#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.

#39 - Scott Feldman

What’s that Turtle doin’? I have been looking forward to blogging about this card since before I started this blog. Why this card? As I begin this post, I still know only one thing about Scott Feldman - he has a baseball card in one of my favorite sets of baseball cards. And that's it.

And that's why I collect baseball cards - to try and stay 'up' on all the players of the game, which I would rather do with cards than by watching hours of cable TV as often as daily. Cable TV is not something I usually have access to in my life, and I don't miss it.

This particular card was the last card I needed to complete this page of parallels, so I often pondered it - just who is Scott Feldman?

On this card, Scott has just delivered a pitch. His leg kick is just about over, and overall he doesn't seem in any way tensed up. Probably, the ball landed in the Catcher's glove, and he is mostly intent on hearing the call from the Umpire. That's my take on what remains of the "action" here.

The overall lines of the card flow from his glove and all the way through his just completed motion, and then his hand-less right arm is sliced off by the Sea Turtle itself. A bit of a downer here, really. How many viewing the card think it will be called a Strike?

The "40" patch on his right sleeve is not a simple anniversary patch for their stadium, as you might all too easily conclude for many other MLB outfits. 40 years was the age of the Texas Rangers club itself, in 2012, as they debuted as an expansion team in 1972.

A final interesting element on the card is what I call "That Necklace." Baseball players have worn necklaces for a long time, though I have to wonder how many could be found on any 1950s baseball cards. But in 2013, I think there was a peak of wearing this certain plastic necklace, generally of 2 colors as shown here, and available to the players in matching "team colors" if they wished. 

I'm not sure of which year was the actual peak; perhaps by looking at this question via baseball cards I will figure that out on a one-year-later basis. But I have been setting aside stray copies of cards of players wearing this necklace whenever one appears in a pile of dups/doubles/extras, since 99.9% of such cards have essentially no value, anyway. Eventually over on my main blog I will show off some of the results. One thing I still need to do is find Patient/Card Zero with this - when was the first time this necklace was seen on a card? I am pretty sure that will be in the early 2010s. But to find the last example of this necklace on a card, well, that might not have happened yet - because I saw one on 2018 Topps Baseball cards, and in the Update set even. So perhaps 2019 will be the first Topps Baseball sets to not have an on-card example of "That Necklace."

Uniform Hero? This card throws one for a loop a tiny bit, compared to so many cards that have just appeared, with the clear numerals '40' on the shoulder, but on card #39.

It is also probably where the Topps checklist composer probably first hit the realities of Major League Baseball Uniform #s. The most prestigious Uni #s are usually the lowest, though of course lately Topps has been able to make some very easy decisions about which New York Yankee to assign card #99 - this checklist technique did not debut in 2013 Topps Baseball, nor has it gone away again completely, either.

Until this checklist spot, there was no shortage of players to generally select one to honor a great player with a card # that matched his uniform #. The few times a just regular player was selected, there has been an alternative, more famous player, that didn't work out to use with this concept.

I count about 15 other players that will appear in this set that wore #39 in 2012. But it would be about impossible to rank one ahead of another in terms of fame, or stats, or recent postseason glory, or any other comparative. And of course, that would be inevitable in trying to construct this checklist. We will see some more interesting combinations of uniform and card # as we move along, but the odds of seeing an All-Star match will begin to decline sharply.

Where’d the egg hatch? Feldman was drafted by the Rangers in 2003, in the 30th round, making him the current highest draft position on this checklist, so far.

How about the migrations? Scott would debut in Texas in 2005, pitching as a reliever for his first 3 seasons. That garnered him a few baseball cards, because everyone wants Rookie Cards, Rookie Cards, Rookie Cards. In 2008 he moved into the starting rotation for Texas, but he wouldn't get a Topps Baseball card again until 2010, after his second campaign as a starter. This is because no one wants baseball cards of relievers, in a general sense, and it took Topps an extra year to notice the change in his career. But when you go 17-8 as a starter you do earn their attention once again.

2010 did not work out as well for Feldman despite being the Opening Day starter for Texas, leading to a demotion to the bullpen. In 2011 he battled injuries and threw only 32 innings. Leading once again to a demotion from the Topps Baseball checklist. Then in 2012, he returned to the starting rotation and thus back on to the checklist for 2013, where we find him here.

But by the time this card came out of packs, Feldman was no longer a Texas Ranger, having signed with Chicago in late November, 2012. Topps can't endlessly shift every baseball player changing teams while they create these baseball cards, so Feldman appears as a Ranger.

He then makes a natural candidate for a card in the Update set, where he duly appears as a Chicago Cub - despite having been traded to Baltimore in early July of 2013. My guess would be that was because a Cubs card for Scott Feldman had already been issued in the Factory Team Set blister pack, so it was easier to just copy/paste that one down, 299 baseball cards in the Update set to go.

Chicago would receive Pedro Strop in return, who would appear in the Update set as a Cub even, along with Jake Arrieta, who would not receive an Updated card at all. So 2 players traded for each other would be "Updated" onto new cards on the same team.

After years of looking at both Series One and Update cards, I had never made that connection between an S1 card and an Update card until writing this blog post - I could not even draw the connection that they were the same player. That is how much of an "Everyman" player Scott Feldman was I guess, and for me, a good illustration of why I will continue to collect baseball cards. Major League Baseball rosters have lots of Scott Feldmans, and they are all absolutely incredible at playing the game of baseball, amply demonstrated by their ability to even make a Major League roster in the first place. 

Yet Feldman would never receive a card as a Baltimore Oriole at all - perhaps I shouldn't rely so much on Topps to keep me 'up' on the game of baseball. He would go on to pitch for 3 more teams after Baltimore, and appear on a few more scattered cards. In 2017 he had a knee injury while pitching for Cincinnati, which effectively ended his career. Then in 2018, his everyman-become-journeyman baseball career would be capped with a true "sunset" Topps Baseball card, with 100% complete MLB stat totals, something not even every All-Time Great receives. That card also features a truly epic first-ever-to-do-X statistic of the type that only Topps can deliver, but I will leave that one to a set blogger for the 2018 cards to bedazzle you with.

Don’t flip over real Turtles.

Whew. So I am all up-to-date on the career of Scott Feldman. I hope you are too, now. If I hadn't decided to write up this blog post, maybe all I would ever know about him was being the 2nd player to start a season 0-6, and then go 6-0. What a loss that would have been.

Can the Turtle Catch the Rabbit?

CAREER CHASE: With 204 games pitched, Feldman is 1,048 away from Jesse Orosco's all-time record of 1,252.

I guess Topps could never quite decide if Scott Feldman was a Starter or a Reliever, so they went with the simple record for Relievers.

Feldman finished his MLB career having pitched in 342 Games.

Subspecies? Perhaps it is a minor miracle that Feldman's signing with Chicago would be documented by Topps in the Update set, given their on-again, off-again coverage of his career. No other Texas Ranger 2013 cards of Scott Feldman needed to be created.

Bling That Shell This parallel was another one that 'completed' the page when I received it. At one point in the project, I was selecting the Toys-R-Us Purple parallel for lots of Texas Rangers cards, because of the way their official on-card logo here mixes red and blue. What do you get then? Purple.

But then I grew a little disenchanted with the lesser-than-possible contrast of the blue Sea Turtle on the Purple parallel, so I went away from the idea of using this combo. But I can't always get what I want - a page of 9 baseball cards in perfect popping contrast, with no repeats. So I went back to my original Purple Rangers idea, and I do still like it:

#28 - Prince Fielder

What’s that Turtle doin’? Sluggers gotta slugg, particularly when they are the cover boy on a Topps product. Prince Fielder served as the face of 2013 Series One, appearing on all the wrappers, boxes, etc. Topps already had a bit of a thing for Fielder, making him card #1 in the 2010 set. Perhaps that somewhat helps explain passing over a slightly more obvious choice, as one of Fielder's team-mates had just won the first Triple Crown in 45 years.

Although the Tigers had just been swept in the previous World Series, they were keeping the band together to a large degree and much was expected for the 2013 club once again. This remains the only Topps wrapper I can recall to feature a Detroit Tiger as the sole face of a set of cards, something likely to remain true for a quite a while to come as I write early in 2019. 2013, however, was an exciting time to be a Tigers fan collecting baseball cards, and is perhaps one reason I took to this set so quickly upon it's release.

I like to think of this card as The Slugger With The Far-Away Eyes. This is the fifth such card in the set, a post-swing photo where a Hitter has clearly just made contact. On this one, I think, Fielder's eyes have the best launch angle so far. If only Alexa or Siri could just instantly measure that for me, we could know that for sure. Though a launch angle that is too high is just a pop-up. But what fun would it be to imagine that?

On all such cards, I can't help but look for signs that the batter is beginning to initiate running to First Base; although that is likely a pretty vain hope as the photographer is not trying to capture that and most such cards are a snapshot in time just before that starts. Although card #1 - Bryce Harper, does manage to combine the Hitter checking the flight of the ball he just hit, and evidence of running.

Still, seeing the Hitter checking out what the ball is doing, rather than running, seems somewhat wrong to me, as a fan. That is totally unfair on my part, as I am looking at a fixed point in time, rather than a continual segment of time. I bring all this up because as with the previous card for Mike Trout this card supplies a bit of a premonition, though with this card regarding how Fielder would end up leaving Detroit, just a year after this card was produced.

Uniform Hero? Oh yes. Long-time collectors know well how fallible Topps can be on the little things, but they are hardly going to drop the ball on handing out a premium checklist spot for the guy on the wrapper.

Where’d the egg hatch? Milwaukee drafted Fielder in the 1st round in 2002, as the 7th pick. He debuted with the Brewers in 2005.

How about the migrations? Fielder's career really took off in 2007, when he became the youngest player to hit 50 Home Runs. When his initial contract ended in Milwaukee after the 2011 season, there was much wailing and lamentation - Fielder was very popular there, playing for a club and a fanbase that felt reaching the final step of appearing in a World Series was in it's grasp. A few weeks prior, Albert Pujols had finally ended a similar drama in St. Louis by taking a huge(r) offer from the California Angels. Brewers fans at the time liked to note that Pujols was 32 years old already, whereas Fielder was only 27 - perhaps the following saga is on the minds of baseball GMs with money to spend, this offseason.

The Brewers' final re-sign offer was said to be 6 years, $120 Million. Scott Boras turned this down flat. Instead, Detroit Tigers owner Mike Illitch swept in with a 9 year, $214 Million offer (4th largest in MLB history to that point) in the 3rd week of January, 2012 - considered a bit of a late signing at the time, which makes for another interesting comparison to the 2019 offseason. A classic baseball tale that often makes one wonder - do we root for the actual teams, or the different owner / ownership groups? What if Mike Illitch had been born in Wisconsin?

Initial results were wonderful in Motown for Fielder - no one quibbles with a team that appears in a World Series. But for a team that loses the World Series? Oh, yes. Though perhaps not right away.

2013 was another bang-up year in Detroit, with a first place finish and a trip to the ALCS - but a lost ALCS. Immediately afterward, everything unraveled for Fielder and the Detroit Tigers fans, an increasingly public baseball phenomena in the 21st Century. Fielder only hit 25 Home Runs in 2013 - were the Tigers expected to pay $1 Million for each one? More astute fans noted a 120 point drop in his OPS.

But stats don't light up Social Media complaints like video clips and interview soundbites do. Fielder was caught on the basepaths during an ALCS loss in Boston, and that summarized much for the angry fans, despite Fielder's long career of proving his hustle - a career that included not 1 but 2 inside-the-park Home Runs. Worse was to come when a post-season interview seemed to indicate a bit of apathy about the playoff exit on Fielder's part; then the fury really mounted amongst the ever increasing binary fanbase public view of all sports results being Championship OR Suck. I often think pro athletes truly earn their money spouting endlessly repetitive sports cliches in interviews for years on end - but woe to the athlete that breaks the unwritten rules of those largely pointless affairs, as Manny Machado is discovering currently.

But the most important view was held by the man who agreed to give Prince Fielder the $214 Million - Mike Illitch. He let his displeasure be known, somewhat, and his all-timer type GM, Dave Dombrowski, was ordered to work his magic. This soon resulted in an astounding trade of the massive contract with the Tigers receiving Ian Kinsler from the Rangers while agreeing to pay some 25-ish% of Fielder's salary in Texas for the remaining 7 years on his contract.

Fielder's career in Texas was a stop.start.stop affair, with an injury (neck) shortened season in 2014, followed by one of his normal iron man type seasons in 2015, and then finally grinding to a tragic halt in 2016 with a neck/spinal cord injury that prevented further playing. Fielder announced this with a tearful final press conference during the season, wearing a neck brace at the time.

There are several angles to the whole Fielder/Detroit/Texas experience not widely known to observers outside of the Tiger fan base, and some of these partially shaped the club for several seasons to come. One was greatly explained by a trade in July, 2013, though some reasons behind it weren't known until not long after the Fielder trade in November, 2013.

The July trade shipped rising Outfield prospect Avisail Garcia to the White Sox - we will see the results of this trade with a post here for a Tigers card in Update, many years from now. It was widely rumored that a major downer for Fielder, in 2013, was off-field marital problems involving one of his own team-mates. This culminated in a clubhouse fight between him and Garcia, which also dragged in Miguel Cabrera, and led immediately to the Garcia trade. The saddest part of the affair by far was the potential that it contributed to the beginnings of injury trouble for Fielder, and also for surefire future Hall of Famer Cabrera. This is the type of what-happens-in-the-clubhouse-stays-in-the-clubhouse incident that usually only comes out decades later in baseball books, which are usually only written about the greatest All-Timers of the game; it remains a little unclear to me if Miguel Cabrera will some day rate such a tome in the tl;dr century. If only he could have won a World Series in Detroit, too...

As all that salaciousness only slowly became known in the sad post-ALCS loss for the Tiger fanbase, they found a large ray of hope in the Fielder trade. Prince's move would allow Miguel Cabrera to return to First Base, something hopefully good for his playing time longevity, as the Tigers had a hot young hitter available to take over at Third - Nick Castellanos. With the exit of the now unpopular Fielder, the trade largely appeared to be an addition by subtraction effort for many Tigers fans.

A final bit of mysteriousness surrounds the financial impact facing the Tigers for paying all that money ( > $40 Million) for him to play in Texas. This probably became a bit of a wash for Detroit, due to Fielder's career ending injury, as there was surely injury insurance on a guaranteed contract that large. However no one really knows how the Fielder and Kinsler contracts were composed in that regard, and which team ultimately paid out how much in the situation.

All of this was hardly a storybook season of triumphs Topps likely had in mind when they selected Prince Fielder to appear on so much baseball card packaging. I would like to see another Detroit Tiger on a Topps wrapper some day, I guess.

Don’t flip over real Turtles.

This card back perhaps reveals a selection factor for just why Topps went all-out with Fielder and their 2013 Series One baseball cards, something so unique in the history of the Detroit Tigers. Fans love the long ball, and so does Topps - win the Home Run Derby, and you will appear on a whole lot of baseball cards.

The 7 Lead Leader in Italics recorded here tie Fielder with his former teammate Ryan Braun, and Ryan Howard as well, for a lead among card backs in this set. Not recorded by Topps is the probable League Lead in "Wt" where Fielder bests Howard by 35. Perhaps that could serve as a tie-breaker.

Can the Turtle Catch the Rabbit?

CAREER CHASE: With 260 home runs, Fielder is 502 away from Barry Bonds' all-time record of 762.

Plenty of fans (well, aside from a few in Detroit) would have rooted for the usually affable Prince Fielder to win this particular race, and this is the only likely comparison in a baseball card back trivia contest like this one.

Fielder would finish his career with 319 Home Runs.

Subspecies? Though I would like to see a baseball card of Prince Fielder about to crush the fans along the rail while chasing a foul ball for a potential "Great Catch" short print, such was not to be.

But a 'wrapper man' is surely going to receive other such photo variation efforts in 2010s style Topps Baseball cards, and this same card does appear in Opening Day and Chrome. For his Chrome card, a truly unique card exists that I wish I could honestly show you from my own collection. This will likely arrive at Sea Turtle HQ some day, as after the sad end to his now non-Hall-of-Fame career track, his rare cards are generally available on collector markets.

That will also probably become the case for the "Sunglasses" variant inserted in Series 2 packs, but will remain a challenge for the "Postseason" variant to his Opening Day card, which are made in very limited quantities.

2013 Opening Day does supply the 2 cards that I like the most as a memento of his time in Detroit, beyond all the Series One ephemera at least. I was surprised this far more memorable "moon shot" style image wasn't used on this checklist:

I also like this card quite a bit for a nice memory of Prince Fielder -

This dynamic duo would also appear on 2 more cards in '13 Opening Day in the 'Superstar Celebration' inserts, but that type of checklist could well supply the most scarce (for a non 1/1 at least) baseball card of Prince Fielder, ever. For some reason, the "Play Hard" inserts created for Fielder and Cabrera had to be pulled from the product shortly after production began. The few cards already manufactured were immediately punched with a large hole in them - but a few escaped into the wild nonetheless.

The Play Hard inserts do manage to capture Fielder on another card, a Buster Posey card:

That card probably illustrates the true beginnings of the disenchantment with Prince Fielder among so many Tigers fans, as it shows him being tagged out in Game 2 of the 2012 World Series, with his foot probably about a foot away from Home Plate when the tag was applied. Baseball fans are legendary Captain Hindsights however, and this sin was unforgivable in a World Series. (It also supplied a long-held grudge for such fans against Third Base coach Gene LaMont, who waved him Home on the play; 3B coaches are only ever remembered for each and every mistake they make in such decisions.)

I would also be remiss in this post in not considering the most common 2013 Topps Baseball 'Sea Turtle' image of Prince Fielder of all of them:

Note that for some reason, this is not the same image as used on card #28. We have the same far-away eyes view after a ball was probably hit a very long ways, but here Fielder is wearing his road uniform, and full long sleeves. The additional follow-through might well make for a farther hit ball, who knows.

Perhaps some other baseball card blog could take up the mysteries of who appears on each Series of Topps Baseball each year, and the image used, etc., and whether that bodes good or bad for that player, that year. It worked out much better for the Series 2 cover boy, that I can tell you; we'll take a look at that some 300 or so posts from now.

And lastly, I also must share another bit of Sea Turtle baseball card history that I will probably literally never have enough physical space under my control to ever own:

This promotional event for the 2013 Topps Baseball cards created the largest baseball card the world has ever seen, and likely ever will see, at 84 feet x 60 feet.

Here is one more image of it, for a tiny bit of perspective here -

At press time here at Sea Turtle HQ, no word can be found on the fate of this 3,240 pound creation. Can you find the largest Sea Turtle card ever made? Don't try and bring it over to my house. Though perhaps it would be kind of cool to have the 10' x 30' panel of just the Sea Turtle.

Bling That Shell A card for the player on the wrapper surely deserves an epic parallel in the all-parallel set, you might suggest? Yes, I would say it does. For now, I only have the Toys R Us Purple parallel to show you, which scans a little better than it appears in hand. As you can probably tell by now I drive the project on the parallel color / Sea Turtle contrast created, so I would like to upgrade. The 2013 Factory Set Orange would be quite a bit more apropos here, some day, and a Pink wouldn't bother me, neither...

This card completes a binder page, so it is time to take a look at that. A few more Turtles have arrived here at HQ to assume their positions in the project, so look for a few updated links for the Page 2 cards in a blog post coming soon.

Until then, here are the Page 3 results:

Blog Update Highlight So, what will I display these colorful pages in? Naturally for all my cool picture trading card product needs, I would first consider What Would Topps Do? And this is surely the perfect card page in this set to share this handy 2013 Topps creation, a product they made for several sets for several years, but one I have not kept up with as to current availabilities / existence. For my 2013 All-Parallel set, this 3-ring binder will some day be the perfect Home: