I recently participated in a group break headed up by Chris over at Nachos Grande. He broke two boxes each of Topps Series 2, Topps Heritage and Donruss. Since I had not seen any of those sets at my local Wal Mart, I decided to buy in, especially since I managed to get ahead of other Red Sox fans. Plus, this was an easy and relatively inexpensive way to get the majority of the team sets from three sets, and have a chance at some good inserts.
So, here were the results:
1. Corey Kluber. Boston's Opening Day starter has been something of a disaster this year. The two-time Cy Young winner with Cleveland is currently on the I.L. after starting off 3-6 with a 7.04 ERA. Oddly, he did notch his first career save. This was my first Kluber card.
2. Franklin German. This is my first German card, and his rookie card. German was the prospect Boston acquired along with Adam Ottavino from the Yankees basically for free. German throws hard, but had no idea where the pitch was going. He had an ERA of 18.00 last season and was let go during the offseason.
3. Bobby Dalbec. Dalbec has been tearing up the minors, but seems unlikely to make it back to Boston. I think he will be traded in the next couple weeks.
4. Rafael Devers. Devers was not an All Star this season despite being among the league leaders in RBIs. His batting average has been a bit down, but he is still hitting for power.
5. Justin Turner. Turner has been one of Boston's most consistent hitters and has been a more-than-adequate replacement for J.D. Martinez.
6. Kenley Jansen. Jansen was Boston's only All Star this season, which was pretty disappointing. Alex Verdugo and Masataka Yoshida probably should have gone. Jansen has had a couple of rough outings, but been generally pretty good as the closer. He pitched to just one batter in the game, Lourdes Gurriel Jr., and blew three straight pitches by him. He apparently also made a pretty strong pitch to Shohei Ohtani about coming to Boston.
7. Jarren Duran. Duran has been Boston's most improved player. His speed has made him a dynamic threat on the bases and he is just flat-out raking at the plate.
8. Bobby Doerr. Donruss's first set without the ability to use current players still includes Diamond Kings as a subset. Doerr was Boston's selection and he is one of the more underrated Hall of Famers. He was a terrific hitter for a second-baseman, but is somewhat forgotten because his career was relatively brief and over by the time he was 33. He still hit .288 with 223 career home runs.
9. Marcelo Mayer. Mayer is Boston's top prospect and appeared at the Futures Game. He singled in his only at-bat and stole a base. He could be in Boston by the end of the season next year.
10. Ceddane Rafaela. Rafaela is a top five prospect in Boston's system and one of the best defensive players. His defense could play now, but he needs to be a more consistent hitter.
11. Brayan Bello. Bello's development into a top-line starting pitcher this year has been really fun to watch. His confidence is building and he has elite stuff. He could be a great pitcher for years to come.
12. Justin Turner.
13. Enrique Hernandez. I do not know what happened to Hernandez this year, but he has been awful on both sides of the ball. If he cannot get it together soon, he may just end up out of a job.
14. Corey Kluber.
15. Trevor Story. We are still waiting for Story to make his season debut. That may spell the end of Hernandez's tenure.
16. Bobby Dalbec.
17. Michael Wacha. I am shocked to see Wacha in Topps Series 2 since he has been with the Padres this season.
18. Nick Yorke. The first-round draft pick in 2020 was also in the Futures Game and doubled, one of the only extra base hits in the game.
19. Marcelo Mayer.
20. Masataka Yoshida. I was surprised to see Yoshida in the Donruss set, but I guess they rushed the set to print while he was not technically on a Major League roster. I guess. I do not really understand the rules.
21. Masataka Yoshida. This is the best card from my break.
22. David Ortiz. Ortiz has been massively entertaining on Fox baseball broadcasts. The best moment was gifting Derek Jeter a Red Sox jersey with his name and uniform number on it.
23. Ted Williams. The 1988 Topps All Star set was really cool.
24. Wade Boggs. Odd that he appears on a Mr. 3000 card with the Red Sox since his 3,000th hit was obtained with the Rays.
25. Marcelo Mayer.
26. Marcelo Mayer. Mayer was the player I got the most cards of in this break.
27. Rafael Devers.
28. Kutter Crawford. Crawford has developed into an important member of the staff with the ability to start and relieve.
29. Christian Arroyo. I would like to see Arroyo stick around in Boston, but I feel like the sheer number of middle infield prospects coming up will make him expendable. He has been a quietly solid player on both sides of the ball throughout his time in Boston.
30. Chris Sale. Sale may just be cursed. He has so many bad-luck injuries. It's a shame because it has deprived us of a Hall of Fame career.
That's it for the break. Nice to add a bunch of cards of random players.
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