Break Loot from the Sky Box Part 1

A few weeks back I ran a contest to promote my new blog. The winner, Chris from View from the Sky Box was new to me so after checking out his blog, I saw he was running a multiple branded group break. I love the idea behind group breaks but as a team collector with a pretty sizable collection, unless the product is brand new or potentially loaded with Cubs hits, its hard for me to pull the trigger.

With that said, the selection Chris was offering was pretty amazing. It's like he saw the holes in my collection and specifically picked boxes that would fill them. Apparently he was having a hard time filling the break but like I said, his blog was new to me and I joined when I saw it.

I'm going to start with the newest and work my way backwards, spreading this out over a couple of posts.

Of the three team bags full of Cubs cards, the three Archives from 2013 were part of maybe a ten card group that I already had in my collection. But with a three card team set, that's hard to avoid. Remakes of card sets I grew up with, these will stay in my extras collection that I keep for potential autograph opportunities. The 2013 Cubs roster didn't have many potentially long term players on it so I can understand how card companies would have trouble deciding who to include beyond the big three. 

Speaking of which, Panini selected the same three for their 2013 Triple Play release. These three cards were all new to me. Call me cheap but I didn't buy any packs and didn't want to pay $3.00 shipping for a three card team set that would cost me a buck. I figured somewhere along the way I'd end up picking these up in a trade or from a dime box but now I can cross them off my list.

More to come in future posts. Thanks, Chris, for the break!

2013 Topps Factory Team Set and Series 2 Alfonso Soriano

As promised, I need to finish breaking down Series 2 before I move on to the Update Series. I'm not sure how I got sidetracked on these because I really like doing them. Looks like I have 5-6 more before I get to the "jumbo" set of 14 in the Update set.

Today, I have Alfonso Soriano's Series 2 card, that also happens to be the same front that Topps used for his Factory Team set card.

This was one of my favorite cards in the set this year. There might be a little Cubs bias, but how can you not enjoy a walk-off moment? The Cubs didn't have much to celebrate in 2012 so selecting this photo was probably a no-brainer for Topps. Thank goodness it wasn't a short print variation.

The only thing I would have done differently is lower the photo so that Soriano's face falls between where it now and the Cubs logo on his jersey. Because right now, the focal point of the card is Rizzo's back. But that's a pretty small issue.





Photo by Brian Kersey (Courtesy of Getty Images



And if you look at the original photo from Getty, you can see that they had a little room at the top to work with. Maybe they didn't want to show any more  of the empty stands behind the celebration, even though they kind of already did.

The game in question took place on August 30, 2012 against division rival, the Milwaukee Brewers. Down 9-3 in the bottom of the 6th, the Cubs actually managed a 6-run rally to tie it up. But Milwaukee scored one more in the 7th (on a home run by future Cub Cody Ransom) and padded their lead with another in the 8th. So with a two run deficit heading into the bottom of the ninth, you can begin to understand why there are some empty seats in the photo...

But after Joe Mather pinch hit for Carlos Marmol and struck out, the top of the lineup came through with a rally. A walk by leadoff man David DeJesus was followed by a walk to Luis Valbuena. Starlin Castro singled scoring DeJesus. Anthony Rizzo doubled, which plated Valbuena to tie the game and moved the winning run (Castro) to third. This brought up Alfonso Soriano, who entered the game during the 6th inning rally and had walked twice.

Rather than walk him a third time and load the bases and try for an inning ending double play, the Brewers pitched to him and gave up a single to deep center over an outfield playing shallow. The teams combined for 23 runs on 31 hits. The Brewers issued 11 walks while the Cubs only had 3. And none by Carlos Marmol, who pitched a perfect top of the ninth to earn the win. Say whaaaat?!?

The back for the Factory Team set card is the same as the Series 2 version aside from the card number. Kind of scary that a former 40-40 member with 14 years experience wasn't even halfway to Barry Bonds' all-time home run record of 762. I was a actually both a little surprised and disappointed by his numbers in Chicago. Nothing spectacular, thought he could/would have benefitted from the winds at Wrigley a little more. But not as horrible as I thought either. Maybe his defense clouded my judgment on his overall ability.

The Outfield

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that the Cubs had the same record through the same amount of games as last year. Since we all know how poorly last year ended, I was not impressed. The run differential was a bit better which is a good sign.

 

So how are they faring 20-ish games later? Through 51 games, the Cubs are 21-30 and in 4th place in the NL Central. That doesn't sound great, but compared to last year, it's a pretty big improvement.

 

At the 51 game mark last year, they were 18-33, only slightly better but they didn't get their 20th win until their 60th game. The run differential is also markedly better, with the Cubs scoring 206 runs and allowing 205. It doesn't seem possible, but it says so on the internet, so it must be true. Despite a six game losing streak last week, a pair of White Sox drubbings helped move the Cubs back into the positive.

 

With that said, today I have a quintet of cards featuring players from the Cubs outfield this season. There have been a few others in the rotation as well but they'll come later.

 

 

 

Alfonso Soriano has already matched his stolen base total from last year with 6, which leads the team. Even with the knowledge he is a former 40/40 guy, who would have thought?

 

David DeJesus helping out with his glove and the bat. No errors this season, tied for the team lead in runs and second among starters in batting average.

 

You;ve seen the next three already because I showed off signed versions earlier this month but here they are again.

 

Nate Schierholtz is the team leader among starters in batting average and second in doubles.

 

 

Despite limited appearances off the bench, Julio Borbon is tied for second in stolen bases on the team. In a 7-0 victory over the White Sox the other day, Borbon hit his first home run since 2010.

 

Another right fielder in the platoon, Hairston hasn't had quite as much success as the others. He was a nice enough guy when I got his autograph at the Cubs/Nats game but he still has some big shoes to fill with being Tony Campana's replacement.

 

Possible 2013 Team Set Custom Design?

You may have noticed that while I've talked a whole lot about Cubs cards, I haven't really mentioned how they're doing this year. Here we are, about a month's worth of games into the season. How are the 2013 Cubs stacking up to the 2012 Cubs?

Well, unfortunately, about the same. After 28 games, both teams had 11-17 records. The 2013 Cubs have scored a couple more runs and given up a few less, but the end of game results haven't been any different. I've watched about half of the games, and the sad thing is, they could probably just as easily be 17-11. A couple of late innings rallies have fallen short (like yesterday) and there have been a handful of bullpen collapses.

Yes, I'm a homer. Sure, I'm drinking the Kool-Aid. But whatever, it's baseball! It's all for fun. The Cubs have been in some exciting baseball games. Would I prefer they win? Of course. But that really wasn't the expectation this year. More than a third of their games have been decided by one run. Of their 17 losses, only one was by five or more runs. So they're playing a bunch of close games. There in just about all of them. There is still room for improvement but I see them getting closer to the top of that hump.

Anyway, the Cubs are coming to town next weekend to play the Nationals. I've got tickets to Saturday's game but I'm going to try to take in the whole series. I don't know how much autograph seeking I'll be doing but I realized I should probably work on a set for this year. The Cubs have already used 31 players so I'm way behind!

I hammered this design out Friday night. Loosely based on Prizm without all the shine and a little more color. And logos!

I like it but I'm not sure if I'm sold on it for the team set. The main problem is that because of the red, white and blue border that pinches in the middle, I have to find and use "skinny" pictures. Basically the player has to be standing straight up. That's not too big of a deal for players like Soriano or Barney who get a ton of photos taken. But it might be tougher on the more obscure players. I ran into photo selection issues last year when I went with all horizontal pictures. 

Any feedback on this design would be welcome. Thanks for looking.

Trade with Plain Gray Swatch

A few weeks ago, Roy-Z from plain gray swatch left a comment offering up a 2013 Topps base Darwin Barney and its Target Red counterpart. In my quest for Cubs rainbows, I gladly accepted. 

Some of my regular readers will note that my older son is falling prey to the hype machine that is the Washington Nationals bandwagon. All I can say is that not even the Cubs have played so bad that they get back to back #1 overall draft picks.

I kid, I kid. The W-Nats' Single A affiliate Potomac Nationals are my local minor league team. I've written previously how I've taken my kids to games and gotten autographs. So I am kind of partial to some of the guys I've seen come up through the system. With that said, I have no problem keeping my son involved in the hobby by picking up some parallels of players we've seen make it to the show.

Roy-Z's blog was new to me so while checking out previous posts, I stumbled across some Washington Nationals TRU Purple parallels which he graciously included. 

Along with those requests, Roy also filled the rest of the package with various Cubs cards and I've scanned a few to showcase. The Ryne Sandberg card below was one I already had in my Sandberg player collection, but is nice to have an extra for the Cubs collection in addition to two other Cubs from the same set that I definitely did not have. These Pinnacle Zenith cards were from 1996, a hole in my hobby life.

Two serial numbered card also made their way into the package. The first, a dual Sammy Sosa/Corey Patterson card from Fleer in 2001 projects Patterson to be a "superstar in waiting." Huh. Also from a time where I didn't collect/follow the game as closely, I don't think that panned out but I am still happy to add this to my collection. The card is numbered on the back 1714/2000.

The other, a dual Alfonso Soriano/Hanley Ramirez card from 2009 Upper Deck, claims they are Cut from the Same Cloth. According to the back blurb, the assertion is based on a rare combination of speed and power and that both had put up most of their numbers from the leadoff spot. Fast forward to 2012, who would have thought that Soriano would be the one still among the league leaders in offensive production while Ramirez was subject to a team's salary dump first? This card is numbered 881/999.

Thanks Roy!

2013 Topps NL RBI Leaders - feat. Alfonso Soriano

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 the NL RBI Leaders, card #272.

At first glance, this card makes me cringe. The National League RBI leaders are from two of the worst teams in baseball last year and one who got out of a PED suspension on a technicality? Yikes. But Alfonso Soriano is on the card, so into the Cubs collection it goes.

This was one of the tougher original photos to find. Soriano has a very consistent follow through and this particular photo is pretty tighly cropped. Didn't give me much to go on other than looking through all of the 2012 photos of Soriano on Getty's website. 

Photo by Brian Kersey (courtesy of Getty Images)

Despite several similar photos, the final giveaway was the orange blob right behind Soriano's helmet. The caption states this photo depicts an RBI single on August 31, 2012 against the San Francisco Giants.

According to the Baseball-Reference boxscore, Joe Mather led off the bottom of the first inning with a walk. Josh Vitters and Anthony Rizzo both struck out swinging and Joe Mather stole second base. Soriano hit a line drive on a 2-2 pitch to left field. Mather scored and Soriano advanced to second on the throw.

Soriano would also later hit a home run in a 2-4, 3 RBI day in the Cubs 6-4 victory.

Nothing much to say about the back of the card as it is just a list of the top 10. Although it is interesting to note that the top 4 guys did not make the playoffs.

Baseball-reference is full of interesting facts. Here is a little breakdown of most (but not all) of the guys Soriano drove in:

Self - 32 times (home runs, obviously)

David DeJesus - 15

Anthony Rizzo - 14 

Starlin Castro - 13

Darwin Barney -12

Bryan LaHair - 5

Luis Valbuena - 4

Tony Campana - 4

I guess if the team doesn't get guys on base for you, you have to do it yourself, hence doubling up the next two guys with his home runs.