Top 5 Cards: Andrew Benintendi

With Dustin Pedroia back on the disabled-list just 8 games after making his season debut, Mookie Betts who has a rare DL stint of his own, and Hanley Ramirez being designated for assignment, it's crazy that the Red Sox are still powering through all of this, becoming baseball's first 40-win team after yesterday's victory over the Astros.

Much of their recent success is due to 2nd-year outfielder Andrew Benintendi who is hitting .333 over the last 30 games and has been truly spectacular as of late. Benintendi, along with J.D. Martinez are definitely the hottest hitters in Boston right now and if they keep this up, both of them could easily be all-stars.

Benintendi is in only his 2nd full season, but he's already fixing his biggest issue of 2017 which was contact hitting. He currently has a .294 batting average which is exactly where I'd like to see him all season, if possible.

Since he's in only his 2nd full year, I only have 15 cards of Andrew Benintendi, but considering I already have 4 cards of him from 2018, I can certainly see that number growing throughout the year. Now, here are my 5 favorite cards of his.

#5 2017 Topps Allen & Ginter

It's cards like Benintendi's rookie card that make 2017 Topps Allen & Ginter the best release of the set many years, back to at least 2012. I'm a huge fan of the frame around the headshot of the player which, combined with the signature A&G color splotches, makes the picture look like a piece of art. The only fault I can find with the card is how out of place the rookie card symbol is, though that's nobody's fault although they did change it a bit for 2017 Gypsy Queen by making it a shade of purple, so a slight change for Allen & Ginter wouldn't be a bad idea.

#4 2017 Topps Archives

Look familiar? That's because Benintendi's 2017 Topps Archives card uses the same photo as his Allen & Ginter card. Usually, I would be pretty annoyed by this. However, I appreciate their effort to switch it up by including more than just the headshot for the Archives card and not adding any filter to the photo, leaving it as it was taken. I'd also like to point out how carefully Topps appears to choose which player goes into which set in Archives because I truly believe that out of 1960, 1982, and 1992 Topps, 1982 is definitely the best choice for this card.

#3 2018 Topps Legends in the Making

Even though the checklist of the Legends in the Making set doesn't really live up to the name since I'm pretty sure Andrew McCutchen, Joey Votto, and Robinson Cano have already established themselves as legends, the set design is still very cool. I've said before that it's similar to the Topps Fire insert from 2016 Topps Update. I, for one, am a huge fan of the splashes of color behind the player on each card. I happen to think it's a very cool concept, it could just use a better name. Topps has been very creative with their set names in the past, so I'm sure they could think of something.

#2 2017 Topps Stadium Club

After being called up straight from AA Portland to the majors in 2016, Benintendi made a sensational catch to rob a home run against the Rays in Tampa Bay. Well, Stadium Club, being the set that it is, decided to put that incredible catch on a baseball card in their 2017 set, a card that I got a couple weeks ago. The angle in which he caught the ball is no-doubt a tough angle to get a good shot, so I understand why it's not as clear as other pictures of guys robbing home runs. With that being said, the catch he made was so iconic and memorable that I'll take just about any card I can of his catch, though I don't believe there are many more out there.

#1 2018 Topps 1983 Silver Pack Exclusive

The silver pack promotion that Topps has been running for 2 years now will never be something I get into since you have to buy a hobby box of Series 1 or 2 to get the cards. However, I'll try to find a way to add some to my collection by means of the card show. At the Mansfield show earlier this year, I picked up 4 silver pack cards from 2018 Series 1, 2 Cubs (Sandberg and Rizzo) and 2 Red Sox (Boggs and Benintendi). I chose this card for the #1 spot because of how much I love the '83 design, and how well Topps was able to pull off transforming this set into something that would look nice as a chrome refractor.

Plus, I'm always a stickler for those alternate red home jerseys that the Sox wear for every Friday home game.