what a difference not quite a year makes

before 2013 topps update gets here, i guess i should get last year's update cards out of the purgatory that is my scanned folder.  i have shown a few of the dodger cards that i picked up out of last year's release, but never got around to showcasing these for some reason.  hopefully in a couple of weeks i will have cards of yasiel puig, michael young, ricky nolasco, and maybe even a non-ssp nick punto to show.  but first, 2012 takes the stage.

here's hanley

and his 'blockbusters' insert

hanley was the biggest dodger acquisition in the set that wasn't a ridiculous super short print.  i still don't have any of those, nor do i expect to ever have any.  those four cards are the only holes in my dodger topps flagship/update team sets from 1956 to date.  stupid shenanigans, topps.

there was another blockbuster involving a guy named ramirez, too

and then there were the all-star game cards - clayton kershaw

and matt kemp

plus kemp's home run derby card

this year, only kershaw will be featured.  assuming topps continues to make all-star cards a part of the update set.

on to the 'traded' or at least the more traditional part of update - here's jamey wright

wright joined the dodgers as a free agent and left as a free agent after the season ended.  he's currently in tampa bay where he put together a pretty decent season for the rays.

shane victorino

in victorino's third term with the dodger organization, he actually appeared in the majors wearing dodger blue for the first time.  for 53 games of the flyin' hawaiian, the dodgers gave up ethan martin and josh lindblom, plus a minor leaguer.  these days, victorino is in the postseason with the red sox.

matt treanor

became a free agent after the season ended and did not sign with another team.

matt guerrier

was sent to the cubs this year for carlos marmol.  guerrier pitched in 15 games for chicago, and had a 2-1 record with a 2.13 era in those appearances.  he's a free agent now (or will be once the postseason is done) and i hope he lands somewhere.

scott elbert

topps gave us a flagship card of elbert in 2009, but since then we have only seen him in 2012 update.  i would assume that he shows up again this year, as he pitched for the dodgers in 43 games, but we will have to wait and see.

elian herrera

herrera won't be back in update, as he only appeared in 4 games for the dodgers in 2013.

brandon league

was included in the flagship set this year.  he's got two more years, plus an option for 2016, on his contract with the dodgers.

aj ellis, et al.

that's a fun card.  here's the gold parallel

and the other parallel

lastly, here's the jackie robinson 1987 mini

perhaps topps will once again give us update minis this year.  i am actually looking forward to the release of update.  i might even buy a box for the first time in years.

um, yeah. update is live.

i swung by the target near my work at quitting time to see if, by chance, they had any 2012 topps update lying around.  they sure did.  i picked up a blaster and a rack pack.  i was lucky enough to pull this card out of the rack pack

that's one of those pesky short print variations.  it's ichiro and it's a yankee, so i scanned the back as i knew i wouldn't be owning it for too long

sure enough, it sold about two hours after i listed it on ebay.  it's too bad that it wasn't the matt kemp or clayton kershaw sp, though.  or even the cc sabathia one with matt kemp sitting next to him.  still, ichiro covered the costs and then some of the cards i picked up, so that means all of these were free.

here's a red parallel of kershaw's regular card in the set

 as well as a red version of fellow lefty scott elbert's card

 i also pulled the regular version of elbert

i did pretty well as far as dodgers go, which is a change for me.  one of the reasons i stopped buying packs was because i wasn't getting any dodgers.  literally.  i'm glad i lifted my self-imposed moratorium today.  because, otherwise, i wouldn't have been able to show you the jerry hairston card i pulled.

it's still weird to see number 6 out there.

here's matt kemp's home run derby card

kind of a checklist waste, but whatever.

shane victorino as a dodger

i am still not a fan of that trade at all.

i also got a juan rivera gold card

i thought rivera was in series 2.  wasn't he?  yes he was.  not sure what's going on here.

that's a pretty good dodger haul, but there was more.  there were a couple of dodgers lurking, like bobby abreu on cody ransom's card

 and dee gordon on former dodger ryan theriot's card

 and, i should have had another dodger had topps realized that randy choate

 was included in the hanley ramirez deal.  they've got hanley in dodger blue, and nathan eovaldi

in marlins colors, but i guess they forgot that choate also changed teams.

there were a couple of cool double play cards in my packs, too.  i really like this jamey carroll card

it's better than this john mcdonald card

even though the photos are very similar.

i wasn't really looking for bryce harper, although he was there on rick ankiel's card

seems like an excuse to get harper on another card, if you ask me.  ankiel was released at the end of july.  typically, that would mean he wouldn't make the final checklist cut.  but, with harper in the picture, anything is possible.

i did pull a harper card in one of the last packs i opened.

pretty sure that's dodger stadium he's playing in, which would make sense since he debuted in la on april 28.

as luck would have it, i pulled two gold parallels of that card, too.

each blaster comes with a manupatch again, and while i didn't get the hanley patch, i did get yu darvish

this will probably go the way of the ichiro unless someone out there is interested.

overall, i'm pretty happy that i stopped at target.  take a bow, ichiro, for providing me with some free cards.

we have met the enemy...

the dodgers lost shane victorino to the rule v draft not once, but twice. the second time, he stuck, which has turned out to be unfortunate for the dodgers. although he has a batting average and matching obp below the mendoza line, victorino has made a good catch and some big hits in the series so far.

here he is on his 2003 topps traded card.

 this is after the padres sent him back to the dodgers, having appeared in a few games for the friars. he never did play for the dodgers, though. maybe he holds a grudge.

jayson werth is different. he played for the dodgers after being traded by toronto for jason frasor. in fact, jayson had a good nlds for the blue in 2004 with 2 home runs.

perhaps the most prominent of jim tracy's "three ja(y)sons" - repko and grabowski being the others - werth benefited from injuries to milton bradley and jd drew in 2005. no such luck in 2006 as werth was injured for the entire season, after which he was granted free agency and signed with the phillies.

here he is on his 2006 topps card, head down and goatee in place.