Streamers revealed the next batch of Finest cards for the Astros, Indians, Cardinals, Padres and Diamondbacks throughout the last two days. The cards look good, as do most of the Finest cards, but there are still clear tiers to these.
To me, the first tier includes the Flaherty and Marte cards. The Flaherty has his usual nice pitch mix to go along with some quality speed differentials. I think this card can go into many rotations if you acquire it. The Marte card is my favorite from this set because it has the usual positional flexibility, and it’s just a monster all-around hitting card to put into CF. It’s also always nice to be a switch hitter. It’s not totally helpless on defense either, so all in all a great card.
I would put the Tatis Jr. and Lindor cards in the next tier. Neither one is an amazing card as they both have clear weaknesses. Tatis Jr. has just so-so running and defense stats, and Lindor’s splits against lefties aren’t anything special. Nevertheless, they’re both incredibly popular players and cards who slide in at SS.
In the last tier is the Yordan Alvarez. The hitting stats are great, of course, but the defense is soft and there’s just a lot of quality competition in the corner outfield spots. There were a ton of great options to go with for the Astros, so it shows how much respect the fans who voted have for Alvarez to give him the nod here.
