2009 TriStar Obak #1 Pedro Alvarez

For tonight's playoff posting we take a look at the Obak product that Tristar revived in 2009.

2009 TriStar Obak #1 Pedro Alvarez

In a nod to Upper Deck's inaugural set (1989) Tristar put a bunch of minor league prospects at the top of their debut Obak offering with Pedro Alvarez getting the honored with the #1 slot. Alvarez will likely never be Ken Griffey Jr, but this season he lead the NL in Home Runs with 36 (however he batted only .233 - His 186 Ks also led the league)

Sources
Tristar Cards
baseball-ref.com

2013 Topps All-Stars Home Run Derby Cards

On Sunday Team Phungo was fortunate enough to make it to Citi Field to see the All-Star Futures Game. One of the nice things about the Futures Game is that you get to see a lot of the background of what goes into putting together game without having to shell out ASG money.

One of the items the Mets have is the Topps Lineup cards similar to the Phillies.  For Monday Night the cards are specail ASG cards of the Home Run Derby participants.  

New York Mets Citi Field 2013 Topps ASG Line Up Cards (click to enlarge) 

2013 Topps ASG Cards HR Derby Participants NL
Pedro Alvarez
Michael Cuddyer
Bryce Harper
David Wright

2013 Topps ASG Cards HR Derby Participants AL
Robinson Cano
Yoenis Cespedes
Chris Davis
Prince Fielder

2012 Topps A&G Gold Minis......Dislike. And a Variation Question. .

Ok My name is Phnungo and I admit I am a sucker for the rack packs that have 3 packs plus a mini pack of 3 parallels.  The product doesn't matter.  I largely view parallels a scam, but I enjoy them in small doses.

This interest is waning with the 2012 offering of Allen & Ginter.  The three packs come with 3 mini "Gold" Parallels.

 2012 A&G Gold Minis Hank Aaron, Padro Alvarez, Dan Uggla. 

It is pretty hard to tell the Gold Minis apart from the regular minis.  Same size, cardstock, basically the same color.  The border artwork on these gold cards is more detailed and looks good, but you can barely tell the difference from the regular minis.

  

2012 Topps A&G 
regular mini Mike Moustakas 
Gold Mini Hank Aaron
Regular Hank Aaron

The Moustakas is the standard mini.  The Aaron mini is the gold variation.

My question is does anybody know what is going on with the Hank Aaron card having differnent poses on the mini and the standard size card.  I haven't been following 2012 A&G that much this year.

A note on collation

The Three minis I pulled in the mini pack were all present within one of the single packs of A&G in the Hanger.  note 2 - I once saw Moustakas and Alvarez play in the same minor league game in Wilmington DE.

Game Report: Lynchburg Hill Cats @ Wilmington Blue Rocks (Pirates & Royals)

Frawley Stadium Wilmington, Delaware (click to enlarge)

Sunday was a beautiful day here in the Philadelphia area and the Phils were playing the ESPN night game so I took the opportunity to run down to Delaware and check out the Kansas City Royals Hi-A affiliate Wilmington Blue Rocks. The Blue Rocks hosted the Lynchburg Hill Cats who are affiliated with the Pittsburgh Pirates. The game featured arguably the two best third base prospects in the minors. Mike Moustakas mans the hot corner for the Blue Rocks while Pirates 2008 second overall pick Pedro Alvarez is gettting his first taste of professional ball as a Hill Cat. In this years Baseball America preseason Prospect Rankings the two were ranked 13th and 12th respectively overall and as the top two third basemen.

Moustakas is starting to heat up with 7 homers thourgh 51 games, 35 RBIs and a .265 batting average. Pedro Alvarez is only batting .242 but does have 10 dingers and 42 RBIs for the season. Unfortunately neither player contributed at the plate on Sunday as they went a combined 0-6. Alvarez did hit a long flyball to center in his 2nd at-bat but it was nowhere near home run distance. There was also a second game on Sunday - I only stayed for each players first at-bat, in which each player made outs. Moustakas did eventually get a pair of hits and an RBI in the 2nd game. The only notable play for either player in the field was leading off the first inning of game 2 Moustakas bobbled a grounder that was not ruled an error, had the ball been handled cleanly the runner may have been out.

The star of the day turned out to be a pitcher. Eduardo Paulino pitched 6+ strong innings for the Blue Rocks. The only hit he yielded during the first 5 frames was a solo homer to Jordy Mercer. Paulino did give up 2 more hits in the 7th before giving way to Ben Swaggerty who earned his 2nd save with 2/3 innings of work.

Pedro Alvarez (click to enlarge)

Alvarez politely declined my request for an autograph. I didn't have a card or a ball for him to sign so gave him one of those blank inserts that are pack fillers to sign. Pedro said "I am not allowed to sign those". I imagine he thought it was an index card. I usually ask out of town players to sign a ticket stub, but wasn't really thinking at the time and he was on his way back to the dugout. Between games several of the Blue Rocks players signed autos. I do not believe that Moustakus was among them.


Mike Moustakas (click to enlarge)

The minor league game was a fun day out and very affordable. Tickets are $10 for a box seat so close that it scares you. Parking is free. 24 oz imported beers (cans) were $8.50 I think. Other concessions were somewhat cheaper then at Citizen's Bank.

I hadn't been to Wilmington in about 10 years I am glad I went and hope to get back there later this year.