High Heritage

Before this season I didn't know that Topps releases an Update set for Heritage, called Heritage High Number. This year's High Number set is 100 cards, and each set purchased comes with an on-card autograph. Of course being a Heritage lover, particularly of this year's set, I was pleased to see that this product exists. While I didn't purchase an entire set, I did pick up a handful of cards.

Obviously I had to add a group of Orioles from the set. Schoop I've talked about several times already on this blog. Excited to see how he develops.

Steve Pearce had by far the best season of his career in 2014, proving to be a steady contributor on a team that had gaps throughout due to injury. Pearce, capable of playing multiple positions, ended up playing a career high 102 games, hitting 21 home runs while hitting .293. Glad to pick up my first card of this guy.

Zach Britton pitched in 71 games for the Orioles in 2014, notching 37 saves while keeping a 1.65 era. He struck out 62 batters compared to 23 walks. What a nice transition from starter to closer. Another case of adding my first card of a player to my collection.

Here's the back of the Schoop card. I appreciate how the back combines minor and major league stats.

Here's the likely Braves starter at catcher on opening day, Christian Bethancourt. Even though Evan Gattis was likely to move to left field, trading him confirmed what we already knew, that Bethancourt is going to get consistent playing time to start the 2015 season. Bethancourt looks the part of Braves catcher of the future, but it will take some time for him to get polished. I would think getting regular playing time will only help there.

Mookie Betts made the jump to Boston in 2014 to complete his quick rise to the majors. He played in 52 games for the Red Sox, batting a very solid .291 with 5 home runs and 18 runs batted in. Betts will get regular playing time in 2015, and it's amazing how far he has come in such a short time since I saw him play for the Greenville Drive in 2013. Excited to see how he will perform in 2015. This guy is only 22 years old.

And I'll finish this post up with a Virginia Tech Hokie, Jesse Hahn. I was thrilled to see Hahn show up in the set. He looked to be in a pretty good position with the Padres, where he was likely to get regular starts in 2015. The Padres traded Hahn to the Oakland A's in December. We'll see if he can find a spot in the A's pretty solid rotation. So glad Topps included Hahn in this set since he was left out of Topps Update. 

Did you know that Hahn played basketball in high school too? Makes me even more of a fan.

A Backstop Stack, Part 2

Last time I started showing off a stack of cards that Marcus from All the Way to the Backstop. I hit some of my favorites from the older sets, and this time I'll look at some of the more recent cards.

A nice start to a Mike Minor collection, with this year's Bowman, a Topps Chrome Refractor (yes!!) and a Blue parallel. Mike has rebounded somewhat from a miserable start to the season, putting together a string of quality starts from mid-August to mid-September. Overall though a season to forget for Mike. Hopefully 2015 will be better!

Marcus also set some sweet Craig Kimbrel cards. All of these are awesome, but my favorite is probably the Hometown parallel from this year's Bowman set. I need to pick up some more of these. Maybe a Braves hometown team set should be added to the wantlist. The Allen & Ginter is my first ever ripped card.

Next up an array of cards of some other current Braves. While I'm honestly not a fan of the inserts from this year's Topps, I'm glad to add any card of Freeman to my collection.

Bethancourt appears to be a promising catcher, great defensively. He's getting some playing time currently for the major league club with the Braves out of the playoff race and he is hitting pretty well.

And lastly a Heritage Blue parallel of one of my favorite pitchers, Julio Teheran. I've said on multiple posts that I really enjoy this heritage set, and why would a blue parallel be any different?

While Marcus included a good number of current Braves, he also included a couple of the recently retired Chipper Jones. I particularly enjoy the Stadium Club card from 1994 showing the date from his major league debut. The back of the card mentions his time in AAA Richmond. I enjoy seeing the references to Richmond.

Rounding out my favorites from the package are a few current Orioles. Even with Chris recently suspended, I'll still cheer for him when he comes back because of things like this.

Markakis has been one of my favorite Orioles for years. This season's he's in a leadoff role, and while it isn't his best season statistically, I'd say he's been a big part of the team's success this year.

Thanks again, Marcus! I've got a stack of cards ready to be sent off to you.