Dodgers Blue Heaven: Another Grant Holmes Prospect Card for the Collection

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Another Grant Holmes Prospect Card for the Collection

I've never been much of a prospect collector. It's too much like gambling and the risk/reward ratio for young stud coming through a Baseball systems just seems far too risky to spend a great amount of dollars on. On the other hand, when we're talking about a top Dodger prospect I can be convinced to take a dive in. (Besides, having missed out on inexpensive Corey Seager cards make me a bit ill.)

Case in point, check out this AFLAC High School All-American and Under Armour All-American Game Autograph card of Grant Holmes that was seeded into packs of 2014 Bowman Chrome Baseball in October. It is Holmes first official card from a licensed product and his first card featuring his autograph. It is numbered to 225 signed copies. BTW, an unsigned version of the card exist on the marketplace, and they were given away during a prep showcase ballgame at Wrigley Field in Chicago on August 24, 2013. I do not know what the print run is for that card.

This is my second Holmes autograph card in my collection. In November I added my first card - a 2014 Leaf Metal Draft card. Check it out here. As I wrote back then:

Just a couple of weeks after signing his first professional contract in mid-June, Holmes went to work on the mound in the Arizona League for the first time. He pitched two scoreless innings against Seattle's club; striking out an impressive five batters in two innings of work. Holmes eventually got into seven rookie level games for the Arizona Dodgers before advancing to the clubs Pioneer League team in Ogden.

Overall, he did well in Arizona. Holmes pitched 30 innings and struck a total of 33 batters. Furthermore, batters were hitting just .187 against him, so he clearly had a good start. Grant Holmes has a reputation for having a big mid to high 90's fastball, and early indications are that he was able to use the pitch to overwhelm batters.

His short Pioneer League stint was not as rosy. He got into only four games, but got hit hard on a couple of occasions. Holmes pitched just 18.1 innings; giving up 10 earned runs and 19 hits over that span. On the bright side, he continued to strike out batters at a healthy clip. In those 18.1 innings he struck out 25 batters.

MLB Pipeline ranks him as the 4th best prospect in the Dodger system, and the 100th overall in Baseball.

If you are curious, I paid just $11.00 (shipped) for this card. I don't think that was too shabby of a deal.