six of nine from 2 x 3 by pwe

i was the lucky recipient of another plain white envelope from jeff at 2x3 heroes a week and a half ago.  it was a happy coincidence, as it landed in my mailbox the same day that i sent a couple of pwe's and 12 packages out into bloggerland.  one of the packages was sent jeff's way, but i think i need to get another together soon.  here are six of the nine cards that jeff managed to send my way in a standard number 10.

2014 topps chrome zack greinke gold parallel

greinke's got to be the nl starter for the all-star game, right?  and, he's got to exercise his opt-out clause with the poor run support that the dodgers are giving him, right?  i hope i'm wrong about that last one.

2015 topps adrian gonzalez career high relic

at first glance, i thought this card was all about gonzalez's career best postseason ops, so i took a quick look, and gonzalez did, in fact, have a 1.091 ops in the 2013 nlcs, but his 0.833 ops in the nlds that year would bring his total postseason ops down into the .900s. however, topps does a good job on the back letting me know that they are only referring to the 2013 nlcs with this card - hence the "postseason series" text that i overlooked when i first saw this card.  as a matter of record, in his other postseason appearances, gonzalez posted an ops of .828 with the padres in 2006 and a paltry .610 with the dodgers last year.

2015 topps sandy koufax stepping up insert

and johnny podres stepping up insert

now, i would imagine that 'stepping up' usually refers to a batter.  in fact, the phrase 'step up to the plate' has infiltrated everyday lingo, and the cards feature home plate in the background.  so, why feature two pitchers on these stepping up inserts?  i guess "toeing the rubber" doesn't quite have the same sound.  topps does let us know on the backs that they consider koufax to have 'stepped up' in his second big league start back in 1955 when he threw a two-hitter, and podres, of course, 'stepped up' to shutout the yankees in game 7 of the world series that year.  it's nice to see podres continue to get some topps love, but maybe they could throw some attention to don newcombe or carl erskine or even carl furillo once in awhile.

2015 topps yasiel puig heart of the order insert

topps acknowledges on the back of the card that puig has typically hit in the number 2 spot.

there was one non-dodger card in the bunch, and it was this 2015 bowman michael taylor card

featuring a tatooine shot.

thanks as always, jeff.  hope you enjoyed the stuff i sent your way!

the annual topps/topps dodger team factory set comparison

with the release of 2015 topps series 2, i figured it was time to address the differences between the topps 17-card factory dodger team set and the good ol' flagship cards.  last year, as you might recall, there was a dodger stadium card included in the factory set (which was nice, but had become somewhat repetitive), and the only other variation was the orientation of brian wilson's card.

before i begin with the side-by-side stuff, i'll note that topps did not add a set descriptor to the backs of the factory team set cards, as they are numbered 'lad-#', with clayton kershaw being the first card up.

so far, only series one and series two have had the descriptor above the card number.

here we go - flagship on the left, factory team set on the right.

lad-1 clayton kershaw

the only foil on this year's flagship cards is the topps logo, and the factory set cards replace it with white fill.  that's the only difference between these two cards.

lad-2 andre ethier

ethier, who was probably on the fence as far as inclusion in the factory set, has essentially the same card.  the only difference is the location of the topps logo.  i would have thought that justin turner had as good a chance as ethier to make this year's checklist.

lad-3 yimi garcia

yimi's topps logo remains in the same spot, but his rookie card designation got moved, which is an improvement over the flagship card.

lad-4 adrian gonzalez

the topps logo made a move on gonzalez's card, which i see as an improvement.

lad-5 zack greinke

again, the topps logo moved, but everything else remains the same.

lad-6 aj ellis

this is the star of the set, folks.  the series two card shows ellis in his catcher gear on the road while the factory set used a photo of ellis from last year's playoffs - nlds game 1 at dodger stadium - in which ellis hit a home run.  he was 4 for 5 in that game, but has only 12 hits in 26 games this season.

lad-7 carl crawford

nothing to see here except the transient topps logo

lad-8 brandon league

another topps logo relocation

lad-9 joc pederson

the topps logo remains in place, but the rookie card designation migrated to the other side of the card.

lad-10 yasiel puig

no change

lad-11 hyun-jin ryu

the topps logo moved to a better location.  seriously, does topps give no thought to where the logo appears? there is no consistency as far as one corner or the other, so i would think that if the logo were to be moved, there would be some effort to put it where it doesn't land on top of a players' elbow.  i guess not.

lad-12 yasmani grandal

ok, now i've come to the point where maybe i should have waited to do this post.  grandal had a card in series one, but he was shown as a padre.  the factory set photoshopped him into todd hundley's old uniform, which is actually a good job by topps. grandal wore number 8 with the pads, but switched to number 9 for the dodgers, and topps took notice of that.  anyway, grandal should get a card in the update set and we will have to wait and see whether or not it matches this one.

*edit - grandal's update card is, indeed, different than the topps dodger factory set

lad-13 jimmy rollins

topps did get rollins switched over to a dodgers uniform in the flagship set, but they did not do as well with his photoshopping as they did with grandal.  i guess that they did not anticipate him wearing number 11 as a dodger, even though that was the number he wore for most of his phillies career.  oh, there's no substantive difference between the two cards.

lad-14 howie kendrick

kendrick is in the same boat as grandal - he had a card in series one as an angel, and so we must wait until update is out to make a comparison between his dodger cards.

*edit - kendrick's update card shows him at the bat, so that's nice

lad-15 juan uribe

uribe should be in update, too, but he'll be wearing a braves uniform.  here, only the topps logo location is different between the two cards.

lad-16 kenley jansen

same.

lad-17 brandon mccarthy

mccarthy made four starts as a dodger, and was 3-0.  it helps when the team averages about 8 runs per start, however, as mccarthy's era was just under six. as for his photoshopped cards, topps got the number right, and then decided that the logo would look better in an already cluttered upper right corner instead of the open and dark upper left corner.

so, no dodger stadium card. no don mattingly card. no alex guerrero or carlos frias or justin turner, for that matter. just some strange decisions on logo placement and a second guessing of photo selection for aj ellis. maybe grandal and kendrick will get real dodger photos in update and there will be three variant cards in the factory set when it's all said and done. we'll have to wait and see.

play at the pwe

like some others, i have recently been the recipient of a plain white envelope containing several baseball cards for my collection from brian at play at the plate.  included in that envelope were some 2015 bowman cards which are a first for me

zack greinke

pitching like an ace in what is essentially a contract year, since he has an opt-out clause after this season

yimi garcia

currently striking out batters at a 15 per 9-inning pace

alex verdugo

the dodgers' 2nd round pick in 2014 is currently playing for the great lakes loons of the midwest league, hoping to add to the outfield glut in a few years.

the other cards in the envelope were from 2015 topps heritage, including a jimmy rollins card

j-roll is in a contract year, and at his current pace, i am not sure he stays with the dodgers past this season.  other shortstop options might include kike hernandez, justin turner, darwin barney (both turner and barney are arbitration eligible after this season), but the real deal is corey seager, currently hitting .324 since his promotion to triple-a oklahoma city.

there were also a now ex-dodger juan uribe card

and a carlos frias rookie card

the dodgers obviously have a need for frias to step up and fill one of the rotation spots, but he was shellacked by the padres the other night.

thanks for the cards brian!

spring has sprung

spring training camps have been broken for the year, and the dodgers are now in southern california passing time with the angels until their season opens on monday.  arpsmith is also in socal, and that's where he presumably acquired these cards that i received recently.

2015 topps adrian gonzalez spring fever

there's only one local card shop that i go to these days (i think there are 3 or 4 in the twin cities), but i don't know if they participate in this promotion or not.  thankfully, arpsmith has a guy who does.

here's a midsummer card - 2014 topps update dee gordon all-star relic

that would be a piece of the all-star game warm up or practice apparel. kudos to topps for getting a photo of dee from the asg to use on the card.

here's another relic - 2014 topps gypsy queen zack greinke

i'm expecting big things from zack since this is an opt-out year for him.

2014 topps heritage minors jesmuel valentin

valentin is the son of jose valentin, who is currently the padres' first base coach.  the dodgers traded jesmuel to the phillies last year as one of the players to be named later in the roberto hernandez (fausto carmona) deal.

2001 topps heritage gary sheffield

arpsmith sent me some cards towards my 2001 topps heritage want list, including the sheff above. i recently took a quiz to see if i could name the top 21 los angeles dodger home run hitters of all time. i got 18 of them right - i forgot john roseboro and ron fairly, who were tied with 90 at the bottom of the list, but i am ashamed to have not named sheffield who put up some of the best offensive numbers ever by a dodger.

last, but not least, here's a 1987 fleer bill russell card, signed by the shortstop of the team of my youth himself

russell did not make the list of the top 21 la dodger home run hitters despite playing his entire career there and appearing in more games than any other la dodger.  russell had only 46 home runs during his career.

thanks for the trade adam! here's hoping the giants give someone else from their division a chance to win the world series this year.

baseball is back, sort of

hockey and basketball may still be on the air, but baseball is back. i've seen some 2015 topps cards leak into the populace, so it's officially time to turn our attention to the national pastime.  and, with 2015 stuff out, i should show some of the 2014 cards that have been languishing in my scanned folder.

this is a 2014 bowman yasiel puig 1989 bowman is back insert

thankfully, unlike actual 1989 bowman cards, this one is standard sized.  topps just trimmed the top and bottom margins.  it would look better if they widened the photo frame to have equal sized margins all around the card - they way they did it makes it look trimmed.

these cards were inserted throughout bowman releases.  this one, of alex guerrero,

comes from bowman chrome, i believe.  these next few cards also come from bowman chrome - here's guerrero

along with erisbel arruebarrena

and hanley ramirez

this is a 2014 bowman platinum zack greinke card

greinke is the anti-marshawn lynch. he talks to reporters and speaks his mind. it's hard to tell what he's thinking these days, but i hope he sticks around for a while.

i have to admit that i bought a couple of packs of 2014 donruss at the dollar store.  no dodgers, but i did pick up this puig base

and his power plus insert

through other means over the course of last year.

i've had some of the pastime's pastimes 2014 topps allen & ginter inserts scanned for a while, but never got around to show them off.  here's puig

ramirez

jackie robinson

and hyun-jin ryu

puig's pastime is being a jokester

and one of his main joke partners is ryu.  i don't think they understand what the other is saying, but they make for good comic relief together.

here's a 2014 topps chrome puig card

and a ryu xfractor, too

i only have one 2014 topps heritage card ready to show, and it's carl crawford's

i'll be interested to see 2015 heritage.  i wasn't expecting much in 2013, but the 1964 design redux grew on me.  i'm left wondering if seeing the 1966 topps design modernized will incite any interest.  i'm guessing not.

here are a bunch of dodgers from the 2014 topps stickers release - jackie, puig, matt kemp, clayton kershaw, ryu, and greinke

there were no newer photos of kershaw, so topps had to use one from 2011.

i bought a pack of 2014 topps update a couple of weeks ago while succumbing to pack withdrawal.  at least it contained this yasiel puig all-star game access insert

with mini-miguel cabrera.

also from last year's update, here's a hanley power players insert

it feels good to get these 2014 cards out of the scanned folder and make some room for some 2015 cards.