Purple

Inspired by Night Owl Cards Prince Memorial last week we have a few Phillies Purple Cards.

1975 Topps # 574 Tony Taylor

In deference to NOC we open with a 1975T card that has a Purple top. The Phillies had purple cards in Flagship even in years when it was not one of the base colors.

Several times over the years Purple has served as a secondary color for Phillies cards. The 1990T Bob Dernier is a favorite - Green and Purple are particularly good complimentary colors.

Purple Chrome

Purple Parallels have shown up the last couple of years commonly found in Toys R Us sets, but I think the 2013 Heritage may have been regular retail.

Fleer stole the 1954T design for this set. Lots of Purple on the Ron Gant card.

Continuing with Fleer with a minimalist retro inspired design from 2006. Kind of like the look of this set.

The Purple continues through to the b-side.

 HoF Mike Schmidt go the Purple Honors on his 1988 Score card.

Once again the Purple continues through to the back, although more subtle then on the Rollins 06 Fleer Tradition Card.

Finally from 1982T, in addition to the titles the signature hockey sticks are also in Princely Purple.

Finally we close with Prince Himself

Purple Rain 45 RPM on Purple Vinyl

And the packaging...

I supposed colored vinyl is the Parallel of Records.

Sources and Links
Prince Memorial / Prince R&R HoF Index

How expensive is 2015 Topps?

Tonight we take a look our second look at the price of Baseball Cards, specifically Topps Cards.  We will take a look at the price of 2014 Topps versus some different Topps sets that have been produced over the lasr 40+ years.

 2015 Topps #662 Darin Ruf

Key
Column B is the Price of a Pack in the referenced year.
Column C is the number of cards in that pack.
Column D is what a 12 card pack would cost (Everything is relative to 2012 Topps Cards)
In Column E I produce the cost for a 660 card set build from 12 card packs under perfect collation.  I used 660 cards as a constant because it was the basic set size in 2012.

Column F in red is the Inflation factor. This is the Key to the chart.  2012=$1. That dollar is worth 96 cents today, but in 1972 a single dollar  had the buying power equivalent to $5.49 in 2012 dollars. 

Column H is the price of a 12 card pack with the inflation adjustment (product of columns D*F)
Column I is similar to H but for the 660 card set.

Observations
-To build a 660 card 2015 base set via Topps $1.99 12 card retail packs would cost 105.77 .
-This Year there is 701 cards in the base set. Under perfect collation it would cost $116.25 to build that set. The cost would be 111.58 in 2012 Dollars.

-While building a 660 card set would cost one about 3 times as much as it did in 1972, the price of building a set really hasn't changed since 1995.
-I understand there are inserts and possible collation issues. I say trade your inserts for base cards.
-The cost of 660 cards is slightly cheaper each of the last 2 years because Topps has maintained the  pack size and price point while inflation has been slight.

-Cards are cheaper then a decade ago by over 30%!!

-This is because Topps went from a 10 card pack to 12 card packs AND reduced the price
-Despite Topps obtaining a monopoly on the MLB license  prices have dropped 16% since 2008. This is a difference of over $20 when building a 660 card set.

Sources & Links
2014 Topps Cost Analysis
Pack Prices 1997- present Baseballcardpedia
Pack Prices 1979-1995 - ebay (shown on retail boxes)
Pack Price 1972 my memory - Could be wrong on this one
Cardboard Connection

WAR Stories 2015 Projections: Darin Ruf

Today our 2015 WAR Projections turn to Darin Ruf

2013 Topps Heritage Chrome #HC98 Darin Ruf/Tyler Cloyd (refractor/purple)

Darin Ruf is a First Baseman, trouble is the Phils are already paying somebody $25MM dollars to play that position. He can also play outfield, trouble there is the Phillies are trying to figure out if any of their younger players can play those positions.

That leaves Ruf as a man without a position. He has shown some signs that he can hit if given the opportunity. And in 2015 Ryne Sandberg has moved forward and started Ruf as part of a platoon at first base. I think by the end of May if Ryan Howard doesn't show he can return to some sort of form that Darin Ruf may see a larger role at first.

2013 Heritage
This is a purple refractor which likely originated as a bonus in a Toys R Us Rack. I picked it up in a trade package from Cards on Cards. Once again we must talk about position, not sure why Topps went with the general position of infield for Ruf. He has always been either a first baseman or corner outfielder outside of a couple of games at 3B, but not enough to declare IF for his position.

2015+
Darin Ruf is moving into his prime hitting years, position-wise to this point he has always been moving around. I See him sticking as 400 PA first base/OF player this year but not contributing much more than a replacement level play +0.5

Sources and Links
2015 Phillies WAR projections
Baseball-ref

Phungo Game Report: 2015 04 12 Nationals @ Phillies

The Northeast is emerging from a long cold winter and baseball on a beautiful Sunday is a very welcome sight. Team Phungo was very excited to make it out to an Opening Week Phillies Home Game versus the World Series Favorite Washington Nationals.

2015 0412 Washington Nationals @ Philadelphia Phillies: Max Scherzer facing Cesar Hernandez

The Nats may be the World Series pick. However it was the Phillies who took the opening two games of the series and entered the day 2 games up on the Washington Squad.

Unfortunately the Phillies were unable to complete the sweep.

The Nats triumphed 4-3 n extra innings. Game Highlights included Yunel Escobar scoring on a Justing DeFratus wild pitch to take the lead in the Top of the 10th, Home Runs by Bryce Harper and Darin Ruf, and fine starts by Nats New Free Agent Acquisition Max Scherzer and Phillies Spot Starter Seaon O'Sullivan.

Snapshots

2015 MLB Opening Day Logo

It has been almost a week since Opening Day but the logo was still visible, albeit a tad faded.

2015 0412 Sean O'Sullivan

O'Sullivan was called up to make the spot start for the Phillies and will likely stay in the rotation until the Phils off-season acquisition Chad Billingsley is ready to pitch again.

2015 0412 Max Scherzer

The Nats big Free Agent signing this winter was Max Scherzer, So far he has pitched very well in both his starts but due to poor offensive support he has not been credited with a W in either start.

Scherzer appeared very upset throughout most of his pre-game bullpen session. Not sure if he was really unhappy with himself or if this is some sort of technique he uses to get himself fired up.

 

2014 0412 Bryce Harper

The biggest blemish on Sean O'Sullivan's start was giving up a first inning Home Run to Bryce Harper. 

2015 0412 Bryce Harper and Bob Davidson

We happened to capture this strange moment between Bryce Harper and Umpire Bob Davidson. Not sure what was going on here. As far as I know there was not a controversial play or other craziness that the two would be discussing.  It just seemed very odd for Bryce Harper to be putting both his hands on Bob Davidson's shoulders.  

 

 2015 0422 Darin Ruf

The sole offensive outburst for the Phillies was a Pinch Hit Homer by Darin Ruf.

 

Line Up Cards

This years Line Up cards are the same in-hous design the Phillies went with in 2014. Here we have two of the new cards for 2015, Jeff Francoeur, Odbuel Herrera, along with Cesar Hernandez. 

2015 0412 Nationals @ Phillies Game Ticket

Sources and Links
MLB Boxes
MLB Umpires

Swag from Cards on Cards

Got home form a typical lousy Monday to have my mood quickly changed by a very nice card package from Kerry of Cards on Cards. Here are some of the highlights

2006 Bowman Heritage Pieces of Greatness #PG-RH Ryan Howard

The picture of Ryan Howard is a little odd as Topps is trying to capture the style of the classic 1949 Bowman here. Cool card with a nice striped Jersey snippet.

2013 Topps Heritage Chrome #HC98 Darin Ruf/Tyler Cloyd (refractor/purple)
2013 Topps #83 Darin Ruf Green Parallel

Couple of nice Darin Ruf parallels. Ruf is a bit of a fan favorite but the Phillies latest moves regarding several bench players seem to indicate that Darin isn't in their plans for 2014.

2012 Topps #243 Justin DeFratus (blue parallel)
2013 Topps #US71 Cody Asche

Two more Phillies RCs for the collection. Kerry must be busy out there getting new product, the Asche card is part of the Update Series - feels like it just came out.

ConC sent over two team bags of cards, here are some of the rest

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

2013 Phungo Cards #64 Darin Ruf

Phillies have a lot of questions marks on their roster right now.  One of those questions involves the gimpy Ryan Howard.

2013 Phungo #64 Darin Ruf

A year ago Darin Ruf spent about half of the season at AA Reading and the rest between, Lehigh Valley and the big club.  Unfortunately Ruf shares a position with Ryan Howard and in 2012 Ruf didn't arrive in Philadelphia until after Howard returned from injury.

The Phils did get to see Ruf play in the outfield and the defensive results were mixed. His batting was excellent, good BA and lots of pop.

Currently Darin Ruf is back at AAA and he has been ok, not as spectacular as a year ago. This weeks looming question of the availability of Ryan Howard raised the question of a Ruf callup, but apparently the Phils are more interested in AAAA 3B Josh Fields.

Hopefully if needed we will hear from Darin Ruf at some point this season, and he will produce the poser he die a year ago.  . 

Phungo Card

I like getting to the ballpark early for a lot of reasons.  I find it interesting and relaxing.  I enjoy BP sometimes you get a minor scoop - some injured player rehabbing, or a new callup.  It also affords one the opportunity to get some candid shots a bit closer up then you may get in the cheap seats. That is the case with the Ruf pix above.  He was shagging flies in the outfield, and I am sure I spent a good bit of time waiting for him to turn towards the camera enough to get a good shot. 

Rewind - Selected 2013 Phungo Card Postings
2013 Phungo #32 Matt Weiters
2013 Phungo #51 Carlos Ruiz2013 Phungo #68 Scott Hartnall
2013 Phungo #70 Ichiro



 

Snapshots 2012 09 27 Nationals 7 @ Phillies 3

The 2012 Phillies home season ended with a whimper, which is pretty much how the whole season went.  The only highlight of the Phils 7-3 loss was a bases loaded double by the recenltly promoted Darin Ruf.  That happened early but the Phils pretty much left Gio Gonzalez off the hook after getting some runners on in the 1st and 2nd innings.

Snapshots (click any pix to enlarge) 

 Darin Ruf Double 

The rising streak just above the 1b foul line is the ball

Sighting

Stephen Strasburg

He may not be pitching in games but Strasburg is still getting his work in - He was doing long toss with the other pitchers and looked like he was working on keeping his mechanics sharp.

Good Guy Awards

Strasburg signing autographs

GGAs go out to Strasburg and Ian Desmond for the bad guys.  Several Phillies including Chase Utley and Kevin Frandsen were signing for fan appreciation night.

Ryan Howard 

Uneventful final home game for the big man in the Phils final home game of 2012.

Bryce Harper

Yep thats a Home Run swing.  Harper knocked this one out to right center.   He got all of it, looked like it was out the moment he swung.

Snapshots: 2012 09 10 - Marlins 1 @ Phillies 3

Phils win 3-1 behind a strong outing by Kyle Kendrick.  Game finished in a brisk 2:38.  Home by 10:30 on a school night - and if you really wanna believe, you can almost tell yourself that the Phils are in the Mix.

SnapShots (click to enlarge)

Kyle Kendrick

Hero of the night - 2 hits and 3 walks 1 run over 7 innings.  It is time for me to admit Kendrick has a shot of being a decent starting pitcher.

Greg Dobbs

A member of the Phillies 2008 WSC team.  Dobbs started at 3rd for the Marlins 

Jose Reyes from the same angle

Darin Ruf

Ruf who had 20 Home Runs during the month of August for the Reading Phillies officially joined the big club on Monday.  He did not get involved in the game however.  I think he is watching the Phanatic on the big screen in this shot.

Cards that Never Were

2011 Topps Starting Line Up Dominic Brown and Erik Kratz

Brown was issued a couple of cards in the 2011 set, but I don't think any featured the above photo.  I am not sure Kratz ever made it into 2011 Topps, despite getting a handful of ABs with the big club.