Airbrushed Fridays: 2010 Topps #344

Altered photos on baseball cards for the masses.

Who is he? Brett Myers was a serviceable member of the Philadelphia Phillies rotation for the better part of last decade (whatever we are calling that). He was a member of the World Series winning 2008 team, though he struggled for much of the season and lost his only World Series start. Myers spent much of the 2007 season as a closer, a role he would later revisit.

How did he get here? Houston signed Myers as a free agent early in 2010. The rebuilding Astros needed a veteran starter and he apparently fit the role, though he'd eventually spend some time in the closer role as well.

Repeat offender? No

Other versions of this card: None

Airbrushed Score: 8

Comments: This is truly an awful look for the Photoshop era. Topps seems to have actually turned a corner if the latest Update Series set is any indication, but back in 2010 things were still pretty ridiculous. Parts of Myers on this card almost look like he's in a video game.

Airbrushed Fridays: 2010 Topps #458

The Cardinals have officially hit the skids. Their recent examples of play on the baseball field harken back to the days where the team was doing crazy things like converting scrap heap relievers to starters and batting the pitcher eighth. Which reminds me...

Who is this week's victim, and why do we care? Todd Wellemeyer is a repeat offender and was one of Dave Duncan's pet projects. He was a hard thrower, but not very deceptive. His results in his time in St. Louis were mixed. He lead the dreadful 2008 club in some pitching categories but by 2010 he was someone else's Colonel.

Why is this a thing? Wellemeyer became the Cardinals weakest link in the 2009 rotation (others who took a stab at this included Brad Thompson, Mitchell Boggs, the recently released P.J. Walters and even John Smoltz) and signed with the Giants in the offseason. After a dozen or so starts, he tried again with the Cubs before retiring in 2011.

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 a Kentucky Colonel designation, but you never know!

Airbrushed Fridays: 2010 Topps #116

Fantasy baseball can be a bit perplexing. Sometimes I will look at one of my teams and not understand why I don't have a better record. Other times, I will realize that all along I've thought that I had pretty decent pitching only to realize that Ryan Vogelsong has turned back into a pumpkin and Dan Haren hasn't been good in years. I wonder if real team GMs have similar feelings about their actual teams. I mean, you can look at the Astros or Marlins and know exactly why they are losing, but sometimes it's hard to understand how a team loaded with talent (and stats!) has a less than fabulous won-loss record.

Who is this week's victim, and why? Carlos Gomez has gone from someone I was fantasy-indifferent about to someone who is one of the cornerstones of my offense. How did that happen? Gomez has been through three organizations and failed to provide offense, power, or much in the way of speed at any level. Suddenly, after hitting 19 HRs and stealing a bunch of bases, he's on track to increase his numbers once again and is putting up a .996 OPS at last check. The outfielder is only 27 and is in his 7th major league season, which seems to indicate that he was rushed to the big leagues too soon.

Why is this a thing? Gomez is Photoshopped into a (for some reason, retro) Brewers jersey after Milwaukee acquired him straight up for J.J. Hardy. Gomez was once the Twins bounty for trading away Johan Santana, but after two pretty lousy seasons with the Twins, Gomez was gone.

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 three hour looped recording of Kevin Millar saying "Got HEEEEM!", but you never know!

Airbrushed Fridays: 2010 Topps #544

Has anyone seen a Photoshopped 2013 Topps card? I'll admit that I've only purchased one rack pack and one blaster so far, but I haven't personally run across any. I know that they went overboard with Photoshop last year with all of the Marlins and Blue Jays cards while it looks like they've left the poor Astros, who will don new duds, alone this year. I'm sure with next month's Opening Day set release, we'll see plenty of shenanigans, but for now I'm still mining sets from the past few years for Photoshopped fodder.

Who is this week's victim, and why do we care? Kevin Kouzmanoff was at one time considered one of the better third baseman in the league, but has seen his stock fall considerably in recent years. Last year he split time between AA and AAA ball. Before returning to the American League, it had been five years since he played minor league ball. He was a 6th round draft pick for Cleveland before San Diego picked him up and made him their every day guy at the hot corner. Oh, and Sooz used to collect him. You know, before she went all Beckett on us. (Maybe she still does. I have no idea.)

Why is this a thing? Things really started to go south for Kouz when he was included in a trade for Aaron Cunningham and Scott Hairston, where (as mentioned above) he returned to the League he broke in with. Things didn't go so well in Oakland, and he's bounced around ever since. As for the card, while his cap was conveniently tilted so that you couldn't see the logo, the "Athletics" on his jersey just seems too small and weird to be real.

Airbrushed Fridays is a regular, 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 an unofficial internship at Beckett Media, but you never know!

Patches

I managed to win two fantasy baseball leagues this year, which I've probably mentioned before. One of them actually ended in a tie, which I didn't think was possible, and I ended up with the prizes (at least in theory). I received a few cards in the mail from a couple of locations, and there was a common theme: Topps manupatches. This Dizzy Dean patch card from 2010 Topps Series 1 is a keeper for sure. I received it from The Daily Dimwit.

Two more patches, from 2011 Topps, came over across the pond from Martyn. I have to admit that I have no idea who Josh Bell is, but I'm sure that somebody does! I find it rather strange that they chose to use a 1997 commemorative patch for the Orioles, since that wasn't even a World Series year for them.

Here's a guy we're all probably a little more familiar with. Anyway, these patches are up for grabs to anyone who is interested, except for the Dizzy Dean. I will be looking forward to trying to duplicate my success somehow in the coming fantasy season.

Million Card Giveaway Last Ditch Effort

I made a last ditch grab for some 2010 Topps Update packs in an attempt to get some of those pesky codes that expire very, very soon. After the second code I entered turned into a special autographed card of a Hall of Famer, I knew it could only be downhill from there. And it was. I traded my way into a couple of late '60s Cardinals cards that I will probably have shipped, even though it's not really worth it. Other than that, I'm stuck with cards from 1979, 1980 and a 1985 Berra Father-and-Son card. Yikes. Steve Kemp here was my first redemption of the day, with a Thurman Munson code that came from a hobby pack. One of the local shops has hobby packs for $1.75, which seems to be fairly reasonable. I actually pulled a Black parallel from one of the packs today, which I'm going to send on to a Red Sox collector.

My second code of the day resulted in this. Nice. This was an Ichiro code in one of those 7.99 blister packs at Target that includes a bonus code card. Either I was hax0red!$$!!111 as the kids say (do they say that anymore?) or someone figured out how to read the code card through the blister pack. Or... shenanigans.

Code 3, courtesy of Mickey Mantle, came from one of the retail packs in the blister pack itself. I guess I'd be pleased if I was a Tigers fan, but there's no way I'd get these puppies shipped. If anyone out there has any interesting Cardinals cards sitting in their queue that you don't plan on claiming, please let me know.

Also, I do have some ToppsTown codes if anyone is into that. Let me know and I'll scan them for you.

2010 Topps Series 2: Blast It!

We're on to the conclusion of my 2010 Topps Series 2 posts. By conclusion I mean that this is probably going to be the last time that I post about this set, ever. Tomorrow I will begin my new blog, writing about the math rock scene.

For $19.99 or twice the price of options number 1 and 2, you get a whole lot of packaging and not a whole lot of cards. Each pack contains 8 cards along with 1 individually wrapped manufactured patch card for a grand total of 65 cards. Inserts are fairly plentiful here, but really you're paying an extra $10 for a "manupatch". Also, oddly enough, it appears that there is zero chance at pulling any relics or autographs.

This also happened to be a Target exclusive box, which means that the first two packs out of the box contain Target "throwback" versions of the regular base cards. These are nice but incredibly difficult to find. If you toss out the inserts, I actually pulled only 11 of these cards in a $20 box and this is the only way that you can obtain these. Wal-Mart has a similar scam going on. This probably explains why not a single person has traded me any of these cards after last year's Series 1 where you could get entire boxes that came this way if you knew the right UPC code. (If you are holding onto any Cardinals like these from this year or last year's Series 2 or U&H, please let me know immediately as I'd love to get ahold of them!)

The backs look like... well... like a Topps card back should look. It's grey and cardboardy.

Here's my lone base Cardinal card of the box. Allen Craig never got a chance to contribute in his brief time with the big club. He was an internet folk hero last season thanks to his impressive numbers and his consistent lack of attention or praise from management, so of course I expected big things.

I can't believe how many times I've seen this same Johnny Mize photo. Did he ever really play for St. Louis or did he just pose in their unis once? This is from the Vintage Legends insert set.

This is a Mom-related Original Back of a card that looks somewhat similar to a 1985 Robin Yount. Maybe Thorzul would be into this...

Oops... somehow a 2009 card was slipped into this box. Oh, wait, supposedly my mom threw it out, too. She really needs to stay out of my stuff.

The! Best! Announcer! Of! All! Time! Ever!

I'm starting to think that Joe Mauer is slowly replacing Ichiro as the guy I get in pretty much everything ever. I don't mind, because a lot of people collect Mauer. No one gets to have this card but me, however.

I wish I knew an A's collector. I really do.

Oh yes... lest I forget...

Manupatchy Ruth! These look cool, but, eh... it's hard to get too excited about them.

The Results:

Base Cards: 40

Target Throwback Cards (2:8 packs): 11

Gold Parallels (1:18): 1 (These are pretty tough to pull all of a sudden. They are still producing a similar quantity of these as in years past, so does that mean that they made a ton more of the base cards from this year's set? Gee... would a company with a new exclusive deal to produce licensed cards do such a thing?)

The Cards Your Mom Threw Out (1:3): 4 (Pretty good haul there.)

The Cards Your Mom Threw Out Original Backs (1:10): 1

History of the World Series (1:6): 1 (Alex Gonzalez? Really?)

Legendary Lineage (1:4): 2

Million Card Giveaway: 1

Peak Performance (1:4): 2 (Eh.)

Topps AttaxTown: 8 (That's one per pack if you are keeping track.)

Topps 2020 (1:6): 1 (Woo!)

Turkey Red (1:4): 3 (Nice. I like beating the odds here, because I am collecting everything Turkey Red.)

Vintage Legends (1:4): 3 (Including Honus Wagner on a 1990 Topps design. Are you kidding me? That's like a painting of Mona Lisa on a toilet or something.)

Cardinals: 2

Lessons Learned: $20 is a lot of money to be spending on cards for me right now. So... you tell me. What's the best deal out there for a retail buyer? I would love to hear your thoughts. Personally, I think I'm sticking to loose packs and hoping for Turkey Reds and 2020s.

And now, after all that card purchasing, what do I get as my reward? Thanks, Target!

2010 Topps Series 2: Part of Your Complete Breakfast

Part two of my in-depth look at spending money on a popular retail product takes us to the Cereal Box. If you're anywhere near my age, you know that you used to be able to buy variety packs of cereal in the grocery store where the boxes would be shrink wrapped in little single-serving sizes. I think they still do this with bags of chips. Aside from being a complete waste of packaging, the entire thing was a huge money making scam as the sum total of cereal contents in one of these variety packs probably amounted to about a quarter of a regular box of cereal, yet you somehow would end up paying more. I was still ticked that my mother wouldn't buy these.

Are the Topps cereal boxes a similar scam? For $9.99, there are a lot of guarantees. There are 55 cards, slightly less than 5 retail packs will contain, but you get 1 of a series of 10 Gold Chrome Refractors. These also serve as a nice "insert sampler" as you get one of every regular non-serial numbered insert in here somewhere.

I'm continually impressed with the quality of photos of the horizontal cards in Series 2. I've yet to be blown away by the rest of the base cards, unless you count whatever it was that I was feeling about that Mariners Franchise History card.

Finally, a Cardinal! Chris Carpenter was held out of Series 1 for some reason, and his photo here is different from his Opening Day card.

I didn't collect cards from 1994 through 2005 or so, so it's fairly unlikely that my mother would have thrown out any Joe Mauer rookie cards. I know, I know... it's so easy to say. Topps just should have chosen more wisely with the naming of these inserts.

This is one of the Vintage Legends cards. The backs of these cards really annoy me, but I'll save that for another post. The thing that annoys me about this is that Topps logo that just doesn't work.

I have fond memories of the 2001 World Series, even though the Yankees ultimately lost in 7 games. On this particular night, which actually happened to be Halloween night, I was out celebrating my birthday with a friend of mine and got to rub it in his face that my Yankees won in dramatic fashion... even though I was never a big Jeter fan. And yes, they're my Yankees when it comes down to playoff time and a certain red birded team is out of it.

I always talk myself into getting cereal boxes because I know for a fact that there will be a Turkey Red card inside. Here's one to scratch from the set.

This isn't a bad side-by-side card. Both of these guys play(ed) ball in the same area for a living.

Do you know those Staples commercials? "WOW! THAT'S A LOW PRICE!" That's kind of how I reacted when I saw this. "WOW! THAT'S A COOL CARD!"

"I KNOW!"

If you don't know what I'm talking about, then I really won't subject you to it. Consider yourself blessed. Anyway, I love these cards and want to collect them. They're some sort of weird hybrid combo of the 3D revival craze and Sportflics, which is awesome.

And lest I forget...

A very curved Lou Gehrig. Two of the ten players are active players, Albert Pujols and Mariano Rivera. Clearly, you know who I am after. This does break the Cy Young streak I had going. I will try to keep flattening this one out and see if anyone is interested.

The Results:

Base Cards: 46

The Cards Your Mom Threw Out: 1 (No "Original Backs")

History of the World Series: 1

Legendary Lineage: 1

Million Card Giveaway: 1

Peak Performance: 1 (I still don't like these. I got Aaron Hill this time.)

Topps AttaxTown: 1

Topps 2020: 1 (Yes!)

Turkey Red: 1

Vintage Legends: 1

Cardinals: 1

Lessons Learned: Basically, you substitute a few inserts for a shiny chrome refractor exclusive thing and this is what you get for about the same price as 5 packs. The boxes are cool, too.

Next up: A blast from the past. From the future. Okay, fine, just a blast.

2010 Topps Series 2: A Case Study in Three Parts

After much whining, sniveling and general self-pity, I finally ran into a plethora of available 2010 Topps Series 2 product on shelves after sneaking out of work early last Wednesday night. Unfortunately, I was unable to contain my excitement and walked out of Target with $40 worth of the stuff. In an effort to save some face (with myself, primarily) I decided to present this as a research opportunity for future retail dwellers to learn from and make better informed decisions.

Today, I present to you a summary of results of 5 loose packs from Target. These packs contain 12 cards each and one has the opportunity to pull Target-exclusive Red Back inserts. For $9.95, that's a total of 60 cards including 5 Topps AttaxTowns and other assorted inserts. (I posted the very first pack here at A Pack To Be Named Later.)

I cannot believe how amazing and awkward this card is. It actually took me several days to believe that this was really Griffey partaking in what appears to an elbow pat by one Ichiro Suzuki. The number on his back threw me off briefly, until I remembered that this was probably from Jackie Robinson Day where everyone wears #42.

Here is my first Vintage Legends insert, one of the three brand new inserts in Series 2. Series 1 was already stuffed full of inserts, and I'm not sure if they added even more or just replaced a few of the bad ideas. I don't think depicting a legendary player on card design from a fairly dubious era makes sense.

Oh, the Cards Your Mom Threw Out. Little did she know that a John Smoltz card from 1997 would be worth 11 cents one day.

Here's another one of the newbies. Until I discover some Cardinals in this insert set, I'm going to say that it's terrible. (Please tell me that Adam Wainwright or at least Darrell Porter is a part of this.)

Rangers fans, rejoice! I guess this guy isn't all washed up after all.

Topps made an attempt to salvage the Topps Town idea and I guess it makes sense. They look better this way for some reason.

The Legendary Lineage cards either work or they don't, depending on the combo. I think they should just stick to players from the same franchise like this one.

Ah, you knew I couldn't leave out the Turkey Red. Jackie's card is a little too cartoonish looking for me, but this is still nice.

The Results:

Base Cards: 43

The Cards Your Mom Threw Out (1:3): 3 (No "Original Backs")

History of the World Series (1:6): 1

Legendary Lineage (1:4): 1

Million Card Giveaway: 2 (I was the proud recipient of a Jason Giambi 2006 card with my first code. I am understandably hesitant to redeem further codes at this point.)

Peak Performance (1:4): 1 (I still don't like these.)

Target Red Backs (1:4): 2

Topps AttaxTown: 5

Turkey Red (1:4): 1

Vintage Legends (1:4): 1

Cardinals: 0 (Shut out. Ouch. This is the most important category of all.)

Lessons Learned: Well, as my number one option for Series 1, I think that loose packs still provide the best ratio for pulling inserts including the Turkey Red cards that I want the most. That being said, the no Cardinals thing isn't sitting well with me at the moment.

Next up: Something that stays crispy... even in milk!

Twenty Ten Cardinals Surprise

In what would certainly count as a surprise package in my world, reader Steve from ID became the first person to send me 2010 Cardinals cards. In most trade posts, I'll just select a handful of cards that were noteworthy to me or at least produced some sort of thought in me that I felt could be written about. However, set-building trades aside, I'm not sure that anyone has ever sent me a package where every single card was something I needed until now.

Here's my first 2010 Topps Gold Cardinals card. Lugo wasn't a terrible pickup for the Cardinals last year as it allowed them to part ways with Chris Duncan to give him a new start somewhere else and even gave them an additional contract year for Julio. He's a great low-cost backup infielder on a team that uses its reserve players almost as often as its regular starters.

This Pujols '51 Red Back mini becomes the second retail exclusive card that I've pulled. Are there more Cardinals to be had there? I don't have checklists handy at the moment, but I'm sort of hoping that Pujols and Dizzy Dean are it.

I know that not everyone appreciates a Topps League Leaders card, but I kind of like them in some weird way. I guess they remind me of 1984 Topps.

Albert Pujols is good at baseball.

I'd like to see Wainwright and Carpenter go into this season with chips on their shoulders and just flat out dominate the National League. I'm still pretty bitter about the whole Cy Young Award debacle, although awards are becoming more and more meaningless.

As much as it is fun to get 3 insert cards per $1.99 pack, I think that Topps could have dropped at least one of the insert sets. There isn't a whole lot of difference to me between the Topps Town design and the Peak Performance design.

Here's one less Card My Mom Threw Out to retrieve. This is the more common version and not the reprint back style.

I guess the only reason that the Peak Performance insert set exists is to provide a base for the Peak Performance relic cards that I've seen while browsing around.

Thanks again to Steve, who should be receiving a return pack of Braves in the near future.