Topps Now September Update Heavy on Pitching, Including Mike Clevinger and Aaron Nola

The latest Topps Now September players are mostly pitchers. For Topps Now September 7-13, we get Topps Now Aaron Nola, Topps Now Mike Clevinger, Topps Now Corbin Burnes, Topps Now Michael Conforto and Topps Now Jorge Alfaro — in addition to the Topps Now Alec Mills that was added a couple days back (and is no longer free).

You can see the first batch of Topps Now September players here, and we’ll get into the five new players below.

• Topps Now Jorge Alfaro is a 96 overall. I always like seeing new catchers added and Alfaro also adds to a Marlins team that can always use a little more help. Alfaro is solid across the board, and so you’re just getting a very good card here. That being said, we’re getting so used to seeing some ratings over 100, it’s almost weird to see Alfaro just having 100 contact vs. RHP and nothing else.
• Topps Now Mike Clevinger is a 97 overall. The change of scenery has been good to Clevinger so far, and here you get 103 H/9 and 110 K/9. I don’t have much experience using Clevinger this year so I’m excited to check this card out. The pitch mix doesn’t look quite “meta” or anything, but I’m a believer in the cutter more than some.
• Topps Now Corbin Burnes is a 97 overall. He has a primary sinker to go with 105 H/9 and 110 K/9. He has 86 control so the sinker should be a good primary pitch to go with his other four offerings. This presumably becomes the most popular pitcher in this set due to the sinker remaining overpowered online.
• Topps Now Michael Conforto is a 97 overall. I really enjoy Conforto’s swing, and here you’re getting someone who is very good against RHP and has very good defensive attributes. I will use this card for sure and think it’s the most well rounded card in the set.
• Topps Now Aaron Nola is a 97 overall. I have some experience with Nola via Team Affinity, and his issue is he just sort of gets tagged. Even with a sinker, there’s something about his delivery that makes him easy to read. On top of that, curves just aren’t a great pitch this year and obviously in real life the curve is a deadly pitch for Nola.

Topps Now September 7-13 Moments

You can earn two cards for free if you complete all the moments.

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• September 9: Fly Like Mike
  • Difficulty: Veteran
  • Win 1 game
• September 9: Burnesy
  • Difficulty: Veteran
  • Pitch 7 innings
  • Strike out 11 batters
  • Do not give up 1 run
• September 10: El Oso
  • Difficulty: All-Star
  • Win 1 game
• September 11: Nols
  • Difficulty: Veteran
  • Pitch 7 innings
  • Strike out 10 batters
  • Do not give up 4 hits
• September 11: No Righty Rays
  • Difficulty: Veteran
  • Win 1 game
• September 13: Sunshine
  • Difficulty: Veteran
  • Score 1 run
• September 13: Sir Alec
  • Difficulty: Rookie
  • Pitch 3 innings
  • Do not give up 1 hit

Because there are so many pitching moments, these should mostly be a breeze for folks. I’m fine with that considering we just got trucked by Program Extreme, and even some of the Topps Now moments last week were a bit harder than usual.