Bad Wax Review – 2005 Donruss Baseball

Originally I wasn’t going to do 2 packs a day, but I think on the weekends I just might. During the week it can get hectic at work and it might take 3-4 hours to finish a blog entry but on the weekends, I’m just hanging out so its nice to open a pack or two and write about it. The pack that got the lucky draw this afternoon was Donruss 2005 baseball. I used to love the Donruss cards, then they started getting away from the cardboard designs we all fell in love with in the 80s and tried to duplicate the Upper Deck glossy kind of cards. There are a ton of inserts in this set, way to many to list. The only card worth anything in this whole set is a Wang RC. Here is what the pack looks like:

Every time I get a pack now that says hobby, I can’t help but get a little excited since it means better chances of hitting good pulls. However, you know my luck, you know how awful my draws can be, so I try not to get my hopes up. Although I won’t lie it would be pretty cool to find a nice insert in any of these packs. 10 cards await my reviews, so here we go . . .

1. Chris Oxspring – P – Padres – 311 – Ummm never heard of him, clearly one of those pre-pro career rookie cards, sometimes you end up hearing about these guys and sometimes not. Chris is one of those sometimes not.  Chris bounced around from MLB to Japan back to MLB then to Korea.  He’s originally from Australia so I guess not afraid to go to other countries.

2. Ivan Rodriguez – C – Tigers – 185 – On the other hand Ivan almost signed a deal with a Japanese league after his Ranger’s contract expired.  Lucky for the Marlins he didn’t and ended up being a big cog in winning that World Series.  I have to say that I seem to be getting a ton of I-Rods lately, sign up and get one if you want em.

3. Geoff Jenkins – OF – Brewers – 228 – Jenkins has to be one of my all time favorite players.  My one story I have, is that this last summer, I went to a Nats / Brewers game in DC, trying to get a hat signed by any brewer and I called out Geoff’s name and he came up to me and signed not only signed my hat, but also signed a program for my buddy.  Just a real nice guy.

4. Junior Spivey – 2B – Brewers – 229 – A sequential of cards here.  I remember Spivey on the Diamondbacks, but not on the Brewers, and for good reason, he was only on the team for 49 games before being traded to his final stop in the Bigs.  Last seen down on the farm in Pawtucket.  He’s a utility man but just a temporary one.

5. Mike Cameron – OF – Mets – 259 – When it’s all said and done, Cameron will finish with a good career, played on a ton of teams, but had four 20/20 seasons, his only problem, a career 0.248 hitter. Nice 7th or 8th slot hitter and that’s why he is still in the MLB.

6.  Jason Schmidt – P – Giants – 323 – Chrome insert 146 / 252.  Not a bad pull, I mean it could have been Junior Spivey, Schmidt isn’t a bad pitcher, he just isn’t a superstar.  I always thought it was the Pirates holding him back, but really it was he was just a mediocre pitcher.

7. Carl Crawford – OF Devil Rays – 346 – Man I so wanted to see him as a Yankee when there were some talks about sending him to NY.  What sucks for the D Rays is that he is so good and will be so expensive to re-sign that there is practically no way to keep him in Tampa.  Tampa really needs to be assigned to a division they would have a shot at winning, because it will never be in the east.  Not until there is a hard salary cap, and until then, they will remain a famr team for the bigger teams.

8. Alex Rios – OF – Blue Jays – 364 – Rios has a chance to become a top tier star this year.  He’ll be entering his prime years, his stats have increased every year for 4 years, look out he could have a 30/20 year while hitting 0.300+  Get those Rios rookie cards out and ready for a little burst.

9. Armando Benitez – P – Marlins – 265 – Some people just don’t do well in big markets.  Armando is one of them.  He was largely a bust with the Mets, Yankee and Mariners.  Put him on a team with nothing to lose like the Marlins and he excels. As long as he stays away from a big market or high pressure situation he’ll do OK.  Just not a big money closer.

10. Robb Quinlan – 1B – Angles – 80 – A utility guy hitting his prime years, I figured he might be further along in his career by now.  If he would have jumped ship and headed to a smaller market team he could start.  Not sure why he stayed in LA.  SHould have gone to Pittsburgh or the Royals.

Overall, the insert card really made the pack worthwhile.  Once again, I’ll reiterate I don’t like the direction Donruss went in card design but the card is not bad looking.  Real simple design and nice quality photos.  Now for the card ratings all ratings are out of 5.0 stars:

Initial cost of pack – $2.95 – 1.5 stars – I don’t think any base set for any company should have packs that cost more than $2.

Cards in pack – 10 – 1.0 stars – Are you serious?  Only 10 cards, it’s a freaking base set, nothing special, so why not boost it to 15.

Stars in Pack – 1 – 0.5 stars – Ivan Rodriguez was the only star in the pack, the set wasn’t that big you figure I would have hit a second or third.

Value of pack – 2-3 dollars – 3.0 stars – Nailing a limited edition insert was great (out of 252), if it was a better player than Schmidt I would have given this a higher rating.

Card Design – 2.0 stars – It’s just a boring card.  Is it against the law to have an exciting base set?  Why do the card companies not put any thought into these designs?

Overall the pack is 1.6 stars, not too bad, but only because of the insert.  No insert would have yielded around a 1.0 rating.  Any card in here you want, just let me know at mai.