#63 - Justin Masterson

What’s that Turtle doin’? Tryin' to cross the road on a perfectly bright sunny day in Cleveland. Looks like the 4-Seam Fastball lane has been selected for the drive to the plate.

An odd thing about this card is how perfectly level Masterson's body appears to be. My hunch is that his left foot isn't actually planted on the ground here when the shutter clicked. Despite that, the photographer and the Topps composer weren't ruffled in the slightest and the framing is 100% perfect.

The only story on this card is the dramatic interplay between sunlight and shadow & white and red. My 2nd hunch is that the photographer who snapped this one was probably quite pleased with the results.

Pondering that led me to scroll through the 'Justin Masterson 2012' results on the Getty website which quickly reveals the source image; the photographer proved to be Jason Miller. 

Without that the-internet-never-forgets aid I never would have noticed a clue in the background of the image: a circular bit of blue, white & red - bunting? Opening Day? Indeed so; April 5, 2012 vs. the Toronto Blue Jays. Justin would prove to be, well, masterful that day, spinning up 8 innings of 2 hit, one run ball with 10 strikeouts.

The April date helps explain the beautifully bright light on the card; also of note that all that spring sunshine is actually striking a creme colored uniform, a Home Alternate the Indians wore for about ten years, until 2017. 

Uniform Hero? No uni # on this uniform front, however Masterson did sport #63 for his entire career.

Where’d the egg hatch? Justin was drafted by the Boston Red Sox in the 2nd round of the 2006 draft.

How about the migrations? He then had a quite successful debut in Boston in 2008, working as a starter and a reliever, which continued on in to 2009. The promising results developed Masterson into a trade chip for Boston, who then swapped him (with one other young bullpen piece) to Cleveland in the '09 season, in exchange for Victor Martinez. The Cleveland fan base hated to see him go, but so it goes in one of the smallest markets in MLB. Boston received about 4 WAR from a year and a half of V-Mart's services, while Cleveland probably received about double that over Masterson's time with the Indians. Using that WAR lens, one would have to say that Cleveland did well selling high on Martinez.

Don’t flip over real Turtles.

I like that Topps can peruse the ball-player human interest stories whenever they wish. Each pitch a masterpiece - probably a good strategy, Masterson.

Can the Turtle Catch the Rabbit?

CAREER CHASE: With 644 strikeouts, Masterson is 5,070 away from Nolan Ryan's all-time record of 5,714.

Masterson was certainly developing into a top-of-the-rotation starting pitcher when this card was composed; the year of the Sea Turtle was probably his best in the majors as he led the AL with 3 Shutouts. 

But for some reason he could never repeat those results and the end came quickly; he was traded to St. Louis late in the 2014 season and then pitched just a partial season back with the Red Sox in 2015.

Justin Masterson finished his career with 1004 Strikeouts.

Subspecies? A pitcher shown on a baseball card pitching on Opening Day should probably be in the Opening Day set, yes? And indeed this Justin Masterson card does appear in 2013 Opening Day, but there are no other versions of this card.

Bling That Shell All that light & red & white & shadow dancing around all over the card makes it a little tempting to go with the trusty "base" parallel here; this card does look good with a straight white frame. But that would kind of violate the spirit of the project; I went with the nice crisp purple: