#77 - Dustin Moseley

What’s that Turtle doin’? Serving up a gopher ball, perhaps? Can't say that is a very optimistic look about this next pitch.

Like cards with a cut-off foot, Moseley's right leg disappearing just above the knee (much like the  #59 - John Axford card) gives an appearance that he just this instant bounded onto the baseball card, but then the planted right leg suddenly anchors the viewer, too. That transference of the line finally draws the viewer back to the baseball about to launch from his right hand.

Overall though, after owning this card for just about exactly 7 years as I write up this entry, I still know almost nothing about Dustin Moseley. Which is why I started this blog, actually, rather than simply reading the whole card back before I file away the matching parallel and then go another who knows how many years still not knowing very much about Dustin Moseley.

I particularly like that in the "Gem Mint" era of collecting baseball cards, where so many collectors lean on outside validation of their choices before committing to own a 3.5" x 2.5" picture of a baseball player, well ... I doubt if anyone reading this blog happened to notice how off-centered my copy of this card is. No way will this one make a PSA 10.

Which makes me like this one all the more. It is actually a little challenging to pull a copy of a 2013 Topps Baseball card this noticeably off-centered. So, yeah, that makes MY copy better than your copy.

Uniform Hero? yeah, nope. But then I got to thinking - #77 would be a pretty cool # to have in the NFL, wouldn't it? Double Touchdowns would be the nickname, wouldn't it? That stray thought only yielded Red Grange however.

Still though, two 7s - anyone, anyone? Bueller? No, he wasn't playing baseball yet in 2013. 

So I looked it up, and one player did wear #77 in MLB in 2012. He appeared in 76 Games and hit .293. That should earn a Topps Baseball card, shouldn't it? Alas, it did not; bench utility guys can be a bit like middle relievers when it comes time to make a Topps Baseball checklist, and Pedro Ciriaco did not appear on a Sea Turtle card.

Where’d the egg hatch? Dustin Mosely was actually a 1st round pick by the Cincinnati Reds way back in 2000 - that should yield a treasure trove of Bowman cards, wouldn't it? 

Actually he was the 34th pick in that round - of 30 teams? I looked into this as I keep discovering this about so many players on this checklist. After the 1st round of the draft, there are certain "compensation picks" related to the current state of the Free Agent system rules in MLB, and lately also what is called the "competitive balance round" as MLB continues to try to help the small market teams battle the large market teams, somehow.

How about the migrations? As it turns out, there are some Bowman cards for Dustin Mosely, even a Topps Traded & Rookies card, all featuring him in a Cincinnati Reds uniform that he never wore in an actual MLB game. Before his MLB Debut could occur, the Reds traded him to the Angels for one Ramon Ortiz, who managed to put up a perfect 0.0 WAR value in his one season in Cincy. Moseley finally did make The Show in 2006, though his Odysseus like career continued from there onto the back of this baseball card...

Don’t flip over real Turtles.

So I launched this quest to understand this baseball card and I found really one of the more amazing card back quotes I have ever read: "who happens to have very bad luck."

This is so simple and direct it is a little staggering. Imagine if the Topps card back writer could deploy this basic honesty whenever it was called for, which would be rather frequent, really. I have to wonder how often the word "luck" ever appears on the back of a baseball card.

I mean, there is a lot of luck involved in the game of baseball, we all know that. But only recently, with deeper 'sabre-metric' analysis, has this been talked about openly all that much, perhaps most commonly around the BABIP stat. And I doubt a Topps card back writer would call out a player who finishes a season with a high BABIP (indicating a bit of a lucky season), even though most of the rest of the baseball commentary class does, routinely.

But the card back does explain the bad luck directly, as best it can in such a small space, though again this is different than how most baseball commentators would likely refer to Mosely. The common descriptor would be "injury prone" and the tone of that is almost always fairly dismissive, not sympathetic about "luck."

A savvy reader will notice the totals in the "G" column, which also seem to indicate bad luck with injuries. A little more context on what the Topps writer was referring to is that the 2011 season, where Mosely finally triumphed with the best results of his career, was cut short by an injury (shoulder) that happened while batting, not pitching.

The final line of the card back text also proved prophetical - the one start in 2012 was Dustin Moseley's final game in the Major Leagues. Which somewhat explains why I could never connect any baseball memory to this baseball card. That makes this a Final Card, as well as a true Sunset Card; those MAJ. LEA. TOTALS you see there are his total career #s, somewhat rare to see on the back of a baseball card. 

This is not his most epic card, a very memorable issue in 2011 Update, which I never mentally connected to this card before as the '11 card is really just one of the more amazing Pitcher In Action cards you ever will see. So amazing that I never noticed that on that card, the Moseley I had never heard of was a Pitcher and thus connected to this obvious Pitcher named Moseley I had never heard of on this baseball card. But I will leave that other card for a 2011 Topps Baseball set blogger to highlight, some day.

Can the Turtle Catch the Rabbit?

CAREER CHASE: With 101 games pitched, Moseley is 1,151 away from Jesse Orosco's all-time record of 1,252.

Appearing in an average of only 14 Games a season is going to make it pretty tough to catch the all-time record holder. But I would bet the Topps card back writer was pretty glad this particular CAREER CHASE was available to use here.

The 101 Games pitched is Dustin Moseley's career total.

Subspecies? By now you can probably guess that a hard luck career like this one can generate a sympathetic card back, but no other variant versions.

Bling That Shell That navy blue Home Alternate San Diego uniform calls for a tasteful choice here, so I went with the Target Red parallel. I particularly like that my particular copy is also off-center, but off to the left, rather than the right as on the base copy at the top of this post. They make a nice pair this way:

#59 - John Axford

What’s that Turtle doin’? Oh, probably showing off the best 0-60 speed of any Turtle so far. Topps always does seem to love printing Action! shots for the players with long hair.

For some reason, the 'knee high' cards - the ones where the player's leg(s) get cut by the card design framing below the knee, rather than above the knee, seem to impart the most sense of motion to me, fairly often. The player then appears to be on his way   -through- the card sometimes, until the photographer forced a stop so we can watch the game of baseball on our baseball cards.

The Brewers are wearing their dark blue 'Home Alternate' here; I think the roof might be open at Miller Park but it's a Great Lakes grey day overhead. The solid mass of blue helps make this quite a bit more memorable of a card, particularly as the Pitcher Parade wears on in this checklist.

Uniform Hero? Yes indeedy; the card # is one of the image elements leading the way to the plate here.

Where’d the egg hatch? John Axford was drafted twice — but still officially signed with an MLB club as a Free Agent.

First, the Mariners requested his services in the 7th round in 2001, but a scholarship to Notre Dame seemed like a better deal, and he did get a degree there, after Tommy John surgery along the way.

Then, the Reds took a chance on him in the 42nd round in 2005, but upon sending a scout to see him pitch with a final year of college eligibility (after that injury loss of a playing, but not a studying, year) the Reds declined to actually offer a contract. Which is something I haven't heard of before, possibly because it is usually kind of sunny on the back of a baseball card.

Axford seemed to enjoy playing the game, so he continued along in his home country, playing in the Canadian 'Western Major Baseball League' (Alberta & Saskatchewan), where a Yankees scout saw him pitch in the summer of 2006 and then signed him.

How about the migrations? As with the Mariners and Reds, a Yankee he was not to be; New York released him after a year in their minor league system. So, Milwaukee gave him a try in Spring Training 2008 and there everything finally worked out. By late 2010 he had become their Closer.

Don’t flip over real Turtles.

Only by doing a deep dive with this card back for this blog post did I learn that Axford is from a small Great Lakes port town, just like me. And I have owned this card for a full 7 years now. Naturally here in the 21st Century, I quickly turned to the kindly free hosting service of this blog - Google - for more details.

Which must happen to the crew at Topps sometimes, when their wizard like ability to summon a 'once did X in only Y days for only the Z amount of times in team history' statistic eludes them and they turn all team-media-guide-like ("the Club"), as on this oddball card back effort.

Can the Turtle Catch the Rabbit?

CAREER CHASE: With 106 saves, Axford is 502 saves away from Mariano Rivera's all-time record of 608.

With a nice Lead League in Italics for Saves already gracing his card back, there was naturally some optimism that Axford could anchor a bullpen for a long time to come.

However the more common result for relievers is only a few years of being able to generate those "SV" stats. Axford would move on from Milwaukee to serve in 7 more Major League Bullpens through 2018 until a final comeback attempt for an Ontario home boy via the Blue Jays' minor league clubs in 2019 ended in season, and career ending surgery in August of that year.

Axford would finish his career with 144 Saves.

Subspecies? A dominant Closer as Axford was in 2010 and 2011 is popular enough to make a popularity based small checklist like Opening Day and this card can be found there in 2013, but not in Chrome later that year, as Rookies need cards, too. There are no variant versions of this one.

Bling That Shell I think this dynamic action based card would look good on a number of parallel options however this project wouldn't be possible without the 'retail' parallels printed in higher quantities than even Topps Gold cards, so here I paired the classic dark blue uniform with a classic dark red parallel:

#44 - Anthony Rizzo

What’s that Turtle doin’? This is a fittingly perfect pose on a perfect baseball card, though of course it is not actually a pose. Baseball card collectors near and far love a Topps Rookie Cup card. With what I have been seeing on the #27 - Mike Trout card, in terms of prices, I think this card is probably one of the sleeper cards in the set in terms of ultimate future value.

Although as I consider the card closely, I think the lack of a complete follow through probably indicates that Rizzo is just watching a simple fly ball Out, rather than a Home Run. It does take some thought to arrive at that conclusion. One shouldn't really over-think baseball cards like this one.

On my main blog, Base Set Calling, I have a series I call "What IS That?" I am a bit surprised I have never noticed whatever it is that is sticking out of Rizzo's back pocket - What IS That?

Uniform Hero? Most definitely. There will never be much debate on who the All-Time best player to ever wear #44 was - that would be Hank Aaron. Because of that, certain other players have selected it; most notably Reggie Jackson and Willie McCovey.

So far, Anthony Rizzo seems to have selected his uniform # very well.

Where’d the egg hatch? Rizzo was actually drafted by the Boston Red Sox in 2007, and only in the 6th round. I write 'only' because that feels a little surprising to me, considering his franchise moves. He earned his trade value through post-draft play and then high prospect rankings.

How about the migrations? Considering how his career has developed in Chicago, his early career moves are fairly well known. The Red Sox traded him to San Diego, with 3 other prospects, in exchange for Adrian Gonzalez.

That one seems about equal, as these things go. After his 2011 MLB debut, where he seemed a touch overmatched, San Diego in turn traded him to Chicago. The Padres received starting Pitcher Andrew Cashner in return; I would say they did not do as well as the Red Sox.

All of these roster decisions involved baseball executive Jed Hoyer, who scouted him with the Red Sox and then ended up working in both San Diego and then Chicago at the points these trades were made.

Rizzo is signed with the Cubs through the 2019 season, however the Cubs have a team option for 2020 and 2021, which they will almost certainly use.

Don’t flip over real Turtles.

When Topps notes Complete Major and Minor League Batting Record, they mean it, and it is handy to see all of Rizzo's professional stats here, which dovetails nicely with the simple, direct, efficient, and informative text.

Can the Turtle Catch the Rabbit?

CAREER CHASE: With 57 RBI, Rizzo is 2,240 away from Hank Aaron's all-time record of 2,297.

This is a nice touch by the Topps card back writer, picking the Hank Aaron RBI record for a young player wearing #44, rather than that Home Run record which would not reference Hammerin' Hank any more.

After the 2019 season, Rizzo has hit 729 RBI.

Subspecies? This beautiful card would also appear in Opening Day and Chrome. It does have a "Great Catch" variation which we will see shortly.

But a baseball card blog post can't have too many baseball cards in it, so I thought I would show off one of my favorite "pulls" from 2013 Topps Baseball. I have always managed to hit rare Anthony Rizzo cards for some reason, starting with a /60 version of his RC in 2011, which will probably fund some expensive dental work later this year. Thanks, Topps. And that trend has continued on past 2013 as well. Although I don't buy baseball cards looking for a financial return or the ooh-ahh factor of owning someone's autograph, I can't say I am displeased when I pull a card like this:

So, did he catch it? First, an image from Getty:

Chicago Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo (44) catches a foul ball for an out that is hit by Houston Astros shortstop Jed Lowrie (4) in the first inning at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois, on Sunday, July 1, 2012. The Cubs beat the Houston Astros 3-0. (Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune/MCT via Getty Images)

Now, the Topps version:

Though the baseball didn't make the framing cut here, the original newspaper caption says "catches."

Bling That Shell This is yet another card that contributed a fair bit to the genesis of this project. I pulled this parallel from a pack, and knew it was a just exactly perfect baseball card combination of red, white, & blue. But how could I "collect" it, in it's all-by-itselfness perfection? It would need some qualified neighbors, I figured.

This is one of my favorite parallels in the project:

...and, we're back. I have missed y'all, and missed my beloved Sea Turtle cards. I recently finished a minor remodeling project that moved the key piece of baseball card blogging equipment: the scanner. That will make blogging a lot, lot easier.

Though I don't know how many turtles I will be able to hatch for this run as I might be back on the road in a few weeks, I am really looking forward to writing a new batch. It did turn out to be a little strange writing up set blog entries for players that are still playing - after all, a player featured just 3 entries before this one ended up closing down Game 7 of the 2019 World Series not long ago. Thankfully, I did OK on predicting his future on that one.

When I came to a stop on these last year, I was also not looking forward to writing about a soon upcoming player - Craig Kimbrel - who hadn't even signed for the 2019 season yet.

But at this point, not very many Sea Turtles are still playing Major League Baseball, so those sorts of concerns will largely fade, going forward. It will still require several years to write about all of the Sea Turtles, but it will be my pleasure to do so. Thanks for reading!

#37 - Max Scherzer

What’s that Turtle doin’? Max seems a little skeptical about the pitch he is about to throw here. Maybe he didn't like his Catcher's sign, or maybe he is not getting along with the Ump that day. 

Unlike many Pitching cards we have seen there is very little here to suggest captured live game motion; even though it is such, it also looks quite a bit like a posed shot. Perhaps following the line of the left arm and then the glove leads the viewer back to the ball, with the "troit" logo illustrating where the ball is headed in 3...2...1...

For such a clear view of Scherzer's eyes, the lighting angle in the stadium that day and the shadow interplay make it just about impossible to pick up Max's famously different color eyes.

Perhaps one of the more notable features of this card is a quite clear view of the Rawlings logo on the glove; a pity it is upside down.

Uniform Hero? This is one of the first times I have ever really thought about how Detroit puts the uniform # on the road uni, as seen here. Giving Scherzer this checklist spot seems a tad prescient on the part of Topps; his career was certainly good to this point but he was just getting warmed up. Ironically, the most heroic other player wearing #37 in 2012 was Stephen Strasburg, who would appear in Series 2 with his own Hero #. But overall it was a nice touch by Topps, printing this run of Lee-Hernandez-Verlander-Weaver-Scherzer; a checklist sequence I doubt we will see again until some 25th Anniversary of the Sea Turtles, somehow, perhaps.

Where’d the egg hatch? Scherzer was drafted originally by the Diamondbacks in 2006, as the 11th pick. He was also drafted out of High School by his hometown Cardinals in 2003, but in the 43rd round - a draft position that would not hand out any signing bonus at all, which probably made pursuing a college education an easy decision.

How about the migrations? Like most post-college draftees, Scherzer reached the majors 2 years later with a fairly nice yet unremarkable debut of 56 Innings Pitched in 2008. His 2009 #s - full 170 IP, 4.12 ERA, 1.34 WHIP, 174 SO - have always interested me. At about an even 1 K / Inning, I somewhat assume here that Arizona didn't have the greatest defense in 2009.

My interest in those specific stats flows from what happened after that season, when Arizona traded away Max Scherzer. Turns out, Arizona was ranked 29th in Fielding % that year. Maybe the Diamondbacks should have considered FIP or some other advanced Pitching stats before pulling that trigger. Maybe Detroit did.

At first glance it seems like a complicated trade to analyze, with 6 players on the move and 3 different teams involved. The Tigers gave up Curtis Granderson to the Yankees, early in his career; he would thrive batting left in the House That Ruth Built, with it's very special "porch." However the Tigers also received Austin Jackson in this same trade, who proved to be a plenty serviceable replacement for Granderson, on a roster plenty stacked offensively anyway.

The Diamondbacks? They gave up Max Scherzer and in return received perpetual journeyman starter Edwin Jackson and a young Ian Kennedy, who put up a 21 Win season in Arizona not long after, but could not maintain such results. Dave Dombrowski notched another one here.

Ahh, what might have been, such is Major League Baseball. Speaking of which, Tigers fans still today like to whine and complain about the Tigers giving up Scherzer after his contract expired in 2014, as if Detroit could have somehow afforded a $100 Million rotation of Verlander, Scherzer, Porcello, Price, and Sanchez in perpetuity. Scherzer eventually signed in Washington for 7 years @ $30 Million per; it is highly doubtful that Detroit offered him more than they had already signed Verlander for - $28 Million.

This all means Scherzer is signed in Washington through 2021.

Don’t flip over real Turtles.

One surprise here is as yet not a single league leading stat, though Topps certainly seems to be predicting some with the text. The 2013 season to come after this card was Scherzer's first to really display elite level production. From this point on, his card backs would be covered with stats printed in red.

Can the Turtle Catch the Rabbit?

CAREER CHASE: With 829 strikeouts, Scherzer is 4,885 away from Nolan Ryan's all-time record of 5,714.

Unfortunately for this idea, Max got off to a bit of a slow start; only reaching 200 Ks in his 4th full season. However, he would go on to throw a 300 Strike Out season....so....

After the 2018 season, Scherzer has 2,449 strikeouts, so he is 3,265 away from Nolan Ryan's all-time record of 5,714.

Subspecies? This card appears in both Opening Day and Chrome, but otherwise has no other variants.

Bling That Shell This has been an action packed page of parallels, and Max Scherzer cards have action packed prices on them. So I was quite content to find a simple Target Red parallel for about a buck fifty not long ago:

I was very happy to finally receive that card and fill the last spot on this page. By lucking into the Lee and Feliz parallels in a lot purchase, while also spending a little (about $8 each) on the deliberate purchases of specific parallels for Beltre and Verlander, I had many options on finishing this one. This page then becomes the first without a blue foil parallel from Opening Day, and also the first without a /2013 Gold parallel as well. I only recently made sure this nuttily complex collection has one of each main parallel and team color combination; I think I will also insure there is a page without each key parallel color as well. That should be the final (well, I hope so) binding rule I will place on creating these colorful binder pages:

#25 - Mark Teixeira

What’s that Turtle doin’? Human beings look funny when they are intensely concentrating on something. Baseball cards display this pretty regularly for the Pitchers in the act of pitching, in particular. But zoomed-in-close action shots of a Hitter, just after a swing is completed, reveal the same unexpected expressions as we see on so many Pitcher cards.

For some fairly more well famous examples of the phenomena I am describing, just run "Guitar Face" through Google Images sometime.

And that is basically what we are looking at on this card, for the fifth time in the set already, and probably nowhere close to the last time, either. Who knew that so many Hitters need such a strong exhale, just as their swing ends?

This one shows just a hint of something being still 'in progress,' with Teixeira's right sleeve still billowing out at the very end of his swing. But his very stationary-ness doesn't add much to the  overall pessimistic cast of his expression, and then ours, with regard to what is happening on the field of play. 

More telling is where the swing ended - very short. Probably the swing started 1 or 2 hundredths of a second too late and contact was thus made that much of a sliver of time too early, leading to a chip shot out into the field somewhere, with no possibility of much follow-through on the swing to really drive the ball. It's a game of micro seconds.

This card brings a rare evidence of the Nike corporation in Major League Baseball, twice even. I can't recall this being very common anywhere else in the set, either. I think this will be changing in MLB in 2019 and beyond, however - I saw a headline recently, is all I got for yas on that.

Uniform Hero? The Yankees don't have a uniform # on the front of their unis, but this image manages to display it, anyway.

Where’d the egg hatch? It always strikes me as a tad unfortunate that "Tex" Teixeira didn't remain with Texas, who drafted him in the first round (5th overall) in 2001, after a collegiate career. He had also been drafted out of high school by the Red Sox in the 9th round in 1998.

How about the migrations? With 1.5 seasons left on his first contract, in 2007 the Rangers traded him to Atlanta for an impressive haul of 4 future MLB regulars, including an eventual Rookie-of-the-Year (Neftali Feliz) and a two-time All-Star (Elvis Andrus). With just a half season left on that contract, Atlanta in turn traded him to the Angels for a much less notable return.

Before the 2009 season he would sign with the Yankees and eventually play 8 impressive seasons (really, he was quite good everywhere he played) with them before retiring after the 2016 season.

For me, that classic career arc of earning one of the premiere salaries in the game, but having that salary being paid by the New York Yankees like so many stars before, well, I never really warmed up to Teixeira. I have a hard time considering the Yankees at any given point without considering salary structures in other sports leagues.

These days, I like Mark Teixeira a fair bit more, as I am always happy to luck into finding a television with access to the MLB Network, where he works routinely as an analyst now.

Don’t flip over real Turtles.

As I write this post, just after opening up my first copies of a brand new edition of Topps Baseball cards for 2019, Topps has returned to printing complete career stats on the backs of the cards, as opposed to 5 or so recent years of stats.

Stats like these speak for themselves.

Can the Turtle Catch the Rabbit?

CAREER CHASE: With 338 home runs, Teixeira is 424 away from Barry Bonds' all-time record of 762.

"Tex" hit 26 Home Runs as a Rookie for Texas and reached 43 HRs in just his 3rd season - the kind of career launch that might generate a shot at an all-time record. Being an excellent switch hitter playing in Yankee Stadium later in his career certainly didn't hurt his chances, though ultimately multiple run-ins with the Disabled List probably ended any serious possibility for this one for Teixeira.

He would finish his career with 409 Home Runs, placing him 54th All-Time.

Subspecies? Teixeira appears in both Opening Day and Chrome with this same image, but no other Sea Turtle cards.

Bling That Shell Yet another card where I am quite grateful for the existence of the mass-produced parallels without which a project like this would be impossible, at least for me. For a star player on the Yankees, the Target Red edition is an efficient choice.

#11 - Yu Darvish

What’s that Turtle doin’? Page 2 starts off with our first Pitching card. I do not expect there will be a page without a Pitcher in the rest of the set.

This is a pretty good one. The way Darvish's left arm curls his glove contributes to the flow of the line that I am always considering. Pitching cards don't always seem to have as much of that 'stop motion' aspect I see so often on Hitting cards. 

But this one does. The wrinkles of the uniform indicate how Yu's right arm is still rising. The extension of his necklace away from his neck illustrates that his whole body is driving to the plate - his obviously powerful left leg has not reached it's planting point part way down the mound.

I also like that this card shows off his grip so clearly, something not completely common on a live Pitcher's card. And is somewhat intriguing for Darvish in particular. His catchers in his years in MLB have discussed how he has 8 different pitches to select; we will get some details on that when we flip this card over, shortly here. Obviously, some of those are probably only minor variations of each other. Even so, one would think that with an 8 pitch arsenal, hitters would not be able to guess which of them he is going to throw.

Yet that is precisely the theory explaining how the Astros so thoroughly took him apart in the 2017 World Series - that he was "tipping his pitches," as they say in MLB. Every team is said to have an expert on the bench, constantly looking for any "tell" by an opposing Pitcher. On this card, Yu's glove is already so far from the ball rising in his right hand that it leads me to think this might be part of his problem - leaving the ball out of his glove for too long in his motion, giving hitters more time to see the grip and guess the main style of the pitch about to be coming at them.

But that's just a non-player's guess, based on absorbing a baseball card. I know if I stood in a batter's box and faced Yu Darvish, my AVG would be precisely point triple zero.

Making a set of baseball cards from live game action photos probably presents problems for Topps. Or maybe, more so for us, the baseball card collectors. Card after card of a Pitcher Pitching wears one down, while flipping through stacks of cards. This is a big reason I like to put action cards in a binder; once 9 cards are together and viewed simultaneously, having multiple Pitching cards in view is no big deal.

Overall a well executed card using a good photo selection, quite appropriate for the set's 2nd Rookie Cup.

Uniform Hero? Yes. I think it will take quite a while yet before a card # ≠ Uni #. Darvish did have to wear #21 during his half-season with the Dodgers, but has been able to reclaim #11 in Chicago; it would seem to be his preference.

Where’d the egg hatch? Darvish previously played in Japan and went through the "posting" process to be signed by the Rangers early in 2012, which cost Texas nearly $52 Million just for exclusive negotiating rights with Darvish to then sign him to a contract for $60 Million more. Japan also has a draft system and Darvish was heavily scouted by professional teams, including MLB teams, while he was still in high school. He eventually settled on entering the Japanese draft, where he was selected in the first round in 2004.

How about the migrations? When his initial six year contract hit the 5.5 season mark in 2017, the going-nowhere-fast Rangers traded him to the Dodgers for 3 prospects. Analyzing trades of 2 month "rentals" is often a fool's errand, as compared to trades for a season or more of a player's contracted time. Much less is given up in such deals, although the prospects coming back can sometimes end up being an everyday MLB player.

After the 2017 season, Darvish signed a new 6 year deal with the Cubs, however an injury in his first season in Chicago limited him to just 40 Innings.

Don’t flip over real Turtles.

On the back of some baseball cards, I learn things. A few years down the road, Topps would begin printing foreign League stats on card backs; something that would have been dramatic on this card.

Can the Turtle Catch the Rabbit?

CAREER CHASE: With 221 strikeouts, Darvish is 5,493 away from Nolan Ryan's all-time record of 5,714.

Probably the obvious record to select for comparison here, as Nolan Ryan was a key decision maker involved in bringing Darvish to Arlington. 221 Ks is a very respectable number for a "Rookie," or any other, season.

However, Darvish debuted in MLB at the age of 25, making it quite unlikely he can break an all-time MLB record, at least in any of the "counting stats."

After his quite shortened 2018 season, Darvish has 1,070 Strike Outs.

Subspecies? Given his fame before even arriving in Major League Baseball, Darvish started receiving 'bonus' cards from Topps in 2012, where he is on one of 5 "Rookie Variations" (along with Bryce Harper) issued with the 2012 set.

This Topps appreciation continued in 2013, although his 2 photo variations did not arrive until Series 2, where he has both a "Sunglasses" SP and an "Autographs" SP with this same card #. The "Autographs" image was also used for a Chrome photo variation.

And now, I present my first time machine trip back into my own blog, something I will continue whenever I add a Sea Turtle to share with you, or otherwise discover a key bit of Sea Turtle info, post-posting, originally. Whenever this happens, I will simply include a note on whatever new card post I am posting that day.

And today I discovered in an old post on my regular baseball card blog, Base Set Calling, that I used to own one of the Darvish photo variants from Series 2, and even scanned it and displayed it before trading it away to the fun Play At The Plate blog, who appears to be on a bit of a hiatus currently. So that is 'close enough' for sharing with you here, now. Though now I also realize I need a new copy of this one, some day.

Bling That Shell This is the first card I do not have my desired parallel for, although I am pretty sure I will ultimately select the Target Red parallel for this one, and for a pretty obvious reason, which is sitting right there on Yu Darvish's head on this card. I do not expect much difficulty locating one.

Blog Update Highlight 

Not long after I wrote this post, I had a few developments with this particular card. First, I pulled a cool parallel of it -

Yes, here in the winter of 2019 I managed to stumble across a "pack" of 2013 cards to open, as detailed in a video embedded in the #19 - Joey Votto post.

The page construction dynamics at play are all overly detailed there. If I never find a Pink card for Lawrie, Ethier, or Moreland, the above /230 Orange card might make it into the All-Parallel set. If things go more as I hope finding a Pink card, I would rather use the following recently arrived card in this slot: