By Chris Olds | Beckett Baseball Editor | Commentary

Question: What happens when a highly touted Cuban prospect signs with a small-market team lacking many marquee names and he hits tape-measure home runs in three of his first five games?

Answer: Hot cardboard.

That’s exactly what has happened with new Oakland A’s outfielder Yoenis Cespedes, a 5-foot-10, 210-pound rookie who is hitting just .250 but might be the biggest Bash Brother in the Oakland lineup these days. Meanwhile, he doesn’t even have an A’s card yet — but thanks to his 2009 World Baseball Classic cards in various Topps brands, there’s still cardboard to be found.  (Need a full Cespedes checklist or OPG? Click here.)

Want proof? A 2009 Bowman Chrome WBC Prospects Blue Refractor /150 sold for $135 on Tuesday — a strong number. Meanwhile, a 30-card lot of his regular card in the set is commanding more than $500 in a current auction with time remaining today.

Believe it or not, though, Cespedes has been hotter even before playing well in his first MLB games. His 2009 Bowman Sterling WBC Relics Red Refractor 1/1 (top) recently sold on eBay for $800. In March, a Orange Refractor /25 sold for $710, while a Gold (/50) went for $511 and a BGS 9.5 Gold went for $490.

And those are just the bigger examples.

“Since Cespedes signed in February, his cards have slowly been gaining momentum on the secondary market – his 2009 Bowman Chrome WBC Prospects has even made a few appearances on the Hot List,” said Beckett Baseball Senior Market Analyst Brian Fleischer. “His early season performances have gotten collectors’ attention and many of his serial-numbered and game-used cards have nearly doubled in value since the start of the season. One of his most-plentiful cards, the 2009 Bowman Chrome WBC Prospects, was previously priced at $5-$12, but is now selling the $10-$25 range. It’s much too early to start predicting Rookie of the Year, but Cespedes seems to at least be on the right track, which could mean great things for his cards.”

In all, Cespedes appears on 44 cards in the Beckett.com database but his Oakland A’s debut will come in 2012 Bowman, which will arrive in early May. There, he will be found as a Bowman Lucky autograph redemption card since Topps just recently signed him to a card and autograph deal. That card can be seen above.

How many moonshot home runs might he have by then?

Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball magazine. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an email to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.

Jan. 18 Update: Darvish has signed a six-year $60-million deal, according to ESPN.

By Chris Olds | Beckett Baseball Editor

One of Japan’s most successful professional pitchers just might be on his way to Major League Baseball as the Texas Rangers have won the bidding rights for Yu Darvish of the NPB’s Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters and now have 30 days to sign him to a big-league deal.

In the past five seasons, the 6-foot-5 right-hander has compiled a 76-28 record with a 1.72 ERA and 1,083 strikeouts in 1,024-plus innings of work. The Rangers bid? A record $51.7 million — for the right to try and sign him.

His 2005 BBM Japanese Rookie Cards have been consistent sellers of late, but his hottest cards should already be recognizable to American collectors as he appears on nearly 80 cards made by Topps for the World Baseball Classic in its 2009 products.

In all, the Japan’s WBC ace appeared on 77 cards with a total value of $1,765 for those not too rare to price. Of the 77 cards, 63 are serial-numbered and 23 of them feature game-used memorabilia pieces from the WBC.

In recent completed sales, his 1/1 2009 Bowman Sterling World Baseball Classic Relic Red Refractor sold for $1,500, while a 2009 Bowman Sterling WBC Relic card with a patch piece fetched $347.

Meanwhile, a BGS 9.5 copy of his 2009 WBC Prospects Bowman Chrome Gold Refractor /50 sold for $306 and several other Topps rarities from 2009 have routinely fetched $100 and up — before his MLB rights were even known.

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Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball magazine. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an email to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.

By Chris Olds | Beckett Baseball Editor

Tampa Bay Rays rookie pitcher Matt Moore‘s second career start came in Game 1 of the American League Division Series and it went something like this: Seven innings, two hits, two walks, no runs, six strikeouts  and a victory over the defending AL champion Texas Rangers.

That news prompted one simple announcement from Topps on Monday that more Moore cards — his first autographs from the company — are coming soon.

“Rookie phenom Matt Moore will be [an] on-card autograph in Bowman Chrome,” the company announced. Slated to arrive on Oct. 19, 2011 Bowman Chrome will arrive with one Chrome autograph card in every 18-pack hobby box.

With Moore’s September call-up, it won’t be his first MLB Rookie Card appearing in Bowman Chrome — just his first autographs from the company. At this time, he appears on 126 different cards in the Beckett.com database with 34 different autographed and 87 different serial-numbered cards.

None of them are an official Rookie Card — and, interestingly, none of them feature game-used memorabilia yet, either. It seems both will have to wait until 2012.

Moore’s first MLB cards came in the 2009 Bowman lines — Bowman, Bowman Sterling, Bowman Chrome — while his first autographed cards were released by Panini America in 2010 Donruss Elite Extra Edition. Moore also has signed for In The Game this year and has a small number of autographs appearing in the 2011 Topps Pro Debut minor league set.

Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball magazine. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an email to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.