There were twelve Cubs prospects in the 330 card set according to my count (tomorrow I show you why I had to do some counting). Here is where I get a bit confused with the "Pro Debut" concept: three of the Cubs were also in last year's set. How can you debut twice? Wouldn't it stand to reason that you can only have one Pro Debut card? But I suppose Topps has never let reason stand in the way of their products before, so why start now.
I'll show the twelve Cubs prospects in draft order, starting with the oldest:
Josh Vitters, 2007 round 1 (was in 2010 Pro Debut, too)
Brandon Guyer, 2007 round 5
Brett Jackson, 2009 round 1 (was also in 2010 Pro Debut)
D.J. LeMahiue, 2009 round 2...he is currently on the Cubs roster but hasn't seen a lot of action, and was in Pro Debut 2010
Nicholas Struck, 2009 round 38
Reggie Golden, 2010 round 2
Hunter Ackerman, 2010 round 4
Aaron Kurcz, 2010 round 11
Austin Reed, 2010 round 12
Elliot Soto, 2010 round 15
Justin Geiger, 2010 round 24
Dallas Beeler, 2010 round 41
I still need to pick up my Tigers set, but I will say that I really like Pro Debut. I'm disappointed that it seemed to get buried this year.
ReplyDeleteI see your point on the "debut" side of things (how do you debut twice?) but I don't see an issue with it. Real debuts are marked by the "Pro Debut" stamp and the other ones don't have it. This is, after all, a minor league set and a good one at that. I'd like to see them keep it around, but my guess is that with the teeny tiny amount of action it got this year that it's probably done for.
Pro Debut could work, but I'd like to tinker with it. Make it a 300 card set, featuring the top 10 prospects from each organization. Partner with Baseball America if it's not cost prohibitive, or hire your own minor league expert to make the evaluations. I don't care.
ReplyDeleteGet it out in time for the beginning of the minor league season, and don't release it right on top of Bowman.
Lastly, don't make it hobby-shop only. Offer it to the retail channels too.
I agree with both comments above, releasing so soon after Bowman and right before series 2 did kind of bury this set. It is a fantastic little set though but what really may have done it in was the lack of anything Bryce Harper, with the exception of a base card with three parallels and that 1 of 1 signed ball card. The eBay collectors are in a frenzy for anything he touches, namely signatures.
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