The Infield that Never Was - 2013 Phillies

Michael Young, Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard 

If the season had been different this would have been the infield for a playoff caliber team.  Instead Chase Utley and Ryan Howard once again had stints on the DL.  The veteran quartet ended up playing 38 games together, which is actually a lot more then I would have guessed.

Sources
espn bottom line
baseball-ref.com

Shut Up Stats: H&A Splits Josh Johnson & Mark Buehrle

2006 Fleer #191 Josh Johnson

The potential Blue Jays Marlins trade appears pretty lopsided for the immediate future - but maybe not.  Check out the Home and Away splits for the Marlins top 2 pitchers.

Josh Johnson 2012	Home	Away
ERA	2.96	4.94
BAA	0.239	0.27
HR	5	9
IP	109.1	82
WHIP	1.162	1.439
Mark Buehrle 2012	Home	Away
ERA	3.13	4.45
BAA	0.246	0.272
HR	10	16
IP	109.1	93
WHIP	1.079	1.28

Also worth Noting that Josh Johsnon had declining pitching WAR numbers the last 2 seasons after posting 6+ WAR in 2009 and 2010.  Buehrle has had Declining WAR last 3 seasons and declining IPs last four seasons. 

Swag from Vintage Sportscards

The Vintage Sportscards Blog is consistently one of my favorite card blogs. Chris' column provides a unique historical perspective and I agree with many of his opinions regarding vintage cards and their facets such as condition and value.

Here are some of the Phillies beauties He sent my way in a trade.

1966 Topps #254 Ferguson Jenkins/Bill Sorrell RC

I always figured this would be one of the last cards I would get from the Phils 1966 team Set. A Rookie Card of a Hall of Famer. Unless you are a Jenkins fan or a HOF RC collector you may not know that Fergie came up with the Phils. In 1965 Jenkins got himself into 7 games as a reliever for the Phils. During the Off-Season he was traded to the Cubs for whom he had his best years including his 1971 Cy Young Campaign.

Billy Sorrell got himself into 85 games during the course of three different Major League campaigns. It's not much, but he did get to share a baseball card with a Hall of Famer. This card bring my 1966 Phils Topps Team Set to 20 cards out of 27.



1964 Topps #135 Johnny Callison
1955 Bowman #64 Curt Simmons

These are two other great cards among the many Vintage Phils Chris sent my way. The 1964 set keeps growing on me. It is on my list of sets from the 1960s that I am considering building.

I would also like to build a Bowman set at some point. Both 1954 and 1955 are under consideration.

Right now I am just concentrating on my Phils sets from those years - here are links to those want lists

1964 Topps
1955 Bowman


Thanks to Chris for the cards, and I have a package all set to go out your way. It would have hit the streets today, but I didn't realize it was a postal holiday.

Swag from White Sox Cards featuring Shannon Stewart!

First up Steve has 2010 Upper Deck Cards Go check his blog now!

2008 Topps Heritage #350 Jimmy Rollins

And He also recently sent me a bunch of Topps Heritage cards. I just started really working on the 2008 Heritage set as a companion collection to the original 1959 set that I am building and Steve was good enough to send over 50 count-em 50 cards that I needed.

That is an AMAZING dent into my want list.

One of the cards that came over was the above Jimmy Rollins that I needed and another was this quality Shannon Stewart Card.

2008 Topps Heritage #264 Shannon Stewart

Of course it isn't as much fun as somebody else Shannon Stewart postings.

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.

Spot The Sig Profile - Jason Schmidt

2007 Topps Trading Places #TPA-JS Jason Schmidt

I am sure this card makes many a Dodger fan cringe. Schmidt is going into the final year of a three year 47 Million dollar deal with the Dodgers. So far the Dodgers have gotten 26 innings and 1 victory out of Schmidt. This is all very unfortunate for Schmidt and the Dodgers. Prior to the signing, Schmidt had been a very steady pitcher averaging 200 innings from 2001 thru 2006.

We have a new player in Spot the Sig! this week. Phungo would like to welcome Laurens of Card Buzz as he joins us with a Chone Figgins lead off double. It appears that Laurens hails from southern California, and perhaps he is familiar with Jason Schmidt from his big 30 innings with the Dodgers.

The Jason Schmidt auto is pretty sloppy, but once you know it you can make out the Schmidt portion. Perhaps I should have gone triple here, but I left a small portion of the red and blue from the Trading Places template. I figured this might be a hint to any collector who remembered this set from 07.

It isn't very surprising that the Jason Schmidt Autos running on ebay are getting no bids. I think I may have gotten this card with a lot of autograph cards that averaged about $3 each.

I picked the Trading Places card this week because we as a nation are basically trading Presidents. See, I actually do put some thoughts into this some weeks. Regardless of your persomal politics, I believe that one would have to consider this years inauguration of definite historic siginficance.


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PTBNL and Sooz were both able to pick up the bonus - Although......perhaps I should penalize PTBNL for not following instructions....I will forgive it - PTBNL puts runners on the corners and Sooz gets her first baserunner.

The current STS! standings after three innings:

PTBNL - repsresentin those Fightin Phillies - 5 Runs - Men on 1st and 3rd.
Night Owl - Dodgers - 1 Run in men on 2nd and 3rd
Stats on the Back - Mets - 1 Run in - Man on 3rd
Cardboard Junkie - Braves - 1 Run in - Men on First and 2nd
Card Buzz - Angels - Chone Figgins on 2nd.
Cardboard Addiction - Bosox - Man on First
A Cardboard Problem - Yankees - Johnny Damon on first.
Covered in Wrappers - Cardinals - On Deck
Nachos Grande - Reds - On Deck

One last quick note on Card Buzz, Laurens has a post on Arizona Cardinals Wide Out Larry Fitzgerald. Unless you live in Arizona, play fantasy football or watched the Eagles debacle this past weekend you may not know much about Fitzgerald.

I have been following him since his days at Pitt, and I think Larry Fitzgerald could very well be the best reciever in football for the next 10 years. Card Buzz makes a similar lofty comparison. I don't think the Cards have a chance against the Steelers but if they hang in there, I am sure Fitzgerald will be one of the reasons.

For further information regarding the Phungo Spot the Sig! contest click here and join the party - you just may find yourself with a stack of cards come spring training!

Thorzul Trade!

I asked Thorzul if he could help me out with my want list and he was very accommodating.
I have made a pretty good dent into Spectrum and he sent me five cards from my want list along with a couple of UD Masterpieces.

I have been sporadically collecting both of these smaller UpperDeck sets from 07 and 08. Thanks to Thorzul I am down to my last 25 Spectrum cards. The Masterpieces I haven't gotten quite as far into - but i really like the set. The cards above feature two players traded at the deadline - and they are both players I like, hopefully they can get to the post-season and contribute to their new squads. If your interested I have a somewhat messy version of my Want and Trade Lists in my links and over here.

Here are some of the Phils involved in the trade:

In the midst of the Phils recent freefall, Rollins and Howard found time to go on "The Best Damn Sports Show" and rip Philllies fans. I wasn't fond of the Goudey's after getting a fairly pedestrian first pack last year - consequently I have very few Phillies, this Howard card and an Utley Card that Thorzul sent are both very nice additions to the Phungo collection.


The remaining cards Thorzul sent were a nice mix of Phils Past and Present such as the Jim Thome and Eric Milton cards above and other Phavorites including Ricky Jordan, Mickey Morandini, Wes Chamberlain and John Kruk.

You can check out the Brewers sent over to Thorzul here.

Thanks to Thorzul for these great cards and keep up with the quality posts and fun contests.

CC, Harden, Blanton? The Gio Effect

The top teams in the NL Central get CC Sabathia and Rich Harden. The Phillies Get Joe Blanton?

I can't get excited about this deal. In general Pitchers from the AL can expect to do better in the NL because of the no-DH, however Oakland is a huge park which benefits pitchers. I have grave concerns about Blanton's transfer to Citizen's Bank.

And what does this have to do with Gio Gonzalez. It seems like the Phils can't get away from this guy. First It comes over to the Phils in a deal that leaves the Phillies paying 7M dollars a year to hit home runs for the Chicago White Sox. Then he ends up being half of a deal back to the Chisox so the Phils can pay Freddy Garcia 10M to mend a busted arm - How much better would the Phils look right now with Floyd and Gonzalez in-house? Now the A's have to make room for Gio to start so they somehow get 2 prospects out of the Phils for a #3 or #4 starter.