Rare Cards of an Ace and a Flamethrower

I was able to add a couple more cards to my collection from the 2014 Topps Stadium Club Members Only parallel. They aren't serially-numbered, but the rumored print run on them is less than ten copies per card. Luckily for me the price tag doesn't always match the scarcity on these things, and I've been able to gather a fair number of them. The two most recent additions are a top starting pitcher and a top reliever. First up is the starter, Max Scherzer. He had a pretty good season for the Washington Nationals this year, although the team as a whole was dysfunctional and fell far short of projections. He's probably got a couple more years of ace status left in him.

Next up is the hard-throwing Aroldis Chapman, who gathered 33 saves for the Cincinnati Reds in 2015. He piled up the strikeouts, too, with an absolutely ridiculous 15.7 K/9 ratio on the year, which was actually a slight decrease from 2014. He throws the ball so fast that the MLB website has an Aroldis Chapman filter when you look at the fastest pitches of the year on the statistics page, because without the filter engaged the whole page is just him.

I always think that I'm pretty much done adding cards from this set to my collection, but every so often one will pop up at an agreeable price. Most of the stars and especially the Hall of Famers go for prices well past my limits, but a lot of the semi-stars and lower-end stars sneak through at my level.