Baseball Cards

For the third time in the past four years, the Bowman brand includes a 100 card insert set of the top 100 prospects. The first two versions (2010 and 2011) saw the set called Topps 100. After taking a year off, the set returns with a slightly different name, Top 100. The Cubs landed four in the Top 100. These four have much more buzz associated with them than the four in the prospects set. I'll start with the lowest and work my way up.Number 88, Daniel Vogelbach. He's a big boy with big power. But with first base locked up by Rizzo for years to come, Vogelbach has no future in the Cubs organization unless the DH come to the National League.Number 37, Albert Almora The 19-year-old from Florida was the Cubs #1 selection last June. He broke his left had in spring training and has yet to play a game this year. He should be ready to play by the end of May.Number 34, Jorge Soler Theo took a big risk by signing the Cuban Soler to a nine year, $30 million deal. He's had some temper issues in the minors this season, but he's hitting over .300. With the dollars invested in him, I'd expect to see him in a Cub uniform by 2015.Number 14, Javier Baez This guy seems to have it all...speed (20 SB in 57 games), power (12 HRs) and average (.333). He had a really nice spring while with the Cubs, but there wasn't ever any thought that he was MLB-ready. He's in High A ball right now.

today's quick post features cards i received from three sources, two of which have to do with triple plays. make sense? the first couple of items come from topher at crackin' wax. i looked on with envy as he pulled matt kemp tattoos (not the grandparent kind)and clayton kershaw eye blacksin a recent 2013 panini triple play break. he was kind enough to send them my way!mr. haverkamp, a very nice giants fan by the way, sent me another kind of triple play - a 1977-79 sportscaster triple play to be precise. i have a copy already, but it is still pretty cool to get one of those cards in the mail. he also sent a couple of cards to help with my 1974 topps set pursuit, hall of famers even. here's fergie jenkinsand jim palmerjenkins must have known something was up when the photographer asked him to remove his cap. sure enough, 1973 was his last year with the cubs. that's ok - he won a career high 25 games for the rangers in 1974finally, the third leg in this trade stool, jon from community gum sent some cards that i need for the 2009 upper deck o-pee-chee seti'm getting close...mike pelfrey where are you?thanks to all three of these nice guys for sending me cards!

Carlton Fisk 1987 Donruss I don’t know who is more upset – Carlton Fisk at the photographer for getting to close while snapping pictures or me at Donruss for using this image on a baseball card…

Name: Tom Glavine Team: Atlanta Braves Positions: Ace, left wing Value of card: 2 pounds of Zamboni sludge Key 1991 stat: 14 calls for icing It's time for a one-man, two-sport edition of The Matchup: Round 1: Penchant to get involved in a "two-on-one" (Winner: Hockey Glavine) Round 2: Disgust at eating a moose and maple syrup sandwich (Winner: Baseball Glavine) Round 3: Mullet (Winner: Tie) Round 4: Sweet turtleneck that allows for mullet tucking (Winner: Baseball Glavine) Round 5: Footwear that makes him a bit taller around the ladies (Winner: Hockey Glavine) Round 6: Nose for the crease, so to speak (Winner: Hockey Glavine) Round 7: Longer stick (Winner: Hockey Glavine) Score: Hockey Glavine 4, Baseball Glavine 2, Ties 1 Synopsis: It was a close Matchup when Canadian Hockey Glavine took on his clone, Atlanta Baseball Glavine, but, in the end, Hockey Glavine ended up with a powerplay while Baseball Glavine spent two minutes in the box for getting embarrassed.

Born on today's date, Willis Hudlin. "He has a curve, but does not use it a great deal. He thinks a fastball pitcher doesn't have to." - Harold "Speed" Johnson, Who's Who in Baseball (1933)

Phillies 3, Marlins 0Game 47 - Wednesday Night, May 22nd in MiamiRecord - 23-24, 3rd Place, 5 1/2 games behind the BravesOne Sentence Summary: Cliff Lee was nearly un-hittable as he and the Phillies easily took care of the Marlins, winning 3-0.What It Means: The Phillies won the series and they continue their slow progress to .500. They've now won seven of their last ten games. Following an off-day today, they'll open a three-game series in Washington. If all goes well, the Phillies will find themselves with a winning record and in second place on Memorial Day.What Went Right: Lee allowed only three hits in his complete game shut-out and he earned his fifth win of the year. He was in control from the outset, and it was an absolute pleasure watching him mow down the pedestrian Marlins line-up. He has a 1.16 ERA in his last four starts.In the fourth, Delmon Young hit his second home run in as many nights. Domonic Brown added an RBI-triple in the sixth, followed by an RBI-single from Freddy Galvis.Featured Card: I could have featured another Bowman card in this post, but I decided to go with Lee's base card from this year's Topps flagship set. It's hard to believe that series two will be released in less than a month.

Time To Unveil The ‘HR Derby’ Winner!!! And the winner of my ‘HR Derby’ contest is – XXXXX!!! With XX Home Runs selected, XXXX came the closest to the total number of home runs hit in the majors on Wednesday. Congratulations, XXXX!!! I will send you an email so I can get your address so I can mail out your cards. Here is a look at how the scoring broke down: * And here is a peek out how the players did compared to the final tally: * And one last look at the prize: Big thanks to everyone that participated in this contest. The next one is just around the corner… Stay tuned.

I fear that there is one thing that will eventually make me stop watching major league baseball.It won't be interleague play or shaving cream shaming rituals or robot umps. It will be the amount of money that baseball players are making.I've never been one to begrudge the money that major leaguers make. While my father openly mocks the cash players receive, I understand that they're entertainers and entertainers in successful businesses are paid handsomely. We can holler about the injustice of teachers, doctors, scientists (or, god forbid, journalists) not receiving what they're worth in comparison, but we live in an entertainment society.So although the amount of money a long-innings relief pitcher makes in one year repeatedly blows my mind as I bounce checks over a simple utility bill, I get it. Big leaguers are paid what the market will bear. I understand.But I don't like what it's doing to everyone else. They obviously can't handle it.This is not a new phenomenon and not news to anyone, but the otherwordly amount of cash that major leaguers make has turned baseball players' relationship with the general public into an "Us vs. Them" schism.I've mentioned this before on the blog. It concerns me quite a bit. I grew up during the first stirrings of free agency. The cartoons on some of the first baseball cards I ever collected mentioned the second jobs that players held down in the offseason. I actually remember a time when players were like you and I in terms of trying to make ends meet. Sure, they made a little more than the average Joe and Judy, but they were "regular guys." The money they took home certainly wasn't enough to create any drama on the scale of what just happened with Matt Kemp.Kemp, as you know by now, generously offered $1,000 per every home run he hits to the victims of the Moore, Okla., tornado. Kemp is an Oklahoman and he also later donated $250,000 separate from the HR donation.But because people are now completely incapable of preventing every thought in their head from spilling out and practically trampling each other to prove who can be more cynical than the next person, Kemp's spur-of-the-moment gesture -- in the wake of processing a horrific tragedy hitting close to his HOMETOWN -- was termed by some people as "not generous enough."I was so floored and disgusted by this that I almost had to lie down to mourn what we have become.You do not question any individual's charitable contribution.I don't care how much money that person makes or how little that person makes, you just don't do it.To do so is completely exposing whatever issues you have in life. I don't know if these critics have problems with money or their families or their relationships or their jobs or their ability to function in life or whatever it is. But there's obviously something there that could make them sink so low as to get out a calculator and judge some person they've never met.But this is what huge salaries in baseball has done. We're pencil-pushing troll-auditors forever evaluating and assessing and judging.The gulf between Us and Them is greater than ever.We wonder why players don't take the time to sign autographs (Kemp, by the way, takes the time to sign lots of them).This is where we are. Fan and player. We don't think of them as "us," and they don't think of us as "them." They're barely people to us and we're barely people to them.It's class warfare and I don't want baseball to be like that. I try my very hardest to think of players -- no matter how much money that they make -- as regular people, who grew up playing baseball in a league somewhere, just like you and me, who played high school ball, just like you and me, who got nervous, dreamed big, failed classes, stared at the pretty girl -- just like you and me.I try to keep it to "you and me," because I don't want to think of "us and them."It's not easy when I see what some high-paid players do, but I try to think of those incidents as a bad apple in society, not "one o

Steven Jackson, always a Beaver, once a Ram, now a Falcon.

Filed under: Card of the Day