The month of July is synonymous with one thing: HOT. Throughout the month of June, I don’t think there was a player that was as hot as Tim Lincecum. The Freak amassed freakish numbers for the month that included 3 wins, 40 Ks, 1.82 ERA, 39.2 IP in 5 games started. Lincecum’s 2007 Bowman Chrome RC Auto has been reaching freakish prices too. Close on his heels for the month is Stephen Strasburg, who has yet to even sign a MLB contract, but continues to be the buzz around the shop.

1. 2007 Bowman Chrome Tim Lincecum RC Auto
2. 1997 Bowman Chrome Roy Halladay RC
3. 2008 Sweet Spot USA Signatures Black Stitch Red Auto Stephen Strasburg
4. 2008 Upper Deck USA Stephen Strasburg
5. 2007 Bowman Sterling Tim Lincecum RC Auto
6. 2007 Donruss EEE Matt Weiters Auto
7. 2007 Bowman Chrome Prospects Tommy Hanson RC
8. 2006 Bowman Chrome Justin Upton RC AU
9. 2009 SPx Mystery Rookie Redemption Exchange
10. 2008 Bowman Chrome Prospects Josh Vitters RC Auto
11. 2008 Bowman Chrome Draft Prospects Buster Posey RC Auto
12. 2005 Topps Chrome Update Andrew McCutchen Auto
13. 2008 Bowman Chrome Draft Prospects Gordon Beckham RC Auto
14. 2006 Bowman Chrome Draft Pick Evan Longoria RC AU
15. 2008 Bowman Sterling Evan Longoria RC Auto
16. 2002 Upper Deck Prospect Premieres Zack Greinke Auto XRC
17. 2008 Bowman Chrome Draft Prospects Jesus Montero RC Auto
18. 2009 Topps Red Hot Rookie Redemptions
19. 2008 SP Authentic Evan Longoria RC Auto
20. 2002 Bowman Chrome Draft Josh Johnson RC
21. 2008 Bowman Chrome Prospects David Price Auto
22. 2008 Bowman Chrome Draft Rick Porcello RC
23. 2004 Bowman Chrome Aflac Andrew McCutchen
24. 2009 Bowman Chrome Prospects Logan Morrison Auto
25. 2008 Bowman Chrome Draft Prospects Lonnie Chisenhall RC Auto

Happy collecting!

On Wednesday, a foursome of high-talent prospects, landed themselves on big-league rosters. Some of these arrivals have been very highly anticipated and publicized as to when these prospects would actually break the 40-man rosters, so now it seems as if those questions have been answered.

After being nearly unhittable in 11 games with the Triple-A Gwinnett Braves, Tommy Hanson posted a 3-3 record, 1.49 ERA, and had unbelievable 90 KOs through 66.1 IP. Signed by the Braves as a 22nd round pick in the 2005 Draft, Hanson has been considered a top prospect in both the Braves organization and all of minor league baseball. He was the 2008 Arizona Fall League MVP and was named to their All-Prospect Team. Expect to see some big jumps in the price on his 2007 Bowman Chrome RC.

Andrew McCutchen, former first round (11th overall) selection in 2005 of the Pirates, and former AFLAC All-American, has found his way to the Pirates roster after the trade of Nate McClouth to the Atlanta Braves. Considered a five-tool player (hitting for average, hitting for power, baserunning, throwing ability, and fielding abilities), McCuthchen has been in the spotlight since being drafted out of high school. He spent all of last year with Triple-A Indianapolis posting a .283 average with 9 HR, 50 RBI, and 34 SB in 135 games. This year with Indianapolis he has posted a .303 average with 4 HR, 20 RBI, and 10 SB in 49 games. Keep an eye on his 2004 Bowman Chrome RC and 2005 Topps Chrome Update Auto RC and expect to see huge jumps in prices.

After blazing through the White Sox farm system, their number one draft pick in 2008, Gordon Beckham is getting his chance in the bigs. Beckham, who last year at this time, was trying to help his Georgia Bulldogs win an NCAA Championship, has seemingly made an easy transition to the next level. He spent 38 games at Double-A affiliate Birmingham before his call-up to the Triple-A Charlotte Knights. For the season, Beckham was batting .326, with 4 HR, 25 RBI, 23 2B, in 45 games. Beckham’s 2008 Bowman Chrome Prospect Auto RC has been on the hot list since it was first released. Expect to see a slight rise with the hype around his call-up.

Unlike the other three prospects, Luke Hochevar has already got his feet wet in the bigs. Hochevar hasn’t had the best-of-luck at the MLB level, posting a career 6-15 record, 5.63 ERA, and 80 KOs through 153.1 IP over 26 games. Hochever, the former first round, first overall pick of the Royals in 2006, started the season in KC, but was demoted to Triple-A Omaha after just two starts. At Omaha, Hochevar has seemed to have found his stuff, posting a 5-1 record, 1.50 ERA, 36 KOs, through 48 IP over 8 games. Hochevar’s 2007 Bowman Chrome Prospect Auto RC still can be found pretty cheap, especially for a former number 1 pick. His track record isn’t very strong, but he is showing the potential that Royals need.

Over the weekend, our friends at BlowOutCards.com were having a sale on their 2009 Bowman Baseball boxes. I decided to buy one so that I could do a review of the product for all of my readers, as well as, hold the very first DailyWax Reader Contest. To enter the contest, simply reply to this entry with your name and email address (which will not be visible) along with your guess of which pack (1 through 24) will contain the Bowman Chrome Prospect Auto. If you correctly guess which pack contains the auto, I will mail you the card. In the event of multiple correct guesses, it will be randomly awarded to one of the correct guessers. You are only allowed to enter your guess once, multiple guesses from the same email address will result in disqualification from the contest. Be sure you use a valid email address, as I will be contacting the winner via email on where to send their prize. I plan on posting the results of the break as well as my review of the product sometime this week, so please check back for the results.

At the ripe age of 23, the Baltimore Orioles phenom Matt Wieters has finally arrived. This highly anticipated event was put on hold coming out of Spring Training as the O’s decided to reassign Wieters instead of having him join the club at the beginning on the season. In 39 games for Triple-A Norfolk, Wieters batted .305 with 5 HR and 30 RBI. These numbers pale in comparison the physical number that Wieters posses, the 6-foot 5-inch, 230-pound frame of Matt is almost as freaskish in nature as the hype that has been surrounding him at his days at Georgia Tech.

While there is no sleeper watch to report here, many prospectors are looking to cash in on Wieters arrival. A number of his cards with very high price tags following closely to the hype that was around Jay Bruce as he made his debut last year. Wieters did not have the same instance success that Bruce did at the plate, but I have a feeling in the long run Matt will be far better than Jay.

If you are looking for some of his more popular cards, currently his 2007 Donruss EEE is on our hot list as well as a top card among many prospectors and hobbyists alike. Be sure save a few as the potential for Wieters is just as monstrous as his size.

Topps recently released the information on their 2009 Topps Chrome Football set. The 220 card set will feature Topps famous chrome technology along with their famous refractor parallels. Along with the refractors, each hobby box will contain a autographed rookie card from one of 50 in the set. Each of these autographs will also be produced in a superfractor (1 of 1), gold (/10), and black (/25) variation. Included again in this years set is the Rookie Patch cards, were just exclusively in the hobby boxes.

Each of the base cards will be available in superfractor (1 of 1), red (/25), copper (/599), refractor, and printing plate variety. Each hobby box will contain 9 parallel cards.

Along with the refractors, there will be inserts of Cheerleads and Ring of Honor, each of which will be produced in a variety of refractors as well.

According to Yahoo Sports, Zach Greinke is currently listed as a Not Hot players on their Hot or Not list. I guess in his last two starts his ERA has ballooned from 0.60 to 0.84, allowing 3 ER over 15 IP, 2 BB, while having 16 KOs. I am not sure how this constitutes being placed on their Not Hot list, but I can assure you, that Greinke is anything but Not Hot. In fact, he may be the hottest player in the MLB this season and one of the brightest future stars in the league. He has already 5 complete games on the season, leads the league in wins (8), ERA (0.84), WHIP (0.88), and is second in K’s (81). With his freakish start to the season there has been a huge spike in the sales and value of some of his more sought after cards, like his 2002 Bowman Chrome RC, and 2002 Prospects Premiere Auto RC.

The 20-year-old New York Mets phenom, Fernando Martinez, made his major league debut last Tuesday (5/26/2009) making him the youngest player in the MLB today. Today, Topps announced that F-Mart would be their first Red Hot Rookie redemption player. These redemption cards were randomly insert one-per-box in the 2009 Topps Series 2 Baseball packs. The cards can be redeemed online at topps.com.

In total, there are 10 Red Hot Rookies in the set, which will be announced throughout the rest of the baseball season.

Fernando also was featured in the 2007 Bowman Chrome Prospects Auto set, as well as, the 2008 Bowman Chrome Draft set. While this 2009 Topps Red Hot Rookie may not be his first produced card, it will definitely be a sought after card due to the expiration of the redemption and the attractiveness of the card.

Big Papi’s recent power outage is leaving more than the Red Sox nation in the dark. Ortiz, a predominate .300 hitter, averaging 40+ HR, and 100+ RBI since joining the Sox in 2003 is amid a landslide at the plate this year. Batting .193 with 1 HR and 18 RBI in his first 42 games this year has rang loudly across Ortiz fantasy-owners and collectors. This slump has created a bottom-out in prices in Ortiz’s 1997 Fleer RC as well as a majority of his other memorabilia and cards.

Amid the rumors and accusations of Oritz’s steroid use, one has to wonder where his power has gone in the last two years? Since last year’s All-Star break, Papi has managed to club only 11 HR, and for someone whose role on the team is purely to hit, I have to feel these numbers are disheartening to the Sox organization. All players face a multiple slumps along their career, and most snap out with a vengeance. If that tradition holds true in the case for Ortiz, his recent cold streak should transpire in to a spectacular show once he snaps out.

Enjoy the basement bargain prices on Ortiz as most collectors and having a fire sale with his cards.

This our first look at the 2009 Bowman Chrome product. Always a fan favorite, this years product looks to be another success for the product. The product will feature a 220-card base set, 40 card World Baseball Classic, and of course, the prospects inserted 2 in every pack. Each of the cards will also be produced in Bowman Chrome familiar parallel sets of Refractors, XFractors, Blue Refractors, Gold Refractors, Orange Refractors, Red Refractors, Superfractors, and Printing Plates, ranging in production numbers of 500 to 1 of 1’s. These parallel’s are inserted 7 per box.

The prospect checklist contains 110 players that have previously not had a card in the Bowman Chrome series. Still missing from the set is last years top-pick, Tim Beckham. The preliminary Prospect Autograph set, inserted 1 per box, looks to be very promising. One of the more attractive perks about the Bowman Chrome Prospect sets is that each of the prospects are always featured in their MLB uniforms. The checklist contains autographs from some of the top prospects in the game. Some of highlights include: Tommy Hanson, Freddie Freeman, Carlos Santana, and Dayan Viciedo. Here is a small run down of the autograph checklist from the 2009 Bowman Chrome Baseball Hobby Sellsheet:

• BCP91 Rinku Singh
• BCP92 Dinesh Kumar Patel
• BCP93 Randall Delgado
• BCP94 Pat Venditte
• BCP95 Zack Putnam
• BCP96 Robbie Grossman
• BCP97 Tommy Hanson
• BCP98 Gift Negope
• BCP99 Dylan Lindsay
• BCP100 Chris Marrero
• BCP101 Freddie Freeman
• BCP102 Chris Johnson
• BCP103 Jefry Marte
• BCP104 Ernie Banks
• BCP105 Brett Anderson
• BCP106 Juancarlos Sulbaran
• BCP107 Ryan Perry
• BCP108 Carlos Santana
• BCP109 Brad Emaus
• BCP110 Dayan Viciedo
• BCP111 Tim Federowicz
• BCP112 Allen Craig

I can guarantee that at least two of those prospect auto’s will be cut prior to production as BCP111 and BCP112 already belong to Beemer Weams and Logan Morrison from the 2009 Bowman inserts. With the numerous parallels, great prospect checklist, and riding on the heels of the lackluster prospect autograph checklist from the base Bowman, you can count on this being a very hot product.

63 hits, 17 HR, 50 RBIs, .423 BA in 40 games. That stat line sounds like it came from a video game rather than the actual statistics of the Triple-A Iowa Cubs, of the Pacific Coast League, Jake Fox. Fox, who is in his 6th season for the Cubs organization out of the University of Michigan, seems to be in an zone unmatched by most, already racking up two Pacific Coast League Player of the Week honors this season. A converted infielder/outfielder from his natural position as a catcher, could have an immediate impact on the Chicago Cubs, who are in major need of a catalyst to get their season turned around. Also, the Chicago Cubs could consider using Fox as a DH as they enter inter-league play next month.

Fox’s numbers have not gone unnoticed by collectors and prospectors alike. His 2003 Upper Deck Prospect Premieres Jake Fox RC Auto has climbed from a tossed aside common to gradable keepsake. He has even found himself on our recent hot list for the month of June. Not a bad investment for anyone who is looking for the potential to flip a few cards. The large market Cubs fanbase might pay top dollar for this card if Fox gets the nod and is called up. Fox also has a handful of other cards produced over the past few years, but his 2003 Upper Deck Prospect Premieres will easily be the most sough after.

Be sure to keep your eyes on Fox as he could make a push towards winning a Triple Crown in the PCL. It’s hard to imagine sustaining his numbers for an entire season, but if he can, and I hope he can, it will be very fun to watch and witness.