HOF Gaylord Perry Index

 This is an Index of our postings related to HOF pitcher Gaylord Perry

1962 Topps #199 Gaylord Perry (rc)

1984 Topps #4: 1983 Highlights - Ryan, Carlton and Perry Surpass Johnson for Career Ks

Phungo HOF Index

TRENDY: 2012 Bowman Platinum #BDPP36 Eddie Rosario - Home Run on first Pitch seen in the MLB.

You get a Home Run on the first pitch you see in the majors and I may just post your card on Phungo

2012 Bowman Platinum #BDPP36 Eddie Rosario

Eddie Rosario has floated on and off the Prospect Radar, probably due to a drug suspension in 2014. Prior to 2014 he was ranked #60 by BaseballProspectus, the only one of the three majors to rank Rosario. MLB.com Ranks Rosario #10 in the Twins Org

The Home Run appears to be a bit of an anomaly. In 749 ABs at AA or above he has 15 Home Runs.  .  

Sources and Links 
Baseball-ref
TwinCities.com
MLB.com

Phillies 2014+ Cody Asche 2013 Topps #US71 (RC)

The Phillies drafted Cody Asche in the fourth round of the Draft in June 2011, less than 3 years later he is penciled in as the teams opening day third baseman. A year ago the Phillies picked up Michael Young to fill the 3B role, Ideally the Phils would have made the postseason, Young would be back for a transition year and Asche wouldn’t be coming up until the end of this season rather than last. 

2013 Topps #US71 Cody Asche (RC)

Of course, things didn’t go that way and we got our first look at Cody. His debut was fair at best – The .235 batting average in 162 ABs is simply not good enough for a Major League corner infielder. The other problematic number was Asche’s 43 strikeouts which projects out to 140+ in a full 600 PA season. Asche showed decent power with 5 homers and 14 XBH. His defense is seen as average, advanced defensive metrics in a limited MLB sample back that up with a slightly below average dWAR.

Currently Cody Asche’s biggest issue is hitting LHP. All 5 of his Homers were vs righty’s, at lower levels only 3 of 15 HR were versus southpaws. Furthermore his 2013 slash line vs LHP across both majors and AAA was .252/.299/.361 in 147 ABs.

2014+
In 2005 at age 26 Chase Utley played his first full season, He batted .291 with 28 Homers and 105 RBIs. However, in 128 ABs versus lefties he batted .219 with only 7 of those homers. His vs LHP slash line for the season was .219/.348/.469. A key difference between Utley's 2005 and Asche 2013 vs LHP is that Utley worked walks. Utley had 28 hits vs LHP, but he also had 25 walks - this accounted for an OBP that was 129 points higher then his BA. Asking Cody Asche to become Chase Utley would be way to large of a request - but I believe for Cody to be an everyday player it is necessary for him to be more selective at teh plate, especially vs Lefties. 

Phungo Sez
Honestly, I don't think that Asche his ready to play everyday for a playoff caliber team. I also don't think that the 2014 Phillies fall into that premium category. If he stays in the majors all of 2014 I see Asche at .281 average .331 OBP, 20 HR, 67 RBI with a WAR of 1.8 (2.1 oWAR)

Phillies 2014+ Index
Cody Asche WAR + 1.8
Cole Hamels WAR +3.8
Ryan Howard WAR +1.0

Sources
Baseball-ref

1983 Topps #498 Wade Boggs (RC)

On Friday we ran the clean up on the 1983 Wheeze Kids series, today we finish looking at the 1983 Topps RC set - A 3 post feature, which I was to lazy to finish.

1983 Topps #498 Wade Boggs  


3000 Hits, a World Championship, 5 batting titles, and a 12 time All-Star.  Wade Boggs was also the 1986 and 1988 O-WAR champ. In 1986 Boggs finish 7th in the MVP voting which was taken by teammate Roger Clemens, Fellow Red Sox player Jim Rice also polled better than Boggs. The 1988 award was taken by 40/40 man Jose Canseco. Once again in '88 Boggs(6th) was outvoted by a teammate - Mike Greenwell 

For The Collector
There are only several million 1983T complete sets out there, consequently the sets HoF RCs are pretty affordable.A check of recent auctions revealed the following:

$3.19 - Low Auction
$5 - At least a dozen sales were completed for $5 or less
$383 - The High for the card (PSA - GEM MT 10)

1983 Topps HoF RCs
Tony Gwynn
Ryne Sandberg

Sources

Old Cardboard - Hall of Fame Rookie Cards

ebay.com
baseball-ref.com

1983 NL Champions: Mike Schmidt 1973 Topps #615 (RC)

In today's edition of 1983 Wheeze Kids we present a Big Fish in any Phillies Fans Collection.

Mike Schmidt 1973 Topps #615 (RC)

The 1983 Phillies didn't have many standout hitting seasons on their roster. The exception was Mike Schmidt, He led the league in Home Runs, Walks and OBP . It was good enough for 3rd in the MVP voting behind Dale Murphy and Andre Dawson.

Schmidt's regular season carried into the NLCS which saw him bat .467 with a pair of doubles and a Home Run, for a nice .800 slugging number. Unfortunatley for the Phillies The Orioles pitching staff figured out the future Hall of Famer and Schmidt stuggled during the World Series only managing a single in 20 ABs.

For the Collector
I picked up the above card a little over a year ago for just under $42 via ebay.  At some point I will do a full FTC on the auction numbers for this card, but don't have my stuff together today.

In OtherWords

Night Owl Cards - A view of this card from a Dodger Fan.

HoF Index: Mike Schmidt
1973 Topps #615 (RC)
1974 Topps #283  (First Solo Card)
1975 Topps #70 & related Mini
1976 All-Star Program
1977 Topps #441 (70th Birthday)
1981 Fleer #645 Triple Threat Schmidt, Rose, Bowa
1981 Topps #206 Record Breakers (Single Season HRs for 3B)
1988 Fleer Superstars #33 
2002 Fleer GotG Dueling Duos #DD-27 (with HoF George Brett)
2005 UD Classic Moments #CM-MS (30th Anniversary 500 Home Runs)
2008 UD Baseball Heroes #138 (40th Anniversary of 4 Home Run Game - 1976 0417)
2013 Panini USA Baseball #34
2013 Topps Chasing History (gold) #CH-92 Mike Schmidt


Complete Phungo HoF Index
 
Sources & Links
1983 Wheeze Kids Index
Baseball-ref.com

2002 Topps #331 Marlon Byrd

Against the wishes of Team Phungo the Phillies have brought back outfielder Marlon Byrd.

2002 Topps #331 Marlon Byrd

I just want the Phillies to get younger they go out and get a 36 year old outfielder.

Marlon Byrd is coming off a fine 2013, which may have been the best of his career. He knocked out 24 homers with a very nice .291 BA resulting in a 138 OPS+. If he puts up anywhere near those numbers in 2014 or 15 I will post my apologies to the Phillies Ruben Amaro and Marlon Byrd, but I just can't see it happeing.


2002 Topps Prospects
I may have mentioned this before - I think 2002 Topps is ugly. I suppose it isn't a bad design but boy do I dislike the color, what is that light brown/orange not sure. Beyond the color, I am also not sure why Topps felt it necessary to write their name on the cards twice - once as a logo and once at the top in "2002 Topps". This happened on the base cards not just cards that are included in the prospects subset from which this Marlon Byrd gem was culled.

Remember Subsets. Back before half the pack was Inserts there were subsets. Subsets where all the cards were packed together in one area instead of spread throughout the set like the recent League Leader abominations. In 2002 one of the Subsets was Prospects. 2002 Topps was released in 2 series, the Prospects subset runs from card #307(Jason Lane) thru #326 (Jason Bay RC) in series 1. For Series 2 the Prospect start at #671 (Juan Cruz RC) and finish at #695 (Dan Johnson RC).

The Phillies are represented by Byrd in S1 and Taylor Buchholz (#675) and  Nate Espy (#680) in S2. Jason Bay (photoed with the Expos) is probably ended up with the best career among the 50 prospects. Other Notables include Hank Blalock (#309), Freddy Sanchez (#313), Boof Bonser (#317), and Rich Harden (#687). 

Despite all my complaints regarding Marlon Byrd, I must note that out of the 45 prospects in the 2002 subset, Byrd is the last one standing. Jason Bay announced his retirement in 2013. and beyond that I cannot find anyone else that remains active. 

Sources
baseball-ref.com
baseball card database
baseballcardpedia

Welcome to the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame Greg Luzinski: 1971 Topps #439

Tonight Greg Luzinski is being inducted into the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame

1971 Topps #439 Greg Luzinski/Scott Reid (RC)

Not only was Luzinski a great slugger for the Phillies in the late 70s and a member of the 1980 World Championship squad - He also remains active in the community and is a team ambassador. 
 
It is great to see him get inducted into the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame. This is the 10th induction class for the PSHoF and they still don't have a home, but it is good to know that enough interests remains and that they continue to host annual inductions and dinners.

This years baseball honorees include 1930s Phillies pitcher Bucky Walters and Umpire Shag Crawford. Other notable inductees from across the world of sports include Eddie George, John LeClair, The Eagles Bob Brown, and Andrew Toney.  For more information about this years class check out the PSHoF site here.   

For the Collector
The split Greg Luzinski Rookie Card above is regarded a tad above a common. I picked this off condition card out of a pretty decent buck bin at a show in 2009. In recent ebay auctions the card has finished as low as $2.96. On the high end the card finished at $5.91 ungraded - There was a $76 Lot with a graded Luzinski RC, but the anchor of that lot was a 62 Topps Clemente (graded EX).       

More Luzinski
2003 Fleer Ultra All Veterans Stadium Team #7 of 12 Greg Luzinski

2008 Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame Inductees 
Mickey Vernon with Links to additional postings
someday I will get around to returning to posting on the other classes.

Sources
Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame
ebay.com
baseball-ref.com
  

Bucket or Chuck-It 2013 Topps Chrome Value Pack

The break in the 2013 PostSeason gives us the chance to clear out some old stuff from the Draft Folder.  Today we add to our Bucket or Chuck-it with a "Value Pack" of 2013 Topps Chrome.

\\  

2013 Topps Chrome #208 Cliff Lee

I have admitted it before, parallels are lame and rarely show creativity, but boy am I a sucker for them. Not to the point where I would pick up a hobby box, but I typically pick up a couple of packs each year.  

Opening a pack is generally fun, even if most of the cards are ones that I have seen previously.  The Cliff Lee card above is the base chrome. It is the same photo featured on his series 1 card

Highlights 

 1972 Topps Retros appear once again.  Yu Darvish is probably one of the better players in the set.

As with 2011 Value packs contain 3 Orange parallel cards.  This is the best card I picked up among the bonus cards.  I don't see Gerrit Cole on the S1 or S2 checker for 2013 Topps, so this may be what the Cole card will look like in 2013 U&H.

 Refractors are the lowest level parallel in Chrome. I picked up one player from each of the FLA franchises as the two parallels.

 

Selected foursome of the base cards, Mike Nunino and Alex Colome RC. Former Phil Hunter Pence, in what I believe is a photoshopper.  Victor Martinez here to fill out the quartet. 

 The Last 2 orange cards were Wainwright and Nick Maronde RC.

Topps Chrome Curse?

Topps Chrome comes out and finally puts an Oriole on the cover, 5 minutes later Manny Machado rolled his knee.

Bucket or Chuck-it Verdict

I got a pretty good pack, but the $9.50 price point for 15 cards takes some of the fun out of busting packs - Verdict = Chuck-it. 

And what makes this a value pack.  The Target I was at didn't sell individual packs at all, so there were only 2 ways I could pick up Topps Chrome - Value Packs and Blasters (32 cards/ $20). Shenanigans.

TRENDY: 2011 Topps USA Baseball #21 Michael Wacha (pre-RC)

2011 Topps USA Baseball #21 Michael Wacha

In only his 9th career start Michael Wacha came an out away from a no-hitter. One has to wonder if he will ever get the opportunity again. The Cardinals have a mess of good young players on their roster. Among those players are three pitchers Wacha, Lane Lynn and Joe Kelly.

2011 Topps USA Baseball
Topps USA is a small 61 card set with a couple of players that have already emerged. The most notable (other than Wacha after Yesterday) is Mark Appel along with the Orioles Kevin Gausman. There is a retail version of the set (one autograph card per box) which I see for $15 and under occasionally. In 2010 Topps produced a similar set that included Gerrit Cole and others.

Other Voices
Cardboard Connection Michael Wacha RC/Procpect Price Guide (2013 10 07)

Sources
www.sportscardradio.com
baseball-ref.com
cardboard connection

Civil Rights Game: 2013 Bowman Platinum #100 Jurickson Profar

Tonight the MLB Network is broadcasting the Civil Rights Game. This is the 7th edition of the competition which started out as a spring training exhibition prior to becoming a regular season matchup in 2009. The game was created to honor the history of Civil Rights in the US.  This years game is in Chicago and features the White Sox hosting the Texas Rangers. 

 2013 Bowman Platinum #100 Jurickson Profar

The youngest player on the Rangers roster is the Baseball America and MLB #1 prospect, Jurickson Profar - Baseball America is so fond of Profar they placed him on the cover of the 2013 edition of their Baseball Prospect Handbook. 

Profar's impressive 2012 debut certainly echoes that honor, he became the 3rd teenager to homer in his first Plate Appearance.  A moment noted on the flip of the above BowPlat card. 

 
2013 Bowman Platinum #100 Jurickson Profar (b-side)

Profar has not taken off during his rookie campaign with the flair of a Bryce Harper, Mike Trout or Yasiel Puig. In fact his bat has been less than mediocre, with a .237 BA going into the weekend and 4 Home Runs across 219 ABs. Regardless Jurickson is only 20 years old and is giving the Rangers flexibility playing 3 infield positions plus left field. Still one has to wonder if the Rangers will need to look for other options down the stretch.

Hopefully we will get to see a bit of the young prospect during tonight's contest and perhaps during the post season. 

2013 Bowman Platinum
All the Bowman products run together for me, but I did want to note that the above Jurickson Profar card caught the light pretty well and reflected some pretty cool effects in the snapshot. 
 
Card #100 has been the last card of Bowman Platinum each year since the prospect sets inception in 2010.  Despite being a rookie/prospect based product, 2013 marks the first time the sets final card has actually been occupied by a rookie card.  Previous tenants have been David Wright (2010), Ichiro (2011), and Jacoby Ellsbury (2012) 

Sources

Wikipedia.org

Baseball-ref.com

Baseball America 

MLB.com

baseballcardpedia.com

Reading the Competition: 2011 Topps Heritage #76 Freddie Freeman (RC)

The Braves currently carry the best record in baseball and this week the Phillies are in Atlanta to face the NL East division leaders.  

As the best team in the league the Braves have a couple of guys that are being discussed as MVP candidates.  One of those players is First Baseman Freddie Freeman. 

Freeman is among the top ten in several offensive categories on the NL Leaderboards. He is third in the league in RBI (79) and 5th in OBP (.390).  In 2011 Freeman was runner up to teammate Craig Kimbrel for Rookie of the Year. This season Freddie made his first All-Star team. 

Freddie Freeman is in his 3rd full season and he won't turn 24 for another month, as you can tell his career is off to a pretty good start. So good that the #1 age relavant comp for Freeman is Hall of Famer Eddie Murray.   

2011 Topps Heritage #76 Freddie Freeman (RC)

Warning shot for 2014 Topps Heritage.  I am a pretty big fan of the original 1962 Topps design. With 2011 Heritage, Topps proved to me that it isn't all about design. There were way to many headshots and hatless pix in 2011 Heritage - when paging thru a binder the set looks pretty bland.

That being said the Freddie Freeman pops a little since it isn't a head shot. I do have a question.  One question, What the heck is with the lighting.  There is a pink square of light on the side of Freddie's cap and face - kind of an oddity on a baseball card.  must be the sun going down at Disney.  


Flip

2011 Topps Heritage #76 Freddie Freeman (RC) b-side


If you can read the -toon here you find that Freeman was the Braves 2010 minor league player of the year.  The Phils 2010 player of the year went to outfielder Domonic Brown, who is in the middle of his own breakout season.

1962 Topps #76
The #76 card from the original 1962 Topps set belonged to then Milwaukee Brave Howie Bedell who went on to play with the Phillies.  With any luck we will be featuring Bedells 62T card later this week.

Sources
Baseball-ref.com
Baseball Card Database
Phillies.com   

Sunday Night Baseball: 1960 Topps #132 Frank Howard (RC)

Night Owl Cards posted this card on Twitter this week to mark Frank Howard's Birthday (August 8th, 77th birthday). Tonight we are honoring the same card as the Dodgers host the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday Night Baseball.

1960 Topps #132 Frank Howard

The Sport Magazine 1960 Topps Rookie Star subset runs from card numbers #117-148. This is the 2nd time that Topps and Sport were on-card partners. The 1958 Topps All-Stars subset is a Sport Magazine collaboration. In 1959 Topps switched allegiances to the Sporting News for both the All-Stars subset and the Rookie Stars subset   

 Despite the muted orange background that dominates this sets presentation, I view the design as a winner. The confluence of the patriotic ribbon, bullseyed profile pic, and magazine cred combine to put this subset into the Win column.

And I must also note that Frank Howard wearing his cap slightly askew adds just a touch of cool to the head shot. 

2006 Topps Archives Reserve #34

Topps is apparently quite fond of the card as well.  They saluted the card by making a chromey reprint part of their 2006 Topps Archives Reserve set. 

1960 was a good year for Frank Howard who won the NL Rookie of the Year award over two Phillies (Pancho Herrera, Art Mahaffey) and future Hall of Famer Ron Santo. Howard tallied 23 Home Runs with 77 RBIs during his rookie campaign.  He would remain a power hitter throughout his career, leading the league in homers twice (1968, 1970) with the Washington Senators. 

Frank Howard spent 7 years in the Dodgers organization before being traded to the Senators following the 1964 season.  Along with his rookie of the year campaign the highlight of Frank Howard's Dodger career is their sweep of the Yankees in the 1963 World Series. Howard homered off of Whitey Ford in the final game of the series.


Howard stayed in baseball for a number of years after his career ended and I can recall seeing him as a coach with the Mets in the 1990s.  Despite being out of the game for 20-30 years he still dwarfed many of that eras current players (Baseball-ref lists Howard at 6'7", 255 lbs).

The last time I saw Frank Howard was at the final Washington Nationals game at RFK.  

2007 09 23 Frank Howard and Ryan Zimmerman, Washington Nationals final game at RFK

This photo was a bit too blurry to make the cut as a Phungo card, and doesn't really show Frank Howard's commanding size, but I assure you that day he was a presence.


Sources
Vintage Baseball Cards  
Baseball-ref.com   
Night Owl Cards

1983 Topps #83 Ryne Sandberg

This week the Phillies host the Cubs and Ryne Sandberg will be in the dugout opposite the Cubs for the first time since leaving the Chicago organization a few seasons ago.  Well for the first time at the Major League level anyway - Sandberg managed the Phillies AAA Lehigh Valley affiliate prior to 2013 and possibly faced a lower level Cubs affiliate. 

The trade of Ryne Sandberg by the Phillies to the Cubs in 1982 is often mentioned when the Phillies worst trade converstions arise. He was part of a deal that brought Ivan DeJesus to Philadelphia, DeJesus was part of the 1983 National League Champions. In my opinion any deal that garners a League Championship cannot be looked upon totally unfavorably.

Hall of Fame

Ryno of course went on to have a Hall of Fame career.  His 16 MLB seasons included 10 all-star appearances, 9 Gold Gloves ,and 7 Silver Sluggers all at second base. Sandberg finished his career with 282 home runs. 277 of those were as a second baseman, good enough for the position record at the time of his 1997 retirement (a number surpassed by Jeff Kent in 2004). In addtion to being a threat at the plate and on defensive Sandberg was also adept on the basebaths with 344 career SBs including 54 in 1985.    .

The Cubs reached the postseason twice during Sandberg's career in 1984 and 1989. Those two season are of course both part of the Cubs long World Series drought. 

1983 Topps #83 Ryne Sandberg RC

There are a number of non-mainstream Ryne Sandberg cards issued prior to 1983. These include his 1980 TCMA Reading Phillies card.  1983 featured cards from Donruss Fleer and Topps.   

In off condition I found the Topps Sandberg RC for under $3.  Not sure if that is a good deal for a card that can also be found in decent condition at reasonable prices. There are a dozen auctions of this card that ended under $5.  

Graded Card Pricing  

Grade	$Price	Pop
PSA 7 NM	$7.25	1
PSA 8 NM-MT	$7.55	1
PSA 8 NM-MT	$8.25	1
PSA 8 NM-MT	< $10.06	15
PSA 10 MINT	$303	1

Ryne Sandberg HoF Index
1991 Score #815
1997 Topps Chrome (Card Show Dimers)
2005 UD Classics #125 managerial debut
2013 Topps Archives #48 (1972 Topps retro/blaster break)
2014 Heritage #57
2015 Heritage #411 - Rhyming card with 1966T Gene Mauch 
 

Sources

Old Cardboard - Hall of Fame Rookie Cards

baseball-ref.com

ebay.com

wikipedia.com

1991 Topps Stadium Club #195 Omar Vizquel - Future HoF?

For the first time in my life everybody single player on an Opening Day roster was younger then me.  The last man to take the field that was older than myself was gold glove shortstop Omar Vizquel. 

1991 Topps Stadium Club #195 Omar Vizquel

Vizquel and Phungo favorite Jamie Moyer were the last two guys to play that were older my present 45. Omar Vizquel turns 46 today. It is an odd milestone, and really only meaningful to myself.  Regardless I did note its passing with a pang of sadness.

Hall of Fame Resume
Omar Vizquel came up with the Mariners in the late 80s and was traded to Cleveland following the 1993 season to make room for some big prospect that would turn out to be a steroid gobbling oddball.

In Cleveland Vizquel made 3 all-star teams and was the starting Shortstop for five consecutive playoff teams, The Best of which were the 97 Indians who took the Marlins to extra innings in game 7 of a very memorable World Series.  For his career Vizquel appeared in 57 Postseason games. His postseason numbers include 23 Stolen Bases in 26 attempts.

Vizquel is a borderline Hall of Famer - He would get my vote. The four decade mans big stats are largely accumulaters but he did it as a good glove man at a premium position.  His career BA of .272 may not be impressive but he did rack up 2877 Hits.  There are only 3 HoF eligible players above Vizquel in Hits that are not in the Hall (Bonds, Rafael Palmiero, and Biggio).  The only Shortstops ahead of Vizquel are Jeter and Honus Wagner.

His defensive accolades include 11 Gold Gloves (2nd only to HoF Ozzie Smith),  Most career Games and Double Plays had Short, and 2nd in career fielding pct (Troy Tulowitzki)

1991 Topps Stadium Club #195 Omar Vizquel (b-side)

This is an early Omar Vizquel card. I like how Topps posted the players RC on the flip of Stadium Club Cards.  It was one way that Topps could take advantage of their history in the Hobby.  If Vizquel does get into the Hall, I think his Rookie card will still be found at reasonable prices as 1989 Topps are pretty ubiquitous. Not sure that this is also true for the traded set, but it looks like you can pick up the complete 132 card set for under $15 and it includes the Topps RC of both Ken Griffey Jr and Randy Johnson. 

Phun Cards: 1998 Bowman #181 Jimmy Rollins (RC)

Jimmy Rollins notched career hit number 2000 on Tuesday night.  

1998 Bowman #181 Jimmy Rollins (RC)

Recently and throughout his career has taken some heat for not hustling and other shortcomings at the plate.  Regardless the man has managed to rack up 2000 major league hits and he isn't just a slap hitter.  There are a lot of extra base hits among those 2000.  He also will always be the Shortstop for the 2008 World Champions and the 2007 NL MVP.   

Rollins joins Hall of Famers Ed Delahanty, Richie Ashburn, and Mike Schmidt in the Philllies 2000 hit club.  That is pretty good company.  If he stays healthy Rollins has a good chance of becoming the Phils all-time hit leader.

For The Collector 

The above 1998 Bomwan Card is the Jimmy Rollins rookie card - sorry about the darkness of the pix.  I recently picked this card up a box of 1998 Bowman Series 1 for $19.  There are a couple of other RCs in the set.  However, any rookies in the set are not real special - they are pretty much near Rollins level at best.  A recent auction for the card concluded as low as $2.98.  Complete sets of 1998 Bowman, includging both Series 1 and 2, are low-listed at BIN $21. 

Bryce Harper RC first Impression

Is it me or does this guy lead the league in eye-black? 

Scan stolen from Cardboard Connection