Pros Debuting and Other New Stuff

Casually blowing bubbles while the next #CrackinWaxMailDay from @CrackinWax hits the mailbox. 

I have to be honest with you all. I am on the verge of stopping buying cards altogether. This post over at the Dime Boxes confirmed a lot of the dread I've been feeling. It's not fun anymore and it's probably time to get out. That being said, I finally found a blaster (Big League) to buy on Sunday and bought into a small break today. At the very least, there's at least a chance I'm going to start winding down here soon if something doesn't seriously change. If it wasn't for a lot of the great bundles of mail I've received from a lot of the people that read this thing and trade with me over the past few months, I really wouldn't have many positive things to say right now.

Moving on. Let's take a look at 2020 Pro Debut, one of the breaks from late June that I bought into over at Crackin' Wax. (Yes, I'm a bit behind, but the mail has suddenly gotten really off track lately as well.)

At some point, Topps decided that cloning the flagship MLB design wasn't simply good enough for its hobby only MiLB product, so these cards are a bit of a step up. The players are outlined in slightly raised gloss while the background is matte, giving it a light 3D look. Montero kind of looks like he's leaping out of his own baseball card here.

There are a number of inserts in this set, and a couple of Cardinals prospects show up in this Tape Measure Power set.

Big League has been widely covered by all of the blogs and sites already, so I'll keep my thoughts brief. First off, it's nice to see a Cardinal on one of these League Leaders cards. It was something that was easy to take for granted, but I feel like it's been a little bit. Jack Flaherty gets some well-earned props here.

The design is different. Different is nice, especially for Topps. I'm glad they haven't exactly settled in to a standard template for Big League, at least yet.

On the other hand, I don't know what to say about the Star Caricatures. I already exceeded my negativity quotient in the first paragraph of this post, so... moving on!

Fierce Kolten Wong! Yes!

I also snagged a bunch of brand new Prizm base cards and this silver Jack Flaherty. Apparently the silver Prizms are more of a scarcity now after appearing in nearly every pack that didn't have a different colored parallel in the past. It seems like Panini might be trying to capitalize on the popularity of its silver parallels in their basketball products, but the baseball cards are always going to look like generic off brand beverages in comparison.

It's time for the extra shiny stuff. There was a slot for a low budget 2015 Donruss that I super didn't want to buy, but did anyway. I ended up with a /99 Big Mac card for my troubles. I can't complain about that.

The Pro Debut break also yielded this chunky medallion card of one of the Giants top prospects, as the Bay Area team was one of my randomly assigned bonus teams. The card is up for grabs as you might expect.