CTB: 2019 Topps #1 Ronald Acuna Jr

We interrupt our Rookie Cup HOF coverage to discuss the WBC Champion Venezuela Squad's THREE ASR winners. 

One of those players is Jackson Chourio who we already featured. The other two players are both in the 2018 class that was honored in 2019 Topps, Ronald Acuna Jr and Gleyber Torres. 

We will first look at Acuna JR who played all seven games in right field for Venezuela and led the team in Runs Scored.

2019 Topps #1 Ronald Acuna Jr (Sports Collectors Daily)

I believe Ronald Acuna is only the 2nd player to represent card #1 with a Rookie Cup flair. Mike Piazza achieved the double win in 1994. Acuna Jr like Piazza won the NL Rookie of the Year Award the year prior. 

Ronald fell 3 votes shy of sweeping the award (Juan Soto 2, Walker Buehler 1). Acuna  & Soto's numbers are remarkably similar and I am surprised at the lopsidedness of the Vote.  

I assume the BBWAA writers were breaking ties with WAR by 2019 - although peeking inside the numbers Soto's Walk numbers are significant. On the other hand Acuna's Braves finished 8 games ahead of Soto's Nats. Regardless the two make for the start of an outstanding outfield. 

Guess the Game

Kind of thought this one looked like it may have been taken in Philadelphia and it was. According to Getty Images the Photo was taken 2018 April 29 by Rob Tringali who is responsible for a lot of Phillies pictures. 

Unfortunately for the Phillies (SP: Vince Velasquez) it was a good game for Ronald Acuna Jr and the Braves who won 10-1. 

Flip

2019 Topps #1 Ronald Acuna Jr (b-side also SCD)

On the back of the card we see the #1 top right and the stats mentioned above - however here we seed the oWAR of 3.7 rather than the 3.9 which apparently includes defense & positional adjustments. The text gives the Pirates Outfielder Starling Marte credit for dubbing Acuna "El Ambusador" (the Abuser) 

Sources & Links

2019 Rookie Cup Team

Topps #1 Club 

Game Dated Cards

Sports Collectors Daily 

baseball-reference

Rob Tringali

Getty Images

CTB: 1998 Topps #334 Andruw Jones (ASR)

Our Second of Three 1996 HOF Profiles featuring inductees who were also honored on Rookie Cup Cards is of Phillies Nemesis Andruw Jones.  

1998 Topps #334 Andruw Jones (image swiped from tcdb)

On this card we have a quality action shot of Andruw just prior to contact - something that would result in hits 1933 times during Jones 17 year career (2541 hits as a professional). His Career Home Run totals were even more impressive 434 MLB/550 Pro. 

Notice on the card that Jones is wearing the Jackie Robinson 50th Anniversary Patch that all players wore during the 1997 season. Andruw finished 5th in the Rookie of the Year Voting - an Award that has been named after Jackie Robinson since 1987.  Nice seeing Two Hall of Famers represented on a rookie cup (keep reading there's more!) 

Rookie Cup Credentials 

Before his 1997 rookie campaign even started Andruw Jones was already a World Series hero who hit a Pair of Home Runs vs the Yankees, albeit in a losing effort. 

To earn his ROY votes Andruw Jones played a full NL season in 1997 with 18 HR, 70 RBI but only a .231 AVG (93 OPS+ / +3.3 WAR) which was similar to the 3 Cup Team outfielders - Jose Cruz Jr (26/68/.248, 101/+2.2), Jose Guillen (14/70/.267, 82/-3.3). Mike Cameron has a Snub Beef (14/55/.259, 109/+4.4) as does Vlad SR (.302 BA, 117 OPS+). In fact the BBWAA ranked Guerrero ahead of Guillen by a handful of votes on the NL side and Cameron received more AL votes then Guillen did within the NL bracket.  

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1998 Topps #334 Andruw Jones (b-side image also tcdb)   

First we want to look at the demographic info and note that Andruw Jones was the 3rd MLB player from Curacao, after Hensley Meulens (1989) and Ralph Milliard (1996). In the 3 decades since Andruw Jones the number of players born in Curacao has grown to 17 (that is a 560% increase for a territory that had ZERO players 40 years ago)

Moving down the text mentions Jones as both an Offensive and Defensive threat. And he was - Andruw just missed the 20/20 targets during his rookie campaign but did hit them 3 times in his early career. In the Outfield he earned 10 gold gloves. 2005 was his standout season where he led the league in HR & RBI with 51 & 128 respectively (+6.7 WAR) good enough for 2nd place in the NL MVP voting (Albert Pujols 41/117/.330 +8.4 WAR) 

We also get a quote from Andruw Jones' Manager Bobby Cox that invokes the name of another well known CenterFielder, Joe DiMaggio. If you're keeping score at home that is 4 HOF on a single Rookie Cup Card Andruw, Jackie, Bobby Cox (as a Manager) and Joe D. 

Andruw Jones HOF Index

1998 Topps #334 (Rookie Cup)

2001 Topps Stadium Club Pat Burrell (Game Dated Card/Phungo Challenge)

Sources and Link

1998 Topps All-Star Rookie Cup Index

TCDB

National Baseball Hall of Fame

Baseball-Ref

CTB: 1993 Topps #703 Jeff Kent

Jeff Kent was recently voted into the Hall of Fame by the Contemporary Era Committee making him the 35th All-Star Rookie Cup winner to also be honored in the Hall (Carlos Betlran & Andruw Jones bring us to 37)

1993 Topps #703 Jeff Kent (image stolen from  Lifetime Topps Project)

Jeff Kent earned the 1993 TASR for second base by posting 11 Home Runs and 50 RBI in 102 Games. His Batting Average was only .239 but it should be noted Kent had enough Walks and Power to post a 105 OPS+.

Toronto Blue Jays

However the bulk of Jeff Kent's 1992 season was played with a team that is not on the card, the Blue Jays. After debuting with Toronto April 12th Jeff played 65 games before being dealt to the Mets for David Cone. 

The deal worked for the Blue Jays who won their first Word Championship and for Cone who earned the first of his FIVE Rings. 

Andy Stankiewicz

Across Town the Yankees had their own rookie Second Baseman, Andy Stankewicz who like Jeff Kent had a decent if unspectacular rookie year: .268 AVG, 2.7 WAR. TASR authority hiflew who covers cards for Cards from the Quarry make an argument for Andy Stankewicz to win the award over Jeff Kent - check the details here. 

Of course in the end Kent had a better career than Stankiewicz whose 7 marginal seasons were not Hall worthy. 

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1993 Topps #703 Jeff Kent (image stolen from TCDB)

Dave Blume is still in scouting, he is currently with the Orioles organization. Thirty years after signing Jeff Kent still cites the HOF second baseman among his highlights. 

Jeff Kent HOF Index

1993 Topps #703 (Rookie Cup)

2010 Phungo #37: 2012 Survivor Phillippines

Sources and Link
1993 Topps All-Star Rookie Cup Index

LifeTime Topps Project

Cards from the Quarry

National Baseball Hall of Fame

Baseball-Ref

TCDB

Baltimore Orioles

Golden Mountain California Media

2026 Topps Two-Pack Break

I picked up a pair of 36 card fat packs at my LCS on Topps Opening Day. I challenge anyone to get more Doubles than I received in these two packs. 

Pack Highlights 

Before I get to the low-lights of the dupes I want to show some of the cards I liked. First off are the commons.

2026 Topps Trevor Megill

The first card of 2026 was Brewers Closer Trevor Megill. I like this card because almost all of the pitcher cards are exactly the same. It is nice to get action shots but there is so little variety in those action shots. 

Battery 

2026 Topps Bryan Woo, Michael Wacha, Logan Webb & Sean Murphy

Fairly typical pitchers photos for recent sets. Sean Murphy is the only catcher in the two packs that was shown catching. There were at least two catchers pictured running.

Infield

2026 Topps CJ Abrams, Kristian Campbell, Ben Williamson& Vlad jr

A couple of goofy jerseys here. I think Campbell is the only FS. I do like the CJ Abrams bat flip out of frame.

Outfield 

2026 Topps Jhostoynxon Garcia, Aroldis Garcia, James Wood & Byron Buxton

Getting Password may be the highlight of non-Phils 

Speaking of Phillies, we have one of the newest Phils in Aroldis Garcia with a good celebration going.

Speaking of Phillies 

2026 Topps Jhoan Duran, Bryce Harper, Edmundo Sosa & FoilBoard Cool Crushers (Schwarber and Harper) 

I always appreciate the use of the Liberty Bell Logo.

Between the 4 cards three different home jerseys are represented. 

Kind of a Meh Harper card - unless you hate the electric blue city connect than I suppose it's worse than meh.

Team Cards

2026T team cards: Dodgers, Dodgers b-side, Blue Jays Royals

Next up Team Cards. 

one good thing about getting a boatload of dupes is you can feature a front & back in the same shot. 

but these are a bit weak.

How does the Dodgers Team Card not have  the words "World Series" on the b-side? 

And what's with the Team Leader stats not having THE STAT?

Inserts

2026 Topps Titans of the Game De La Cruz & Mike Trout

Stars Insert Devers & Roman Anthony

Each pack had a couple of what I assume are continuity inserts. 

2 different styles but basically similar. one has baseballs the other has stars. kind of lazy kids.

Retro Inserts

2026 Topps 91T Roman Anthony, Matt Shaw ASR, 91T Mickey Mantle

Closing the feature cards with the Retro Inserts and Rookie Cup Cards. 

1991 Topps is solid so this is a nice retro - I wonder how many other 1991 cards Mantle is on. 

Bit of RedSox hot pack, couple of Roman Anthony Inserts, the FS Khristian Campbell and Password. 

And The Dupes

Out of 72 card between the two packs I was cursed with 19 Duplicates! that is over 25% of the cards

19 duplicate cards in 2026 Topps

A lot of this is just bad luck. I chose two packs from different spots in the bin and probably should stick to picking back2back packs.  Still this is some pretty lousy collation. 

2026 Topps

Overall I think it is a mediocre year. Good enough to open a few packs but I doubt I will ever build the set. Getting all those dupes may have soured my already muted opinion on the set, regardless my collecting new cards is winding down and the odds of me building a new set in the future is fairly slim. 

2019 Topps Rookie Cup Team

This is an index to postings related to the 2019 Topps All-Star Rookie Team which honored rookies from the 2018 season. 

1	RONALD ACUNA JR.	OF	2019
7	GLEYBER TORRES	2B	2019
97	HARRISON BADER	OF	2019
132	MIGUEL ANDUJAR	3B	2019
213	JUAN SOTO BATTING	OF	2019
250	SHOHEI OHTANI #250 OR #600	DH	2019
332	RYAN O'HEARN	1B	2019
432	RYAN YARBROUGH	LHP	2019
445	WALKER BUEHLER	RHP	2019
451	JORGE ALFARO	C	2019
467	A.J. MINTER	RP	2019
562	WILLY ADAMES	SS	2019
600	SHOHEI OHTANI #250 OR #600	P	2019

Sources and Links

All-Star Rookie Index

Baseball-Ref

2000 Topps Rookie Cup Team

This is an index to postings related to the 2000 Topps All-Star Rookie Team which honored rookies from the 1999 season. 

39	WARREN MORRIS		2B
101	PRESTON WILSON		OF
178	CARLOS BELTRAN		OF
184	BRIAN DAUBACH		1B
255	BEN DAVIS		C
265	BILLY KOCH		RHP
343	JOHN HALAMA		LHP
380	ALEX GONZALEZ		SS
420	COREY KOSKIE		3B
438	CHRIS SINGLETON		OF

Sources and Links
All-Star Rookie Index

Topps

Beckett

1994 Topps All-Star Rookie Cup Subset (honoring 1993 Winners)

This is an index of our columns related to the 1993 Rookie Cup Team that was honored in 1994 Topps.

1994 Topps #1 Mike Piazza

293	J.T. SNOW	Angels	1B	1994
309	CARLOS GARCIA	Pirates	2B	1994
287	MIKE LANSING	Expos	3B	1994
21	WIL CORDERO	Expos	SS	1994
397	TIM SALMON	Angels	OF	1994
466	JEFF CONINE	Marlins	OF	1994
508	WAYNE KIRBY	Orioles	OF	1994
1	MIKE PIAZZA	Dodgers	C	1994
81	GREG MCMICHAEL	Braves	RHP	1994
72	STEVE COOKE	Pirates	LHP	1994

Sources and Links

B-R Bullpen 

Baseball-Ref

Lifetime Topps Project (1994 ASR Subset)

Topps All-Star Rookie Cup Master Index