Airbrushed Fridays: Farewell to Photoshop

Making Their Mark, indeed.

My fatigue with Topps and their flagship product is spilling over into my long-running "Airbrushed Fridays" series, which I'm effectively ending with this post. I introduced Photoshopped cards into the series long ago because it was kind of fun to look at how photos are doctored on modern cards in modern times. Sometimes this was born out of necessity (switching teams) and sometimes for no good reason at all (like when a team gets a new uniform set.)

Now that Photoshopping and digital enhancements in general is pretty much the standard operating procedure for all of these cards, I'm kind of tired of talking about it. I leave you with one last card. Guess where the photo for this 2013 Topps Making Their Mark insert of the Tsunami man himself, Carlos Martinez, came from?

Well, you don't have to go very far. Just check out his Topps Pro Debut photo from the same year.

I may revive the series at some point as a vintage-only thing if I build up enough of a cache of old school airbrushed cards. Until then, feel free to enjoy the very excellent (and occasionally R-rated) Baseball Card Vandals site and/or Twitter feed.

Airbrushed Fridays: 2013 Topps #406

Who wants to get hit in the head by a line drive?

Who is he? Brandon McCarthy has been a starting pitcher in the bigs for the last 11 seasons, but he's best known for being smacked by a line drive late in the 2012 season. The shot to the head fractured his skull and caused injuries to his brain. It pretty much sounds like the worst thing ever. McCarthy came up with the White Sox, but was pitching for his third franchise (Oakland) at the time. That number has grown to six.

How did he get here? The shot to the head ended his season, but Arizona scooped him up on a two year free agent deal starting in 2013. Things with the Diamondbacks didn't go as well as hoped, but a successful stint late last year with the Yankees talked another team - the Dodgers - into handing him a big 4 year contract. He promptly needed Tommy John surgery this past spring.

Repeat offender? No

Other versions of this card: None, but here's the original --

View image | gettyimages.com

Airbrushed Score: 6

Comments: Not bad, but they probably should have left a gap between the letters in 'Arizona' like what occurs with his actual uniform.

Airbrushed Fridays: 2013 Topps #364

The ol' underhand toss.

Who is he? Carlos Pena was a slugger and a one-time All-Star who spent most of his career with the Tigers and the Rays. He was never known for his defense or for hitting for high average, but his power kept him around the game for more than a decade.

How did he get here? Pena's greatest success came in Tampa Bay, but after a season where he hit just .196, he was off to Chicago for a single season before a Florida reunion. Pena once again failed to crack the .200 mark in 2012, so he was set free again as the Astros picked him up on the cheap for the 2013 season to distract people from their complete rebuilding plan.

Repeat offender? No

Other versions of this card: None

Airbrushed Score: 10

Comments: This is really bad. Just fiery awful. The sad thing is, if Carlos had played for the Astros in 2012 this card still would have existed, as Topps saw fit to Photoshop fake uniforms on as many Astros, Blue Jays and Marlins in 2013 just to supposedly honor their new outfits. Shameful.

Airbrushed Fridays: 2013 Topps #639

What can you say about this guy?

Who is he? What to say about Josh Hamilton? He was the overall number one draft pick in the 1999 MLB Draft, but it would take until 2007 before the can't miss prospect would play in the majors. Hamilton went through years of problems with drugs and an organizational change before he made his debut with the Reds. After a single season as a part time player in Cincinnati, he was traded to the Rangers for a deal that included Edinson Volquez. In Texas, he'd have his best seasons as a pro, though he also proved to be injury prone and continued to battle his personal demons.

How did he get here? Having landed Albert Pujols for a ridiculous amount of money the season before, the Angels threw swimming pools full of gold coins at another player - Hamilton - before the start of the 2013 season. Now at age 34, Hamilton proved to be a massive disappointment and a costly mistake in Anaheim, and after the team selfishly tried to get him suspended for the season to recover some of the money he's owed, Hamilton was never punished by the league and wound up being paid to go away. He's back in Texas now -- and back on the DL, unfortunately.

Repeat offender? No

Other versions of this card: None, but the original photo is below.

Airbrushed Score: 6

Comments: Not the best, but not the worst?

Airbrushed Fridays: 2013 Topps #416

Pitchers and catchers report in five weeks! Pitchers and catchers report in five weeks!

Who is he? Jordan Lyles is a right handed starting pitcher for the Colorado Rockies. He broke into the majors at just 20 years old and is still looking to put together the proverbial breakout season.

How did he get here? Lyles broke in with the Astros and was Photoshopped out of an Astros uniform and into a newer Astros uniform. More annoying to me than any other photo tinkering shenanigans than Topps ever pulls, in 2013 they decided to go wild with altering uniforms of players who had not changed teams in the offseason. Rather, three franchises changed their uniforms (Marlins, Blue Jays and Astros) and someone felt it necessary to imagine these players in the uniforms they would soon be wearing instead of waiting for reality to catch up. Lyles later was traded the Rockies in the Dexter Fowler deal, but that has nothing to do with the card at hand.

Repeat offender? No

Other versions of this card: None

Source image (from gettyimages):

View image | gettyimages.com

Airbrushed Score: 9

Comments: I don't really miss Houston's old unis, however.

Airbrushed Fridays: 2013 Topps #490

It's crunch time in the MLB. Whose cuisine reigns supreme?

Who is he? Cody Ross is a journeyman outfielder who has played for 7 teams in 11 big league seasons. While never an All-Star, his huge performance in the 2010 playoffs netted him an NLCS MVP award to go with a World Series ring.

How did he get here? After riding high with the Giants, who picked him up late in the 2010 season en route to World Series success, Ross found himself on the other end of the standings when he signed with the Red Sox in 2012. (This was the awful Bobby Valentine year.) After a single season in Boston, the Diamondbacks signed him to another free agent deal.

Repeat offender? No

Other versions of this card: None, but here's the original image.

Airbrushed Score: 5

Comments: Nice cropping. I guess he only needs one foot.

Airbrushed Fridays: 2013 Topps #637

Can we start counting the days until pitchers and catchers do their thing?

Who is he? Ben Revere is a speedy, rangy outfielder with a penchant for highlight grabbing glovework. He doesn't hit a lot, however, having driven in just 81 runs in 1400 career plate appearances.

How did he get here? After coming up with the Twins, Revere was traded last offseason for Vance Worley and a minor leaguer.

Repeat offender? No

Other versions of this card: None

Airbrushed Score: 7

Comments: Is there even such a thing as this Phillies uniform design, with the double blue piping on a plain white jersey? The color on the cap seems way off, too.

Airbrushed Fridays: 2013 Topps #519

The August NL Pitcher of the Month gets Photoshopped.

Who is this week's victim, and why do we care? Zack Greinke is one of the most talented starting pitchers around, but he's only found his way onto one All-Star team, either due to injury, inconsistency or possibly just a lack of counting numbers. Greinke also dealt with anxiety issues and missed a considerable amount of time earlier in his career. He spent most of his career with the Royals before he started hitting the trade market of late.

Why is this a thing? The Dodgers decided to go Full Yankee last year and buy all of the players. Greinke signed a 6 year, $147 million contract this past offseason. Much like the Dodgers themselves, his season has been trending upward after he got off to a slow start.

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 scratched up Green Day CD, but you never know!

Airbrushed Fridays: 2013 Topps #368

Here we go, second half baseball! Can the Cardinals sustain their two out run production? Will the Pirates collapse again? Will we see Manny Ramirez in an MLB uniform again? Will that Puig guy talk to the media?

Who is this week's victim, and why do we care? Chris Young is one of the Chris Youngs, the one who is an outfielder. He spent his entire career with the Diamondbacks failing to repeat the prolific home run output of his rookie year.

Why is this a thing? Young was involved in a three-team offseason deal that moved some pieces around without really impacting any of the teams involved. Young ended up in Oakland, Cliff Pennington wound up in Arizona, and Miami got rid of Heath Bell. Topps Photoshopped another card, and life moved on.

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 of those useless Million Dollar Chase codes, but you never know!

I'm Done with Series 2

No, I haven't completed collecting the 2013 Topps Series 2 set (as the title may imply), but I am putting my foot down and not buying any more packs. So far, I've purchased a rack pack, 5 loose Target packs, 3 loose hobby packs, 2 loose packs at Rite Aid and a blaster. Guess how many Cardinals I've pulled...

Here are just a few of the cards I pulled from the blaster I bought on Saturday. Pretty much everything I got from the box is available, and I pulled the usual pile of inserts and Target parallels if anyone is collecting the base cards, inserts or just stuff of of your favorite team(s)/player(s). Just let me know what you need.

This one is earmarked for Night Owl if he wants it. I don't often pull base card variations/short prints/whatevers, and there's a very good chance I would have overlooked this card's rarity if it wasn't for the fact that I'd already gone through the entire Series 2 checklist to see which Cardinals I need.

Big Papi will someday probably be the first player elected to the HOF primarily as a DH. In a sense, this will be disappointing to me, because it will overshadow the contributions of Edgar Martinez, who was a phenomenal hitter.

No Angels Pujols cards in my binders!

This is a great Rickey card. I like the older style A's jersey. It's hard for me to tell for some reason if this is actual an early photo or if he's just wearing more of a throwback design. Rickey did have four separate tours with Oakland, after all.

People seem to like Ripken. I guess when all is said and done that I like the Chasing History inserts the most out of the flagship set.

Finally, here's a nice looking half-full bleed (is that a term?) photo of the oft-injured Nationals third baseman.

Happy All-Star night, everyone. It would have been nice to see the Senior Circuit get more than 3 hits, though. Just like it would be nice if, out of all of those packs mentioned above, I had pulled more than 4 Cardinals cards. (Two Stan Musial inserts and two Joe Kelly base cards for those who are curious.) I am stopping with this madness because the checklist is just far too short on Cardinals to make it interesting to me, so I'd love to hear from any of you that have trade offers for me involving 2013 Cardinals cards. Please check the want list to see which ones I need.

Series 2 Thoughts

You've tried all the best and now you're here for the rest. Here's my take on the new(ish) Topps Series 2 product. I picked up several packs in several configurations recently, and rather than bore everyone with a full on pack break I just thought I'd show off a few cards from each.

Hobby Packs (3) - 10 cards - $7.00

Emerald parallels are back. I'm not sure that I'm a big fan of these, but they're here and they're not apparently going anywhere, which means I have screaming loud green versions of Cardinal cards to collect.

Apparently this is the last go around of the '72 minis, which are due to be replaced by a '71 version in the Update set. Is this Topps admitting that this design isn't all that popular while trying to appease people with a more popular look to lure people into buying Update Series cards? Probably?

Here's my first and only Cardinal out of the 3 hobby packs. If this looks familiar it's because we had this insert in Series 1.

One of the most frustrating things to me about Series 2 and its existence is all of the Photoshopped cards. To me, there's no point of showing players in their new uniforms if they're not really wearing them, and there's no point in breaking up a set into two parts released many months apart if they don't use more current photos. Series 1 and Series 2 are probably printed days apart but released months apart.

Target Retail Packs (5) - 60 cards - $9.95

Another "chase" themed insert set. This is a pretty cool photo with the bits of grass flying through the air.

Chasing History again. I think CarGo is criminally underappreciated.

These inserts are a slice of cardboard perfection. Just don't cut yourself.

More '72 minis. It's nice to see Eric Davis get some love from the Topps conglomerate.

Out of the five loose packs, one contained a red Target parallel. I have no idea who Hicks is.

Scary green again.

Here's Wilin Rosario Making (His) Mark. For once there's no "chase" in the insert name.

Target Rack Pack (1) - 36 cards - $4.99

Darvish is still a pretty good pitcher, is he not?

Finally, after five loose packs of zero Cardinals, we get to an actual Cardinals base card. There were Cardinals all over the place in Series 1, so they might be sparse in this set. Joe Kelly is back in the rotation and had a perfectly cromulent outing today.

Here's the rack pack holofoil version of the Musial insert we saw earlier. It's nice to knock these two off the want list right away.

It's weird to see Sheffield as a Dodger. I know he played for all sorts of teams, the Cardinals not included, but this card surprised me a little.

Yelling, screaming, red Angel Mike Trout. Yeahhhh buddy.

All of these cards, minus the Cardinals, are up for grabs. I also have a stack of base cards if anyone has lists that need to be trimmed. Just point me to them and let me know.

Gold Fish, Green Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

It's always nice to see a happy Cardinals team. I'll never get tired of these celebratory photos, even though certain doom was lurking around the corner in the form of a frustrating and heartbreaking NLCS. I'm still working my way through the team set from 2013 Topps Series 1, and received some more cards several weeks back from ARPSmith.

Brian Fuentes managed to turn his 5 inning stint into multiple card releases, all of them Photoshopped as far as I can figure. This certainly qualifies for the most baffling card of the year, as in... why does it exist? Fuentes pretty much quit the game before the season ended last year, deciding an exciting playoff run was too passé for his liking.

Yadier Molina is pretty much the engine that's driving the team right now, but that's okay by me. He's really turned into a franchise player in all aspects of the game. He's probably even the team's best baserunner right now.

Motte's fate was finally sealed this week when he had the Tommy John surgery that everyone knew was coming. I just wish that these decisions would be made a little speedier. With him being such a "max effort" pitcher, it could be next summer before we see him in an MLB game again.

Feeling Green

After dropping a home series with the Pirates, I can't help but feeling a little green about the way the Cardinals bullpen has performed. I suppose there's no better time than now to show off some of the Emerald parallels that I received from fellow Cardinals fan jamicfin of Unabashed Interest.

This will forever be one of my favorite cards, at least as far as the photo is concerned. Jon Jay has really struggled in April. He's been knocked out of the leadoff spot that he occupied after Rafael Furcal went down with an injury last year. Even though Jay is typically a .300 hitter and not the .200 hitter he's been in 2013, he's never had a high walk rate which is what you'd prefer out of the top of the order.

Matt Carpenter is the new leadoff guy. He walks a ton.

This guy throws hard and has a lot of promise. He needs to keep the ball out of the middle of the plate, though, because even pitchers who throw 100 mph are hittable if you know exactly where the ball is going to be.

I can't say enough about Adam Wainwright. Two years removed from Tommy John surgery, he's returned to elite status among starting pitchers.

We need more of this and fewer frustrating losses like this weekend's games.