Saturday, December 19, 2009

2008 Tristar Prospects Plus Hobby Box Break (Box 2, Just the Hits)


2008 Tristar Prospects Plus Hobby Box
20 packs, 6 cards per pack
Every Box contains (4) Autograph Cards, (1) Game-Used Memorabilia Card, and (4) Parallel Cards
Cost:  $24.95 (Blowout Cards - Black Friday deal)

For those curious how the first box break of this product went here's the post: Box Break 1.
























Gordon Beckham (s/n: #10/25, yellow version).  Good pull.  Beckham looks like a lock to be a star for years.


Price/Fife/Weiland (s/n: #11/25, yellow version).  They're all in the low minors right now.  None appear to be standout prospects.


Juan Carlos Sulbaran (s/n: #19/25, PROminent Die Cut Orange). Sulbaran was just 19 years old in 2009 (Minor League A: 5.24 era).
 

Brett Devall (s/n: #1/5, PROminent Die Cut Orange).  I'm very happy with this card.  Devall was 19 years old in 2009.  He is a starting pitcher in the Braves system.  He did quite well in A ball:  3.52, 53.2 ip, 40k, and just 14 walks.


Ike Davis game used jersey.  I got his auto in the first box so at least his page in my binder will look cool.


What kind of person working at Tristar would put this sticker on a card?  Half the auto is missing.  Also, it appears there is part of another player's auto above.  Or some kind of writing.  Terrible quality control here.

Amazingly, it appears many of Inoa's autos from this set look just like mine.  The 'Blowout Cards' forum has a thread of people complaining: Inoa Auto Complaint Thread.

Inoa is an Oakland A's prospect who signed for a whopping 4.25 million dollars.  He's still a teen and is said to be the "most impressive Latin American player prospect since Felix Hernandez."  The guy is 6'7" already!  Yikes. 

What a waste of a nice pull.



I thought this was another mess up.  I mean it looks like a 'T' and a 'G' in the signature.  But the auto does match all the ones on Ebay so it's him alright.  His real first name is Thomas.  Thomas Cody Adams.  So that must be a 'T' and a 'C'.


I got a Prominent Die Cut Green card serial numbered to 50 of Lynn in the first box and wrote:  This 22 year old Cardinals prospect was very effective in AA last season (2.92 era, 11-4, 126.1 innings pitched).  He was promoted to AAA and was strong in his one start before the season ended.  He is 6'5" and 250 pounds.

This is a pretty good auto to pull.



Ah, so there are so many young players named Beckham these days it's hard to remember which ones are good.  I thought this guy was a good prospect but he's 23 years old and in single A ball.  He's not hitting there either.

This box worked.  Yes there's an issue with the Inoa auto, but beyond that I got that 1/5 serial numbered card, and three cards numbered to 25 including Gordon Beckham.  Also, the Lynn auto is a player who looks promising, and the Ike Davis jersey card is decent too (and at least it is gray instead of white).

Base cards included a Bumgarner, Posey, Smoak, Pedro Alvarez, Gordon Beckham, Brett Wallace, Brian Matusz, Austin Jackson and several others.

This box easily beat the first one I busted.

6 comments:

  1. It's funny how much of the prospecting machine is hype. If you check any Rays message board they are ready to dump Bartlett and Brignac and put Beckham in the lineup tomorrow. Strange, strange world.

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  2. Hey CC,
    I was wondering what you might say about my Beckham comment since you are up to speed on the Rays.

    I assume he must be a great fielder because a .226 batting average with 1 home run in single A ball at age 23 sure isn't historically promising.

    But maybe he is one of those raw talents that will improve fast. He does have just 286 professional at bats spread over only two seasons.

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  3. I pulled a copy of the Inoa auto last year with the same issues. I usually like Tri-Stars but beyond the auto issue you mentioned above I thought there were some issues with the quality of photos in the base cards. The lighting was just off and made it difficult to see the player's face or the action shot.

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  4. You Have the wrong Beckham here. Jeremy Beckham was drafted by the Rays as a favor to there No 1 pick TIM BECKHAM. TIM BECKHAM is the rising star in the Rays organization.

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  5. Anon,

    Yeah Jeremy's younger brother Tim would have been a much better auto. He was 19 in 2009 but performed better (.275 ba, .717 ops) than his 23 year old brother at the same level.

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  6. I did not realize Jeremy was signed as a favor. That is interesting.

    I recall Piazza was signed as a favor to Tommy Lasorda because Lasorda is Godfather to one of Piazza's brothers. That turned out great, obviously. I don't know of any other "favor" signings that turned out even close to that.

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