Vacation Mail

I got quite the bundle of mail from Topps while I was on vacation. Most of it was Red Hot Rookie redemptions finally rolling in, the rest were autograph redemptions from 2010 Topps Chrome Baseball. Here's the funny thing, all of these cards came regular mail except one, the Stephen Strasburg RHR was sent certified mail. I guess Topps is making sure that they have proof of receipt for those. I think it would have been cheaper for them to send those first class with delivery confirmation than certified, but whatever.

The Red Hot Rookie redemptions look great and they're on chrome stock. I wasn't expecting them to be chrome stock, but I've never had any of these cards from previous years to know if they always are. Topps has sent me #'s 1-8, I'm just waiting on #9 Mike Minor and #10 Brett Wallace. I hope that I get at least one Brett Wallace autograph as I sent in three for redemption. I'll keep you posted on those.

The two autographs I received from Topps Chrome were Brian Matusz and Brandon Hicks.

Mike Minor TTM Success

Date sent: 3/28/09
Date returned: 4/10/09

This continues the trend of returns from players with cards in the 2008 Upper Deck USA set. Most of the requests I sent were to high school players, 2 have come back. This return my first from a college player in the set.

Mike Minor is a junior at Vanderbilt University. Here is what his coach had to say about him: "Mike is one of the most complete pitchers that I have coached. He has three above average pitches with plus command and pitchabilty. He will be our "go to guy" and one of the top pitchers in the country. Mikie is a well conditioned athlete who has a strong work ethic." - Coach Tim Corbin

David Price pitched at Vanderbilt so it's not like Coach Corbin hasn't seen pitching talent before.

As with the other players, I sent two cards and requested he sign one and keep one for himself. Mike did just that.