Sunday, August 9, 2015

Sunday Night Baseball Dodgers @ Pirates

Tonight the Pittsburgh Pirates host the LA Dodgers on Sunday Night Baseball. Our Pirates card to mark the occasion is an insert from 2015 Topps.

 2015 Topps Inspired Play #I-15 Willie Stargell & Andrew McCutchen

Topps frequently produces subsets that tie together players from different eras. This year they dubbed that set Inspired Play.

The Pirates entry into the subset features 1970s era Hall of Famer and team leader Willie Stargell. The current pirates feature Centerfielder Andrew McCutchen who fulfills a similar role.  

Currently Andrew McCutchen's career is much more advanced then Stargell's was at age 28. Going into the season McCutchen's career WAR was 33.3 - compare that with 11.5 for Stargell. McCutchen wins the traditional numbers as well BA McCutchen .299, Stagell .278, HR McCutchen 128-112, RBI 462-411, and Stolen Bases 143-5. Stargell does have McCutchen in Slugging Pct, but by just 2 points.

At age 27 Willie Stargell had one HoF in his SimScore Top 10 - Frank Thomas at #8. Andrew McCutchen has 3 HoFs Andre Dawson (#2) Billy Williams (#7) and Dave Winfield (#9)


 2015 Topps Inspired Play #I-15 Willie Stargell & Andrew McCutchen (b-side)

Inspired Play
IP is a 15 card insert set representing half the teams in the league, which led me to believe that this may be a continuity set with the other 15 cards in S2. This was not the case and it appears this may be series one only. Card I-5 features the Phillies connecting a pair of the teams great soutpaws Steve Carlton and Cole Hamels. Five of the 15 cards serve as a base for relics, The Phillies are amongst the 5 (#IR-HC)

Sources and Links
Willie Stargell HoF Index
Cardboard Connection
baseball-ref

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a thousand words

a thousand words
2008 World Champions