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

Koufax Kershaw Connection and Heritage Card #100

First 00 hero number of 2014 Topps belongs to Clayton Kershaw at #100.

2015 Topps #100 Clayton Kershaw
1966 Topps #100 Sandy Kourax

While doing research for the upcoming Heritage release I noticed that Card #100 in the original 1966T set belongs to the Dodgers Ace of that era, Sandy Koufax.

2015 Topps #100 Clayton Kershaw (b-side)

1966 Topps #100 Sandy Kourax (b-side)


The last four years Koufax and Kershaw have shared the Heritage/Original card numbers (5, 210, 200, 300 From 1962-65/2011-2014). I think it is likely this trend will continue this year.

If this happens Kershaw will occupy #100 in both flagship and Heritage. Curious how often that has happened.

The Koufax Kershaw connection is likely one of the strongest in the Heritage pantheon. For comparison I took a look at the Jeter pairings during his 14 year tenure in the retro set, There is no consistent matching for the Captain. He is paired with Tony Kubek three times, but one of those is an In Action Subbber. Phil Rizzutto is in the list twice and Surprsingly Mickey Mantle only once.

Sources and Links
2015 Heritage Index

Baseball Cardpedia
Trading Card Databse
Topps Heritage Cards
Baseball Almanac
 Baseball-ref 

Cy Young and MVP in the Same Season - Can it happen again: Tigers Justin Verlander 2013 Topps Triple Threads

Clayton Kershaw took home the NL Cy Young Award tonight, now we await what is probably the biggest question mark in the 2014 Awards Season. 

2013 Topps Triple Threads Relic TTR-JV1 Verlander (2/18)

Can Clayton Kershaw take the dual Cy Young/MVP Award Hardware. Personally I am from the Pitchers get there own award, Position players should get the other award school of thought.  However, this season the NL really hasn't had a standout candidate. Cases can be made for Andrew McCutchen, Giancarlo Stanton, and Jonathan LuCroy. For me the strongest case among the hitters is McCutchen. In addition to putting up good offensive numbers at the plate, he really carried the Pirates.  When he was out of the lineup the Bucos struggled, upon his return, they made a run that got them into the playoffs. Curiously according to B-R Andrew McCutchen is an average fielder. Had he had a +1 or +2 dWAR season, his overall number would have been more comparable to Kershaws.

The Last time a Pitcher took both awards was relatively recently. In 2011 Justin Verlander won the award over Jacoby Ellsubry, Dustion Pedroia, Miguel Cabrera and others - Ben Zobrist won the WAR crown that year, but a significant portion of the number was defense based. 

2013 Topps 3x Threads
Topps noted Verlander's 2011 double dip on the above Triple Threads card. I am not a big relic or serial collector but those two features combined with the magnitude of the player featured pushed this card onto the buy side at a recent card show. The "M" in MVP is to large and somewhat mars the overall look of the card, otherwise it is decent looking. The Card went for $8 which is probably the most I have ever paid for any relic, including Phillies.

Philly Show
Double duty for this post, this gives me a chance to return to Philly Show coverage. I originally began posting info on pickups from the show on October 1. If you want to see some vintage from taht day and an index to other related postings click here.  


Sources and Links
Philly Show 2014 09 28
Philly Show 2014 09 28 Auto-Relic Summary
Baseball-ref

Swag from Play at the Plate: 2014 Topps Blue Blaster

At the end of last year Brian over at Play at the Plate ran a contest to win a blaster of 2014 Topps. It was my kind of contest too, All I had to do was comment on a post. And Team Phungo Won!

2014 Topps Blue #312 Jimmy Rollins

There was only one Phillies player in the blaster, but it was a colorful Walmart parallel. Other than that it was a pretty nice box. I had already hoarded 100+ cards via Hangers and Looseys, and it was a pleasant surprise to find out that the blaster didn't duplicate many of the cards that I had already collected. I have developed a taste for hangers so it has been a while since I have opened a blaster. The number of inserts is mindblowing. Since each 8 card pack contains 2 blue parallels plus an insert, technically 37.5% of the cards are not base. To me parallels count as base, but for the completists out there, well I sympathize for their plight.

Highlights - Base

2014 Topps Leonys Martin 
2014 Topps Brian McCann

Check it out a Ranger and a Play at the Plate card. These should put a smile on faces at PATP HQ.

Inserts

Manupatch of 2008 Kershaw RC

These are a bit odd. the "Border" from the original 2008 design is raised, while the pix is inset.

89T Die Cut Sandy Koufax

The blaster was a bit of Dodger Hot Box. Never been a big fan of Die Cuts. Just harder to take care of. That being said the 89T design is a good one to give the Die Cut treatment.

2014 Topps Power Player Wilmer Flores

Just noting the difference from the PP cards and base here. The RCe logo is gone and the Topps moved from right to left. There is good news here if your hate the chrome print, it appears a bit lighter on the Power Play cards.

2014 Topps Blue Mariano Rivera

This was a bit of an oddity, All of the Blue Parallels in the box were of cards with Landscrape Photos, notice these two of the retiring Rivera and the one of Jimmy above. This is a coalation thing I have noticed from Topps previously. In 2008 I got a Hobby Box of S1 where all the Gold Foil stamped cards were Horizontal.

Bleeders

Night Owl referred this years new Red parallels as bleeding walls or something similar. At some point I hope to have some additional thoughts on these, but will note that all 3 of these like the blue instagrams above are landscapes.

etc   

The reamaining inserts. I like the UpperClass cards but find the Future is Now cards meh. For whatever reason I liked the UC cards of Retired players more than these new cards of current players.

All in all a fun break. Lots of new blue cards for the Phungo collection, a couple of cool inserts including a Rollins Parallel. Thanks to the Brian over at Play at the Plate for running a contest that even Team Phungo can win.

More 2014 Topps Review
2014 Topps First Pack

2013 Topps Update Hanger Pack Match Race - Target Red vs Vanilla

Really this isn’t a competition. Either you like the red parallels or you don’t but I wanted to take a few minutes to examine the contents of a Hanger Pack of each.

Today we open our Hanger Pack analysis with the vanilla non-red Parallel version.

2013 Topps Update #US30 Mike Adams

This is the one Phillies card I picked up in the 72 cards pack.  Low-level card , the Phils needed Adams to sure up their shaky bullpen. - Unfortunately Mike Adams spent most of 2013 on the DL . He is on a 2 year stretch, hopefully his 2014 campaign will be more productive.  I believe this is my first card of Adams in Phillies pinstripes.

The Adams card was one of 66 Base Cards I picked up in the Hanger. The base cards also included both Zach Wheeler RCs

2013 Topps Update #US220 Zach Wheeler (rc  Rookie Debut)

2013 Topps Update #US50 Zach Wheeler (rc)

I assume the rookie debut cards are part of the base set as they are in the regular checker.  The b-side of the cards give the players line for the game and have a related caption. I like that the Rookie Debut note on the front of the card is a stamp - even if it is Chrome.   

More Vanilla

Among the highlights of the Base Cards were The nice shot of Mariano Rivera entering his final All-Star game. Phungo Favorite Wil Myers RC.  Reliever Brian Wilson has his signature look, with a new ballclub. The Drake Britton RC nicely displays the Boston Strong logo.

Inserts

71 Topps Mini of Clayton Kershaw and the Chasing History of Jim Palmer highlight this set of inserts 

Making their Mark

I believe The Make their Mark cards are an insert that notes a big game for a player early in their career.  The Kyle Gibson card is from his Debut.  Marcell Ozuna's card is from his first HR which occurred a few days after his debut - unfortunately the HR was in a game versus the Phillies :(

That is it for our first Hanger Pack.  Tomorrow we will take a look at the Target Hanger.

2013 Topps - Looking Back

2013 Topps S1 First Pack (Retail)

2013 Topps S2 Hobby Packs

2013 Topps S1 & S2 Phillies Checkers

2013 Topps Chrome Value Pack

2013 Topps Opening Day 1/2 Price

2012 Topps Hanger Pack

Sources

Baseball-ref.com

2013 Phungo #50 Clayton Kershaw

For the purely selfish reason of wanting a Game 7 to watch on Saturday Night, I will be a Dodgers fan for the evening. To rep the Dodgers we are posting a Phungo Card of their Game 6 Starting Pitcher Clayton Kershaw.

2013 Phungo #50 Clayton Kershaw

I am a tad surprised we don't see this post on more cards. Pitchers do it all the time during BP. It is a different perspective on your ace. They are being a member of the team, setting a target for their throwing partner.  We also see here Kershaw has placed his cap down to use as a target/plate.  


I didn't post as many Phungo cards as I would have liked this year, but I have been thinking about 2014 Phungo. I am pretty sure there will be a 2014 set which will be the 6th edition of the cards. I also want to get out some last minute mailings of 2013 cards in the next couple of weeks - the last 2 years I have produced sets, but absolutely failed on the mailing out process. which is kind of the most important step.

Best o luck to the Dodgers - cmon game 7.


2013 PostSeason Cardinals
Lance Lynn
Michael Wacha 

2013 PostSeason Dodgers
Adrian Gonzalez
Clayton Kershaw (2012 Panini Prizm)
Yasiel Puig

2012 Panini Prizm #29 Clayton Kershaw

Tonight the NLDS Phase of the playoffs kickoff. The Late game features the Braves with Kris Medlen on the mound versus the Dodgers who send out the best pitcher in the league, Clayton Kershaw.

2012 Panini Prizm #29 Clayton Kershaw

Clayton Kershaw was the Cy Young winner in 2011 and was runner up to the RA Dickey Show in 2012.  This year Kershaw is among the leading candidates once again - He is led the League in ERA (1.83!!), Ks, ERA+, as well as Lowest WHIP.

2012 Panini Prizm

Panini Prizm really isn't my thing. 

I think Panini Prizm went for $3 for a 4 card pack. A bit beyond the Team Phungo budget. One thing I don't understand about cards that are not MLB licensed is the sticker price. I mean if your not paying MLB megabucks for an exclusive, why do your cards cost just as much (and more) than Topps.  I don't get it.

Prizm are higher card stock - chromium cards to be specific. Which is nice but bumps up costs a bit.

The biggest reason I am not a Prizm collector isn't the license nor is it the money.  I just have never been a fan of the sets where every card is one of the players image is taken totally out of the the picture it has originated.  I prefer a card werhe I can see the field or stadium and try and figure out where and when the game was played. All that being said this Kershaw card has a fine photo of the lefty as did the remaining cards in the small "pack".

Sources
Baseball-ref.com
Dodgers Blue Heaven

 
 

   

Phungo 5 with Night Owl Cards

The Phillies are out on the West Coast which means today we are very fortunate to have Night Owl Cards in the house to discuss the LA Dodgers.  Despite a tough weekend the Dodgers are surprisingly in the playoff mix as we begin the second half of 2012. 

1) Who or What has been the Dodgers Biggest surprise this season? 

Wow. There are so many. Elian Herrerra actually producing for the Dodgers after 9 years in the minors. Chris Capuano being the starting staff's most consistent pitcher. The Dodgers getting rid of Frank McCourt so efficiently (it only took 2 billion!) But I think the biggest surprise is the most obvious one -- that the Dodgers still lead the NL West in mid-July despite anyone who is any good being on the DL.

2) How would you rank the Designs of the last 5 Topps Sets (2008 - 2012)

1. 2009. One of the best ever.

2. 2011. I think I'll like it even more years from now.

3. 2010. I know a lot of people hate it. But I like colorful sets, and that one had color everywhere.

4. 2012. I still don't understand the design. It will always be The Tumor Set to me.

5. 2008. One of the worst ever. The photos were almost an after-thought.

 

3) Will the DH be used throughout MLB baseball in 2013?

(*Gasp*) what have you heard? I hope not. How are we going to collect cards of pitcher's batting if they never get to bat? The wonderful moment of surprise seeing a pitcher hit a home run or a double will be gone forever. I think pitchers batting can be fun.

  

4) Mattlingly or Torre?

They're both ex-Yankees, but for some reason I associate Torre more with the Yankees than Mattingly. I got the impression that Torre was with the Dodgers because it was as far away from the Yankees as he could get. Mattingly just seems like he wants a job and he wants to be good at it. So, I'll say Mattingly.

2012 06 05 Don Mattingly, Dee Gordon, Clayton Kershaw during BP

5) In which journey have you learned more baseball - 1971 or 1975 Topps.

I'd say 1975, only because I'm only 70 cards into the 1971 blog. But it'll probably end up being '71 because there are so many players in that set that I never knew. It was five years before I started following baseball.

 Score Card 

Good work by NOC as always - Glad to see someone else out there that doesn't hate 2010 Topps.   Looking forward to seeing more on the 1971 topps blog.  

Replay - 2012 Phungo 5 Postings
 

Philadelphia Phillies - The Phillies Room. 

Atlanta Braves - Cardboard Junkie 

Miami Marlins - 30-Year Old Cardboard

New York Mets - Paul's Random Baseball Stuff

Chicago Cubs - Wrigley Wax

Pittsburgh Pirates - Pirates Treasure Room

San Diego Padres - Padrographs

Kansas City Roayls - Autograph Cards

Oakland A's - The Fuji Chronicles

Seattle Mariners - Emeral City Diamond Gems 

Texas Rangers - Play at the Plate

Snapshots 2012 06 06 - Dodgers @ Phillies

The Phillies inept offense once again spoiled a brilliant performance by Cliff Lee resulting in a 2-1 loss.  Lee threw 7.2 great innings last night before hanging a curve which Elian Herrera nailed for a 2 run double.  Despite the Phils lack-of-O the game was entertaining and fairly briskly played.  I came away with the old bummer the Phils lost, but still had a great night at the ballpark. 

Snapshots 

Cliff Lee

Lee threw 92 pitches for strikes last night - tough to do in a loss.

Carlos Ruiz 

.358 BA, 8 HR, 32 RBIs and this guy is in 4th place among catchers in the All-Star Voting.  Sounds like The Phils mediocre record is defintely leading to some fan apathy.

Chad Billingsley

Gotta give some credit here.  Billingsley got off to a rocky start but settled down nicely scattering a smattering of hits through the next 6 innings without yielding a run.

Don Mattingly, Dee Gordon, Clayton Kershaw

Everybody's smiling - you would be too if you were part of the team with the best record in baseball. 

2012 Topps Heritage Retail Blaster Phils Cards

2012 Topps Heritage was available at my local Target in 3 configurations.  Blaster $19.99, Rack $5.29 and single packs at $3.19 I think.

Here are the Phils relate cards from the Blaster I picked up. 

2012 Topps Heritage #136 Jonahtan Papelbon

My first card of the offf-season catch as a Phil. 

2012 Topps Heritage #29 2012 Rookie Stars

This is the 2012 version of the card I referred to yesterday.  I believe this is the regular version (2012) while the 2011 version would be the variation.  Who knows?

2012 Topps Heritage #7 LL Pitching 
2012 Topps Heritage #13 Phillies Team

More floating heads League Leaders and the Team Card - that gives me 2 Phils Base cards out of 71 which is about the right ratio.

By The Numbers
1 Blaster Box
$20.15 (including PA Sales Tax minus 5% Target Discount)

71 cards

65 Short Set

67 Base Cards

4 Phils Related with 2 Phils Base Set Cards

 

1 sticker - M Cabrera 

2 High Numbers - K Seager, CarGo

1 Target Red Parallel - A Avila

1 T&N - M Bourn w/ Aparicio

1 NAP - T Lincecum)

1 NewsFlash - Alcatraz Closes

Etc
Will glance at some of the non-Phils over the next couple of weeks - intersperse those cards with some Opening Day postings. 

Happy New Year - Year of the Dragon

On Janary 23rd the Year of the Dragon will commence.  Today we are going to check out some famous Baseball Dragons:

1940 Ron Santo
1964 Barry Larkin

We start out with this years Hall of Fame inductees Ron Santo and Barry Larkin,  Pretty cool Larkin card - Cooperstown Collection issued 2 decades prior to his actual election.  Like Santo, Willie Stargell is also a 1940 Dragon and a Hall of Famer.    

1976 Pat Burrell

It is starting to appear as if Pat the Bat will not hook up with a team for 2012.  He had a mixed career in Philadelphia, but won a World Championship in the end and then went on to win another championship with the Giants in 2010.  Pretty nice finish.  Form Phil Randy Wolf is also a Dragon from the 1976 birth year.

1952 Fred Lynn
1988 Clayton Kershaw

Our next pair of Dragons features young Phenoms.  Well Fred Lynn was a young Phenom when he won both the Rookie of the Year and MVP award in the same year (1975).  Clayton Kershaw is of course the reigning Cy Young award winner. Fellow Dodger Dee Gordon is also a class of 1988 Dragon.  

1916 Enos Slaughter
1928 Billy Martin 

These two are both Fiery Dragons.  I picked up the 57 Topps Slaughter card out of a 3 for a dollar bin a few years back - of course that is because the back is marred to the point of being non-existent.  Billy Martin's longtime teammate Whitey Ford was also born in 1928.

1880 Christy Mathewson
1904 Chuck Klein

We finish with a couple of retro cards of Hall of Famers who played in the first half of the previous century.  The Mathewson card is from the Great Ones insert series of 2011 Gypsy Queen.  Chuck Klein comes from a 1970s Fleer issue. 


1964 Dragons
I just wanted to note that the 64 Dragons are quite the PED class and include Canseco, Palmiero, and Bonds.

Sources and Links
Ron Santo HoF Index
Pat Burrell PC Index