Airbrushed Fridays: 2008 Topps #581

Tyler Greene has played his last game as a Cardinal. I finished watching Wednesday night's Giants/Cardinals contest (if you can call it that) believing that Tyler Greene may have played his last game in the Birds on the Bat. He was the fastest guy on the team by leaps and bounds and a former #1 pick, but at 29, being a middle infielder on a team that is in most years desperate for mere competence, he couldn't do a lot of things right when it mattered. Despite the fact that he's only been thrown out stealing twice in his major league career, he got picked off yet again. Laziness, lack of focus, whatever you want to call it. He's Houston's to deal with now. I wish him the best. He seemed like a good guy. (Oh, the Cardinals lost 15-0, but evened up the series on Thursday with a strong performance by Adam Wainwright.)

Who is this week's victim, and why do we care? Kazuo Matsui had the misfortune of being the second highly touted Matsui to be posted to MLB in a New York market, and he struggled mightily after an average debut season with the Mets. His Astros tenure, for what it's worth, will be best remembered for a gruesome/humorous on the most juvenile of levels injury.

Why does this card exist? For once, I can spare my rant about the pointlessness of a second series of Topps cards when they don't bother to get new photos of players with their new teams in time because it took Kaz two or three weeks before he was Houston ready. Maybe I am cutting Topps too much slack. In any case, Matsui came to Houston in the previous offseason from Colorado, where he somewhat revived his career. His right-handed bat should have played well in Minute Maid Park with its short porch (Crawford Boxes) in right field, but after one solid season he went into decline.

Airbrushed Fridays is a weekly feature as the name seems to imply. If you know of a card with an altered photograph that you'd like to see featured, please contact me. You probably won't win anything other than a hyperlink and some 2007 Topps Heritage gum, but you never know!