Baseball America Draft Preview includes surprise insert

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Update (July 14): After the first day of the 2024 MLB Draft, 22 of the 24 eligible players in the card set included in this issue  have been picked, including 13 of the first 14 selected on Sunday night. Overall, 18 were first-rounders, while one of the two 2024 players who went un-drafted actually withdrew to play for LSU next year. For those attending this year's National Sports Collectors Convention in Cleveland, hit the Blowout Cards booth (No. 5,010) on Friday, July 26. Beginning at 11 a.m., the first 500 visitors can get a free copy of the issue.

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Baseball America's annual Draft Preview issue is here and it's jam-packed with facts and other info that all card prospectors simply need heading into the MLB Draft this weekend. The issue also spotlights a few future stars.

The biggest issue of the year features player profiles and scouting reports for 100 players, a list of 100 more to check out beyond those names, a mock draft, comparisons of today's notables to past stars, BA's annual All-America teams for both the college and prep ranks and even, in some copies of this issue, exclusive prospect cards

Nestled right in the middle of this 86-page gem of an issue are four sheets of Baseball America Future Prospects cards showcasing 36 stars ... but only in subscriber copies. Of those, 24 are ’24 prospects, while six are 2025s, three are 2026s and the final three are names you'll likely know leading up to the 2027 draft.

Leading off the set and on the cover of the magazine is the 2024 Golden Spikes Award winner and Baseball America's projected No. 1 pick Charlie Condon of the Georgia Bulldogs. Condon hit .433 with 37 homers in 60 games this season. He has no previous card other than what's in the annual Panini USA Baseball release that dropped last week. With Condon being a "lock to be a top-three pick" this one is notable right now.

Other NCAA notables include Travis Bazzana of Oregon State, Hagen Smith of Arkansas, J.J. Wetherholt of West Virginia, Braden Montgomery of Texas A&M, Chase Burns and Nick Kurtz of Wake Forest and Jac Caglianone, a two-way star for the Florida Gators who signed the first baseball NIL deal with Topps last month.

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Focused On Quality
The cards are exclusive to subscribers, so they won't appear in issues found at bookstores or newsstands and also could end up folded in half by mail crews as they potentially hit small mailboxes. That could make for some scarcity and some environmental realities that make clean copies of the best names here tougher finds over time.

Thankfully, these sheets are all printed on heavier paper stock and are perforated to become singles, too. Unlike the famed Sports Illustrated For Kids cards that have been created for years these are standard-sized resting comfortably inside the confines of a larger-page format Baseball America uses. That means there are not problems with edges as the magazines are trimmed down to size at the printer or corners if an issue gets dropped or bumped. In addition, there's also some extra perforation that could allow for fans to remove the full sheets from each oversized page and perhaps slab them as entire sheets vs. slab them as singles if so inclined.

Why does that matter? Well, LeBron James, Caitlin Clark, Victor Wembanyama, Paige Bueckers, Paul Skenes, Scottie Scheffler, Tiger Woods, Charlie Woods and soooo many other notables who had their earliest collectibles in SI For Kids have sparked a lot of interest (and sales) and grading there wasn't/isn't easy. Check out these eBay asking prices ... sure, some of those are nutty, but those sheets were in every issue. The realities of completed eBay sales still aren't that shabby, either, considering they're merely pulled from a magazine nine at a time.

The other plus with this one? Volume ... all 36 subjects are in every issue that has them.

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Back To The Future
There are six high school players in BA’s top 10 prospects, including Baseball America High School Player of the Year Konnor Griffin and Bryce Rainier, who are committed to LSU and Texas, respectively. Another high school star is Cam Caminiti, the nephew of the former big-league All-Star and NL MVP, while the future-year draft picks part of the checklist includes Ethan Holliday, the little brother of Fun Face himself (Jackson) and the other son of former big-leaguer and seven-time All-Star (Matt). Among the 2025 draft prospects are Cam Cannarella of Clemson, Jace LaViolette of Texas A&M along with three prep standouts, Caden Bodine, Brady Ebel and Coy James. The set is rounded out with three 2026 draft prospects -- Drew Burress (Georgia Tech), Grady Emerson and Alex Harrington -- while three 2027 hopefuls here are Chase Fuller, Landon Green and Jared Grindlinger.

How much cardboard do all these younger MLB hopefuls have? Well, some have absolutely nothing else but these or maybe cards in the latest USA Baseball set that just dropped, while some do have stuff in the typical prep showcases. (Ethan Holliday, for example, showed up in the USA set last year.) However, there's nothing with a relatively uniform look that includes them all like this one does. Plus, they're surrounded by everything that a fan might need to do some hobby scouting -- literally everything short of video highlight reels.

This year, at the National Sports Collectors Convention that begins on July 24 in Cleveland, BlowoutCards.com will have a limited amount of complimentary copies of this issue available. Details will be released closer to show time.

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