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

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. 

2011 Phungo Cards - Jayson Werth

I tend to work on the Phungo set sporadically throughout the year.  I sort of have an idea of what the card design will look like early in the year, but the subjects don't really fall together till close to press time.  In some cases I know that the players will be on different teams by the time of my targeted January Release.  But these cards are typically too good to pass up.

 

This is the case with Jayson Werth

 

 

2011 Phungo #28 Jayson Werth

 

I really liked Werth's early season stoner-caveman look.  The clean shaven Jayson Werth that showed up at the Nats press conference last month looks like a little kid. 

 

Despite is long slumps and occasional baserunning lapses, I have always been a fan of Jayson Werth.  Players that are found cheaply on the Major League scrap heap who become stars are easy to like.  He was also a favorite of the Future Mrs Phungo and has always been subject of much banter in the Phungo household - My jealous quips are often along the lines of "I'm telling you there is no way Jayson Werth can make better French Toast than I do"

 

2010 Topps T206 Case - Group Break Results - Twins

I couldn't get the Phillies in the T206 Case break over at A Cardboard Problem, so I took the Twins - They always have good young talent and plus guys Like Morneau Mauer and Liriano.

This is may be the first break I participated in this year and the first one I have ever watched live through the magic of UStream. Unfortunately one of the aspects of the break we were looking forward to was cashing in on a Strasburgmania - of course as luck would have it Strasburg would have Tommy John Surgery basically the day of the case break.

Still it was fun to watch the break as Marie performed the marathon of opening 140+ packs.

The Draw of the Twins cards included 2 Relic Cards of Kevin Slowey and a Cycle Mini of Jason Kubel

Click to enlarge
2010 Topps T206
#27 Jason Kubel (Cycle back #d 72/99)
#TR-KS Kevin Slowey Relic

I think they could have come up with a nicer way to stamp the Cycle cards. The numbers run right over the bottom of the first C. It is as if serial numbering the cards was an afterthought.

There were actually 2 Slowey Relics in the break. The one that has the b-side displayed here also has a stripe on it, but it is a bit crooked.


#228 Francisco Liriano
#349 Joe Mauer/Checklist #214-#257
#204 Justin Morneau (gold)

I have no idea what building Morneau is supposed to be looks like an older dorm at southern school. The Mauer card is a checklist, I also picked up a Mauer Base card in the break.

Minis
#127 Nick Blackburn (mini-Piedmont back)
#204 Justin Morneau (mini-Polar Bear back)

I am on a bit of a mini kick right now and enjoyed these. I am particularly fond of Polar Bear minis and will likely turn collecting those into some sort of obsession at some point.

There were a bunch of non-Twins base cards that I got including one Phils card.

#285 Jayson Werth

Bit of a fan favorite - especially among the ladies - this is likely one of the last cards that will be issues of Werth in a Phils uniform. Jayson will be a free agent after the season and is likely to head elsewhere for big bucks.


Thanks again to Marie over at A Cardboard Problem for running the break.

Swag from Bill and Ben

I Wanted to put together a quick post to acknowledge a couple of recent trades.

I am going to lead-off with some a massive contribution that Ben Henry of The Baseball Card Blog made to the Phungo 1959 Topps Set. Ben is going through some serious downsizing and focusing of his collection - I sent some vintage cards Ben's way including the the classic 1971 Topps #5 Thurman Munson card and he sent me back almost 40 cards for the aforementioned 1959 Set.


The 59s included a couple of Phillies, which are hard to find (at reasonable prices) locally and a rare High Number card of Lee Tate as well as 36 other cards that I needed.

This is likely the biggest contribution I have had to the Phungo 1959 Topps Project since I started back in late 2007. If you want to see my 1959 want list as it stands currently or are just so bored you want to check my progress click here. As it stands thanks to Ben I have moved into the final 100 cards of the set, and am well ahead of where I expected to be at this point in 2010 for the project.

Reader Bill

I also made a second trade of vintage cards and other with reader Bill F from Alexandria VA recently. I sent some Padres and a couple 1956 cards his way for a bunch of 1971 Phils and some newer "retro" Phils cards. Bill was also good enough to contribute to the 1959 cause with a Buyback of Claude Osteen.


Loved all these card. I hadn't botthered to pick up any cards from the new T206 or the Goodwin Champs sets. ok maybe I did get T206. Yeah that's right I did get a single pack I think, but it yielded no Phils.

The colors on the Dick Allen make for a pretty sharp looking card. This is a set I probably should of given more of a shot in 2009.

The Barry Lersch card is from the High Numbered Series of 1971 Topps - you can follow Phungo quest for the 1971 Topps Phillies Team Set here.

Phungo's Two Cents - 2010 Upper Deck

I am going to dedicate way to much time to this post - I found little to like about my first sample of 2010 Upper Deck Cards.

Full disclosure - if your here and have read much of my card specific commentary, it is likely evident that I am at Topps guy. Topps cards simply have history on their side - these are the cards of my youth and I enjoy that sense of history. So anything I follow up with here is likely tainted somewhat my a personal bias.

Ok now that I got that out of the way....

I had a fear that ones Topps got the exclusive MLB license that they would mail in the 2010 set. I think it is far more accurate to say that Upper Deck was the brand that mailed it in. I found 2010 UD boring and uninspired. I don't going with the Green Motif - which I have dubbed Green Eggs and Spam. if you know your not going to be able to use logos, why not use the team colors or at least the crayola crayons 8 base colors. Perhaps this would have been a violation of the Topps Exclusivity agreement - I don't know.

It's a Hit - Camden Yards Card


I don't really like the stadium cards, and I will get to that later, but this one here is a dandy.

Foul - First Card


Thumbs down on my first UD card of 2010 just because he is a member of the team that beat Phils in the World Series. The card is ok, the opinion is purely personal.

Mixed - Phillies

I picked up 3 Phils cards which is better then the 1 card I got out of 5 topps packs. A couple of set up guys and Jayson Werth. All three were members of the 2008 World Championship Phillies squad. I really like the Romero photo and consider it one of the better ones in the pack.

Foul - Tape Measures


These cards from this post are all from a pair of rack packs ($10.58 including PA Sales Tax). The UD Racks seemed to always have a lame insert. These cards are ok, but why not have the city name of the players? I mean they went to the trouble of naming the pitcher and the hand he throws with. Magglio Hit hist dinger on the Road, pictured in a Home Jersey. Votto hit his at home, here he is featured in a roadie. That to me is laziness on UDs part - Insert cards are supposed to be special treat them as if they are. The other two are probably 3rd jersey's so I am not sure on those two.

Mixed - Biography
I actually don't mind these - The two I got were probably the 2 furthest apart magnitude wise. Buerhle's card commemorates a great event while the other card is a footnote for a team that had little to cheer about last year. My biggest issue is that I have seen a lot of folks that have praised this set, yet 2008 Topps Year In Review was universally panned - it's the same stinkin set.

Home Run - Catcher Cards

UD knew that catchers in gear would not have many logos in view and they took good advantage of the situation. There were several good action shots of catchers in the 2 rack packs I opened.

Foul - b-sides


As usual UD left a good bit of exciting white space on the back of their cards.

Foul - Hidden Ball Trick?

I just got done praising the Catcher cards above then UD does this to me. The profile photo is in the way of the action in both catcher cards above and obscures the ball in the Inge shot. This is similar to something that handicapped 08 Topps when all the players had to "duck" out from under the Topps Logo.

miscellaneous nits

I don't like the cropping on the Samardzija. That may be nit-picking though. The stadium cards are generally boring. The under construction Target Field may be top of the list. And finally in general I do not like the Two player Team Checklist cards. I have almost always liked them before with only one player. maybe these will grow on me, but right now they are a thumbs down.

Phungo Cards - Player of the Week Jayson Werth

2009 Phungo #28 Jayson Werth

Jayson Werth was named the most recent NL Player week. His 11-25 (.440) week included five homers, 2 of which occurred in a game covered by team Phungo last week.

Charlie Manuel took a little heat for putting Werth on the All-star team this year. The selections was not an egregious violation - The other most likely player was likely the also very deserving Pablo Sandoval of the San Francisco Giants. Manuel only took two extra Phillies, Werth and slugger Ryan Howard. Howard is likely a perenial all-star, Werth may not be but right now he has 29 homers (7th in the league) and a respectable .271 average - along with an impressive .372 OBP.

The photo from todays Phungo Card was taken on September 11th 2008, prior to the first of four games the Phils 4 game series with the Brewers. That game is where it all started for the 08 Phils. They were 4 games behind the Brewers for the wild card and would end the weekend tied with Milwaukee for the Wild Card lead. To honor and remember the victims the September 11th attacks the Phils as well as all other Major League teams wore their patriotic caps for the weekend series - that is why Werth has a blue Phils cap on. The Phungo Card lists Werth's specific position of RF, and he got his uniform number, 28, for a card number.

Game Report 2009 06 13: Red Sox 11 @ Phillies 6

Jonathan Papelbon v Chase Utley (click to enlarge)

Ok Phils got clobbered, it rained and game after midnight. A year ago I would have been completely bonkers upset. The Phils winning a World Series has changed all that. I had a great time on Saturday Night. Got a couple of good pictures, enjoyed an otherwise miserable game and was really happy to make it back to the ballpark for only the 2nd time this year.

The above shot is really nice. It is not very often that I take pictures of closers, largely because game situations are often too tight and I would rather watch the game then snap a picture at that point. Saturday the Bosox were up 5 runs so the situation was less dramatic. This shot is of Papelbon pitching to Chase Utley. It is always great to get a picture that features two Superstars in a single shot. You can also tell this is mid pitch and if you enlarge the shot you may make out a white blurr that is the ball - it's just below first base.

I got one other shot of Papelbon. The 2009 Phungo Set didn't have any Red Sox cards included and at least one blogger noticed. I am not giving away any secrets on who might be on the 2010 checklist, but I am thinking the photo below may be good enough to make the cut.

Jonathan Papelbon


Antonio Bastardo

Antonio Bastardo only pitched (or attempted to pitch) one inning, but I was able to get a picture of him, for what might be one of his few appearances at home all year.

Good Guy: Ryan Madson

Good Guy Awards: Ryan Madson was leading the Good Guy parade on Saturday Night. Jack Taschner and Clay Condrey were also signing autos. When the Bosox are in town they are among the few away teams that fill up the autograph area more than the Phillies Fans. The only person I saw signing for the Red Sox was Brad Penny. There was one other Boston player signing close to game time but I never identify the player.


And For The Card Collectors:

Phillies Starting Lineup Cards Presented by Topps

The Phils have giant baseball cards viewable from the Center Field entrance which display the nights lineup for fans. The cards had not been updated since 2006. This year they are new!!


Topps Giant Phillies Starting Lineup Card Jayson Werth

I think at least some of the cards have different Photos. There is one other minor difference, if you look in the bottom left, prior to the players position the players number is listed followed by a star and then the players position. The Topps cards only list the players position. For outfielders these Phillies cards have the specific field while the regular Topps issue has the generic OF only.

Scoops - Brad Lidge was out long tossing prior to the game. Photo is a little grainy but the knee looked ok to me. Also John Smoltz was at the game and in uniform (#29) but I wasn't quick enough to get a picture.

Brad Lidge Long Tossing

Couple of other curiosities. Mitchell and Ness (and maybe Topps) were running some promotion that bordered on gambling. They were selling baseball cards and then based upon the numbers of the cards you received you could win a prize. For example they would pick a card numbered say 421 and if you had a card bearing that number in your pack you would win that rounds prize. Which amounted to some pretty nice stuff - signed jerseys, tickets, and various giveaway items. The area was marked with a couple of Topps Attax posters, but I never figured out if Topps was tied in with the promotion or not.

The other one was, I am sure you have seen this before the "Between Innings Marriage Proposal". Well what made this one a little different is the girl being proposed to was holding and infant. Maybe it is just me thinking this but it appeared to me that the Phils cut away from the shot a lot quicker then they would normally. Of course there is no guarantee that the child belongs to the bride to be, but I have been to an awful lot of ballgames, and it definitely was something I hadn't witnessed before.

While the game was in Rain Delay the Phils broadcast the Braves @ Orioles game. Props to the Braves broadcast for noting the way that "progress" had eliminated one of the great views in baseball when new constrution was erected to obscure the Baltimore's Emerson Bromo-Seltzer tower .

Overlay of Emerson Bromo-Seltzer tower on present day Camden Yards skyline

2008 09 11 Brewers 3 @ Phillies 6

Topps 2007 #UH99 Carlos Ruiz
Topps 2008 #281 Carlos Ruiz

Thursday was a great night all Around as the Phils beat the Wild Card Rival Milwaukee Brewers 6-3. There were many Phils deserving of the Top Card Billing but I wanted to take this opportunity to recognize Carlos Ruiz. Nice Cards just that it's the same picture. Same Set, different years, same photo - this all points to Lazy Topps.

But wait the Laziness doesn't end there - flip the cards over and....


Both cards use the same stinkin factoid in the second sentence. It is also another game where Ruiz contributed to a victory over the Brewers.

Okay, Enough of the Lazy Topps Rant and on to Carlos. After a disappointing offensive season, Ruiz has been hot lately and He did post an RBI double versus the Brew Crew. However, his most exciting contribution was getting down a suicide squeeze bunt for an insurance run in the bottom of the 8^th. I have been to roughly 150 Phils games and can’t remember having witnessed them successfully execute the squeeze play. It was just as exciting as Ryan Howard's moon shot homer in the first.

In addition to Ruiz the Phils received contributions from across the team. Jamie Moyer took the rock on three days rest and gave the Phillies 5 2/3 solid innings. The big man Ryan Howard posted 3 RBIs including the two run homer in the first, he narrowly missed another in the fourth. The bullpen, erratic lately, looked more like the surprising staff that was so stellar in the first half of the season. Ryan Madson pitched 2 innings of shutout relief, Chad Durbin came in to get a critical out and Brad Lidge pitched a 1-2-3 ninth.

On the other side of the Diamond, if you’re going to see Prince Fielder blast a 2-Run homer - it doesn’t feel as bad if it comes when your teams is up 3 runs - even if the ball is absolutely crushed to centerfield.

Plus – The Phils were able to beat Ben Sheets, a quality starting pitcher who has been hot lately. I love a good pitching match-up but it is also something to see a couple of the league's big young mashers like Ryan Howard and Prince Fielder absolutely crush balls over the centerfield fence.

I picked up the cheapest tix available for the game and for the first 6 innings sat 4 rows off the field just beyond first base. The game was over in 2:48 and I was home around 10:30. Saw a quite a few Brewers fans out there. It is good to see them get some support, after being one of the more invisible teams for about a decade.

The Phillies arranged pre-game festivities which honored members of the armed forces, police, fire, and emergency services and also saluted the victims of September 11th. The Brewers and Phillies as well as all the teams in major league baseball brought out their patriotic caps from the 4^th of July weekend this year and wore them during Thursday Night’s games.

Damages - $13 ticket, $10 Park, $14 for two beers, and $5.50 for two dogs. Total $42.50.

2008 08 21 Nationals @ Phillies Series Summary

Phils take 2 of 3 versus the lowly Nationals. This is the second series the Phils have won, but these are 6 games against Washington and San Diego, both of which are poor teams at best.

Plus - Brett Myers is allowed to complete a game and puts up a shutout. Phils get contributions from the bottom of the order to help score some runs. Pedro Feliz returns.

Minus - Rollins hits the ball hard but fails to break out, 1-12 in the series no walks - thats fine lead-off work. Phils waste another good outing by Jamie Moyer.

Meh - It appears that Jayson Werth may have taken over full time duty in right as he is now getting multiple starts versus right-handed pitching.

BlogBlogBlog - West Virginia Cards has come up with an interesting idea for card-forwarding and trading - look it up if your interested in trading cards.

BlahBlahBlah - Taking a look at Rollins numbers....In my opinion J-Roll 08 is the real model and the 2007 MVP Rollins is the anomaly. This year is a lot closer statistically (.261/.326/.421) to his career averages (.276/.331/.440) than last year (.296/.344/.531). Presently his BA OBP and SLG combine to be 39 points off of his career numbers - 2007 is the anomaly when he was 100 points his career numbers. one oddity to note, with all the talk about the Phils striking out to often, Rollins may be striking out to rarely. His BB/K ratio is by far the best of his career (39/42). Maybe 2008 is a growing year for Rollins where he tries to cut down his Ks at the expense of some power - Perhaps this will yield some dividends in the future.

Around the League - The Mets have gone off and swept the injury depleted Braves, So despite winning a series the Phils fall a game further behind New York in the East and are now 2.5 games out of the lead.

On Deck - Los Dodgers come to town for a 4 game set. The phils will get a look at Manny Ramirez for the 2nd time this season. Team Phungo is trying to get down to the ballpark for a game this weekend but not so sure how the ticket sales will go.