Junk of the Month: January 2016

Time to bring back a fan favorite we haven't run in a few years - Junk of the Month!

 2016 Topps #170 New Order (Houston Astros)

Despite the use of the name of a Classic 80's Alternative Band I dislike this card. Checkers are a necessary evil in flagship which have been done a number of different ways. When I was a kid (1970s) they were a checklist, nothing more nothing less. No Player Picture, Not a Team card, not a manager card. 

This year Topps has taken a similar approach to the last couple of releases. A player or team photo of a Highlight from the previous season is on the front with the data on the back.

My Issue w/ 2016 Topps is that the cards are no longer highlights. This year they are multi-player shots. I have no problem with Multi-Player cards - we took a long look at the MPs from 1967 Topps last week. The big difference is that in the 1960s Topps the Multis had some interesting Bio info on the back.

At best it is a half-baked multi-player, at worst it is a throw a picture on a checklist. Regardless it is a downgrade from 2015T

By Definition checkers need to have a checklist on the back.

2016 Topps #170 New Order (b-side)

So No information on the players on the front of the card. In fact the player names for the Carlos' aren't on the card at all (Correa and Gomez).

And there is an oddity that Night Owl Cards brought up last year, for whatever reason the recent checkers are not part of the checklist that they present. This isn't really and issue, but I find it odd especially since the checkers are interspersed throughout the set.

2015 Topps #317 Clayton Kershaw (CL)

Here is an example of how a checker appeared last year. Nice Highlight of a significant baseball event. Player CLEARLY identified.

2015 Topps #317 Clayton Kershaw (CL - b-side)

I would like to see a one sentence summary of the event on the back. For others like me that would like that info Clayton Kershaw no-hit the Rockies in a Dodgers 8-0 victory in LA. The Dodgers Southpaw recorded 15Ks with no walks. A Hanley Ramrirez 7th Inning error was the only blemish on what was otherwise a perfect outing for Kershaw.

It might get a little crowded for a blurb on the back, the typeface is about as small as one would want. While most folks are averse to adding a checklist to the set, I think if it was a highlight card that wold be more acceptable. Highlight cards are good :)

FYI if things go as planned, folks who are fans of checklists will really enjoy this week. Others well maybe you will enjoy something funny I write.

Sources and Links
2016 Topps Index
Night Owl Cards
Baseball Almanac
Baseball-ref

2014 First Phillies Card: Topps #182 Carlos Ruiz - and Phillies Series 1 Checklist

The first Phillies card of the year is this fine one of Carlos Ruiz

2014 Topps #182 Carlos Ruiz

Catcher make for great photography and this is a fine example. Ruiz is shown here in action firing the ball down to second base, although In action may be a stretch. For some reason this appears to be a between innings warm up toss down to second.

2014 Topps Phillies Checker
4 Cody Asche
74 John Mayberry
90 Ethan Martin
105 Ryan Howard
122 Jonathan Papelbon
180 Ben Revere
182 Carlos Ruiz
196 Cole Hamels
296 Domonic Brown
312 Jimmy Rollins

After missing out on the playoffs in consecutive seasons the Phillies can no longer be considered a perennial contender, so coming up with 11 cards in series 1 is about right.

2014 Topps has it's share of inserts and the Phillies represent a bit. One of the insert sets I was happy to see pop was the return of Super Veterans, which was a subset in 1983 Topps. The 2014 Topps version has only 15 cards in S1 but the Phillies manage to get 2 reps, Roy Halladay and Jimmy Rollins.  The checker for various 2014 Phillies Inserts listed below.

Phillies Inserts
Super Veterans (15 card checker)
SV-8 Jimmy Rollins
SV-14 Roy Halladay

Silk (100 card checker)
SC-20 Domonic Brown Philadelphia Phillies®
SC-21 Cole Hamels Philadelphia Phillies®
SC-22 Carlos Ruiz Philadelphia Phillies®
SC-23 Jimmy Rollins Philadelphia Phillies®
SC-24 Ben Revere Philadelphia Phillies®
SC-25 Ryan Howard Philadelphia Phillies®

Upper Class (50)
UC-26 Ryan Howard

Before they were Great (30)
BG-20 Mike Schmidt
BG-21 Steve Carlton

Topps Mini Die Cuts (50 subjects)
TM-16 Mike Schmidt

Power Player (110)
PP-2 Cole Hamels
PP-10 Ben Revere
PP-54 Ryan Howard
PP-65 Ethan Martin
PP-105 Carlos Ruiz

BEFORE THEY WERE GREAT AUTO (14)
BGA-MS Mike Schmidt

BEFORE THEY WERE GREAT AU-GU (10)
BGAR-MS Mike Schmidt

Various Relics
TR-MS Mike Schmidt
UCR-RH Ryan Howard
BGR-MS Mike Schmidt
TMR-MS Mike Schmidt
SVR-JR Jimmy Rollins
ITN-CL Cliff Lee
ITN-DB Domonic Brown

ManuPatch
CP-23 Chase Utley

Sources
Beckett

1983 NL Champions: Gary Matthews 1984 Topps #637 Phillies Team Leaders

I am going to see if we can wrap up the 1983 Phillies postings before the end of the year.  Today we look at 1983 NLCS MVP and current Phils TV color analyst Gary "Sarge" Matthews.

1984 Topps #637 Team Leaders Gary Matthews and John Denny

Sarge had a mediocre regular season for the Phillies.  He hit .258 with 10 Home Runs and 50 RBIs.  Those numbers are far below what Matthews expected from himself throughout is career, but as noted on the above card the .258 led the team. Says a lot about what that team had to do to win and the importance of batting average vs on-base pct (Mike Schmidt led the team with a respectable .399 OBP).

The Phillies Room is posting an interesting series with Custom Phillies Team Leader cards that homage the 1973 Topps LL format. In his columns Jim is noting the 5 best and worst leaders for each category over the last 40 years. The Batting Average Custom is here. As you can see in the posting, Gary Matthews .258 in 1983 ranked one slot above the bottom (Jimmy Rollins who led the 2012 offense with a .250!!!)

During the NLCS the veteran left fielder made up for his sup-par year by hitting .429 with 3 Home Runs over 4 games.  The third Home Run gave the Philles a 3-0 first inning lead which they would not relinquish.

Matthews is also homered in Game 3 of the World Series, it was his last dinger as a Phillies player.  Just prior the 1984 seaosn Matthews was traded to the Cubs along with Bob Dernier for Bill Campbell and Mike Diaz.

Numbers and Accolades
Gary Matthews played 16 seasons in the majors. As a Giant, he won the rookie of the year award in 1973.  He made one all-star appearance in 1979. In 1984 he led the league in OPB at .410, his best Offense WAR finish was 4th in the strike shortened 1981 season.
 

1983 NL Champions Series   
Darren Daulton
Bo Diaz    
John Denny
Ivan DeJesus
Garry Maddox  
Joe Morgan 
Tony Perez
Pete Rose
 
Steve Carlton Passes Walter Johnson (Strikeouts) Steve Carlton 300 Wins
 
Sources  
Baseball-ref.com
The Phillies Room

2012 Topps Phillies Checklist Series 1 and 2

Thanks to Wrigley Wax for going to the trouble to break down the 2012 Topps Checker by team. 

Here is the list of Phils in the 2012 set for the combined 1&2 Series'. 
  
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28	Placido Polanco
64	Michael Martinez
98	Domonic Brown
117	Carlos Ruiz
120	Hunter Pence
150	Roy Halladay
190	Cole Hamels
243	Justin DeFratus
259	Michael Stutes
280	Ryan Howard
287	Antonio Bastardo
307	Vance Worley
345	Jonathan Papelbon
353	John Mayberry
361	Chase Utley
371	Jim Thome
392	Cliff Lee
449	Shane Victorino
458	Kyle Kendrick
464	Joe Savery
465	Michael Schwimer
551	Joe Blanton
617	Jimmy Rollins
634	Jose Contreras
658	Juan Pierre

As noted by the Phillies Room the most glaring omission would be Ty Wiggington who in the absence of Ryan Howard has seen the most action at first base this season.

Did 2012 Topps Sandbag Stars out of Series One?

While reading reviews and opinions associated with 2012 Topps I notices a handful of bloggers commenting that their packs and breaks lacked star power. 

2012 Topps #319 AL LL Wins Verlander, Sabathia, Weaver 

Indeed 2 of the 3 players on the AL Wins League Leaders Card were not honored with Series 1 base cards.

This poses the following Question:

Did Topps Sandbag Series One in 2012 in an attempt to Backload the Stars into Series 2?

This is an odd assumption.  I have thought that Series 1 was a little more star laden in the past few years, but maybe I am just jaded by the time Series 2 hits the streets.

To look into whether Series 1 is Star Deffered I had to find a way to measure Stardom.  Depending on what the researcher values this can be measured a number of ways.  Baseball-Reference has an incredible warehouse of information easily accesible.  In the end I decided to use something that is pretty unscientific, yet I believe highly fitting -  The MVP Voting.  The MVP voting is definitely a subjective excercise - but so is Superstardom.  Chances are unless your a fantasy geek you first learned about a star player from outside your club via word of mouth, not analyzing their OPS in the Internation League.

Between the 2 leagues there were 72 Players who recieved either an MVP or Cy Young vote for the 2011 season.  Of those 72, 10 were duplicated pitchers who also were on MVP Ballots (ie. Justin Verlander).  I removed 4 players that were either FAs or we expected to move teams during the off-season (Pujols. Fielder, Reyes, Beltran) although in the end 2 of them were sort of issued cards :)

That left us with 58 "Stars" In theory half of these players (29) should have been issued Cards in Series 1 while the other 29 would get into Series 2.  Let see how they fared

In each column pair, the player name is preceded by their series 1 card number.  If no number is given that indicates that the player was not in 2012 Series 1.  Pardon the weird psuedo-alphabetical order.    

Card	Player		Card	Player		Card	Player
213	A Avila		290	Grandrson		288	Montero
130	A Cabrera		150	Halladay		165	Morse
50	A Gonzalez		190	Hamels		120	Pence
294	Axford		300	Hamilton			R Cano
100	Bautista		280	Howard			Romero
	Beckett		76	I Kennedy		117	Ruiz
310	Beltre			I Kinsler			Sabathia
	Berkman			J Shields		185	Sandoval
1	Braun			J Upton			Stanton
103	Bumgarner		250	Jer Weaver		110	Teixeira
155	Cain		330	Kemp		140	Tulowitzk
270	Castro			Kershaw			V Martinez
	CJ Wilson		20	Kimbrel			Valverde
	D Haren		105	Konerko			Verlander
	D Pedroia			Lee			Victorino
206	D Robertson			Lincecum			Vogelsong
	E Longoria		200	M Cabrera			Votto
	Ellsbury		180	M Rivera		195	Zobrist
	Gallardo		55	M Young
	Gordon		174	Molina

From the chart we see that 33 of the 58 stars received S1 cards.  that is 4 more than half, or 57% to be more specific.  Even if you add Fielder and Beltran as misses, Topps was above the 50% threshold. 

This doesn't necessary mean 2012 Topps contains as many stars as years past - it only means that cards were issued for over half of the "stars" in our pool.  There is typically some overlap of some cards between S1 and S2 so that may account for the extra 7%.  In years past this number may have been greater - if I get the energy we will look at 2011 Topps to compare and cotrast. 

There may be some other factors at play - I am only investigating Stars, there may just be more unkown or little known players this year - this adds to the perception of less stars.  The 2011 release calendar may have hampered getting some rookies into 2011 Series 3 and Topps added them to the inaugural 2012 set. 

I also think that there are less know stars in the post-steroid era.  Stars stick around less time and age out sooner.  There is more new talent and we are less likely to know who they are.  Also there is the agism factor - the older I get, the harder these things are to track.

Sources:

2012 Topps Series 1 Checker - Baseball-Cardpedia

2011 MVP and Cy Young Award Voting - Baseball-Reference