Rookie Debut Expectations
I truly believe that Paul Skenes’ rookie card, which can be found in the recently released 2024 Topps Baseball Update Series, has the potential to change things. For whatever reason, the hobby doesn’t gravitate toward pitchers as much as hitters. We just don’t put as much value into collecting them. After all, chicks dig the long ball, and pitching doesn’t have as much “sex appeal,” apparently.
A generational talent like Paul Skenes doesn’t come around often. I think his rookie card can help change the sentiment of the pitcher’s collectability. I’m calling this the “Paul Skenes Effect.”
2024 Topps Baseball Update Series #US100 Paul Skenes RC
Paul Skenes
Just a few months ago, Skenes was the biggest pitching prospect MLB has seen in decades. Now, he’s one of the front runners to win Rookie of the Year. On May 11th, the right-handed phenom hit triple-digits seventeen times in his MLB debut.
Normally, if a player debuted this late, their rookie card would live in the following calendar year’s product. In this case, 2025 Series 1 or Series 2. However, exceptions are made for players of Skene’s caliber as long as Topps thinks the quality of the product won’t suffer.
“He was a guy that was later in our window, so we had to do a ton of scrambling and collaborative work with our production and design team to get him into later 2024 products as a rookie,” Fullerton said.
The decision to move things around and include Skenes in this year’s Update Series was made because they felt it was the best decision for the product overall. A similar exception would have been made for a rookie like Elly De La Cruz had he debuted sooner.
2024 Topps Baseball Series 1 #141 Elly De La Cruz RC
Elly De La Cruz
Elly De La Cruz was called up to the Reds roster on June 6, 2023. If Elly’s debut had been made just a few weeks earlier, his RC would’ve been in 2023 Update Series. That’s exactly what transpired with Paul Skenes’s RC in 2024 Update Series. So even though the superstar shortstop had a monumental 2023 rookie season, Topps felt that his card was too important to rush into the later 2023 product. Elly’s RC is currently the biggest chase in the most recent release of 2024 Series 1.
The Paul Skenes Effect
Yes, baseball is a team sport. Yes, offensive prowess is what we all live for. There’s no better sound than the crack of a bat. Ironically, sometimes, the better pitching is during a game, the more boring the game can be. However, a dominant starter can impact a team and game more than anyone else on the field. Yes, starters only pitch once every five days—but if they’re an ace and locked in—they’re not being touched. Your odds of winning the game grow tremendously, and an ace can have an even bigger impact in the postseason.
My father grew up in the ’70s and ’80s watching the Amazin’ Mets. His name is Tom and little Tommy fell in love with “Tom Terrific.” My dad was so in love with Tom Seaver that he wore number 41 his entire life. Seaver was a generational right-handed pitcher that won Rookie of the Year. He then led an expansion team to a championship and became the best pitcher of his generation and the greatest Met of all time. Little Tom Giaimo loved collecting his cards. So much so, that I’m looking at not one, not two, but three Tom Seaver rookie cards on my mantle right now. I’m just borrowing them from my dad, I swear. He then went on to collect Nolan Ryan’s rookies. I have three of those, too.
As a whole, we used to place a ton of value on a pitcher’s rookie card. You’ll find some of the most expensive cards in the hobby in the vintage section. A large part of those high-valued cards are of pitchers. Somewhere along the way, we stopped caring so much, and I’m wondering why. Pitching is an art form, and incredibly difficult to do well. We should appreciate it more. We should start placing the same value into a pitcher’s card as we do with their performance on the mound. The kids did back in the day. The old men do now. So why can’t we start over with modern-day pitchers? There’s a chance that Paul Skenes can be the next Tom Seaver or Nolan Ryan, and potentially the same collectability. It’s just up to us collectors to make it happen. You better believe I’ll be chasing the mustache man’s RC in 2024 Update Series!
