Snapshots: 2014 07 25 & 27 D-Backs @ Phillies

Been a strange week in what has been a forgettable season for the Philadelphia Phillies. Team Phungo ended up going to the bookends of Phils 3 game series with Diamondbacks. Fortunately these were the two games the Phillies won 9-5 on Friday Night and 4-2 on Sunday.

Turned out Ryan Howard's name came up an awful lot this weekend.

Friday night Howard was out of the lineup for the 3rd consecutive game.  Yet he had the honor of being the subject of the cover photo for our ticket. Each night a Phillies player is also the representative for their Charitable Ticket Program.  On Friday in a continuation of the unfortunate confluence of events Howard's Sluggers were the beneficiaries of the ticket program - on a night when the actual Slugger never played.

Snapshots

Marlon Byrd 

It was 25th of July and the Phillies celebrated Christmas July. As part of the festivities the player pix were outfitted with holiday attire. Marlon Byrd got a Santa Cap and an ugly sweater.


The Phanatic got into the Holiday Spirit as well, here he celebrates with a couple of Phillies ballgirls. 

 

Grady Sizemore

I was disappointed the Phillies have gotten away from the Topps sponsored game day lineup cards. They have opted to use their own design shown here. I believe this is this is the same design that is used on their postcard player sets. Grady Sizemore has only been with the club since the beginning of the month, so this is sort of like his first card as a Phil. 

Sunday

 Ryne Sandberg and Chase Utley

Sunday was Hall of Fame day, to mark the occasion all MLB players wore a special 75th anniversary of the HoF patch. Here we have HOF second baseman Ryne Sandberg with Chase Utley who may someday find his way into the Hall.

Good Guy Award

Ryan Howard 

As mentioned above Ryan Howard had a crazy week. He was in the lineup on Sunday but still found time to sign autographs almost right up to the anthem.  About 15 minutes later Howard blasted a line drive Home Run into the left-centerfield bleachers.

In addition to Howard, Darin Ruf and Chase Utley also get GGAs for taking some time to greet the fans and pen some signatures.   

Paul Goldschmidt

One of the reasons the Phillies won the series was they were able to keep D-Backs slugger Paul Goldschmidt in check.  Goldschmidt was 2-11 on the weekend.

Sunday was also Cole Hamels T-Shirsey day. Here he is being interviewed by Scott Palmer.

Vidal Nuno got the start for Arizona. The rookie was acquired by the D-Backs earlier this month in the trade that sent Brandon McCarthy to the Yankees.

Marlon Byrd has been the subject of trade rumors in recent weeks. Here it appears that he made sure to get one last good meal off of the Phillies buffet.

Sources
Baseball-ref.com
Philles Behind the Pinstripes

Reading the Competion: Paul Goldschmidt 2012 Topps #GF-24

The Phillies 10 game set versus NL West opponents closes with the Arizona Diamondbacks this weekend. The D-Backs were a candidate to win the West before the Dodgers went on their post All-Star break tear.  One of the offensive leaders for Arizona has been First Baseman Paul Goldschmidt.

                                     

2012 Topps Gold Futures #GF-24 Paul Goldschmidt

Paul Goldschmidt emerged as a power hitting First Baseman during the 2011 season. He has continued his hot hitting in 2013. Going into the Series with the Phils Goldschmidt was the league leader in Home Runs (31), RBI(100) , Total Bases, and OPS+. Those numbers were good enough to make him an All-Star for the first time.  Paul Goldschmidt will turn 26 in a few weeks and has his best hitting days right in front of him. I expect him to be an MVP candidate for the next half dozen years.

Local Kid
While looking into Goldschmidt's numbers I found that he was born in Wilmington Delaware, however according to his Wiki bio he was raised in Texas. His 59 career HRs already rank him 6th among players born in the First State.  With a decent 2014 he will surpass top total of 96 held jointly by Randy Bush, John Mabry, and Dave May.

 

2012 Topps Gold Future2012 Gold Rush s
The Gold Futures set is a member of the onslaught of Gold Inserts which Night Owl Cards very successfully lampooned in this column. The design is decent for a subset and carries the look of base cards from a more midline superstars set. Of course this means that one can tell that patch display factored into the design.

In Series 1 the set consists of 25 cards, devoted to upcoming prospects. Notables include Freddie Freeman, Aroldis Chapman, Anthony Rizzo, Mike Stanton, Mike Trout, Jason Kipins and Goldschmidt.  The set continues with an additional 25 players in Series 2. Matt Moore, Buster Posey, Chris Sale, Jason Heyward and Stephen Strasburg are all present in S2.  The Phillies are represented in the second set by Domonic Brown who shows up on #GF38.

Sources
Baseball-ref.com
wikipedia.org
Night Owl Cards
baseballcardpedia.com