2009 Topps Heritage Base Set Journey-completed

Well, the quest has ended with great assists from giveaways and trades in the sports card blogtopia. These last contributions were from Brian at Play at the Plate and Chris from Budget Baseball Cardboarding. Thank you to all those who were patient enough to trade with me.

Robinson Cano is looking sleepy and Aaron Boone is looking smug.
David Price has gone from a rookie star to an all-star starter and he's pushing the Rays to the top with the effervescent Evan Longoria
Derek Jeter is still the face of the Yankees, Alex Rios is having a renaissance this year with the White Sox, and Jay Bruce is always swinging for the fences.
This is a Geovany Soto All-star SP, Corey Hart has decided to remain with the Brew Crew, and Gavin Floyd is enjoying a breakthrough season in 2010.

As for the cards, I love the varying designs of the subsets (all-star, all-rookie team, rookies, managers, World Series, team) and though the photos are mostly portraits, nothing looks washed out or is too bright for the homage like it has in past Heritage editions (such as 2007).

Of course, I only have 4 out of 71 SPs. So those are welcome in any future trades, though I will not pursue them with much vigor.

Play at the Plate: 500th Post Contest

Brian at Play at the Plate is celebrating his 500th post with a very nice contest and prize. Check it out! Extend his dedication to his craft for another 500! Good luck!

non-HOF Profile Derby #16: Graig Nettles

Next, is yet another in a series of undervalued third baseman, Graig Nettles.

Place on the WAR chart: : Below Ryne Sandberg and Yogi Berra and above Harmon Killebrew

Career Overview and Some Numbers:Played for the Twins (67-69), Indians (70-72), Yankees (73-83), Padres (84-86), Braves (87), and Expos (88). Won 2 Gold Gloves in his career, was a 6 time all-star, and finished in the top-10 MVP voting twice. Led the league in HR once. Had one 100 RBI season and 11 20 HR seasons. Had 4 seasons of greater than 120 OPS+. Most similar players numbers-wise were Darrell Evans, Ron Cey, and Ron Santo.

Consistently a good fielder (and sometimes a great one), he profiled as a power hitting 3rd baseman in a pitcher's era. His power numbers were respectable and his fielding numbers were consistently very good.

Best Season:1976: .254/.327/.475 (134 OPS+), with 32 HR, 93 RBI, 88 R and 11 SB.
The Final Numbers: Hit .248/.329/.421 (110 OPS+) with 390 HR,1314 RBI, 1193 R, 1088/1209 BB/K ratio.

Why He Should be Remembered: He was a large hard-fielding, power wielding 3rd baseman who was strong with the glove and bat. Consistently, an above average hitter and good to great fielder, his game was well-rounded and featured many assets. He had some strong playoff performances as well for inclusion in the Yankee playoff pantheon in the 76, 78, and 81 ALCS performances were pretty awesome (especially 81, when he had a >1400 OPS)

HOF Balloting Performance:4 years on the ballot with a peak of 8.3%
Rookie Card:1969 Topps #99
Modern Cards:1999 Sports Illustrated Greats of the Game Auto, 2008 Upper Deck Goudey Auto, and more

Trade Deadline Reaction: Starting Pitching Edition, another Roy is coming.

The Phillies made a big splash on the trade market today, which puts on hold whatever else I was writing about today.

Roy Oswalt, formerly of the Houston Astros, has joined the Fightin' Phils for the stretch run of the season. He was received in exchange for last year's rookie sensation LHP JA Happ and two minor leaguers Anthony Gose and Jonathan Villar. The minor leaguers are of note only because they are young (18 or 19) unpolished baseball products, which is valuable to a team in a situation like the Astros.

This, however, is a deal fraught with layers of complexity. The Phillies receive another ace-type pitcher, not only for the rest of this year, but also all of 2011 with a mutual option for 2012. That is the simple fact. All the rest is details and the reading of GM's intentions.

About Roy Oswalt
He is a 32 year old right handed starting pitcher who is leading the league in losses this year with 12. How's that for the cynical view? Of course, this is a terrible measure for quantifying pitcher performance over a season. He has a 3.42 ERA, 1.1 WHIP and has 120 K and 34 BB and 129 IP. The K rate is his best since his rookie year in 2001, but he has consistently averaged 6.8-7.5 K/9 over the course of his career. Of his losses this year, 7 were received in quality starts. He's had 12starts where he's pitched at least 7 innings and allowed 3 runs or less. Make-up wise, he's pretty tenacious and is a fastball/slider dominant pitcher. Interestingly, the most similar player on his comparative list is Roy Halladay.

What This Means for the 2010 Standings

This was the reason the deal was made. Oswalt effectively replaces Happ/injury replacement in the rotation. This has the possibility to add an additional 3 wins (my guess)to the Phillies if his performance for the rest of the season mirrors his performance for the Astros in 2010.

What This Means Economically in 2010
There will be no change in the payroll because the Astros are paying the remainder of this year's salary as part of the deal.

What This Means for 2011
Jayson Werth is probably not going to be resigned because he wants his payday (understandably). Oswalt will only be paid $12 million by the Phillies (the rest by the Astros). The rotation will stay intact through 2011.

What this Means Psychologically

This feels like a net positive for the Phillies fans and management. Only 2.5 games outside of a playoff spot heading into tonight, the Phillies need the emotional charge from an addition such as this. When their best player (Utley) returns at the beginning of September along with the influx of the injured Victorino and Rollins back to the lineup in August, they will be in a great position for the stretch drive. In addition, there's that prospect, Domonic Brown, that can add valuable at-bats in a platoon or off the bench (once Victorino returns). Also, maybe Phillies fans can know that these two guys are not walking back through the door.




es, dealing Lee will always be considered a mistake, but they reloaded without giving up too much in return.

I give the deal a big thumbs up from a fan's and analyst's point of view.

Now, I'm waiting for the first Oswalt card featuring him on the Phillies.

2002 Topps Gallery Pack Break

This pack was won from a contest over at Play at the Plate when I correctly prognosticated that Ubaldo Jimenez would be the majors' first 10 game winner this year. Other cards were included, but I just felt like opening a pack and scanning all the cards together.

2002 Topps Gallery was the second edition of Gallery with painted card subjects. This time the design had a fading brushstroked border with white space beneath which featured the player and team name. There was a 150 card base set, 151-200 were inserted 1 per pack and included the rookies and retired players. The best rookie card in the set is Joe Mauer (1:50 chance for the Mauer!) Inserts included Topps Gallery Heritage (1:12 packs), Relics (1:85 packs), and Autographs (1:192 packs). The odds are against me.

84-Fred McGriff-"The Crime Dog" in a Cubbies uni
72-JT Snow-who was a better fielder: JT Snow or John Olerud?
172-Tony Fontana: This guy is not Joe Mauer. He never made the majors, though he did have promising minor league stats. He was finished pitching at the age of 23. Was it injuries?
1-Jason Giambi: When Giambi signed with the Yankees, he lost his power just like Samson did. He was not the same force of nature as he was the A's.

3-Bret Boone-coming off a career year in 2001 with .337 AVG, 37 HR, and 141 RBI. That was a come from nowhere season.
9-Jorge Posada- Somehow he still dons the tools of ignorance with the Yankees and still has managed to not get many pictures in the New York Post.

That was a fun pack break...."pick yourself up off the side of the road, with your elevator bones and your whip flash tones..."

And fade to black.

Swapping Cards: Trade with Bud from First Day Issue, etc.

I completed a trade a couple (few?) months ago with Bud of the The First Day Issue. I traded him a few 2008 Masterpieces cards and he sent me a nicely enjoyed package of cards in return. Consider the below a sampling, if you will.

2003 Topps Gallery HOF Mike Schmidt: It's not often you see a mustache-less image of Schmidt. This is one set that I have to take a closer look at; it's right up my alley in terms of retired player subject matter and with hand-painting of the card subjects.
2004 Fleer Greats of the Game Chris Short: This gentleman was overlooked for so long, his first card wasn't until 1967 (see this link). At this point, he had already been an all-star, had a 20 win season, and a season with a 2.20 ERA (158 ERA+).
2001 Topps Gold Label Bobby Abreu: I like to reminisce about the days when the debates among Phillies's fans were whether Abreu was underrated or overrated. I'm still not sure of the answer, probably both.
2000 Metal Scott Rolen: Metal wasn't the same after they took out the comic book images.
2008 Upper Deck Heroes Light Blue Cole Hamels Jersey: There's just something about the Heroes design, still timeless.
1998 Topps Stars (Red) Curt Schilling: Most memorable Curt Schilling moment that I saw live (I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I will anyway). I saw him strike out 16 batters against the Yankees during interleague play at the Vet (ok, I'm going to track down the date now) on September 1, 1997. I hadn't seen that much excitement...in 4 years.
1983 Fleer Gary Matthews: "Sarge" gives voice to the Phillies these days, but in the early '80s he was a high contact, above average LF with good on-base skills.
2001 Upper Deck Decade '70s Garry Maddox: I don't care if I've said this before on here, I'll say it again here. "2/3 of the Earth is covered by water, the other 1/3 is covered by Garry Maddox"2004 Playoff Honors Jim Thome: Thome has the best socks of the decade, no matter which team he's been on. I think he'll reach 600 HR for his career.

Thanks for the trade Bud!

Card Spotlight: 2007 Exquisite Dual Auto, Brian Bannister/Jeremy Guthrie

This beauty of a card is #d 2/2. Don't let the blurriness fool you. It's only because the holder is so thick, I couldn't get it to sit flat on the scanner bed. What is significant about a card such as this? Well, for one thing (for me) it is not a Phillies card. Another thing is that it shows a not completely distracting way to pull off sticker autographs. A third thing is that neither player is more identified with the team on the card (Bannister=Royals, Guthrie=Orioles). A fourth thing is that both pitchers are not strikeout pitchers (both average around 5 K/9) and can have wildly fluctuating stats from year to year. (Guthrie ERA has ranged from 3.63-5.04, Bannister's ERA has ranged from 3.87-5.76).

Enough about coincidences. The really interesting thing is this card is probably a "case hit" in this product, and this fact is probably solely due to the low serial number. Even in 2007, these were not top of the line prospects. Bannister was never listed on a top 100 prospects list and Guthrie's best showing was #53 in 2004.

Exquisite boxes cost somewhere around $120-160 and do offer a wide variety of autos within each box (I believe 4 of 6 cards are autos). Shouldn't there be given consideration to what the best card pulled in 6 box case should be? Not all people like it, but I do believe it should be a multiple auto prospect (especially in a product called Exquisite Rookies) card with a better connection than they are both pitchers. It should not necessarily be a parallel because that's the only thing differentiating this card from the higher numbered versions.

In a product like this, they probably should be using the top 5 lists for each farm system to derive the case hit checklist. Another idea could be a pairing with the prospect with the modern or retired player, they're most compared to in the scouting reports. It would make it more worthwhile.

I think what I'm trying to say is that value is not always a number on the card (though 2/2 is cool to see). There should be some hope for rookies for the supposed best pull of a case to improve their lot and increase in at least intrinsic value (following the player, seeing growth, hoping for success, etc).

What would the ideal case hit of a high end product like Exquisite or Triple Threads or Topps Tribute or other like-priced/like-styled product be for you? (assuming that price is not an object) Keep in the mind the focus of the given set.

I would appreciate your thoughts.

Contest Over at Nr Mt!

Sign up today for a Price is Right style contest at Nr Mt! Guess the prices of cards and a car (car not guaranteed)could be yours. Remember, the first number of the price is always 1.

1961 Topps Phillies Team Set Chase Part 3

I'm enjoying this much more than chasing down the team set from 2010 Heritage. Plus, sometimes it's a nice change of pace to see frayed corners and know it's a natural part of the condition. Here are the latest.

The two cards presented here represent the Opening Day starters of the Phillies from 1950-1963. These were the proverbial aces. Of course, with the Phillies in this era, I'm not sure what that really says about the pitching quality at that time.


433 Art Mahaffey: Number of years with Phillie: 6 (1960-1965) Best year as Phillie (1962): 19-14 with 3.94 ERA (98 ERA+) with 1.21 WHIP, 177 K/81 BB, and a league leading 36 HR allowed.

Card was given to me by Jim at the The Phillies Room

20 Robin Roberts: Number of years with Phillies: 14 (1948-1961) Best season as a Phillie: (1952): 28-7 with 2.59 ERA (141 ERA+) with 1.02 WHIP, 148 K/45 BB, led league in wins, games started, complete games (30), innings pitched (292), BB/9 (1.2), and K/BB (3.29).

Picking Roberts best season was difficult since he had 4 very similar, incredible seasons from 1952-1955. His full career path will be fleshed out as I acquire more cards of him.

This card was acquired at a card show.

For an updated needs list, check the sidebar.

Cole Hamels Blog: 7/17/10

I wish I had been able to do this more because the ups and downs of Cole Hamels throughout the season make for compelling and frustrating viewing on the whole over the course of the season. Unfortunately, I have not been able to watch hardly any games in their entirety this season. It's painful living on the West Coast sometimes.

This performance was a positive, but as per the new course, he had to rely on the 2 month long impotency of the 2010 offense. Let's review his outing.

Overall Line: 7 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, ND


Results Distribution: 76 of his 111 pitches went for strikes including 18 swinging strikes. He also had an uncharacteristic 14 groundballs allowed: 7 flyballs allowed. On average, Cole Hamels's GB:FB ratio is slightly less than 1.

Observations:

The umpire had a low and wide strike zone for both pitchers on this day. He was giving them 1-2 inches off the black on the outside corner against either handed hitters, reminiscent of the old "Tom Glavine" strike zone from the 1990s.

Hamels moved the ball inside and outside very well. He attacked the inner part of the plate from the start of the game with his fastball and then crossed up hitters by throwing a changeup in the same spot. There aren't many left handed batters that expect inside changeups from a lefty.

Hamels did not use his curve very much. He frankly didn't need it since his fastball and changeup were used so effectively by changing speeds and eye levels. He kept most of the Cubs hitters guessing during his outing.

The only run the Cubs scored was on a suicide squeeze; all other runners were stranded

The positive turning point in the game was the 4th inning. Aramis Ramirez led off with a walk, Marlon Byrd followed with a single after an 11 pitch at-bat. This is the point when Hamels mental struggles usually take over. Fortunately, Hamels induced Alfonso Soriano to ground into a 5-4-3 double play. His command did not recover until the next inning (he walked Soto afterwards), but no runs were scored.

Summary

This makes 7 out of 8 quality starts for Cole Hamels since he was pulled in the 1st inning on June 1st. Run support is and will continue to be an issue. The Phillies had three outs on the basepaths during the first 6 innings; that is unacceptable. Hamels has to trust in the location of his fastball and deceptiveness of his changeup to be successful; it seems he has turned a corner mentally and approach wise this month.

Until next time...

Those are the breaks: from Nachos Grande

A few months ago (time passes quickly here). Chris of Nachos Grande hosted a pair of group breaks, showcasing a variety of sets from the late '90s and early-mid 2000s. Here are some of the highlights.

Mike Schmidt and Ryan Howard from 2005 Upper Deck All-Star Classics: The prediction was correct; Ryan Howard became an all-star in 2006, 2009, and 2010. Mike Schmidt had 11 all-star appearances (12 total elections)

1997 Collector's Choice Ricky Bottalico and Lenny Dykstra: Is that the arm that saved 34 games in 1996? I would have to say no, that is his left arm.
2003 Upper Deck Honor Roll Pat Burrell and Bobby Abreu: This was a weird set, the checklist is basically composed of image variations of the other half of the set. I like the juxtaposition of the new Phillies 'P' on the card with the old Phillies 'P' from Burrell's retro uniform.

1995 Topps Stadium Club Jim Eisenreich: Show me a person who doesn't like Jim Eisenreich, and I'll show you a person that doesn't like "Field of Dreams" (and we all know what that implies)

2004 Upper Deck Vintage Roy Oswalt jersey: As a kindness, Chris included this jersey in the group break. I appreciate the sepia vintageness of the card.
2004 Upper Deck Vintage Jim Thome: So nice he even received an ovation after hitting a home run against the Phillies this year while with the Twins (of course his HR sparked a 5 run rally in the 9th inning that led the Phillies to lose the game, but the fans didn't know that at the time)
1998 Collector's Choice Griffey, Walker, and McGwire: These were the HR leaders of 1997, Griffey led the AL with 56, Walker led the NL with 49, and McGwire led everyone with 58 while being traded from the A's to the Cardinals during midseason.
1999 UD Choice Alex Rodriguez: A-rod in a simpler time.
1998 Collector's Choice Griffey and Galarraga: Remember how potent the Coors Field effect was during the pre-humidor days. You could draft any Rockies marginal player on your fantasy team and he would have 100 RBIs and high batting average (except for Jeff Cirillo)
1999 UD Choice Ken Griffey Jr: I have yet to punch this out and build the mini bobbing head.


Above are more Griffeys and A-Rods from 1998 and 1999 Collector's and UD Choice.
Lastly, 1998 Collector's Choice Starquest Edgar Martinez: Here is the greatest DH hitter so far since its institution. I think he deserves a fair shake at the Hall of Fame (I have not examined his candidacy in full yet though). Just check out those rate stats.

Side Note: Do you remember the contest when Collector's Choice first came out as a brand in 1994? The winner received a card in the next year's set pictured with Ken Griffey Jr. Anyone remember what you had to do to win the contest?

Thanks for the cards, Chris. It was very fun.

Weekend Pack Break: 2010 National Chicle two pack break

National Chicle is an interesting product to buy as individual packs. Odds are you'll at least receive some interesting player or an interesting looking card. I would not buy a box of this to chase after the set (and with the absurd amount of SPs, it discourages me further). However, on a lazy Saturday afternoon, the reveals of a couple packs keep my attention...for a little while. The inclusion of retired players does lend some gravitas and excitement, though the depictions are not always ideal. Below are the images which caught my eye the most.

Favorite presented: Pedroia
Least favorite presented: Pedroia

Guess which one is which.

Pack 1
84 Hanley Ramirez
122 Roy Halladay (Paul Lempa)


147 Jon Lester
252 Duke Snider (Monty Sheldon)


245 Whitey Ford (Jason Davies)

234 Tris Speaker
308 SP Dustin Pedroia (Monty Sheldon)

54 Yunel Escobar

Pack 2
97 Matt Kemp
87 Ted Lilly
230 Jimmie Foxx
112 Dustin Pedroia (Chris Felix)

185 Travis Snider
129 Nolan Reimold
169 Denard Span
199 Trevor Crowe (Paul Lempa)