Burgess- Overrated

Michael Burgess

Burgess is the highest priced Bowman Draft Picks auto as of the moment, going for over $35 dollars. But he's just not that good IMO. First of all, he has put up results in RK and A-. But he K'd 60 times in just 198 at-bats. This would translate to 180+ strikeouts in a regular season, and in A- facing tougher competition his K-rate was 28.4%. Also, Burgess's BABIP (batting average per balls in play) was an unsustainable .422 in Rookie Level play, and a slightly more plausible but still very high .386 BABIP in A-. Worse yet, with just a .320 BABIP in August, Burgess hit just .225 with a .300 SLG. His swing is also long, and it looks like when he struggles, his swing will become even longer.

Topps Chrome Pack Break

1 Pack Topps Chrome Hobby - $3

This product was horrible this year. I mean, really horrible. How many people outside of Troy Tulowitzki and Alex Gordon can you name in the checklist? Tim Gradoville? Angel Sanchez? Brian Burres? Burres in particular is one of the great banes of my existence. I pulled a letterman of him, a Topps Chrome auto of him, and a SP Rookie Edition. No Andrew Miller (or AOMO as his signature would seem to indicate). No Daisuke Matsuzaka. They should just make Topps Chrome later in the season so that they can catch more of the "Rookies". With the new MLBPA restrictions its starting to get ridiculous with the early-season releases like Bowman and Topps Chrome.

Anyway, here are my cards

128 Chad "Why the Fuck is My BC Auto going for $35" Billingsley
212 David "Scrappy" Eckstein

When you think of David, you think of a high average, low power player with good defense. His statistics would indicate that he has actually no tangible skills besides his average. He has batted .286 over his career, but that is balanced out by below average offensive performances every year except 2002. Kudos to JP Ricciardi who signed Eckstein to a 1Y/4.5M contract that looks ridiculous when you already have a much better shortstop. His name is John McDonald and he kicks ass.

217 Brett "The Wife Beater" Myers

Apparently, Brett is one of just 3 National League pitchers to win more than 10 games each of the last 4 years without having a losing season along with Carlos Zambrano and Jason Schmidt. Then he became a reliever. 2008 bio:

"Brett went from being one of just 3 National League pitchers to win more than 10 games each of the last 4 years to a successful reliever who struck out 83 batters in just 68 2/3 innings"

310 Travis "6 Months Too Late" Buck Refractor

Travis went 338-56 last season and has a career record of 497-80 despite pitching just 108 innings last season and only striking out 15 batters all the time. He also has more shutouts than complete games. I have reached a conclusion- Travis Buck is God.

Stay tuned for a break of 2006 Greats of the Game for $50.

My thought on gimmicks

I think that gimmicks are good. There. I said it. The Rudy Giuliani Sox card is great. It draws more attention to the hobby, and more people are interested in buying a pack of cards when they know they could get a cool card like that. I myself was drawn to the hobby after a 15 year hiatus because of the Alex Gordon cut-out card, and mistakenly purchased a 2005 Topps Updates and Highlights blaster box instead of the 2006 Series One. (I also got the box at Target instead of Wal-Mart). Anyway, I pulled a Brian Roberts jersey card and fell in love immediately with the hobby again. That would be the one card that would stay in my PC forever. Gimmicks drew me back into the hobby and I'm sure that there are many people just like me who start liking the hobby because they are allured by the possibility of pulling an "in-demand" card. The Rudy card is good for the hobby. Period.

Two Pack Break of Future Stars

Alright, here's what I got out of two packs of UD Future Stars

Couldn't pass up like a 1:3 shot at an auto for 6 bucks, even though I know this product is crappy. Cards will be judged on their future star rating.

21 Jon Garland

Future Star? AGE: 29. Maybe he'll have 150 wins by the end of his career. Not really a future star though.

GRADE: C

82 Matt Cain

AGE: 24. Great year last season, although 2007 was his third year in the majors. I think he might become a future star.

GRADE: A-

14 Curt Schilling

AGE: 38. W...T...F. Why are they putting guy as old as me in this crappy product? This product should be for age 25 and younger. I didn't pull one RC logo out of my so far four packs. That is unacceptable. Also what's with the 4 cards per pack? All brands should have a minimum of 6 cards per pack. That way you can actually open the pack without bending the cards.

GRADE: F

33 Magglio Ordonez

AGE: 34. No. Just no. He had his best year in 2007. A career year. He'll be productive, but not really at star level the next few years.

GRADE: D

99 Ryan Zimmerman

AGE: 24. FINALLY! A FUTURE STAR! This is the second and last future star I pulled in 4 packs. That's a seeding ratio of 1:2 packs. Not good if your product's name is FUTURE STARS! Perhaps Topps should do the same with their hideous '52 Rookie Edition and seed rookies 1 in every 3 packs.

GRADE: A

65 Johnny Damon

AGE: 35. God this guy is old. I thought for sure that Schilling was at least 5 years older than this guy. Did I mention that the photography on these cards is horrible? Look closely at Damon's face. It looks as if he's just seen Babe Ruth come out of the sky.

GRADE: D

38 Dontrelle Willis

AGE: 26. His best years IMO are behind him. Still, however, his age and reputation give him an average grade for this class. Terrible photography on this one as well. It looks like he has a massive wad of tobacco in his mouth.

GRADE: B

107 Sean Henn AU Clear Path to Greatness

Not a future star. I believe he gave up 4 straight home runs on 4 pitches in a row to the Boston Red Sox. Not that that will necessarily define his career, but more likely than not is that's how he's going to be remembered. Also, what happened to the "Clear" part of Clear Path to Greatness? The card isn't see through at all. Very disappointing. At least I actually like the design of this card.