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Wednesday, November 27, 2013

2002 Topps #331 Marlon Byrd

Against the wishes of Team Phungo the Phillies have brought back outfielder Marlon Byrd.

2002 Topps #331 Marlon Byrd

I just want the Phillies to get younger they go out and get a 36 year old outfielder.

Marlon Byrd is coming off a fine 2013, which may have been the best of his career. He knocked out 24 homers with a very nice .291 BA resulting in a 138 OPS+. If he puts up anywhere near those numbers in 2014 or 15 I will post my apologies to the Phillies Ruben Amaro and Marlon Byrd, but I just can't see it happeing.


2002 Topps Prospects
I may have mentioned this before - I think 2002 Topps is ugly. I suppose it isn't a bad design but boy do I dislike the color, what is that light brown/orange not sure. Beyond the color, I am also not sure why Topps felt it necessary to write their name on the cards twice - once as a logo and once at the top in "2002 Topps". This happened on the base cards not just cards that are included in the prospects subset from which this Marlon Byrd gem was culled.

Remember Subsets. Back before half the pack was Inserts there were subsets. Subsets where all the cards were packed together in one area instead of spread throughout the set like the recent League Leader abominations. In 2002 one of the Subsets was Prospects. 2002 Topps was released in 2 series, the Prospects subset runs from card #307(Jason Lane) thru #326 (Jason Bay RC) in series 1. For Series 2 the Prospect start at #671 (Juan Cruz RC) and finish at #695 (Dan Johnson RC).

The Phillies are represented by Byrd in S1 and Taylor Buchholz (#675) and  Nate Espy (#680) in S2. Jason Bay (photoed with the Expos) is probably ended up with the best career among the 50 prospects. Other Notables include Hank Blalock (#309), Freddy Sanchez (#313), Boof Bonser (#317), and Rich Harden (#687). 

Despite all my complaints regarding Marlon Byrd, I must note that out of the 45 prospects in the 2002 subset, Byrd is the last one standing. Jason Bay announced his retirement in 2013. and beyond that I cannot find anyone else that remains active. 

Sources
baseball-ref.com
baseball card database
baseballcardpedia

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