---The Official *2022* Topps Home Run Challenge Thread---

[Juanny Chico]

We're Back for the 2022 Season.
This is the 5th year Topps is running this promotion.

HERE ARE 2022 TOTALS:




For information on prior years contests, see the link(s) below.

2018 Home Run Challenge Thread
https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1199779

2019 Home Run Challenge Thread
https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1271551

2020 Home Run Challenge Thread
https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1348754

2021 Home Run Challenge Thread
https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1440507

Rules of Note:

**2022 Topps Home Run Challenge Rules will be posted in the link below**
https://www.topps.com/media/pdf/Topp..._Rules2022.pdf

* The prize for picking the correct date of a HR is a month specific parallel card.
* There are 6 possible parallels, 1 for each month ( April, May, June, July, August, September)
* Once a date is picked, Topps will not allow you to change this
* If the player does not play that day for any reason (cancelled game or because they sit out) the play is considered a loss.
* You only win one parallel card no matter how many home runs that player hits that day.
*NEW DOUBLE DOWN FEATURE*- Select "double down' when entering your code and bet that your player hits a HR further than 425 feet. If he hits a 425+ foot HR, you win a special parallel. If the HR is hit and is less than 426 feet, it is considered a loss.




HERE ARE EXAMPLES OF WINNER CARDS INCLUDING 2022





The 2022 HR Challenge Checklist

HRC-1 Fernando Tatis Jr.
HRC-2 Juan Soto
HRC-3 Mike Trout
HRC-4 Shohei Ohtani
HRC-5 Bryce Harper
HRC-6 Aaron Judge
HRC-7 Cody Bellinger
HRC-8 Christian Yelich
HRC-9 Ronald Acuña Jr.
HRC-10 Pete Alonso
HRC-11 Alex Bregman
HRC-12 Bo Bichette
HRC-13 Luis Robert
HRC-14 Mookie Betts
HRC-15 Salvador Perez
HRC-16 Joey Votto
HRC-17 Matt Olson
HRC-18 Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
HRC-19 Nolan Arenado
HRC-20 Manny Machado
HRC-21 Joey Gallo
HRC-22 Rafael Devers
HRC-23 Giancarlo Stanton
HRC-24 Freddie Freeman
HRC-25 Max Muncy
HRC-26 Adolis Garcia
HRC-27 Wander Franco: Rookie
HRC-28 Jose Ramirez
HRC-29 Buster Posey: Retired- SERIES 2 REPLACEMENT= JAVY BAEZ
HRC-30 Mitch Haniger

[Juanny Chico]

Some Follow Up:

The HRC checklist loses some players from last year:
Removed are: JD Martinez(4), Javier Baez(3), Kyle Schwarber(2), Eloy Jimenez(1), Francisco Lindor(3), Yordan Alvarez(2), Jorge Soler(1), Josh Donaldson(1), Gleyber Torres(3), Paul Goldschmidt(4), Eugenio Suarez(1), Kris Bryant(4), Matt Chapman(1)

New Additions to HRC for 2022.
1st Time adds: Bo Bichette, Salvador Perez, Luis Robert, Matt Olson, Adolis Garcia, Wander Franco(RC), Buster Posey, Mitch Hanigar

Returning players who were once removed include:
Shoehi Ohtani(1), Joey Votto(2), Manny Machado(3), Max Muncy(1), Jose Ramirez(1)
(*)-Number of times on HRC checklist


Team represented on the 2022 Checklist
2019: 16
2020: 17
2021: 21
2022: 22


HRC stated odds for a code card insert:
2020 stated insert print run: Series 1-478,000 + Series 2-285,500= 763,500
2021 stated insert print run: Series 1- 764,800 + Series 2- 456,800= 1,221,600
2022 stated insert print run: Series 1-1,735,679 + Series 2- 1,018,570 = 2,754,249 (thats a BIG boost from 2021 volume)


Excited we get a Rookie card to shoot for. Yordan Alvarez was the only other Rookie to participate in the Home Run Challenge (2020 Short Season) and has a rare winner to show from it.

[dale]

Thanks Johnny. Buster Posey = Mike Napoli. The people who make the player decisions must really hate Detroit; I don't think there has ever been a Tiger in this contest.

[lauriontj]

I’m going to try and go after the soto collection this year. First year doing this. Any tips? I guess jus pick up as many HRC’s as possible?

[cspaced25]

Originally Posted by lauriontj

I’m going to try and go after the soto collection this year. First year doing this. Any tips? I guess jus pick up as many HRC’s as possible?

That's correct. Start the first of the month till he hits a homerun.

Glad Torres is out, now I have no temptation to pour more money into this.

2018 is the best looking set! The rest meh

[salthill]

Originally Posted by cspaced25

That's correct. Start the first of the month till he hits a homerun.

Glad Torres is out, now I have no temptation to pour more money into this.

2018 is the best looking set! The rest meh

Plus watch out for a player returning from injury early. I think both Rizzo (for sure) and Baez (I think) came back a day earlier than expected and hit home runs.

[Juanny Chico]

An interesting bit from the rules..

The Major League Baseball players identified on HRICs for 2022 Topps Baseball Series II may differ from those identified on HRICs in Topps Baseball Series I

Maybe well see Buster Posey replaced in series 2..or who ever else becomes injured and wont return?

[Juanny Chico]

Entry screen updates:

[seanbros55]

No way I’m scratching a Wander if I pull one…

[Juanny Chico]

Originally Posted by seanbros55

No way I’m scratching a Wander if I pull one…

I haven't seen any cards yet, but I suspect that they could possibly make a few of these players harder to find than others. (like theyve done in the previous years) My guess would be the top 10 on the checklist will be the more rare players and the bottom of the checklist (including Wander) will be plentiful on the HRC inserts.
Time will tell

[salthill]

New contest too… Home Run Derby - “Derby Duel”…
(Not my photos. From a break.)

[lauriontj]

I pulled the wander and sold it. If anyone is interested in trading for Soto, let me know:

[seanbros55]

How am I supposed to redeem my Matt Davidson HRC card if MLB cancels Spring Training???

[salthill]

Originally Posted by seanbros55

How am I supposed to redeem my Matt Davidson HRC card if MLB cancels Spring Training???

[msucollector4]

I pulled one, I think it was Yellich? (not home so I dont remember)

[goldfly]

they have Buster Posey in this for the 2022 season lol

[bn2cardz]

Originally Posted by goldfly

they have Buster Posey in this for the 2022 season lol

Well not only is he in this year, it is his first year in. So it wasn't like they accidentally left him on from a previous year. Someone made the decision to add him this year without even considering he may retire.

[Juanny Chico]

How's everyone doing getting their codes?

I've avoided retail/hobby so far and spent my money on just HRC inserts. Still no 2022 season to speak of yet and with a delay intimate, I'm pumping the brakes.
I'm keeping a close log of purchases this year. Im at right about 800 codes and $2000 spent ( Tax+shipping included) = close to $2.59/card.
Here's about half of what I've received. Still waiting on the other half...




As an observation:
This year were seeing a more evenly spread release of the checklist. In past years we've seen several HRC inserts that were harder to get than others. Take Yelich from 2021 as an example- there are still people trying to find his unscratched regular HRC card to complete sets. None currently on ebay...

That said, I still believe there is a bit of inconsistency for 2022. I was able to grab feedback from many of the big case breakers as soon as their sales went live and was able to capture the quantities of each player. We'll see how it plays out but as an unofficial observation, there are a few players that "seem" to have slightly less/more volume available.

• Tatis, Ohtani, Robert were visiably less available
• Wander Franco looks to be very high. Compared to the other 29 players on the checklist, his cards came with noticeably higher count.

The amount of HRC inserts have more than doubled last year so i don't think there will be a shortage of any player.

Something else to note: When/if submissions open, you are only able to choose games for the current month and following month. So you cant choose a September game while inputting your newly ripped codes in April. This is perhaps going to help spread the winners across each month. In prior years, May has been the overwhelmingly best month for low count winners. Maybe not so much going forward. Definitely not if the season starts here.

Is there a site out there that tracks HR distance statistics? With the new double down option, ill be needing to keep track of this. I don't see anything with this on Baseball-Reference or Yahoo Sports app.

[salthill]

Originally Posted by Juanny Chico

Is there a site out there that tracks HR distance statistics? With the new double down option, ill be needing to keep track of this. I don't see anything with this on Baseball-Reference or Yahoo Sports app.

You might be able to dig it out of Savant / Statscast…
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/

[Juanny Chico]

Originally Posted by salthill

You might be able to dig it out of Savant / Statscast…
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/

Thank you!- hoping its a live update (or at least morning after) and it'll be a great resource for tracking

[salthill]

Originally Posted by Juanny Chico

Thank you!- hoping its a live update (or at least morning after) and it'll be a great resource for tracking

I did a quick poke around and they definitely track HR distance. But I’m not sure if you can drill down to the per player per game level. (If be surprised if you can’t though.)
It’s also likely the same stat that Topps will be using.

[TCCardCollector]

I assume a correct Wander call will have the RC stamp on the card, could be a pretty cool card if you double down as well.

[Juanny Chico]

Originally Posted by TCCardCollector

I assume a correct Wander call will have the RC stamp on the card, could be a pretty cool card if you double down as well.

We notice the Wander Franco HRC insert does not have a RC logo on it. Looking back at the 2020 Yordan Alvarez home run challenge inserts, series one had an RC logo, series 2 did not. But his winner /37 did come with an RC logo.
I would hope the same for Wander.

[weavahVBC]

If anyone is looking for a Wander Franco, I've got one I'd like to trade for the Aaron Judge & Giancarlo Stanton - unscratched of course. I'm assuming that's fair, but admittedly haven't done a lot of research into the going rate for any of them.

Let me know!

[lauriontj]

My current Wander Stash: