Photo Clichés #4: Arroyo’s Revenge

I recently pulled a 2012 Bronson Arroyo out of a pack, which reminded me that I haven’t done an Arroyo Photo Cliché post in a while. Topps was kind enough to give us a leg kick.

I’ve also got two other cards I ran across while organizing…

2006 Allen & Ginter is a portrait… How boring.

2005 Topps Total is a non-leg-kick action shot. Even more boring.

So here are the stats…

Leg Kick: 2006 Upper Deck, 2006 Topps, 2007 Topps, 2009 Topps, 2010 Topps, 2011 Topps, 2012 Topps

Posed/Portrait: 2005 Topps, 2006 A&G, 2008 Heritage

Action Shot without a leg kick: 2002 Upper Deck, 2005 Topps Total, 2009 Upper Deck

Leg Kick Average: .538 (7 leg kicks out of 13 cards)

I’ve got to track down the 2008 Topps card;  if that’s a leg kick, then Topps has done the leg kick on its base cards for 7 years running.

Let’s close things out with a review of the 6 leg kick cards I’d previously featured…

Hold Me Closer, Tiny Blaster

I almost missed the Topps Update blaster when I went to Target yesterday; the blaster box is much smaller than had been used before … well, on the brands that I buy. Now that I think about it, the Football blasters might have been this size as well. I picked the box up thinking it was a “cereal box” and was surprised to see the $19.99 MSRP, and then I saw the part about 10 packs plus a mannypatch card.

In the category of “One man’s meat…”, I was annoyed as anything to have pulled a blaster with two packs of red Target parallel cards. I don’t collect parallels, so these are of no use to me, other than something to send in my next shipment to COMC so I can hopefully use the credit to buy something far more interesting (which wouldn’t be hard – Did I mention I really don’t like parallels?)

The Blockbuster cards are pretty nice-looking; here’s the patch card I pulled, which is nicer in person than in this scan. This is also going to COMC in the next shipment.

I’ll have more about the cards tomorrow, when I have more time (and if I’m late for work, it’s ALL YOUR FAULT! I hope you’re satisfied!). For those who like the numbers, here’s the breakdown of what was in my blaster:
50 base cards
12 Target red parallels
5 Gold parallels
3 minis
3 Golden Moments
2 Blockbuster cards
2 “Beerfractor” parallels
2 Golden Giveaway Cards (I got a Lou Gehrig virtual coin – my first HOFer, for whatever that’s worth. I also got a Dustin Pedrioa virtual coin, which gave me 6 unique player coins, which got me a $10 e-gift card code.  Ooh.)
1 Golden Great
and, of course, one mannypatch card.

In my case, 20 of the 81 cards are going to COMC, and two more were Golden Giveaway cards which were redeemed and recycled.  Not a promising start.

Pack Animal: 2012 Topps Series 2

An after-work Target trip lead to an unexpected purchase:

So, wouldya like to see what I got?  Wouldya?  Wouldya?  I’ll admit, I didn’t get any big hits (They were loose packs, maybe the feelers  had already struck).  I was pretty happy with what I did get.  Being Series Two, I got veterans in new uniforms…

…and rookies (Jarrod Parker no hit the Rangers through 8  innings earlier this week, not too shabby)…

…and a Met…

…and an Oriole…

“My name is Yim Yohnson, I work in Wisconsin, I work in a lumbermill there…”

As for inserts, the Walk-Offs and Timeless inserts have been replaced by two new inserts:

You can’t tell from the scan, but this “Cut Above” insert is die-cut, it’s got a sort of jagged cut to it.  I normally don’t go much for die-cuts, but this is a nice-looking card.  I fear that that might be largely due to the sweet photo, because I also got a Mickey Mantle Cut Above insert, and it didn’t have the same effect on  me.  Part of it is because it wasn’t as good of a photo (it looks like a colorized B&W photo), and part is because it’s Mantle, and I’m suffering from a severe case of Mickey Mantle overexposure (i.e. “I’M SICK TO BLOODY DEATH OF MANTLES!”)

The other new insert is Mound Dominance, which isn’t great, but is better than either of the replaced inserts.  It doesn’t scan well;  there’s silver foil on top, and the green strike zone graphic doesn’t GLOW on the card like it does in this scan.

Other highlights of my packs…

Bruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuce!!!!

Bruce Chen is one of the players I collect, so he’s a welcome addition.

I also got a Pirate… Pirates fans, I apologize, you haven’t gotten  much from the Pirates being my “Emergency Backup Team” yet, but the Mets & Orioles have been doing well, and the Pirates… Um, the Pirates…. HEY, LOOK!  IT’S GARRETT JONES!

And now’s ze time on Ze Shlabotnik Report ven ve DANCE!!!!

2012 Topps Strasburg Golden Moments game-used; 2012 Topps Tracker #11 (Now with more stats!)

During a recent pack-ripping session I was thinking to myself that I’ve been pulling a lot of crap inserts from 2012 Topps.  A couple of packs later, I pulled this piece of Strasburg apparel.  I need to mentally curse out Topps more often…

With this post, I’m going to put the Topps Tracker on hiatus for a little while;  I’m largely done buying packs of Series 1 because I’ve gotten to the point where the packs I’m opening have more unwanted “Golden” inserts than cards I need.

As we’re at a breaking point, I’ll break down all the Golden inserts I’d previously lumped together, and put in a little more statistical analysis than I normally do….

Money spent:  $97.96;  1 blaster, 7 hobby packs, 7 retail packs, 2 hanger packs, 2 “Value” blasters.

Base cards:  396 (80.2% of the cards purchased)

Minis: 12 (2.4%)

Target Parallels:  13 (2.6%)

Beerfractor parallels:  8 (1.6%)

Manupatches:  1 (0.2%, although that’s meaningless because it didn’t come from a pack)

Relics:  2 (0.4%)

Code cards:  8 (1.6%)

Golden Futures:  9 (1.8%)

Timeless Talents:  9 (1.8%)

Gold Standard: 6 (1.2%)

Golden Moments:  10 (2%)

Golden Greats:  14 (2.8%)

Walk-Offs:  6 (1.2%)

Base set progress:  243 cards (73.6% complete)

Mini set progress:  11 cards (22% complete)

Golden Futures set progress:  8 cards (32% complete)

Average price per card (includes sales tax): $0.198

(1-0) 2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K

Pretty good pitching line, don’t you think?  What if it were the first major league game the player pitched in?  Still more impressive?
How about if that pitching line came from this guy?

Yep, Orioles first baseman Chris Davis (who started the game as the DH) pitched two innings in yesterday’s Orioles 17-inning win over Boston and got the win.  He said he pitched in college, and he did look like he had something of a clue of what he was doing, even if he clearly had some trouble pitching from the stretch.  We might not be talking about the win if not for a beautiful relay and play at the plate involving Adam Jones, J.J. Hardy and Matt Wieters.  The Orioles won in 17 innings and swept the Red Sox in Boston for the first time since 1994.

Don’t look now, but as I’m posting this the Orioles have the best record in baseball (19-9).  They’ll probably go on a 20-game losing streak now that I’ve jinxed them, but it’s been quite a few years since the Orioles have been this much fun to watch.

2012 Pedro Alvarez, Topps Tracker #10

Pedro Alvarez is starting to show signs of hitting like the second overall pick in the 2008 draft should.  Over the past 7 days, he’s batting .294 with 2 homers and 4 RBI.

I love how the internet works, though.. I search on  his name and I see references to Baseball America calling him a bust.  I tried to find something about it on the Baseball America website, but the most I could find was the “Ask BA” feature where the most damning things Jim Callis says are “I thought Alvarez was the best player in the 2008 draft, but he certainly hasn’t played like it”, and if he doesn’t come around, “you could argue that he’s the biggest waste of hitting talent in draft history”.  That’s not calling him a bust, people.  Listen to your Uncle Joe, boys and girls… Don’t jump to conclusions on quotes taken out of context, especially when the quotes come from politicians and movie ads which cite reviews.

——

Topps Tracker time!  I didn’t buy any cards this week, but I opened one pack from a Value Box…  It’s been another busy week.

Money spent:  $97.96;  1 blaster, 7 hobby packs, 7 retail packs, 2 hanger packs, 2 “Value” blasters.

Base cards:  356

Minis: 10

Target Parallels:  13

Beerfractor parallels:  7

Manupatches:  1

Relics:  1

Code cards:  8

Other Inserts:  47

Base set progress:  239 cards (72.4% complete)
Mini set progress:  10 cards (20% complete

2012 Topps Tracker Number Nine… Number Nine… Number Nine…

The subject line has nothing to do with anything, it just popped in my head when I was typing “Topps Tracker #9″.  Beatle-philes will know it as a reference to the Beatles track – I won’t call it a song -  “Revolution #9″, which includes someone repeatedly saying “Number nine… number nine…”.  If you play that part backwards, it sounds like “Turn me on, dead man… Turn me on, dead man” and was supposed to have been one of the clues to a covered-up death of Paul McCartney.  I find the “Paul is dead” clues to be fascinating, and there are so many of them that I don’t see how it can be a coincidence…  More likely John Lennon lashing out at Paul in a passive aggressive way.
…ANYWAY…

To the left is the 2012 Topps card of Philip Humber, I don’t think I need to explain why he’s here.

——
2012 Topps Tracker time!  Since the last Topps Tracker I’ve bought two of the “Value Boxes” which includes 5 packs of Series One, Two hobby packs of Heritage and a super-duper nifty keen-o shiny card of guys for whom you already have 500 super-duper nifty keen-o shiny cards.

I’ve only opened 3 of the combined 10 Series One packs, so in my next Topps Tracker the card totals below will increase while the amount spent will not.

Oh, one other thing… I was surprised to find my local hobby shop had a value box for $1 cheaper than my local Target.  Keep that in mind, my droogies…

Money spent:  $97.96;  1 blaster, 7 hobby packs, 7 retail packs, 2 hanger packs, 2 “Value” blasters.

Base cards:  350

Minis: 10

Target Parallels:  13

Beerfractor parallels:  7

Manupatches:  1

Relics:  1

Code cards:  8

Other Inserts:  45

Base set progress:  236 cards (71.3% complete)
Mini set progress:  10 cards (20% complete)

And my Emergency Backup Team for 2012 is…

I have to apologize… I was being pretty good about featuring a different candidate each week, I got sidetracked by new releases and life in general, and then I realized “Holy crap, it’s almost opening day and I haven’t finished my EBT posts!”

So far I’ve discussed the Rockies, Cubs, Mariners and Pirates.   I had a couple of other candidates in mind, and I’ll run through them quickly before I get to the team I’ve chosen…

Athletics (2011 record: 74-88, 3rd place in the AL West)

Favored Players on 40-man:  Brad Peacock
Top 100: Brad Peacock, Jarrod Parker, Chris Carter, Tom Milone¸Collin Cowgill,  Graham Godfrey, Yoenis Cespedes, Michael Taylor
Under 5’10”:  Jemile Weeks, Collin Cowgill, Fabio Castro (NR)
Mrs. Shlabotnik loves the yellow alts, but the A’s chances of being the EBT took a major hit when they signed Manny.

Royals (71-91, 4th place in AL Central)

Favored Players on 40-man:  Bruce Chen, Tim Collins, Jeff Francoeur
Top 100:  Johnny Giavotella, Salvador Perez, Lorenzo Cain, Kelvin Herrera, Wil Myers
Under 5’10”:  Tim Collins, Johnny Giavotella, Jarrod Dyson, Tony Abreu (NR)
In my much younger days on Long Island, someone tried to sell me Yankees tickets by saying “They’re playing the Royals, so you know it’ll be a good game”.  The Royals were a contender for much of my youth, I long for the days when that’s true again… Well, the Kansas City part, anyway.  The Yankees can’t begin to suck soon enough for me.

Giants (86-79, 2nd place in NL West)

Favored Players on 40-man:  Aubrey Huff (Huff Daddy!), Ryan Theriot (How can you not like a guy whose last name is “The Riot”?), Angel Pagan (How can you not like a guy with a name like a theological debate?)
Top 100:  Brandon Belt, Eric Surkamp

Although my mother was a Giants fan (until they left New York, anyway), I’d have a hard time rooting for a team where the closer has a tiny civilization in his beard.

And now, Joe Shlabotnik’s Emergency Backup Team for  2012 is…

The Pittsburgh Pirates

This probably isn’t a surprise to anyone who reads my blog regularly.  I realized that between the Emergency Backup Team post and the 1960 World Series post and the Luke Walker post, I’d answered my own question before I realized it myself.

Both the Royals and Mariners are teams I like in general, so they’re sort of the backups to the backups.

So congratulations, Pirates fans!  You’ve got an addition to your huddled masses.  To celebrate, I will haul out one of my 1974 customs from 4 years ago:

2012 Topps Golden Thingie Tulo Relic; Topps Tracker #8

For this week’s Topps Tracker, I thought I’d share the biggest hit I’ve gotten in 2012 Topps…  I pulled this Troy Tulowitzki Golden Moments from a hobby pack I bought fairly early on.  It’s always encouraging to pull a hit like this from a hobby pack if only because it reinforces the idea that the packs were not searched by the card shop I bought them from.  Years ago, I saw someone feeling up packs at Target, and he was a dealer I recognized from local shows.  Needless to say, I never bought anything from him again.

This particular card is not a big thrill for me;  I’ve grown tired of the relics (not that I was hugely into them to start with) and pulling them generally doesn’t get much of a reaction from me other than “Well, at least I can sell this on COMC”.

…and now on to the 2012 Topps Tracker!  This week’s numbers reflect 2 loose retail packs I bought.

I believe I’m reaching the point where I  just need to make one final push and then stop buying Series 1.  The “return on investment” is getting smaller with each pack I buy, and Lord knows I’m not getting many hits.  Of course, part of that has something to do with buying 7 loose retail packs.

…Anyway…

Money spent:  $78.91;  1 blaster, 7 hobby packs, 7 retail packs, 2 hanger packs

Base cards:  332

Minis: 10

Target Parallels:  13

Beerfractor parallels:  6

Manupatches:  1

Relics:  1

Code cards:  7

Other Inserts:  41

Base set progress:  225 cards (68.2% complete)
Mini set progress:  10 cards (20% complete)

Photo Cliché #2 – Ryan Hanigan

Yesterday I introduced a new series of posts illustrating how card companies latch on to a particular type of photo for certain players.  While updating my team binders the other day, I discovered another example of card companies beating a particular photo to death… Ryan Hanigan, Catcher In Action!

I hope you don’t want to know what Ryan Hanigan looks like, because about all you can tell is that he’s Caucasian.  Wikipedia says he’s one of two active MLB players born in Washington D.C., and Baseball Reference seems to bear that out (the other one is the Giants’ Emmanuel Burriss).

So, for  Ryan Hanigan, that’s 4 cards, 4 defensive action shots in full catcher’s gear, with mask on.