11 Blaster Packs of 2019 Topps Update Series

Well, quite obviously, I'm not getting a hobby box of Update this year.

This is the deal I have with Topps. If they actually put traded players in their sets, and not just the ones from January that should have been in flagship, but the ones from July that Update used to be full of, I'll get a hobby box. If not, I'll get a few retail packs, and just find singles of the other base cards I want. This is what happened in 2017, when they balked the traded players and kept the big one, Yu Darvish, to a short print. And this is what they've done in 2019. Yasiel Puig is the only player in a July-on uniform, and that's also a short print.

So, I got two blasters today, and that may be the most of the retail sales they'll get from me. So, fourteen packs...and three of them were EXACT REPLICAS of other packs in this break. Collation is so bad now that exact packs are repeating themselves. So those three will not be shown here (I might mention the inserts), but the first eleven certainly will.

Guaranteed Manu-Patch Cards: Warren Spahn & JD Martinez

Pack 1-
85- Robbie Grossman, quietest DH in baseball
95- Nick Senzel Rookie Debut. I really don't think they need to do these.
124- Raimel Tapia
63- Trent Thornton RC. There's something people actually wanted from this set, rather than roster pieces that were kinda set in January and BS-set-fillers.
163- Miguel Castro. Another thing Update should be used for- relievers. I wanna see more of these, and less filler cards.
89- Carlos Santana ASG GOLD #'D TO 2019. Nice pick for a gold card
84T insert of Jon Duplantier. Man, they really doubled down on this guy.
Bryce Harper Welcome to Philly insert. Okay, so...as much as I enjoy Bryce-Phillies stuff...lemme ask you this. Topps has done these player-centric inserts for Judge, Bellinger, Torres and Ohtani, and now Bellinger. What happens if a big-mojo rookie comes into a no-market baseball city like Miami or Detroit?
205- Darwinzon Hernandez
203- Wilmer Flores
78- MIKE FORD RC. Okay, NOW I'm happy. If Ford's rookie wasn't in here, I woulda revolted. Though, Ford being here and Alvarez not being here, even if Alvarez debuted earlier, is VERY fishy
195- Nick Hundley
87- Willson Contreras ASG
92- George Springer ASG

Pack 2-
182- Andrew Knizner
123- Justus Sheffield RC
294- Josh Fuentes. Lots of rookies who were big in like May
282- Nate Eovaldi
236- Adam Ottavino. Alright, now I'm happy
65- Brad Hand ASG
Reds History insert of Johnny Bench. I kinda love they're doing this, as the Reds don't get a ton of love as is
187- CURTIS GRANDERSON 150-stamped.
115- Pedro Avila
262- Pete Alonso HRD. At the very least, this card is great.
296- Dan Vogelbach ASG
177- JP Crawford. It looks suspiciously like Topps PD's out the Spring Training patch
46- Tanner Roark. Outdated Update #1- Roark finished the season in Oakland
66- JT Realmuto. WOOOO

Pack 3-
170- Michael Chavis RC, which is nice
110- Marwin Gonzalez. This is a very nice card
211- Skye Bolt
132- Neil Walker
248- Ryan Helsley
137- Hansel Robles, which is a MUCH-NEEDED Update Series card
270- Homer Bailey. Outdated Update #2. Bailey also finished the season in Oakland.
27- JD Hammer SHINY.
165- Dwight Smith Jr.
275- Brandon Kintzler, who had a great season in relief for Chicago
286- Luis Cessa. Yeah, I'm fine with the excess relievers, except for the unneeded rookie ones
151- Mookie Betts ASG
214- Zack Britton. Ottavino and Britton in 2 packs. Nicely done
58- JT Realmuto ASG. Annd 2 Realmutos in 2 packs.

Pack 4-
108- Cole Irvin
277- Luke Weaver
199- Will Smith RC. This one looks nice.
184- Travis D'Arnaud. Very satisfying that this guy stayed healthy this year.
37- Tim Beckham and his 50-game suspension
194- Max Muncy ASG. Nice looking card, too
Perennial All-Stars of Sandy Koufax
Another Welcome to Philly Harper insert
103- Austin Allen
209- Justin Bour, post-awful LA season
27- JD Hammer again
134- JD Martinez ASG
292- Joe Biagini. Outdated Update #3- Biagini was traded to Houston
155- Charlie Morton, MLB's Mr. Life Begins After 30.

Pack 5-
243- Eloy Jimenez RD
153- Tyler Austin. Outdated Update #4- Austin ended 2019 in Milwaukee
295-Cavan Biggio RD
269- Craig Kimbrel as a Cub, perhaps one of the two important Update Series cards in this set
18- Christian Walker
162- Scott Alexander, sans-awesome-stache
84T insert of Carter Kieboom
202- Nicky Lopez
57- Clayton Richard
90 Blake Pakrer. Outdated Update #5, Parker was traded to Philly in July
128- GIIIOOOOOO Urshela. That's a nice inclusion
91- Ketel Marte ASG
25- Cody Bellinger ASG
47- Pete Alonso ASG. Man, imagine how much more they could do with this set if they ditched the ASG subset and made said subset a ToppsNOW exclusive thing for 40 bucks or something.

Pack 6-
240- Merrill Kelly RC. Not...necessarily a rookie
222- Martin Perez
198- Pete Alonso RD
119- Jesus Sucre. Okay, with Sucre's like 16 games in Baltimore, we did not need a card of him in this.
71- Queen City Kings. It's a Dietrich-Puig combo, and I am counting this as a Derek Dietrich card because he's featured more prominently
9- Masahiro Tanaka ASG
189- Another Combo, PACIFIC POWER, with Trout and Ohtani. Because it is called 'PACIFIC Power', I'm counting this as an Ohtani card, sort of like his Japanese-text combo card from earlier this year
Greatest Players of Alex Bregman
36- Jake Odorizzi ASG
111- Matt Festa
206- Dylan Moore
100- Austin Riley RC, which is kinda nice
152- Jordan Lyles. Outdated Update #6, Lyles went back to Milwaukee at the deadline.
72- Albert Pujols 2000 RBI Checklist

Pack 7-
139- Adam Haseley RC, which is a nice start
26- Mark Reynolds
169- Taylor Clarke RC
35- Derek Dietrich
210- Borque/Noll Combo RC
59- Jared Walsh. I love that the card credits him as a 1B/P. That is cool. I want them to do that for Michael Lorenzen
284- Clayton Kershaw ASG
1- Vladimir Guerrero...PHOTO VARIATION RC. Holy crap. This shot is of him pointing, which is different from the him-throwing RC. Photo variations are seeded 1 in 32 packs, so this is a NICE pull.
...and that is followed by...
84T AUTOGRAPH OF...Jason Martin. Yes, it's an auto of a career .270 minors hitter who played 20 games this year for Pittsburgh, but it's still a rookie autograph out of RETAIL Update. Hell, 84T autos are seeded 1 in 580 packs. FIVE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY. So to say I beat the odds is an understatement. Hell, let's multiply 1/32 by 1/580. The odds of pulling both of these is 1 in 18,560 packs. Holy crap.
49- Mike Moustakas ASG
74- Elvis Luciano RC
259- Alex Bregman HRD
28- Oscar Mercado
24- Lucas Giolito ASG

Pack 8-
1- Vladimir Guerrero Jr. RC. THIS IS THE REGULAR ONE. So...with this one, the variation, AND the variation I somehow got from S2...I now have 3 versions of Vlad's rookie card, and I'm not even a Jays fan
11- Brandon Brennan
81- Jose Iglesias
186- JR Murphy. Didn't exactly need an US card
268- Jose Berrios ASG
229- Kyle Dowdy
84T Xander Bogaerts, which is nice
Welcome to Philly Harper Insert. MORE. I know this is stupid, but MORE.
191- Brad Boxberger
120- Billy Hamilton. Outdated Update #7- Hamilton went from KC to Atlanta in August
192- Michael Chavis RD
279- Freddie Freeman ASG
232- Michael Brantley ASG
21- Melky Cabrera

Pack 9-
224- Yasmani Grandal ASG
67- Nick Ramirez
121- Asdrubal Cabrera. Outdated Update #8, left for Washington
94- Gregory Soto
213- RICHARD LOVELADY, BEST BASEBALL NAME OF THE YEAR
166- Andrew Miller
Greatest Players of Paul Molitor
265- Syndergaard's HR and Shutout CL
62- Vlad Jr. RD. Yeah, they even make a Rookie Debut card for people who's debut was listless.
187- Curtis Granderson. They knew I'd be getting these boxes, I guess
109- Carter Kieboom
106- Yasiel Puig...sadly as a Red, not an Indian
257- Josh Donaldson, who had an awesome year
271- Ronald Acuna HRD

Pack 10-
233- DJ LEMAHIEU
51- Bryan Reynolds RC
118- Freddy Galvis. COME ON. Outdated Update #9, traded to Cincinnati.
235- Alex Jackson RC. This card wasn't necessary
234- Trevor Cahill
127- Kelvin Herrera, who had a very weak year in Chicago
261- Jeff McNeil ASG
151- Mookie Betts ASG FOIL
105- Luis Rengifo RC
77- Drew Pomeranz. Outdated Update #10, ended the year in Milwaukee
237- Domingo Santana
141- Brandon Woodruff ASG
13- Yasmani Grandal ASG
83- Whit Merrifield ASG

Pack 11-
73- Peter Lambert RC
226- Ryne Harper
131- Mike Moustakas. SO...MOOSE, who must have had a base card in flagship, gets a base card HERE because he almost switched teams in the offseason, but didn't?? REALLY, TOPPS?
138- Adam Warren
117- DJ LeMahieu ASG. Awesome
183- Bird/Dowdy Rangers Rookies. WAIT, KYLE DOWDY ALREADY HAS A SOLO ROOKIE IN THIS SET. WHAT ARE YOU THINKING??
Perennial All-Stars of Jose Altuve
Bryce Harper Welcome to Philly. WOO
149- Corbin Martin RC. Outdated Update #11, traded to the Diamondbacks for Zack Greinke, who's ALSO not in this in a new uniform.
52- Keston Hiura RD
56- Fernando Tatis RD
272- Vlad Jr. HRD
45- Brendan Rodgers RD
112- Josh Bell ASG. Enthralling.

And the highlights of the 3 dupe packs:
84T Insert of MARIANO RIVERA
Greatest Players of RHYS HOSKINS
213- RICHARD LOVELADY...gold #'d to 2019. Yep. My favorite baseball name of the year, in gold. I love it.

So...yeah, Topps still makes a TON of bad mistakes here, but...as an Update set, it's fine? I guess. I got some nice stuff out of it, including that INCREDIBLE Pack 7, which has gotta go among my all-time ripping achievements. But...idk if I'll go back to retail for much more. Especially if the collation's always gonna be this bad.