Latest / Cards & Categories / Ep. 160 : World Series Preview & 2026 Topps Holiday Overview

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Ep. 160 : World Series Preview & 2026 Topps Holiday Overview · Cards & Categories

• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Hello and welcome everybody to episode 160 of Cards and Categories.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: I am Mike Coulard from Baseball Perspectives, joined per usual
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: by my very good friend Jeremy Brewer from Razzball. We
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: are right around the corner from the World Series. How
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: pumped are you?
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Very, very pumped.
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: More pumped than Milwaukee Brewers golden ticket holders.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: That's for sure. But I am pumped.
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: It's going to be this is going to be a
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: fun World Series. And I feel like it's been a
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: few years since we will say like a fun World Series.
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: And so I'm just psyched to have these two teams,
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: like probably two of the most complete teams in the league,
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: well-run teams, like ones that we always aspire to for
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: the way that they run. So I think this is
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: going to be just absolutely fantastic. And you and I
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: both picked one of these teams to win it all.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: So, hey, we're going to go head to head here
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: to see who is calling it right. One of us
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: will be right.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, that is fantastic. pretty rare for us
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: around here. So they'll be nice that we get a
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: coin flip of one of us being victorious in those predictions.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: But yeah, we're going to open with some world series
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: preview content here. The main portion of this pod will
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: be probably just about one of the only pods covering
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: this out there. Cause we're one of the sickos that
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: love this product is 2026 tops holiday baseball. You'll have
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: to do the baseball search when you're looking for it
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: on eBay. If you're following along and looking for cards,
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: because tops holiday basketball came out previously in the 2026 format. And, uh,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: you'll get a lot of cross contamination there when you're
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: looking through eBay. So keep that in mind. We are
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: speaking on release date, October 21st of tops holiday. So
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: that is going to be our main segment. It's one
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: of our favorite products that comes out every year, very
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: affordable and in retail shelves everywhere. So it's a, it's
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: a nice little ubiquitous product and a season rip kind
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: of also comes out right around the world series. So
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: it's like part and parcel. It's kind of the way
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: that I used to open opening day on opening day.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: And it's almost coming like I'm opening holiday the week
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: of the world series nowadays, which it's nice. It's a
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: nice little boost. So let's get into that world series.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: I guess maybe before we even get there, let's wrap
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: the championship series just a slight bit, because I don't
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: think they're going to stand out too much considering the
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: this world series I think is going to be teeing
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: up to be a good one. Like you said, we
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: also had the NLCS be a sweep, even though it
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: was a momentous sweep where you had the brewers being
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: the first team to come back. I think in any
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: major North American professional sport of like getting swept, then
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: doing the sweeping the next year. And then you also
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: had the raise kind of, even though it was six
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: games against the guardians by the end, it was a
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: steamrolling of Cleveland. So, I think if anything, we saw
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: the guardians run out of just gas juice. We were
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: talking about it during the DS, like, are they pushing
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: them too hard? And I think they did because the
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: rays were able to hang on. And I don't think
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: it's a coincidence that both one seeds are going to
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: be in that world series after some of the heavy,
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: heavy reliever usage we've seen prior to this round. So,
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: Maybe let's stop there. Do you have anything to give
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: to Cleveland or the L.A. Dodgers before we send them
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: off into the abyss?
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, specifically for Cleveland, L.A., kudos, good season. Nobody's
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: too disappointed outside of L.A. But I think for the Guardians,
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: there's a lot to take away from this one is
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: that I think they found a few key players that
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: really stepped up and kind of established themselves on the
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: national stage. Gavin Williams being maybe the key point there.
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: I think Jose Ramirez showed us he's still Jose Ramirez.
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: And I don't think that was a team that left
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: anything behind.
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: In the tank.
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: And I think that's, uh, more than you can say
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: for a lot of teams in the playoffs. Um, uh, I,
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: I was really just excited to see them, uh, trying
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: to pull out all the stops, do what they could play,
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: you know, the long ball, the short ball, the mid game, uh,
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: they had it all working. And it's just to your point,
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: I think they ran out of gas. I think they
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: just didn't have any months else left in the tank. And, Uh,
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: you know, kudos for them that they, you know, yes,
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: it was.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: A six game series.
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: Um, and you could argue they should have put Gavin
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: Williams in game six because he'd been so dominant, but
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: you had to win the last two. And so they
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: saved their ace for game seven. They tried to sneak
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: out game six. And if that would have worked, you know,
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: we could be having a completely different conversation. So I
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: do think that the Guardians really learned a lot, showed
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: a lot. It gives me more confidence in them for
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: next season. I think it makes them a little more
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: buyers this offseason because they still have a good young
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: core and a few key veterans that are going to
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: hold that team together. So a little pitching depth. They
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: definitely have some work in the outfield to do. Bullpens
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: as strong as always. But I think that they're going
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: to be a threat next year as well. So kudos
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: to the Guardians. Glad to see the making that deep
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: into the postseason. But I think to your point, I
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: think the two right teams are in the World Series
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: at the end of the day.
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think the other thing with Cleveland, too,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: is like now that they've been getting so close for
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: the past 10 years since that 2016 World Series, like
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: they were second to last in payroll and it showed,
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: I mean, certainly the Rays and Brewers are down there,
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: but it's a little bit more of a different situation
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: considering the way that they wheel and deal to be
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: able to build their teams. Cleveland, like just go out
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: and spend some money, bring in say a Suzuki in
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: the off season, get into the Tariq Scooble bidding, try
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: to bring in Teriyaku Sato, you know, maybe even sign
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: Freddie Peralta who just kicked your ass. Like, invest in
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: the team a little bit because it, especially like if
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: there's any team to win this with in Cleveland, it
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: should be one with Jose Ramirez who has signed up
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: long-term for that, that town loves that city and loves
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: playing for the guardians organization. He's going to go to
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: the hall of fame wearing a Cleveland guardians hat and
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: you've locked him up forever. Why not send them in
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: with the world series by it's not even, I'm not
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: even asking more than like, get to $ 150 million in spending.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: That's really not just a leak average. And that's almost
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: doubling their payroll. So if you're out there listening to
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: this Cleveland ownership, here are please. But let's get into
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: the World Series because you alluded to it with a
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: little bit with the Dodgers getting kicked out. I think
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: this is going to be a fascinating World Series in
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: terms of the way the narrative might shift in the offseason.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: At least you would think it would, but I don't.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: Maybe it also won't because I think we've also seen
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: another facets of society nowadays where truth doesn't really matter
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: you can just kind of say whatever you want and
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: I still think that the owners and Manfred will be
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: out there pounding the drum that they need a salary
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: cap to increase competitive balance within the league even though
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: these are the two teams that prove it doesn't matter
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: and I think I'm also really pumped for this because
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: these are the two teams where it shows like yeah
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: if you invest in great development, great scouting, good like
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: nutrition and strength and training and kind of all of
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: the other systems around the actual team, you can compete
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: in a lower, in a lower dollar, smaller market environment.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: You know, all these teams cry and pour like the
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: Pittsburgh Pirates or even the Chicago White Sox at times,
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: like it just requires a little bit of outlay and
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: you can be right in there in the playoffs constantly
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: and develop great teams. And so, That's why I'm pumped
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: to see in this World Series as well as like
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: these two teams are just like, I think this is
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: going to go down as just a very important World
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: Series because not only are we going to have a
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: new World Series winner here, but we're also like, this
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: is the face off of modern baseball. Like this, the
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: Tampa Bay Rays and the Milwaukee Brewers show like what good, smart,
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: analytic baseball looks like. And I think that even though
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: the ratings might be a little, poor in the beginning
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: of the series, as momentum catches on, I don't think
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: you could ask for anything better for the sport of
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: baseball and Major League Baseball in general than seeing these
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: two teams go head-to-head in the World Series.
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think what's interesting from a fan perspective,
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: since you don't have the Yankees, you don't have the Dodgers,
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: you don't have the Giants, you don't have those teams
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: that have these massive fan bases, I think for the
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: traditional baseball fans, they're going to love this. everybody's going
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: to have a team to pick because they're hoping to
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: root for that team versus rooting against somebody, which I
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: think is something we've lacked for some time. And to
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: your point, these are true baseball teams. They have depth.
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: They have the ability to get the most out of
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: their players. It's not like one or two stars are
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: trying to carry the way. They can each win in
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: so many different ways, which I think is going to
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: really challenge the managers to get the most out of
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: the teams here. So yeah, I think this is chalking
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: up to be a fascinating series, and I can't wait
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: to get it underway.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: So when we've done these previews before, I think we've
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: gotten maybe a little too into the weeds when we've
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: gotten into breakdowns by position and everything like that. So
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: I like the way that The Athletic kind of previewed
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: this with their analyst, where they asked everybody who was
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: going to win and then one standout player from each team.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: So I think we're going to do this, a similar thing.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: We're going to go and save our prediction for the
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: actual series on the backend, but we'll go into our
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: players that we like on each team. And I think
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: what we'll do though, is we're going to double it
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: on each side. So we're going to do two rays
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: and two brewers a piece and, Because one, I think
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: it's always like easy to state the star, which is
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: always there. But then like, you can see that some
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: of the writers in The Athletic, I'll have this linked
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: in the show notes so that you can read it yourself.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: Some of them get a little twee, I would say,
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: a little above the, over their skis, a little indie
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: with some of their picks. So I want an indie
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: pick from you as well too. Maybe a bench player
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: or reliever that like, People, it's another layer, deeper cut
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: of the team that folks might not be familiar with,
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: but you actually have a good inkling that he could
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: have a standout World Series and be somebody that comes
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: to mind the way that Tommy Edmund did in the
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: past and players like that. So with that, let's start
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: on the AL side. Let's go to those Tampa Bay Rays.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: The number one seed in the AL, like we said,
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: 98 and 64 winners of the AL East. blew through
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: those guardians in the ALCS after demolishing and dismantling the
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: Yankees in the ALDS. So formidable lineup, great pitching staff,
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: solid bullpen. I mean, actually copy and paste that, that
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: outlay for both the Rays and the Brewers. But on
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: the Rays here, who's like your one folks, maybe not
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: like everybody knows this name at home, but if you
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: follow baseball, You know this person, and he's going to
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: be your standout pick-to-click for the Tampa Bay Rays.
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: So this is the big name pick-to-click, not the back
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: name pick-to-click.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: Unless you want to go with the little name first.
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: We'll go with the big name.
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: I think for me, the big name pick-to-click is going
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: to be Freddy Peralta. I think with the way he's pitched,
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: I mean, really the last two months, and I don't
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: have the stats in front of me, but it's been incredible.
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: I'll just leave it that way. He has been unbelievable,
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: kind of reborn with that team. And I think with
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: the way things are going to line up, he's going
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: to be, I believe he's going to be going up
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: against Mizorowski. And so, like, it's going to be, you know,
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: kind of heavyweights, if you may, that's.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: Going to be the big key.
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: So I think it'll be really exciting to see what
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: actually kind of comes of the The biggest pitching matchup
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: in Peralta has been so, so strong for that team
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: that I think if he can continue that, he's also
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: the kind of guy.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: That could get into... If.
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: He does get that first game, I haven't actually seen
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: if he's officially named the first starter. I'm just making
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: the assumption that.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: That's where they're going to go.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: But.
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: You know, if he's able to get into three games
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: and pitch the way he's been pitching, like he could
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: be absolutely the difference maker. So, um, I, you know,
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: you could argue Rasmussen as well, cause he's been kind
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: of their ace all season, but I just feel like
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: Peralta has been even better in, in the post season.
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: So I'm going Freddie Peralta is kind of my, my
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: big name difference maker, uh, for, for, for the raise.
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: And again, there's, you could go all over the place
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: with this team. There's a ton you could, you could pick,
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: but I, I think if, if they're going to win
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: the series, I think they have to have, uh, vintage
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: Freddy Peralta what they've had.
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: For the last few months.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, ALCS MVP Freddy Peralta, where
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: I think that triggered a contract clause for him, too,
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: where winning a CS MVP. Never saw that coming, Freddy Peralta,
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: but that's a nice little bonus there, especially going into
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: the offseason where he is a free agent. I think
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: that is a good call. I think Rasmussen is going
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: to open game one, though, or at least start the
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: first game, but I think Peralta is going to be
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: right there through some relief innings there for the Rays
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: and the CS2. So it's going to be really important
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: for them going forward. So yeah, my pick, my key player,
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: maybe this is a little bit too indie, a little
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: bit too underground, honestly, but it's the Tampa Bay Rays.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: It's got to be their key player for me is
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: Brian Baker. The closer, the number one reliever that they
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: had and everything falls into line almost forwards from the
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: back of finishing with Brian Baker. The problem here is
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: I mean, his velocity is on a major downward slope
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: ever since like June, July timeframe. So things I've been
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: really showing in terms of how often the Rays have
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: been going to, to Brian Baker and how much that
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: they've been abusing his arm that, you know, he picked
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: up the 41 saves over 65 appearances during the season.
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: It was a great season.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: The changeup is dirty. It's nasty. But the fastball velocities
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: rapidly drop falling off the cliff. Does this time off
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: for the Rays in these couple of days before the
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: World Series opening this weekend give them enough time to
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: get treatment, rest and rehab a little bit for Baker?
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: I think that's a big question mark, because if they don't,
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: I think it could unravel on them pretty quickly. And
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: then what kind of happens from there is that they're
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: missing that big key piece to the back of their bullpen.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: everybody else kind of gets out of where they were
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: slotted into before in the bullpen. And I think then
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: it could turn into a disaster for the Rays where
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: you saw what happened to Steven Vogt in Cleveland when
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: he couldn't trust some arms over the last few games
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: and it unraveled real fast. So I think Brian Baker
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: is going to be the standout key player for the
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: Rays in this World Series.
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it'll be interesting because he's been the
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: guy that's kind of, I think he's had some velocity
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: challenges as the season's gone on. So it'll be interesting
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: to see if he's able to kind of ramp it up. Like,
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: you know, I think the World Series brings out the
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: best in everybody. So I think the question will be,
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: is he able to maintain that? We talk about this,
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: I think every playoff, like there's no tomorrow type of thing.
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: So you're going to go out there, give it your all.
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: I'll give it everything you have. So I think that
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: will be really interesting to see if that truly, truly
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: comes to fruition with, with Baker and how long he
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: can hold on, on, onto things there.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: Okay. Who is your more under, undercut, underground player on
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: the raise that you want to call out as a
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: key player?
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know if this is terribly underground.
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: Like there's a few spots I wanted to go, but I,
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: I have to do is just go St.
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: Chandler Simpson.
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: I just like, I have to go to Chandler Simpson here,
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: and it's not as far down as you'd say as
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: a bench player or somebody else there. But I just
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: it's the speed and the way that he can disrupt
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: a game is like Terrence Gore-esque. Um, from the, the
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: old Royals, uh, playoff runs. It's a little different because
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: Terrence Gore was the secret weapon type of thing. Um,
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: but I, I just see Simpson being the guy that
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: gets deployed in certain situations. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised.
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: We've seen some of this behavior in the past and
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: it would not put it past me for, uh, the
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: raise to go there where a guy like Simpson actually
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: starts on the bench here, their, uh, first guy that
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: gets on that they put him in to, to cause
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: some havoc, things like that.
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: Um, And he's been playing well.
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: And so I think he's a guy that could absolutely
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: steal a base, steal two bases, go first to home
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: on a double, maybe a long single knowing him. He
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: could probably tag from second. There's going to be some
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: crazy situation that his speed finds its way into, and
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: it's going to be a difference maker. And he's absolutely
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: the guy that, you know, they let him run wild,
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: but throughout the season, they don't let him just go
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: everywhere because you've got to keep the guy healthy.
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: You've got to do it.
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: But in the playoffs, he is a stick of dynamite
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: waiting to happen. And so I think that's why I
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: look at Chandler Simpson is that he can, despite– uh,
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: you know, the questions about his defense and the absolutely
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: zero power that he has, um, he can still win
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: a game, uh, himself in the right situation. So I
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: think Simpson's going to do some surprising things and people
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: are going to, you know, he's going to become much
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: more of a household name than he is already.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: I think that's a great call out. And I think
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: not only that, but I mean, defensively, we'll see how
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: that impacts the series too, because Chandler Simpson is was
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: one of the best fielders by every metric out there,
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: just because he can chase down balls. But the other
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: factor is he's got an awful arm that Sam Miller
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: in his pebble hunting sub stack called this out in
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: his piece to preview the world series called all smaller things,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: world series preview. And it's kind of actually a little
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: bit of like what we're talking about. Like the fringes
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: are going to be really important in this series. And
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: one of them is that Chandler Simpson has a terrible arm,
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: mostly because he, takes forever to unload it is what
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: Sam calls out. So yeah, I think this is a
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: good player to mention in Simpson. I was almost tempted
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: to go with one of Sam's other players that he
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: called out, which was, he called out the Cedric Mullins,
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: who will be on the bench, but mostly because he's
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: an unreal bunter. And so these are both teams that
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: have been bunting for hits a lot. And you could
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: definitely see that impact coming from Cedric Mullins. But I
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: think my underground player that could play a key portion
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: in this series is actually Taylor Walls shortstop for the
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: Rays here slick glove pretty solid arm it doesn't really
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: show up on Savant but like he is rates pretty
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: well by most metrics and this is also a situation
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: where I trust the raise front office is getting the
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: defensive numbers, right? Because they love Taylor walls. This is
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: a dude with a career 71 WRC plus with a
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: 25% K rate. Like he's just bad all around at
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: the plate. So I'm going to be fascinated to see, like,
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: you don't run into used to run into this all
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: the time. Like when we were growing up, that you
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: had like an automatic out in the lineup, like a
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: Ronnie Bellyard or not Ronnie Bellyard, Raphael Bellyard, Jeff Blouser,
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: that type of player kind of as an infielder. Yes,
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: this is a vintage throwback. So does, is the defense
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: good enough to warrant him getting that batting spot? And
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: does it end up costing the raise? Like you could
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: see a situation where, They've got bases loaded. They really
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: need to score some runs. Taylor Walls is up there,
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: and they're SOL because they can't get the runs in.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: Taylor Walls strikes throughout. Or does Taylor Walls make an
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: error that's costly in the field when you're only in
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: there for a glove? There's a lot of pressure, I think,
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: riding on Walls at shortstop, and he's going to be
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: my kind of key player for the Rays going into
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: this World Series. All right, let's get to the other side,
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: the National League winners, the Milwaukee Brewers, who went 103-59,
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: took home that NL Central title. Again, the number one
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: seed steamrolled those vaunted Dodgers in the NLCS. And really,
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: I mean, they have had so much time to rest up.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: I think that's going to be a huge advantage for
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: them going into this series. Not only do the Rays
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: get a few games, but on top of it all,
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: they did not have to use most of the back
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: end of that bullpen very heavily the way that most
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: teams have throughout these playoffs that you know they got
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: into situations in that Dodgers series where it made sense
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: you know you went bing bang boom with Abner Rebay
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: and Trevor McGill and Aaron Ashby and that all and
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: they've never really had to stretch them to the limits
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: that like Cade Smith had to do for the Guardians
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: or Brian Baker has done for the Rays I think
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: it's going to be a pretty big leg up for
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: the Brewers as well as like This team is just
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: like mashed everybody all season. So I think I'm maybe
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: kind of seeing through the where my light is shining
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: in terms of where my prediction is going to go
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: when we when we give that for the series. But
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: for these brewers, who is your key player? That is
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: your high key player that stands out to you that
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: people might know.
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, there's options on this team for sure,
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: but I'm going to go with the good old center
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: fielder Garrett Mitchell. You know, I think Mitchell, he had
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: some key points, don't get me wrong, against the Dodgers there,
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: but really he is, you know, in the postseason he's
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: hit two homers, he's got six runs, three ribbies, hitting 207,
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: striking out 36% of the time. But he hasn't lit
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: the world on fire, but this is a guy that
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: is is if you look under the covers he just
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: absolutely has mashed all year long and continued like seems
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: like he's getting stronger and stronger and he's the kind
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: of guy that you know you would not be shocked
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: to see him like rip off like a two or
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: three homer game just because he has such unbelievable bat
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: speed he barrels things up um he he strikes out
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: a ton uh but he he's gonna He's got to
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: do things, and if he gets on base, he's a
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: nightmare there, too. He's a guy that I think can
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: ultimately really get hot and take a game into his
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: own hands. And again, he's a pretty decent outfielder, maybe
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: a little of the Chandler Simpson mold.
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: As far as great range.
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: He actually has a decent arm, but maybe not the
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: best outfielder. accuracy to a degree, um, with, with that arm.
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: So I think Garrett Mitchell is a really good chance to, uh,
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: kind of become a name on the national stage. Like,
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: he even throughout the season, he, it seemed like he
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: was still trying to find his footing for this Brewers
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: team and for them fully to, to invest on him.
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: And it's just been the last month, month and a half.
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: And I feel like they fully just said, yep, this
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: is you, you go for it. And, uh, I think he's,
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: he's due for a coming out party. So I've got
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: Garrett Mitchell as a guy that, uh, he is, uh,
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: kind of one of the top towards the top of
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: the tier. Uh, it's not like a Christian yellow or
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: William Contreras like that. Uh, but I think he's the
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: kind of guy that's really going to make a big
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: difference in the series.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: All right. Well, that was a pretty indie cut there already.
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: I'm going to go more indie with my next one.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: So nobody on the athletic picked, picked Garrett Mitchell as
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: their key player.
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: So I had three options and he was my least indie.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: So, well, I love it. I mean, he was a
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: first round pick. You got to give him credit for that.
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: For all you, for all you immaculate grid heads out there,
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: Garrett Mitchell, first round pick mine. It's got to be
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: the Miz for me.
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: Well, I know I could have gotten there, but.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, mostly because like what Miz is going to show
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: up here because the one that's been pitching in the
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: playoffs has actually looked a lot more like the rookie
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: year 2025 version of him than the 2026 untouchable Adonis
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: of a pitcher that has happened and unfolded. So the
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: strikeout rate has dropped. The walk rate has spiked here
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: in the playoffs. The velocity has also dropped. He's not
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: pumping it consistently at the one Oh four that he
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: was in the regular season. He's been hovering a little
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: bit closer to 100. The control has been unraveling a
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: little bit. Is it a matter of him wearing down?
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: Is there a physical issue or is it just like
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: playoff nerves, which also not great. That's like if this
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: guy is, you know, the next Randy Johnson, but from
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: the right side, but also if he doesn't have that
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: kind of moxie to be able to handle these big
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: playoff situations, does that unravel on the Brewers in the
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: World Series when you might need to go to him three,
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: four times in this series to be able to close
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: it all out? I think he will bounce back a
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: little bit. I think there was probably just a fatigue
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: issue that getting these days off, a little bit like
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: Brian Baker, I think he'll have the time to correct it.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: And if there's any organization just like Tampa, Milwaukee, I
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: trust has got the right data in terms of the
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: like just all of the physical information and being able
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: to map that out against the data and figure out
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: what is ailing the Miz, Jacob Misurowski, and get him
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: back to where he was during 2026. So he's my
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: player to watch here for the Brewers.
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and honestly, it's a hard to go against that.
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: I did give thoughts to calling him out, but he
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: is the kind of guy that if he is the
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: guy he's been all season, you could see a.
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: Game one, game four, game seven, kind of guy here.
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: Um, and I think that's completely reasonable and I don't
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: see a reason why he can't bounce back. It's not
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: like he's been absolutely dreadful. Uh, he's just not been
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: his sharp, you know, self the so far in the playoffs.
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: So I think the rest will help. Um, and yeah,
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: there's no question. Mizorowski is, is a key piece to,
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: to this equation. So, all right, going to go deeper.
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: And I'm going to give it to me and I'm
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: going to give.
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: You some of the names I didn't pick, but I
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: was tempted to, I was, I was really tempted to.
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: Pick Brandon Woodgrove.
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: I was really tempted because, you know, he was actually
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: seen pitching live today or it was yesterday that was
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: practicing to see if he could get things ramped up.
• 27:21
  Speaker 3: And I do think this is when you look at
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: the Brewers team like that number three, four starter position
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: is a little bit questionable. And so but I did
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: I didn't go there.
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: I don't think so.
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: Like, I don't think he he pitches.
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: It's I don't think I don't think so.
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: It's it's it's I mean, if anything, it's bulk innings
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: or something like that. But like, hey, I give the
• 27:39
  Speaker 3: guy Moxie.
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean, Patrick Dubuque wrote about it a
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: little bit today at Baseball Perspectives. But like because the
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: other issue is, let's say he does go out there,
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: but he's just sucks. Like he just doesn't have the zip. do,
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: are they able to claim with the league, the medical
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: exemption to remove him from the 26 man roster?
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: That's the big question.
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: Cause then like, isn't the league like, Hey, you put
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: them on the mound. He looks healthy.
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: You approved it. It's not our problem that he's not
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: good anymore. And so I think because of that and
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: just like, I just, I'm, I'm still a little bit
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: bearish on him even being able to make it back
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: fully because like, he just did it this season and
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: it went awry pretty quickly that I just don't know
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: if like in a full game situation, Woodruff can keep
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: it up. Yeah.
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: But so I'm not picking him, but I wanted to,
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: but the, the guy I'm going with in, if you
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: watched the, the NLCS.
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: You probably wouldn't be too surprised about this. And it's
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: Aaron Ashby.
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: And so Aaron Ashby in these playoffs is pitched 12
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: and a third innings given up no runs.
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: And he's been, pretty much dominant.
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: Now has there been some luck sure but like the
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: guy has is just been unbelievable and they they have
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: no problem writing that into the ground literally no no
• 29:01
  Speaker 3: qualms about it and i think he's going to be
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: the guy that anytime they're in a weird jam or
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: need two innings they're like stretching between uh mcgill and
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: the starter they're just going to throw ashby out there
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: anytime they're in the lead like honestly i think that's
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: what's going to happen And he's continued to show that
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: he can figure out how to get out of things
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: and make it happen. So he feels like that weird
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: X-Factor that nobody's going to be expecting from a national
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: stage perspective. Again, he did it with the Dodgers. I
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: think they're just going to keep leaning into him. So
• 29:31
  Speaker 3: I think Aaron Ashby is going to be a big
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: part of this World Series. And honestly, I don't see
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: why he doesn't keep up what he was already doing.
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: So it'll be fun to watch. But Aaron Ashby.
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: he's my indie pick because I already went indie with
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: Garrett Mitchell I'm going even further indie with Aaron Ashby.
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: I would actually maybe flip those that I think Aaron
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: Ashby is already better well known than Garrett Mitchell out there.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: But I mean, I think they're both great picks. I
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: think I've got to go even a little bit deeper here.
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: Mine's actually Luis Lara because it's actually a little bit
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: of a foil to your Garrett Mitchell that even though
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: Mitchell did smack that homer off of Blake Snell in
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: the NLCS, there's a good possibility that Luis Lara gets
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: up in a position against a left-handed pitcher, a southpaw,
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: in Garrett Mitchell's place in this series. There's a few
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: of them on the raise. So I think there's going
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: to be a spot that Luis Lara can, can come through.
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: And it always felt like when I was watching this
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: Brewers team during the regular season, Luis Lara was kind
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: of a catalyst in, in a lot of the spots
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: to be able to drive them with either a big
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: hit or he's so slick defensively too, for being such
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: like a little Jose Ramirez sized guy that he's, it
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: really kind of catches you by surprise. He's only 21
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: years old. And I just, there's something about Luis Lara
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: where he strikes me as one of those players that
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: can catch fire in a world series with just a
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: few at bats, especially if it like happens in a
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: game two, Milwaukee comes back, rides the hot hand, and
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: he just really creates a career for himself that launches
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: in October. So I've liked Luis Lara's game. I think
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: there's going to be lots of opportunities for him to
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: get in and get pinch hits and get some, some
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: time in the field. So I'm excited to see what
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: he can do in a full seven game series.
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I, I, I can't argue with you there.
• 31:25
  Speaker 3: Um, I, I do think with the number of young
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: infielders with some speed, like Cooper Pratt's another one that
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: kind of fits into that.
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: I was thinking about him, but.
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: I couldn't, he was the other one I debated as well.
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: Like that, that I think those kinds of guys are
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: the ones that are going to cause some problems for
• 31:41
  Speaker 3: the race. I really do think that those guys will, will,
• 31:44
  Speaker 3: will be dangerous. Laura is a great pick. Cause he,
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: He didn't have an amazing rookie season, but he had
• 31:50
  Speaker 3: a good rookie season. It just didn't show up in
• 31:53
  Speaker 3: the fantasy pages or anything like that.
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: So I think you're absolutely right. He could really.
• 31:58
  Speaker 3: Fit into a really interesting spot and kind of pick
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: up when something's needed in the late innings, pinch runner,
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: those kind of things, and find himself in an extra
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: innings game, making a play because he made it into
• 32:12
  Speaker 3: the game type of thing. So I think it's definitely
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: a good pick.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: Okay, well, let's get to it. The athletic writers, 85%
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: of them chose the Brewers to win this. What's your
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: pick here? Who's winning the World Series?
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: How many games?
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so I really want to pick the Rays because
• 32:29
  Speaker 3: that was my pick going into the playoffs, but I
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: have to go with the Brewers. The more I look
• 32:36
  Speaker 3: at this team, the way they've come together, It comes
• 32:40
  Speaker 3: across in a few different areas. The lineup, top to bottom,
• 32:44
  Speaker 3: maybe one through eight. I'm not huge on David Hamilton,
• 32:47
  Speaker 3: maybe there. But I do think they have a deeper lineup,
• 32:52
  Speaker 3: and they can hurt you from a number of spots.
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: I don't think the Rays' lineup is quite as deep.
• 32:57
  Speaker 3: They have maybe a little more firepower in the middle
• 32:59
  Speaker 3: of it, but I think it thins out a little
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: bit more. So I think I'm going to go with
• 33:05
  Speaker 3: the Brewers.
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: I think.
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: I think I'm going to put it in seven, though.
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: I really think this is going to be one that
• 33:11
  Speaker 3: it's going to go punch for punch, tip for tat
• 33:13
  Speaker 3: type of thing. And it's it's unless unless one of
• 33:18
  Speaker 3: these pitchers and I think there's a number of them
• 33:21
  Speaker 3: that could do this. Honestly, Mizorowski, Henderson, Peralta, Rasmussen, I
• 33:28
  Speaker 3: think any of those four starters are. could just go
• 33:31
  Speaker 3: on a run of two or three games and really
• 33:34
  Speaker 3: just dominate the series because they have that skill set.
• 33:38
  Speaker 3: But I think these teams are so evenly matched that
• 33:40
  Speaker 3: it's going to be something where those guys kind of
• 33:43
  Speaker 3: cancel each other out and the intangibles, the indie players,
• 33:45
  Speaker 3: are going to come through and make the biggest difference.
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: So I've got.
• 33:49
  Speaker 3: Brewers in seven, but I really don't think anything's going
• 33:54
  Speaker 3: to surprise me in this series.
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: So how about you? Where are you going?
• 33:57
  Speaker 3: Are you sticking with me up– Milwaukee or you're shifting
• 34:01
  Speaker 3: down to Tampa.
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah I have to do the same pick as you
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: I think I think it's Brewers and seven I think
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: they're very very closely matched teams but I do think
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: that honestly the tiebreaker is going to be the home
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: field advantage here where I think each team actually wins
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: their home games across the board because there's that close
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: that the bottom of the ninth is going to make
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: the difference multiple times over I think in this World
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: Series if not extra innings, bottom of the extra innings,
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: because I do think we're in for some good matchups.
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: We're in for some classic games that are going to
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: go late, I think, because we won't have those zombie runners,
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: and these teams are going to struggle to get hits
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: off of each other when they're worn out. But I
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: think it's going to get on par with what we
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: had in 2025. It's going to be tough to top
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: what we had in Game 7 of 2025, but if
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: there are two teams that can do it, And especially
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: with getting their first World Series each on the line,
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: I don't think you can go wrong with this Tampa
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: Bay-Milwaukee matchup. I'm really, really pumped for this. Almost as
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: pumped as our old friend Jake Woodford. He's going to
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: be the one player who gets a ring no matter what.
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: He pitched for both the Rays and the Brewers this
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: year and the Cubs. But big shout out to Jake Woodford,
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: who's getting a World Series ring no matter what this year.
• 35:24
  Speaker 3: Hey, that's the happiest guy right now from everybody. Jake Woodford, congratulations.
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he's probably like back home in Florida. Maybe he'll
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: go to a game or two because he's like, you
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: know what? This is great. Living the high life. Okay,
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: let's get into some baseball card release calendar updates. So
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: go into those show notes to follow along a little bit.
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: I do want to call out that the 2026 Tops
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: Team Japan Samurai set got pushed back a little bit.
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: Slater to come out on October 30th. It's been sliding
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: back every few weeks, and it happens a lot with
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: specialty sets like this, I think. This is also going
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: to be... I put a couple of the pictures of
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: the cards because we finally got some promo materials for
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: this in the most recent weeks, and go to the
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: show notes and click on the link for this because
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: I will say that overall, I wouldn't be out there
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: trying to obtain and rip this set because who.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: Who knows what the secondary market prices are going to
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: go for on this between the Ichiro and Shohei Otani
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: and Yamamoto and everybody else that's caked into this set.
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: Then you've just got the Japan of it all. And
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: then some of these cards are beautiful. Some of the
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: cards that like are in the promo materials are some
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: of the most beautiful cards I've seen of anything that
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: we've been covering this year. I especially want to call
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: out if you're in there, especially check out the one
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: of one dual auto of Shohei Otani and Sadahara Oh, uh,
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: great little design with the kanji on it and the,
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: the home plate with samurai Japan in the middle, a
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: little bit of a bummer that they didn't sign it
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: in kanji. Like that would have been another layer, another level,
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: but it is a fantastic looking card. The other one
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: that's going to be a big one is, uh, I mean,
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: there's only five of these, but even just the base
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: insert of this, it's, uh, like a samurai or sensational
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: samurai insert, I think is what it's called. And you've
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: got the one that I've been looking at is Ichiro.
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: He's in a Japanese uniform doing his kind of classic
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: getting into the batting box stance with the bat straight
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: up in the air. Actually, the way that his statue
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: is that they broke the bat off of it when
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: they unveiled it in Seattle, if you're familiar with that.
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: But then you've got Mount Fuji in the background and
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: you've got cherry blossoms all over it and the red border.
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: And it's like, a piece of art. So these are
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: going to be some fantastic cards. I mean, I don't
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: really watch breaks, but this might be a product where
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: I actually watch them on because the base is a
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: little bit meh, but all the inserts and stuff, it
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: looks like they did a really fine job with it.
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: So if you are a big Japanese collector, baseball from
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: Japan and looking for an itch to scratch and have
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: a little bit of money to burn because these are
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: going to be pricey cards. I mean, I think this
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: is going to be a pretty hot set here for 2026.
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's going to be a hot set.
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: And the secondary market's already kind of going crazy on them.
• 38:21
  Speaker 3: Because the boxes were, I think, about $ 150 a box.
• 38:25
  Speaker 3: And I'm just seeing like the pre-sales for the people
• 38:27
  Speaker 3: who got selected going already like $ 300, $ 400 on eBay.
• 38:31
  Speaker 3: So there's a pretty big secondary markup on these as well.
• 38:36
  Speaker 3: So I think it's a beautiful set. I love the
• 38:39
  Speaker 3: Japanese market. They've got all the big names there. So
• 38:42
  Speaker 3: I do think it's going to be a cool one.
• 38:43
  Speaker 3: With a lot of these sets, though, they have kind
• 38:46
  Speaker 3: of like three tiers of kind of resale and excitement
• 38:50
  Speaker 3: like right away they are big big things to chase
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: uh then there's like this probably two three months time
• 38:56
  Speaker 3: frame we're like man these are hard to get the
• 38:57
  Speaker 3: secondary markets seeing the singles out there that are from
• 39:00
  Speaker 3: the breaks and things like that and then they tend
• 39:02
  Speaker 3: to fade they really do tend to fade uh these
• 39:05
  Speaker 3: special sets over time uh it's kind of like the
• 39:08
  Speaker 3: otani 50 50 uh set that we have like you
• 39:10
  Speaker 3: haven't really heard about that ever since But it was really,
• 39:13
  Speaker 3: really hot at release, really hot for the first month
• 39:16
  Speaker 3: or two, and then it kind of fades away. So
• 39:19
  Speaker 3: keep that in mind. This is a beautiful set, but
• 39:21
  Speaker 3: I think this is one that you'll be able to
• 39:24
  Speaker 3: get the inserts. You're going to be able to get
• 39:26
  Speaker 3: some of the base cards over time after the initial release.
• 39:30
  Speaker 3: flood releases on this one.
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I think that'll generally work. I think
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: there will be some that get tucked away pretty fast,
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: so something to keep in mind if you're.
• 39:41
  Speaker 3: The higher, the higher end stuff, the Otani stuff like that, that's,
• 39:44
  Speaker 3: that stuff's going to be hard to find. But if you're,
• 39:46
  Speaker 3: if you're into the next tier down, you're looking for
• 39:49
  Speaker 3: more commies, the Sasaki's, your Seiya Suzuki's, things like that.
• 39:53
  Speaker 3: There's going to be quite, quite a bit of options here.
• 39:56
  Speaker 3: And it is, it is a loaded checklist. Like, It's
• 40:00
  Speaker 3: hard if you're not into the Japanese market, but because
• 40:04
  Speaker 3: you probably just know the Kodai Singas and the Shota Imanagas, Masataka.
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: Yoshidas, those guys.
• 40:11
  Speaker 3: But there are also all the stars from today's Japan
• 40:15
  Speaker 3: out there as well. They're the guys that in the
• 40:17
  Speaker 3: future you may hear about or you'll see in WBCs,
• 40:20
  Speaker 3: things like that. So it is just a really fun
• 40:22
  Speaker 3: set just because of all the new players you can
• 40:25
  Speaker 3: learn about as well.
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: Yes, exactly. Other calendar updates that we have in there
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: are that 5 Star officially coming out next week, which
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: it has been bumped up, I think, in terms of
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: just overall quality than it used to be in the past,
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: especially as they kind of cut out like Inception and
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: some of the other products over time. It seems like
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: they've focused on bringing back 5 Star a little bit
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: to a little bit more of a premium product. So
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: that will be dropping next week on October 28th. We've
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: also got the release date for Topps Pro Debut on
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: November 18th after that pre-order dropped recently. And then we've
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: got 2026 Topps Chrome Update coming out on November 2nd
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: as the pre-sale, the pre-order on Topps. No one that
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: is listening to this, unless you are a robot listening
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: to this, will be getting any of that pre-sale. I
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: guarantee you, because with the rookie class that we have
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: on top of all of the people out there chasing
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: the MLB debut patches. That stuff gets hoovered up right
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: away nowadays. So if you want to give it a shot,
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: go for it November 2nd. But otherwise, we'll be waiting
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: to see when that comes out and gets on the
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: calendar because that's going to be your best chances when
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: you find it at hobby stores. And it should be
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: in retail formats too. There should be blasters and hangers,
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: but we'll get into those details when we get closer
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: to that release date. An un- Unexpensive set for sure.
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: We're going to talk about it after we take a
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: little bit of a break here. Tops holiday, 2026. We'll
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: be right back to talk about it after this short respite.
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: All right. Welcome back everybody.
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: We're going to dive right into one of our favorite
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: sets that's released every year, Topps Holiday Baseball. Like I
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: was explaining in the intro, you're going to have to
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: call out the baseball because now that Topps is printing
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: basketball and football cards, there's a lot of cross-pollination. So
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: if you're looking for these cards on eBay, make sure
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: you tick that baseball box as well because you're going
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: to get some weird Cooper flag hits otherwise. But this
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: is one of our annual favorite sets, mostly because it
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: is extremely whimsical. It's extremely affordable. And you've got a
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: little bit of like, it's just a good way to
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: get your toes wet. If you're looking to get back
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: into the hobby where the past couple of weeks when
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: we've been talking like Alan and Ginter and Tops Update
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: and going through those checklists with just like never ending
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: parallels and inserts or with update when we were discovering
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: new things that were posted. in between the time that
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: we were like updating our rundown and doing the podcast
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: recording holiday is pretty dang simple. You've only got a
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: handful of parallels. You've got like three insert sets. They've
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: even made it easier where they've reduced the like volume
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: of relics and autographs to where it's a pretty straightforward.
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: You're probably going to get a Chrome hit in your,
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: your mega box. You've also only got three formats to
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: buy it in. So it's a fun set. to get
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: back into collecting. If you've been out for a while,
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: also a great set for kids to get into. So
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: it's affordable. It's fun. There's lots of cool little details
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: within it. And these look pretty dang good. I opened
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: my two mega boxes this afternoon that arrived by mail.
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: I had fun opening it. I felt like I got
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: my money's worth brew. What stands out to you about
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: holiday every year? What do you love about this product?
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, for me, there's a few things. One, it's accessible.
• 44:16
  Speaker 3: We talk about that a lot of times, and you
• 44:18
  Speaker 3: already kind of hit on that.
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: It is accessible. It's affordable.
• 44:21
  Speaker 3: It's something that you can get into pretty easily with
• 44:23
  Speaker 3: the mega boxes, the 10 boxes, the advent calendars, all
• 44:27
  Speaker 3: of that. The other thing is it's one of the
• 44:29
  Speaker 3: few products anymore that feels like it's chock full of
• 44:32
  Speaker 3: hits of some sort.
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: Now, let's be clear. The big hits are not big.
• 44:38
  Speaker 3: It's not like you're going to pull– you know, a $ 5, 000
• 44:42
  Speaker 3: card or anything out of here.
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: We'll get into some of that.
• 44:45
  Speaker 3: But, you know, even with, you know, it coming out today,
• 44:49
  Speaker 3: like you're not finding, you know, big, heavy sales on
• 44:54
  Speaker 3: some of these cards. You're seeing, you know, $ 50 sales
• 44:57
  Speaker 3: and some of the highest end cards. You're seeing, you know,
• 45:01
  Speaker 3: parallels that are very interesting. But again, the prices aren't
• 45:05
  Speaker 3: going incredibly crazy. at this point in time. So it
• 45:09
  Speaker 3: just is a much more accessible, uh, set. Uh, but
• 45:12
  Speaker 3: you just feel like you get the value because you're getting,
• 45:15
  Speaker 3: we'll hit on it. You're getting different colored cards. You're getting, uh,
• 45:19
  Speaker 3: short prints. You're getting Chrome cards. You might get a
• 45:21
  Speaker 3: chance at the relics. Autos are very hard to pull
• 45:24
  Speaker 3: in this product, but they are cool when you find them. Um,
• 45:27
  Speaker 3: so I think it's just a, a very accessible, easy
• 45:30
  Speaker 3: and fun product. And I like your call for kids.
• 45:32
  Speaker 3: Like this is like a perfect Christmas gift kind of product, right? Uh,
• 45:36
  Speaker 3: under the tree, uh, open these up. I know we
• 45:38
  Speaker 3: were talking about this before even Halloween. So maybe it's
• 45:41
  Speaker 3: a great Halloween present, I guess, put them, put some,
• 45:44
  Speaker 3: some packs in your, your Halloween basket or something. But, um,
• 45:48
  Speaker 3: it is just a really, really fun set and it's just, uh,
• 45:51
  Speaker 3: it it's kind of goofy at the same time. Not,
• 45:53
  Speaker 3: not kind of not Alan Ginter goofy, but it's kind
• 45:56
  Speaker 3: of fun to see some of the short prints with
• 45:58
  Speaker 3: different designs of the bats and the belts and Santa
• 46:00
  Speaker 3: hats and things like that. It's just that to your point,
• 46:03
  Speaker 3: the whimsical, I kind of don't love it when they
• 46:06
  Speaker 3: sneak those into like series one, series two with like
• 46:08
  Speaker 3: the holiday things and the Halloween's and things like that.
• 46:10
  Speaker 3: But when you build a product just for that, I
• 46:13
  Speaker 3: absolutely love it.
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: Yes, exactly. So we've got a 200 card set here and,
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: If you're not familiar with what the schtick is on
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: Tops Holiday every year is essentially you just take the
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: flagship design from that year and you stick a bunch
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: of garish Christmas decorations on them. So you're looking at ornaments,
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: candy canes, wreaths, snowflakes, stars. Actually, all of those are
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: going to be on kind of like the border of
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: the base design set here where you've got a bunch
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: of just like it looks like a wreath. has been
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: placed around the outside of the normal 2026 Flabchick border
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: with the very annoying stitching still on there that, like,
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: it does come through in all these holiday cards. And
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: then from there, you're looking at all sorts of kind
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: of parallels and plays on Christmas and holiday themes that
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: expand across the board. So we'll get into some of
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: those short print details and everything later. I will say
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: that this year, it's a lot less confusing than it
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: has been in prior years where you had to really
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: be checking those serial number codes on the back of
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: the card on the bottom. We will call out, there's
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: one that I found when I was ripping that's going
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: to be a little bit fascinating. But they've made it
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: a little bit more straightforward this year where they've simplified
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: the checklist, they've aligned it so you know which card
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: you have if you're looking very specifically at the back
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: that if you it's not going to take you all
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: sorts of weird comparing and looking at those tiny codes.
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: You should be able to figure it out pretty quickly
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: compared to other years. Like we said, we've got the
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: three formats to buy it. You've got mega boxes, you've
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: got 10 boxes, and you've got advent calendars. All of
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: them should end up in retail environments. I will say
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: right now, for some reason, the eBay pre-sales on the
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: megas are wildly off base. They should be about 40
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: bucks when you go buy them. I think that's what
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: the pre-sale price was. And that's they should be 40
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: or 50 bucks when you're buying them at target right
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: now on eBay, they're going for like 70, 75. I
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: think it's just people trying to get the itch scratched
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: on opening day of these, this product. You then have
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: the next setup is the 10 boxes. I think those
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: were like 60 to $ 70 when they were posted. So
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: there'll be around that range when they hit the retail environment.
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: And then the smaller version is the actually, no, that's
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: the advent calendar. Sorry. The 10 boxes are the smallest,
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: Those will be like 25 to 30, but you get
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: like a nice little collector tin ornament style thing. I mean,
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't collect it. It's pretty much trash, but if
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: you've got a kid, I think they'll find some, some
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: neat value in there. So with that, you're also going
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: to have a few parallels in each different product, but
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: the nice thing here is it's not quite like flagship
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: that we just went through with update where you've got, like,
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: it's all bifurcated across like jumbos, hobbies, fat packs, blasters.
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: Here you've only got the three products and you've got
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: a pretty limited set of like what's in each product
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: that's different. So it should be an interesting buy and
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: you get 10 cards in each pack. 10 packs. So
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: you get a hundred cards and a mega. It's pretty
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: good value. When I was opening it too, they didn't
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: necessarily call this out in the checklist is that each
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: pack has roughly like four to five foil parallels in it.
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: They have these green Holly parallels and red present parallels, which,
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: I'm staring right now at the checklist on Checklist Insider.
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: It's not in there. So like, don't think you hit
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: something crazy cool in your first pack. It's just, you're
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: going to get a lot of those. They're almost like
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: stars of MLB. Honestly, it's probably easier to make an
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: entire set of the foil cards than it is the
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: base cards. Because I think I've got equal stacks of
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: like foil and base cards at this point. But a
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: little fun, especially if you've got a team color that's
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: in green or red. It can be fun to match those.
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: And they do look great. They're cut well. They the
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: actual thickness of the card stock is it's a little
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: bit thicker even on the base than it is on
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: the flagship. So it's it's a hearty little product. I've
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: been really enjoying it. So I felt like I got
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: my bang for the buck on the two megas. Brew,
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: if you had to go out there, buy anything or
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: have bought anything in holiday, what is your preferred method
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: between these megas, these advent calendars and these tin boxes?
• 50:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, for me, it still is the Megas. I think
• 50:40
  Speaker 3: the pricing on Megas at retail is supposed to be
• 50:43
  Speaker 3: about $ 30. The 10 is $ 45. The Advent Calendar is
• 50:45
  Speaker 3: about $ 60. So maybe I'm just cheap. But for me,
• 50:50
  Speaker 3: you're getting the most cards in the Mega Boxes, getting
• 50:53
  Speaker 3: the most opportunities. You're paying a little premium for the
• 50:56
  Speaker 3: 10 itself. And I just don't have the patience to
• 50:59
  Speaker 3: actually align to a true Advent Calendar.
• 51:02
  Speaker 2: And so... I would be.
• 51:04
  Speaker 3: Getting to have encountered than opening the whole thing, which
• 51:06
  Speaker 3: is just feels wrong to some degree. So to me,
• 51:09
  Speaker 3: it's the mega box. You're getting, uh, the a hundred
• 51:11
  Speaker 3: cards for that. And it it's for the price of
• 51:15
  Speaker 3: it set at 30 bucks. Like it's, you just don't find,
• 51:18
  Speaker 3: you don't get that anymore in any other product. So, uh,
• 51:20
  Speaker 3: I think that's probably where, where I would, uh, tend
• 51:22
  Speaker 3: to go as well. Like I said, you said some
• 51:25
  Speaker 3: of the prices on eBay are a little bit higher
• 51:26
  Speaker 3: right now, but you should be able to get this
• 51:28
  Speaker 3: in almost any retail environment. You're going to find this
• 51:30
  Speaker 3: a Walmart and Meyers and target and, all those, all
• 51:34
  Speaker 3: those other places. So it's going to be readily, readily available.
• 51:38
  Speaker 3: And I would, I would absolutely target the mega if
• 51:40
  Speaker 3: it was me.
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And then, I mean, the other factor that makes holiday,
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: I think fun over the years is that it's got
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: every rookie in it. So you're looking like you've got
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: Connor Griffin, Kevin McGonigal, JJ Weatherholt, Samuel Basayo, Jacob Misurowski,
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: Cam Schlittler, anybody that was somebody in terms of being
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: a rookie this year, they're in holiday. So I, I
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: think because of that factor, like if some of these
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: dudes really do pop and become hall of famers and stuff,
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: traditionally holiday doesn't keep a lot of value, but some
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: of the variations and some of the, the base cards
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: can hold a little bit of value in the rookie
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: card format. And it gets you easily accessible for that
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: price for 40 bucks that like, in fact, even in
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: my first pack that I ripped today, like I had,
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: foil parallels of McGonagall and Connor Griffin back to back.
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: So like there's, there's a lot of really kind of
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: nice rookies in there. And, uh, the biggest hit that
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: I had overall was a Troy Melton green Chrome rookie.
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: So you're getting a lot of that coming through in
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: this product. Uh, it actually, it's a little, it's a
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: few more parallels than I expected when I was explaining it.
• 52:52
  Speaker 2: Cause we've got, you're jaded at this point.
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: I think it is because we do have 23 base
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: parallels in, And 22 Chrome parallels. The other key here
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: is that the Chrome is like, there's probably one per
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: your megabox. That is the shift this year. Usually it
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: used to be like you get one relic, but it
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: was a napkin patch relic that had like whimsical winter
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: theming around it. So, you know, you could never really
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: get more than like 10 bucks for even like the
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: nicest rookie card patch. I think I did pull one
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: a couple years ago of Skeens, and I think I
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: sold the rookie card for like 15 bucks. Yeah. Because
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: they're usually only like event, they were event worn or
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: player worn. They weren't game used ever. The patches were
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: always kind of a little meh. They really limited it.
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: I think there's only a few thousand of them in
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: total in this entire product. So they've really leaned into
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: these Chrome cards, which I'm fine with because the Chrome
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: cards came out great and they look solid. I think
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: when you're looking at your value compared to what you're
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: getting back on those napkin patch relics, not a big
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: loss overall.
• 54:03
  Speaker 3: I'm a little partial to the napkin patch relics, but
• 54:07
  Speaker 3: that's maybe just me. I love the fact that you
• 54:09
  Speaker 3: could get a true, quote unquote, true hit in a
• 54:13
  Speaker 3: mega box for $ 30, which is kind of unique. Back
• 54:16
  Speaker 3: when you used to be able to get blasters and
• 54:19
  Speaker 3: get the manufactured relics and things like that. I did
• 54:23
  Speaker 3: love that where you felt like you were guaranteed something,
• 54:26
  Speaker 3: even though it's a $ 3 napkin patch of somebody middling
• 54:32
  Speaker 3: rookie or something like that. But to your point, the
• 54:34
  Speaker 3: Chrome is, I think, going to be sneaky valuable just
• 54:38
  Speaker 3: because it's like 1 in 15 mega packs is what
• 54:41
  Speaker 3: it looks like. And then generally, a lot of those
• 54:44
  Speaker 3: are numbered or refractor or something like that. So it
• 54:48
  Speaker 3: is going to be a new twist this year as
• 54:51
  Speaker 3: far as getting that, that Chrome aspect on it. And
• 54:53
  Speaker 3: I think it makes sense from a overall production standpoint
• 54:55
  Speaker 3: from tops to kind of move away from the relics and,
• 54:59
  Speaker 3: and make it a little, make the ones that are
• 55:02
  Speaker 3: there a little bit more premium and have a little
• 55:06
  Speaker 3: premium card stock and a little bit more from a
• 55:08
  Speaker 3: numbered perspective within, within those. So I do like the
• 55:12
  Speaker 3: kind of switch to have it be almost a quasi
• 55:14
  Speaker 3: paper and Chrome product.
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. Kind of Bowman-y at the end of the day,
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: which will be... I mean, if you're trying to put together.
• 55:22
  Speaker 2: I don't think anybody's ever compared Holiday to Bowman.
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: To be clear. No, no, no. I mean, the other thing, too,
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: is if you were trying to put together the base
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: Chrome set, I don't know how you would do it.
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: It's one per a megabox. These things are pretty hard
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: to hit, so there's going to be some sicko out
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: there that tries it. I wish them luck, because... Getting
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: those chrome bases. I haven't seen a print run on them,
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: but it can't be that high of a print run.
• 55:50
  Speaker 3: No.
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: Considering that like the normal, like the purple refractors are
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: $ 299 and that's like the second deepest. You've only got
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: two chrome non-numbered parallels here. But let's get into all
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: the parallels as we usually do. Maybe while you're also
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: listening to Brew rattle these all off. I will let
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: you get to the Razzball post. It's in the show
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: note details. So you can see a little bit of
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: what we're talking about. In that show post, I'll actually
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: put a picture of my Troy Milton I hit too,
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: because I already moved on eBay and is no longer available.
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: It got sold right away. So congrats to the new
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: proud owner of that Troy Milton card. But that way
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: you'll be able to see a little bit of what
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: we're talking about, see a little bit of the design
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: and also prep yourself for the insanity that is the
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: short prints that are coming up after we get through Uh, yeah,
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: like I said, you've got 45 total parallels. If you're
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: trying to rainbow this thing across base and Chrome, which
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: was a little bit more than expected. Uh, do you
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: want to do both base and Chrome? I know you're
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: used to going like 50. Oh yeah.
• 56:51
  Speaker 3: We're going there. We're going there, uh, all the way.
• 56:54
  Speaker 2: So, uh, I'm ready. I'm ready for this. I've been prepping,
• 56:58
  Speaker 2: prepping all day.
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: Well, the floor is yours, sir.
• 57:01
  Speaker 3: All right, so let's go through the parallels first. We're
• 57:03
  Speaker 3: going to hit your paper base checklist parallels. And this is, again,
• 57:08
  Speaker 3: by product type. Both in Mega and 10, you have
• 57:14
  Speaker 3: light blue and white glitter holidays. In Mega 10 Advent Calendars,
• 57:19
  Speaker 3: you have Snow Day Parallels. Those are actually a little
• 57:22
  Speaker 3: bit harder to find. Snow Days is 1 in 200 Megas, but.
• 57:25
  Speaker 2: They are not numbered. In your Mega Boxes, you have
• 57:28
  Speaker 2: Glitter Holidays.
• 57:29
  Speaker 3: You have Blue Glitter Holidays. Then you get into your numbers.
• 57:31
  Speaker 3: Purple Glitter out of 99. Metallic Gingerbread Man out of 50.
• 57:36
  Speaker 3: This is going to throw me off to say some
• 57:37
  Speaker 3: of these. 25th out of 25. Metallic Candy Canes out
• 57:41
  Speaker 3: of 25. Red Metallic Holidays out of 10. Metallic Stockings
• 57:44
  Speaker 3: out of 10.
• 57:45
  Speaker 2: Your Menoras... out of eight.
• 57:47
  Speaker 3: Green glitter holidays out of five and your golden glitter
• 57:50
  Speaker 3: holiday at one of ones in your advent calendar, your
• 57:54
  Speaker 3: exclusive parallels. There are holiday plaid and stickers in your
• 57:58
  Speaker 3: collector tens. Your, your parallels are your holiday lights, your
• 58:02
  Speaker 3: blue metallic holiday lights, your purple lights out of 99,
• 58:05
  Speaker 3: your red lights out of 10 green lights out of five.
• 58:09
  Speaker 3: And then your golden metallic holiday lights, one of one.
• 58:13
  Speaker 3: Moving over to chrome, so your base chrome, as we mentioned,
• 58:17
  Speaker 3: pack odds overall 1 in 15 megas. You have your refractors,
• 58:21
  Speaker 3: which are 1 in almost 300 megapacks. You have your sparkles,
• 58:26
  Speaker 3: which are 1 in almost 600 megapacks. Purple refractors out
• 58:31
  Speaker 3: of 299, blue refractors out of 150, blue sparkles out
• 58:35
  Speaker 3: of 150, green refractor and green sparkle out of 99,
• 58:39
  Speaker 3: gold refractor and gold sparkle out of 50. Orange Sparkle,
• 58:43
  Speaker 3: Orange Sparkle Refractors out of 25, Black Refractor and Black
• 58:47
  Speaker 3: Sparkle Refractors out of 10. You've got both Reds, Refractor
• 58:50
  Speaker 3: and Sparkles out of 5, and Super Fractors, one of one.
• 58:54
  Speaker 3: In the Advent, you do have a little bit more
• 58:56
  Speaker 3: on the chrome side. You have your Plaid Refractors, Green
• 58:59
  Speaker 3: Plaid out of 99, Gold Plaid out of 50, Orange
• 59:02
  Speaker 3: Plaid out of 25, Black Plaid out of 10, and
• 59:05
  Speaker 3: your Red Plaid out of five. That is your total
• 59:08
  Speaker 3: checklist that we know of today.
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: Yes, exactly. Cause the ones that I was talking about
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: between like the red present foils and the green Holly
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: foils that wasn't on that checklist. So, uh, that was
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: a surprise when I was opening things up. I'm looking
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: at some of these, the, the 25th ones, I believe
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: they had this last year too, where it is just
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: like a, 25 in the borders it says like december
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: 25 which is kind of it's almost like ominous the
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: way that it like is flooding everything and it worked
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: a lot better i think last year when it was
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: 2025 but fun little parallel i'm trying to find a
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: gingerbread one uh because i want to put that in
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: the tops holiday related rasball post and oh i know
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: you found a nice one of uh cam schlittler which
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: actually it might be a little underpriced. I'm almost going
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: to maybe pick this up live.
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 2: I just saw the same one.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: Cause let's see, that one is not numbered. It looks like,
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: even though they are supposed to be of 50, that's
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: the other component here too, is that, you know, we're
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: still trying to figure out all the numberings and everything,
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: and maybe they didn't get put all together, but it's
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: going to be fun to see a lot of these,
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: with the different themes you're already getting the zaniness of
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: of the borders so you're adding in these different layers
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: as well too so uh something to to look back
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: if you've got a question on which ones that you've
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: hit because uh it could go many different ways and
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: be priced very differently based on the product let's get
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: into some of the hits though because the main hits
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: here like i said you've got the relics but that's
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: really been limited uh to the point where i've not
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: seen one yet on eBay. Maybe there's been other ones
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: that have come up this evening, but you've got the
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: regular relics there. You've also got autos, which are all
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: going to be sticker autos in this product. So something
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: to keep in mind, you're not going to get on-card
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: autos here, but the other big hit is going to
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: be the combo of the two, the faux relic auto,
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: where you've got like a Santa Claus relic with a
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: Santa Claus auto time signed by some tops in turn.
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: These things will go for mega bucks that like those
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: are probably the product hits outside of the like McGonagall,
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: Connor Griffin, J.J. Weatherholt, one of ones. If you hit
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: one of those faux relics, do not laugh it off.
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: Those things are are with, you know, thousands of dollars
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: sometimes and certainly hundreds because they're highly collectible. They are
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: so gimmicky that people love them. And it's just got
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: a lot of crossover, kind of fun collector people that
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: are chasing those things. Do not mistreat them if you
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: hit them. If you do buy this for your kid
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: and they hit one of those, take that out of
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: their hands. Even though you might want to see the
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: joy of them playing with it, it is going to
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: pay for so many cards in their future. Once you
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: explain that to them, I think they'll probably get it.
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: So what has your take been on these full relic
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: autos over the years? Because... They can cut both ways,
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: I think, when it comes to the hobby.
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I generally am not a big fan
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 3: of them. And I say that thinking of like all
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 3: the Disney collectors I just insulted when you get the
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 3: Mickey Mouse autos and things like that. Um, but I,
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 3: I do struggle with the faux autos a little bit.
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 3: I think they're cool. They're interesting, but the, the bucks
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 3: that they go for are a little bit insane. I
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 3: did see two of them list on eBay. I think
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 3: one was a thousand, uh, was a nutcracker. One another
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 3: was like 300. Uh, then those will, those will come down,
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 3: but I think those are a little bit crazy out there.
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 3: I will call out. There is actually a holiday relic, um,
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 3: on eBay. Now it's a Manny Machado, uh, uh, Santa
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 3: hat relic.
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 2: And, uh, it is out of 13.
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 3: Um, and it looks like the, the relics, all of
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 3: the rel holiday relics are numbered. Um, and, and to
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 3: your point, like, uh, well, I believe they're all numbered.
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 2: It's kind of hard to tell.
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 3: Maybe that's just the glitter holiday numbered, um, which, uh,
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 3: the glitter holiday numbers are one in 10,000 mega packs. Um,
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 3: and so the regular are one in 3,700 mega packs. Uh,
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 3: but it does appear that, It's possible that all of
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 3: the relics are actually numbered this year, which would be
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 3: an interesting, interesting twist. And to get something out of
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 3: 13 is maybe an interesting, interesting way to go. But
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 3: I bet you there's going to be some relics that
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 3: are going a lot cheaper than people expect because over
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 3: the years, that's been the thing, right? It's been the
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 3: thing is you can get a relic for four or
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 3: five bucks. And so I think people are going to
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 3: pull these and be like, oh, there's always relics in
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 3: all of these. And they're going to be posting them
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 3: for pretty cheap. So it'll be interesting to see how
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 3: that plays through. Yes.
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: And I did find the Santa Claus and I found
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: the Manny Machado. They will be linked in the Ras
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: Ball post so you can see them. I will say
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: that it is cool that they used like the they
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: did this traditionally where they would use like a hat,
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: like a holiday hat, a Christmas little stocking from Santa Claus.
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: as one of the relics, but it hasn't been quite
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: as 3d as the one is on this mini Machado
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: one that you found that usually is a lot more
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: matted down. Like either they were using cheap Santa hats
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: or they were like purposely smashing them. So they got
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: into the, into the relic better. So it is cool
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: to see that they're treating them well and it's got
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: a nice little foil background, but, uh, yeah, otherwise it's,
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: it's pretty much the same old little relic. So It
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: is something that if you scour enough, especially in a
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: couple months when people forget this a little bit, maybe
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: around Christmas time when some of these get opened up,
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: you might be able to find some of these relics
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: pretty cheap. And then, yes, the Santa Claus Auto, they
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: brought back the same person to do the Santa Claus Auto,
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: so maybe it's not an intern. There's just one person
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: on that Topps production line that has gotten really good
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: at getting in the Santa Claus Auto. Or, I mean, obviously,
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: they could be sending it up to the big man
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: himself up in the North Pole, so We can't ever
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: look past that.
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 2: No questions here.
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: The other hits, though, and these are going to be
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: the ones that you're going to find lots of, are
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: going to be the holiday variation short prints and super
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: short prints. The nice thing here this year compared to
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: previous years is they used to be of all the
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: same cards in the past where you would have the base,
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: the short print, and the super short print all of
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: the same player. This year they've split it. So the
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: short print and the super short print are separate 25
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: card checklists. So if you pull one or the other,
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: you'll know which one it is right away by looking
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: at the top solid A checklist because you will be
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: able to see if it's in the short print or
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: the super short print one. So keep that in mind
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: as you're also maybe buying some of these cards on
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: eBay because it's the same sort of thing that you
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: were talking about with the relics where people are really
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: being very liberal with the use of short print versus
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: super short print. because they used to be able to
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: do that. And you wouldn't necessarily always know when the
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: product came out, because if the checklist details were sparse,
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: you wouldn't know between the two variations until people kind
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: of figured out the codes and everything. And so the
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: one thing I do want to call out though, is
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: because I realized this in my box is the Kike
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: Hernandez version of this card. You're going to find there's
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: a short print version and a base version of There's
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: no variation that I could see between the two photos
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: on the base version and the short print version. You
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: have to flip it over and actually look at the
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: code on the Kike Hernandez ones. I think kind of
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: what happened is that they meant for the photo that
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: they used, which is a glorious, glorious photo of Kike
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: Hernandez in a blue Santa outfit with a number eight
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: from his Dodgers days and a candy cane bat over
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: his shoulders. I think they meant for that to be
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: the short print version. And then it just got applied
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: to everything. Or they meant to change the belts or
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: put a hat on for the short print. But I
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: saw no variation. If there's somebody out there who has
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: better eyes than I do, let me know. But something
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: to keep in mind. If you're looking to get the
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: short print version of this card and you're buying it
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: off of eBay, you've got to check the code on
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: the back to make sure it's not the base code.
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: Because people are labeling it as both right now. But
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: it's going to be an interesting card to see how
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: that unravels, because I think if that had only been
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: the short print, and honestly, if they've even kept it
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: as the super short print for the Kike card to
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: have the Santa costume, that would have been one of
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: the highlights of this product. Fortunately, it's everywhere, but I
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: think people are still going to have fun with it.
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, because if you look, I'm just trying to scroll
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 3: through the short prints out there, like There's none of
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 3: them that compare to that Kiki Hernandez. You know, there's
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 3: some cool poses. There's some good action shots.
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 2: You got... Jake and Mr.
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 3: Rasky in a, in a, basically a top hat. Like there's,
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 3: there's some fun things in here, but no pictures, uh,
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 3: compare to the Kiki Hernandez, but by any means, the
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 3: fact that it's all basically a base card, um, is
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 3: going to be entertaining. So it does look like those
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 3: are going to maybe carry a little bit of a
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 3: premium just because of, of what appears to be just
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 3: a basic error on, on tops part, uh, which always
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 3: gets a good rise out, out of the collector community.
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because otherwise you should be able to tell if
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: it's a short print or super short print pretty quickly that,
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: you know, usually they've photoshopped on like a hat or
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: change the bat to a candy cane bat or candy
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: cane arms. or like the fernando tatis jr one that
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: i pulled has like jingle bells coming out of his
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: his belt loop so.
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 3: It's got reindeer reindeer antlers coming out of uh gunner
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 3: henderson's helmet here you got a wreath around julio fernandez's
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 3: neck Yeah, they're very obvious, generally speaking.
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and they're very fun, too, because it just adds
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: another element to these sets where I really love them. Ooh,
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: I see now there's also a Nutcracker autograph super short
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: print case hit that's up for $ 1, 000. So I'm going
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: to replace the Santa one in my Ras Ball post
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: right now with a picture of that, because this is
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: next level. You get the holiday worn memorabilia by the
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: Nutcracker himself.
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 3: They did Bubba Chandler dirty. They gave him a really
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 3: bad elf hat. I feel bad. Everybody else has got
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 3: Santa hats and Bubba Chandler has got an elf hat
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 3: on it.
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 2: It's not flattering. If you want some entertaining, just go
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 2: on to eBay. 2026 Tops Holiday.
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 3: Minus update, minus Series 1, minus Series 2, because there's
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 3: so many holiday parallels.
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 2: Yes, there are.
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 3: And just do SP, and you get a nice little
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 3: entertaining slew of just these interesting poses, bats, all these
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 3: types of things. But yeah, they did Bubba Chandler dirty,
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 3: that's for sure.
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: That is very, very mean of them. Because the other
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: kind of hits that you'll be encountering are very.
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: I think this was week last year, and honestly, I
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: don't know if it needed to come back, was the
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: Holiday Backs. The nice thing here is that they've actually
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: relabeled the numbers so you can tell them pretty easily.
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: You can also tell if you're looking at the backs
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: of the cards that the Holiday Backs don't just have
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 1: an all-gray back to them, that they will have a
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: red and green on them as well. So you're going
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: to have cards in short print and super short print
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: of those as well. You're also going to have... die
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: cut ornaments that are in the tops of the mega boxes. So, uh,
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: do keep that in mind. My, they, they changed it
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: this year where the mega boxes are actually pretty compact.
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: They're pretty, they make sure that the a hundred cards
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: fit in there pretty well. So the actual ornaments kind
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: of like slipped into the top where the little thing
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: that props up and supports the front and back of the,
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: the cardboard box are there. So you'll have to kind
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: of like dig in there a little bit to get
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: your ornament out. Um, They're a hit or miss. I
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: was pretty pleased. I got a Murakami rookie ornament that's
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: going straight on my Christmas tree for this year. So
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: if you get a player you love, you can certainly
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: pepper your tree with them. But those will be the
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: other ones as well as we've got a couple of
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: inserts that I want to cover too. Hidden Elf is
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: an insert this year. It used to be a short print,
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: like a super, super, super short print that was also
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: hard to distinguish because you had to go by the
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: code on the back and you had to find the
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: little Hidden Elf on it. The ones for this year,
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: I found one of a Ronald Acuna that I put
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: into the Razzball post. The elf is in the border,
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: so it's pretty straightforward. They also kind of ruined the
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: chase for these because it's labeled as H-E dash whatever
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: on the back.
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 2: It's really clear. It took me a second. I found
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 2: a Shohei, and it took me a second to find
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 2: the elf until you go to the back, and you're like, oh, yeah,
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 2: hidden elf.
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: Yes, exactly.
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 2: Hidden elf guard.
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so you'll be able to call those out and
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: see them right away compared to what you might have
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: been dealing with in the past if you've opened Holiday.
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: Then there's really only one insert, which I've never seen
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: one of these in all the years that I've opened Holiday,
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: that they're kind of a rare insert because all the
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: inserts and hits are the parallels and the Chrome cards.
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: But you have one that's called the Making the Nice List.
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: And this is actually a repeat. They use this every
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: year where it's a, pretty much it's a play on
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: Santa's nice list where you've got a design of like a,
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: a handwritten note and you've got the player on it.
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: These ones are actually like a horizontal cards. That's the
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: word I'm looking for this year. And the one that
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: I've got in the show notes on the post will
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: be a Cal Raleigh one with the runs bad. And
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: essentially all it is, it's like every year, it's just
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: a player who put up a cool stat the year
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: before and, And they put it onto the card as
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: an insert with the nice list. Honestly, pretty boring. But
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: considering all the other work in Photoshop that goes into
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: this set, I can't blame Topps too much. So what
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: are your kind of thoughts here on some of these
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: inserts shifting from super short prints like the Hidden Elf
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: to an insert list that is a little bit easier
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: to track than what we've had in the past?
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, it does for me take a little
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 3: of the fun out of it, which is the same
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 3: thing with Heritage, where it used to be like, man,
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 3: I felt like I had to go through the box
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 3: like three or four times just to make sure I
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 3: knew what I had, which is maybe just I'm a
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 3: little bit of a sicko for that. But for the
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 3: average collector, I think it is a great thing that
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 3: they've kind of made it a little easier to understand,
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 3: easier to see. Easier to track. From an insert perspective,
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 3: I'll be honest, the die cut ornaments, I just can't
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 3: get on board.
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 2: Never have been.
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 3: And I think mainly it's because you get them and
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 3: maybe Sicko's like, you put it on your Christmas tree.
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 3: I'm not allowed to. Or if I do, it has
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 3: to be in the back and it's not found until later. Uh,
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 3: but then I, I can't figure out how to store
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 3: those things to save my life. Uh, if they get
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 3: dinged up, they don't fit in a top load or
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 3: things like that. So, so that, that kind of does
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 3: it for me. The day cut ornaments, the hidden.
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 2: Elf, I think is, is fun.
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 3: It kind of the elf on the shelf, uh, concept for,
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 3: for everybody out there, uh, which is, which is a
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 3: neat one. And I actually don't mind the, the making
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 3: the nice list. Like they just, they're nice looking parallels,
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 3: pun intended. Um, and so I, I think it's, they're,
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 3: they're definitely fun. So at the end of the day,
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 3: I don't really have any gripes with tops holiday, what
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 3: you have across the group here. Um, I think the
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 3: hardest thing is still trying to fully understand what you
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 3: have when you get it. Uh, as for example, we
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 3: were both, you and I were looking at cameras, they're going,
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 3: who is this? A really, a hot, uh, item that
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 3: wasn't a gingerbread parallel. That was a bronze parallel. Um,
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 3: and so, You still just take a little bit of
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 3: trying to figure out what you have and what they
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 3: fit into, which is pretty much any Topps product anymore
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 3: with sparkles and speckles and whatever other versions you have.
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 3: You still have to truly understand what you have. But again,
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 3: you have variety. You hit a lot of interesting cards.
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 3: I think it's just a fun, fun product at the
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 3: end of the day. So I'm on board for pretty
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 3: much every insert that you have here. As long as
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 3: your significant other will let you put them on the tree.
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: Yes, I think that is very fair. Well, that's going
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: to wrap us up here for Topps Holiday 2026, one
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: of our favorite products. Like I said, it should be
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: everywhere in stores whenever you're listening to this podcast. So
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: it's going to be a great little fun rip, especially
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: if you are looking for something to get maybe back
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: into cards. This is a great, great place to start.
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: With that, let's wrap it up for this week. Brew,
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: let everybody know where they can reach out to you
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: and find you on socials.
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 2: Yep, find me on Twitter, XBlueSkyJBrewer17. Cooley, where can folks
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 2: find you?
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: Yes, you can find me on BlueSky at mcool7, spelled C-O-U-I-L-L,
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 1: like my last name. And you can find the podcast
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: on BlueSky as well at Cards Categories. You can also,
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: I should have mentioned, you can read my work at
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: Baseball Perspectives. So I'll still be right in there this offseason.
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: We are posting stuff throughout the offseason. And if you
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: are listening to this pod for the first time, or
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 1: if you haven't rated this pod, please go and rate
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 1: us five stars wherever you're listening to us. If we're
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 1: not a five-star pod for you, let us know. Reach
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: out to us at cardscategories at gmail.com. Let us know.
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: We'll make it a five-star pod. We'd greatly appreciate it.
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 1: I've sent you to the show notes a few times.
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 1: I'm going to send you there one last time to
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 1: look at the store that we have some gear with
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: cards and categories logos on it. mugs, baby onesies, t-shirts, hats,
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 1: all sorts of fun things that you might want for
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: any gifting around the holidays, obviously. With that, we're going
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: to wrap it up for this week. Thanks everybody for
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: checking out our podcast and we will be back roughly
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: same time, same place next week.
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 2: Thanks.