SPEAKER_01 0:11

Hello and welcome to Talking Cards with Grand Salami and the Juice. I am your host, the Juice, along here with, of course, Bert, as usual. Grand Salami. How you doing, Bert? I'm doing good. Happy to have Big Bob here, man. Yes, we have a very special guest. Uh, we have Big Bob of Big Bob's Cards. How are you doing, Bob? I'm great. Thanks for having me, guys. We are so excited to have you. We're so excited for Bowman. It is Bowman time, which means it is Big Bob time. And before we start going into our player by player, team by team breakdowns, um, Bob, why don't you just tell us about yourself? Um, Bob has podcasts, he has a website, he has some of if not the best Bowman info out there. Bob, tell us about yourself.

SPEAKER_02 0:59

Yeah, so you can find me on Twitter at Big Bob's Cards, and then the website is www.press prospect-analytics.com. And uh we do monthly and year, I do a monthly and a yearly subscription, and it's kind of just everything you need to kind of get ahead in the game of Bowman. I do, you know, updated prospect rankings every week. I change my rankings every week. I do this, uh, we call it the the Bowman brew, which is a morning email blast where you get all the stats from the day before for only Bowman-related prospects, you know, who hit a home run, like all that good stuff. So really just doing everything that I can to keep people up to date so they can make money in Bowman.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

What you're doing is really revolutionizing the game, I think, and you know, Bowman prospecting. So much so. I think we talked about this when I was a guest on your podcast, but your following is so big now that you actually tangibly affect the cart prices of guys when you make when you push out alerts or rankings lists. It's almost like people think about baseball America, and whenever they put out their new list, that the prices can go up and down for guys. Like, I'd make the argument think Bob's rankings kind of do the same now. I mean, it's even more hobby focused than baseball America.

SPEAKER_02 2:04

Some of the some of the people that subscribe are, I'm telling you, they're ruthless. Like, I'll post I'll post an article and then a minute later I'll get a message and they'll be like, all right, who went and bought that entire stock of that guy's cards out on eBay? Some of these, some of the guys are crazy.

SPEAKER_01 2:16

Yeah, yeah. It's true, man. I've even seen players say, Hey, Bob, like kind of chill out on my cards and my hype a little bit because Ryan's buy my cards and I'm having some trouble because of your articles.

SPEAKER_02 2:29

Yeah, though it was funny when I talked to when I did my interview with uh Jace Bowen of the Padres, he said that he's been making money in Bowman and he like uses my articles and stuff, and he has teammates like other professional players who are like, dang, how do you know this? Like, how are you doing so well? That's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

Yeah, so I know another subscription for people, no one obviously likes spending money, but you well worth it if you're at Bowman. So we're if you're someone that buys, sells, or trades Bowman prospects at all before they get called up, especially before other people start really diving in, you're gonna get that early scoop from Bob. It it is well worth it if this is something that you do year round, because he gives you during the off season and everything, like just just a lot of unique takes and a lot of forward thinking on these guys that are really gonna help you build that collection out. I appreciate it. All right, well, let's get into it. Uh, what we are going to do with Bob. So we had Max, who was awesome for us as well for the AL side. Um, Bob here is gonna be doing the National League side for us, and we are gonna start this episode.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

And you wore your Mets gear correct.

SPEAKER_01 3:34

Um I wore my Mets gear for the NL East and the Braves. There we go. Okay. You might notice that I'm gonna be wearing the same thing for the next two episodes, because well, we like to film and record all the episodes in one night. It's not just me um being stubborn with my clothes and not wanting to change like my five-year-old son. Actually, before we get into the NL East, though, I know the two of you wanted to talk about the checklist as a whole and everything. So I'm gonna let the two of you fanboy about this Bowman checklist a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 4:00

I'll let you start, Bert. Well, Big Bob likes his lists, and I like Big Bob's lists, and one of his favorite lists to put together is the top 200 hobby hitter rankings. And I was curious before we recorded this episode, just thinking about 2026 Bowman in general and kind of getting a temperature check and how good is the first Bowman checklist versus last year, which of course now we've seen with Jesus Mate, Luis Peña, Eduardo Quintero, JJ Weatherholt. God, I'm missing the Kevin McGonagall didn't even come to my mind. Zire Hope. Like all these names. I went back and I looked at his top 200 hitter rankings from just before 2025 Bowman came out, and I looked at how many of these first Bowman Auto guys he had in his top 50 at the time, and he had six. And I went and I looked at his top 200 rankings that he just put out the other day, and I looked at how many 2026 Bowman guys he has in there, and there was just two. So I wanted to just ask Bob for his take. Like, am I reading that correctly? Do you think you know 2025 is a very high bar to live up to? But I just wanted to get your take on how how depth, how deep the checklist is compared to previous year.

SPEAKER_02 5:03

It's a very, very high bar. And it seems like Bowman has this, like, remember 2023 Bowman. I mean, you know, that was like the product to rip for free. That checklist was incredible. 2024 seemed like it was gonna be really good. And then there's it seems like there's been some misses on 2024, but it's hard to follow 2025. That checklist was incredible. As you said, you know, I think I had what was it, six six guys in my top 50.

SPEAKER_00 5:28

If you count Xier Hope, because he wasn't really a first, I guess, but it was his first auto.

SPEAKER_02 5:33

Yeah, I will say that this product, I agree. That that product it was more top heavy. There were more guys in my top 50, probably also more guys in my top 100 on that checklist. I will tell you, there's a player on this checklist that I have ranked higher than I had Jesus Made, Kevin McDonald, that's JJ Weatherholt the day that 2025 Bowman was released. Yeah. So spoiler alert, the high the high-end name I actually like better on this checklist. I would say in that that next range of like the 10th or the second through 10th best autographs, 2025 probably clears this checklist by quite a bit. But then this one gets good again in that like 15 to 20. There's a lot of like really good, sneaky like depth on this checklist. So I still think 2025 is probably better.

SPEAKER_00 6:13

And I of course we're just talking about hitters, but you also do the pitcher rankings too. And and that's the other thing.

SPEAKER_02 6:20

I think when I did my breakdown, there were I had two two uh hitters in my top 50 on this 2026 Bowman checklist. I think I had six pitchers that were in my pitching top 50.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

And if you had like 2025, it probably wasn't that many. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 6:35

It wasn't as good.

SPEAKER_00 6:36

Thomas White, Quinn Matthews, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:38

No, I think that the depth of the pitching checklist, if you're someone who goes after pitchers, I mean, quite a few of my, you know, guys without Bowman autographs that I'm like, you know, I'm hoping they get a Bowman autograph in the next release. Of my pitchers, like of my top 10 that I was like waiting on autograph, they hit like six, seven of them. So I mean, this pitcher's checklist is great.

SPEAKER_00 6:56

Yeah, yeah. Some some electricity in the arms in this checklist for sure. For sure.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

Well, then uh I think it's a good time to get to it. So we are doing the NLEs today, and we will start with a team that's light on first Bowman guys, just a couple here, but we're gonna start with the Atlanta Braves. Bob, I'll let you take it away from there.

SPEAKER_02 7:16

Yeah, so you're really going after two autographs for the Braves. Honestly, since I did my first breakdown of this product, I don't know that any team's stock has gone up more than the Braves. The main name that you're gonna want to be after is is Eric Hartman. And what happened with Eric Hartman is that you know, he was a deep guy, 20th round pick out of high school in 2024. And he was a speed, he's a speed guy, he's a double plus speed guy. Last year, I think he was like five homers, maybe, but like 40 plus bags. This year he comes out, had a three home run game a couple weeks ago, and a lot of people saw that. He's got he's still 19 in high A. He's got like nine homers and seven bags already. Like all of a sudden, this guy was like an honorable mention for me. He might end up being like like a top 10, 10 fringe chase of the top 10 for me.

SPEAKER_00 8:02

He's he's really looked good. You said double plus speed. Are we talking like is this a Chandler Simpson level speed?

SPEAKER_02 8:08

Probably not quite. I I would say more like uh maybe a Connor Griffin type speed, though.

SPEAKER_01 8:12

Okay, yeah, electric.

SPEAKER_02 8:13

And I think it's like he's a little bit smaller, he's he's yeah, he has. I mean, he's not gonna be like a Connor power guy, he's smaller, but uh no, he's he's definitely a name to watch.

SPEAKER_01 8:22

So he is, I believe he was taken in the 20th round, too, yeah out of Canada.

SPEAKER_02 8:27

So yeah, one of the you want to find Oh, here you go. Here's a fun fact. Now that you said that, you reminded me. So he was drafted in 2024 out of Alberta, Canada. Who that's why he was overlooked. I see a pro a province that has never had a professional baseball player. Wow, two players were taken out of Alberta, Canada in the 2024 draft. Eric Hartman and Nathan Flewelling. Yeah, your boy. My guy. Yeah. So apparently there's something, there's something in the water, these these underrated Canadian prospects. We we gotta start watching them.

SPEAKER_00 8:55

Okay, nice. BC's always been a decent little Canadian baseball province, but Alberta, like you said, you don't see as much. No, definitely not. What do you think about Owen Carey?

SPEAKER_02 9:04

I like Carrie too. He's kind of like the same story. I I don't have him ranking. He's also, I think he was in the top 200 of my update that I put out today. So he's moving up. Kind of the same story. Uh good hit tool, good speed, not as not as fast as Hartman, but you're like kind of waiting on the power. But I think the power is up quite a bit this year. I think his ISO is like like over 170, which I mean that's not like huge power. But for a guy where that's the tool you're waiting on, he hasn't climbed my ranks quite as bit. He'll probably be like a uh in like my fifth tier honorable mention, like fringe 2025 ranked hitters. But I I like him.

SPEAKER_00 9:36

I think that's my favorite thing about Bowman baseball, like Bowman flagship in general, is that you see these guys who are late round picks that start hot in their professional careers and they finally get that first Bowman that they've been waiting for. Whereas Chrome's mostly like international guys, and draft is obviously the previous year's draft guys. Bowman, it's like you get those late rounders. Of course, you get the gut the carryovers from the previous year's draft, and you get some of the hotter international guys like Florentino that they've held back for Bowman. But those late round guys are fun and oftentimes they can be fruitful to invest in, I think.

SPEAKER_02 10:07

I feel like that's really what makes like flagship Bowman. That's what makes it one of my favorite checklists every year. Is that like like you said, Chrome, you know what international guys are getting? Draft, you know the guys that are getting drafted. Bowman's such a good mix of, like you said, the top five picks they held out of draft, these late flyer high school guys in the 20th, and then you get the usually the top international name that hasn't had a Bowman auto yet. Well, you know, they'll throw him in. It was my day last year and I was Florentino. That's right. Man, remember, remember 2023? It was like Roman was in it, and he wasn't even like a big guy at the time. He wasn't as DePala, yeah, Camonero. That checklist was crazy. Really was Spencer Jones. Spencer Jones just got called up.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

So any anything else? Uh so those are our two first Bowman guys for the Braves.

SPEAKER_02 10:57

Yeah, uh the only other thing when I did my when I was looking at the checklist, I think the only other thing, a lot of the other teams will have a pretty long list of like short printed inserts and stuff that they you might find other players. I think for the Braves, other than those two firsts, there's Ronald Acunia Jr. has a couple of insert autos, and I think he has a crystallized, and I think that I think that's all you can hit really for hits for the Braves.

SPEAKER_01 11:19

So they seem like they could be uh a good value team to be able to target, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:23

Yeah, I love them as a as like a mid-tier. I haven't looked at prices yet, but I guess I guess it kind of depends. Braves fans are so like intense, they're gonna, you know, they've they will pump up their prospects even if they're bad. And I swear that's not what I'm doing, because I do like the Braves. But so it's like you can you can price them in the middle, but they seem like they go fast in breaks because there's so many Braves fans. But yeah, I could see them being like a middle tier team that has really good upside and PYT if you really like you know Hartman and Carey. It's nice to get two if you're getting a team that's not in the upper tier, your chases being two, you know, high school bats, that's pretty solid.

SPEAKER_00 11:56

Yeah, with a little acunia mixed in for the SP channel. Insert auto. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:01

All right, so let's move on to the Miami Marlins. They have a prospect checklist for first Bowman guys that is twice as big. We've got four here. Couple of guys drafted, a couple international guys. But yeah, I'll let you uh start to get into that, Bob.

SPEAKER_02 12:15

Well, the main one's gonna be Iva Arquette. Nice for this. I think he's the what is he, the highest pick other than Holiday? They got held out of draft.

SPEAKER_01 12:22

He was seventh overall. I think Holiday was fourth overall.

SPEAKER_02 12:26

Yeah, I think they're the two highest. Arquette's gonna be an interesting one. I from a tools perspective, he I could argue him as like a top three chase in this product because the two you just don't see six foot five shortstops hit with the kind of power that Arquette has. It's just not, and it's something that I could see the hobby going crazy for at the same time. He hasn't been healthy, he just came back, he's already hurt again. He's on the Marlins. That's like such a tough sell in Bowman. People love to hate on chasing Marlins prospects. So he's interesting. I'm interested to see where his singles fall. I would say if I'm going straight off tools and what I expect from him as a player, he's probably a top five chase. I'll be interested to see where he's been selling in PYPs.

SPEAKER_00 13:07

Yeah, when's the last time the Marlins had this big of a chase in a Bowman flagship product? It seems like a while. Andrew Solace in last year's Chrome, but he was one of the biggest fallers. I think he was safely within the top 10 base auto prices to start with, but then he dropped really fast. And I I just wonder how much of that is Miami.

SPEAKER_02 13:24

Yeah, it's it seems like you know, the Marlins have this great track record with developing pitchers. I don't know that anyone like if when I'm buying pitchers in Bowman, Miami and Tampa Bay are usually two of the Cleveland. Cleveland usually does a they usually have some sneaky arms. But yeah, I mean, Miami has been a factory for developing pitching talent. The hitters, if you go back and look at every hitter they've drafted with a top 10 pick, every international signing they've signed for over a million dollars, their track run. Now that a lot of this was under the old, old regime, so we don't know how much the new regime has turned it over. But man, their track run, I mean, you look at the list of Bowman, I don't want to call them busts, but I mean, like I think in in multiple first round or back-to-back first rounds, you had like, you know, Blade, Jacob Barry. There was like a lot of names where it was like they were supposed to be guys, and none of the Marlins guys ever pan out. And it makes people afraid to chase their players, I think.

SPEAKER_01 14:19

Khalil Watson comes to the club.

SPEAKER_02 14:20

Khalil Watson.

SPEAKER_01 14:21

That's a good shout. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:22

Yitti Cape. Another one that I loved.

SPEAKER_01 14:25

But like you said, pitching. I'm all in on Thomas White, Tommy White.

SPEAKER_02 14:28

And they do they do great with pitching. That's uh that's for whatever reason, they've had a ton of success there.

SPEAKER_00 14:34

Do you think Arquette sticks at shortstop?

SPEAKER_02 14:36

I don't know. I mean, he's solid there, but he's so big. I mean, how many six, how many six five shortstops are in the MLB? Uh are there any now that O'Neill Cruz is off short?

unknown 14:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:46

Seager's probably close, right? But oh yeah, Ellie. I got I forgot about Ellie.

SPEAKER_01 14:51

But Tony White just now.

SPEAKER_02 14:53

Oh, what do you got there? Oh, you got a Thomas White? Is that red? Yeah. Wow, that's sick.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

Shout out Prospect Animal for that one.

SPEAKER_01 14:59

I love that one. That's a great call. Yeah. I have my PSA cards ready over here.

SPEAKER_02 15:04

So I I just I'm like, oh, I think I have Thomas White's a guy. Uh I don't know. I like Arquette. I I guess I guess he probably if I had to guess, I would say he probably moves off of short just because he's so big. Yeah. Kind of the Machado thing or yeah. It's like he probably could play short, you know. It's like well, it was kind of like how I viewed like Colson Montgomery for a while. It's like, well, he's he's playing good shortstop. Yeah. Does it look awkward that he's so big?

SPEAKER_00 15:26

How about his ceiling? Like if everything works out for Arcet, give me a player comp.

SPEAKER_02 15:30

I don't know. I mean, how many? I think that he has God, who could be a player comp for him? I think that he legitimately has plus power and plus speed. Okay. I think that I think he has 60 power, 60 speed. And I mean, how many when's the last time you saw a six foot five shortstop plus power plus speed? I mean, yeah, I don't know how you even put a comp on it.

SPEAKER_00 15:50

How does he compare to like a George Lombard, you think, as a prospect?

SPEAKER_02 15:54

Way more exciting offensively for me. Really? In my opinion. George Lombard is a better defender. He'll probably, you know, like and a lot of this is like you know, like the Yankee tacks, classic Bowman. If Iva Arquette got drafted by the Yankees, he'd probably be the top chase in this entire product.

SPEAKER_00 16:08

Yeah, no doubt.

SPEAKER_02 16:09

So it's, you know, so it's like I I but I would yeah, I would put him, I would say that his tools, like when you're looking at like Bowman tools, like power speed combination, like who's most likely to go 2020, 30, 30. I would say that Iva Arquette is more exciting of a prospect than George Lombard Jr. is, to me at least. Okay, right on. That's good context, good perspective. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:29

All right, who's your next guy up for?

SPEAKER_02 16:31

Oh man, they got so many good ones. Um, I would say that the next one is probably Luis Arana. I like him. He's a um, you know, he's a DSL guy. I always say, tell people don't trust DSL stats, and then I find myself being like, wow, look at that WRC plus in the DSL. But it's like yeah, when you have nothing else to look at, it makes it kind of tough. But yeah, his thing's gonna be above average hit tool, uh plus speed is what it looks like. But he's gonna be probably a well below average power, which is gonna be a killer in Bowman. He did, however, in his debut, he had he hit like five home runs in the DSL at 17, which for 200 plate appearances, that's not nothing. You know, a lot of these guys hit zero or or one. So hopefully more power than we expect. I think the complex just started last week, so we don't have much data on him. But um, no, he's I think he's a sneaky, he's gonna be one of the players. I I had a couple people send me lists when they were in Fanatics Lives breaks, and they were like, who on this list is a good value for PYPs? And for how cheap he's been, he's been one of the first names that I go to every time someone asks me. Okay, nice. Little bargain bin find. I like him. He's been cheap. I I think someone posted like a I forgot how many cases it was, but it was like five cases, and he was like under 200 bucks.

SPEAKER_00 17:47

I was like, Is he a small dude?

SPEAKER_02 17:49

Yeah, he's a uh I think he's like 5'10. He's he's under six foot, but not like tiny.

SPEAKER_01 17:54

All right. Who's up next for you?

SPEAKER_02 17:56

Uh who else is on the wait, so we have a Chris Arroya and Luis Cova. Luis Cova is a is he non-auto or is he only? I mean, that's he's out of shame. Is he base only? He is. I hate when they do that because I really like him, and it's a shame that he's not getting an autograph. But yeah, he's kind of the like uh I like him as much as I like Luis Serana. He they both were in my top 200 prospects that I that I you know, hitting prospects that I updated today. Same story, you know, the DSL guys, you really never know what you're gonna get with those guys. I probably would have had Kova ranked a little bit higher. Um, I think he actually moved up quite a bit in my re-rank that I did today, but it's a shame that he doesn't have an autograph. I didn't even realize he was on the checklist because I missed that that he that he's not on the autograph checklist.

SPEAKER_01 18:39

And then we have Chris Arroyo taking the fifth round first baseman. Does he have autos or no?

SPEAKER_02 18:44

I think he's first chrome only. But uh they do have a and it won't show up on the first checklist, but there is a Thomas White, speaking of the devil, has a prospect autograph. That's right.

SPEAKER_00 18:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:54

So that is the I think that's your that'd be your third, you know, if you go after your Ivar Ket, and then you got your B chase. It's actually it's kind of a nice little stack, you know. It's like you got your Ivar Ket, that's like the top 10 name. Your B chase is this young, you know, could be flashy DSL prospect that you can stash if you, you know, as you're chasing our quette. And then you get Thomas White, you know, anything a Thomas White's gonna sell, he's probably about to make his MOB debut. That's a nice little third option. And that I bet you that second autograph, that'll probably do well.

SPEAKER_00 19:22

Yeah, totally. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They did a good job at curating the second or the third in some cases, Chrome Prospect Auto Guys for this checklist. That was one of the first impressions that I had was man, awesome, awesome depth. They they did a really good job in 2025, and I think they did any maybe an even better job in 2026.

SPEAKER_02 19:38

You know, I feel like when 2025 checklist came out, I remember looking at the checklist and not like I was like, oh, why are we giving Jack a second auto already? You know, like I I remember being because even just a year ago, if it wasn't first autograph, I mean, you didn't really want it. I feel like it wasn't gonna sell. And I remember being like, I remember being like, why are we giving Jack a second autograph? And then I remember looking at the comps like a week after release. The Jack, Taglion's second autograph, was outselling almost every first autograph like on that checklist. And I was like, dang, I guess I never realized the fact that when you're, you know, Connor Griffin and your guys like this, your second, third autos are gonna sell. So you said I do like that they kind of took out maybe they took out some of like the filler names and just replaced them with, you know, an extra McGonagall, an extra Connor, an extra that I I like that.

SPEAKER_01 20:23

Yeah, Jack was also great timing last year, as far as like when it came out and what he was doing in the minors right before he got called up. Like everyone was so over the mood for him at that time. I remember.

SPEAKER_02 20:35

Yeah, his stuff was literally going crazy. He's a he's uh, you know, one of the lessons in in why I'm always afraid to hold prospects past their call-up, you know. No, no doubt. I think he's gonna have a good MLB career. But man, that card after he struggled that first week, those things tank if if these players don't come out of the gate hot. It makes it really tough.

SPEAKER_01 20:54

Any other Marlins thoughts? I don't think there's too much of note as far as like the vets and rookies for the Marlowe.

SPEAKER_02 21:00

No, yeah, no, I don't think they have anything other than those three autographs. Snelling, snelling base.

SPEAKER_00 21:05

Was there a snelling? Actually, it might be just a top 100, isn't it? He's not even in the base.

SPEAKER_02 21:10

So it's like I mean, I that there's still like a I still like that. I don't know how price I I feel like a lot of their value is gonna come down to how breakers have I've our cat priced because you know it it's always tough to tell with those top 10 college picks. Sometimes they sell. I remember remember how crazy Christian Moore was selling at a 24 draft because Tennessee fans were, you know, so it's like you really don't know with some of these bigger college guys, like maybe maybe people are after Arquette and and and the Marlins are like one of the top teams you want to have.

SPEAKER_01 21:38

I'm always just so shocked how like how much rookies still are heavily priced in Bowman, despite them not having like the top scroll premium and them being such a harder chase. It does help bring those other guys with the top prospect guys' prices down a little bit, but um yeah, it's just I'm always just so shocked. Like, um, we're not gonna talk about him today because we already did uh white socks but Murakami prices they're just as high in like these like pick your players as like any of these top prospects. I guess it is his first like rookie auto besides uh topic cone black it's more of like a flagship product kind of auto and cars.

SPEAKER_02 22:16

Yeah like you said it's hard it's hard to chase if you're buying that team for that card and you know that it's three times harder to hit than a first autograph that that's a tough spend.

SPEAKER_01 22:27

It is so tough. But his prices are insane right now. I bet which I was hoping that he'd be an under the radar guy a bit this year because like when he signed it didn't get as much fanpair as expected I was hoping that I could kind of stock up on his stuff but that is not going to happen. No definitely not definitely not anyway let's move on to the Mets. Not much to talk about on the prospect side of things uh they have just the one first Bowman guy. How do you feel about their one guy?

SPEAKER_02 22:54

Anthony Ferbosi he's a uh he's interesting he's I don't I he probably won't be in my you know my top 25 but he could be like a sleeper he's a 6'1 high school shortstop and I mean we haven't seen much on him he's signed for a little less than half a mil. I don't even think fangrafts has has scout grades on him when I was doing my Mets write up but I mean it's the Mets. I feel like you can't sleep on them in any product because this could be a you know an 18 year old shortstop that that everyone's like oh well you know he's not ranked on prospect list. If he comes out of the gates and he looks good we know what happens to Mets prospects in Bowman. You know he could he could be any Mets prospect who isn't a top chase in a product is always a sneaky hold. But yeah he's not someone that that I have ranked super high on my list.

SPEAKER_01 23:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 23:38

And then the Mets as a whole on here anything else to like really write home about yeah they actually have I would say the main chase as we just as we just talked about how you don't want to put all your eggs in the chase and rookie autographs because they're so hard to hit in Bowman but there's a uh Jonathan rookie auto I feel like a Jonathan rookie auto might might be cooler in the first uh Nolan McLean has a uh has a spotlight they use that in the mock up spotlight looks awesome I'm gonna have that so bad it might be on my price range or luckily spotlights don't sell for what they should but that is starting to correct a bit we see for each product but yeah I would have to wait like a month down the line to see if it's anywhere like where it actually should be realistically. Yeah and then I know uh I think Soto has a couple like insert autos. I don't know how the insert autos looked I haven't really seen them but I know Soto also has a uh has a patchwork you know the the the new insert or I like that right final draft he's also got the final draft yeah he has final draft too yeah so you got you got a bunch of some some short printed soto you got a Jonathan rookie auto that you got the the McLean spotlight so you're I the Mets are kind of like a maybe chasing the the short printed inserts might be might be fun.

SPEAKER_01 24:48

And anyone that listens to this knows I love my uh short printed inserts.

SPEAKER_00 24:52

Lindor has some too so Mets are definitely going to be a fun team for me because I don't have to does Lindor have a patchwork as well Lindor has some sort of uh case of inserts I I didn't we'll probably get into that more next week it's interesting that they're giving these vets final draft I wonder if like if they're thinking you know by giving Otani a final draft that'll help kind of uplift the insert set because I know that final drafts tend to struggle a little bit versus the other ones.

SPEAKER_02 25:17

Yes the the names are interesting. I I forget who I was looking at a couple of the players and I was like hmm that's an interesting inclusion in the final draft checklist. I'm interested to see if that's what they that's what they're trying to do.

SPEAKER_00 25:27

Yeah we'll see that market is weird the final draft market I always feel like they go for less than they should but I feel the same way about spotlights.

SPEAKER_02 25:34

Isn't it weird? Isn't it weird too how like so many of these short printed inserts will have, you know, based on you know we talked to Slab Squatch based on the the pack odds the print run on a lot of these short printed inserts are very similar but it doesn't seem to have a lot of correlation with how they sell. No it's like at all even though the print run's the same people really stick to like the like what looks cool.

SPEAKER_00 25:55

Yeah it's that case hit collector or investor I guess that's a little bit different than your auto collector but it's like there's something there's something so cool about spotlights.

SPEAKER_02 26:03

That design with no words on it is so clean.

SPEAKER_01 26:05

Yeah that's about it for the Mets I think let's move on to the Phillies who have a more substantial first Bowman checklist uh so who is your guy for the Phillies?

SPEAKER_02 26:15

Oh well yeah it's tough I I would say that their best hitter chase is probably Anderson Erijaw and he has the first um he's got his first autograph I think he's also on the Gold Inc checklist as well he's not overly exciting he has 18 which is always good in Bowman you know we take a teenage hitter at any time but he plays a little bit of catcher a little bit of first base he actually had a pretty solid uh DSL debut so I guess he's a name worth watching when you come into the complex league but I would say they're one of the teams in the NL probably the only one that their chase uh I might like their pitcher chase more is Moise Moises Chase who he's just you know got a little reliever risk but just just monster fastball. I mean just electric. So if you're someone who looks after pitchers I don't expect he'll be super expensive because I said as I said he has a little reliever risk but uh really good strikeout numbers. He's he's he's fun to watch high V low guy yeah high V low guy fastball slider kind of guy yep I love him yeah I think he goes the fastball fastball slider change something like that but yeah the he's probably a high risk type guy because the you know command shaky he's one of those guys where you go on a fan graphs and you're like oh 12 strikeouts per nine innings and then you see like six walks per nine innings and you're like oh man you know he's he's he's one of those but he's fun to watch an interesting name that came up on the Phillies Keaton Anthony who had betting issues and ended up being undrafted but it looks like he's actually been doing quite well so how do you feel about him yeah he's uh I think he's first first chrome only I don't I don't think he has an autograph he's he's the best Phillies player like if I you had me pick a Phillies player he's the best Phillies player on the checklist out of those but yeah he doesn't have an autograph which is kind of a shame that's the second team that they've you know I hate when they when they ruin it for us like that. I guess we always do have the chance at least when it's in Bowman if it's if the player's chrome only you know that they can still get a first autograph in chrome which is kind of nice I I hate when they give us the first base only in draft and it's the last release of the year. And you know when that calendar changes that player's never going to have a first auto.

SPEAKER_01 28:13

So fingers crossed Keaton Anthony maybe gets one in chrome anything else of note for the uh Phillies that you want to go into header or Ferrara?

SPEAKER_02 28:20

I say Ferrara okay yeah I like both of them I I would put Ferrara a little bit higher. I think he's probably going to be the name that many of the Phillies fans are after again he was drafted last year he's high school shortstop kind of same as um we talked about with Frobosi for the Mets he's like a later round like eight ninth prep shortstop you know half a million dollars ish signing bonus. I I think that he'll be a name he's also a like a speed over power guy so he's like a good speed good glove but it you kind of worry if if you know if he'll hit for enough power to be extremely hobby relevant. But I would say that Phillies fans you know they they they do pretty well in the hobby and and for a while there the Phillies didn't have a ton of very exciting Bowman prospects but they've kind of reloaded after over the last couple years. You know Aide Miller Justin Crawford they've got some fun names so Phillies fans do do collect well I think that I think that Ferrara might end up being the autograph that that they uh pumped the most money into in release week.

SPEAKER_01 29:17

Okay. And so outside of the prospects anything exciting for the Phillies?

SPEAKER_02 29:22

Yeah so the Phillies have they're one of the teams that it's mostly the first autographs that you're after there's a Jim Tomey patchwork in the Phillies jersey which is so odd very interesting very interesting um and then other than that there's also going to be Bryce Harper has a patchwork as well and Bryce Harper also has a final draft. So you got a couple Bryce Harper short printed inserts but yeah you have a like a longer list of autographs. I think there's four or five first autographs. None of them are extremely exciting to me. They're kind of a team that you take in a break because they're not that expensive and you're going for like the the quantity over the quality type thing because you have so many chances to hit autographs, which is also not a bad spot to be in better than skunking. Totally okay well I'm always happy to move on from the Phillies so let's uh go right to the Washington Nationals again looks like they have a large uh first bowman checklist who is the guy for the nationals they've got a few of them they got a few guys all right I really I really like this nationals checklist none of them are like I don't know that any of them are going to be like in my top 10 for the hitters but they've got they've got probably like three guys they could solidly be in like my like 15 to 20 which is like one of my favorite zones to attack and buying because especially early on because like everyone's after the top couple names you know everyone's like you know Ethan Holiday for example they're like what price should I be buying Ethan Holliday base autos at? I'm like well you're probably not going to be buying them is is the correct answer. So I love this kind of like 15 to 20 range you get a lot of good sleepers the players that you know the public doesn't know about no one's really chasing. I think the the nationals have three really solid ones in this product.

SPEAKER_00 30:57

That's another great thing about Bowman flagship is the timing of the release like there's so much volatility post release because you're seeing actual professional at bats happening in real time from release day on. Whereas draft like comes out in December and January and you're kind of just chilling until spring training. But it makes it difficult, huh? Yeah it does but it makes it fun right because you can there's always those somebody from that 15 to 20 that ends up working their way into the top five it seems like in Bowman.

SPEAKER_02 31:23

Oh yeah for sure. And then it's like the the the the hardest part for me is like you said when Croman draft it's so easy to just sit there and be like I'm just gonna watch these singles go down in value for two months. Right. But Bowman Bowman's tricky man right in the middle of the season those cards come out I I remember watching Kevin McGonagall is a perfect example of this Kevin I remember Kevin McGonagall he had sprained his ankle right before 2025 Bowman came out and somehow he wasn't getting like a ton of buzz. And I remember the the prices coming out the singles prices coming out the first week and being like man I you know it feels dumb to buy in the first week but I feel like Kevin McGonagall's low yeah and he was around this like 115 range and I remember doing my weekly updates and he gets to like 95. 90 80 and like and as soon he gets to a point where I'm like listen I think that you have to start buying this autograph you know even if it's the first week like if his base autograph gets under $100. So it is kind of crazy that you get those opportunities where if there's a guy that you like that's like hurt or he's you know like no one's figured him out yet is it great it it's really hard to navigate trying to figure out when everything's gonna hit the bottom when everything's gonna go up since they're playing games while it comes out it it kind of makes it fun. Yeah totally all right so we want names now you got us hyped on these uh national guys give us some names who are we looking at I think that from a hobby perspective I I don't know that I would he's probably not my highest ranked if I was doing a standard prospect ranking I would probably rank somebody else higher but as far as hobby hype it's tough they have two that I think are going to sell pretty decently I would guess that Coy James is probably the highest ranked of the national prospects he's kind of like a uh like a Swiss Army knife really good tools above average power plus speed but he plays infield he plays outfield does a little bit of everything he's gonna come down to how good his hit tool is that's gonna be the question but the powers look good early on I I think that he's gonna be a name like I said infielder outfielder good athleticism good tools you know high school age I think that he probably is is the strongest you know has the has the best hobby profile of any of the nationals prospects but the there's there's a couple good ones all right well let's let's keep going let's hear what else we got who do you like Bert you got a preference on the nationals yeah I was gonna ask you if you like Herman or Peterson better because they're very similarly priced in breaks. Have they been yeah yeah so this is kind of like the the old Bowman conundrum if you were to make me just give you my list of prospect rankings for baseball Peterson would be the highest ranked nationals prospect on this checklist for me. Sure but he's not flashy but he's 23 and it's like I I know how Bowman people are going to look I mean and there's nothing wrong he's he's a top 150 hitter for me in my rankings he's the highest ranked nationals hitter in my Bowman rankings which came out today. So even my hobby rankings rank him the highest but I just know I I can see the swing I can see the stats like I love the tools I love the player but you just know when those singles come out and people say 23 year old prospect you know not even in triple A yet that's it's just so tough in Bowman. Yeah. And it's like Herman's you know Herman had a really good DSL season I don't know herman what I think might happen with Herman is that a lot of DSL prospects which is one of the reasons that I tell people to kind of temper their expectations when it comes to DSL prospects is that you're gonna get a lot of guys who hit for power in the DSL because they're much they're they're too advanced of hitters to be at the level. So you'll get guys who are five six five seven even that are going to project for below average power and they'll put up impressive power numbers in the DSL and against lower level pitching but it's just because they're they're they're so good you know like if you control the zone that well and you have a good swing and you you know make solid contact against bad pitching you can you're gonna run into some home runs you know so it's like one of the things I worry about is guys that don't have swings that are geared for power they don't have a a a frame to support power but they hit you know seven eight home runs in the DSL and then you kind of have to be like well these numbers look legit but as he climbs levels of the minor leagues it's one of the questions I had with Johnny Level which it hasn't seemed to be a problem because he looks fantastic. But you always wonder what those guys are like it's like they hit home runs but was it just because it was the DSL so I think that's where I kind of fall with Herman I think people are going to be very excited about him because he's an 18 year old shortstop and he put up really good numbers in the DSL. But if he comes to the States and the average you know the the power is below average are people going to be as excited so that's kind of tough for me. It's like as a prospect I like Sam Peterson who's more hobby exciting probably Herman. Yeah that makes sense okay and we got just a couple more guys with first bowman's uh Sean Paul Linion from I'm really good yeah I like him he's a uh he's a he's a base only he he came over from the Dodgers nasty changeup nasty changeup he's I I like him a lot you don't see a lot of righties that are change up dominant huh that that that wouldn't have been you bert nope not me I know the lefty circle change guy that was my outpitch yeah the lefty circle change is nice but yeah um a right good righty changeup he's he's really good I like him a lot I don't think he has an autograph but uh from my rankings perspective he's probably would be one of the top 10 or 11 pitchers in this product supposing he had an autograph so you know his his color might do well and then lastly we have the catcher Daniel Hernandez yeah he's gonna be probably the the least the least exciting of the uh of the nationals prospects he's he's base only and he's he's just not very hobby exciting so I think the other names are the ones that you're probably gonna want to be looking at and then on top of that they also have a very one of the reasons that I that I said I liked uh the Nats for PYT on top of having these three firsts that I like you know I like Peterson I like Herman I like James they got three good autographs their non-first autograph checklist like their the short prints and the non-first autos really strong really strong Willitz yeah Eli Willitz will have a I I was just talking to doll about this earlier does it seem strange to you that Eli Willitz got a gold ink auto in 25 Bowman draft and he has a gold ink second auto in 26 Bowman who's that for first ever guy to have two gold ink autos as a prospect. Yeah and it's like I get that he's the number one pick and it's like as you said if you're gonna put non-first autos in a product make it you know make it a a name worth chasing which Willitz is you know so it's hard to default them for you know putting a bunch of the number one pick back but yeah I thought that him getting back to back gold gold ink autos was kind of funny.

SPEAKER_01 38:03

That is I feel like it takes away from his first gold ink auto a little bit how it's like they're so close together but I'm not gonna complain if I hit it.

SPEAKER_02 38:11

Let's just put it in a way I'm sure that'll sell well he also has a um have you guys seen the uh the draft pick pairings the dual autos no I haven't uh did my deep dive yet into uh oh man so there's um one of the new uh inserts I don't think they've done it before there's an insert autograph in this in this product and they're gonna be called draft pick pairings and it's going to be two players who were drafted with the same draft selection so two number one picks two number three picks set they'll be separate teams some I think there's only one or two that are same teams there was Griffe and Arod. Yeah they're that's gonna be I did see that now that I'm remembering it yeah that's gonna be unreal are those gonna be but Eli Eli Willitz has a draft pick pairing duel with uh Bazanna for number one pick.

SPEAKER_00 38:55

That's cool.

SPEAKER_02 38:56

So it's like that I I don't know how how well those insert autos will will sell but well Eli Willitz also has an anime. That's right.

SPEAKER_00 39:03

There's an Eli Willitz anime so you got that 25 draft guy to have a gold ink auto I think so I'm looking through it.

SPEAKER_02 39:10

Yeah he's they really uh they really put a lot of Willets into it. But then there's also we talked about like the patchwork um that patchwork insert's really cool and I think Slab Squatch said that it might be less than 200 copies. So we'll kind of see if it gets like accepted like spotlight where people like love the design and it sells well but um there's a James Wood patchwork so that's a cool one for the nationals. And then they also have the of those draft pick pairings those dual autos you talked about Griffe Arod. I think when I looked through the checklist I was like I mean that Griffe Arod especially for you Bert Mariners fan that card's got to be that's incredible. And most of them aren't most of them aren't the same team because you know you know you often don't have the number one pick.

SPEAKER_00 39:48

If that's if that's on card I mean if these are on card all of them they're gonna be under charts yeah call your call your shop Bert for your uh 10 case there for the Griffy Arod.

SPEAKER_01 39:58

Oh super fracture auto I have the uh I have the griffe spot you have the griffe spot is so you better find out you better find you better find out who has the A rod spot I don't know if there is I didn't see one he might he might not have any other that means any dual autos go to the juice.

SPEAKER_02 40:13

Yeah there you go you automatically get it but when I was looking at that checklist other than obviously Griffey Arod was the one that stood out as being like the coolest pairing but there is and we'll bring it up because we're talking about the nationals other than the number one pick Eli Willetz has with Pizanna there's another number one pick draft pick pairings dual auto and it's Steven Strasberg and Paul Skeens. That's sick.

SPEAKER_00 40:35

That's sick that's gonna be a sick card. I mean that's the guy from each generation really the top pitching prospect. Isn't that cool?

SPEAKER_01 40:42

That's awesome I'm surprised there's not a Strasburg Harper that that was their back to back number one picks right yeah that seems like it would have been easy huh I wonder if they tried to go like pitcher pitcher or you know they there's probably been Strasburg Harper autos in the past but that was before I collected um so I don't know but Strasburg Skies is pretty cool. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:02

Yeah so the Nationals have a couple of those cool um you you get the Eli Willett second you get some cool inserts uh to chase and you gotta you got a pretty good uh pretty good selection of first autographs too I think they're kind of a sneaky name oh there's also a uh there's a Brady House rookie auto you can fall back on that as well yeah I mean he's he's a staple in that lineup seems like he's pretty playing pretty much every day in the middle of the lineup yeah yeah so I mean I think the nationals are sneaky they got a little bit of everything.

SPEAKER_01 41:30

All right well I think that about does it for the nationals and also for our NL East Bowman preview. Thank you so much Bob for being here for this part one of three and of course you'll be here for the other two parts.

SPEAKER_00 41:41

Bert um any Bert and Bob any parting words before we sign off no I'm just gonna go raise the Nats price and my PYTs real quick.

SPEAKER_01 41:50

Listen I didn't mean to ruin it for anybody yeah I'm I'm excited to look to see what they might be at but yeah we'll see all right well thank you and next up we will have the NL Central this is the juice with talking cards and also Grant Salami and Bob of Big Bob's cards have a good day everyone thanks Bob appreciate you thank you