2011 Baseball Card Review - Batting cards

The 2011 baseball card season is just about over. I will probably buy a blaster of Bowman Draft if I see one but not much else. I bought (or traded for) 2,944 different cards this year, up from 2,313 in 2010. The difference is mostly the extra 500-card box of Topps Update I got from an eBay dealer. By my count, there were 54,564 different cards released in 2011. That's up from 48,641 in 2010. The counts were derived from Becket.com and I have no idea how accurate they are. When I scan cards, I categorize them by the picture.

Here's a sampling of cards featuring players at the plate.

Batting Stance: Topps All-Star Set #11 Ryan Braun

Is it my imagination or does Braun use an enormous bat?

Broken bat: Topps #233 Ramon Hernandez

I love broken bat cards. This is the only one I got this year.


Bunting: Topps #284 Reid Brignac

Not a lot of bunting cards this year either. This is the best one I have. I presume the ball is heading away from his bat, otherwise this would be a pretty poor bunt attempt.

Swinging: 
Topps #100 Albert Pujols

Topps Update #6 Prince Fielder

There are a lot of cards featuring players swinging. I decided to go with a couple of big men just letting it fly. Prince really is swinging for the fences as it's the Home Run Derby.

Leaving the box: Bowman #135 Chris Young

For me, the classic leaving the box shot. The player is just starting to run and the bat is just out of his hand.


Stretching: Topps Update #55 Anthony Rizzo

This is a photo you don't see much of and usually it's Ryan Howard. Not a lot of players do this at the plate.