New Arrival: 2003 Topps Rookies and Traded Jason Stokes

• I absolutely loved Jason Stokes when he was coming up. I was able to get him once through the mail, though the card he signed did not turn out. He is–in my experience–impossible through the mail now.
• Why did I like him? He was a huge prospect. For seven seasons in a row (2000-2006) he was rated one of the Marlins Top 30 prospects. In both 2002 and 2003, he was the organizations #2 prospect.
• His game was power. And lots of it. He was so good that the Marlins ended up trading Adrian Gonzalez with the expectation that Stokes was the first baseman of the future.
• But…like so many prospects…he did not pan out. He never lost the pop, but injuries kept him off the field.
• By the time 2007 rolled around he was effectively done and was out of baseball by 2008

There was a great prospect here. And with fewer injuries who knows how he would have developed.

I bought this card years ago and it was a bubbled mess. I assumed they all were from this set. But then this popped up and not only was in perfect looking….it was also like a dollar. So I pulled the trigger.