#327 Pablo Sandoval

We’ve got a couple of connections between yesterday’s card (Dioner Navarro) and today’s. Both were born in Venezuela. Both are wearing sunglasses. But the connection I was trying to make is they are both Switch Hitters.

#327 Pablo Sandoval

First impression of what’s going on: This is another solid photo with a unfortunate crop. No elbows for Pablo! I always like a dirty jersey so without a bunch of obvious niches, the card has that going for it at least.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - APRIL 5: Pablo Sandoval #48 of the San Francisco Giants fields during the game against the St. Louis Cardinals at AT&T Park on April 5, 2013 in San Francisco, California. The Giants defeated the Cardinals 1-0. (Photo by Michael Zagaris/Getty Images)

The Reality of the Photo: Look at all that elbow room Sandoval has! The caption doesn’t give much to go on so let’s go to the BOXSCORE and see if we can’t figure something out ourselves.

We knew it was 1-0 from the caption, but only nine hits from both teams combined probably puts it on the bubble for an actual pitchers’ duel, right? Throw in another combined 9 walks and the error you have 19 base runners. I don’t know who to give credit (or blame) for on that.

Sandoval had a number of assists in this game and aside from the two double plays he started, it would be tough to rule any of them out.

Kind of a boring card to investigate.

On to the back:

Rookie Fact: Pablo hit .393 in August of 2008 – highest of any MLB Rookie that month.

That’s impressive, but not necessarily that interesting. On the other hand, mentioned in the blurb, is that Sandoval was a judge at the 2012 Miss Universe Pageant. Kind of random, but here are a couple of photos from the event I found.

Kung Fu Panda posing on the red carpet:

With what I’m assuming are some of the other judges:

I think Sandoval is second from the left

Information I’ll be tracking:

Card Number: #327

Player Name: Pablo Sandoval

Team: San Francisco Giants

Position: Third Base

Game Date: April 5, 2013

Opponent: St. Louis Cardinals

Stadium: AT&T Park

Division: National League West

Home/Away: Home

Outcome of the game: 1-0 Giants over the Cardinals, Win for the player depicted

Alternate/Throwback Jersey: No

Bats/Throws: Both/Right

Birthdate: 8/11/1986

Birthplace: Venezuela

Cameos by: N/A

Photographer: Michael Zagaris

Niche collections this card could fit into: Sunglasses, Switch Hitter, Dirty Jersey

My Grade: I thought this one was going to be better when I picked it. The photo is pretty standard for a fielding third baseman, but as I mentioned, I like a dirty jersey and the extra effort that can be assumed from one. The cropped elbows hurt it along with a lack of mini collections this would fit into. The back was also kind of boring too although it allowed me to Google image search the Miss Universe pageant so I’m going to give this one a B-. 

#270 Gregor Blanco

#270 Gregor Blanco

First impression of what’s going on: Today I’m double dipping on both Gregor Blanco and plays at the plate. Earlier, Blanco made a cameo on Brian McCann’s card and was thrown out at home. Now, on his own card, while it's much better looking overall, it's not looking good as far as scoring goes.

 

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - JULY 19: Gregor Blanco #7 of the San Francisco Giants safely slides under the tag of Miguel Montero #26 of the Arizona Diamondbacks to score on a double by Buster Posey #28 in the first inning at AT&T Park on July 19, 2013 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

The Reality of the Photo: Mark your calendars, guys, I was wrong! At least according to the caption, it says Blanco slid in under the tag. Call me a skeptic, but we’ll have to see the BOXSCORE first.

Ok, they did score twice in the first inning.

And after leading off the inning with a walk, Buster Posey did in fact drive Blanco home with a double.

Since it was the game winning run (all the way from the bottom of the 1^st), it was the top play:

The Giants wore their orange alternate jerseys for this game, a Friday night home game standard in 2013.

And courtesy of Diamondbacks catcher, Miguel Montero’s cleat, we get some Free Advertising in the form of a Nike swoosh logo.

He is not credited in the photo caption, and only makes a cameo from the waist down, but I think the Giant standing behind the sliding Blanco is third base coach, Tim Flannery.

On to the back:

Rookie Fact: Gregor’s .366 On-Base Percentage was second among NL Rookies in 2008.

I don’t know what the official minimum is, but I plugged in NL Rookies with at least 250 Plate Appearances over at Fangraphs.com, sorted by OBP and came up with this top 5:

I guess Topps’ threshold is slightly higher than mine because they’re not counting Martin Prado. Which is fine by me because the next four guys more than doubled Prado’s PA’s. So it looks like by Topps' standards, Blanco came in second behind Joey Votto of the Reds.

As for the blurb, the other errorless regular NL outfielder was the Washington Nationals’ Denard Span.

Information I’ll be tracking:

Card Number: #270

Player Name: Gregor Blanco

Team: San Francisco Giants

Position: Outfield

Game Date: July 19, 2013

Opponent: Arizona Diamondbacks

Stadium: AT&T Park

Division: National League West

Home/Away: Home

Outcome of the game: 2-0, Giants over the Diamondbacks, Win for the player depicted

Alternate/Throwback Jersey: Yes

Bats/Throws: Left/Left

Birthdate: 12/24/1983

Birthplace: Venezuela

Cameos by: Miguel Montero (catcher), Tim Flannery (third base coach)

Photographer: Ezra Shaw

Niche collections this card could fit into: Play at the Plate, Cameo, Free Advertising, Horizontal, Southpaw, Alternate Jersey

My Grade: This card hits several key niches and with the safe call at home, deservedly gets an A+.

In fact, this card had so many labels, it wouldn't let me use them all. I had to remove Arizona and San Francisco from the team names to get them all to fit. Now for the sake of uniformity, I have to go back and adjust all of the other team names. Good thing this happened fairly early and not 500 cards in. I will be going back through all of my previous posts this weekend to make sure each post is properly tagged because I think I have forgotten a few photographers and stadiums, too. I'll also be adding each card's grade as a label so you'll be able to find all the A+ cards (or whatever grade you want to see) at a glance.

Tomorrow, I have the final two, thus far unrepresented teams. As a Cubs fan, it figures they're both NL Central teams. Ha! Then I'll probably go completely random again.

#225 Brian McCann

#225 Brian McCann

First impression of what’s going on: Something leads me to believe this is one of those “Play at the Plate” cards. I can’t say this one is particularly well cropped in a conventional sense, but it is such a unique angle, I’m actually going to let that slide. Catcher Brian McCann’s body language and eye line tells me he’s got the ball and this base runner is out.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - MAY 12: Gregor Blanco #7 of the San Francisco Giants is tagged out at home plate by Brian McCann #16 of the Atlanta Braves during the fourth inning at AT&T Park on May 12, 2013 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Jason O. Watson/Getty Images)

The Reality of the Photo: I’d have to go back and check (who am I kidding, I won't) but this may the most complete caption I've seen yet. Both players are named. I've got the date and location of the game, as well as the two teams involved. I've even got the inning. The only thing missing is the final outcome of the game so let’s go check out the BOXSCORE.

Looks like the play wasn’t crucial to the game but it can still be demoralizing to be thrown out at the plate. How did Blanco get into this position?

Whoa, talk about a crazy inning. So much going on. An error. A walk. A hit. A sacrifice that only kind of, sort of worked (no run, but it advanced a different runner). A fielder’s choice out at home (the play captured on the card). And a base runner caught stealing. If a run didn't score, that would seem almost Hollywood scripted. Or at least something you’d see on Looney Tunes.

I couldn't tell from the card or photo, but thanks to one of my new favorite features on Sportslogos.net, I can find exactly which uniform the players were wearing that day. According to the site, both teams were wearing their respective standard home and away uniforms.

Because it was Mother's Day, they had a special pink ribbon patch over their hearts. McCann's ribbon is covered by his chest protector and Blanco's front is facing away from the camera so you can’t actually see either. Therefore, the card won’t get any special consideration for the commemorative patch niche. You do get a small taste of the Mother's Day festivities with Gregor Blanco's pink arm sleeve/wrist band at the top of the card.

McCann does double dip on the Free Advertising though with a Mizuno logo on his chest protector and mitt.

On to the back:

Rookie Fact: Brian was the first Braves player ever to homer in his initial postseason at-bat.

That would be pretty magical for just about anyone. But take a minute and remember that this is a Rookie Fact and it's that much more impressive. Here’s a list of all the players who have played at least 1,000 regular season games without ever playing the postseason. Or if you don't want to click on the link, here's a screenshot of the top twenty:

* designates a Hall of Famer

Hall of Famer Ernie Banks played for 19 seasons and hit 512 home runs but never played in the postseason. Then this whippersnapper, rookie catcher not only makes the postseason his first year, but cranks a homer in his first at bat!? Kids these days, with their six divisions and wild cards.

I did a double take at the end of the blurb when it said McCann had his seventh All-Star season in 2013. Man, I’m getting old. How has McCann already played 9 seasons and been an All-Star seven times? It’s definitely the Cubs bias, but when I think of Braves catchers, I still think of Cubs-turned-Braves Jody Davis and Damon Berryhill in the late 1980’s-early 1990’s. And yes, I've heard of Javy Lopez, but he came later.

Information I’ll be tracking:

Card Number: #225

Player Name: Brian McCann

Team: Atlanta Braves

Position: Catcher

Game Date: May 12, 2013

Opponent: San Francisco Giants

Stadium: AT&T Park

Division: National League West

Home/Away: Away

Outcome of the game: 5-1, Giants over the Braves, Loss for the player depicted

Alternate/Throwback Jersey: No

Bats/Throws: Left/Right

Birthdate: 2/20/1984

Birthplace: Georgia

Cameos by: Gregor Blanco

Photographer: Jason O. Watson

Niche collections this card could fit into: Play at the Plate, Cameo, Free Advertising, Partial Southpaw

My Grade: This is a pretty cool looking card with a unique angle for the play at the plate. It’s not overflowing with niche collections but the ones it fits into are some of the more popular ones. I guess I can overlook the fact that McCann is showing up Ernie Banks, Ron Santo and Don Kessinger on the back of the card and let this one slide by with an A-.

Getting to see the Mother’s Day ribbon and maybe a little bit of red text on the back (League Leader status) would have made this card an A.

As a 7x All-Star and 5x Silver Slugger, I’m actually kind of surprised McCann hasn't led the league in something that Topps tracks in his near decade in Atlanta. I never really thought about McCann’s Hall of Fame potential (mainly because I didn't realize he had already played so long), but after looking at his stats, I’m not sure he comes close to passing the sniff test, despite those accolades.