Overanalyzing Early MLB Season and SI for Kids Card Rankings

Yahoo

08-04-2025

DETROIT, MI - APRIL 7: Aaron Judge #99 of the New York Yankees hits a RBI-single to drive in Trent Grisham during the fifth inning at Comerica Park on April 7, 2025 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by)
(Duane Burleson via Getty Images)
We're less than 10 games into the MLB season, for most teams, but of course that doesn't mean we shouldn't overanalyze the early season happenings and what it means for baseball card collectors.
Let's dive, nay, torpedo our way into the conversation!
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Are we under-hyping Aaron Judge? These are the kinds of fun stats that I love: Aaron Judge matched Babe Ruth by hitting 321 total home runs in his 1,000th career game. The reason I ask whether or not he's undervalued is because the most expensive Aaron Judge card ever sold went for $324,000 - which is certainly a lot of money, but you could buy three of those cards and still have over $100,000 left over at the price Paul Skenes's most expensive card has sold for.
Paul Skenes may become a generational pitcher, I'm not here to question that - but Judge already is a generational talent. Today he's a first ballot Hall of Famer. Mike Trout might go into the Hall of Fame having never won a playoff series.
OK, sorry, just can someone pay someone else $1,000,000 for a Judge card please? Thanks.
I've got my eye on Jacob Wilson. It's hard to fully dive head first into any A's player, but Wilson is having a nice little start to the season and his prices are still pretty leveled to where they were when the season started - so the run on Wilson cards hasn't accelerated yet.
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If the Detroit Tigers win the Central… this is where you think I'm going to tell you to buy the dip on Tarik Skubal because he's going to be fine; but honestly I think if this holds for the Tigers then we might be talking about Riley Greene for MVP. Spoiler alert: this won't hold for the Tigers.
Panic sell your Roki Saski 2020 Lotte Bikkuriman Chiba Lotte Marines 70th Anniversary Sticker cards … to me. I want them. All of them.
How are we feeling about Oneil Cruz? He's still just now hitting his prime years, he's on pace to have over 100 steals (note: he won't get 100 steals, but…) and the Pirates still haven't really gotten going. I'm leaning toward hedging. I have a few Cruz rookie autos and I think I'm going to sell the majority of them but hold onto one or two - just in case.
More importantly, are the days of using your Spencer Torkelson cards as coasters over? I'll be right back, just going to replace my Spencer Torkelson coasters with Dylan Crews coasters…they really tie the room together.
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How about Tommy Edman? We buying? Nope.
Lars Nootbar? Nah, I'm good.
Julio Rodriguez? Sometimes I drive without a seatbelt. Sometimes I run with scissors in my hands. Sometimes I stay up really, really late and buy your overpriced Julio Rodriguez rookie cards on eBay. I like a little danger in my life.
Look, yes, it's way too early for hot takes but I promise you I'm always looking for trends and patterns - and I have some really nice Bobby Witt, Jr. cards to hang my hat on and probably 5-times as many Jo Adell rookie autos to make a literal baseball hat out of.
Shrug emoji, friends. Shrug emoji.
I was reading Mike Meltzer's piece on The Definitive Ranking of the Most Important Sports Illustrated for Kids Cards and when I tell you I couldn't sleep for days after reading it - I mean literal days.
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Here's the thing, Mike is great, this list is great, but of course it's missing some 'definitive' cards. So let's make Mike's list better, shall we?
Kobe Bryant Halloween card. You can argue that the whole Halloween sheet from 1999 is worthy of being on the list - especially knowing what we know now. You have Brett Favre on the sheet as a pirate… stealing money. Roger Clemens as the cowardly lion from the Wizard of Oz, who was afraid to, um, come forward about his steroid use. But the Kobe is great, as he's dressed as Dracula and really showing his killer instinct and sweet side, donning the famous Kobe smile.
Chet Holmgren OKC Thunder card. This one . I think..but feel really good about this potential fact… the first card featuring Victor Wembanyama in his Spurs jersey was actually the Holmgren SIFK card. It's an impossible task, especially for someone as lazy as I am, to fact check that, but I remember distinctly when it came out thinking that there was no 'in game' photo of Wemby (yet) on a card.
OK, that one was dumb.
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Novak Djokavic 2010 card. While this is technically not his rookie card, he is arguably the most important male tennis player of our generation and it is arguably one of his most important cards. It feels important to me, OK!
A'Ja Wilson 2016 South Carolina card. Her 'true' WNBA rookie card didn't come out until 2018 and that was in a fairly rare Rittenhouse set. Now, I love Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, etc., but Wilson is the greatest to play the game - at the moment. This card seems significant to me.
Lionel Messi 2023 Inter Miami card. Now, this is a reaction to Mike including Luka Doncic's first-licensed Lakers card on his list, because technically the Messi card was the first time we saw him in pink.
Shohei Ohtani 2018 rookie card. I mean, literally any Ohtani rookie card you can get your hands on you should.
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There are so many others, and I know the criteria also had a lot to do with resale value and the cards above are fairly affordable, but if you've been reading my content long enough you know that I could write a million words on SI for Kids cards.
'Catholic Church denounces online sale of relics of first millennial saint' might be a frontrunner for new headline of the year.
Carlos Acutis, who sadly passed in 2006 at the age of 15, will be canonized at the end of this month. An anonymous seller had reportedly been selling 'relics' of his hair for close to $2,200.
If that $2,000 is a bit out of your budget, you can also find Saints relics on eBay for less than $2.
Remember weeks ago when I asked 'what else can they put inside cards' after Topps announced that they were putting LeBron's shooting sleeve inside a card?
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Watch . A firesuit watch, but yeah, still a watch.
Here's your dumb question of the week: Without looking, how much do you think a Taylor Swift autographed CD is worth? Yes, Taylor Swift - arguably the most famous person in the world.
I was pretty surprised that you can get an auto for $50-$75 range. You couldn't find a LeBron James autograph for under $1,000. I know supply-demand, etc., but I was pretty shocked at how cheap they are.
I know her audience is young and probably cares less about the signature of their idols, but still it seems like the best deal going in the world of collectibles, right?
I've talked ad nauseam about both Paige Beuckers and Lauren Betts here in Mail Day and while Betts and the UCLA Bruins got clobbered by UCONN in the Final Four, Betts played really well against the Huskies and Beuckers is all but locked in as the number one pick in next week's WNBA Draft, but we need to keep an eye on another player who really emerged: Sarah Strong .
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I think there might be an SI Kids card in the near future that we might want to jump all over.
Finally, congrats to Alex Ovechkin, who became the NHL's all-time leading goal scorer this weekend, passing The Great One. His market had already been on the rise in anticipation of him breaking the record, but will we see a $500K sale any time soon?
Would love to see what Ovechkin cards you have in your collection. Header over to Mantel and share!