Monday, June 9, 2014

MLB Draft Concludes, Let's Rip Some Pro Debut!

My Cubs have been absolutely horrendous during the regular season the past few years, which has netted them some pretty high draft picks.  In fact, I think many of you may recognize a few a these names even though you may not pay close attention to the Cubs or prospects in general:

2011, #9 overall, Javier Baez, SS
2012, #6 overall, Albert Almora, CF
2013, #2 overall, Kris Bryant, 3B

The MLB June Amateur Draft has increased in popularity the last few years and can now be seen live on the MLB Network or streamed through MLB.com.  I don't have a cable or satellite package, so I was stoked to be able to stream the draft through my television.  Awesome!

I don't know much about the Cubs' #4 selection this year, Kyle Schwarber, other than he has a sense of humor and he carries a big left-handed bat.  Good enough for me.


I'm not sure when Topps' Pro Debut hit the shelves of stores, but I figured it was pretty well timed with the draft.  I picked up two packs from my LCS.  No inserts or anything flashy, but I did get some #1 draft picks of my own!

Let's take a look!

Jason Hursch went in round #1 to the Braves, Jonathan Crawford went #1 to the Tigers, and Kohl Stewart went #1 to the Twins in 2013.  Lucas Giolito went in round #1 to the Nationals in 2012.

Hitters?  Absolutely.

Eric Jagielo went in round #1 to the Yankees, J. P. Crawford went #1 to the Phillies, Hunter Renfro #1 to the Padres, and Austin Meadows also went in round #1 to the Pirates in 2013.

Each pack of 2014 Pro Debut comes with eight cards and half of my cards featured players who were taken in the first round of the draft.  I'll take that ratio!

Here's the best of the rest, with the latest round (#50) on top and the earliest (#2) on the bottom. 


Overall I found two Twins, two Pirates, two Nationals, and three Yankees in my two packs.  Cubs?  Nope.  I struck out.  That seems to be a recurring theme to the 2014 product that I busted open.

Thanks for stopping by today.  If you find you're in need of any of the minor league prospects above be sure to drop me a line.

6 comments:

  1. Nice! I've never seen any packs aside from the boxes I pick up every year. I'll be building this set and recapping the Cubs from 2011 soon!

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  2. Mind setting the Yanks aside for me? Katoh, Jagielo, and Austin from above. Thanks, Tom!

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    1. Already done. I owe you for the last PWE you sent and I was happy I pulled so many Yanks. Between you and Zippy Zappy, tt seems as though I can't keep enough of them in my trade box!

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  3. Darn, AJ beat me to the Jagielo.

    As for Schwarber the Cubs kind of over drafted on him because he'd cost less than some of the other potential first rounders and the Cubs can use the leftover money to offer more money to the high-ceiling guys they drafted in the other rounds who had sign ability issues (ie were going to go to college).

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  4. Hey Tom! Can I claim the Renfroe? I pulled a Chris Bryant card from this year's Bowman set, if you need it. If not, I can find something else for a PWE exchange. Thanks! Wish I had an LCS around so I could rip some Pro Debut - always a fan of the minor league sets, though they're always high on the "next big thing", so they don't really have any cards of the guys in AAA, which are the ones that I'm more familiar with (AAA Round Rock Express is the closest team to me, about an hour away).

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