5 on the 5: 2012 Topps Update Series

I hit the Target card aisle yesterday in search of the new stuff. You know the drill. I seem to buy more of the Update set than Series 1 and 2 every year because I always get irrationally excited about baseball again this time of year for some crazy reason. Most of these cards will be up for grabs as I usually don't put together sets of this stuff.

Pack 1:

US92 - Chone Figgins - Figgy is my first Update card of the year. Figgy wants to "update" his team (and Twitter status?) soon so he can put the pieces of his career back together again.

US115 - Jason Grilli - YAHHHHH!
US121 - Johnny Damon

US95 - Edward Mujica - My first Mujica Cardinals card! And it's a great photo from the 1982 World Series anniversary weekend. I honestly wasn't expecting him to have any cards. The Mujica trade ended up being an unexpectedly great move.
US322 - Jordan Danks - The younger brother of John Danks.

BB-19 - Ryne Sandberg Blockbusters - I'm not sure that this trade would have been considered a blockbuster at the time. Ryno was just a prospect getting poached from another team.

GG-89 - Lou Brock Golden Greats - These are back. I'm not too fond of these. I'm fond of Lou, though.
US17 - Joe Smith
US197 - Cody Ransom
US268 - Craig Kimbrel All-Star - Braves cards are banned from the blog for awhile until their fans can start being a little more rational again. Blame Bud Selig for creating this madness, in any case.
US143 - Jose Veras
US135 - Clay Hensley - Former Portland Beaver!

Pack 2:
US25 - Joe Mather - Former Cardinal! His full major and minor league stats are included on the back, even though there's like 65 lines of them. It's probably because they couldn't think of anything interesting to say about Mather.
US13 - Matt Lindstrom
US41 - Juan Francisco

US288 - Maicer Izturis
US180 - Roy Oswalt - Now With Rangers
US53 - Omar Infante

US15 - Justin Verlander All-Star Golden Sparkly Nonsense
US83 - Carlos Lee

US87 - Andrew McCutchen All-Star - It'll take more than McCutchen's brilliance to save this doomed franchise.
US327 - Chris Sale All-Star
US148 - Paul Konerko All-Star - A couple of White Sox stars.
US325 - Joel Hanrahan All-Star

Pack 3:
US94 - Kevin Slowey
US43 - Michael Bowden - Bowden was the Cubs return for Marlon Byrd.
US310 - Kelly Shoppach
US254 - Jason Marquis - The Padres won the Where Will Marquis Land? contest this year, I guess.
US136 - Reed Johnson

US244 - Matt Downs Gold 0796/2012 - Gold parallels make their return for this set. I honestly didn't even know they were missing from Series 1 and 2, and I even like these. They no longer say 61 Years of Collecting (or however many years that it's been) on it, so that's a break with tradition. They are pulling a "cognac" from last season and golding up all of the cards from Series 1 and 2 as well. They are still using the cheap and ugly black serial numbering, this time obscuring them in top of the card above the player name on the back, which can be difficult to read with some of the darker team colors.

BB-6 - Jay Buhner Blockbusters - Jay Buhner? Wow! Topps really dug into the vaults for this one.
- Topps Pennant ad card

US237 - Prince Fielder Home Run Derby - That is a large mammal.
US195 - Chad Qualls
US274 - Jeff Gray
US166 - Chipper Jones All-Star Game - I have a feeling some will find this card iconic. Chipper Jones has always struck me as the same kind of smug - sort of an Atlanta version of Derek Jeter.

US129 - Giancarlo Stanton All-Star

Pack 4:
US296 - Henry Rodriguez
US19 - Jonathan Broxton - Who would win in a fight, Prince Fielder or Jonathan Broxton?
US31 - Esmil Rogers
US171 - Rhiner Cruz - I think Topps is just making up names now.
US232 - Andrelton Simmons

588 - Mark Ellis Gold 1688/2012 - Here's a Gold card from Series 2.

BB-28 - Johan Santana Blockbusters
US126 - John McDonald

US262 - Matt Kemp Home Run Derby - In this increasingly annoying contest, Matt Kemp was on the disabled list and participated... like a guy who was on the disabled list.
US194 - Brad Lincoln
US312 - Craig Stammen

US168 - Yu Darvish Rookie Debut - I'm not sure what to make of Darvish yet.

Pack 5:
US240 - Ronny Paulino
US193 - Henry Blanco
US122 - Logan Ondrusek
US4 - Matt Treanor - According to the back of the card, Treanor helped Chris Capuano to return to All-Star form. Those are two names I certainly didn't expect to still be around in 2012. Also, the fact that Capuano was once an All-Star was something I had totally forgotten about. His Brewers teammates? Derrick Turnbow (!) and Carlos Lee.
US317 - Marco Estrada
US160 - Marco Scutaro

US28 - Matt Albers Target Red - Just another parallel. Nothing to see here, folks.

GM-U2 - Mike Trout Golden Moments - Golden Boy Trout is certainly a hot commodity these days.

GGC-27 - Trevor Bauer Golden Giveaway Code - Trevor Bauer has his own code card? I don't even know who he is! Let's see if he's lucky... Ty Cobb coin. Probably not.
US206 - Cole Hamels All-Star
US256 - Joe Nathan All-Star
US37 - Billy Butler All-Star - Nice run of All-Stars.

US72 - Carlos Beltran Home Run Derby - Great way to end it! Beltran was up to his usual postseason tricks today, knocking two out of the park in a rout of the Nats.