05 July 2015

here are some cards from 2015 topps series 2

well, topps finally put don mattingly on a card in their flagship set, but they did so on a josh beckett highlight/checklist card
it's not even a final tribute card for beckett.  still, i like it.

i bought a dodger team set on ebay, and found that topps went horizontal a few more times for the dodgers in their series two set - here's the 'team' card
plus two more clayton kershaw cards - cy young
and mvp
it's been said before, but i would prefer the checklist expansion topps heralded this year provide cards for the likes of justin turner and scott van slyke and even juan nicasio instead of four kershaw cards.  i don't mind the base (obviously) or the highlight/checklist cards, but award winner cards are not my favorite. i'd rather see other players from the roster at that point.  along those lines, here's carlos frias
most of the other dodgers from series two were shown in the recent flagship vs. factory set post, and i've only scanned a few cards from a blaster i purchased.  i did get this nolan ryan/sandy koufax eclipsing history insert
about which i have three comments.  first, the design of this insert (and all of the inserts in series two that i've seen) is really boring.  second, the history that ryan is eclipsing was established by koufax as a los angeles dodger, not a brooklyn dodger.  third, if ryan is eclipsing koufax, shouldn't he be in the foreground?  details, i suppose.

there were three twins cards that i chose to scan - the first being this ervin santana card
santana takes the mound for the first time as a twin today after serving his suspension for ped use.  i thought that topps would wait and include him in update as a result.

i like this jordan schafer card
a couple of years ago it would have likely been a variation short print, so it's nice to see topps using good photos for base cards.  schafer was released by the twins just a couple of days before i saw this card, by the way.

here's another twinkies card that features target field
with a clean-shaven joe mauer in the foreground and oswaldo arcia's back on the jumbotron.

i'll finish up this series two post with a couple of double plays - dj lemahieu
and joe panik
i was hoping for another justin turner dp in series two, but i guess i'll have to wait for update.

No comments: