The Full Bleed Group Break

As is usual for the month of April, the Rockies are looking pretty interesting, at least at the plate.

2014 Bowman Platinum Prospects #BPP83 Trevor Story

You've heard of this guy by now, right? Rookie Trevor Story has been on absolute fire so far this week, hitting four home runs in the opening road series against Arizona, and mashing another two yesterday to give all the Home Opener fans their money's worth. He also managed to hit a single yesterday, the first time he had to actually stop on a base. Unquestionably he'll be the NL Player of the Week (and maybe even Rookie of the Year if he keeps this up), and he's still on pace for some ridiculous number of homers.

And it's not like no one's tried throwing him a curve yet. He's hit some tough pitches from ace hurlers right over the wall. While he has a long way to go to fill Tulowitzki's shoes, pretty much the whole city would rather see him at short than Jose Reyes. And why not, when you can put yourself in the same sentence as Willie Mays before the weekend even arrives?

He doesn't have a mainstream card yet (though Sooz at Topps is trying to squeeze him into 2016 Stadium Club), and I managed to dig up that Bowman card from the unsorted box where all my incoming trades have been going for the past couple of years. No idea who sent it to me, but thank you!

I had to look through close to a thousand cards before I stumbled across that shiny one of Story, so he hasn't quite cracked Topps Base yet. But the guy ahead of him in the lineup has.

2016 Topps Rainbow Foil #93 Charlie Blackmon

About two months ago, Nachos Grande did his annual Topps Series 1 group break. I don't know if he'll be doing it again next year, as he got stuck with a lot of unclaimed teams. But I did pick the Rockies $25 slot, and got a nice stack of my first 2016 cards, though with quite a few duplicates.

Blackmon's beard is as bushy as ever, and I've weighed in on the 2016 design already in my Topps Opening Day post. But while I don't see it going down in history as a legend, it does mark a significant shift in their design. There's no border to be found except for that cloud thing in two corners, and I feel like even that is a bit less pronounced on the Rainbow Foil parallels.

2016 Topps Rainbow Foil #12 Nolan Arenado

Or maybe just on Blackmon's card, since it's pretty apparent here. No doubt that Nolan Arenado is gearing up to throw a runner out at first, probably after making an awesome defensive play! The left side of our infield is a thing of beauty, just as much as the bullpen, well, isn't.

2016 Topps #337 Nolan Arenado / Bryce Harper / Carlos Gonzalez LL

Arenado makes another appearance on this League Leaders card, and yes, two Rockies took the top three spots in NL Home Runs last year. Arenado tied Bryce Harper with 42, though Nolan does get second billing in that tie. That was a lesson I learned young. I remember the Rockies were tied in the standings one morning in one of their early seasons, and my dad pointed out that The Denver Post listed them higher up in the standings than the team they tied with, but San Diego (or whoever we were tied with) probably listed it the other way.

Tie goes to the home city. Or to the player Topps thinks more fans want to see on top. Fair enough, and Harper did go in the first four selections of most Fantasy leagues this year, while Arenado was somewhere in the middle of round two.

2016 Topps #284 Jon Gray (RC)

Any Rockie that gets national attention is probably a position player, but Jon Gray might, just might, be that once-a-decade ace the Rockies tend to develop. Gray experienced a minor strain during spring training, so he hasn't joined the rotation yet, but what the Rockies need, and have pretty much always needed, is a guy who can keep the opposing batters from outscoring the Rockies' potent lineup. Let's be honest, even though Story gave two fans special souvenirs yesterday, they still lost 13-6.

I'm not sure why Gray's stats on the back only list his minor league record for 2015 in Albuquerque (not Colorado Springs anymore!), because Gray did get his call-up in late 2015 and started nine games, including one against the Mets that I witnessed in person. He ended the season 0-2 with a lot of no-decisions.

2016 Topps #87 Jorge De La Rosa

De La Rosa earned a winning record last season, and came away with a no-decision in Monday's season opener. For better or worse, he remains the ace of the Rockies' rotation, at least until Gray or one of the guys they got in the Tulowitzki trade become Major League ready.

1997 Collector's Choice #320 Andres Galarraga

Of course, any time you join a Nachos Grande Group Break, Chris will throw in a few extras from previous sets. This one of Andres Galarraga from 1997 Collector's Choice is an obvious Coors Field card, and probably shows The Big Cat watching a towering home run sail into the left field bleachers. Though our pitching is perennially subpar, we've never hurt for sluggers. And hey, full bleed photography, at least on the front.

This card even contains a Did You Know fun fact, that Vinny Castilla was the first Rockie to start an All-Star Game. I remember that, in 1995. Matt Williams was the elected starter, but couldn't play due to injury. Castilla took the field instead, becoming the answer to a trivia question. Walker, Helton, Tulowitzki, Gonzalez, even Ubaldo Jimenez have been All-Star starters. But none before Vinny.

Interestingly, Galarraga was the first Rockie to appear in an All-Star Game, coming on as a defensive replacement for John Kruk in 1993, and popped up in his only at-bat.

1994 SP #168 David Nied

Though David Nied was the first in a long line of disappointing Rockies pitchers, he still got a copper-heavy Upper Deck SP card, complete with a gold hologram on the back (and a shot of him batting, if anyone wants to track this card down for that purpose). The 1994 league-wide 125th anniversary patch is easily visible on his right sleeve, and we aren't too terribly far off from the 150th anniversary, due in 2019.

Wow, this card is almost 25 years old. And anything lasting 150 years is darn impressive. If baseball can survive all that time, through wars, recessions, gambling scandals, and steroid use, something tells me a couple bat flips aren't going to be a problem.

2014 Stadium Club Triumvirates Luminous #T5A Troy Tulowitzki

And to wrap up, I can now create a complete three-card puzzle of Triumvirates from 2014 Stadium Club! So combine this Tulo card on the left, Masahiro Tanaka's in the middle, and CarGo on the right, you get this bit of awesomeness:

2014 Stadium Club Triumvirates Luminous #T5A Troy Tulowitzki
2014 Stadium Club Triumvirates Luminous #T7B Masahiro Tanaka
2014 Stadium Club Triumvirates Luminous #T6C Carlos Gonzalez

Now that's a good reason to go after an insert set.

Though they're not exactly matched as far as card numbers, they all fit together just fine, and way more solidly than Donruss puzzles. There's a really tight tolerance here, and they fit together so well that they won't blow apart from a gentle breeze. Still, there really isn't much of a theme between the A, B, and C cards in any given grouping, other than maybe the position. The centering on Tanaka's card is slightly off, leading to a little break in the colored lines at the bottom, but that is nitpicking of the highest order.

Now just imagine if the Rockies had a guy like Masahiro Tanaka in their rotation to support all these awesome sluggers we have.

And we'll see if Trevor Story can keep his home run hitting streak alive later today.

The Trading Post #59: Play at the Plate

I can barely keep up with all the #SuperTrader packages stuffing my mailbox. Well, I can barely keep up with anything, but that's a whole different story. Play at the Plate is pretty active on Twitter, and also a longtime veteran of the Cardsphere. He's clearly no stranger to trading, as he put together a pretty nice bundle of cards, starting with that rarest of All-Stars, a Rockies pitcher.

2004 Topps Gold #257 Shawn Chacon /2004

Chacon is obviously pitching in AT&T Park. Or maybe it was SBC Park at the time. Whichever Baby Bell owned naming rights to the stadium at the time, that's where Chacon is pitching.

This is a gold parallel marking the milestone that was Topps' fifty-third year. Not exactly a nice round number, (a prime, in fact), but this was when Topps was still using actual gold lettering on serial numbers for this set. They moved to a plain black quite a few years ago, and dropped them entirely from Opening Day the past couple years.

Whether base or parallel, this 2004 card has a tiny foil outline in the lower left, duplicating in miniature the actual card's photograph.

1998 SP Authentic Sheer Dominance Silver #SD27 Todd Helton

This shiny Todd Helton card doesn't have exactly the same treatment in the corner, although it does have a pretty bold-looking black Rockies team logo. Basically black foil, if there is such a thing. I assume that since this has "silver" lettering in the background repeated several times, that there are also Gold and maybe even Platinum parallels.

After a trip to Beckett, turns out the rarest of the three varieties is actually Titanium.

1999 Fleer Tradition Warning Track #123W Mike Lansing

I had to look this one up at Beckett, too. I see a fair bit of Fleer Tradition come across my desk, but I'd never heard of the Warning Track Collection before. It's just a one-per-pack parallel, so they can't be too scarce, but this is definitely a first for me.

Rockies 2B Mike Lansing has some great wraparound shades on this photo, but what I really like about this card is that the card number is different from the base set! Fleer added a "W" after the card number, clearly indicating that it's something unusual. I'd really love to see Topps do that, and the new-for-2016 "OD" prefix on Opening Day card numbers bodes well for this element finding its way back into the Hobby.

1998 Topps Stars Gold #131 Todd Helton /2299

I blogged about 1998 Topps Stars once before, and like Ellis Burks' card, this one has lots of texture on the front. Like that SP card above, this one comes in three different levels of scarcity, this time matching the Olympic medal metals—bronze, silver, and gold. There's also a pretty rare Gold Rainbow variety, much scarcer than this one-of-2,299 example.

There's even a trivia question on the back, mentioning Helton's QB days at the University of Tennessee, and asking which then-active American League first baseman was a kicker for the University of Nebraska. Unfortunately, we have to look at card #132 to find the answer. I know of absolutely no one who has completed 1998 Topps Stars, so I'll just have to Google that one.

Survey says...Darin Erstad. Actually I knew that at one point. My high school psychology teacher was a Cornhusker and asked this question in class one day, even giving us the clue that he was an Angel. I incorrectly guessed Chad Curtis. Sorry, class. I don't think we got to leave early that day.

Incidentally, if you own card #130 in this set and have been wracking your brain for two decades for the answer to whatever trivia question your card contains, the answer is Jim Sundberg.

2000 Topps Tek Pattern 2 #23-2 Larry Walker

And here's a set that answered a question no one asked (automotive journalists love that phrase), Topps Tek. I've ranted about the sheer insanity of fractured sets before, so I won't rehash that again. But any trade that's heavy on the crazy late-1990s basically turns into a research project. I've consulted Beckett and Google plenty so far in this post.

Topps Tek actually reeled it in a bit for 2000, offering only 20 possible background variations, compared to earlier years that had up to 90. Still, completing a set like this would be an exercise in madness. It reminds me a bit of those gigantic jigsaw puzzles seen toward the end of Citizen Kane.

1998 Topps Gold Label Class 1 #81 Todd Helton

My fellow supertrader threw in a few cards from another fractured set, 1998 Topps Gold Label. I've seen him pepper the cardsphere with Topps Gold Label, and I benefited too.

These always reminded me of 1993 Flair. Soft focus, really thick card stock, thin foil lettering. Pretty much the only difference is the rainbow finish.

1998 Topps Gold Label Class 2 Black Label #81 Todd Helton

Well, that, and the set's near incomprehensible numbering scheme.

Does this one look familiar to you? It's sort of the same card. But not. It's kind of like a parallel, but it isn't entirely so. It has the same card number (and the same back), but this is a "Class 2" version of Helton's card, offering us a different foil color and a different action shot (baserunning instead of fielding). But the "Black Label" makes it a parallel of Class 2 (a color actually found in all three classes), whereas Class 2 itself is more of a variation. And the Black Label only refers to the logo, not the player's name.

To sum up, it's definitely a parallel of something that is a quasi-parallel.

I don't know. It's late. I ought to hire a theoretical physicist to explain this thing.

Also, it took me a really long time to notice that the foreground shot (the smaller, post-swing photo) doesn't change between classes.

1998 Topps Gold Label Class 3 #81 Todd Helton

And let's go ahead and print up a third class while we're at it. Here we have a batting shot to go along with the mini-batting shot that was already there. And of course there are varying levels of scarcity to go along with all this. Topps was still fleshing this idea out in 1998. Within a couple years they actually realized it would be a good idea to label which Class you had on the back.

I know we all gripe about how many colored parallels there are these days, along with all sorts of things that make it hard to please us collectors, like recycled photos, general design elements, under-representation of our preferred team. But for me, the key question this: is it easy for me to understand what I am holding? Topps' photo variations and Bowman are key offenders here. On their own, photo variations are an OK concept, but unless you know the base set like the back of your hand, it's pretty tough to know whether you have a variation or just a common card. More often than not, they could probably just make the base set as a whole better by just using the variation as the primary photo. And don't even get me started on all those Bowman Chrome Prospect cards.

I know I said I wasn't going to rehash all the fractured set nonsense. But it's such a convoluted thing that I can't help but try to talk it out, even for my own understanding.

Regardless, they're nice-looking cards, and I more-or-less have a rainbow of these Helton cards thanks to this trade.

But the late 1990s were clearly a crazy time. Y2K was just around the corner.

On a final note, Opening Day is no longer around the corner! Every team has a game under its belt now, including the Rockies with a 4-hour marathon 10-5 win over Zack Greinke and the Diamondbacks. Not great for my Fantasy team, but Trevor Story is on pace for 324 home runs this year, after hitting two home runs in his first three Major League at bats!

And Happy Birthday, dad!

OD-8

I'm really not the type to go out and bust packs of products right when they hit the shelves. I usually buy the Topps factory set in July or so (or wait until Christmas), and I pretty much entirely ignore Update and Bowman at retail. For things like Heritage, A&G, Gypsy Queen, Archives, etc... I'll wait until they start showing up via trades. And I won't touch ultra-expensive stuff like Finest, Triple Threads, or Museum Collection until I see them at card shows in half-off toploaders. Even for sets I really like, such as Stadium Club or Chrome, I might just buy a pack or two at the store. Sometimes Topps Series 1 when it's been a long winter and I'm itching for some baseball.

But the one thing I do get pretty near its release date is Topps Opening Day. By then, most of spring training has elapsed, and even a few players are preparing to start the year on the disabled list. My fantasy baseball draft is usually just days away. Add in the low $10 price at Target, and you've got yourself a sale!

2016 Topps Opening Day Superstar Celebrations #SC-20 Justin Bour

That also means that the Cardsphere has usually moved on by the time I get around to writing about something. It's rare that I lend my voice to the new release cycle, which also means it's pretty rare for me to be pulling the same cards as everyone else at the same time. But with a release date about ten days ago, it keeps popping up in the cardsphere, often with some of the same cards in this post.

Part of what keeps me coming back to Opening Day are the inserts. The Justin Bour Superstar Celebrations insert card was actually right behind Bour's base card in one of the middle packs, which I featured in my previous post. Didn't really know much about him before, but I won't forget his name now! And I doubt he'll forget getting doused in Gatorade by fellow Marlin Dee Gordon, who will make another appearance in this post.

2016 Topps Opening Day Superstar Celebrations #SC-8 Justin Bour

Bryant must have done something extra special to drive the Cubs to empty two Gatorade containers on him. You'd think these guys were multi-millionaires or something. That's gotta be, like, fifty bucks worth of Gatorade in there. And whatever's coming out of the clear one looks a lot more like a small iceberg than just some chilled liquid.

Even though Topps is fully paid up with MLB (and Getty Images, I'd assume), they still refer to the Gatorade shower as a "sports drink bath". Careful not to use trademarks! And Topps breaks the "no foil" rule on these insert cards by adding it to the Topps logo.

I could go on, but between these two and Johnny Giavotella, I'll stop depicting all that Gatorade carnage.

2016 Topps Opening Day Alternate Reality #AR-6 Kris Bryant

This is a new insert set called Alternate Reality, showing players in their secondary uniforms. Kris Bryant, the darling of baseball card prospectors everywhere, is showing off lots of Cubbie Blue right down to his elbow guard and batting gloves. Other bloggers have suggested that this would be a great set to examine some actual alternate histories, like if Jackie Robinson was called out at the plate in 1955, just like Yogi Berra insisted all those years. Or if Jose Tabata didn't stick his elbow out while facing Max Scherzer last year. Or if the Rangers got Just One More Strike back in 2011. Or any number of blown calls that have affected games and records over the years.

What might be more entertaining is if they show players who suit up in the wrong uniform. Not sure how often that happens, but Junior Lake did that once in a road game a few years back. With all the alternates and throwbacks they use these days, it's bound to happen once in a while.

That's two Kris Bryant inserts, in addition to his base card. This has been a great blaster so far.

2016 Topps Opening Day Foil #OD-1 Mike Trout

And for one of the foil parallels, I pulled Mr. Card #1 himself, Mike Trout. This, of course, is from when Trout scaled the center field wall to rob Jesus Montero of a 3-run home run. Between this and the Bat Flip card, Topps picked some great photos from last season! Like Opening Day parallels in years past, this one lists the actual date that (most) games begin—there are a few games on April 3rd.

But all indications suggest that this is supposed to have a serial number. The print run is claimed at 2016, but unlike in past years, the serial number is nowhere to be found, front or back. Beckett, Topps, and even the fine print on the pack wrapper say it should be there, but they must have dropped it for 2016. Come to think of it, I think Topps did the same thing in 2015. Which is fine; it's their product. But they ought to double check the sell sheets. At least they put the date back.

2016 Topps Opening Day Heavy Hitters #HH-12 Paul Goldschmidt

Moving on from that slight disappointment, here's another fresh insert set, Heavy Hitters. As you might imagine, this is filled with power hitters that can mash a baseball into the waiting glove of a fan in the cheap seats. Jose Bautista is in that 15-card set, as is Nolan Arenado. But I pulled this one of Paul Goldschmidt. While I'm far from a Diamondbacks fan, I'm pretty sure this is a Coors Field card, judging from the purple banner at the top of the dugout, and the purple-shirted spectator in the upper right, who is probably an usher. That banner helps me pick out plenty of cards shot in Denver, and the Diamondbacks and other NL West teams are prime candidates to end up on one.

2016 Topps Opening Day Striking Distance #SD-14 Mark Teixeira

Teixeira, whose surname is even harder to spell than LeMahieu, is just six homers shy of 400. He's easily within "Striking Distance" of that milestone, as yet one more novel insert set tells us. 400 is quite a mark, but as the back points out, he'd be up there with Mickey Mantle, Eddie Murray, and Chipper Jones as the only switch hitters to eclipse that number. Ichiro's in the set too (twice, actually), though of course not for home runs. He's nearing 3,000 MLB hits (not even counting the thousand-plus he racked up in Japan), as well as 500 steals.

I really like the concept of this insert set; it helps focus your attention around the league as the season progresses and each of these players makes their run at the milestone. And with services like MLB.TV, it's as easy as ever (and $20 cheaper this year!) to keep an eye on them.

I didn't get paid to say that.

Even with all these new insert sets, there's still room for some of the old classics. The Gatorade-heavy Superstar Celebrations set is an Opening Day veteran, as is everyone's favorite.

2016 Topps Opening Day Mascots #M-4 Wally the Green Monster

Mascots!

I didn't unearth Dinger this year (pun shamelessly intended), but I did get this very Muppet-like mascot of the Boston Red Sox. The Green Monster...get it? I can't quite tell if that orange stuff is supposed to be his hair or his eyebrows, but with the left field wall they have in Fenway (and visible on this card, no less), how could they have any other mascot than this?

One classic insert set I didn't pull anything from was Opening Day Stars, but Topps ditched the lenticular surface this year, which marks the end of an era. Even though they don't appear to move the same way that Sportflics cards do, they're still fun to run your fingernail across. I know that's not great for their condition, but I can't help it.

So far this has been a pretty awesome blaster. Lots of postgame celebrations, pretty darn good photography, inserts and parallels of some of the game's hottest young players, and that legendary bat flip.

How could I top all that?

Well, remember I mentioned Dee Gordon would be making another appearance?

2016 Topps Opening Day Printing Plates Black #OD-129 Dee Gordon /1

That, dear readers, is a printing plate.

Out of a $10 blaster of Opening Day.

Yes, I was pretty shocked. On average, I'd need to open over 3,000 of these 7-card blaster packs to pull one. I guess that one must have been the bonus pack.

I've had good luck with Opening Day before, including that David Wright autograph, but this is definitely above and beyond. It's only the second one I've ever found, and the first was in the already-scarce 2014 Topps Mini. My jaw definitely dropped. I'm sure supercollectors run across these all the time, but this sort of stuff doesn't find its way into my collection very often. Seeing one gives you a whole new appreciation for the detail and design work that goes into these, and it is pretty cool to know that every copy of Dee Gordon's card came from this.

Well, indirectly. They use offset printing, which is why the image isn't reversed. But still. I like it even more than a true 1/1. While it is a unique collectible itself, it's one that had a hand in creating all the rest of them. And even then, you still need three other colors to get the whole picture. It has to have some help from others to get the job done.

That may be a bit too sappy and philosophical for a hobby blog, but it's good to take a step back once in a while and look at the bigger picture to see all the interconnectedness in something as simple as a little rectangular baseball card.

OD-10

Though that is Felix Hernandez's card number in 2016 Topps Opening Day, more importantly it's NASA-speak for the number of days remaining to MLB's opening day! A few games start up on Sunday, April 3rd, though most teams begin play the following day, which is what the foil parallels have listed.

Now that we survived our seemingly annual giant March blizzard in Denver, we can start digging out, waiting for a foot and a half of snow to melt and drain from our roofs, backyards, and baseball diamonds. But "snow series" have become more common in Denver, so we're not out of the woods yet.

2016 Topps Opening Day #OD-92 Jean Segura

Digging into my annual blaster of Topps Opening Day from my local SuperTarget, there's your first look at a 2016 card on Infield Fly Rule. Jean Segura is laying down a bunt with pretty good form. And like them or not, 2016 Topps finally got rid of borders for the base set for the first time, well, ever. There is that cloudy area behind the player, which does serve to frame the photo, but it's quite a departure from what we've seen since the 1950s.

But there's plenty more you can do with a bat than just bunt.

Like, oh, I don't know. Maybe belt an epic go-ahead home run with it in a deciding playoff game, then fling the thing one-handed right at the visitor's dugout and into the history books.

That would make a great baseball card.

2016 Topps Opening Day #OD-187 Jose Bautista

Yep.

This was the second card from the second pack in the blaster, and though I haven't seen one from 2016 Topps base, this is just about the same thing, though zoomed in a little bit. Along with that Dinger mascot card from 2014, these $10 Opening Day blasters tend to give me just what I'm after.

2016 Topps Opening Day #OD-17 Kris Bryant

Kris Bryant is one of the most promising young prospects in baseball, and he's certainly the most sought-after player in baseball cards these days. I'm sure I could flip this lowly base card on eBay for a buck or two. But I'd rather hang on to it, and I'm interested to see what he and the Cubbies will do this year. It's always hit or miss with "Future Stars" cards, but I think this one's a pretty safe bet.

2016 Topps Opening Day #OD-181 Justin Bour

Justin Bour maybe less so. Although he finished fifth in Rookie of the Year voting behind the winning Kris Bryant, he still mashed 23 home runs last season. Yet he's far from a household name (maybe because he's a Marlin), but that could change at any moment.

I haven't said much about the design yet, and I do like this 2016 set. The banner in the corner reminds me of a blown-up 1993 Topps, and the layout is effective. No vertical names or distracting cluster of information. The team logo is pretty large, though not quite as imposing as 2010, but I'm not so sure I like how it's partially obscured behind the banner. The banner can slant either left or right, and it's pretty much dependent on the team logo which way looks best. The actual Marlin in the logo is almost entirely obscured here, but the Diamondbacks, Brewers, and Mets look pretty good with this banner orientation. The White Sox, Rockies, Cubs, and most others look better the other way.

This is also kind of a busy card, even without foil. The key elements are pretty clean, but add in the Opening Day seal, the Future Stars lettering, and the Topps Rookie Cup, it starts to look pretty cluttered.

2016 Topps Opening Day #OD-123 Johnny Giavotella

You might think this is one of the Superstar Celebration insert cards that Opening Day is known for. But no, just a base card. Baseball players have taken the Gatorate shower way further than the NFL, who still pretty much reserves that for clinching a playoff spot. In baseball, pretty much any game-winning hit can earn it. I've noticed that camera crews are getting pretty good at stepping out of the way in time. The photographer also used a really fast shutter speed here, as the water droplets are frozen in midair, cascading around Giavotella's neck.

You need a fast lens to do that, especially at the end of a night game. That means a wide aperture to grab enough light in the slightest fraction of a second. Which equals a shallow depth of field, thus causing all those blurry backgrounds people have been noticing in this year's set. That's been the case for quite some time, but there just must be something about this design that makes it more noticeable. Maybe the edge fading they're using instead of a true border. Regardless, I'll take some blurry backgrounds to get shots like this. Do we really want to return to all those posed shots Topps gave us in the late '60s where the left field facade of Yankee Stadium was clearly visible on almost every card? In my opinion, all these pin-sharp photos are just fine with me. These horizontal ones especially are like holding tiny HDTVs.

And we haven't seen one straining pitcher's face yet. But don't worry, that's coming.

2016 Topps Opening Day #OD-188 Troy Tulowitzki

No big deal here, just a Rockies franchise player batting for the Blue Jays.

As a Rockies fan, this is just weird. It's taking a long time to get used to this trade. I'm sure this is old hat to all you Dodgers and Tigers and Yankees fans who trade and sign and release players of this caliber on a regular basis. But our transactions are more along the lines of Daniel Descalso, Brandon Barnes, Brett Anderson, etc.... Yes, once in a while there's a Holliday-for-Gonzalez type of trade, and Jose Reyes did come over in the Tulo trade with all the pitching prospects, but more often than not, a casual fan has no idea who's coming or going.

2016 Topps Opening Day #OD-155 Jake Odorizzi

Jake Odorizzi, a guy who's been on my Fantasy squad once or twice, led off three straight Rays starting pitchers at the tail end of one pack. I think Odorizzi's been in the league a little too long to be labeled a Future Star. He'll be hitting that all-important 27th birthday in about a year, and I really don't see this guy becoming a late bloomer like Randy Johnson, who took a long time to develop control.

But even a middle-of-the-rotation guy like Odorizzi could be a game changer if he somehow ended up on the Rockies.

2016 Topps Opening Day #OD-113 Alex Cobb

The Rays have a pretty good rotation, though with Alex Cobb out until late in the season rehabilitating from Tommy John surgery, their success in the always-tough AL East is far from certain. Though if they do manage to win the division, it will be the first time in the Wild Card era that five different teams win their division in five consecutive years.

Thanks, reddit.

2016 Topps Opening Day #OD-49 Erasmo Ramirez

With Cobb Out, Erasmo Ramirez will have a more solid spot in the Rays rotation. He looks dwarfed by the pitcher's mound from this high angle, and it may be a Shadow Shots candidate for Johnny's Trading Post, even with the banner and the fade-out in the way.

I'm really not kidding that I pulled these three cards in a row. Three Rays righties, all with straining mid-pitch faces.

2016 Topps Opening Day #OD-39 DJ LeMahieu

Finally, it just wouldn't be right to leave out the Rockies. This is a great double-play shot of second baseman DJ LeMahieu, continuing the great tradition of Rockies middle infielders with difficult-to-spell last names. Looks like this is from Chase Field, as Jake Lamb is wearing a throwback Diamondbacks jersey, their original pinstriped design with purple and teal. Also don't forget that Pepsi ad on the outfield wall.

Speaking of Pepsi, the last time I had one was in 2009 at Angel Stadium with my dad. Not the last time at a ballgame, the last time period. Soda just isn't my thing.

Potato chips, on the other hand? Well, let's just say that the expiration date on a bag of chips is one of the most useless pieces of information in my day-to-day life.

I'll wrap up the base cards here, but I'll have another entire post devoted just to inserts and parallels. You already know I love Opening Day inserts, and this blaster was a pretty lucky one in the parallel department.

Stop by as the countdown continues!

The Trading Post #58: Mark Hoyle

Nowhere in the #SuperTraders rulebook does it say you have to write a blog. Mark Hoyle, easily the most active non-blogger in this community has the Red Sox slot, and he's obviously a regular at his local post office. This is the first time Mark and I have swapped cards, and he didn't waste any time getting to the good stuff.

2007 Topps Opening Day #33 Willy Taveras

2007 Opening Day was about as different as that brand ever got from Topps base. Of course, the Filmstrip Set had black borders that year, along with silver foil. This is at least the fourth time it's shown up on Infield Fly Rule, clearly indicating my preference for its design, though I did show a 2007 Topps Chrome once before.

2016 Opening Day has hit the shelves by now, and it's become a bit of a tradition for me to pick up a blaster at my local SuperTarget. Perhaps this week I'll have a few moments to pop over. Though I already know it's almost as similar to the base set as possible, meaning I'm more after those awesome insert cards that continue to hang on in Opening Day.

1999 Topps #52 Todd Helton

Unlike 2007 OD (might as well start calling it that, since "OD" is in the card numbers for 2016), 1999 Topps is a rare bird around here. It was a pretty small set, as Topps Base got pretty tiny in the years following the strike. It seems they'd whittle it down another 80 cards every year until a giant 790-card set returned in 2001 for their 50th Anniversary.

Anyway, this Helton card shows up in trade packages and dime boxes fairly frequently, and it's a great candidate for all the collectors with mini collections. A dugout shot, baseball equipment, a hatless player, the Topps Rookie Cup, a rain delay; this card has it all. Even an inverted wheelbarrow.

Seems to me he could take about three steps to his right and stay nice and dry, as pro ballplayers tend to get fancy shmancy luxuries like roofs on the dugouts. But then this card wouldn't be a hidden gem in a fairly underwhelming set.

1995 Upper Deck #176 Marvin Freeman

Another one you don't see too often around here is 1995 Upper Deck. Which is a shame, since it's awesome! Marvin Freeman signed with the Rockies at the end of the 1993 season, long before it was known that pitchers have a pretty rough time in the Mile High City. There was definitely a Wile E. Coyote effect in 1994, as he went an impressive 10-2 in the strike-shortened season. However, things didn't go as well the next two seasons, as the realities of pre-humidor Colorado baseball started to become clear. He owns the dubious distinction of committing the first-ever balk at Coors Field, and he was out of baseball by 1996.

1995 Upper Deck #172 Charlie Hayes

A few of Charlie Hayes' 1995 cards feature this odd contraption, mostly from Upper Deck. He is wearing his own batting helmet this time, but in the weeks leading up to the strike, Hayes was struck by a pitch that broke his jaw. He was out for several games before returning with this extra-protective face mask attached to his helmet. I can't blame the guy, as a pitch to the face is pretty much the scariest possible moment in baseball, perhaps second only to a pitcher getting a ball lined off his head.

Those two types of disturbing injuries seem to be happening with greater frequency, so it's good that the sport is at least giving players new options (especially pitchers) in protective headwear.

I got hit on the left elbow with a pitch in little league, and I chose to end my baseball career shortly after that. 11-year old kids tend not to have the best control. Of all the reasons why I never made the major leagues, being afraid of a pitched ball is definitely up there. I don't hold anything against Barry Bonds for all that armor he wore.

2015 Donruss #85 Justin Morneau

Mark is pretty well known for shipping vintage cards around, but since the Rockies don't really have any of those, the inaugural era will do just fine. However, there were a few recent cards, like Justin Morneau's from 2015 Donruss. In comparison to most of the cards so far, this one is just a bit thicker than I expected. I've seen the set before, but my fellow traders are still chipping away at the team set for me. Looking at the back, you could tell from orbit that it's a Donruss card. But the retro Donruss logo in the upper left makes it a bit more interesting than their overproduction sets.

And please allow me to belabor the point that it's not truly a logoless card, as Morneau wears Franklin batting gloves (just like I wore in little league), and a Majestic jersey.

1993 Pinnacle #238 David Nied

We'll turn back the clock a bit, all the way to the first Rockie picked in the expansion draft. The happy partly cloudy weather behind Nied accurately reflects the attitude around Denver when the Rockies first began play. Threatening storm clouds started appearing circa 1997, but in early 1993, Denver was thrilled that our time zone finally had a team!

The #1 overall expansion pick didn't develop into much, but according to Pinnacle, the Marlins had their eye on him too. Pinnacle also stressed the importance of "keeping the ball low" in Colorado, something we're still working on.

1995 Fleer Ultra Gold Medallion #155 Mike Kingery

Sharp-eyed readers will recognize this card, or one just like it. The base card came over in a gigantic box from Bo, but Mark managed to find the Gold Medallion parallel, which has an embossed gold seal in the upper corner. These were a hot ticket in 1995! I remember pulling a Gold Medallion insert card of Manny Ramirez, and I still know exactly where it is.

1995 Fleer Ultra Second Year Standouts Gold Medallion #11 Manny Ramirez

Manny was just a hard-charging newbie at the time, long before he made his millions and decided to spend a large part of his career on all sorts of antics and hijinks. I have no idea whether that helped or hurt this card's one-time $8.00 Beckett Hi value, but they still go for $2 or $3 on eBay.

1994 Select #70 Joe Girardi

Finally, a bunting Joe Girardi appears on a premium card, or rather just "Joe GI" (GI Joe?) due to a problem with the gold foil. The middle section between the two photos should have the outline of his last name spelled in gold foil. There are no other signs of damage to the card, so I am guessing Pinnacle must have run into some production problems. I've never seen this happen on Score Select before, but then again I have a grand total of about five cards from this set, so I have no idea whether this is common.

It was a single team bag, but there were plenty of interesting cards in it, including a reason to pull out some buried treasure from my 1995 Ultra pages. And whether there's a blog on the other end of it or not, thanks, Mark!

The Trading Post #57: My Best Friend Collects Chipper Jones

There isn't room for everyone in the SuperTraders group, but that hasn't stopped trades from arriving from elsewhere in the Cardsphere. You might call My Best Friend Collects Chipper Jones from Mark a newcomer, but he celebrates his one-year anniversary today! Join me in congratulating Mark on this milestone!

2014 Topps Archives #177 Carlos Gonzalez

CarGo seems happy about it, as he appears on a Topps Archives card based on the 1989 design. It's definitely no Stadium Club, but this set keeps growing on me year after year. There's just something so distinctive about the feel of Archives' card stock, which really helps differentiate them. Especially when it's an expansion team, it breathes new life into designs we've seen ten million times, and they even seem to use recycled photos less frequently than in other Topps sets.

Not that anyone would think one this is an original 1989 card, but there's not much risk of confusion anyway, unlike with the glossy reprints of very recent cards found in Cards Your Mom Threw Out and 60 Years of Topps sets. Night Owl made a point of how tough it is to tell the originals from the reprints on a series of Mike Piazza cards last week.

2015 Topps Archives #162 Nolan Arenado

Plus, it helps me learn the old designs a bit better. I can pick out the mid-'80s and on quite easily, but many 1970s sets confuse me. Is this Arenado supposed to be based on 1973, 1976, or 1979? '73 and '76 both have a little player outline in the lower corner, but both '76 and '79 have solid-colored bars at the bottom. A quick Google Image search confirms that it's 1976. And all the little pennants in 1974, 1977, and 1980 tend to throw me too.

So Archives is helping educate this collector that came up in the overproduction era, one who had allowance money for packs of 1991 Score and 1993 Fleer, but not for much in the way of vintage.

1995 Stadium Club #618 Larry Walker TA

Another day, another subset from 1995 Stadium Club that I've never seen before. Like the Extreme Corps card that came from Wes, apparently TSC made a Trans Action subset in their High Numbers release that year. News to me. I like the color scheme on this one a bit more than Extreme Corps card.

1994 Upper Deck Electric Diamond #483 Ellis Burks

Ellis Burks, a member of the Blake Street Bombers with Larry Walker, gets an action shot on 1994 Upper Deck, breaking a three-card string of Guys Resting Bats On Their Shoulders. I'm guessing this is a spring training shot, as there's an obvious A's fan in the crowd, and the Rockies didn't wear black jerseys in the regular season until many seasons later.

Cards like this make me miss Upper Deck. The sparkly finish on Electric Diamond cards predated Topps' Sparkle parallels by almost two decades. Topps has always been my favorite manufacturer, but it would be really nice to have some competition in the market.

2015 Stadium Club #32 Nolan Arenado

Still, the return of Stadium Club does help ease UD's passing, as the look of pure joy on Arenado's face puts this card head and shoulders above all the pitchers' straining faces we've seen in Topps Base for like five straight years. The only downside is that the same Arenado photo on the back can be found on at least three Topps cards.

2010 Topps Chrome #143 Troy Tulowitzki

I've been known to buy a pack or two of Topps Chrome. Some years are shinier than others, but in my opinion 2010 was the worst for "the curl". Curling on the horizontal axis isn't so terrible, and we're all pretty much used to it by now, but on the vertical axis it gets kind of weird, and many of the cards from a blaster I once bought of this are pretty much curled from the lower left to the upper right. Even now, I can glance over at my rows of binders and know exactly where my 2010 Topps Chrome cards are, since they don't lay flat and cause the pages to bulge.

2007 Upper Deck Spectrum #62 Todd Helton

They just keep getting shinier from here on out. This is from Upper Deck Spectrum, and it's one heck of a base card. Shiny silver with a hint of rainbow, vertical black borders (sort of like the 2007 UD base set), and a reflective Tron-like surface on the bottom. I'll have to find a way to squeeze this into my 2007 Upper Deck binder pages, which are already filled with what feels like a dozen and a half sets they made that year.

2008 Donruss Elite Extra Edition #17 Charlie Blackmon

Pre-beard Charlie Blackmon gets a card in the shiniest Donruss Elite set I can recall. I'm more familiar with their recent sets, and they used a lot more red in those. I can't quite place his uniform though. None of the Rockies' minor league clubs have cities or names that could match "JACK".

Maybe it means Jackpot, since starting in outfield for the Rockies was pretty close to my childhood idea of winning the lottery.

That, or owning my own jet airplane.

2013 Finest #12 Carlos Gonzalez

Though CarGo's road uniform doesn't look quite as striking as Tulo's purple pinstripes, 2013 Finest fits well with the other shiny silver cards Mark sent my way. The hexagonal theme of 2003 Finest remains one of my top three favorite Finest designs (along with that gorgeous green of 1994). The rows of circles on this design look a little bit like one of those mesh park benches, or a Connect Four game board.

2008 SPx #30 Matt Holliday

Die-cut cards seem more appealing every time I run across one, and Upper Deck did a stellar job with this one. The shading seen in each corner really makes this look like it's a two-layer card. Of course, there's a nice rainbow finish and cute little baseballs in each corner, but I am super impressed with this card. Every time I touch the corner I expect to feel another edge, although the visual effect isn't quite as pronounced on the back due to the lack of shininess.

My scanner never feels the same way about die-cuts, as it has enough trouble auto-cropping a perfect rectangle. But I'll appreciate this one for a long time to come.

Finally, I'll be doing a mail run in the next day or two, to recipients both on and off the #Supertraders list. Check the below list for your ZIP/Postal code!

07044
02766
13601
14222
20904
27314
28590
29730
29841
45067
55406
60706
70062
78125
79083
87499
N2H 5M5

Thanks for reading!