Brett Wallach 2010 Great Lakes Loons #32

Card Review: B+   If this card looks familiar, it's because it's the second time I've posted it.  The first one I came into possession of was autographed.  I wrote at the time when I posted it that I didn't know if they were all autographed, or just the one I had in hand.  It didn't seem like that outlandish of a thing to do for a minor league giveaway, to have the players autograph them all.   This card serves as confirmation that they were not all autographed. 

I prefer this one to the autographed one.  That's not a knock on Brett Wallach, I just don't like autographed cards, regardless of whose signature is on it.  I mean unless it's something really goofy, like a Pedro Martinez autograph on an old Don Zimmer card, or something like that.  But as far as autographs go, they don't do a lot for me.  When I was a kid, they were a huge deal, but it was also more about getting close enough to Will Clark to get the autograph and the player acknowledging your existence.  I don't get the current craze of autographed cards in packs, but who am I to judge.  I hoard Tim Wallach cards.

Brett Wallach 2011 Daytona Cubs #23

Card Review: B  My only real complaint about this card is that they use the same photo on the back.  That's always annoyed me.  If the design was just going to use a head shot, that has be pretty easy to find.  And even the boring head shots from the team webpage, media guide, etc, would be better than using the same photo again.

Brett Wallach 2009 Ogden Raptors

Card Review: B  This card design is a little generic but there's really nothing wrong with it.  I feel like it looks like a declined mock up for an early 90's Score set.  I actually kind of like the wood grain look on the back of the card.  I would have just left it all the darker yellow, I think you'd still be able to read the lettering ok.

I just received an envelope of minor league cards from my connection, so the next week or so is going to feature a heavy does of Brett and Matt Wallach cards that I didn't previously have.  It's been awhile since I mentioned my thoughts on collecting the Wallach kids, so I'll go ahead and mention it again.  I think it's pretty cool to be able to collect their cards, but am not trying "to collect them all."  One of each is fine.  I'm also grading them differently, using letters instead of numbers.  I'm not sure it makes any difference (or that anyone cares), but it helps keep things in order for me.

Brett Wallach 2010 Daytona Cubs #23

Card Review: A  As far team issued minor league sets go, this card is very nice.  It's an unapologetic '62/'87 Topps ripoff, but ripping off classic Topps designs is something I wholeheartedly encourage minor league teams to do with their team sets.  On top of the nice design, it's fantastic photo, for any set.  I've always been a huge fan of cards with photos of a ball in flight.  This is really a great way to do cards for pitchers, and seems so obvious that I'm surprised it's not used enough to be cliche.  Yet I can't recall seeing many (if any) shots like this in Topps sets over the years.

The Dodgers traded Brett Wallach to the Cubs in 2010 for Ted Lilly.  The Dodgers included another minor leaguer in the deal, Kyle Smit, but Wallach was the headliner for the Cubs.  It's a pretty good demonstration of just how highly Brett was thought of as a prospect before his arm injury.  Hopefully his best pitching days are still ahead of him.

Brett Wallach 2009 Bowman Chrome Draft Prospects Refractor #BDPP74

Card Review: B- This is another one of the countless variations of 2009 Brett Wallach cards.  I think there's clearly an issue when a card described as "2009 Bowman Chrome Draft Prospects Refractor #BDPP74" is one of the simpler card descriptions.  But what do I know.

Brett Wallach missed all of last season following Tommy John Surgery.  He's currently attempting a comeback with the Grand Prairie Air Hogs.  They play in an independent league known as The American Association.  Their websites are terrible, so I've been relying solely on Brett's Baseball-Reference page for updates.  In 17 innings (no starts) he's struck out 14, walked 8, and amassed a 3-0 record.  Hopefully the former 3rd pick of the Dodgers continues to regain his old form, and draws the attention of an MLB organization.

If anyone happens to have seen an Air Hogs game and saw Brett pitch, I'd like hear what you thought.

Brett Wallach 2009 Bowman Chrome X-Fractor #BDPP74 #/199

Card Review: C+  This is my first time seeing an "X-Fractor."  Having now held one in my hand and I can confirm, they are every bit as stupid and unnecessary as they sound.  I cannot begin to wrap my head around the shear number of variations of 2009 Brett Wallach cards there are between the Topps and Bowman sets.  And they all use the same photo!  It's obnoxious.  I am extremely thankful that Topps still had a little integrity in the 1980's, because I'd go nuts trying to keep track of this many Tim Wallach card variations, let alone trying to collect them all.

Brett Wallach 2010 Great Lakes Loons #32

Card Review: B+  I don't know if these cards came autographed, or if this was signed after the fact.  I picked it it up on ebay for what I would expect to pay for a non-autographed minor league card.  The card design is actually very nice, and I like the photo on the front.  The autograph is probably my lest favorite part.  If ever run across one without the auto, I'll have to pick it up.  Brett went 6-0 in 17 starts for the Loons in 2010.  The Loons are an "Single A" affliate of the Dodgers in Midland, Michigan.

Brett Wallach 2009 Bowman Draft Prospects #BDPP74 Gold

Card Review: C-  The blue piping on the card just doesn't work with the gold borders.  Of the seemingly endless variations of this card, this gold incarnation is one of my least favorites.

Brett Wallach 2009 Bowman Chrome Draft Prospects #BDPP74 Purple Refractor

Card Review: B+  This is yet another variation of the 2009 Brett Wallach card.  I may have it mislabeled, but am not really that concerned.  If it takes more than one line of text to label a card, then it's not my problem, and the card companies owe us an apology.  I keep picking up more variations of this card, but it's not a very high priority.  The refractor effect didn't scan very well, but it's actually quite colorful.

Below is the video of Brett being drafted.  I like the part when Tommy Lasorda calls his father "...one of the great baseball players of our time."

Brett Wallach 2009 Bowman Draft Prospects #BDPP74 Blue #/399

Card Review: B+  I like the color of this card.  Beyond that though, I find the entire concept annoying.  This set and it's countless variations really represents everything that went wrong with baseball cards.  I feel safe in speculating that not so much as a single pack of this set was ever purchased at a Little League snack bar along side a hot dog and coke.  I'm not entirely sure where you would even go to buy packs of these, perhaps Target, though I don't recall ever seeing them.  In any event, these blue variations are individually numbered to 399, so I guess there kind of scarce.  Though I can't imagine they printed much of this stuff in the first place, so it's all relative.

Brett Wallach 2009 Bowman Chrome Draft Prospects #BDPP74

Card Grade: D  I don't like Chrome cards.  The whole concept just seems lazy to me.  If they used a different photo, much less a different design, I may be more open to them.  As it is, it just seems like a transparent money grab to me.  A lot of this crap should come with those help-lines and warning labels they put on the back of scratch off lottery tickets and above the urinals in casinos.  When I was bought packs of cards growing up, they didn't print odds on the wrapper.  That seems like a significant and material development to me that doesn't get much attention.

Brett Wallach 2009 Bowman Draft Prospects #BDPP74

Card Review: B  This card isn't bad.  It's a decent design, has MLB logo's, and there's really not much to complain about.  But I don't think anyone needed 21 different variations of it, which if you include the Chrome counterpart set, is what Beckett says there are.  That doesn't include the Topps Pro Debut set, which is in affect, the same photo.  Currently I believe I have four of the 21 variations, and that feels like plenty.  (Not saying I won't accept others if you want to send them)

I can remember when the insert/parallel craze first started to rear it's ugly head in the early 90's.  There was definitely part of me that felt cheated that there weren't three or four variations of Tim Wallach's early cards to chase.  But that quickly faded when it became immediately apparent how difficult it was to chase down a "gold" variation, especially of a player ignorant card shop owners deemed a mere "common."  Granted the internet has made locating cards much easier, and collector's are not all at the mercy of the swindler who runs the corner card shop.

This card is clearly an airbrush job as alluded to above.  I'm 99% certain that the photo on this card is the one that has been altered, but I'd be lying if I said I could tell.  Below are photos of this card and the 2010 Topps Pro Debut card.  Airbrushing has really come a long way in the last three decades.

 


Timeline wise it would make sense that the earlier 2009 Bowman is the unaltered photo.  It's probably not unheard of for high draft picks to pose for photos in the uniform of the team that drafted them.  On the flip side, I imagine Topps has probably developed boiler-plate airbrushing patterns for all the MLB teams.  Changing a Dodger's uniform into an Ogden Raptors uniform probably isn't something they do very often, or ever.  Which is really the only reason I say with some certainty that the Bowman photo is the altered one.  In any event, today's air brushers do incredible work.

Brett Wallach 2010 Topps Pro-Debut #196

Card Review: A-  I'll be doing letter grades instead of number grades for cards of the Wallach "kids."  I also won't be doing a running tally of the number I have of each card.  I'm not trying to collect them "all."  That said, they're enough of a Wallach related item that I can't help but pick them up when I see new ones.  This card is probably the most legitimate card I own of a Wallach kid.  It's done in the same style and card  stock as the Topps base design in 2010, and is a decent looking photo as far as staged photos like this go.  I just would have like to seen a different photo on the back, and maybe some stats.  But I get the feeling Topps throws this set together pretty quickly.

The middle of the three Wallach boys, Brett is the tallest by a decent margin at 6'5.  A converted pitcher, Brett was a 3rd round pick of the Dodgers out of Orange Coast College.  After being traded to the Cubs, Brett suffered an arm injury that he's currently working his way back from.  Hopefully he'll get picked up by somebody this spring.

Fun Facts:
*Tommy Lasorda made the announcement when the Dodgers Drafted Brett Wallach.  Click here for the video.

If you don't feel like watching the short video, here's an excerpt from the accompanying article:

And leave it to Dodgers legend and Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda to provide one of the lighter sides of the Draft when he took the microphone in the third round to announce the Dodgers decision to draft the son of one of his former players, Tim Wallach.

"Hey, everybody, this pick is very special to me. I knew this pick when he was a baby," Lasorda said on the microphone. "His father was one of the greatest players of our generation. We select Brett Wallach, a pitcher from Orange Coast Junior College in Costa Mesa, Calif."

Lasorda stole the spotlight and surprised everybody by making the pick as it was supposed to be announced by Major League Baseball's executive vice president of baseball operations Jimmie Lee Solomon.

1994 SP Die-Cut #81

Card Review: 5.1 These die-cuts remind me of a scene from Oliver Stone's "Born on the 4th of July."  Tom Cruise is getting a tour of the burger joint is friend has started.  The marquee burger is in the shape of a ring.  The friend is bragging that his idiot customers are actually paying for less meat.  That's kind of how I feel about die-cuts.

Here's a link to the regular un-cut card.

Number of this card in my collection: 2
2013 update: 3
2014 update: 10 
2016 update: 15
2017 update: n/a
2018 update: 16

2019 update: n/a

2020 update: n/a

2021 update: n/a

2022 update: 18

2023 update: 19

2024 update: n/a

2025 update: 20

1994 SP

Card Review: 8.7  It's a bit of an unusual photo for a baseball card.  In the early 90's that was sort of a trend, thanks in no small part to the 1992 Bowman set.  It was kind of a big deal in my mind for Wallach to be given the attention getting photo, and be one of the cards people were talking about.  The back photo is pretty cool too, and would have made for a great card as well.

Coach Wallach has cited this card as his favorite.

Fun Facts: *All three of Wallach's sons have been selected in the MLB Draft.
*Matt Wallach was a 23rd rd pick of the Yankees in 2005.  He went to Cal-St. Fullerton instead, and was drafted by the Dodgers in the 22nd rd in 2007.  He reached AAA ball before retiring.
* Brett Wallach was a 3rd rd pick of the Dodgers in 2009. He was subsequently traded to the Cubs and is currently playing independent ball while rehabbing from arm surgery.
*Chad Wallach was drafted by the Dodgers in the 43rd rd in 2010.  He chose to attend Cal.-St. Fullerton and was drafted in the 5th rd by the Miami Marlins.  He currently plays in the Reds organization.

Number of this card in my collection: 1
2012 update: 4
2013 update: 22
2014 update: 29
2015 update: 31 
2016 update: 32
2017 update: n/a
2018 update: 40
2019 update: 42

2020 update: n/a

2021 update: n/a

2022 update: 57

2023 update: 59

2024 update: 61

2025 update: 66

2026 update: 67