The newly released 2023 Panini Three and Two Baseball offers a total of five cards including one slabbed autograph and one slabbed memorabilia card along with a pack of three base or insert cards. Current pricing is right around $200 per box.
We dug our back foot in the batter’s box, gripped the bat tight and looked towards the pitcher as we were ready to see how this at bat, I mean box, played out.
With only five cards in the box, it wouldn’t take long to learn that the pitch thrown our way was going to send us back to the dugout.
Our memorabilia card was a multi colored prospect jersey of Milwaukee Brewers prospect Sal Frelick numbered to 25 copies.
The Boston College outfielder was a top 15 pick in the 2021 MLB Draft and has performed well in the minor leagues. He lost several weeks to an injury this season but is now back with the Triple A Affiliate Nashville Sounds and the 23-year-old is considered a potential call up at any time.
Our second slabbed card was a jersey auto of Los Angeles Dodgers prospect Andy Pages. It’s a nice multi colored patch with a sticker auto.
Pages was playing pretty well at the Dodgers Triple A affiliate Oklahoma City Dodgers, batting .277 with three homers and 25 RBI but underwent surgery for a torn labrum earlier this month and is unlikely to be back this season. Ouch.
After the two visible slabbed cards in the box, we opened the three card silver pack that it was found underneath.
The first card we pulled was a base Three and Two card of Cleveland Guardians pitcher Daniel Espino, number to 99.
The right handed pitcher was 1-0 with a 2.45 ERA in four starts at Double-A Akron Rubber Ducks before shoulder surgery ended his season. He won’t be back until next summer. Double ouch.
The next card in our pack was an On The Horizon insert of Miami Marlins prospect Jacob Miller numbered out of 150. The 19-year-old righty was named the Ohio Gatorade Player of the Year in his senior season of high school after going 9–1 with 133 strikeouts in just 57 innings. He’s 1-2 with a 4.65 ERA in nine starts with the Single A Jupiter Hammerheads.
The final card in the pack is one that perked my eyes up a little bit as we pulled a nice Termarr Johnson foil All Prospect Team numbered out of 50.
The fourth overall pick in the 2022 MLB Draft, Johnson is currently playing at Bradenton at the Single A level for the Buccos. MLB’s 20th rated prospect has four home runs and 22 RBI… and hopefully a very bright future at PNC Park.
Three and Two is, by and large, a prospect driven product. On some level that’s fun and felt similar to opening Bowman or Bowman Draft. You can’t blame the card company when players gets hurt but our box might have been the absolute worst you could have pulled off the shelf.
2023 Panini Three and Two does have Elly De La Cruz and Druw Jones autographs along with some from former greats and bat relic cards of Joe DiMaggio have also been pulled, but our box didn’t have any of that kind of thing.
Prospecting is really fun but it can lead to kind of an empty feeling, too, and that’s what we were left with after this one.
Check out sports card boxes of all kinds in Sports Zone’s online store here.
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