Latest / Cards & Categories / Ep. 119 : 2025 Topps Chrome Update Overview

Transcript

Ep. 119 : 2025 Topps Chrome Update Overview · Cards & Categories

• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome everybody to episode one nineteen of Cards
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: and Categories. I'm Mike cool Art from Rasball, joined as
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: always by my very good friend Jeremy Brewer, also from Rasball.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: How are you doing tonight, buddy? Doing well? Falling out
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: from the deep freeze we've just had here in the Midwest.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: I think that means it's time for baseball. I don't
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: know about you, but I'm I'm feeling the itch. I'm glad
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: that we have Winter Meetings to talk about because finally
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: we got some movement. We got we got some signings,
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: we got some trades, we got things to talk about.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, the freeze is about to get deeper,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: so maybe we should put a pause on that.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: But we are telling one day, reprieve, give me, give
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: me a break.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, just because it like mostly melted today, all the
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: stuff that I shoveled all weekend.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah that is a blast.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: But yeah, we are talking here on December tenth, Wednesday.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: The Winter meetings like just pretty much wrapped up with
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: like the Rule five draft that happened this afternoon, and
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Blue Sky is a buzz with all of the reporters
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: going home on all their flights and getting back home,
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: and we're still trying to kind of shuffle away through
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: the moves that were made, but you know, it was
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: a I think that's probably why we're feeling so much
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: warmth from baseball right now. The Winter Meetings kind of
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: gets the hot stove going, especially before we get into
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: the holiday season. So we've got plenty of news and
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: notes to discuss in terms of transactions, big transactions, little transactions,
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: but everything that is really fantasy relevant. We've got lots
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: of little pieces of news. We're not gonna go super deep.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: We're not gonna be talking like Steven Matts signing or
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: Gregory Soto sighting, but we're gonna kind of keep it
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: to the stuff that's gonna be most relevant for those
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: probably like fifteen teamers out there. And then we're gonna
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: get to our main show, which is going to be
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: a discussion of twenty twenty five Tops Chrome update.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: Which released today.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: So we've got some details on cards that have come out,
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: and we've got insights into the checklist as you kind.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: Of move forward with it.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: It is an interesting release. I think it is probably
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: the best way to put it. As we got more
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: discussion on that coming later in the program, But let's
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: dive into those news and notes first, because you know what,
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: I just previewed all those signings and everything. But let's
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: get into some of the weird esoterica that we've got
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: to cover that kind of has happened over the last
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: week too. So first off, we can guide you to
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Chicago White Sox. They took home first place in something
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: this year. They won the draft lottery for twenty twenty six.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: So last year, if you remember and recall, despite having
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: that epic losing season in twenty twenty four, they were
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: not eligible for a top ten pick because of the
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: new lottery rules, which just kind of made it worse.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: But I guess this is a little bit of a
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: reprieve for the Chicago White Sox given that they will
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: now have that.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: Number one pick in twenty twenty six.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Pretty loaded little draft, maybe not quite to the level
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: that twenty twenty four was, but certainly is shaping up
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: to be a better class than twenty twenty five next year.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: And so I mean I kind of noticed this because
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: another thing we're not going to cover is the Rule
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: five draft. It didn't there wasn't too much intrigue. I
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: think in terms of what happened there compared to what
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: we've seen in some prior years. But Peyton, Paletta or Polite,
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: I'm not exactly sure how to pronounce it. I think
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: he went to Arkansas, so JKJ sure certainly does out there.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: But he was drafted in the Rule five and I
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: was a little bummed that the White Sox had lost him.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: He's a former second round pick for the Socks, and
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: I was like, man, they put probably should have put
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: him on the forty man. The White Sox forty man, though,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: is pretty solid right now and they're starting to turn
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: that roster around. So, given what you've seen out of
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: the White Sox management over the past couple of years
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: on a scale of Brady Aiken to Paul's Skeens, where
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: do you think the White Sox can, Like, what can
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: they do with this pick in twenty twenty six? Do
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: you have faith that they'll take the right person or
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: do you see this being a situation where, in you know,
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: first year player draft dynasties, you want to actually maybe
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: steer away from the number one pick because they're going
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: into that White Sox system.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: I think both both things can be true in this scenario,
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: because the White Sox do have a number one pick
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: in a draft where there's a as of now, a
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: pretty definitive number one prospect, and that's I'm gonna get
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: the pronounce it wrong. It's Rock Chilowski coming out of
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: ucla twenty year old shortstop. You know, just in twenty
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: five he had three fifty three with twenty three homers,
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: only struck out thirty times. He's homeward almost as much
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: as he struck out across sixty six games. You know,
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: he was absolutely ridiculous at the plate. You walked forty
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: five times or else of those thirty strikeouts. So a clear,
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: clear number one bat in the in the class right now,
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: and so because of that, I don't think they can
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: get it wrong. Assuming he continues to do what he
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: has done in the past, that makes him the clear
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: number one prospect. That said, I think talent overrides development
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: to a degree, and so I think even in first
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: year player drafts, dynasties like, yeah, you're still going to
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: be picking up at Cholawski here. But I don't have
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: a huge faith right now in the Chicago White Sox
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: development system. They do have a number of good prospects,
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: but a lot of that's been accumulation through trades things
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: like that from other teams, and there's not been a
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: ton of homegrown talent outside of the pitching side, where
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: they actually have done a little bit better, it does
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: feel like in the past. So I'll say I'll give
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: them an A plus for the projected pick. I'll give
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: them a B minus for their player developments, which if
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: you average it out grading on a college curve here,
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: what's that an A minus or something like that. And
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: so we'll say, you know, signs are pointing up for
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: the White Sox here. The best thing they could have
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: done is got exactly what they deserve, which is the
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: number one pick. Pretty Much everybody else was angling and
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: hoping for the best. A few teams like the Royals,
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: I think, came out pretty happy in this draft lottery
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: as well. Yeah, yeah, I think so. Okay.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: Well, the other piece of news that we have before
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: we get into those signings is we have some Hall
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: of Fame discourse to get into as one of the
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: committees that they set up there, I think it's called
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: the Modern Era Committee, where they're just kind of going
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: through and very much like hand picking and selecting who
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: they want to be in and out of the Hall,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: even though they're trying to make it a quote unquote
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: kind of like fair process. But when you kind of
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: dig into the details behind what the Baseball Hall of
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: Fame did to make this committee and especially stack in
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: the deck against the likes of Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens,
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: and Gary Sheffield, who kind of seemed destined to never
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: get in at this point, considering the committees that they
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: keep stacking with hardline anti steroid guys and just other
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: players who really there are players and executives who just
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: don't have a great view of Bonds, Clemens, and Sheffield.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: So the person who shook out of that extraordinary crop
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: that we had for the committee Jeff Kent, who he
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: had a seventeen year career in Major League Baseball, mixed
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: across with the Blue Jays, the Mets, the Cleveland, the Giants, Houston,
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: and then the Dodgers to wrap it all up. Also
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: took home a tenth place finish on Survivor back in
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: the day as he was a part of the jury,
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: you know, and Survivor Philippines and twenty twelve. So that
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: big ups to Jeff Kent kind of I'm I'm semi
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: convinced that maybe the Hall of Fame also put him
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: in for the Survivor fan poll in that you know,
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: every Survivor fans now got to make the trek to
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: cooper'stown see the Jeff Kent plaque in person. So this is,
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: you know, a player who really struggled when he was
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: on the ballot with the writers, but you know, did
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: put up. I'm looking at b REF just because it's
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: easier to look at the career stats, and honestly, his
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: b REF war number isn't too far from his fan
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: grafts at fifty five point four, so you know, usually
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: a Hall of famers around sixty, so a little bit
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: behind behind that threshold. But we are talking about Kent
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: being the two thousand MVP. Put up a couple of
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: seven war seasons when he was in San Francisco. Also
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: holds the all time record for most home runs at
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: second base three hundred and seventy seven in total, but
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: not all those at second base, a two ninety three
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: fifty six, five hundred slash line in his career. I mean,
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: I'm a big haul guy. I would actually would have
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: put ten ten as I'm kind of actually of the
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: thought that, like, honestly, if you're gonna win an MVP,
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: you're probably in for me, unless you don't have an
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: extended career, So like Chris Bryant's somebody in that kind
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: of like that kind of like spot for me, maybe
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: like a Jose Autista. But yeah, if you've got a
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: Jeff Kent career where it's long enough, you've put up
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: enough numbers, and you've put up an MVP, I'm probably
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: voting you in. But obviously a pretty mixed player in
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: terms of the actual stats, and then you also layer in.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: He was kind of prickly with the media back in
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: the day. He also got in trouble for breaking his
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: risk famously and a motorcycling accident and then lying about
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: it so that they could keep his contract. But all
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: in all, pretty solid dude, solid player. What do you
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: think here about Jeff Kent and the kind of overall
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: Hall of Fame process that got him in.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I'll start with a Hall of Fame
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: process that got him in. I do struggle with all
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: these like back doors to the Hall of Fame. It
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: just feels like there's ways to continuously get in, like
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: and you're like, finally we decided Bonds wasn't in, and
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: but yet now he's up for discussion again. Like it
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: feels a little little old school to have all these
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: different processes to like folks in. It feels like, you know,
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: when you create a committee because you didn't get the
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: answer you wanted, so you are the president of your
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: own commitee because I kicked out of something else. It
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: feels funny. So I will I will say that that said,
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: I you know, I do agree Jeff Kent is the
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: Hall of Fame, where like I don't know that he's
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: like a slam dunk Hall of Famer for me. You know,
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: his Survivor play didn't really you know, ignite a whole
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: lot in me. It was questionable at best the way
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: he approached that game, which is also the way he
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: approached second base at times from a feeling perspective, and so,
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: but Jeff Kent was quite quite a hitter. I think
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: the where I do struggle is kind of the separation
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: of like Jeff Kent versus some of the other guys
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: that were in this class and I and I get it.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: They can only vote for three of the guys, but
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: it didn't feel like Jeff Kent was so far and
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: above a way like a Dale Murphy when you actually
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: look at the numbers and the accolades and the approach
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: and again to pointing out like a full rounded play,
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: Jeff Kent couldn't play the field for darn in my opinion,
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: that's wort terrible, but like he just was not a
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: good fielder. And so that's the piece that feels a
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: little odd to me, is like I felt like Kent
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: deserves to be in, but I think you could argue
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: for Delgado and Murphy as well. And then since they
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: weren't really that close. That was what kind of bothered
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: me with this one, is it felt like it should
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: be closer and you should have maybe had Kenton, maybe Murphy,
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: maybe Delgado, or like at least they should have just
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: been close misses or something like that. That's what really
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: threw me off here. And it's very very possible that
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: the inclusion of Bonds and Clemens and Sheffield all those
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: guys actually stole votes from these other guys in the process,
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: which is unfortunate because if we're not gonna put Bonds
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: and Clemens in, please just stop including them on votes
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: because just messing with everything, they either should be hundred
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: percent or one hundred percent out and we don't need
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: to have that conversation again.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, I think that's what's strange about this entire
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: committee stuff too. It's just like, if you want to
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: put these dudes in, put them in and figure out
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: some way to meeter them so that you know you're
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: not putting in like a giant class of twelve dudes
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: or whatever. But there's such a backlog that got created
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: over the years because of like all of the steroids
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: guys clogging up those ballots that I mean, Ken was
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: one of the people who suffered from it too. That like,
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: I think you would have hung around on the ballot
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: and gotten more support if it hadn't been for some
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: of that backlog. But then, I mean, we're not even
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: talking about like Kenny Lofton should have been a surefire
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: Hall of Famer one and done, Jim Edmonds one and done.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: You're looking at Johan Santano one and done, like all
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: sorts of guys who they've got to go back and
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: correct and right all these wrongs.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: If you're going to make it a true haul that
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: includes a.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: Jeff Kent like player, where I mean Lou Whittaker too,
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: Like I mean Lou Whitaker obviously should have been in
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: for ages, and so like I do hope that they
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: figure out some way to put it all together, because
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: like the last thing you want is like a Dave
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: Parkers situation where he unfortunately passed before he actually got
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: the honor to be able to go up and give
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: a speech or be included in the festivities. And like
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: the Witaker are starting to get up in age a
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: little bit, and so like, if you want these guys in,
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: you've got to figure out a way to give them
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: their time when they're still alive and let them enjoy
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: it so that like otherwise, like it's the same sort
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: of they could you know, pass away and they think
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: they're in the same boat as Barry Bonds or Roger
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: Clemens where they feel on the outside looking in, And
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: so yeah, I hope they find a way to clean
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: that up, because, like I said, Kent's in for me,
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: but so many other dudes are.
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: Well I think you got the point. They're like, I'm
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: I'm on the camp of Hall of fame, not hall
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: of good or very good, but I think we we
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: have like that's already been decided because of the guys
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: that we have put in, it's the whole very very
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: very good. It's not the Hall of Fame. And because
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: of that, there's other guys that should be in that
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: in that same echelon, and we shouldn't be picking and
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: choosing like where where that line is. And I think
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: that's really what to your point, that's what kind of
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: got messed up. And now I don't know how you
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: ever rectify that outside of these oddball committees. I don't
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: know what's the next committee. We have the arrows and
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: all these other things, Like is it just gonna be
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: like the Twitter Committee is the next one? Just pick
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: the top biggest influencers and they get to pick guys.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I mean, Jason Stark was on the
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: voting for the Eras Committee, so like it wants to
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: take to get other maybe you and I can figure
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: it out. Yeah, that'd be you know.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: I mean, I will gladly advocate for cards and category
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: spot at the table for the Baseball Hall of Fame
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: that if anybody wants to take us up, I can
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: free up some time in my schedule for.
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: I mean, I'll even sponsor it, like I that's okay,
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: you don't have to pay me. I will pay you
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: the honor.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I think they'll also make because I think
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: we'll probably end up doing this later this offseason, is
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: doing a PC picks for the awards that happened at
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: the end of twenty twenty five and and also the
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: Hall of Fame inductees. And it's gonna be fun trying
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: to do a Jeff Kent PC picks, So look forward
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: to that in a few weeks or whatever.
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: We get to that.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: Okay, well, now that we got those off of the table,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: let's get into some of the actual transactions that happened
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: and are affecting our fantasy rosters and landscapes out there.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: Let's start with.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: The big one that just dropped this afternoon. Of course,
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: I had this rundown updated yesterday and sent it to you,
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: and I knew that something like this would happen, but
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: I was on my toes.
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: I was ready to go.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: We had Pete Alonzo signing this afternoon, going to the
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: Baltimore Orioles for a five year, one hundred and fifty
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: five million dollar deal. After I mean, he's spurned the Mets.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: This thing sounds like the Mets were way out of
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: the league with this offer in terms of Mets maybe
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: putting up three years or so. And so we are
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: going to have Pete Alonzo in the Al East now,
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: and he's coming off a fantastic year with the Mets
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: and certainly got paid like it. Two seventy two three
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: forty seven five twenty four slash line. That's a one
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: forty one WRC plus thirty eight homers, one hundred and
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: twenty six RBI, played every game for the second straight season.
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: He just posts.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: Certainly makes the corner infield slash outfield situation even more
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: messed up in in Baltimore in terms of rip piece out. Uh,
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: Kobe Mayo, I don't think you're on this Baltimore roster
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: going forward, and he's gonna be dumped probably for a
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: pitcher here in the offseason. But what do you think
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: about this fit of Pete Alonzo in Baltimore.
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I have very very mixed feelings on
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: this one. I mean, my honest, honest first reaction was
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: this feels like Chris Davis like and then really really
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: unfair to Peet Alonzo because like that comparison shouldn't be
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: made for anybody, but like it does have a little
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: inkling of that big power hitters don't age well, and
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: I don't know that they age great in Baltimore either.
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: That said, I don't think it's pet A Lonzo's afall
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: off the cliff. Next year. Maybe me towards the back
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: end of this contract, it might be a different, different
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: discussion because this, you know, profile doesn't age well. And
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: I do think twenty five was more or less a
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: career year for a Lonzo. I mean, he was you know,
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: he had similar years in twenty one twenty two that
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: you know, kind of felt like this, But I think
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: this was probably his his highest output there, and to
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: see outside of his rookie year, which where he put
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: up nearly a five war season. From a park park perspective,
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: the Ariels Ballpark, despite everything we talk about the walls
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: that they erected and changed around, it was basically a
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: top ten homer park for righties last year, right right
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: on the edge of that, which is not what you
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: could say necessarily for what he was dealing with for
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: the Mets, who were more of like a top twenty
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: ballpark for right hand of power. So you know, Alonzo
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: does a pretty gush darn good of a spray in
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: the ball and so maybe that evens evens out because
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: there's some pretty good power allys there in Baltimore. But overall,
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: I think I like the ballpark improvement. That is a
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: tough division, so you know, it's maybe not as cushy
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: with I could be put face in the Nationals. And
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure which version of the Marlins you want
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: to include in the in the NL East there, but
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: I think it's a slight downward arrow for me. I
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: also think I just there's just something about Pete Alonzo
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: outside of New York just doesn't feel right. And I
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: think that, uh, he is a guy that thrived on
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: the big stage and just loved that atmosphere and that's
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: an intangible for me. So am I downgrading him a lot? No,
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: I think, you know, intangible's downgrade ballpark upgrade. I'll probably
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: keep him level for for where he has been from
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: a fantasy perspective. But like I said, talk to me
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: in three years. I feel like this one's gonna not
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: goe to age as well as folks may want.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's all fair and I think I'm
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: with you where honestly, this is about just about his
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: flat of kind of a value for Pee Alonzo as possible,
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: because like the ballpark upgrade is pretty decent. I actually
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: like he would have hit on according to statcast, he
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: would have hit forty five bombs in Baltimore last year alone,
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: where you know it was right on the nose thirty
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: six for even though that's why you put up in
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: New York and you can see it right on the
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: spray chart. There's a few like singles, triples, doubles where
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: those things are leaving the park most of the time.
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: And then you also factor in I think Washington has
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: a little bit of a weird outfield, which is a
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: factor there, and then Miami is still Yeah. So I mean,
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: I think you're looking at a pretty standard like set
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: and forget it to fifty to two sixty average forty
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: ish Homer's give or take for Pete Alonzo, and that's great,
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: especially if you're taking them early in drafts. This is
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: a solid landing spot form. Okay, let's move on to
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: the next transaction. We are talking more Mets talk because
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: I mean, I'll actually table the Mets talk till we
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: talk this specific player. First, we're talking the closer from
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: last year, the flame throwing mccrucial, Edwin Diaz, signing a
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: three year deal with the Dodgers, which honestly, after like
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: we discussed the Devin Williams acquisition last week for the Mets,
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: we I mean, I still thought Edwin Diaz was still
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: going to go back to the Mets.
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: But if there was one place he would go that
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: wasn't the.
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: Mets, it was obviously the Dodgers, because, like, this is
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: a player that Dodgers couldn't let go in terms of
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: the one bugaboo they had on that team was the bullpen.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: And guess what they've got the money to be able
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: to handle paying Edwin Diaz around twenty three million dollars
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: a year. A solid season for Diaz a one to
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: sixty three RA over sixty six and a third twenty
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: eight saves, six and three record with a thirteen point
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: three K nine that was supported by a twenty nine
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: point eight K minus b B rate, But the fifth
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: was a little bit inflated compared to the era at
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: two two eight. He has lost a tick or two
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: on that fastball, but you know, and he will go
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: through ups and downs here and there, but Edwin Diaz
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: is still one of the elite relievers in our game.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: This kind of bumps is is he the easy number
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: one closer for you in Fantasy next year? Given the
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: situation in LA.
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: I'm not gonna give a number one. I'm gonna give
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: number two. I think Mason Miller is the number one
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: because they have said he's for sure in the bullpen,
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: and I think that the Padres are a lot more
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: closer games than the Dodgers. Is really the differentiator there,
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: and I think can put up very very similar stats.
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: But we're talking like one A, one B type of
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: material here. But yeah, this is as good as landing
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: places an he you know he's gonna be lights out.
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: He's gonna also give you a heart attack a few times,
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: like Edwin Diaz slash Asian Israelausen type of style here.
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: But I think it's the big down arrow for like
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: a guy like Tanner Scott, who was the big free
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: agent reliever acquisition last year, and Hughes now gonna be
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: not even sharing saves like he was someone this year
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: because I think he ended up with twenty twenty five
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: saves who's gonna end up with three next year. So
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: that's a big old down arrow for for Tanner, Scott
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: or anybody else at the back of the bullpen who's
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: hoping to get saves. And again, to your point, this
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: was the one issue the Dodgers had. Otherwise they've been
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: willing to just run it back. And why not they
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: they besides the fact that there's no rumors about Treck Schoolble,
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: which I still don't necessarily believe, this was the move
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: they had to make. So Das is right up there,
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: one B for me on the closure closure rankings and
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: goodest landing spot as any Okay, yeah, I think that's
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: all fair.
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: So let's move on to those New York Mets because woof,
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: like we talked about this last week in terms of
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: it was shaping up to be a rough team, but
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: like we were already kind of penciling Pete Alonzo and
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: Edwin Diaz three turned to the roster.
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: But now they need serious help.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: I mean, this is if you're looking at their roster
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: resource page right now, you know it's got Mark Fantos
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: at first, it's got Jeff McNeil and left field, who
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: there's been like some talk from the front office in
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: New York that they were thinking about maybe just skirting
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: by at first blase with like a Jeff McNeil Paul
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: Goldsman platoon in the second week of December. So that's
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: how dire things are already getting. I mean, I was looking.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: The nice thing is Fangrass has this handy dandy free
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: agent tracker where we can see, like who the best
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: remaining players are projected for next year, and so your
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: top bats right now are Kyle Tucker, Boba, Schett Bregman,
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: and Cody Bellinger.
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: Where I think the.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: Mets have kind of backed themselves into a corner because
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: of the loss of Dias, the loss of Alonso. I mean,
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: I don't think they're going to sign by Shet, but
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: for them to feel good about going into twenty twenty six,
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: I think they need to sign two of three between Tucker,
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: Bragman and Bellinger.
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: What are you thinking?
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: And like, is this downgrading any of those other kind
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: of Mets pieces that are remaining between like Lindor or
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: Soto or even some of the starting young starting pitching
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: where the bullpen's in trouble. The bottom half of this
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: lineup is in trouble. Maybe the production won't be there.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: Maybe it's gonna be a tough year for the New
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: York Mets in twenty twenty six.
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this is a really interesting roster, Like this is
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: like Fantasy Stars and Scrubs like approach. Like if you
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: look at like the top of each portion of the team,
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: the lineup of Lindor, Simeon, and Soto is actually really
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: really strong. Like you can argue about Simeon, but I
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: think that's strong, and I think there's a bounced back
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: for Simmen coming. You look at their rotation with McClain Peterson,
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: and then you can argue about Clay Holmes pretty strong
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: with the bullpen with Devin Williams, like they're like, man,
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: they've got some talent. And then you look past that
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: and it's like, well, Mark Vientto's is your clean up,
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: Jeff McNeil's, you'r five al versus your six. Don't even
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: start talking about the defense that that team's gonna play,
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: because if you look at the like the defense there
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: outside like up the middle, they'll be strong, and nowhere
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: else there is not a good defender on that team.
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: I mean, you could arg argue Tyrone Taylor, but he
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: also shouldn't be starting in center field, so and it
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: just falls off like Manaia is gonna be questionable, Singa
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: is gonna be questionable. So I think you're right, they
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: probably need just sign a few. I think they probably
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: drop down like a level and try to pull on
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: a few guys like I think it'd be really interesting
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: for them to pull in like a Hideosuarez and Merril
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: Kelly and Harrison Bader, Like that's gonna be where I
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: think they make the move. I don't see them. Maybe Bellinger.
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: I could see them doing, just because Bellinger's just like
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: this enigma of massive talent that keeps layding one two
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: year deals in all these places and doing amazing then
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: terrible and amazing. So that feels like Mets to me.
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: But I I don't see them pulling in the shed.
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: I don't see them pulling in Tucker. I don't see
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: them pollying in Bregman either. Now I'd also think Bregman
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: might be off the table for Boston. They don't say that,
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: but I think he probably is. So it'll be interesting
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: to see really what they do. Because the free agent
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: list is it's it's thinning fast like I was just
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: looking at it just feels like it's thinning a lot
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: faster than than people realize. It's a pretty.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: Shower class too, so that's certainly not helping it. I mean,
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: maybe they're in the market for like an Okamoto or something, but.
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: Like the the.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: Option starting really risky, really fast, and it's you can
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: do have to wonder for the Mets because like they're
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: just wasting prime ers of Juan Soto and Lindor if
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: they don't go for it. But I do also understand
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: like Stearns is building this thing from the back forward
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: that you know, especially in the outfield, Like I think
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: they'll probably find a way to maybe start one of
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: Jet Williams or Carson Bench right off the bat, because
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: like one of them can probably handle it. But then
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: like there's a lot coming through that system. It's just
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: kind of like they've got a bridget now that they
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: have Soto, and it's like, but it's also a make
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: or break because this isn't like a you can take
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: a gap year next year just to put it together.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: That they've got to figure something out pretty quickly.
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you're a good point, Like they have
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: a strong upper miners. That's what's Wicked's interesting because you
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: could fill probably good three spots in that rotation with
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: guys and the miners. You could probably feel a good
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: two spots in the infield very confidently. I think there
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: might be you know, one or two others you could
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: so like it's just are they willing to go there?
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: And they would have to commit to it, and I
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: think they've not historically committed to guys like a Brett
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: Bady or anybody like that instead of like, yeah, you're
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: a guy, let's go through those struggles. And with the
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: contracts they have tied up in some of these guys,
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: it's hard to like sit down a Clay Holmes, Sean
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: and I and Koda I Singa in favor of Brandon's
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: Roads and Jonah Tong and Christian Scott and Brandon Widdell
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: like that kind of group, even though the quality might
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: be in the minors.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, let's get to the next signing. Because the
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: Phillies did what I think Mets fans wanted their team
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: to do, and that's that the Phillies went out and
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: brought home Kyle Schwarber again. So he will be turning
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: thirty three in the beginning next season, and it's a
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: five year, one hundred and fifty million dollars deal that honestly,
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: the Pirates are right there with a four year, hundred
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: and twenty million dollars deal, So that's I think Schwarber
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: used that for leverage to go back to the Phillies
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: and say, hey, look, Bob Nutting's handing this contract out,
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: why can't you go an extra year on it? And
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: certainly it's a fantastic year that he is coming off.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: We're looking at a fifty six homer season, one hundred
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: and thirty two RBI, one hundred and eleven runs, ten
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: stolen bases, which was kind of sneaky for Schwarber value
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: two forty three sixty five five sixty three slash line.
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: And like I said, he's going to be thirty three,
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: But he's right in his prime right now, so I
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: don't think you got to worry too much, like until
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: a couple of years down the road. But I'm actually
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: kind of looking forward to those years when he kind
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: of turns into like Nelson Cruz Enigma where he's popping
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: forty homers and nobody wants to touch Schwarber because of
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: the age next to him. But this is pretty much
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: a copy and paste of what the projections say for
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: him going forward, right, because I mean, essentially, all they're
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: doing is taking the last three years of Kyle Schwarber
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: averaging the mountain, slapping it over one hundred and forty games.
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: It absolutely is. And I feel bad for Peter A
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: Lonzo that I'm like, is it not the same profile?
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: And I feel so much more confident on Kyle Schwarber
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: being able to stick around with his approach, and again,
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: this is a guy with a better plate approach, more patience,
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: and you know, the we have now almost four years,
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: let's let's average it out of one hundred runs and
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: one hundred RBIs with more or less forty homers, like
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: four straight years in that same ballpark. You've got to
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: be just saying we're to roll it back again. And
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: that team is more or less the same team going
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: into next year, especially if they bring back realmutu, which
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: is what they're trying to do. So yep, plug him in,
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: play him. I think Schwarber, like when you talk about
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: Hall of Famers, like, don't don't look too far off
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: from Sharmer, Like the guy's already got three hundred and
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: forty career homers, he's got a World Series. It's actually
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: a pret amazing profile. It's not out of the realm
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: of possibility to say Kyle Schwarber is a five hundred
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: homer career guy, and that's just that's just silly.
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I kind of hope that he gets
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: to because it's gonna open up one of the debates
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: that really hasn't happened yet for the Hall of Fame,
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: which is, like, this dude hit five hundred homers, but
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: he was not a great all around player warwise, like
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: Adam Dunn would have been the first one if he
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: got into five hundred, but he never got to the level.
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: And so I'm hoping Schwarber does because it would be
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: kind of pushed to see is five hundred homers without
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: ped considerations an automatic ticket into the Hall of Fame
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: that it's always been.
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: But I think you'll get the debate of two point
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: thirty batting average versus three point fifty on base percentage,
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: Like that's just gonna be like a mind blowing for
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: some of the old school guys on that voting committee.
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: For sure.
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's get into a couple of closer signings where
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: the returneys. So the Cincinnati Reds went out and re
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: signed Amelia Pegan to a two year, twenty million dollar contract.
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: Pegan is coming off.
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: Of a season where he threw sixty eight and two
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: thirds innings for those Cincinnati Reds, saved thirty two games
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: with a two eighty eight RA and a ten point
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: six K nine, really reeled in the walks, but the
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: Homers were still a problem with him. Just a crazy
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: line in terms of twenty eight point seven percent ground
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: and Paul great and just.
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: A lot of luck into that profile.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: He survived an entire season as the closer for the Reds,
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: which I didn't fully see coming, but it worked out
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: in the end because they did make the playoffs. Kyle
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: Finnigan re signing with the Tigers after being traded there
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: at the at the trade deadline, and I mean it
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: was kind of a tale of two seasons for Finnigen
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: because he was kind of his old self, you know,
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: a mid threes FIP, a four to thirty eight RA
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: and thirty nine innings with twenty saves with the Nats
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: before getting dealt to the Tigers. Through seven and the
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: third innings there racked up. Actually, I'm looking at his
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: playoff stats, that's my bad. He brought up eighteen innings
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: for the Tigers, four saves, a one to fifty ERA
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: boosted the hell out of his K nine rate.
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: It went from like a mid sevens to a mid eleven.
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: And they changed the overall profile there in Detroit where
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: they emphasized splitter heavy for Finnigan.
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: So there was a.
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: Change that made the performance go up. It wasn't just
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: all luck based. If I had to give you a choice,
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: because these are both probably closer twos, which one are
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: you going with?
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: It's that's real tough. But I think I'm taking Finnegan
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: in the situation two reasons. One, the way they finished
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: Finnigan did look like a different picture in Detroit than
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: he did in DC and Ballpark. I'm just scared of
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: a picture in Great America and pegone like anybody did
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: a great job. But we're talking about a closer with
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: a twenty nine percent ground ball rate like in Great America.
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: Oh that's it's that does not necessarily feel endearing to
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: sustained results. So I'll take finn again. I think he's
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: the better play there, but they're pretty close in the
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: overall rankings.
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think so too. And yeah it's a I
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: think I'm there with you because I just that Finnegan
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: profile he siphoned off all of the luck from Devin
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: Williams this season and took it to him to Cincinnati,
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: because I just don't see how it works for another
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: full season for pegand that he might stick his closer,
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: but it might hurt from a.
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: Runner, I think he'll be the closer. He up the
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: lost sea a little bit. I think he will stick,
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: but I think it's going to be a little bit
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: rockier than it was this year. And yeah, he's not
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: caring a two hundred babe the through next year.
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: Okay, we've got one more signing before we get into
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: a couple or two more signings before we get into
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: a couple of trades. So first one, we're going back
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: to those White Sox who inked Anthony k to a
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: two year, twelve billion dollars deal, who Kay was originally
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: drafted by the Mets, then was moved to the Blue
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: Jays back in They don't show it, it's too old
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: in the transaction tracker for Fangrass, I.
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: Want to say twenty three, twenty three, Well, we started
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: trading for.
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: I think he was either Noah Cindergaard trade where he
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: went to the Blue Jays on the other end maybe,
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: but I'll let you look that up. In the meantime,
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: Anthony k was a former first round pick for those Mets,
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: then flamed out with the Blue Jays before finding bouncing
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: around with like the Cubs for a little bit, bounced
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: back to the Mets. Spent the last two seasons in
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: MPB pitching for the Yokohama bas Stars, and it was
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: the first season was solid a three forty two ERA,
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: but then this past season he really found another gear
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: one seventy four ERA, a fifty five point eight percent
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: ground ball rate in all that over one hundred and
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: fifty five innings with a modest seven and a half
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: K nine, But really he leaned into that kind of
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: classic sinker that it seems like everybody's picking up when
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: they go to either Korea or Japan. That Pones is
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: kind of like put together, and it just seems like
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: he was able to figure out whatever he didn't get
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: enough runway to do in Major League Baseball.
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: So right now all of.
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: The projections are slating for Anthony K to be right
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: in the middle of that White Sox rotation. Honestly, he's
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: going to be in it as long as he's healthy,
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: because this is a little bit of like a Adrian
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: Houser or Martine Perez situation where it's his starting spot
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: until the White Sox find a better suitor for him
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: if he shows the right skills, because they're trying to
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: flip him into future assets, and currently Steamer has him
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: pegged for a four to twenty three ARRA and a
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: K nine just under seven over one hundred and thirty
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: nine innings. I'm liking Anthony K going into next year
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: is just like a really late dart. It's an easy division,
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: especially like Chicago plays cold in the beginning of the season.
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: If he's no good, you can drop him. And I
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: think he's going to be somebody who in a twelve
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: Certainly in a twelve team draft, he's gonna be right
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: at the end. I think he still will be in
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: a fifteen team draft, and I like the intriguing kind
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: of upside here for K. What do you think of
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: K's value for fantasy in twenty twenty six.
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: It's been a while in this podcast since we've actually
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: like fully on disagreed, but here we are. I want
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: no part of Anthony K. I see zero zero reason
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: why the White Sox should have even signed him, and
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: that he's gonna provide notable value next year, and two reasons.
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: One the White Sox, I don't see him getting wins
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: on that team. You don't see him going deep things
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: like that. And two like he wasn't dominant over in
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: the KBO. And if you look at the probably the
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: best comp which is Eric Fetty coming over uh to
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: the White Sox, a similar deal. Uh, we're talking about
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: a guy that in for Eric Fetti over in the KBO.
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: Before he came to the Socks, he had a two
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: to oh just two flat ERA with a ten to
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: four k per nine, one set five walk per nine
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: and a fifty four percent ground ball rate. Then he
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: came over here, he did not get eight k per nine.
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: He couldn't even get to eight k per nine. He
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: had a forty five percent ground ball rate and a
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: FIP almost a four, and that quickly after a season
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: eroded and everybody had him figured out. I feel like
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: Anthony K isn't even close to what Fetti was in
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: the KBO from a kind of nastiness perspective, and all
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: the guys coming over, the guys that have really struggled
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: with the guys that are not kind of lights out
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: high velocity guys, and that's kind of what we're looking
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: at with K. He is not a big high velocity guy.
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: He's only seven and a half K per nine as
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: it is in the KBO. That's like going to translate
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: to like six K for nine in the MLB. And
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: I think that ground ball right is going to drop
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: substantially because he does not have this put away stuff. Yes,
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: e A was one seven four, FIP was two and
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: a half, and I think K is not going to
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: have enough to stick. You throw the white Sox aspect
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: on it on top of it, and it's just I'm
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: not touching him. I don't think there's enough upside there
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: because you're not offsetting the lack of wins, lack of
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: run support, going deep into games with strikeouts or anything
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: like that. I think you're looking at some blow ups
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: here and some disappointments. So I'm out on Anthony. Kay,
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: if you like him at the end of any of
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: our drafts, you are welcome to him, I might nominate
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: him early in an auction just for fun for you.
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: So I was going to spend auction dollars on him.
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: But I think he's a great reserves pick. And yeah,
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: just because you can also move on pretty quickly and
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: you can play the matchups. Like I said, reminds me
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: of like what you could get out of like Adrian
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: Hauser last year. So if you were in a league
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: where Adrian Hauser had value, that's where Anthony Kay has valued.
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: So I'm not putting like tons of eggs in this basket,
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: but I'm just saying he will be useful here and there.
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: I have no basket. There's no basket over here.
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: Okay, Well, let's get into that last signing, as we
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: had Cedric Mullins joining the Tampa Bay Rays on a
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: one year, seven million dollar deal. So this kind of
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: poo poo's any chance of Chandler Simpson getting full runn
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: at center field there probably shifts him into a left
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: field platoon situation, unfortunately for Chandler Simpson going forward. Also
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: kind of same thing with Johnny de Luca, who started
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: off last season hot and then ran into a shoulder
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: injury and was playing center field, But really Mullens should
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: be the everyday center field they're for the Tampa Bay
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: Rays until you know, things fall apart that they do,
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: or you know, he gets traded or whatever. Certainly a
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: tougher season for Anthony or for Cedric Mullens in almost
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: at Anthony Santander. So that kind of shows you maybe
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: how I'm viewing Cedric Mullens going into next year. But
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: it was a two sixteen, two ninety nine, three ninety
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: one slash line over one hundred and thirty three games
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: with the Orioles and the Mets, and lost his job
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: with the Mets after getting there after the trade deadline
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: because he just.
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: Was not hitting.
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: Still put up seventeen homers and twenty two stone bases,
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: so had those kind of counting power and speed stats.
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: But what are you expecting from Cedric Mullens going forward
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: that you know twenty twenty one was the last time
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: he reached and only time he reached that third plateau
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: has been up and down and injured here and there
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: and dealt with what the Orioles have gone with up
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: and down with their kind past couple seasons. Is this
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: somebody that you still have on your draft board going
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: into twenty twenty six.
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this is another guy. I really I don't have
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: my draft board. I you know, he's been a guy
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: for a few years. I've just been out on it.
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: Seems like the somehow we're still paying for the twenty
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: twenty one hype on Cedric Mullens to a degree. I
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: don't know how we're still doing that five years later.
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: But maybe it is just the counting stats, because like, yeah,
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: he's almost a fifteen twenty five guy. But when you're
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: wrapping it with a two twenty two thirty average and
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: you can't get on base like it's it's it's tough
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: because he's just not doing enough in any of the
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: other categories to make it worth that. And he he
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: really struggled when he came over to the Mets. Uh
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: and I look at this deal and I don't quite
• 41:57
  Speaker 2: understand it for the for the Rays because to your point,
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: Chandler Simpson, though not a great fielder, relat with Cedric Mullins.
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: I think that's the big difference here is Chandler Simpson
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: is an absolute terror on the base path, Like he
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: can change a game on a base path. Cedric Mullens
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: can maybe save a game in the field, but I
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: think that Chandler Simpson can win games on the base pass. Well.
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: I struggle with this one from a baseball's perspective, and
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: then I start with it from a fantasy perspective. I
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: don't like really what it implies. I still think Chandler
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: Simpson's on my boards because like that game changing speed
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: even a platoon situation is still gonna be incredibly valuable.
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: But I'm gonna have to pass on mister Mullins.
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I think I'm there with you. I mean,
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: if he falls and you end up in a situation
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: where maybe you can saw him in as your fifth
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: outfielder or something, sure, but like, yeah, I'm not paying
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: up for him at all, especially.
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: He can join Anthony k in my non baskets.
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: Yes, And I mean that's gonna It's a tough place
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: to hit down in Tampa too, so let's not discount
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: that going forward with some of the Rays hitters. So
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think I'm putting Mullins right in there
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: in terms of it's just not going to be a
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: great offensive team compared to what I think we've seen
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: this past year, where they're in a minor league ballpark,
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: you know.
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and because you don't know, like the ballpark should
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: be ready, but we don't truly know, so you have
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: to expect the worst case outcome, which is the ballpark's
• 43:20
  Speaker 2: ready for that team. Yeah.
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: Okay, well let's get into a couple of those trades
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: I alluded to. So first one we have is the
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: Pirates and the Red Sox linking up for a five
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: team deal, with the two main names being Johann Oviedo,
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: the right handed pitcher, going from Pittsburgh to Boston and
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: in return, Yostinson Garcia coming back from Boston to Pittsburgh.
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: And I mean we were talking a little bit before
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: we started recording.
• 43:47
  Speaker 2: I kind of like.
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: Oviedo just because of his ability to spin the ball
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: and you can throw it pretty hard. But right now
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: might be slotted into Triple A for the Red Sox,
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: and I like their pitching development, so we'll see what
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: they can turn him into. He is coming off of
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: a Tommy John surgery, just returned from that twenty twenty five,
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: so also was a much different picture, I feel like
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: with the Pirates than he was when he was with
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: the Cardinals, and they were really emphasizing the ground ball,
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: but picked up a little bit more strikeout ability with
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: the Pirates. The big arrow up here, I think is
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: for Yostince and Garcia, who should walk into a full
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: time job ian Pittsburgh where he was really struggling for
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: playing time in Boston. It's a crowded outfield, but he
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: should slot right into one of those corner spots for
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: the Pirates or compete with Marco Luciano, who also was
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: added to this roster over the past week. So Garcia
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: was a great bat coming through the system, you know,
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: the Fangrass player. The Fangrass prospect report on him has
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: a forty future hit, a sixty raw power, fifty five
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: game power on the future hit two sixty seven three
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: forty four seventy. That's a one to sixteen WRC plus
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: over his two Mind League stops with the Red Sox
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: last year, twenty one homers, seven stone bases in one
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: hundred and fourteen games. Got a little small cup of coffee,
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: but a lot of strikeouts, a lot of swing and
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: miss in that game, which the Pirates have plenty of
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: on my roster and haven't seemed to be able to
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: fix for other players. So what do you think here
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: about Oviedo landing in Boston and Garcia landing in Pittsburgh.
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think quick thoughts of Oviedo. I'm really not
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: too excited by him yet. To your point, he did
• 45:30
  Speaker 2: improve last year. The stuff looked a little bit better,
• 45:33
  Speaker 2: but more or less, he's still a four era pitcher.
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: He still walks too many guys. I don't really feel
• 45:39
  Speaker 2: like walking around with a one point three FIP on
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: my fantasy team or to fip a whip my fancy team.
• 45:49
  Speaker 2: I'll take it one point three fip anytime. But the
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: biggest thing for me with Oviedo and what Boston's doing
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: is they're they're creating depth at the pitcher perspective position,
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: which I don't like because I feel like it's burying
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: some really exciting prospects, like kind of the earlier Payton toll.
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: I think both of those guys your eyes. I want
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: to see the rotation because I think that they're they're ready,
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: and this is signaling to me that they want to
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: slow roll those guys, maybe give them some chance in
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: the bullpen, save some innings, things like that, and that's
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: just as exciting.
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: I will say, like when you're on roster resource. Part
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: of it is they do have Cutter Crawford and Patrick
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: Sandoval in that rotation. Sandoval is coming off of a
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: Tommy John. I don't think Cutter Crawford's a starter personally,
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: so I.
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: Don't Yeah, I would agree, and Boston.
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: Didn't treat them that way last year, it seemed like,
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: so it's a pretty good possibility that like totally an
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: early kind of like piggyback, or they turned into a
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: six Mann rotation so they don't run.
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: The innings on them.
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: Oviedo is another backstop, like a fifth starter. But I
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: think it's still possible all three of those names fit
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: in the rotation because the trust in Crawford and Sandoval
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: isn't there.
• 46:58
  Speaker 2: For me, yeah, I think I think that's fair, but
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: I just don't like the I don't like the more
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: question marks for those. But then you go the other
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: side and you have the password, which is Urcia's nickname,
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: which is also an amazing nickname by the way, and
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: you're right, like this is a huge up arrow for him,
• 47:15
  Speaker 2: Like he's not an all star, he's not an amazing player,
• 47:19
  Speaker 2: but he's an above average guy that's gonna get streaky
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: and do some cool things, and he's got some pretty
• 47:25
  Speaker 2: good power, and so I think he'll be fun to watch.
• 47:28
  Speaker 2: I think he needs some development, but there's no reason
• 47:32
  Speaker 2: he like he's gonna probably slide into the middle of
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: that lineup there in Pittsburgh unless they somehow sign a
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: free agent, because they, if you have noticed, they've been
• 47:39
  Speaker 2: actively like trying to sign guys like they were trying
• 47:42
  Speaker 2: to sign Arber with like legitimate offers. So I'm not
• 47:47
  Speaker 2: sure what's happening there in Pittsburgh because that doesn't feel
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: right for them. But I think he'll get get some
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: some runway, and I think he'll he'll definitely make some noise.
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: But to your point, not necessarily the greatest development guard
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: organization there in Pittsburgh from a hitter perspective, But hey,
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: a guy that might hit two I want to say
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: two forty uh with twenty twenty five homers is kind
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: of what I'm seeing with Garcia. So maybe a fourth
• 48:14
  Speaker 2: or fifth outfielder that you can be happy with. Yeah,
• 48:17
  Speaker 2: I think I'm there.
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: I think the one thing to watch with Yostin's and
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: Garcia there is that the hype might start getting to
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: him because he's got the cool nickname with the password,
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: and yeah, I mean he does look cool too.
• 48:29
  Speaker 2: He's just like it.
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: The way that he's in the box, it just looks powerful.
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: But I think I'm right there with you. You got
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: to be careful. This is a guy who, I mean,
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: like eighty or ninetieth percentile an outcome is actually two
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: forty twenty to twenty five homers.
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: So just kind of keep that in mind that.
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: The hype will be there for Garcia, but do not
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: overpay for that profile because you're also looking at a
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: guy who I think he is what he is, and
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: it's not something where there's another gear. I also just
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: wanted to say, yo Stinson Garcia there again, because I
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: literally practiced like all day in my car saying that
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: Yo Stinson, Yo Stinson, YO Stinson.
• 49:07
  Speaker 2: And so there we go. I don't know if you noticed,
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: but I did not say it one time. That's why
• 49:13
  Speaker 2: we went with a nickname and the last name, because
• 49:14
  Speaker 2: I'm I'm not insulting the guy with my inability to
• 49:17
  Speaker 2: pronounce his first name.
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: Okay, well, let's get into another intriguing trade here, and
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: that was the deal that the Nationals and the Mariners
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: linked up for sending Jose Ferrara, left hander from Washington
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: to Seattle in exchange.
• 49:31
  Speaker 2: For catcher Harry Ford.
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: Where I mean, this is kind of a classic bottom
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: feeder team in Washington links up with contender in Seattle,
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: where they're moving their best arm for a prospect who's
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: pretty blocked in Seattle, like Harry Ford had no chance
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: of breaking through it between Cal Rowley being entrenched in
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: at catcher, Josh Naylor coming back re upping at first base,
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: and then that outfield being pre settled for Seattle as well,
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: where Harry Ford got some run unfortunately, big down arrow
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: for Jose ferre gonna be a fantastic setup man.
• 50:06
  Speaker 2: I think for Seattle.
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: I was kind of into him just because of the
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: volume in Washington. It's a pretty nice little sinker package,
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: you know, upper nineties, and I think that like he
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: was starting to get comfortable in that role. So I
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: think he's going to be pre lights out for Seattle
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: if you're in a safeholds league for actually not maybe
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: a bad person to look at. So let's focus here
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: on Harry Ford.
• 50:28
  Speaker 2: Who I think is he playing.
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: I wonder if he's playing for the Great Britain team
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: for the WBC again, he did do that the last WBCs,
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: so he did that as an a ball player. Was
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: a first round pick previously for Seattle, and like I said,
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: it's been. He's an intriguing player, I think more so
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: for fantasy than it is actually in real life because
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: I think he's a pretty solid catcher, like maybe not
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: necessarily like the highest end one, but he'll get the
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: job done as victually the Nationals. I think it's probably
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: time to sunset cabert Ruiz in terms of giving him
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: playing time and all the ability to catch behind the
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: plate there because especially on the fantasy side, Ford very
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: intriguing for his stolen bases. You know, stole thirty five
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: stolen bases at Double A in twenty twenty four, only
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: played ninety seven games last year at Triple A and
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: put up seven steals. So is this somebody that you're
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: looking to maybe throw a dart at in drafts for
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty six because Ford did debut last year for
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: the Mariners. Honestly, I think he can overtake carbret Ruiz
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: for the starting catching job in Washington. And I think
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: he's a solid little like catcher two target in twelve
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: teen leagues because if he doesn't make the roster, get
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: slot in a backup role, you can find somebody else.
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: But what are you thinking about Ford for twenty twenty six.
• 51:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you're right there. I think this spells
• 51:54
  Speaker 2: the end for Ruiz. Kind of it's just because he's
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: got a big contracts. They got to get him a
• 51:58
  Speaker 2: shot again and Riley Adams isn't going to stand the way.
• 52:01
  Speaker 2: From a backup perspective, I'm a little concerned that the
• 52:05
  Speaker 2: speed fell off last year seven steals and eleven attempts.
• 52:09
  Speaker 2: But I also have to give a little bit of
• 52:11
  Speaker 2: that to it of we know the guy can run,
• 52:13
  Speaker 2: so maybe they just kind of I say, stay healthy,
• 52:15
  Speaker 2: keep developing. From a catching perspective, From a hitting perspective,
• 52:19
  Speaker 2: we don't need you to prove that you can run.
• 52:21
  Speaker 2: You can run, And assuming that that assumption is right,
• 52:25
  Speaker 2: is that a thing? Assuming the assumptions right, I think
• 52:29
  Speaker 2: that he's intriguing to the point of the new crop
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: of catchers coming through that can hit and run. Maybe
• 52:37
  Speaker 2: not the greatest average. I'm thing in a Gustin Ramirez
• 52:39
  Speaker 2: type style here, and so I think it's a good
• 52:42
  Speaker 2: dart throw at the kind of a catcher too I
• 52:46
  Speaker 2: don't think he gets the first run at it, but
• 52:48
  Speaker 2: I think it's going to be kind of like a
• 52:50
  Speaker 2: Trick Baldwin situation where he's like getting some playing time,
• 52:53
  Speaker 2: getting some playing time, and they're realizing, like, yes, I
• 52:55
  Speaker 2: have an incumbent, and the incumbent's better like on paper
• 52:59
  Speaker 2: and has the big contracts. So I've got to play
• 53:01
  Speaker 2: the guy, and so I'm going to use the guys
• 53:05
  Speaker 2: of rest and things like that to keep him out
• 53:08
  Speaker 2: of the lineup. But I think slowly he takes that over.
• 53:11
  Speaker 2: I think it's gonna be a slow slog. So I'm
• 53:13
  Speaker 2: not with the depth of Catcher and that slow movement.
• 53:16
  Speaker 2: I'm not like jumping at him for twenty six, but
• 53:19
  Speaker 2: I think he will provide some steaky value.
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, I think we're relatively on the same page
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: there with Harry Ford. Had to recorrect us after that
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: Anthony K spat that we have that's probably going to
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: forever ruin this podcast.
• 53:32
  Speaker 2: I know we'll probably take a few weeks off after that.
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, Well, check out that baseball card calendar in
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: the show notes. Also open up those show notes because
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: when we come back from the break, you're gonna want
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: to go to rasball dot com with that link down
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: there to see the cards that we're talking about. For
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: Top's Chrome update. There were a couple of updates on
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: the calendar, so no shuffling of the December release dates.
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: They're all still happening, so get ready for that. But
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: they did add a couple of pre orders here that
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: are going to be The release date's kind of still TBD.
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: Most likely January is what you're looking at for twenty
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: twenty five Bowman Draft and twenty twenty five Tops five Stars.
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: So those pre orders will be going live on Tops
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: within the next week. But good luck getting in on
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: any of those because unless you're really good at running
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: bots that can get through that process, those are two
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: pretty hot sets in terms of people wanting to get
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: out there and get them first, especially Bowman Draft. That
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: it's going to be difficult, But I wanted to put
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: that out there because we're going to take a small
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: break and return to talk about twenty twenty five Tops
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: Chrome a date.
• 55:01
  Speaker 2: All right, Welcome back, everybody.
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: We are going to get into the discussion of twenty
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: twenty five Tops Chrome update. And if you skipped right
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: to this part, I said it before we took the
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: small break. Go to those show notes, click on the
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: link to rasball dot com so you can see these
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: cards that we're talking about. Just getting that right off
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: the bat, because I forget it every time we discuss
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: a new checklist. This is going to be an interesting set,
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: I think to discuss because you can tell by the
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: availability of it and the print runs that it was
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: certainly being teed up for cal Raley and or PCA
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: winning the MVP for the Tops buyback program that they've
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: been running every year. Now, obviously we know that Aaron
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: Judge and Shoho Tani took those awards home. So the
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: pricing and everything and availability of this set I think
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: reflected as more so when cal Rolly actually had a
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: chance at the MVP and would have been an automatic
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: twenty five bucks a pop or is it twenty Is
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: it twenty twenty five for the buyback?
• 56:03
  Speaker 2: I don't remember twenty twenty for just a.
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: Base card of cal Rally, which you now are getting
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: that value for Aaron Judge.
• 56:11
  Speaker 2: So keep that in mind while we discussed this set,
• 56:14
  Speaker 2: because I will say.
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: It is very much hyped, it's very much value hood
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: and I think it's an easy one to buy in too.
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: If you see all the social media posting that's coming
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: from Tops. But there's a couple of Reddit posts especially
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: today that came through that were like, I'm not seeing
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: too many hot hits coming out of update coming through
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: on this on this site right now, And so I
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: think that's gonna be a little bit of something to
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: think about as we get into this set. Maybe we
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: should have not led with that is, maybe you don't
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: want to listen to us dive into it, but hopefully
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: you're also not ripping some Tops Chrome Update while you're
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: listening to this, because it's gonna be a tough rip,
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: I can. I can tell you that right now you're
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: looking at a two hundred card checklist, and honestly, usually
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: Tops Chrome Update is a tough rip. So like, it's
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: something that I haven't gotten into in quite a few
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: years since maybe like twenty twenty one, when I was
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: mostly just chasing Dylan Carlson cards at that point. So
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: it's something where you know, if I find a blaster
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: box of it or a hangar of it, maybe I
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: pick it up. But it's also gotten relatively expensive for
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: a retail environment given what is included. Usually in a
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: Chrome Update. So what's your kind of takes on Chrome
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: Update as an overall product, and maybe some initial thoughts
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: about this twenty twenty five set.
• 57:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, overall, I always love tops Chrome and Chrome Update.
• 57:36
  Speaker 2: They are beautiful sets. Usually they're very high quality. There's
• 57:40
  Speaker 2: good inserts, there's good autographs, but you hit it on
• 57:44
  Speaker 2: the nail on the head, like the prices continue to
• 57:47
  Speaker 2: increase and the odds continue to decrease, and so finding
• 57:50
  Speaker 2: those things within it are harder and harder. And so
• 57:53
  Speaker 2: when you're out there grabbing a blaster box for like
• 57:55
  Speaker 2: thirty bucks and you might get one insert in the
• 57:58
  Speaker 2: whole thing forty Okay, well never mind, Like it's it's
• 58:04
  Speaker 2: it's priced out and it's making it harder. So I
• 58:07
  Speaker 2: love the cards, but this is definitely a secondary market
• 58:11
  Speaker 2: game anymore. And it's Chrome is like oddlyst it's doing
• 58:15
  Speaker 2: what Bowman did probably five or six years ago, where
• 58:19
  Speaker 2: Bowman kind of moved out of like the accessible product
• 58:22
  Speaker 2: into like this high end product where everybody's chasing you know,
• 58:26
  Speaker 2: the first Bowman autos and things like that, And I
• 58:30
  Speaker 2: feel like Chrome's kind of done the same thing now
• 58:32
  Speaker 2: and it's taken out that casual, true collector, and it's
• 58:36
  Speaker 2: moved more to the breaker investor type type of world.
• 58:39
  Speaker 2: So I love the product, I don't love where its
• 58:41
  Speaker 2: at at this point in time.
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I think that we're relatively on the
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: same page there because I think the other thing to
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: keep in mind is maybe go back to our episode one, p.
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: Fifteen when we discussed Tops Update series, because I think
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: a lot of the things can be copied and pasted
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: on Chrome here. In terms of those initial thoughts, especially
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: with the base checklist, like I said, you're looking at
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: two hundred cards here for Chrome Update, and sure there
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: are the hot rookies that are included here. You've got
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: you know, your James Wood, your Nick Kurtz, and players
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: of that ILK, but you're also looking at, you know,
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: a Chris Paddock Detroit Tiger's card, You're looking at Maverick
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: Handley backup catcher for the Baltimore Orioles. Because what they're
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: doing with the Update series is catching the hottest rookies
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: in there, but then also filling out the checklist with
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: you know, the lesser of the free agent moves that
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: happened at the beginning of the season or mid season
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: trades and then also doing like a catch all of
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: lots of rookies that you've never heard of, but you
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: know there's a possibility that they could debut, and so
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: that's going to be reflected as you're going up and down.
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: You know, I'm actually looking at you're Amil Heraldo from
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: the Baltimore Orioles, Like I know we're both ball knowers.
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: I have never heard that name in my entire life.
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: And so you get that big hit to chase in
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: tops Chrome Update, and you can also really really bottom
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: out to like a level of where honestly the stuff
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: is already junk and kind of all already be thrown
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: into a trash can nearest you, because like it just
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: isn't going to hold value on some of those base
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: cards as well as some of the inserts too, because
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: at this point in time too, like Chrome Update, I
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: think it's also not as hot of like a set
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: to put together as just regular Chrome is because people
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: have that view of the Update sets because of the
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: kind of ups and downs in that checklist, and so
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: it hasn't necessarily held the same sort of view in
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: the market as some of the standard flagship Chrome. So
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: something to keep in mind is you'll get into this checklist.
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: Let's dive into it a little bit because there are
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: some fun nuances that they've got here in twenty twenty five.
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 2: One is they have.
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: Cup fractor variations, so that is a variation of all
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: the All Rookie Tops Rookie team where they've got variations
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: with those cup fractors. And then we've got your normal
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: short prints and parallels of those short prints, especially of
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: your big names like Nick Kurts and the likes. But
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: then we've also got a million billion parallels, so let's
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: get into it right away. I hope you've been ready,
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: because that's kind of also why I've been talking for
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: a little while, so that you can prep yourself. You
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: get your lungs all filled up and be hydrated, because
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: I've been counting on you to pull me through on
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: these variations they refractor variations over the past few sets,
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: because you're pretty dang good at these.
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 2: Well. I ran out of water already, so we'll see
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 2: if I can survive. And I need to scroll because
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 2: the list is so long, but I did count, and
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 2: if you are counting printing plates as different parallels, I
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 2: think we're at fifty three parallels before that. If you're not,
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 2: it's like, you know, forty eight how everyone to do
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 2: the math. But we're in a ballpark for regor chrumb two.
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 2: Wasn't it like fifty five fifty three somewhere like that?
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 2: It was, It was right there. So we're more or
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 2: less following pattern here. So let's get into this. And
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 2: I'm not even sure if it actually includes like the
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 2: cup fractors, but you've already called those out, so base parallels.
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 2: We have the refractor, the classic, we have the geometric refractor,
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 2: negative refractor, prism refractors, ray wave refractors, sepia refractors, and
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 2: the tops refractor, and then the X fractor. Those are
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 2: all unnumbered, by the way, along with the cup fractor,
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 2: which isn't in the list, but it's because it only
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 2: select players, but also not not numbered. Then we get
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 2: to the numbers, starting at two ninety nine teal refractors
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 2: and teal ray wave refractors, two fifty of purple refractors
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 2: and purple ray wave refractors one ninety nine. We have
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 2: three of them, aqua refractors, aqua ray wave refractors, and
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 2: aqua wave refractors. I love the wave refractors by the way,
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 2: blue refractors, blue lava refractors, and blue ray wave refractors,
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 2: plus your blue wave refractors out of one fifty. That's
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 2: four of amount of one fifty. Then you get your greens,
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 2: green refractor, geometric, lava, ral wave and wave refractors all
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 2: out of ninety nine. There are five different green out
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 2: of ninety nine's there is gold refractors, gold geometric refractors,
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 2: gold lava, goldray wave, and gold wave refractors. Again five
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 2: of those versions coming across your hobby Exclusive, your breaker exclusive,
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 2: retail exclusive, and your hobby exclusive variations. You have a
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 2: white refractor out of thirty, which I think that's new,
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 2: so I haven't seen that one before. So off to
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 2: the dual digging. You get your orange refractor out of
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 2: twenty five, or geometric out of twenty five, orange lava,
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 2: rey wave and wave refractors out of twenty five. We
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 2: got our black out of ten, which is always a
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 2: classic card. Black refractor out of ten, geometric, lava, ray
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 2: wave and wave refractors all out of ten. We do
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 2: still have the frozen fractors out of negative five. I
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 2: think they're out of five, but there's still negatives red
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 2: refractory out of five, red geometrics out of five, Lava,
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 2: ral wave, and red wave all out of five printing plates.
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 2: You have your four general variations on those, and super
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 2: fractors out of one. So quite the big list going
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 2: this time through.
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think we should also call out that
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: you've got so many exclusives too, that like it makes
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: it even tougher trying to chase the rainbow on these
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: things because you have to buy into so many different
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: breaks or so many different areas to be able to
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: get in and do that if you want, I mean, first,
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: you're absurd if you want to do an entire rainbow run.
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: That's why I mean, I think there's been more and
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: more encouragement from the hobby of just doing the true
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: color runs for rainbows, and so you could maybe even
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: consider doing that one of the wave or ray wave
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: or lava lamp or something like that. So think about
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: that if you are some sort of rainbow chaser out there,
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: if you've got one of your favorite players, that it
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: might not be the most achievable goal, but modify it
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: to fit where you can do. I did find one
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: of the white refractors there.
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 2: I would say they're okay.
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: They're kind of cool because they throw you off a
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: little bit at first, because if you're used to the
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: chrome product. Really what they're doing obviously is taking the
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty five flagship design and then putting it on
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: a chrome based card, but then it creates the background
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: of the base card to be more of a metallic
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: silver finish, and so the white refractor actually just looks
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: like a chrome version of the base flagship card, which
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: is kind of cool but also like kind of boring
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: at the same time because it's just like a chromed
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: out version of your normal flagship card.
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 2: So it does also kind of throw me back a
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 2: little bit too.
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to remember the year that had the Manny
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: Machado rookie cards, but those used to have like white
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: refractors back in the day, and they were.
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 2: Like two, eight, twosand and seven like that range had
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 2: a number of a white and those, to your point,
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 2: did pop.
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And so they I like them for that. I
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: think it's it's I hope they bring that going forward
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: because it is a cool kind of variation to include
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: in the chrome rainbow. I'd prefer to have that base
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: white color than a geometric refractor.
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: Notice I didn't get rid of your favorite the ray
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: waves or the the I love the lava refractors. The
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: lava they look really cool, I will say that, which
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: is nice.
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 2: But I think at this point, though, if you're gonna
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 2: go chasing the rainbow, you're actually probably better off just
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 2: collecting the set of like negatives or something like that.
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 2: That might be more fun than actually trying to chase
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 2: all the parallels of a certain player. Like putting together
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 2: a set fully of negative refractors or you know, your
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 2: X fractors or something like that would be really really
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 2: cool relative to kind of the other endeavors you have
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 2: to go down.
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I totally agree, And so I mean, also don't
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: discount some of those because they you know, they aren't numbered.
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: But some of those, you know, the negatives, the X fractor,
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: even the ray wave refractor, they're lower numbered than you
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: would think. And I think, especially if you're looking at
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: some of the bigger name rookies like your James Woods,
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: your Nick Kurtz's, if they turn into something more historical
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: and get to like a level of Hall of Fame production,
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: those can age pretty well even though they're not numbered,
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: So something to consider where the market doesn't respect.
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 2: Those right now.
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: But like especially being children of nineties collecting like some
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: of those unnumbered refractor parallels that just kind of got
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: forgotten or tucked away, they hold their value because they
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: become really rare.
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think negatives and ex fractors are actually the
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 2: ones that you really want to watch out for. Yeah,
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 2: so something to keep in mind.
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: Okay, well, let's get into some of the inserts and
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: other kind of goodies, especially of this set. So let's
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: focus on the autos, because the guy the dichotomy of
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: like the the lowest lows and the highest highest is
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: not more evident than it is on the auto checklist,
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: because I'll start with those lowest lows first. That like
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: the base chrome auto, especially if the rookies, is a
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: tough checklist. And this is why this product gets really tough,
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: because when you're buying a jumbo box, you know which
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: is going for I think what almost like four hundred
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: dollars or so honestly, it can be kind of across
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: the board. So like, especially given some of the caveats
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: we've already talked about this product, Like I think the
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: prices on this one are gonna fluctuate and be pretty
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: high here in the next week or so, but they
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: might fall off pretty steeply once people kind of realize
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: there's not too much into them. Because you're looking at
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: actually on the Jumbo box, you're getting three autos. You're
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: getting one auto in a hobby, but you're getting this
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: fourteen inserts in a Jumbo and twelve inserts in a hobby.
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 2: That's low. Of fourteen inserts and only a Jumbo in
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 2: a Jumbo feels really low.
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: And three insert parallels are base parallels, which is also
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: really low for a Jumbo. So that's that kind of
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: also shows you how much bass is out there printed
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: of these because the other factor, like I said, is
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: that of those three autos in a Jumbo, anytime that
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: I've opened any product of Tops Chrome Update, they're like
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: always reliever autos, And so those things are printed at
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: the wazoo to be able to make sure that they
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: have hits to put into all the products. And so
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: keep that in mind. Just check out that checklist for
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: the Chrome Rookie autos because woof it is rough. So
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: you obviously have the big guys, but You've also got
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: plenty you've never heard of or never will hear of again.
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 2: So just for fun, we're gonna play a game. Because
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 2: I'm that guy. I just went to the checklist and
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 2: I highlighted ten guys in a row in the checklist. Here,
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna give you five names I which all I
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 2: want you to do is name the team that these
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 2: five guys are, so like, I'm not gonna give you
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 2: everyone because I'm going directly in order here and I
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 2: expect you know at least a few of these. But
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 2: first one, Omar Cruz. That's a fake player. Padres Orlando Ribalta,
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 2: We've covered him before. Washington got it, Parker Dunshee, I
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 2: have no idea. I've never heard that name. Atlanta Braves,
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 2: pat Patrick monteverde yep okay, and then Paxton Schultz, Paxtonlz,
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 2: Chicago White Tux, Toronto Blue Jays. I'm I'm I'm proud
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 2: of you because I don't know if I would have
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 2: got any of those, and this shows your deep league knowledge.
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 2: I'm very very proud. But that's what you're dealing with.
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 2: And the guys I skipped in that were like Chase
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 2: Petty Chad Patrick, Tyler Owens, pedro Leone or Elvis Martinez,
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 2: who's like if you or or Elvis is even with
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 2: the Blue Chase anymore? Like that was ten guys in
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 2: a row, and if I look above and below that,
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 2: it's pretty much the same thing. It's like twenty spots
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 2: between like a Matt Shaw and a Richard Fitz Like
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 2: we're you're looking like one in twenty autos or like
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 2: guys you might.
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: Recognize nice, Yeah, I mean it's it's to the point, honestly,
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: I'm looking like Zebbie Matthews might be like the fifth
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: best auto on the checklist.
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 2: Like that's not great. So like it is, it is
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 2: a tough, tough checklist. So keep that in mind.
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: Let's focus on some of those high peaks, because this
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: is obviously what they're flashing all over social media from
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: the top side in terms of what you could be
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: hitting in this product, and it is a very very
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: long shot that you're gonna do so, so keep that
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: in mind. But there are some really really awesome cards.
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: I mean, first, some of the parallels that were we've
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: talked about. You've got the lava lamps on those autographs too,
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: So those are pretty cool. You've got cut fractor autographs
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: two which are have have really popped the big chases.
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: Here are those rookie debut patch autos which if you recall,
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: you can go back to the twenty twenty four discussion
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: of this product. This is where the multi the like
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 1: one point one million dollar Paul Schemes card came from.
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: Where tops throughout the year, whenever a player is making
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: their MLB debut, they get a little patch on their
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: on their sleeve and then they take that actual patch
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: put it into the card. It's a one on one
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: auto for that player especially. You know it's it's a
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: great hit because not only do you get like the
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: huge hits like the Paul Schemes where the Nick Kurtz
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: is gonna be up there in terms of overall value
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: and chasing it and it being really difficult to get it,
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: but if you get some of these lower end guys,
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: because you know it's everybody who's made an MLB debut
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 1: does the card. Those guys usually collect cards and will
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: like reach out if you reach out to them on
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: social media, they'll hook you up with all sorts of
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: stuff to be able to get their card back. So
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: because of it being a very traceable, discrete game used item.
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: These things are hot, hot, hot collector's items. People love them.
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: But then again, out of the millions of cards that
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: were printed, there's sixty one of these, so keep that
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: in mind.
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I'm just looking right now on eBay. There's
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 2: two available right now. Brad Lord is listed ten thousand
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 2: dollars and Michael Peterson is at twenty five hundred with
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 2: a bid on an auction that just started this morning.
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 2: And so these things go for crazy, crazy dollars out there,
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 2: and it's it's tough. I don't think anything's been sold yet, no,
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 2: but you're right, like those are the incredible chases. I
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 2: see another kind of rumor going because there was a
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 2: breaker that broke today and pulled three of them already,
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 2: the same breaker, and I'm sure they broke a ton
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 2: of stuff, but like the rumor mill was going already
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 2: early today because in none of them were big names,
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 2: to be clear, but it's still pulling three let a
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 2: lot of questions out there. I'm sure they were pulling
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 2: all the breakers to light boxes. They were probably ripping
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 2: hundreds and hundreds of these boxes, but still lots of questions.
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: And I was actually looking at the wrong checklists. They're
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: on sixty one of these. There's two hundred and seventy,
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: so yeah, like three four times as many as I
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: was saying, But still you're not. There's not very many
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: of them out there. So it's a cool hit if
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: you hit it, but it is a very very long
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: shot in terms of winning that lottery. Let's focus on
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: some of the other autos because there are still other
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 1: cool ones. There's a triple auto, which I think the
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 1: biggest chase is going to be. There's a triple auto
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: of eachro out there of him and a Mariner's Yankees
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: Marlins of three Echiro autos on it, which is just
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: a goofy card, but I love it. The other triple
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: autos that you're looking at are are very very highly
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: desirable because you know, anytime you're getting that that level
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 1: of players kind of coming together, it's fantastic. The big
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 1: one is gonna be the Dodgers, Otani, Sasaki, Yamamoto all
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: on one card.
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 2: That's a huge, huge chase card.
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: Then you're also looking at some other great autos. In
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: terms of the radiating.
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 2: Rookies is back.
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 1: We've got the legends autos back, which this is I
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: think we ran into this last time where.
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 2: Pretty sure they're only breakers to light.
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: They don't advertise that very well because last year there
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 1: was like a chase, especially with the King Griffy Juniors
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: where it was just it was his first time kind
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 1: of being included in that and it was very beautiful autos.
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: This year, you've got Barry Bonds included in that. You've
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: got Chanhill Park and Hindeo Nomo in there, which are
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: very big chases because Nomo hasn't sign any products for
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: Tops in over twenty years, and so I also got
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 1: YACHTI in that.
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 2: Lots of great chases there.
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: You've got the one of one Goldman or gold Logoman
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 1: auto relic with Louise Heel, same sort of set up
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: as those rookie debut patches, but the winners of the
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 1: awards in twenty twenty four were Gold Logomen jerseys all year,
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: and because Louise Heel debuted later, his card wasn't included
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 1: until this product. And then you've got the Larry David
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: attos back again. So Larry David has been the man
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 1: of twenty twenty five signing cards for Tops. Those are
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 1: in this product another big chase. So, like I said,
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: those are some pretty big end chases. Anything really standing
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: out to you from that list or something else that
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 1: maybe you would even love to get your hands on.
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think there's two things that jump One thing
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 2: jumps out another ire like king my hand on. I'm
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 2: gonna probably unpopular take here with the triple autographs, I
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 2: feel like this is one of those hardest things to age.
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 2: Like the Echiro would be a cool card like sign
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 2: three times things like that, But is it not just
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 2: like every triple autograph card has like one guy on it,
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 2: like as it ages you like seriously, and so you're like,
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 2: let's use the Tampa Bay Rays here, Evan Longoria, Junior
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 2: Camoniero and Chandler Simpson. Which one of these is not
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 2: like the others? Right? I feel like we're playing Sesame Street,
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 2: but like it the Chicago Cubs Kate Forrton, Matt Shaw,
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 2: Kevin Alkantara, Like it's it's like you just feel this
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 2: where they're like like, grasp me at that third guy.
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry Minnesota Twins, but brooks Lee is not the
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 2: same level as Royce Lewis and Luke Keishall at this
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 2: point and maybe that'll change, but it's it's very tough.
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 2: I feel bad for Brian Reynolds on the Pirates card
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 2: with next to Skens and mccutch and like there's always
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 2: the guy that's on the out so unpopular to take.
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 2: The triple autographs are really cool, but you gotta have
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 2: three guys that absolutely nail it on the same level,
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 2: and there's not many of them that actually actually play
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 2: that one. That said, the Garrett Cole, Paul Skeans, Nolan
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 2: Ryan card, that one's a classic. So the other wise
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 2: calling and call out and I just I'm looking at
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 2: the cards, and you know, as a collector, looks of
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 2: a card matter is just as much as anything. The
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 2: top's chromography autos are really really nice. So chromography, there's
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 2: twenty seven cards with parallels between blue, green, gold, orange, black, red,
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 2: and super fractors all kind of across the board. Names,
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 2: You've got rookies, You've got some you know, previous players.
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 2: She got Macleo, o Ordonie is in here. I sung Kim.
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 2: Actually is Macleo the only guy that's been around prior?
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 2: It looks like it. So that's the whole different question there.
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 2: But these cards are very like very classic, clean, clean
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 2: auto cards. I do believe they're patched or are sticker autos,
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 2: so that's a little unfortunate, but they're really really unique,
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 2: clean looking cards, and I just I love the design.
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 2: This is the first time I've seen these ones, so
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 2: I'm giving a shout out to chromography, which takes me
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 2: back to some older, older Tops products which had very clean,
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 2: simple autos with their designs, and I just I feel
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 2: like this carkens back to this in the early two
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 2: thousands autographs. Yeah.
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 1: It also it has a little bit of like a
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: Tops chrome black feel to it, where yeah, it's just
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 1: like a very great highlight of the player and just
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: like you said, clean lines, clean auto, great typography on it.
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 2: So that's a good call out there as well. So
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 2: let's get.
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: Into some of the inserts because we've kind of danced
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 1: around a few of them. You've got those nineteen ninety
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 1: designs back again as your kind of standard insert as
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 1: we kind of as we have all year between flagship
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 1: products and the Chrome product. We've also got some other
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 1: newer ones. I would say in terms of one is
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 1: the alter ego Superheroes, which is like a Marvel superhero
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 1: take on a bunch of nicknames for players, and I
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 1: believe that's gonna be a short print as well, So
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 1: that's gonna be a pretty big chase. You have Celebrasione,
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 1: which I don't even think that it's all actually like
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 1: Latin players, like it's just a standard checklist of players,
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 1: which I'm gonna look that up right now to see
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 1: what it looks like, because I was kind of intrigued
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: when I was making this rundown the other day because
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: we didn't have anything kind of put together. It looks
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 1: like a kid's birthday party and going on in the background.
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 2: It's kind of cool. It's like a it does somewhere
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 2: between that and a little bit.
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 1: Of like a Tops holiday vibe, So that's pretty cool
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 1: as well. That's a super short print Tase hit, so
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 1: that's gonna be very limited as well.
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 2: Then I think this.
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: Is gonna be the unique one that like I can't
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: tell if this is a Jumping the Shark moment for
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 1: Tops Chrome Baseball or not, but there are also short
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 1: prints of Mickey and Friends where it's Mickey Mouse and
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: other Disney characters that are wearing gear for different teams.
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 1: This is also a short print, and you would almost
• 1:21:19
  Speaker 1: think that this kind of a worthless insert. But I
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 1: can tell you that the Disney market is not sane.
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 1: So like the Disney market for the especially the chrome cards,
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 1: is bananas, and it's copied over to these baseball ones
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 1: where if you hit one of these and you think
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 1: that it's just a regular insert, it is not, my friend,
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: it is a couple hundred dollars card of Mickey Mouse
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 1: wearing an Arizona Diamondbacks jersey movement. Now, this is nothing
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 1: I think from kind of the Disney card era that's
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 1: going on right now is going to age well. I
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: don't think that it's being driven by just the overall
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: kind of baseball card and Pokemon card craze that's kind
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 1: of in the culture right now, along with all the
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 1: gambling culture. And then honestly, the the Disney market I
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 1: think is very much popped up by China as well.
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 2: So like I don't think it's gonna go very well
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 2: long term. But if you do hit one.
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 1: Of these, figure out a way to move it because
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 1: you got a couple hundred dollars in your pocket. What
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 1: do you think about these Disney insert short prints?
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 2: I'm not I'm not buying, and I don't. It feels
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 2: it feels like a stretch. I mean they're they're interesting.
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 2: I can only find one on eBay right now, and
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 2: it's the Mickey Mouse for the Athletics and this's lists
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 2: over two grand, and so yeah, if you find it.
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 2: I feel like this is the stuff ends up in
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 2: a dollar box in a weird way. But like it.
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 2: It just feels like a stretch too far to your
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 2: point Disney collection, and I could I could say I
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 2: was in Disney World like two three weeks ago. If
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 2: you noticed, I wasn't on the pod. And it's just
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 2: it's just a crazy market. Like if you think the
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 2: sports cards a crazy market, Disney stuff is weird, like
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 2: it's crazy. People go heads over heels for that kind
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 2: of stuff, and it just it doesn't feel like it fits.
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 2: And I get we've done the garbage failed Kids, and
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 2: we've done a number of other things and I've struggled
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 2: with all of those ones as well. So it's there.
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 2: It is what it is. If you hit it, move it,
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 2: because it's going to have a hot market. But I
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 2: think it's going to cool very very quickly. Like you said, yes,
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 2: I totally agree.
• 1:23:22
  Speaker 1: So then we've also got your kind of retearing inserts
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 1: that we've seen before. Between We've got Helix, We've got
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 1: fourteen fifteen. We've got the All Star Game inserts, which
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 1: a is always an update products. This year they've also
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 1: included variations, so there are short print variations that go
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 1: along with those regular inserts on the All Star Game stuff.
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 1: You've got home Field Advantage inserts. You got Radiating Rookies
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 1: back again, Night Terrors, which I'm trying to remember whether
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 1: or not that's been in a recent set. I know
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 1: it's a hearkening back to the nineties, but I believe
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 1: we've had it recently.
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 2: I think we did.
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Power Players is back again. We've also got Expose
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 1: in this, which is another hearkening back to the nineties.
• 1:24:06
  Speaker 1: So any of these insert sets stand out to you
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 1: really kind of strike your eye.
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 2: Well, I'm gonna kind of skip the list you said
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 2: and go back to the Alter Ego because I think
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 2: that one, like those are case hits, and I was
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 2: when when I first saw It'm like, man, those that's
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 2: gonna be a little hokey. They're really cool cards, and
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 2: I've only seen the Azzy and the show Hey. At
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 2: this point is Ozzy doing a backflip, of course, but
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 2: it's it's so much like a comic card, and they
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 2: look they look really really nice. The show Hey is
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 2: like Otani here and like a magicians hat and it
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 2: with you know, lightning bolts and all kinds of crazy
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 2: stuff around like it just it looks very clean and cool.
• 1:24:50
  Speaker 2: And I didn't think they're gonna work. I really didn't.
• 1:24:53
  Speaker 2: And it looks like it is hit again. Gonna be
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 2: a crazy hard card to find, crazy expensive mark with
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 2: some of these things. But I think they actually did
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 2: a really good job with with those case hits, so
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 2: I really enjoy those. I'm also a big fan of
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 2: the Radiant Rookies. I think those are cards that are
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 2: kind of undervalued in the market. I think they again
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 2: just really well designed cards, and so a number of those.
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 2: Helix is another one that I do struggle with because
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 2: it feels like it's cosmic chrome trying to stick in
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 2: to update stay stay in your lane. Uh.
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 1: The helix is not as cool this year because it
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 1: says like helix kind of in the swirls in the background,
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 1: which kind of ruins the point of helix for me,
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 1: which is like it's supposed to be like colors and
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 1: movement and like almost like a tapestry or just a
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 1: canvas that they've painted the actual card on, and it
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: loses that when you put the words into the background.
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 2: So yeah, it's a little disappointing for me. Yeah, I
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 2: would agree. So it's there's some there's definitely some good,
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 2: good fun things here, and it does feel like there's
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 2: a lot of i'd say specialization or rarey that they've
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 2: been building into these inserts. So I do like that
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 2: that it feels like if you can hit some of
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 2: these there's a decent number of them, but if you
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 2: hit something, it could retain some value, at least in
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 2: the short term of a long term, I don't think
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 2: a lot of these things are going to hold a
• 1:26:13
  Speaker 2: ton of value.
• 1:26:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, well, I mean I know you're probably
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 1: already entering your bid or your best offer on this
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 1: eleven five hundred dollars showtime short print.
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 2: Right offer and call it good.
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 1: I mean, I'm looking on eBay right now. You can
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 1: only pay eleven four hundred and fifty dollars with a
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 1: coupon code, So thanks eBay. But I think that probably
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 1: wraps us up for a twenty twenty five Tops Chrome update.
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 1: If you're out there ripping it, maybe you have a
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 1: different experience that we've kind of gleaned from this checklist.
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 1: But if you hit anything cool, reach out to us
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 1: on socials. You can reach cards and categories on Blue
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 1: Sky at Cards Categories, or you can email the pod
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 1: at Cards Categories at gmail dot com. You can find
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 1: us a couple places there. You can also find us
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 1: on rasball dot com, where there's always corresponding post with
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 1: every pod that we put together, especially key to go
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: there and see some of these cards that we've discussed.
• 1:27:07
  Speaker 1: But you can also leave a comment there and we
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 1: will strike up a discussion with you there as well.
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: So brew let everybody know where they can find you
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 1: on socials that they want to reach you.
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 2: Yep, Twitter, ex, Blue Sky If I mean Jay Brewer
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 2: one seven Coolie, where can they find you?
• 1:27:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you can find me on Blue Sky at M
• 1:27:24
  Speaker 1: cool seven coolt spelled coul like my last name. And
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 1: if you are also down these show notes looking at
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 1: other things, check out the store that we have with
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 1: some hats, some beanies, some t shirts, all cards and
• 1:27:38
  Speaker 1: categories related. We would really appreciate it as you kind
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 1: of help and support the pod, but could actually help
• 1:27:44
  Speaker 1: and support the pod as well as rating and reviewing,
• 1:27:47
  Speaker 1: Whereas wherever you're listening to us, it just kind of
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 1: helps us reach out to new listeners, get up on
• 1:27:53
  Speaker 1: podcast lists. Really appreciate any feedback that we get through
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 1: that mechanism, and we're going to be round the corner
• 1:27:59
  Speaker 1: into draft season pretty quickly here in the next couple
• 1:28:01
  Speaker 1: of weeks, so do go to rasball dot com. Really
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 1: the best fantasy tools around that. I've been reading lots
• 1:28:07
  Speaker 1: of off season content and people, especially in high end leagues,
• 1:28:12
  Speaker 1: you ask them what tools they use for nseas and management.
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 1: All of them are using the streaminator, so all of
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 1: them are using the Hittertron. They're all using the rasball tools.
• 1:28:20
  Speaker 1: They're well worth the subscription money. Check that out and
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 1: all of our great work from all the writers that
• 1:28:26
  Speaker 1: will be kicking off again pretty soon right after the
• 1:28:29
  Speaker 1: holiday break, so we're still going to be going. We'll
• 1:28:32
  Speaker 1: be back next week to discuss another new release in
• 1:28:35
  Speaker 1: Heritage High Number, so you will be able to find us,
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: same time, same place next week.
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 2: Thanks everybody,