Christmas Greetings from Play at the Plate

For me one of the great things about having a hobby is the folks I meet that have a common interest.

And those relationships often go beyond the hobby - we make friends, banter about other topics family successes, failures, good times and bad.

Recently Brian from the Texas Rangers related blog mentioned that he was sending out Holiday Cards. Just another great way of keeping in touch - in an old school sort of way, that really has nothing to do with the Hobby, except when you include MLB Stickers

Thanks to Brian and every at PATP I hope and his family had as good a Christmas as all the folks hear at Phungo HQ. 

2015 MLB Stickers
Nice Selection of mostly recently departed Phillies except Chooch. The Lot also includes a Player PATP fans are familiar with, former Ranger Cliff Lee.

Fortunately for Phillies Team Collectors the 2015 MLB Stickers checker includes the Phanatic - He will always bea Phillie. 

Links
Chase Utley Player Collection Index

Topps Ignores All Named HUDSON and Swag from Thorzul Will Rule:

Was in a recent Multi-Sport Group Break run by Thorzul Will Rule.

2012 Topps Chrome #HP94 NL Pitching Leaders

This is a nice one for us Phillies fans as we begin the 2015 season with so much dread. The card serves as a reminder of the good old days way back in 2011 when the Phillies had a rotation so stacked that Cole Hamels was relegated to #3 starter behind Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee.

Topps packed this League Leaders card with SIX bobbing heads to match the design of the original 1963 Topps #7 NL Pitching Leaders Card. The trouble is that the NL had a 3 way tie for 6th plays in Wins in 2011. Zack Geinke, Daniel and Tim Hudson all had 16 Wins.

Topps decided to go with six heads rather than stopping at 5. Greinke got the floating head and the Hudson's got snubbed.

An oddity in all this is that the Original 1963 Topps League Leaders cards each had 5 players with the exception of ties: The aforementioned card #7 and Card #4 AL Home Runs leaders.  For Heritage Topps had to decide to either A) Echo the original six heads and snub two players or B) go with the default 5 head design and ignore the oddity of the original set.

I think the wrong decision was made. I would have gone with 5 rather than put myself in the position to pick and choose which player gets on the card.

Another observation is that on the original 1963 LL cards, the player in the center was the overall Leader. On this card Topps either elected to or accidentally place the pitchers in order from top left to bottom right. Ian Kennedy led the league in Ws, while our hero Roy Halladay finished 3rd.

Flip

2012 Topps Chrome #HP94 NL Pitching Leaders (b-side)

There's your proof of the double Hudson Snub. Both players sit there at 16 Wins with Zack Greinke on the back of the card. 


Hoop and HandEgg
This was a four sport break, I had the Vikings and Celtics in the break. I think my Hockey team may have been the Flyers, but it doesn't matter here as like the 2014-15 Flyers we came up emtpy on the ice. 

2002 Donruss Gridiron Kings #GK-8 Daunte Culpepper

I have seen a handful of Vikings games, I am pretty sure Culpepper is the QB I have seen most.

Bigtime violation on Donruss' part here as the Kings part of the Gridiron Kings flair overlays the artists' signature.I did some hunting around to identify the snubbed artist but was unsuccessful.

2008 Topps Baskeball #160 Chrome Kendrick Perkins (#d 61/288)

2008 Topps baseball was a disaster for a variety of reasons. The shame of it is that there is  a distinct design with the carnival letters however  there were at least two big missteps. 1) The photography for the set was abysmal and 2) The Topps logo being placed Top Center made for ridiculous cropping issues.

By the time the Basketball set was issued Topps had corrected the logo issue by moving it to the lower right. Additionally the Hoop Photography is an improvement over baseball.

Fleer Game Time Michael Bennett (#d 712/2001)

I have a minor college cards collection which this Michael Benntte card will fit into nicely. The design on this Fleer card looks like somebody tried to modernize 1956 Topps and failed miserably.

Sources and Links
Trading Card Database

2012 Timeless Talents Andy Pettitte Cliff Lee

Last week the New York Yankees announced that they are retiring the numbers of Bernie Williams Jorge Posada and Andy Pettitte.

2012 Topps Timeless Talents #TT12 Andy Pettitte Cliff Lee

This generated some discussion among Baseball Nerds. First there is a the sheer gluttony - the Yankees have 17 Retired Numbers (for 18 players - 8 is retired for both Yogi and Bill Dickey). Secondly Andy Pettitte's name raised some eyebrows.

Pettitte admitted to HGH use after being named in the Mitchell Report. It should be noted that according to Pettitte the PED use occurred in 2002 prior to the banning of HGH.

Andy Pettitte's borderline HoF resume is largely based upon his incredible postseason numbers. The Mitchell Report may tip the scales against him.

I believe a large part of the Yankees motivation for retiring Pettitte's number now is to ease the return of Alex Rodriguez from his PED suspension. 

Timeless Talents
Andy Pettitte's partner on the 2012 Timeless Talents card is the Phillies Cliff Lee. The players are partnered as lefty aces that have big-game reputations.  

Lets take a closer look at the flip o the card that has some comparatives of the two players.

2012 Timeless Talents Andy Pettitte Cliff Lee (b-side)

Stats are interesting with one Lee at mid career while Pettitte was (at the time retired)

There is also a bit of a lazy Topps here - despite being released in 2012 the copy ignores the 2011 postseason. Cliff Lee took an L in his only 2011 playoff start - his record would have been 7-3 with a 2.52 ERA when this card was released.

Cliff Lee 2015
Today we find Lee 24 wins and 500 strikeouts down the road and 3 years older.  Last year was the worst season for Lee since 2007. He pitched only 13 games, 81+ innings with a mediocre 102 ERA+, all good for a replacement level +0.8 WAR.

Cliff Lee is now 36. From what I understand Lee is healthy after opting for rehab and recovery over surgery that would have cost him the 2015 season. Only 3 of Lee's top 10 comps made significant contributions at 36+, 2 never pitched again - including #1 comp Roy Oswalt. However miserable of a memory Oswalt may be for Phils fans, I am going to bring up one that distresses them more.

2011 Chris Carpenter

Yes Carpenter's age 36 season was the one where he dominated the 2011 postseason which included eliminating the Phillies in a 1-0 NLDS game 5.

In 2011 Carpenter was good for a 3.5 WAR, which is where I will target Cliff Lee. Not great, but not bad, and if he mimics 2011 Carpenter there is that World Series victory.

Sources and Links
Phillies WAR Projections 2015
Baseball-ref
Cardboard Connection
New York Yankees
ESPN

Checker 2014 Phungo

2014 Phungo #1 Cliff Lee

Card	Subject	Team
1	Cliff Lee	Phillies
2	Ben Revere	Phillies
3	Robinson Cano	Yankees
4	Michael Bourn	Indians
5	Freddie Freeman	Braves
6	Ryan Howard	Phillies
7	JJ Hardy	Orioles
8	Adam Jones	Orioles
9	Dominic Brown	Phillies
10	Darren Daulton	Phillies
11	Jimmy Rollins	Phillies
12	Sarah Ferguson/Salty Sands	HoF
13	Manny Machado	Orioles
14	David Price	Rays
15	Tim Hudson	Giants
16	Nate McLouth	Orioles
17	Elena Della Donne	Sky
18	Darin Ruf	Phillies
19	Chris Davis	Orioles
20	Ian Desmond	Nationals
21	Yadier Molina	Cardinals
22	Clayton Kershaw	Dodgers
23	David Freese	Cardinals
24	Miguel Cabrera	Tigers
25	Cody Asche	Phillies
26	Chase Utley	Phillies
27	Mike Trout	Angels
28	Curt Simmons	Phillies
29	Nik Wallenda
30	Chris Tillman	Orioles
31	Lance Lynn	Cardinals
32	Matt Wieters	Orioles
33	Bud Black	Padres
34	Kevin Millwood	Mariners
35	Cole Hamels	Phillies
36	Freddy Galvis	Phillies
37	Howie Bedell	Phillies
38	Paul Hagen	HoF
39	Devin Mesoraco	Reds
40	Pedro Alvarez	Pirates
41	Carlos Santana	Indians
42	Andrew McCutchen	Pirates
43	Ringo Starr
44	Jim Bunning	Phillies
45	Wil Myers	Rays
46	Dallas Green	Phillies
47	Gio Gonzalez	Nationals
48	Dan Uggla	Braves
49	Ethan Martin	Phillies
50	Jayson Werth	Nationals
51	Carlos Ruiz	Phillies
52	Alex Rodriguez	Yankees
53	Chrisitian Friedrich	Rockies
54	Tommy Medica	Padres
55	Michael Young	Phillies
56	Evan Gattis	Braves
57	Chuck Klosterman
58	Xander Bogaerts	Red Sox
59	Billy Hamilton	Reds
60	Prince Fielder	Rangers
61	Bronson Arroyo	Reds
62	Theodore Roosevelt	president
63	Jake Diekman	Phillies
64	Andrelton Simmons	Braves
65	Byron Buxton	Twins
66	Yasiel Puig	Dodgers