The new year is here and we are seeing some changes to the USA Baseball market & products.  2010 was undoubtedly the year of “Topps Has Issues”, as they made their first full-year leap into the USA license.  It wasn’t all viewed as a failure though, since we are looking at some good prices and nice overall cards released.  Follow along as I make a quick analysis of the 2010 USA products and what trends we’re seeing on the eBay market.

The Good

Many people were worried about sticker autographs and how Topps would implement the USA players into Bowman Chrome, but it was received well.  The chrome autographs sold well, especially top players like Bubba Starling and Lance McCullers.  All parallels were limited enough to hold future value and we all know the saying “Chrome Is King”.

Perhaps the best use of the chrome design and stickers were the 16U autographs in Bowman Chrome Draft Picks & Prospects, which featured an American Flag background.  The players might now be hyped yet, outside of Alex Bregman and Matt Olson, but we can be sure to see some players become “the” guy to get by the end of 2011.  The parallels stayed the same as the 18U chrome autographs, which was a smart move by Topps.

The nicest looking cards of the year go to the USA Box Set patch autographs, which feature the Collegiate and 18U players.  Somehow, the 16U players did not make it into that set, but the value of the other teams make up for that in the long run.  Even without a Bryce Harper type player (Sorry folks, Bubba Starling is no Harper), the prices are up across the board. The top player in the set is bringing almost $200 already, which wasn’t seen in years past.  In fact, the past years boxed sets from Upper Deck didn’t have a player above $100 not named Bryce Haper.

With the cards being limited to 50 copies and featuring multiple patches & multiple colors, these are sure to see some future gains come draft time.

The Bad

Oh, where to do I begin with this one.  There are so many issues with the various releases that I could write a book.  The amount of swing-and-miss ideas, checklists & designs, as well as glaring mistakes are astounding.

Topps Chrome Collegiate Autographs – The fact that these were done on paper stock with horrible quality photographs, made these cards to forget.  I felt sorry for anyone buying these early of top players George Springer and Jackie Bradley Jr., because they were sure to drop in prices.  Topps could have at least done these as chrome autographs, since they were also on-card.  Sigh.

Bowman Platinum Collegiate Autographs – More issues from this release as Topps dropped the ball.  First off, the retail product came out over a month before the hobby product, which had negative effect on the sales and reception of the new product.  Sure, some cards featured patch autographs, but the amount of parallels were ridiculous and the quality control was just horrendous.  I would be shocked if anyone made money investing in these cards. Double Sigh.

The Ugly

The 2010 Ugly Award goes to the 2010 USA Box Set base set and autographs.  Not only was this product planned well in advance, but Topps was able to get all players to sign on-card.  For many hobbyists, this would be a good thing, but every other aspect of the release was just beyond horrific.

The design of the cards were minimalistic and the photography quality was like a home printer job.  The parallels for each player were increased in print run (Red Autos went from /25 to /99 and Green Autos went from /2 to /25) and a 1/1 parallel was added…..which has silver ink on a white paper background.  Talk about a disaster!

Add in that all parallels were hand numbered (great for forgers, ugh!) and it was by far the worst USA release of the year. For all of that anticipation and waiting for a popular set, Topps squarely kicked collectors in the junk.  If it wasn’t bad enough, Topps also offered just the base set w/ no autographs in retail stores for $9.99 per set.  That alone speaks volumes to the sheer amount of press cranking they did this year as a whole.

The Future

When a new year starts, it’s customary to have some resolutions set to improve and change aspects that weren’t to your liking.  So, we can all hope that Topps has some serious new years resolutions in place for 2011 and their USA product line.  The line has some serious hobby history and hopefully Topps will keep that alive. Here’s a toast to 2011, the Draft, and the good ol’ Stars & Stripes!

Want to vote on the BEST and WORST 2010 USA Baseball Sets?

Head over to FreedomCardBoard.Com and give your thoughts in the Baseball Forum.

USA Baseball Officially announced that Alex Bregman (Albuquerque Academy, 16U Team) is their 2010 USA Baseball Player Of The Year award winner.  Former winners include names such as Stephen Strasburg, Ryan Zimmerman, Ben Sheets, and Justin Smoak.  Both players were former 1st round picks the MLB First-Year Player Draft.

Bregman will receive the Richard W. “Dick” Case award after being named most valuable player of the Pan American championships in Lagos de Mareno, Mexico, where he hit .564 with 17 runs scored, two home runs and 17 RBIs in nine games.

You can check out some video on Alex Bregman below, as well as buy some of his 16U cards from 2010 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects.

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USA Baseball has released it’s list of Top 10 moments of the 2010 season, which spans across all ages and genders.  With such a well run organization, the list is sure to have some amazing moments and  others which made history.

Check out the list below from their website, with links to each story.

10. Tamara Holmes hits the first over-the-fence home run in the history of the Women’s National Team program. Recap »

9. 18U and Collegiate National Team alums dominate day one of the 2010 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft. Recap »

8. The 14U National Team wins Pan American bronze, continues its four-year medal streak. Recap »

7. The Pan American Qualifying Team finishes T-3, qualifies Team USA for the 2011 Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico. Recap »

6. Alum Bryce Harper becomes only second JUCO player to win the Golden Spikes Award, drafted No. 1 overall by the Washington Nationals. Recap »

5. Women’s National Team continues medal streak of its own in defeating host Venezuela to win the bronze at the IBAF Women’s Baseball World Cup. Recap »

4. Alex Bregman and Eric Kibler of the 16U National Team become the first ever youth-level winners of USA Baseball’s Player and Coach of the Year Awards, respectively. Recap »

3. The Collegiate National Team narrowly falls to a loaded Cuban club in the FISU World University Championships final, brings home silver. Recap »

2. Chicago Cubs prospect Chris Archer silences Cuba in a dominating start in the Pan American Qualifying Tournament, outing earns the USA Baseball International Performance of the Year Award. Recap »

1. The 16U National Team wins Pan American gold, runs international unbeaten streak to 40 games. Recap »

The USA Baseball season has come to an official close with the Gold Medal for the 16U team….again.  Not only did they dominate this year at the 2010 COPABE Pan Am ‘AA’ 16U Youth Championships, but they made some historic (and downright amazing) results.

From BA Blog:

The 16U program is now unbeaten in the last five years, running the streak to 40 games.

“I was really proud of everyone involved with the program this year, from the staff down to all of the players who participated in our trials,” said Jeff Singer, director of the 16U program. ”It was a particularly challenging year in regards to how late in the calendar the event fell and the fact that two weeks before trials started we didn’t officially know if we’d be able to compete due to safety concerns in Mexico. In the end everyone put all of that aside, we came together as an incredibly close team and we kept our focus day after day and proved that we were the best team in the tournament. We really hit the ball incredibly well.

In terms of the players that were standouts in the trials and tournament play, it was broken up between a few names you should keep your eyes on.  These players will have autographed cards from Topps in both 2010 Bowman Chrome Draft Picks and 2010 USA Baseball Boxed Set.

Infielders Alex Bregman and Corey Seager led the squad on offense.

Bregman, a junior at Albuquerque Academy, hit .564/.596/.846 in 39 at-bats with two home runs, 17 runs and 17 RBIs. He also stole five bases.

Seager hit .514/.622/.829 in 35 at-bats with 16 runs scored and 12 RBIs. He proved to be the team’s most patient hitter, drawing 10 walks in nine games.

….Team USA destroyed opposing pitching as a whole. In nine games the squad hit .437/.500/.749 with 15 home runs and outscored opponents 127-23.

Four pitchers sported a 0.00 ERA, but the two with the most innings were righthanders Carson Kelly and Felipe Perez.

Kelly hurled 13 innings, going 2-0, 3.46 with nine strikeouts and one walk.

Perez hurled one-third of an inning more and went 2-0, 3.38, allowing just nine hits and three walks while striking out 15.

If you want more coverage of the 2010 COPABE Pan Am ‘AA’ 16U Youth Championships and full player stats, check out USA Baseball.  They have cumulative statistics, box scores, and roster bios for all players involved.

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