2008 Bowman Draft #BDPP94 Lou Marson - Phillies Spring Training Invitee

A few days ago the Phillies announce a few of their Non-Roster Spring Training Invitees. The names of the traditionally AAAA players included two familiar names. One was Hall of Fame offspring Tony Gwynn Jr, The other was our old friend Lou Marson.  

2008 Bowman Draft #BDPP94 Lou Marson

Marson got into a handful of games with the Phillies before being traded away in the first Cliff Lee deal.  Since then he has several unimpressive seasons with the Indians without eclipsing 300 plate appearances in any single campaign.

As mentioned above Lou Marson now finds himself on the fulcrum between AAA and the Majors sometimes referred to as AAAA, 4A or Quad-A. He has established he can play in the Majors if he is really needed, but he really doesn't have the skillset to hit/stay at that level. The Phillies have brought in Marson as depth behind Carlos Ruiz and the recently acquired Wil Nieves. Essentially Marson is here to replace the recently departed Steven Lerud.


2008 Bowman Draft Futures Game Prospects
2008 Bowman Draft contains 45 Futures Game prospect cards that run from #BDPP66 thru #BDP110. The Philies are represented by Marson, Carlos Carrasco(#BDPP66), Jason Donald(85), and Greg Golson(77). Other set notables include Andrew McCutchen (69), Dexter Fowler (76), Pablo Sandoval (84), and Elvis Andrus (89).

Future Games Prospects have been a part of  Bowman Draft since the collections inception in 2002. BDPP has contains Futures Game base or subset cards in most recent series. However that is not the case in 2013.  I am bummed that this year the Futures Game is not represented with base cards - fortunately for Future Games enthusiasts there are FG Relics in the set.  


2008 Futures Game

Team Phungo has been lucky enough to attend a couple of Futures Games. I registered some random thoughts on the 2008 edition hosted by the Yankees here. 


Sources
Phillies.com
Cardboard Connection
baseballamerica.com
MLB
baseball-ref
the Phillies Room

Swag from Thorzul UD Piece of History Group Break

Bill over at Thorzul recently ran a group break involving several boxes of Upper Decks 2009 Piece of History. In addition to picking up all 4 of the Phils card in the set, I received the cool cards featured in this post.

MMMM Serial!!

2009 UD PoH #71 Chase Utley (Turquois #d134/150)
2009 UD PoH Box Score Memories #BSM-PB Pat Burrell (#d 447/999)

The Box Score Memories cards all have the box of the game on the reverse. The Burrell card salutes a Phils playoff victory over Thorzul's Brewers October 5th 2008.

2009 UD 20th Anniversary Retrospective

#565 Julius Erving
#765 Mike Schmidt

Two pretty cool cards for any Philadelphia fan to get out of this set.

And a Hit!
2009 UD PoH #124 Lou Marson Autograph with Base Card

And I was lucky enough to get one of the autos from out of the set. Lou Marson was involved in the trade that brought Cliff Lee to Philadelphia and is no longer a Phil, but it is cool to get an autograph card of his. Marson is struggling at the plate for the Indians, but he is still getting the bulk of the playing time at catcher.

Thanks to Thorzul for running a fun break that fell within the Phungo Budget.

Happy New Year - Year of the Tiger!

Tomorrow marks the beginning of the Year of the Tiger according to the Chinese Zodiac.

2010 is The Year of the Tiger as well as the past years 1998, 1986, 1974, 1962, 1950 ,1938 and beyond at 12 year intervals.

We at team Phungo will celebrate by posting a few cards of some Tigers.

1962 2009 Topps Allen & Ginters #68 Jamie Moyer

Hard to believe that Jamie is starting his 5th cycle of the zodiac and has a chance to be a pitcher this season. He has been a great player and member of the community and I hope he can return for one more season.

Looking ahead a year, if Moyer were to be issued a 2011 Topps Heritage card, he would probably be the first active player to have a Heritage card from his birth year. Not sure if Julio Franco hung on that long or not.

1938
1965 Topps #220 Billy Williams
1990 Donruss #716 Bart Giamatti

A Hall of Famer and a major league president that faced the task of disciplining a player that had a Hall of Fame career.

1950

1978 Topps #420 Greg Luzinski
2007 UD SPXcitement SPX-29 Julius Erving

Two Philadelphia Giants.


1974

2008 UD Nationals Baseball Card Day #UD10 Derek Jeter
2000 Topps #38 Bobby Abreu

A pair of former teammates. 4800 Hits, 480 Homers and 650 Stolen Bases between them. Alanis Morissette, who is featured on a 2010 Phungo Card is also a 1974 Tiger.

1986
2008 Topps Trading Card History #TCH75 Felix Hernandez
2009 UD Goudey #152 Lou Marson

Felix Hernandez is on a card featuring the design from his birth year, which is pretty cool. Not many players can say that - unless they are a member of the Chicago White Sox or perhaps next year Jamie Moyer.

Deadline Trades affect Card Shops too.

Check out the scroll line message below from one Philadelphia area Card Shop.

This is a page from Carl's Cards where you can read the full message. I have picked up some cards and supplies there in the past. They have a mix of singles, packs, and vintage - but I think that the real $$ is made off there Memorabilia and plaques.

I have not been to one of their signings yet, but give them credit for getting a message out to let their fans know this signing had been canceled.

Swag from Night Owl Cards

2009 UD Goudey #220 Mike Schmidt
2009 UD Goudey #152 Lou Marson

This past winter Night Owl Cards was an active participant in Spot the Sig! and as a result he was one of the contests winners. I had sent out a couple of Dodgers cards to NOC and as a thank you he was good enough to send back a bunch of cards to me, I feel like a winner now too!! . Of course the lot included lot o Phils like these two from this year's Goudey set. This is my first Lou Marson card which I am very happy to add to the collection. And of course the newest Mike Schmidt card is a must for a Phils collection.

This is great timing as the Phils are in LA right now and will be facing the Dodgers tonight on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball. The Phils took the first game but have lost the last two in heartbreking fashion as Brad Lidge has blown saves in each games. Andre Ethier has walk off htis in both games, Ethier leads the league in walk offs since his Major League career started.

Moving on Night Owl was also good enough to peruse my want lists and found a Half Dozen 2008 Topps Series 2 cards I needed. I am down to my last 5 cards to finish this set.

2008 Topps #365 Derrek Lee

Night Owl Cards is one my favorite blogs to cover the 1970s vintage and he must be paying attention to Phungo because he has noticed that 1974 topps is one of my favorite sets. He was good enough to add a bunch of these to the Phungo collection.

1974 Topps #119 Danny Ozark

and Saving the best for last:

1959 Topps #215 Jim Lemon

My biggest collecting project is working on the 1959 Topps Set. I am past the half way mark and Night Owl has contributed the above Jim Lemon card. Lemon was a big power big strikeout guy. He spent 12 years in the majors and in 1960 he finished 3rd in the AL in homers behind Mantle and Maris.

I love getting any 1959s and am planning a post specifically about building this set in the near future.

Thanks to Night Owl Cards but I am hoping the Phils get to our old friend Randy Wolf tonight.