Quote:
Originally Posted by chamb117
i can see wave 5 checklist being incredible and also falling short of expectations simultaneously. definitely more than 50 players deserving of being in this set, so that's the tough part. it will be interesting to see how much they capitalize on 2020's early success stories (aaron civale, trent grisham, etc.) or if they've had this 250-card checklist locked in since day 1.
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I think Civale and Grisham could both be in regardless. They weren't the biggest name rookies early on, but both were in Series 1 and Heritage and would presumably have merited consideration even if they didn't consider performance to date. I think you could easily substitute Civale for someone like Dubon or Hilliard in my list above.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chamb117
other prominent names off the top of my head:
darvish
jose ramirez
gallo
swanson
chapman
suarez
verlander
nola
bumgarner
etc.
and that's just the tip of the iceberg. it will be really interesting to see how much topps leverages who got off to a hot start in 2020 (grisham, civale, lynn, chatwood, gray, bauer, etc.)
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I've gotten most of these guys, but Darvish, Swanson, Chapman, and Bauer could all be in too. I had Bauer on a previous list, but I think it became harder to squeeze him in after they already included Gray (I'm pretty sure I saw his name on the Series 4 checklist). As a Cubs fan, I would be shocked if they included Chatwood (although I certainly hope we're having a different conversation about him next year that makes the case for him based on his Cy Young and World Series MVP awards). And Lynn had a top-5 Cy Young season last year so I'd argue he should be in based on his performance last year, not this year, although his performance thus far this year blows away what he did last year.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chamb117
rookies (maybe only like 4 or 5 of these?):
may
rios
sheffield
javier
staumont
kwang-hyun kim
akiyama
tsutsugo
kieboom
tromp
etc.
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Kieboom has his rookie cards in 2019 products I believe and hasn't done enough to get in without the RC logo given that a bunch of guys who have a significant track record at the major league level are going to be omitted. My understanding is that most of the players who have debuted this year (like Javier, for example) are not eligible unless they signed a pro contract earlier this year (which is how Robert and some of the Japanese guys got into Series 2), although I'm no expert on those rules. I'd add Evan White - who qualifies for the same reason - as another rookie we might see in Series 5.