2017 Topps Gypsy Queen

According to baseballcardpedia.com, Topps was trying a lower price point for Gypsy Queen this year. I paid $0.47/card this year for a blaster and a couple of packs, which is the same as I paid last year, and pretty much for every year of this product.

Topps did revamp the product. There are no mini cards in this set, which is OK by me. There are also very few insert sets (in fact only two) which aren't either parallels or autos/relics.

I've not been much of a fan of the Gypsy Queen designs over the years.

There are some nice design features this year. I like the lighter borders, the way the photo fades into the border, the curlycue things on either side of the city name, and the player name plate. I even like the fake age burn. But, the bottom part of the card is just horrible. I like the ornate Gypsy Queen logo on the back but it just takes up too much room on the front. There is also no team name on the front and no team logo anywhere, which I don't like.

Topps maintained, what I believe, is the main Gypsy Queen feature, the treatment of the photograph. This feature I've always liked, regardless the rest of the design.

I pulled two Astros (of 12 cards in the set) and two Phillies (also 12). I guess I'll buy the rest on eBay. Both teams are a bit over represented in the set.

There aren't a lot of cards featuring players in the field.

I guess this photo is from last year's All-Star game or it's a joke. In the back ground we can see various team caps (Mariners, Blue Jays, Indians, Phillies) and several team shirts (Brewers, Dodgers, Padres, or maybe it's the Nationals All-Star shirt). Even though the game was in the Padres park, the American League was the home team. Arenado was hitless in 3 ABs.

Randy Johnson rocking an Expos uni. Gypsy Queen always included a few retired players. This year they collected the retired players as cards 301-320 and made them short prints. The box proudly proclaims "1 Short Printed Base Card Guaranteed!".

I pulled two of the 10 different parallels. Can you spot the gimmick in this one?

It's apparently supposed to have been printed without the black printing plate. I don't know why the name plate is black however.

This one is a little easier.

Here are the 2 non-auto/relic inserts.

This is called the "Fortune Teller mini". It's as tall as a regular card but thinner.

Looks like 2009 Upper Deck Goudey, one of the creepiest issues of the past 20 years.

2016 Topps Allen & Ginter - Finally

So every blogger and her brother have already written about 2016 Topps Allen and Ginter. Well, here's my two cents.

First off, it took forever for the product to get here to my corner of SE Texas and all I finally found was one value pack. One. The pack advertised 14 cards but I only got 13, I guess because I got an auto card. That's right, I bought one lousy pack of Topps Allen and Ginter and got an auto. Go figure.

A and G doesn't change much from year, which is, I suppose part of it's charm. The three subtle changes this year were to 1) dial back the curlicues; 2) put fine lines in the background color sploch and 3) vary the color of the product name. All OK with me. I'm not going to bother to show the backs since these have not changed since 2006.

At first I though they were color matching to the team color but maybe not.

Well, maybe they are.

OK, they are not color matching. Why not?

If I'm going to pull only one Astro it might as well be Correa.

A rodeo cowboy. This guy once had his skull crushed by a horse. He spent three days in a coma but returned to competition after 8 months of rehab.

A couple of 5th round Yankees draft picks. Bird in 2011. Cotham in 2009.

This looks more like a Topps Gypsy Queen card.

There are 100 cards in this insert set so I suppose this is this year's card-in-every-pack set.

I'm going to skip the two mini cards. I'm seriously getting tired of mini cards. Here's the auto card.

Oh, yeah, Robert Raiola, the sports tax man. What? This guy is an accountant with a big accounting firm. According to his web page (no Wikipedia entry) "He provides business management services, tax planning and business consulting to high net worth individuals and their families in the sports and entertainment industries." The photo on the front comes right from his page. I imagine he's pulling down 7 figures easily.

2016 Panini Diamond Kings - The base cards

I picked up a blaster of Diamond Kings at Walmart late last week. I debated buying two but I'm sort of glad I didn't. I was a big fan of the early 2000's Diamond King sets (especially 2004). I didn't think Panini could do better.

I did a little searching for other posts on this product but couldn't find anything but this has been out a few weeks so I'm sure I'm not the first. I did find a couple of video box breaks (one by Beckett.com, which wasn't too bad and was only 9 minutes long with comments limited only to the players on the cards). The other was a case break, over an hour, of which I could only stand about 3 minutes.

The cards are printed on canvas textured card stock and the pictures appear to have been painted, much like the Diamond Kings of old, when they were part of the Donruss set (the 1980s), inserts (the 1990s), or a separate set (the 2000's). These new Diamond Kings are, I'm pretty sure, not painted but some sort of Photoshop effect.

Looking a scans of the cards only gives you only one of the 3 main aspects of these cards. I mentioned the canvas texture which you can sort of see, especially on the backs. The other is the smell. Yes, these cards stink. I think they smell like oil paint.  It's not a real pleasant odor. 

The first 50 cards of the 200-card set are what I would call Legends, famous ball players from the past who are deceased. Of the 42 cards in the box, I got six of these. Some of them are players you don't often see in modern sets.

All the cards follow this same pattern. The background painting stops before the top of the card but the top of the players head protrudes into this area. Of course there are no logos or team names. I'll have to say that these cards are more visually interesting than 2016 Donruss but share one of Donruss' failings. Offensive players are mostly batting, pitchers are mostly in their windup or delivery, and catchers are mostly in their catching gear. The cards automatically become less interesting when there are no logos.

I don't much care for the backs at all. A repeat of the front picture in a frame (yawn). Some bio info in microscopic type, barely larger than the font used for the copyright info. Just for comparison here is a back from 2004 Diamond Kings.

 "Crowning Moment" paragraph, a comment on the artist and past appearances as a Diamond King.

Cards from 51 to 139 are mostly current players, except for cards except for 10 non-consecutive cards between 123-135, which are living retired greats.  I got two of these.

Here are some of the current players. I got one Astro and one Phillie each but at least they are desirable cards.

If you're sharp eyed, you've noticed, just on 4 cards, what I noticed, the tops and bottoms of the cards have pretty much identical "brush" strokes. Note on the bottom right, the little arc of white dots. It's on every card.

The last 40 cards are rookies with a slightly different front design.

The player's name is in a black box at the top and there is white bleeding in from the sides for some reason. The DK logo and team name and position are in the team color instead of white.


There was in insert or parallel in each of the 7 packs. I'll cover them tomorrow.

Your 2015 Astros

I haven't been paying much attention to the Astros. What do you expect when they lost more than 100 games a year from 2011-2013?  The Phillies were not much better but I can get them on MLB.com. I can't get the Astros because they are my home team. The Astros improved some last year, going 72-90 but nobody expected them to go 86-76 this year and make it to Game 5 of the ALDS.  When they started making some noise early in the season I started watching their games on MLB.com the next day. I figured I better get to know these guys in case they are for real.

The Astros were a strange team this year. They struck out a lot (1,392 times) and they hit a lot of home runs (230). They had 11 guys with double figures in home runs and 2 more with 9. They had 691 RBI. Their pitching struck out 1,280 guys and had a team ERA of 3.57. A typical Astro run was either a home run, or a walk, stolen base and a single.  They were fun to watch. And they played pretty good defense.

Infield

Topps #113 Jason Castro

The Astros had 2 catchers, Castro and Hank Conger. The Astros got Conger this year in a trade with the Angles. You only saw Conger in the playoffs doing a robot dance in the dugout when one of his teammates hit a HR. Castro and Conger both hit 11 home runs during the season, and Conger had a slightly better BA, but Conger couldn't throw me out in an attempted steal of 2nd base.

Topps Gypsy Queen #247 Chris Carter

In 2014, Carter hit 37 home runs with a .227 BA. This year he only hit 24 HR and his BA was a dismal .199. He had gotten hot in the last 2-3 weeks of the season which is why he started at first in the playoffs. He hit .294 in the playoffs but with only 1 HR. And he had a lot of trouble with throwing the ball to 2nd base.

Stadium Club #205 Jose Altuve

Altuve has been the Astros stalwart at 2nd base since 2011. He led the league in AB, hits, and steals. His .313 BA was down from last year's .341 but he hit 15 home runs compared to his previous season high of 7. And he was an All-Star. He unfortunately did not perform well in the ALDS, going 3 for 22.

Topps Heritage #563 Carlos Correa

Rookie shortstop Carlos Correa was a real bright spot this year. He was the Astros 1st round draft pick in 2012. After only 22 games at Triple A, he made his major league debut on June 8. He hit .278 with 22 home runs and quickly became the everyday shortstop with his excellent defense. He hit .350 with 2 homers in the ALCS. He has a legitimate shot at AL ROY.

Topps #621 Luis Valbuena

 The Astros got Valbuena from the Cubs in exchange for Dexter Fowler. He made 3rd base his position by having a strong arm. He only hit .224 but had 25 homers. 

Topps Team Sets #HA-5 Evan Gattis

Gattis was mainly the DH, but also played a pretty good 1st base. He hit .247 and led the Astros with 27 home runs. He also hit 11 triples. He was pretty disappointing in the ALCS going 4 for 19 with 1 RBI and 5 strikeouts. 

Outfield

Topps Heritage #694 Preston Tucker

The Astros had a rotating cast of characters in the outfield. Tucker mainly played LF but had games at center and RF. He hit .243 for the season with 13 HR. He was a non-factor in the playoffs going 0-2 in pitch hit opportunities.

Topps Team Sets #HA-7 Colby Rasmus

Rasmus also played in every outfield position. The Astros signed him as a free agent this year. He hit .238 with 25 homers during the season. He was a real force in the ALCS hitting .429 with 3 home runs.

Bowman #482 Carlos Gomez

The Astros acquired Gomez from the Brewers in July. He was not quite the spark the Astros expected but he played hurt most of the time he was here. He made a lot of spectacular plays in center.

Topps Allen & Ginter Mini A and G Back #52 Jake Marisnick

Marisnick had been the center fielder before Gomez but still got a lot of playing time. He hit .236 with 9 home runs. He was 3 for 7 in the ALDS.

Topps Robbed #12 George Springer

Springer was a legitimate ROY candidate in 2014 and was expected to be even better in 2015. Springer plays an aggressive right field and got hurt early in the season, ending up only playing 102 games. Still he raised his batting average to .276 (from .231 in 2014). He only hit .211 in the ALCS.

Pitching

Stadium Club #28 Dallas Keuchel

Keuchel had an exceptional season. He finished 20-8 with a 2.48 ERA. He is the odds-on favorite to win the AL Cy Young Award. He was a fabulous 15-0 at home. One big problem for the Astros this year was their dismal road record. Keuchel was 5-8 on the road. He was 2-0 in the playoffs, one of these being the Wildcard game in New York against the Yankees.

Topps #508 Collin McHugh

In addition to a 20-game winner, the Astros had Collin McHugh at 19-7 with a ERA of 3.89. He was 1-1 against the Royals in the ALDS.

Topps Heritage #605 Lance McCullers

Rookie Lance McCullers was 6-7 with an acceptable ERA of 3.22. He struck out 129 while only walking 43. He held the Royals to 2 runs in 6.1 innings in Game 4, the one that the relief staff game up 7 runs in the 8th and 9th innings to lose 9-6.

Topps Team Sets #HA-13 Luke Gregerson

The Astros signed free agent Gregerson to a 3-year contract last December. Although he's only had 19 saves in 6-year career, the Astros made him their closer. He responded with 31 saves and a 7-3 record. He got a save in all 3 wins the Astros had in the ALCS. 

2015 Topps Heritage High Number Series

After trying two Targets, I found blasters of this product at Walmart. They had 3 boxes and I bought them out. I was really hoping to get this card.

2015 Topps Heritage #563 Carlos Correa

I finally pulled it from the last pack in the third blaster. Whew!  Correa is the Astros entry in the AL Rookie of the Year sweepstakes. As of when I was writing this, Carlos was .281 with 21 home runs and 61 RBI. He was called up in June and has been the regular shortstop. And he plays great defense at short. This card is going for $8-$10 on eBay. There is also an "action" variation of this but I didn't to see any of those in a retail box.

I had already pulled this card from the first blaster I opened.

2015 Topps Heritage Chrome Purple Refractor #563 Carlos Correa

Notice that the Purple Chrome and the regular card are cropped differently. This was in the second pack I opened. Every pack in that 1st blaster had a Purple Refractor in it with no indication on the box that such a thing was possible.

I also pulled this from that 3rd box,

2015 Topps Heritage Clubhouse Collection Relic Gold Chris Davis

According to the box, the gold relics are seeded 1 in 267 packs. I love getting relic cards in retail boxes. Not that this is such a hard card to get. You can go on eBay right now and get it for about $5.

I also pulled this from the first blaster.

2015 Topps Heritage Bazooka Yasmany  Tomas

There were 25 of these in the regular issue although I never saw one. There are 10 in the High Series. 

So I'm pretty happy with the boxes. All-in-all, there were 216 cards of which 26 were inserts or parallels. I haven't actually gotten through all of them yet but it looks like I only got a handful of dups. So maybe I got 190 of the 250 card set. Not enough to tempt me into trying to collect all of them. Also, I think I pulled all the Astros in the set and maybe all the Phillies. Not bad.

On the other hand there was entirely too much of this sort of thing.