Random Wax: 2020 Big League Baseball Blaster

2020 BLB:  In 2020, Juan Soto would have a massive year batting .351 in the shortened MLB season.  He's had stops with the Padres, Yankees and now the Mets since his time with the Nationals.

Big League Baseball was a set that was cheaper and geared toward a younger crowd.  This design is very simplistic but it's a good one.

I always enjoy League Leaders and it's great seeing them here, especially when Mike Trout makes an appearance.  The Slugging Percentage numbers would have been a nice addition to the fronts.

I like the Flipping Out design. Highlights are fun but I'd like a quick "what is the highlight" on the fronts.  The Caricature cards are fine for what they are but probably don't fall in the "great" category.

I like this Roll Call card.  It's very simple but the photo works well with this design and colors.

Patrick Corbin is the only one of these three still in the sport and is having a good season for Texas.

Great Eddie Rosario photo.  That Woodruff is an Orange Parallel.  As always, a fun box of cards.

BREAKDOWN:
30 - Total Cards
3 – Big League Best
2 – RC
1 – Roll Call
1 – Highlights
1 – Flipping Out
1 – Orange Parallel
1 – Defensive Wizards
1 – Star Caricature Reproduction

Random Wax: 2021 Big League Baseball

2021 BLB:  The forty-one year-old Justin Verlander struggled through 2024.  I haven't heard of any plans for him to step away from playing and has one more year at $35M on his contract with Houston.  With 262 wins, a career 3.30 ERA, 3 Cy Youngs, League MVP and Triple Crown winner he's an easy first ballot hall of famer.

After the 2024 season, Charlie Blackmon hung up his spikes after 14 seasons in the big leagues, all with Colorado.  He had 1800+ hits to go along with a .293 batting average.

Verlander has also won two World Series titles with the Astros.

Shane McClanahan has been a really good starter for the Rays with a 33-16 record and 3.02 ERA.

The back of a League Leader card.  2020 was of course a shortened season (60 games) due to the pandemic so the numbers are not what we expect in a normal season.

Some inserts.  I really like the look of the Wanted cards.  Defensive Wizards isn't bad either.  

It's so easy to forget about Ryan Braun and how good he was.  2020 was his last season but he was a Rookie of the Year, MVP, 6X All-Star and 5X Silver Slugger.

The design on this set is good.  Maybe not great but it's good for what they are which are cards on the lower end of the price spectrum.

Kyle Seager would play one more season, totaling 11 years with Seattle.

These are fun cards and a set I look forward to every year.

BREAKOUT:
36 – Total Cards
7 – RC
3 – League Leaders
3 – Orange Parallel
1 - Wanted
1 – Souvenirs
1 – Defensive Wizards
1 – Award Winners

2020 Big League Baseball Blaster

 2020 Big League: Shohei needs no introduction now you can add World Series Champion behind his name.  What a year for this guy.  Nothing short of amazing. 

Freddie and Tatis are favorites of mine.  Loved seeing Freddie star in the World Series and win series MVP.  Nice pulling these.  My first time seeing these cards and I like the design.  Very, very simple but it works me.  This was an eBay purchase.  

Bichette has struggled as of late, Puk is a good pitcher in the league, now playing for the D-Backs and Gavin Lux is a starter for the Dodgers.

I like these Roll Card calls.  Wish they'd had a little more color in the background but overall, I'm good.  Yordan Alvarez has definitely lived up to the hype.

These Caricature inserts are pretty good.  Not great but good.

The likely 2024 National League Cy Young winner stats.  He's had some really dominant years including this past season.

I like the Award Winners cards.  Not the cookie cutter design.  Flipping out is kind of cool though I want to see a horizontal take on the card and an actual bat flip.

Although injured this season, Ronald Acuna Jr. is looking good on one of the 10 orange parallels in the box.

A little over the top but I'll roll with it on these Defensive Wizard inserts.

Another World Series starter in Gerrit Cole.  The former Pirate started two games, and overall pitched well, in the World Series but might forever be remembered for not covering first base in the 5th inning of game 5.

Great looking card!

I love Khris Davis and his batting .247 for FOUR consecutive years as an Oakland A.  No way that is even possible right?  But it happened.

I like these but wouldn't have minded the player names on the front.  Minor thought though.

This was a fun box.  Great pull and fun cards including two more World Series participants; one of which is this Shohei Highlights Blue Parallel.

BREAKDOWN:

105 - Total Cards

12 – RC

10 – Orange Parallel

7 – Award Winners

5 - Highlights

5 – Blue Parallel

4 – Big League Best

3 – Defensive Wizards

3 – Star Caricature Reproduction

2 – Roll Call

2 – Flipping Out

1 – Rainbow Foil #/100

Random Wax: 2021 Topps Big League Baseball

2021 Big League Baseball:  The Toronto Blue Jays are struggling this season but Vlad Jr. is having a good if not great year.  I know Blue Jays fans would like for him to find his power stroke.  This is one of the three Orange Parallels in this pack.

Some nice star power in this pack.  Clayton Kershaw and his career 2.48 ERA are still injured and haven't taken the mound this year but I think he's expected back soon.

Jonah Heim showing off the hair.  All three of these youngsters haven't had much success yet but they have spent plenty of time in the majors.

We don't get all of a player's stats on these but it's still not a bad card back.

Tatis Jr. hot pack.  I like the look of the Wanted inserts.

I'm disappointed they don't have names with the photos but I get it might be tight.

Yordan Alvarez is having another excellent year in his age 27 season.

You have to think about it but yes those win totals are correct.  We're looking at 2020 which was a short season for baseball and many other sports.

Who woulda thunk Chris Sale would be doing this well after his trade to Atlanta.  He was the May National League pitcher of the month.  He's been huge for a starting staff dealing with injuries.

BREAKDOWN:

36 – Total Cards

5 – RC

4 – League Leaders

3 – Orange Parallel

2 – Award Winners

1 – Wanted

1 – Souvenirs

1 – Defensive Wizards

2024 Topps Big League Baseball Blaster

2024 Big League Baseball:  Was looking forward to these and I wasn't disappointed. Kick it off with Julio Rodriguez who had a great second season to pair with that amazing rookie year.  Not a lot going on in this photo but I like it.

The design is good for me.  Some of the borders like that Corey Seager are darker in the upper half of the card and makes me think it's a parallel but it's not.  Again, I like it.

Elly De La Cruz is the new hotness in the league.  I'd love to see him do well.  Speedsters are fun.  Just need him to get the hitting thing down and he could be fun to watch for a long time.

We have two Electric Orange Foil Parallels and a Ke'Bryan Hayes Uncommon Rainbow Foil card.  The base set is 310 cards including four subsets.  The breakout is below.

Common                                   1-200

Uncommon Rainbow Foil        201-250

Rare Blue Foil                          251-275

Super Rare Red                        276-300

Legendary Gold Foil                301-310

A couple of inserts here.  Some Mascot cards that were really popular in Topps Opening Day which isn't a thing anymore.  I wish these had the backgrounds as part of the photo but otherwise they are okay.  Odds for the Hobby Influencers insert is 1:735 blasters.  Great pull and should pay for this blaster and hopefully another one.

The backs are lacking in the stats department showing only the last five seasons but they are still better than what we get with some other products.

Brent Rooker is another card from the Uncommon Rainbow Foil subset.  I like the photography overall but do wish we'd had some horizontal offerings.

I like the Good Vibrations inserts. All smiles and good vibes indeed.  The To the Moon inserts are die-cuts.  I'm okay with the design but not a big die-cut guy.

Just showing off some more cards and some players who had an excellent 2023 season.

These Topps Big Leaguer inserts give us cards with a different artistic touch to each.  I didn't pull any but you'll also find retired greats in these.  Thought they could have had more inserts overall.

Two more Uncommon Rainbow Foil cards along with the Miguel Cabrera common base card.  Fun blaster.  I like the cards and will definitely search out more.  Love the photo on this Ronald Acuna Jr. card.

BREAKDOWN:
80 – Total Cards
25 – RC
11 - Uncommon Rainbow Foil
8 – Total Cards
5 – Electric Orange Foil Parallel
3 – To the Moon
3 –Good Vibrations
2 - Mascot
2 – Topps Big Leaguer
1 – Hobby Influencers