Sunday Night Baseball Nats @ Mets and Blaster Break of 2015 Allen & Ginter

Picked up a single blaster of 2015 A&G and only got one Phils card.

And it was a card of a player that just got traded. That is ok - 1) Paps really was never loved in PhilaPa 2) Since he got moved to DC I can make this posting as part of our Sunday Night Baseball Series.

Papelbon will be closing for the Nats and if the game between the two division rivals is tight tonight, I will not know who to root against. 

I have one additional quibble with the Papelbon A&G card

Double Vision

Yes Topps used the same image for A&G as they did for the 66T homage 2015 Heritage. I disapprove, but I am sure Topps Sees these sets as Low end, while I see them as premium so we know we really aren't on the same page anyway.

I will display the highlights of the pack in All-Star fashion

Battery

Zach Britton
Edinson Volquez
Matt Barnes
Brian McCann

Pretty week class of pitchers - have to admit Volquez looks pretty nasty here. Overall I am not a fan of the dotting used for shading on the players faces. I am sure there is a artsy name for this technique, I don't know the term, I just know that I think it looks freaky. 

Infield

Ian Desmond 
David Wright
Danny Santana
Jon Singleton

David Wright beat out Manny Machado for the Blaster All-Stars strictly because he is a member of the teams playing tonight (even if he is on the DL). This squad has two shortstops as I did not draw a second baseman from the packs.

Jon Singleton gets the nod at first base strictly because of his one time Phillies Farmhand status.

 Outfield

Billy Hamilton
Mookie Betts
Michael Bourn
Yoneis Cespedes

We have another former Phil in Michael Bourn, while newest Met Yoenis Cespedes appears here representing the Tigers.  

The Bench (Inserts and Extras)

Starting Points Mike Moustakas
Starting Points Dee Gordon (b-side)

I like the 2015 A&G common insert, Starting Points. As a fan of game dated cards this one is aimed at me. At 100 cards I doubt I will seriously look to build the set unless I found a boatload in a dime box one day. There are 5 Phillies on the checker (Rollins, Utley, Howard, Hamels, Maikel Franco) Plus Jayson Werth (Blue Jays) and Cliff Lee.  

The two cards presented above represent games that occurred within days of each other. Moustakas debuted in a 4-2 victory over the Angels, He singled in the 6th off of Ervin Santana for his first career Major League hit.

The Latter card marks the debut of Dee Gordon whose first game occurred in Philadelphia where his father Tom Gordon pitched for several years. Dee pinch ran in the 9th inning of a tight game that the Dodgers lost 3-1.

One of the features of these cards that I like is that in addition to the A-side Player the text mentions other baseball events of the day. Dee Gordon's first game was shared with a Career Milestone for Tim Lincecum and the Pirates Draft of Gerrit Cole.

Val Kilmer
Jeremy Roenick

Topps of the non-baseball base cards are Val Kilmer and Jeremy Roenick. Considering my distaste for Jonathan Papelbon I would have to say that the Flyers related Roenick card is my favorite in the pack. 

Mini Mike Moustakas A&G back
Mini Javier Baez (rc)
Mini Jean Segura 
Mini Kendall Graveman A&G Back
Mini First Ladies Abigail Adams
Mini Black Border Berlin Wall
Mini Black Border Appomattox Court House
Mini Hoist the Flag Mary Read

Turned out to be a Moustakas hot pack as we picked up a pair of inserts of the Royals 3rd Baseman.

The Berlin Wall card is from the short print portion of the minis and is probably the rarest card that was drawn from the blaster. Beyond that we have some pedestrian minis other than the Baez RC Mini.

Keys to the City - Willis Tower Chicago
Ancient Armory - Dane Axe
Menagerie of the Mind - Mermaind

Couple of the full size inserts.  Of the three sets here Keys to the City is the most interesting to me.

Sources and Links
Cardboard Connection
baseball-ref

Your 2015 Phillies All-Star Jonathan Papelbon 2013 Topps Heritage #104

Tonight we open our 2015 All-Star Game Coverage

Last night Major League Baseball announced the All-Star Reserves. This is about as exciting as the 2015 Phillies get. Rightfully the team did not have any starters elected to the squad.

And despite the fact that the Phillies have the worst record in baseball, the rules, customs and decorum of the mid-summer classic dictate that the Phillies to get a minimum of one roster spot on the All-Star Team.

2013 Topps Heritage #104 Jonathan Papelbon

Closer Jonathan Papelbon was selected to represent the Phillies in Cincinnati. This is Papelbon's sixth all-star selection and second as a Phil.

 2013 Topps Heritage #104 Jonathan Papelbon (b-side)

Presenting the flip here for a couple of reasons, First off I like the trivia question. Secondly Papelbon's partner for card #104 in the original 1964T release was Art Mahaffey and I want to take a closer look at these two cards in the future.

As far as the Trivia Question, I thought it was due to 2 runners scoring on a single sacrifice, however the answer has to do with an error being committed on a dropped fly. The Runner scores/advances on the error, and the batter is ALSO awarded a sacrifice. Baseball Reference has a posting on four occurrences of triple sacrifice innings. 

2015 All-Star Coverage
Bobby Abreu
Johnny Bench
Rickey Henderson
Art Mahaffey
Robin Roberts
Pete Rose
2014 All-Star Coverage

Sources and Links
baseball-ref

WAR Stories Phillies 2015 Jonathan Papelbon and 2015T Phils Checker

Today we take a look at Jonathan Papelbon's 2015 WAR projection.

2015 Topps #143 Jonathan Papelbon

Papelbon is not one of my favorite Phils and I am not going to spend a lot of time over-analyzing his upcoming season.

He is coming off his best season as the Phillies closer. He is 34 and seems to pitch better when the stakes are higher. The stakes for the 2015 Phils don't look to be in Papelbon's preferred stratosphere. I am seeing some regression and will give him a 1.7 WAR for 2015.

2015 Topps Series 1 Phillies Checker 

10 Cole Hamels

51 Ryan Howard

118 Domonic Brown

123 Ben Revere

143 Jonathan Papelbon

163 Chase Utley

187 Marlon Byrd

212 Cliff Lee

218 David Buchanan

222 Antonio Bastardo

233 Carlos Ruiz

309 Maikel Franco (RC)

There are a dozen Phillies on the 2015T S1 checker, of course as of press time two of those players are already gone (Byrd and Bastardo). Hamels or Lee may be gone prior to the beginning of the season. If they both remain healthy at least one will likely be dealt by the deadline.

The 12 players chosen don't leave much for S2. Among the players we can look forward to seeing are Ken Giles, Cody Asche, Darin Ruf, Aaron Harang, Chad Billingsley, Grady Sizemore, Freddy Galvis and whatever other Shortstop the Phillies can pick up in  the next month plus the team card. 


Sources and Links
Phillies 2015+
2015 Topps
Cardboard Connection

Baseball-ref

Boston Red Sox - 2007 World Champions

At the entrance of Fenway Park they have a series of old ticket booths repurposed as display cases, this is the one dedicated to the last Red Sox World Championship in 2007.

There is the Papelbon Jersey in there, and a fair amount of Josh Beckett - The bat is from Dustin Pedroia.

Congrats to the BoSox - 2013 World Series Champs

Just the Hits: 3 Packs o 2013 Topps Series 2 Hobby - including Case HIts?

 Busy week at Phungo HQ so cliff notes and pix only - will try and elaborate later. If this was Bucket or Chuck-It these 3 Packs would get a surprise BUCKET LIST IT!

3 Packs of 2013 Topps Series 2, $2/Pack $6 total. Purchased at a card show so no sales tax.

2013 Topps S2 Jonathan Papelbon

I am sick of closers being overzealous upon getting saves.  Papelbon is the Phillies guy, so I guess I am ok with this one.

 Case Hits?

2013 Topps S2 Camo Mike Baxter

 I get a Camo Parallel and it is a stinkin Met.

2013 Topps S2 Black Alberto Cabrera

Cabrera was a middle reliever for the Cubs in 2012. I think he is back to starting in their minor league system now.  Cool to get a black parallel, even if it is a minor player and looks closer to charcoal in color.

Apparently the Black cand Camo Parallels are 1 or 2/ case so those are pretty rare.  Team Phungo wins the lottery - well winning in the way that you win when you get 2 of the 6 numbers and you basically get back the cost of ticket. 

 

2013 Topps S2 Emerald Parallel Salvador Perez


Base Cards

2013 Topps Series 2

Some Additional Cards that will bear comment at some future time. Posting now for folks that want to see them.

There was one other Insert that I picked up - it wasn't anything major but wanted to save it for its own posting.

Bucket List
Only one Phillies card but I consider the 3 packs a win just for the rarity of the two parallels that popped up. 

2013 Phungo Cards #58 Jonathan Papelbon

The Phillies are 67 games into the season and once again it is time to admit that they are a sub .500 team.  There was a glimmer of hope a week ago when they were beating up on a poor Miami Marlins team, but this weeks road trip through the mediocre midwest Ms Milwaukee and Minnesota showed that the Phillies just can't win consisitently enough.

There have been some bright spots notably Domonic Brown, Cliff Lee, and Chase Utley pre-injury.  Another player putting together a nice season is Jonathan Papelbon.

2013 Phungo #58 Jonathan Papelbon

Cliff Lee got the W last night, ending a 5 game skid for the Phillies.  Jonathan Papelbon converted the save, his 12th in twelve attempts. 

Papelbon is a likely an All-Star candidate for the Phillies, I always think of closers as good candidates for crummy teams, because they tend to have one good stat, on a team that may have nobody with any good numbers. As a team the sub-.500 Phillies really don't deserve a three reps, but Papelbon is likely deserving.  Beyond his perfect save rate he has a 1.52 ERA with 22Ks in 23.2 innings - His 4.9 H/9inn is particularly impressive. He also has a Walk rate that is equally low yielding a nice 0.676 WHIP.

The Phillies have a bit of a conundrum with Papelbon. He is one of their best performers the last two seasons, but they have not put themselves in postion to use him effectively. Often the offense flat out doesn't score any runs or the bullpen gives up whatever meager lead the Phillies have in the middle innings. This leaves Papelbon out of the mix far too often.

Hopefully the Phillies get some things worked out and Papelbon can help salvage their season, rather than saving games with the Detroit Tigers

Source
Baseball-Ref.com