2014 Topps #1? Yasiel Puig Parallels

I thought 2013 Topps was a decent but not great design.  However the Design was a great pallet for the numerous colored parallels that Topps likes to put out each year. 

Night Owl Cards discusses this more thoroughly in a column published this past weekend.  

Topps previewed 2014 flagship a few weeks back and the cards have a similar white border as 2013, which gives us the potential for another year of good looking parallels. With the help of Pixlr team Phungo looks at some of the possibilities.         

Faux 2014 Topps #1 Yusiel Puig Red Target Parallel

I get my cards at Target mainly because it is the most convenient big box for me. A side benefit is that they brand red and their partnership with Topps yields Red Parallels, which is a solid color for Phillies cards. However a Dodger collector may prefer Walmart.  

Faux 2014 Topps #1 Yusiel Puig Blue Wal-Mart Parallel

Notice that I have guessed at Yusiel Puig as card #1 for 2014 Topps.  The Base card was the first image I saw from 2014 Topps promotional material (via Cardboard Connection) - it differs a bit from the vanilla base cards carrying the "Future Stars" flag above Puig's name. This looks like a foil version of the logo used in 1987 Topps. The Futures Stars weren't at the top of the lineup in 87 Topps but I thought they may take a page out of 89 Upper Deck and Open with Future Stars in 2014.

Faux 2014 Topps #1 Yusiel Puig Chrome

Later in the season when Topps Chrome comes out it may appear as above

Faux 2014 Topps #1 Yusiel Puig Black Parallel

The Black Parallel would of course be serial numbered to 63. The black parallels, may actually look pretty close to this, which is pretty sharp.

And Finally 

2014 Topps #1 Yusiel Puig Whacky Colors Prallel 

It could happen. Who knows what Topps will do when they run out o parallel colors

Sources

Cardboard Connection

Night Owl Cards

1983 NL Champions: 1983 Topps #101 Super Veterans Pete Rose

Last week there was a bit of buzz revolving around Ichiro getting 4000 hits. This led to discussions about including career hits from different leagues. These discussions included folks like Derek Jeter Minnie Minoso and of course Pete Rose.

1983 Topps #101 Super Veterans Pete Rose

Man, Baseball-ref has everything. Even Minor League stats from 1962.  Pete Rose had 3 Minor League Seasons collecting 427 hits.  Add that to his 4256 in the Majors and you get 4683. But wait Rose also had 86 postseason hits this brings hist total to 4769 - Turns out that Rose is the All-Time combined league hit king as well as the traditional hit king. For a further look into Rose and the other players that were found to collect 4000 hits check this SABR article by Scott Simkus 

1983 Phillies
By 1983 Pete Rose was 42 and his abilities were slipping.  He posted the worst batting average of his career (.245). His OPS+ was an anemic 69. Game 5 of the 83 Series was Rose's final World Series game. He played Right Field in that game.  Between 1971 and 1983 Rose had played 3 innings of RF, The Phils patchwork wheeze kids line up put him there 34 times that season.    

1983 Super Veterans
Terrific set, that I had ignored until 30 Year Old Cardboard dedicated a series of postings to it.

Other Voices
 Found two other card postings on the Rose Super Vet.
30-Year Old Cardboard

1983 Topps Blog

1983 NL Champions Series
Darren Daulton
Bo Diaz 
John Denny
Garry Maddox
Tony Perez

Steve Carlton Passes Walter Johnson



Sources
Baseball-Reference.com
wikipedia.org
SABR.org

Sunday Night Baseball 2013 Bowman Platinum #22 Adrian Gonzalez

Tonight the Red Sox and Dodgers face off in a potential World Series Preview. A year ago the Red Sox were sellers at the deadline as they were out of the race early. The Dodgers were in it and made a push to make the playoffs but fell short.

A year ago today the two clubs pulled off a post deadline deal that sent Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez to the Dodgers in a trade that was a largely a salary dump for the Red Sox.

2013 Bowman Platinum #22 Adrian Gonzalez

Ideally trades work out for both partners.  For the moment this trade appears to have worked out for both the Dodgers and Red Sox.  The Red Sox have returned to their pre-2011 playoff form, while gaining significant payroll significant payroll flexibility.  The Dodgers have surged to commanding NL West lead with under 40 games to play.  In the long term LA may have issues dealing with the future contract commitments they have acquired in the deal, but none of that matters in 2013.

Adrian Gonzalez is putting together another solid season. His batting average is just a tick below .300 and he has a shot at fourth consecutive 100 RBI season. A-Gon has been pretty consistent over the course of his career playing 156+ games every season since becoming a full time starter in 2006. How many are veratile enought to have had seasons where they have led the league in Hits (2011) Walks (2009) and also have a 40 homer season under their belts (2009).

The Dodgers have Adrian Gonzalez contracted out through his age 36 season in 2018.  He doesn't put up the power numbers that he did earlier in his career, but he does continue to rack up hits. If Gonzalez can stick around the game into his 40s he has a chance at 3000 hits.

2013 Bowman Platinum

This is our 2nd consecutive 2013 Bowman Platinum card. Topps had a promotional booth at the recent SABR conference Philadelphia or else I wouldn't even have these cards. This set isn't targeted for me, but once again, I have to admit that I enjoy how they photograph.  The rainbow effect on the chrome/mirror background makes for great effects. 

Sources
Baseball-ref.com

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 Competion: Paul Goldschmidt 2012 Topps #GF-24

The Phillies 10 game set versus NL West opponents closes with the Arizona Diamondbacks this weekend. The D-Backs were a candidate to win the West before the Dodgers went on their post All-Star break tear.  One of the offensive leaders for Arizona has been First Baseman Paul Goldschmidt.

                                     

2012 Topps Gold Futures #GF-24 Paul Goldschmidt

Paul Goldschmidt emerged as a power hitting First Baseman during the 2011 season. He has continued his hot hitting in 2013. Going into the Series with the Phils Goldschmidt was the league leader in Home Runs (31), RBI(100) , Total Bases, and OPS+. Those numbers were good enough to make him an All-Star for the first time.  Paul Goldschmidt will turn 26 in a few weeks and has his best hitting days right in front of him. I expect him to be an MVP candidate for the next half dozen years.

Local Kid
While looking into Goldschmidt's numbers I found that he was born in Wilmington Delaware, however according to his Wiki bio he was raised in Texas. His 59 career HRs already rank him 6th among players born in the First State.  With a decent 2014 he will surpass top total of 96 held jointly by Randy Bush, John Mabry, and Dave May.

 

2012 Topps Gold Future2012 Gold Rush s
The Gold Futures set is a member of the onslaught of Gold Inserts which Night Owl Cards very successfully lampooned in this column. The design is decent for a subset and carries the look of base cards from a more midline superstars set. Of course this means that one can tell that patch display factored into the design.

In Series 1 the set consists of 25 cards, devoted to upcoming prospects. Notables include Freddie Freeman, Aroldis Chapman, Anthony Rizzo, Mike Stanton, Mike Trout, Jason Kipins and Goldschmidt.  The set continues with an additional 25 players in Series 2. Matt Moore, Buster Posey, Chris Sale, Jason Heyward and Stephen Strasburg are all present in S2.  The Phillies are represented in the second set by Domonic Brown who shows up on #GF38.

Sources
Baseball-ref.com
wikipedia.org
Night Owl Cards
baseballcardpedia.com

1983 NL Champions: Bo Diaz 1985 Topps #737

Today we continue our 1983 Wheeze Kids series by taking a look at the man behind the plate - Bo Diaz  

1985 Topps #737 Bo Diaz

Bo Diaz hit .236 during the Phillies 1983 season but he did have some big games including one on April 13 1983. The Phillies were down 3 runs to the Mets with 2 outs in the 9th inning. This is the moment Diaz picked to hit an Ultimate Grand Slam - A game ending slam down 3 runs. Another highlight for Diaz was catching Steve Carlton's 300th win on September 23rd.
 
During the '83 World Series, Diaz was one of the few offensive bright spots for the Phillies, He batted .333 collecting 5 hits in 15 ABs.

Notice at the top of this posting I did not say that "man behind the DISH" - This is because, sadly, Bo Diaz died at age 37 while installing a satellite dish in his native Venezuela.

1985 Topps

Catchers are great for baseball cards.  All the gear makes for photos that are more than just headshots, even when your show that guy just standing there.  Bo Diaz is shown here carrying his mask and looks to be removing his glove perhaps he is getting ready to talk to Lefty or signal the defense.

I like the photo, dislike the design. 1985 Topps falls into the Phillies purple card genre.  That is Topps designated oddball color for the team for a couple of sets in the 1980s (1985, 1988, 1989). Maybe it's the purple or perhaps it is the ubiquity of the three sets - regardless, I have never been a fan of anf them.
1983 NL Champions Series
Darren Daulton
Bo Diaz 
John Denny
Garry Maddox
Tony Perez

Steve Carlton Passes Walter Johnson

Sources
Baseball-ref.com
wikipedia.org

Sunday Night Baseball: 2006 Allen & Ginter Dick Perez Sketches #4 David Ortiz

This week Sunday Night Baseball is once again featuring the Yankees and Red Sox.  For the last decade many of the meetings between the rivals have feature Big Papi at DH. 

2006 Allen & Ginter Dick Perez Sketches #4 David Ortiz

After an injury shortened 2012 David Ortiz is having a terrific season. Going into tonight's game he is batting .325/.406/.586 with 24 dingers and 77 RBIs. This is all at the age of 37.  Ortiz's 425 career Home Runs and 2 World Series rings are going to make him a borderline Hall of Fame candidate at some point - despite spending most of his career as a DH.  If your on Twitter Andy @HighHeatStats occasionally chronicles Ortiz's last 162 game numbers, and they are impressive.

2006 A&G Dick Perez Sketches Insert Set

The Dick Perez sketches were the per pack insert in the A&G debut offering in 2006. The 30 card insert set contained a single player from each Major League team. The Phillies 2006  rep was Bobby Abreu.  Of the 30 players in the set about 18 remain active in 2013 (if you count retirees like Lance Berkman who played in '13 and Johan Santana who is on a roster, but has been DL'd all season.). Of those 18, 6 are currently Yankees (A-Rod, Ichiro, Mark Teixeira, Alfonso Soriano, Vernon Wells, and Travis Hafner).  Two are Red Sox (Ortiz and Jake Peavy). At least 3 were moved at or near this years trade deadline (Wells, Peavy and Soriano).


And finally 1 was recently suspended for being too lazy to get a prescription written by Dr Nick Riviera (Miguel Tejada)  

Other Voices
A recent Cardboard Junkie posting on the 2006 A&G Insert set.

Sources
BaseballCardPedia.com
Baseball-ref.com 
MLBTV
Cardboard Junkie