The Great Rookie (and Cup) Debate

Topps rookie cup/trophy cards have been around for a long time.

Over the course of that time, Topps has made a few errors.  In recent years we have seen players have a rookie cup logo in addition to a rookie card logo on the same card because Topps has chosen to release the player's rookie card after the player's actual rookie season.  We saw it happen in 2020 with Yordan Alvarez, 2021 with Alec Bohm (although the year 2020 was a strange year for distribution, player debuts, shortened seasons, etc due to the worldwide pandemic), and 2022 with Wander Franco. 

As much as people get upset (myself included) for Topps not releasing a rookie card during a player's rookie season we have seen this happen many times in the past including HOF guys like Willie Mccovey and Eddie Murray.  Their Rookie Cup cards aknowleding the tremendous performance as a rookie got placed on their cards for their true 2nd year in the big leagues, but they are considered rookies because they didn't get a rookie card when they were actually rookies.

Many of us believe that in the earlier 2010s Topps seemed better at applying the correct RC logos on players and those good enough to make the Rookie Cup award get their 2nd year card to adorn the Rookie Cup. I'm going to prove that theory wrong too.

With the Pirates deep in nearly two decades of losing seasons, Andrew McCutchen's debut in 2009 gave the fans hope of better things to come.  Cutch won the Baseball America Rookie of Year, finished in 3rd for Baseball Writers NL ROY, and was announced as a Topps Rookie Cup winner for his debut season in 2009.

Cutch got a RC logo on his 2009 Topps Update card during his rookie season. 

Cutch's performance as a rookie lead to Topps producing cards of Cutch in 2010 with the Rookie Cup/Trophy logo for Topps Flagship and Heritage releases.

Good things were definitely on the horizon for Pirates fans as it saw the team promote their top 3 positional prospects (Pedro Alvarez, Jose Tabata, and Neil Walker) in 2010. 

Both Neil and Jose received a RC in 2010 due to their early season debuts.

Pedro Alvarez was called up later in the season and didn't appear in 2010 products except Pro Debut (a prospect filled minor league set).  He did not receive a RC in 2011 like what we have seen recently with other top prospects like Wander Franco, Yordan Alvarez, Alec Bohm. However as you can see below Topps didn't put a RC logo on Pedro's 2011 Topps release.

The 2010 Topps Rookie Team can be found here.  As you can see from that list, Pirates 2B Neil Walker was named a Rookie Cup winner.

This meant that Walker would have his Topps Flagship and Topps Heritage cards feature the rookie cup.

One name missing from that list is Jose Tabata, who was good enough to receive one rookie of the year vote in 2010 for his performance.

He slashed .299/.346/.400 with 19 stolen bases in 26 attempts.  After the 2010 season, he was believed to be atop the Pirates lineup for the future for his above average speed and hitting approach. He also provided outstanding defense in left field. 

Tabata had a good rookie season in 2010, but in comparison to Jason Heyward, Mike (Giancarlo) Stanton, and Austin Jackson it just wasn't good enough to receive the cup/trophy honor for his 2011 Topps flagship cards.

However, Topps Heritage did produce a 2011 Topps Heritage card featuring the All Star Rookie trophy for Tabata.

The back mentions Tabata having the second most stolen bases on the Pirates.  Andrew McCutchen lead the club with 33 SB that season. 

This means that Topps produced 4 outfield rookie cup cards for Topps Heritage.

But oddly enough, Giancarlo Stanton was rejected the All Star Rookie Trophy for all parallels while Tabata maintained the logo.

A more recent mistake by Topps was including Ke'Bryan Hayes in the 2021 All Rookie Cup product highlighting players who have earned the distinction of Topps Rookie Teams for the past 70 years.

The problem with that is Alec Bohm was announced as the 3B for the 2020 All Rookie Topps Team, not Ke'Bryan. Again due to the odd year that 2020 was, I am willing to forgive RC mistakes on 2020 products and having them all have to be included in 2021 products, but there's no excuse for putting someone on the checklist for a set called Topps Rookie Cup for a guy that didn't get nominated by Topps as a Rookie Cup winner for the 2020 season. 

Do you pay attention to the rookie cups and rookie card logos on flagship or Heritage releases?

Do you think there should be a clear deadline for Topps to release rookie cards of players so a Rookie Cup and Rookie Card logo don't appear on the same card?

Are you aware of any Rookie Cup logos being added or subtracted in error for Flagship or Heritage products?

 

Would You Rather?

While I don't collect Wade Boggs cards to a supercollector status, I have been fascinated by some of the Wade Boggs Supercollectors because they share a similar mindset for how I go about CollectingCutch.  I discussed the other Wade Boggs collectors on a post last year during Shark Week.

One of the "Boggs trust" members, John aka WadeBoggsFan (his birthday was yesterday btw) on YouTube published a video where he took 2 pitchers and 2 hitters and without revealing their names asked based solely on the stats which pitcher or hitter would you rather have to build a franchise around.

I thought it would be fun to do a similar thing here looking at a random player from the early 2000s, Andrew McCutchen, and Wade Boggs.  

So here are some stats through age 25 season (keeping simple stats and slash lines)

Player A

328 hits

10 HR

4 SB

.356/.426/.469

151 Runs/118 RBI

0 ASG

Player B

753 Hits

111 HR

117 SB

.272/.353/.592

479 Runs/349 RBI

3 ASG, 2 GG

Player C

629 Hits

82 HR

98 SB

.290/.365/.483

362 Runs/295 RBI

2 ASG, 1 GG

By those stats most people who look at Player B would say he is clearly on a Hall of Fame path.  As a matter of fact according to his Baseball Reference page his closest similarity scores for ages 22-26 are Duke Snider, Mookie Betts, and Barry Bonds.  Player A has a lot of ground to catch up and Player C is just slightly behind Player B in regards to simple counting stats.

Let's move on to their stats through their  Age 33 seasons now using the same 3 players as before

Player A

1,965 Hits

78 HR

15 SB

.345/.430/.471

1,005 Runs/637 RBI

7 ASG

Player B

1,098 Hits

150 HR

143 SB

.265/.349/.457

660 Runs/518 RBI

3 ASG, 2 GG

Player C

1,719 Hits

243 HR

191 SB

.285/.376/.478

974 Runs/853 RBI

5 ASG, 1 GG, 1 MVP

As you can see above Player A has been racking up a ton of hits over the 8 seasons that followed the initial look through age 25 season.  Player B, originally lumped into "Future Hall of Famer" talks has completely fallen off and retired from baseball at age 32.  Player C is a model of consistency keeping up with a steady stream of hits, walks, homers, despite declining stolen bases over later seasons.

I found this to be a very fun excercise and think it can shed some light on why investing in sports cards can sometimes become a huge risk.  Player B was one of the hottest names in the sport in the mid 2000s, but injuries derailed his career and his autograph can now be had for about $5.  He finished his career in Tampa Bay and retired after his age 32 season.  

Player A got a late start to his career, but went on to join the 3,000 hit club as a member of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.  He joined the Hall of Fame in 2005, the same year Player B had his first full season in the majors and the same year Player C got drafted.

The book is still open on Player C as he enters the 2021 season at age 34 and only has one year guaranteed on his contract.

While I haven't been buying many cards lately, I did manage to pick up this fold up poster from Lids that features Andrew McCutchen along with some of the bigger names in the sport at the time it was produced.  The names of players on this poster would make some interesting Would You Rather posts. With a lack of cards to buy, I am looking towards finding more things like this for the collection.  

Can you match up the 3 players in this exercise knowing two of them are Boggs and Cutch?