Less Talk, More Rock Shoulders: Three Boxes of 2013 Heritage Minors

Alternate title: Friday, Served Blackened

Black Friday rolled around after a tiring few days of Thanksgiving preparation and nearly drowning myself in delicious craft brews. After two Thanksgivings and a rather beautiful, yet tiring Christmas Tree search, I returned home to the great shithole of Syracuse, New York to browse some post-Black Friday deals.

Lo an behold, Dave & Adam's Card World (from the beautiful Buffalo, New York) had a hell of one:

Boxes of 2013 Topps Heritage Minors for $33/each and free shipping over $100. Sold, sold and sold. 

Here's the results:

Base

The base cards are the exact same style and stock of your MLB-released Heritage. But they're better, because they don't have dicknoses like Alex Rodriguez and Ryan Braun on them.

Here's some fresh-faced lads you may be hearing about very soon. I'm a big fan of the vertically-challenged Marcus Stroman (#hdmh) Greg Z at The Plaschke is already an admirer of Corey Seager and Byron Buxton - last year's #2 overall pick but likely tenfold more valuable than Mark Appel has the heart of prospectors throughout the hobby.

DJ Davis is very, very fast. And Rock Shoulders is, well, ROCK FUCKING SHOULDERS.

Parallels

In all, I came away with 8 black parallels /96. That's pretty awesome considering /99 parallels in Topps Mothership tend to fall at a case break ratio. Also cloaked in jet blackness: Miles Head (TB), Jonathan Schoop (BAL), Trevor May (MIN), Jonathan Singleton (HOU), Gorman Erickson (LAD) and Stefan Romero (SEA). 

Venezuelans fall 1:box. The odds are slightly better than than, but I made out with three of them. I believe they're relatively more rare than the black, so I was pretty excited to get a stellar prospect in Javier Baez. Also pulled Ryan O'Sullivan and Cesar Hernandez, both in the Philadelphia Phillies puke pile of an organization.

Inserts

I love the Road to the Show insert set. Aside from the checklist highlighting the tops players in the system, the set features short-season players (for the most part) and the logos of their system on the way up, starting with High A (upper left), AA (lower left) and AAA (lower right.)

I chose two Blue Jays here - DJ Davis again and Aaron Sanchez. I also added Alen Hanson - because who doesn't love a toolsy second baseman? (Looks in mirror admiringly.) These are three players I see myself collecting in the coming years. 

Hell, I need someone after the departure of JP Arencibia (RIP) and the implosion of the Blue Jays after 2014.

Here's some Francisco (<3) Lindor in '13 Heritage form. I'm glad he was depicted as a Mudcat - but the didn't spend much time there in 2013. By mid-summer he was an Akron Aeros, which are now the Akron Rubber Ducks, which is wayyyy cooler than it sounds. 

ZOMG MOJO!!!1

 Obligatory autographs of middling prospects! Wee! The prospect auto checklist for this was weak, so I didn't expect much. Typical Topps trolling me with Yankees prospects, a KC Royals prospect auto because KC pitching prospect multiply when they get wet, and creepy-ass Chad Bettis, or should I say, creepy-ass Lenny van Dohlen.

Brett Bochy showing 8-grade pitcherface, Mike Freeman looking like my master's adviser and Anthony Garcia, who I have no comment for whatsoever.

So, I guess this is a "hit." Relics fall 1:box. This is the only "relic" I received. Colorado Springs Sky Sox are the AAA Pacific Coast League affiliate of the Colorado Rockies. Excellent travel accommodations, I assume. 

Blech. A redemption for a basic relic? Just don't put the card in the set. At least Davidson is a prospect that has "made it." He played 31 games with Arizona in 2013, and based on the depth chart and departure of Fan Favorite (TM) Willie Bloomquist, should have a nice hold on the position going into 2014. That is, if he shows enough #grit. 

I mentioned there were three boxes, but we see only tro (or one?) relics above. This is why:

 

MOAR ROCK FUCKING SHOULDERS

Keep your worthless codpiece relics of light-hitting middle infilders, Topps. Give me more of this.

I've been trying to land this card for under $15 since the release of the set. All it took was to get it for good was three $33 boxes! HAHA SUCK IT TOPPS.

Wait.

Dammit.

Anyways.

The Rock Fucking Shoulders (TM) wasn't the last hit. This was pretty cool, too:

Yep. That's my first printing plate. And I like it. I like the player (light hitting middle infielders for the win!) In case you cannot tell, this is World Series Hero (bahahahaha) Kolten Wong. A much-less irritating Hawaiian than Shane Victorino, for what it's worth. This is definitely less creepy than most yellow printing plates that I see.

Here's the back, since old folks like the Night Owl like that sort of thing:

Just kidding, Greg. I like card backs, too.

While you likely won't find any boxes of this for the $33 price tag that I did, I highly recommend this one. Topps didn't muff it up with pictured of dead presidents and walking dead Yankees, so it's a pretty fun open. Hits, though underwhelming, fall at a solid rate and the player selection in the base set is very well balanced. Go get some. Treat yo'self. 

Blue & Blue

The writing on the walls has been there for years. But like every "Call Patty for a good time" there's a thousand glances and chuckles. You walk away. Rumors, MLBTR posts, scathing tweets on historically bad OBPs...but like Patty, you know there's probably a good person there, but a few events here and there soil a reputation beyond repair.

On Monday, my favourite team non-tendered one of my favourite players. For the purpose of this blog, and my own personal collecting goals, he was my favourite player. 

Yesterday, he signed with the Texas Rangers.

The idea of JP Arencibia was more than what JPA is. He was a college star. College stars rarely turn into extraordinary players, and JPA was often less than ordinary. 2013 was historically bad, and the Rangers took a $1M "what the hell" kind of gamble on him that can't possibly fail (but dear sweet lord baby jesus don't let him catch Yu Darvish.)

I don't really know where I'm going with this. But as proprietor of this insignificant blog, I felt I had to say something.

I wish JPA the best. If he managed to play up to 30% of the time, or maybe even become a starter (because let's be honest, he's "backing up" Geovany Soto) and hits a few home runs, I'll be happy for him. 

In fact, I'm glad for him. Sometimes players just need to get out of Toronto to get back to their potential. It doesn't make much sense, but it happens. At least we'll always have this: