3 More for the 2013 Custom Team Set

Since I last updated on these, the Cubs have upped their roster total from 36 to 38 players since Opening Day. I only have a card for one of the two newest but I've also gone back and added two more that I missed.

Brian Bogusevic was added to the roster last week when the Cubs designated Carlos Marmol for assignment. This is another card that may ultimately change because of the photo selection. If I could see more of his face, it would have been a keeper. We'll see if a better photo comes along that meets my standards.

He started off well getting two hits in his Cubs debut and getting a hit in 4 of his five games. He did make a blunder in left field that led to the tying run scoring in the opening game of the Seattle Mariners series. Officially, it was a RBI triple for Raul Ibanez but had he played it properly, it would have been first and third with no run scored. Hindsight is always 20/20 though.

I've liked him so far in left field and Alfonso Soriano seemed to do well as the DH. (Hint, hint American League buyers at the trade deadline.)

Speaking of trade bait, Matt Garza is 3-1 in eight starts since coming off the DL with a 3.83 ERA that is just a shade below his career average. I have nothing against Matt Garza but if he can bring another piece or two for the puzzle that's coming together for the near future...

Rafael Dolis pitched five innings over five appearances this season before landing on the DL back in May. I haven't seen any updates to his status.

As for the Cubs as a team, they are 35-45 and 15.5 games back in the NL Central through 80 games. At this point last year they were 30-50 but only 14 games back.

I guess as the Cubs improve, so do the other teams...

Last year, they had scored 293 while giving up 368 through 80 games. As of yesterday's win over the Mariners, the Cubs have scored 330 and given up 340. While the run differential is still negative, they've added almost a half run per game.

These are cards 32, 33 and 34 in the 2013 team set (although they are not officially numbered). There still four unaccounted for but they're coming! You can see the rest of the ones I've posted here.

2013 Topps Rafael Dolis

As I've done previously, I'm taking a closer look at the 2013 Topps Cubs team set card by card.

As the title says, today's topic is Rafael Dolis, card #280.

First reaction (aside from why does Rafael Dolis have a Series 1 card?) is that it is a nice bold card. The blue jersey, green grass, grey pants and brown dirt all come together very nicely.

On second glance, I noticed the cropping around both hands is just a hair too tight. Plenty of leg room at the bottom to scoot it down a smidge. His feet are already cropped out so what's a couple pixels more? Same with the sides. The Topps logo is smartly in the upper right corner so shouldn't be a problem to move it over too. Even if his torso is not prefectly centered on the card. Lesser of two OCD's, I guess.

The pose is pretty solid too. No goofy, over-exerted facial expression for which his kids would make fun of him down the line when he's retired and reminiscing.

Photo by Justin k. Aller, courtesy of Getty Images

As I suspected, the original photo, taken by photographer Justin K. Aller, leaves plenty of space for a better cropping. It does look like Topps also lightened the photo a little to allow us to see his face better. Pretty solid job all the way around on this photo and card.

So the card looks good, but how did the Cubs fare that day?According to the caption on Getty Images, the photo was taken during a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates on May 27, 2012. Pulling up the boxscore on Baseball-Reference shows the Cubs fell to the Pirates 10-4 that day.

Ok, well how did our subject Rafael Dolis do? Not much better. Dolis entered the game with no outs in the 6th inning after starter Matt Garza gave up a walk and a home run. Dolis proceeded to walk his two batters before being pulled for Michael Bowden. The two runners both eventually scored leaving Dolis with an unfortunate line in the daily boxscore. So the photo above was captured during one of the nine pitches thrown by Dolis that day.

This card is definitely purtier on the outside than it is on the inside.

The Career Chase featured on the back of the card is Jesse Orosco's all-time games pitched record of 1,252. With only 35 games down, Dolis has a loooooong way to go.

Teammate Shawn Camp tied for the Major League lead in games played for pitchers last year with 80. So even at that league leader rate, it would still take almost 16 seasons to overtake Orosco.