Blaster Madness 1: 2018 Topps Chrome

As promised, today begins my new series "Blaster Madness." Since I've moved back home, I haven't had the opportunity to purchase many hobby boxes. My supply of cardboard comes primarily in the form of blasters from Walmart. TO say my options are limited is an understatement, so apologies if my posts become a bit...redundant. 

My first offering for this series takes a look at a blaster of 2018 Topps Chrome. Let's take a look and see what I found.

First card of note for me was Adrian Beltre. Beltre signed with the Rangers prior to the 2011 campaign and has been the most popular player on the team since. Beltre may retire this offseason - I would venture to say that he most likely will retire. However, that decision hasn't been made. I would never be opposed to having Beltre back again for another season. If I'm being honest, I wouldn't be opposed to having Beltre slide into our open manager position. I can dream right?

Next up is a base card for my Joey Gallo PC. I really like this card. I haven't set out to determine when the photo was taken, but it was clearly after something good happened. If I had to put money on it, I would guess that this was taken after a walk-off hit.

On to the non-Ranger cards of note. This is my first Chrome Ohtani rookie. It will be interesting to see how long he continues to pitch and DH. I know he will strictly DH next year while recovering from Tommy John surgery...it will be interesting to see if he stays in that role after next season. If so, the Angels paid a ton for a DH.

I also pulled this Devers base rookie card. I'll be completely honest: I don't know much about him, so I don't have much to say about the card.

Keeping with the rookie theme, I also snagged this Rhys Hoskins rookie refractor. When I saw the "RC" designation on this card, I was a bit surprised. It feels like Hoskins has been around for a while, but I am guessing that he made his debut too late in the season last year to be included in Update, so his rookie cards are falling into this year's product.

The final card of note in my blaster was this sepia refractor of Mike Trout. I don't seem to pull many refractors of Trout, so this was a nice surprise. It will stay in my collection for now.

So there it is, Blaster Madness #1. Not the best blaster I've ever had, but certainly not the worst. Thanks for reading!

My Foray Into 2017 Topps Heritage Minor League

Or is it Minor Leagues? Not sure. Either way, I bought two boxes.

Last year, I purchased four boxes and was a card short of a complete base set. I also supposedly won something in the "Make Your Pro Debut" contest, but I never received my prize. Shocker - Topps fails to follow through. Oh well.

This year, the two boxes covered my entire base set. I have no need for any base cards, though I am still in need of some short prints. You can see what I need here. If you have any of those, lemme know!

Now on to what you came here for: to find out what my box had in it. First up, some parallels:

This ERA Leaders card is of the blue parallel variety and is numbered to 99. I'll be honest - I've never heard of any of these guys.

Next up, green parallels numbered to 99. I've never heard of Sanchez, but I've definitely heard of Daulton Jefferies. He was a first round pick for the A's in 2016 and played in Stockton (A ball) this season. I don't believe he made it to Double A, but if he gets there this year, I will most likely see him play - the Double A squad is based in Midland, about an hour and a half from me. I try to go once every couple of weeks, if possible. 

I also pulled a couple of white parallels:

Starting to sound like a broken record, but I have never heard of Dunning. Ortiz, on the other hand, I am very aware of. He was the Rangers first round pick in 2014. He worked his way up to Double A Frisco in 2016 before getting traded to Milwaukee in exchange for Jonathan Lucroy. Yet another trade that didn't really pan out for us (not Lucroy's fault, though). I was really looking forward to Ortiz as a solid number three in our rotation of the future; however, what hurt the most about that trade was sending Lewis Brinson away, also. 

After the parallels, I pulled two relics:

The first, a base plain white swatch from Brent Honeywell...

The second, a green parallel numbered to 99 with a red swatch from Rafael Devers. Not a bad hit - better than a plain white or gray swatch any day of the week.

Lastly, each box came with an on-card auto. My two auto's were:

P.J. Conlon and...

Andrew Stevenson. 

As I've mentioned before, never heard of either one.

Even though I have never heard of most of these guys, I still really enjoyed the break. Most everything is available for trade, though I think I am going to hold on to the Ortiz white parallel, the Devers relic, and maybe the autos (but that's not a solid "keep" yet). Lemme know if you're interested!

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**This entry has been sitting in my post folder, unfinished, for more than a month. The end of the semester really kicked my butt. Please watch for posts in the coming days covering some eBay purchases and, more importantly, packages from fellow bloggers! I hope everyone is well!