Airbrushed Fridays: 2013 Topps Opening Day #4

Will the Astros experiment with extreme rebuilding work?

Who is this week's victim, and why do we care? Matt Dominguez was drafted high by the Florida Marlins, a third baseman with a lot of potential that the Marlins finally cast aside when they spent all their Monopoly money to coincide with the opening of their new abomination of a ballpark. Houston has groomed him for a couple of seasons now, and while his power is still developing he's got a ways to go in other areas (.690 OPS over his first full season.)

Why is this a thing? Dominguez isn't here because of the trade that sent Carlos Lee to Miami. Topps repeated the thing that annoyed me so much from 2012, where they Photoshopped players out of their existing uniforms into new uniforms simply because their team was changing their look for the new season at hand. I find it completely and utterly pointless, entirely the opposite of the way I feel about traditionally airbrushed cards. Altering card photos has historically been utilized out of need and with good intentions. A player changed teams, no current photos are available, let's try to get the guy's blue cap to look more like a green cap... you know the drill. There's just no point to this at all. Topps seems to have decided that their sets, particularly the Opening Day line, need to function as crystal balls rather than historical documents. The next thing we know, Topps will be putting players in other teams' uniforms based on the chance that they might get traded. Maybe I won't be shocked if there are 30 different Robinson Cano variations in 2014 Topps Opening Day. Okay, maybe just 29. There's no way Cano ends up in an Astros uniform next year. Speaking of the Astros, does anyone believe this intense rebuilding phase will work? Have they hit bottom yet? Will they replace their young, league minimum-earning position players with non-union Mexican equivalents? So-called experts believe that they could be good again in just a few years, but it will be interesting to see how it plays out.

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 several mismatched socks, but you never know!