SNAPSHOTS: 2016 08 30 Nationals 3 @ Phillies 2

Just a couple of pictures from the most recent Team Phungo trek to the ballpark, a 3-2 loss to the Division leading Nationals.

2016 0830 Max Scherzer vs Cameron Rupp @ Philadelphia PA

The Phillies may look ugly on the diamond but the field still can look nice.

2016 0830 Max Scherzer vs Ryan Howard @ Philadelphia PA

The Phillies didn’t have many highlights in the game. Both runs came courtesy of a Ryan Howard Homer. The above in the above shot is not the from the Home Run AB, this is the Bottom of the 5th - one of two times when Howard Struck Out.

2016 0830 Max Scherzer

The Star of the night was Max Scherzer who took a no-hitter into the sixth and struck out 11 over eight innings. As a batter he also successfully executed a suicide squeeze to give the Nats their third run – which ended up being the difference in the game.

I am Pretty happy with this photo as it sort of captures the oft mentioned differences of Scherzer's eye color

2016 0830 Jerad Eickhoff

The Phillies starting pitcher, Jerad Eickhoff, fought through some early control issues and was able to give the club six innings. If it weren't for a misplayed fourth inning fly ball by Aaron Altherr in the fourth inning, Eichoff may have left the game deadlocked 2-2 with the Nats and Scherzer. 
 

2016 0830 Trea Turner

Nats Rookie Trea Turner is having a good season. The outfielder had a pair of hits on Wednesday boosting his average to .344.

Familiar Faces

 Ben Revere

Jayson Werth

Sources and Links
Baseball-ref

ALDS: 2013 Bowman #34 Ben Revere - Georgia Flag Variation

With the Toronto Blue Jays facing elimination tonight we post a card of their Left Fielder Ben Revere who started the season with the Phillies.

 2013 Bowman #34 Ben Revere - Georgia Flag Variation

An interesting parallel contained in 2013 Bowman were the State Flag Variation. Although Ben Revere went to High School in Kentucky he was born in Atlanta. Topps elected to go with the players birthplace rather than home state for representin'

I like how there is a wave built into the image of the flag, gives a bit of flavor to the card.

 2013 Bowman #34 Ben Revere - Georgia Flag Variation and Base

Here we have the Parallel contrasted with the base card, only quibble here is that the variation loses the Hooters ad.

 Flip

 2013 Bowman #34 Ben Revere (b-side)

The back side of the variation is basically identical to the base except for the serial number

Sources and Links
2015 Postseason Cards 
Cardboard Connection
50 States

 

WAR Stories Phillies 2015+ Ben Revere

Today we return to our 2015 Phillies WAR projections 

2013 Topps Chrome Refractor #90 Ben Revere

Ben Revere is good at one thing hitting singles. Even his plus speed doesn't seem to translate game changing stolen bases or stellar defense.


Revere's odd statistical career makes him hard to project. An example is the conundrum of his 2014 season, he led the NL in hits (184) but his .325 OBP ranked 40th among the NLs 65 qualified batters. He did have the best Offensive WAR year of his career +2.4 but his dWAR was -2.2,

They aren't really any contemporary comps for Revere. I looked back at some old Baseball America Prospect Handbooks which suggested a ceiling of Brett Gardner. At this point I would be happy with an Austin Jackson. A sobering thought is that Willy Taveras is closer than those two outfielders. Revere is entering his age 27 season - Taveras has been wallowing away in the minors since finishing his age 28 season in 2010. With Ben Revere having no peripheral skill beyond the one base hit, I seriously wonder if he will be in the majors beyond 2016.

2015 Phungo Verdict
Ben Revere is a replacement player 2015 projected WAR = 0. For our running track of the Phillies 2015 WAR projections click here


Refractor
I don't get as excited about refractors as other folks, but I was pretty happy to find this card in a dime box last September


Sources and Links
WAR Stories 2015+ Phillies
Baseball-ref

Philly Show 2014 09 28 - Dime Box

As Promised Monday night we our now featuring our VF show Dime Box posting. I love the cheap bins, The shear disorganization fits my personality and I always find stuff that I had either forgotten about or never knew existed.

Since the onslaught of playoff postings has featured so many other teams, we will lead off with a Phillies Card.

2013 Topps Chrome Refractor #90 Ben Revere

Refractor for a dime, much better than the 15 base card "Value Pack" I just shelled out $5 for at Target.

Allen Ginter Inserts

Various A&G Inserts

Any time I see A&G inserts in a dime box, I pick em up. I am sure somebody needs anything I don't want to keep.

Sketch Cards

A&G Sketchers

These are staying in the Phungo Collection. I wasn't building this set but when one can pick up over half of the 24 card set in one day, it becomes part of the dime box search list. 

Vintage Dimes
1971 Topps Dimers 

I  knocked out 23 cards from my 1971 Topps Checker. A couple of the highlights are in the fan, the rest are even more common. The Manny Sanguillen card is a favorite among the lot.

Dime Box Card All-Stars
A couple of cards from this dime box were distinguished enough to get there own features at Phungo:
1981 Topps Record Breakers #206 Mike Schmidt
2013 Topps #WBC-5 Hanley Ramirez 
2003 Bowman Draft #BDP137 JJ Hardy  

Source & Links
Philly Show 2014 09 28 Index
Baseball Cardpedia

Snapshots: 2014 05 02 Nationals 5 @ Phillies 3

On Friday Night The Phillies lost to the Nationals 5-3 and took sole possession of last place in the NL East. Marlon Byrd got he Phillies off to a quick 3-0 start with a Home Run in the first, but that was it for the Phillies scoring.  The Phils were up 3-2 going into the 8th but Mike Adams and rest of the bullpen were unable to hold that lead. 

Snapshots

 
 Cliff Lee vs Tyler Moore

It was a beautiful night - this is a shot of Cliff Lee pitching to Tyler Moore to start the 3rd inning.Unfortunately later in this AB Moore would hit a line drive Home Run to left.  

Cliff Lee Warm Up

Notice anything odd here. This is Lee warming up by doing his fake pitch to towards 2nd base. He does this prior to the start of each inning. I am going to try out a few different angles to see if I can get a good shot of this interesting/odd quirk of Lee's routine.

Stephen Strasburg
Lee wasn't the only star pitcher featured on Friday Night. Stephen Strasburg took the hill for the Nationals.

Cliff Lee and Stephen Strasburg

The bullpens are side by side on different levels at CBP. I had ambitions of getting both Lee and Strasburg throwing pitches in a single picture, but I was too impatient to wait around for the right shot.

Marlon Byrd

All of the Phillies scoring took place on a single swing of the bat by Byrd, This is a photo of the right fielder At Bat later in the game. He is demonstrating his quck high step timing the incoming pitch.  

Ben Revere & Denard Span

Both Centerfielders in the game were members of the same Twins outfield in 2012.  This is the in happy time prior to the game....

Cliff Lee vs Denard Span: Benches Clear

Cliff Lee and Denard Span had a disagreement regarding Span taking an elongated break out of the batters box in the 5th inning. Stephen Strasburg had just batted, and Span may have been trying to extend his pitchers half-inning break.  Benches cleared, names were called, no one got ejected and life continued.

Couple of interesting notes on the melee - Here we see Denard Span is separted from the remaining players by the umpiring crew. Cliff Lee is relatively close to Span with Cody Asche and Ryan Howard doing what they can to keep their pitcher out of trouble. I like how the main participants are on the left of the shot while the onrushing crowd of the benches comes in from the right - creates just a little tension in the photo.

I think the benches were issued warnings and Home Plate Umpire Jim Reynolds who talked to each reliever that entered the game - I am assuming he spoke to them regarding the handling of timeouts. Later in the game when one of the Nats relievers was dawdling he did allow Chase Utley to call a somewhat late time out
 

 Jayson Werth & Garry Maddox

Garry Maddox was on hand for the game. He was greeting some sort of VIP fan group during BP - here he welcoms Jayson Werth to the group.

  Nats Celebrate

Anthony Rendon caught the last out, a pop out by Freddy (.032 Batting Average) Galvis. Here Rendon shown holding the ball out to give to closer Rafael Soriano. 

Snapshots 2013 07 09 Nationals 2 @ Phillies 4

Team Phungo finally got too see a Phillies W on Tuesday night. Phils won the game 4-2 behind the strong pitching of Cole Hamels 

Taylor Jordan v Darin Ruf

It has been warm and muggy here for about a week.  Tuesday was more of the same, but we did get occasional breezes and dodged the rain.  It is to small to make out the players here, but that is Darin Ruf batting, getting a start while Ryan Howard is on the DL.  
 

Cole Hamels v Bryce Harper

These two have a bit of a history,  Hamels came out on top last night as Harper went 0-3.

 Ben Revere

After a slow start to his Phillies career Ben Revere has been much improved recently. On Tuesday he went 2-4 raising his BA to .302.

Gio Gonzalez

Gio (shutting out the Phillies as I am writing this post) showing his support of Ian Desmond who is one of the finalists for the All-Star Game Final Vote

Previous 2013 Snapshot Postings
June 12 - Angels 9 @ Orioles 5
May 18 - Reds 10 @ Phillies 0
May 15 - Indians 10 @ Phillies 4
May 5 - Marlins 14 @ Phillies 2
April 20 - Cardinals 5 @ Phillies 0


Sources
baseball-ref.com
mlb.com

1977 Topps featured in MLB fantasy preview - First Phils cards for Michael Young and Ben Revere

Each of the last couple of years MLB.com has put together a fantasy guide.  For the players cover photo in the feature a baseball card has been produced in one of the past Topps designs.  This year they have chosen 1977 Topps.

Faux 1977 Topps Michael Young

Looks like somebody took a short cut on the position, the flag on the original 1977 Topps cards had the position written out rather then abbreviated. Back in 1977 the Player name was green for the Phils and cards also contained a facsimile autograph.

Faux 1977 Topps Ben Revere 

The Phillies other significant offensive acquisition this winter was Ben Revere who is also not featured in 2013 S1 Topps, so this is sort of his first Phils card as well.

Other uniform changers around the division:
 

Faux 1977 Topps Justin Upton

Just picked up by the Braves in the last couple of weeks.

Faux 1977 Topps Rafael Soriano

The Nats who had a pretty sharp bullpen in 2012 added Soriano for 2013.  With guys like the Uptons and Soriano entering the division it is shaping up to be another competitive canpaign in the NL East.
 
If you want to see more faux 1977 Topps check out the MLB.com player preview. 

Previous Previews featured on Phungo
2012 (1986 Topps)

2011 (1983 Topps)

2010 (1987 Topps)