2015 Donruss is Live ... with a hit!

I stopped by my LCS after work this afternoon, because I thought Topps Opening Day was hitting the streets today.  Whoops, I guess I'm a week early. Not a problem, as the owner had a fresh box of 2015 Donruss sitting on the counter and I happily left with something to open.

I love seeing guys like Tony Gwynn grace the wrappers of packs.  Yes, more please, thank you.

First card out of the pack:

I could do worse than a Justin Morneau card.  He did the batting title last year, right?  The design is very much like last year's effort, which was also reminiscent of the '87 design.  It's tough to tell with the deep blue at the top and bottom of the card, but those little baseballs from 1987 are mixed in there.

 

 The cardstock is the equivalent of Topps flagship product, and the backs are clean and crisp.  I like how they faded the color on the back in spots to give an older Donruss cardboard appearance.

Alex Gordan and Victor Martinez from the Kansas City and Detroit baseball clubs, respectively:

 

 No, still no license with MLB, but the cards look pretty sharp with out them.  The missing logo from Martinez' card is hardly noticeable.  I'm probably in the minority of collector's who aren't bothered by Panini's lack of logos.  I like Panini's products and this decade I've collected four sets, two from Topps and two from Panini. I'm actually leaning toward this Donruss set or Panini's Stars and Stripes for my one set to collect this year.

This, I'm down with:

 Retired stars!  Heck yeah!  The checklist is pretty nice actually:

• 30 Diamond Kings (1-30)
• 15 Rated Rookies (31-45)
• 137 currently established MLB players (46-182)
• 13 retired stars, like Wade & Kirby (183-195)
• and the a 50 card subset (196-245) in the 1981 Donruss design featuring a mix of established and retired stars

Here's the card I pulled in the likeness of the 1981 Donruss design.

 

 I live me some Jose Altuve . . . and I love the orange on border.  Very nice. NL and AL batting champs in the same pack?  Sweet!

A 245 card base set is nice, especially the way Donruss has laid it out with DKs, RRs, and some retired guys.  They went all out on the inserts again.  The Elite Dominators caught my eye in 2014, and I'll look for them again this spring.  I didn't pull one of them, but I did snag a Cub from the Grand Stand insert series.

 Baez was the middle man in the Cubs back-to-back-to-back dingerfest yesterday.  I'm a happy camper with this pull!  I couldn't take the picture straight on with my camera because the surface was too reflective.

Let's talk hits...

There are three combined autographs and memorabilia cards per 24-pack hobby box.  There are 94 cards in the signature series subset, and some of the bigger names are Posey, Tulo, Strasburg, Longoria, Wright, Jose Abreu, Yasmany Tomas and Steve Garvey.   I was lucky enough to pull one!

It's not the sexiest name on the autograph checklist, but I can take comfort in the fact that it's probably the most difficult name to spell.  That's something, right?  Mike Foltynewicz was one of the Astros that was sent to the Braves in exchange for Evan Gattis and while I'm excited to pull a hit, I'm a little bummed it's from of the lesser known prospects. 

I still haven't bought any Topps flagship, and I was a week late to the Heritage party, but I hope you've enjoyed this first look at 2015 Donruss.  If you're interested in a PWE trade of anything you see above, minus the Baez, just drop me a note in the comments.