#65 - J.P. Howell

What’s that Turtle doin’? Oh, probably making the best Turtle Face we've seen in the set so far. Now that I've seen it, I will be mentally comparing every instance of 'Pitcher Face' in the set to Mitch McConnell perhaps. Don't worry, I won't drag you into those. Too much.

This card has things I like, and things I don't like.

I don't like that it looks better blown-up an extra 50% after scanning. But that is a little informative about baseball cards, too, I suspect, in that the Topps composition team probably (?) looks at the card at a size bigger than 2.5x3.5 on their computer screens before clicking "save" or whatever.  

Then I like that Howell's half-shaded face looks kinda more intense on the blow-up version. But on the card, in hand, I don't like excessively shaded faces.

I do like the card being yet another study in Pitcher mechanics. J.P. has some rotational force development goin' on here, but the total sum of the forces about to be released (as per Trevor Bauer), don't seem to be as a high a total as the ones rotationally developed by Tim Lincecum. But then Howell did pitch for 2 more seasons than Lincecum as it all turned out.

Another thing I like is another appearance of what I call 'That Necklace,' which was all the rage for MLB players in the early 10s. By 2012 when the Sea Turtles had their pictures taken, a full set of these necklaces had been manufactured in every team color scheme. I keep cards showing this necklace as a random little side collection; someday I will un-ravel the mystery of 'That Necklace' in a big long blog post on Base Set Calling.

But another thing I don't like is that the necklace can really only be confirmed as 'That' (and a perfect team color style of 'That') by looking at the blown-up scan again.

I really like the upside-down Swoosh on the glove. Sums up my feelings nicely.

Uniform Hero? As I steadily learned all of the J.P. Howell gestalt with this baseball card, I began to suspect that an appearance of a 3rd Rays pitcher in as many binder pages (and the ever random inclusion of a Middle Reliever on the Topps Baseball checklist) must herald another card # / uni # match. But, 'twas not to be, although Topps did have another option — note the singular, there. 

Really, uniform #s in the 60s are generally uniform #s more commonly seen in Spring Training than in real MLB action.

Where’d the egg hatch? The Atlanta Braves drafted James Phillip out of High School in 2001, using a 2nd round pick. When Howell elected to go to USC rather than sign, I have to wonder who got the blame in the Atlanta front office that year.

The Kansas City Royals then drafted Howell in the 1st round in 2004 but as another of those selections - 31st - that I don't fully understand as still counting as the "1st" round. Someday I'll learn how Major League Baseball really works.

How about the migrations? After all that heavy draft interest, Howell's debut in the 2005 season in KC did not go well. While still in the minors in June, 2006, the Royals traded him to the Rays for an outfielder named Joey Gathright, who never became a regular in KC. Tampa obtained about 6x more WAR from Howell over the next several seasons.

But early in the year of the Sea Turtle (January 7), Howell signed with the Dodgers. With just 3 weeks to go before Series One released, this card may even have already been printed by that point, so seeing him still with the Rays is fairly more understandable than the cards created for players released the day after the World Series.

Don’t flip over real Turtles.

A textbook example really; when you flipped this card over fresh from a pack of 2013 Topps Baseball, you pretty much were brought instantly up to speed on J.P. Howell's career arc so far.

Can the Turtle Catch the Rabbit?

CAREER CHASE: With 267 games pitched, Howell is 985 away from Jesse Orosco's all-time record of 1,252.

This record intrigues me more each time I flip over a Middle Reliever Sea Turtle card now. Can one of the Sea Turtles catch Jesse Orosco? Given the career fluctuations of relievers in the 'Data Age' of Baseball, that seems doubtful. But it still seems more plausible than the Cy Young and Nolan Ryan comps on this portion of each card.

Howell would pitch for LA for 4 complete, > 60 appearance seasons, and would add 17 more Games with Toronto in 2017.

J.P. Howell finished his career with 547 Games pitched.

Subspecies? I have to wonder if any non-Closer relievers will get any bonus Sea Turtle cards. There are no variants of this one though.

Bling That Shell This card is on my small 'upgrade' list for now. There is a small chance I could stumble across an easy-to-acquire Factory Set Orange version, but that chance is pretty low actually. And, I might not pull the trigger on the idea anyway.

I do like how the Purple frame reveals that the "TB" logo is actually framed itself, in white, something that can't really be seen on the regular white framed version of the card.