker 2: most of those Top Season's Best ninety seven inserts were
• 57:36
  Speaker 2: more of a chrome type variation. I'm guessing this is
• 57:39
  Speaker 2: a paper variation, So that might downgrade a little bit
• 57:41
  Speaker 2: for me, but hey, we'll see. It's still a great design.
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think they were even were they foiley or
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: were they chromey?
• 57:51
  Speaker 2: And there were I think they were foilly, which is
• 57:53
  Speaker 2: I think is the technical term for if I do recall.
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and some of them are bleacher reachers from and
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: some we're like number crunchers, and so oh.
• 58:04
  Speaker 3: Maybe it is a chrome Okay.
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: I just don't know if I've ever seen these, because
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: I've seen definitely some of the foil ones that used
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: to put in like sets as a stand Yeah.
• 58:13
  Speaker 2: There's actually our C. I think I have the Griffy
• 58:15
  Speaker 2: if I recall, or at least I did a one
• 58:17
  Speaker 2: point you know me and my PC. It's very fluid
• 58:21
  Speaker 2: things though I couldn't tell you what I have anymore.
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: Well that I think will be the standout insert. Let's
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: get into some of the memorabilia of relic cards, because
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: I think it's a lot of what you've seen in
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: Flagship here for twenty twenty five between Major League Materials
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: relics for nineteen ninety inserts, so it's that nineteen ninety design,
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: like put a chunk of relic in there. You've also
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: got rising Rookie relics, which we don't have a design for,
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: but I'm sure it's you know, your standard kind of
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: relic with a Rookie RC stamp on it. Although I'm
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: hoping that's not one of those fake relics now that
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: I think about it. If they did do that a
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: couple of years ago with the RC logo relics, so
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: maybe that is the way that they've gotten around it
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: and tried to really get some praise out of us.
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: But then You've also got the All Star stitches, which
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: you talked about, and then I think this is one
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: that's pretty big, especially with updates, it feels like because
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: it feels like there's more of them in there is
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: to own the name relics. We've got a list of
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: ninety seven different cards there, which if you're familiar with these,
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: what they do is they take a jersey, chop up
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: each individual letter from the back of the player's name,
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: and then put them in as one of one's of
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: the cards. Pretty cool to be able to collect it
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: all at once or the other big thing they do
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: on Reddit all the time is if you've got these,
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: people just collect them so you can just spell random
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: stuff out with them and created lots of fun. So
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: any of the relics here stand out for you.
• 59:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think first of all, the only name thing.
• 59:58
  Speaker 2: You know, those are fantastic every to hold them, but
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 2: they are hard, hard chases, but those are some of
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 2: the coolest things you ever achieved. Putting the full name
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 2: plate together, that's that's pretty cool. But I'm I've really
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 2: kind of liked the We gave the All Star stitches
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 2: last year a pretty pretty rough overview because of how terrible.
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 2: The All Stars jerseys were last year, and then the
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 2: relics actually came out and like I got a hold
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 2: of some of them, like they actually surprised and they're
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 2: actually really good. This year's as I all we've seen
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 2: in the publications are an auto version, but it does
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 2: look to be a pretty great card. The one downfall though,
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 2: is there wasn't really All Star Game jerseys this year.
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 2: Everybody's playing in their own jerseys, which we both loved,
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 2: which was yeah, but really for the card collecting, like
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 2: the one we see is Ronald Acunya who's playing in
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 2: this home whites and it's just a napkin patch. It's
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 2: just a white napkin patch, and so it doesn't like
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 2: it's not so exciting. It's like, oh is this really?
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 2: I mean, it says it's an event warm memorabilia, so
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 2: it implies it was is worn there, but maybe it
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 2: was at the you know, the softball game or something.
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 2: I don't know, but I do think that those ones
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 2: do stop jump out because it is it's it's kind
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 2: of harkens back to the game used, who's really stepped
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 2: away from over the years, and this goes to events
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 2: use where it was you know, this player wore it
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 2: at the All Star festivities and outmated in cards, So
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 2: I think that does a little bit extra nostalgia, if
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 2: you will, And it is looks like a pretty pretty
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 2: good design this time around. So that's the one that
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 2: probably sticks out to me the most. I do. I
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 2: really did enjoy those last year. I think I'm an
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 2: enjoyment again this year.
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so too. All Right, well, I think
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 3: we've hit.
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: All the major points on twenty twenty five Tops Update.
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: If there's other kind of insights you're looking towards, I
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: would definitely go back and listen to some of our
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: previous Tops Update podcasts because, as we kind of discussed
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: these sets over the years, there's lots of carryover from
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: set to set in terms of the way they're designed
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: in the in the release and kind of inserts and
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: stuff like that. So sixty four episode sixty four was
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: our one for twenty twenty four, and then I didn't
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: look up the one from twenty twenty three, but you
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: can find and if you scroll through wherever you're listening
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: to this podcast while you're there, rate and review us,
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: because we would certainly appreciate it. It helps us just
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: disseminate the podcast for the route, gets us on all
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: sorts of different lists and likes and putting us on
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: different people's radar. So we appreciate it and we appreciate
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: you checking out this podcast. You can reach us, as
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: I stated earlier, at cards Categories at gmail dot com
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: or at cards Categories on blue Sky brew. Let everybody
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: know where they can reach you directly if they want
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: to find you on social media.
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 2: Yep, find me Jabrewer one seven on Twitter x blue
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 2: Sky all the above. Always find me on rasball during
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 2: the season as well. Cooley whereking folks find you?
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: Yes, you can find me on blue Sky at mCOL
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: seven spelled out like my last name for cool cou
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: I l L And I forgot to mention when I
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: was talking about the pod. We've got t shirts, We've
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: got mugs, we've got hats. If you want in cards
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: and categories gear, everything that we've discussed you can find
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: links to in our show notes. So check it out
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: there and check out rasball dot com for the post
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: that corresponds with this podcast.
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 3: That way that you can see.
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: Pictures of these cards will be a more limited set
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: than it normally is because we've only got a few
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: of the marketing material cards that are out there to
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: be able to post. So we are a week out
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: from Tops Update series releasing on November twelfth. It's going
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: to be a great day looking forward to all the
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: cards that are going to hit shelves and be available then.
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: So appreciate you guys all checking us out out there
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: and listening to our podcast. We'll be back next week
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: November twelfth, to be able to discuss some of those
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: cards and get into the depths of the off season.
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 3: See you then.
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 2: Eight