Chris Archer, shown with the Cubs AA team, the Tennessee Smokies
Hak-Ju Lee, shown with the Cubs low A team, the Peoria Chiefs.
So why didn't I include them in my Cubs team set?
Because the aren't with the Cubs any longer. They were both traded to the Tampa Bay Rays over the winter in the Matt Garza trade. In fact, the backs of both cards mentions that the players are now with the Rays organization.
Add that to another confusing aspect of the Pro Debut set. I can't think of any other product that mentions a trade on the back, but has the old team/organization on the front. I guess Topps prefers to save the photoshopping for the big leaguers. You got to make the show to get shopped.
Any other team collectors run into the same problem, with trades?
Are there players in the set that were traded to the Cubs but shown with their old organization? (I don't think so...I did go over the checklist, but I don't know all of the Cubs prospects well enough to have a definite answer)
A few other random Pro Debut thoughts...
- Topps has an exclusive minor league deal, so in thinking about it some more, I don't think that Pro Debut will be going away.
- If it sticks around, I'd like to see them re-name the product. I was griping yesterday that some players were in a set called "Debut" for the second time. Of course, Topps isn't the only one to mess with a name. I was at Burger King today and they had a sign for a "Single Stack" burger. How can you "stack" one patty? Doesn't the word "stack" imply more than one item?
- Next year, include a MLB team logo on the front that represents the organization the player is with. Then us team collectors will know exactly which players we need.
- Topps needs to come up with a unique design for Pro Debut instead of using the flagship brand's design. They came up with a nice looking logo, so why not come up with a separate design.
Agree...Topps Prospects or Future Stars or something would be better than "Pro Debut." Do your remember the sets from the early 1990s that Topps issued that were actually "Pro Debut" and listed the date that the player made his ML debut that year? That was cool as hell. I'd love something like that to come back.
ReplyDeleteAgree on including the big league club logo somewhere - even on the back. Don't do away with minor league logo because some are cool and it's fun to see teams you haven't heard of, but sometimes the logo/colors differ greatly and it's hard to tell who the parent club is.