Prospecting for Gold

One of the things I used to rarely do was go after prospects. These days, the collecting market seems to be focused squarely on them. Ohtani cards and through the roof. Big name prospects' Bowman autos go for hundreds or thousands. I was at a little card shop here in Lake Charles and noticed they had some Leaf Valiant. I figured "why not"? Here's the prospects I ended up with, not too shabby:

This Edwin Rios is # 3/25! Nice and shiny! He's currently the #12 prospect in the Dodgers system and is listed as a 1B/3B/OF. He's currently at extended spring training after getting dinged up during spring training. Once activated, he should be a starter at AAA.

Coleman Brannen 3/15! Cole is currently at A ball in the Red Sox system after being drafted in 2017! Struggling so far with a .157 average through 26 games. 

Who is Norge Ruiz? Well, this one #'ed /35 is an Oakland prospect signed out of Cuba. He's worked his way up to AA ball, and is 2-3 this year with a 4.55 ERA.

If you're a prospector, you absolutely know who Heliot Ramos is! One of the headliners in the 2017 draft, went #19 to the Giants. 6 triples and 6 homers in the Arizona Fall League has Giant's fans excited about his future! This one is 34/35!

Finally, each box guarantees one graded 9.5 or 10 auto. I was pretty happy with mine.

Shane was a guy who I thought the Astros might target in the 2017 draft, being he was from Cypress but the Pirates snatched him up at #12, three spots ahead of us. He is already the #3 prospect in the Pirates system. He was held back for extended spring training as well, but more out of the Pirates' conservative approach to young pitchers. He's expected to finish the year in low A ball. But in talking to some Pirates fans, the thoughts are Baz could shoot up through their system very quickly.

Overall, it was a fun box of Valiant and I think I did better than most considering 2 were 1st round picks in the previous draft. Certainly could have been a much rougher box, especially the graded card being such a highly touted prospect. Not sure if I'd buy much more, as I'm typically not a prospector, but who knows...all for trade or sale.

Have a great one everyone!