#74 - Kenley Jansen

What’s that Turtle doin’? Probably making short work of another 9th inning; it must be a big divisional weekend game as Jansen definitely seems to be keeping the fans in their seats back there.

This card has great left-to-right motion, kind of like Jansen's most famous pitch. The tilted glove seems to be what the camera lens focused on and it initially draws the eye to the left side of the card but then Jansen's fore-arm draws the viewer back to the right where finally you notice Kenley's eyes focusing in on home plate. 

Though it is much harder to see the ball there near the same point as on the Lincecum card, there is just enough light on this bright sunny day to reveal the seams on the ball - and a four seam fastball grip, the basis of a cutter.

The bright sunshine again makes for nice combinations of white, light, shadow, and the iconic Dodgers team colors.      

Uniform Hero? Clearly. Jansen has worn #74 for his entire career.

Where’d the egg hatch? Kenley Jansen is from Curacao and was signed there by a Dodgers scout in 2004. Curacao has a population of a little over 150,000 people - but 3 Sea Turtle cards, which is quite probably the highest ratio of any country to supply players to this set.

How about the migrations? Jansen has been in the Dodgers organization since the signing and debuted in the Dodgers bullpen in 2010. He has never started a Major League game.

However, he was not signed as a Pitcher, but rather as a Catcher. "We're all told" goes the famous quote from Moneyball; but when Kenley was 'told' that his lack of a good hit tool would probably keep him out of the Majors he was fortunately also told that perhaps he could try pitching instead. His coach for that effort was one Charlie Hough, nearing the end of his post-MLB coaching career.

Don’t flip over real Turtles.

It's the little things, the itty-bitty things, that jump out at you sometimes reading the back of a baseball card. Quick - name another switch-hitting Pitcher. Yup, up there under "Bats:" it says "Both." But before you detour off to the Google Machine for the story of Kenley at the plate, I can tell you he has had only 9 Plate Appearances in his career. Still though, this card will keep me on my toes a little on flipping over Pitcher cards.

I was a little surprised to see mention of Kimbrel on this card; placing a youngster in the role of Closer was a bit of a thing in MLB in the early 2010s and Kimbrel was the prime example. But this card back makes it clear he was not the only impressive example of such a career start.

Also I would not advise hitting up the Google Machine for the details on Netherlands Antilles vs. Curacao; I think it would be smarter to just enjoy a nice vacation there instead.

Can the Turtle Catch the Rabbit?

CAREER CHASE: With 34 saves, Jansen is 574 saves away from Mariano Rivera's all-time record of 608.

The 'Save' is such a captivating stat. Every baseball fan wants their team to have not just a 'Closer,' but preferrably a 'Proven Closer'; evidence of that allure is the presence of Kimbrel and Jansen in the Hero # portion of this checklist. 

So it is no surprise that this would be the stat comparison here. But given the card back text we just read, it is a bit of a pity that we can't compare K/9 or something, for Relievers, without making this odd little baseball card feature just too complicated.

As the 2020 season commences, Kenley Jansen has 301 Saves.

Subspecies? Though Jansen would certainly become a 'Proven Closer' after this card appeared, as it was being created he only had one partial season of closing games for the Dodgers, so this is the only Sea Turtle card for Kenley as it does not appear in Opening Day nor Chrome.

Bling That Shell This is another parallel that has migrated in and out of the project at times; I really like the Topps Black parallel but I have been trying to avoid using them for the blue teams due to a lack of 'pop'. Lately, this particular card is back in, mostly due to the PITA factor of trying to re-arrange this page otherwise, and I do want an example of almost every team color + parallel color.

#57 - Mark Lowe

What’s that Turtle doin’? Demonstrating the pitching motion once again. I think if one were trying to study how that motion works, this card pairs perfectly with the Lincecum card just 2 checklists spots prior. Perhaps Tim Lincecum was able to famously generate more rotational force with his shoulder via a much lower starting point for the baseball in his right hand.

On this card, implied motion somewhat oddly stops. The dramatically lit-up pinstripe on Lowe's uniform draws the eye away from the imminent route of the ball to Home Plate, but then the pair of arms extending in the other direction draws the eye back over to the ball. Although this is an excellently framed and appealing card, it doesn't have the same flow that many other live action pitching cards do.

The background of the card is a nice, varying combination of sunlit areas and shaded areas. 

Of all the advertising one sees while viewing baseball games and baseball players on baseball cards, I can't think of a more perfect spot to advertise grass care products than on the outfield wall of a baseball stadium.  

Uniform Hero? Pickings are getting a little slim here by #57 but Mark Lowe did indeed wear #57 for Texas in 2012, though he wore a variety of uni #s in his career. A far more famous pitcher, with perhaps a bit of an infamous No Hitter to his credit even, wore #57 on a uniform where it is clearly seen - Johan Santana. But as it turned out, his main Sea Turtle card appeared in Series 2, though we will also see him a little further along on this checklist here in Series 1.

Where’d the egg hatch? Lowe was drafted out of college by the Mariners in the 5th round of 2004,

How about the migrations? and would rather routinely (for a college player) debut with them almost exactly 2 years after the draft. 2008 became his first full year in Seattle's bullpen; his career would become a classic migratory reliever pattern that began with a trade from Seattle to Texas. However as Seattle was also sending Cliff Lee to Texas in that trade, it is not really worth considering the trade outcome much here.

On the standard "cya" day in Major League Baseball, Lowe was released by Texas the day after the 2012 World Series and then signed with the Dodgers for the year of the Sea Turtle cards but would not make it out of Spring Training with them. He was able to latch on with the California Angels for the 2013 season but would appear in just 11 games.

All in all, a rather curious checklist selection by Topps here, as middle relievers like Mark Lowe only sometimes, more not than often really, appear in Topps Baseball sets. Across a 10 year career, Lowe would appear on just 5 Topps Baseball cards, generally in the Update release, and a smattering of other small sets.

Don’t flip over real Turtles.

I would say the Topps card back writer hit a nice single here, always nice to read as they will always be writing more of these in a week or two. What I am referring to is the nice shout-out for very local fans in the Arlington area; not all that many MLB fans connect MLB players to their collegiate play.

Can the Turtle Catch the Rabbit?

CAREER CHASE: With 253 games played, Lowe is 999 away from Jesse Orosco's all-time record of 1,252.

As a Tigers fan, I was pretty sure which record comparison would be made here, before I turned the cad over, for for a player so well fitting the classic "journeyman reliever" trope. This is only the 3rd card so far to feature this comparison.

After his brief 2013 season with the Angels, Lowe would also pitch a similarly brief amount for the Indians in 2014 and then make the also classic outside-looking-in career move of once again signing with the team that drafted him - Seattle - who would trade him to Toronto at the 2015 trade deadline. As usual for a low leverage veteran reliever, very few would be able to recall much on the careers of the 3 other pieces in the trade.

Somehow in Toronto in the home stretch of the 2015 season, everything would click for Mark Lowe and he would have the best 2 months of his career, turning in a 0.842 WHIP for a Jays team on their way to the ALCS, where Lowe would allow just one Hit (& 1 HBP) in 3.1 innings of relief in a series loss to the Royals.

That brilliant stretch somehow convinced the very new GM in Detroit, Al Avila, that Mark Lowe was worth signing for $5.5 Million for 2 years, a decision which proved to be completely wrong. Perhaps Avila hadn't yet conceded that Detroit would no longer be able to purchase enough veteran talent to achieve decent results in the standings, who knows?

As it turned out, 2016 in Detroit would be the final season of bouncing around the Leagues, (or at least, appearing on a mound in an MLB game) for Mark Lowe as he could not repeat that mysterious late 2015 brilliance and the Tigers had little choice but to release him during Spring Training in 2017 and just eat the $5.5 Million they still owed him. I think that perhaps that particular expensive decision finally convinced everyone in Detroit of the reality of what they were facing, and also ended a long era of attempts to staff a bullpen with expensive veterans, a routine habit of former Detroit GM Dave Dombrowski.

The White Sox, Mariners (again), and the Dodgers (again) would each give him one more "look" but he would not return to the Majors; sometimes the complete MLB Transaction list can tell some rather sad tales.

With 382 games pitched, Lowe finished his career 870 away from Jesse Orosco's all-time record.

Subspecies? By now you probably already understand that middle relievers are lucky to appear in a standard issue Topps Baseball set. There are no other 2013 baseball cards for Mark Lowe.

Bling That Shell I went a little round & round with this selection. Early on in collecting 2013 parallels I obtained the Black /62 parallel for this card as part of a lot purchase and included it as the permanent parallel Turtle. Over time I grew a little dis-enchanted with the blue-team-on-black parallel cards, more due to how they look in-hand than they do in a scan, where they look quite nice. Blue-on-black just didn't have that "pop" that looks so good in a baseball card collection. 

I also considered using the Blue Sparkle parallel here due to all the variety in the background of the photo, which does look nice. But a blue-on-blue combo is right out.

But all that was making this page difficult to fill and I have 110 pages to fill. I also somewhat want at least one example of every team color + parallel color. Eventually I decided that a) Black parallels of sunny day cards look nice, and b) if a team logo had at least some red to it, the overall effect would be 'poppy' enough to use a blue team card with a black Turtle shell, like this one: