My Personal Results of a Recent 2024 Topps Update Group Break

Last week, I held a group break over on my Discord that consisted of a pair of 2024 Topps Update hobby boxes.  I ran the break as a "Buy 1 Team, Get 1 Random Team" style break and I grabbed the Reds (of course)!  

Highlights from the Reds portion of the break included four Elly De La Cruz rookie cards:

There's no doubt that Topps loaded the Update set with rookie cards (which is expected) but do we really need this many cards of the same player?!  The middle card in the above scan with Elly wearing the All-Star jersey is from the All-Star Game insert set while the other two designs are both in the regular base set.

Elly wasn't the only Reds rookie I ended up with, however.  My haul included three other rookies who will need to have good years next year for the Reds to have much of a shot at contending:

I had high hopes for both Encarnacion-Strand and Marte this year but neither player lived up to those hopes (mostly due to injuries and/or suspensions). 

While I definitely appreciate the above cards, there was one head-scratcher in the Reds' pile:

Yeah, Tony Kemp.  The guy who played *checks notes* exactly ZERO big league innings for the Reds in 2024.  From MLB Trade Rumors, here's a brief rundown on Kemp's 2024 season:

After playing with the Athletics from 2020-23, Kemp has bounced around the league since becoming a free agent last fall.  He previously signed another minors deal with the Reds back in February but was released late in Spring Training camp and then caught on with the Orioles on a big league contract.  He was designated for assignment and outrighted by the O’s in April, and Kemp elected free agency again and caught on with the Twins on a minors contract, before opting out and returning once more to the Reds.  Throughout all of these moves, Kemp has appeared in just five MLB games this year, all with Baltimore.

There's no reason why he should have been included in the 2024 Topps Update set...and if he had to be included, there's no reason he should have been featured as a Red (he at least played five games for Baltimore this year where he went 0-for-10)!  

My randomly assigned team in the break was (unfortunately) the Rays, a team for whom I have almost no trading partners.  Even worse, my Rays' haul was mostly boring base cards with the exception of a couple of rookie cards:

The less said about Tampa Bay baseball cards, the better.  

Overall, my teams certainly didn't have a great showing in the box breaks BUT the boxes themselves were actually awesome overall (I highlighted the better of the two boxes in a previous post).  All said, I'm happy to land a few more Elly cards for my growing PC as well as several other nice Reds cards.  As for the Rays, they've already been listed over on TCDB as more trade bait (along with some of my duplicate Reds from the two boxes).