#223 Joaquin Benoit

Ok, so I took a much longer than intended break from posting. The season is under way. If you follow my other blog, Once a Cub, you ‘ll know there were a few new collection pickup s that needed sorting through. I should be back to posting fairly regularly now but I think going forward, this will be an evening time posting instead of earlier like my other blog.

#223 Joaquin Benoit

First impression of what’s going on: Another potentially great card almost ruined by a bad crop job. Great throwback uniform. Joaquin Benoit is working the high socks but the uniform seems a little too baggy to say it’s 100% accurate. But that could just be my perception as I wasn’t around back then. I spy an umpire cameo that I’ll be looking into as well.

DETROIT, MI - APRIL 27: Joaquin Benoit #53 of the Detroit Tigers pitches while wearing a Detroit Stars Negro League tribute uniform during the game against the Atlanta Braves at Comerica Park on April 27, 2013 in Detroit, Michigan. The Tigers defeated the Braves 7-4. (Photo by Mark Cunningham/MLB Photos via Getty Images)

The Reality of the Photo: As usual, plenty of room to fit Benoit’s entire glove into the frame.  And I knew it going into this post, but this photo is from the same game as my last post, Kris Medlen’s card. So here’s the link again to the BOXSCORE and the same line score:

But now let’s see it from the Tigers’ and Benoit’s perspective.

Luckily, the Tigers were up by two when Benoit entered the game because he did end up giving up a home run to Justin Upton before the Tigers tacked on two more in the bottom half of the inning.

If Topps had cropped off Benoit’s feet, we would have missed a shot at some Free Advertising. Instead we get the New Balance logo on the tongue of Benoit’s cleat.

The background is too blurry to make out the advertisments on the outfield wall.

The umpire credited with working second base that game was Mark Carlson. According to his Wikipedia bio, Carlson has been umpiring in the Majors since 1999.

As I mentioned in the Medlen post, last season, the Tigers hosted the 11^th Annual Negro League Weekend for their series against the Braves. Here is a link from the Tigers website that talks about the weekend festivities. The Saturday game was the only one that featured the throwback uniforms though.

I probably should have spread these posts out rather than do them back to back since I’m using some of the same photos. Here again are the uniforms worn that day.

The Braves represented the Atlanta Black Crackers and the Tigers were the Detroit Stars.

And again, the high socks:

On to the back:

Rookie Fact: Joaquin won his first game on the day he was recalled, 5/9/2002.

That game went pretty well for Benoit. Six innings pitched, just one run given up.

But I want to go back to his first game, a season earlier. As you can see on the back of his card, it doesn’t look like it went well. I did notice that despite giving up six runs in five innings, Benoit didn’t suffer the loss. Did his team rally and save him?

Nope. On the contrary. The Rangers gave up 13 runs in the top of the 9^th to Benoit’s future team, the Tigers.

I don’t know if it’s a normal thing for players making their MLB debut to give post-game press conferences, but Benoit would have had time to hit the showers and wait…and wait…and wait…

In this dream scenario, I wonder how long he would have waited before starting to think it was part of his rookie hazing.

Information I’ll be tracking:

Card Number: #223

Player Name: Joaquin Benoit

Team: Detroit Tigers

Position: Pitcher

Game Date: April 27, 2013

Opponent: Atlanta Braves

Stadium: Comerica Park

Division: American League Central

Home/Away: Home

Outcome of the game: 7-4, Tigers over the Braves, Win for the player depicted

Alternate/Throwback Jersey: Yes, throwback.

Bats/Throws: Right/Right

Birthdate: 7/26/1977

Birthplace: Dominican Republic

Cameos by: Umpire Mark Carlson

Photographer: Mark Cunningham

Niche collections this card could fit into: Throwback Uniform, Free Advertising, High Socks

My Grade: The Kris Medlen card got a solid A. I do like the Stars uniform worn by Benoit better but not more than I liked the horizontal layout of the Medlen. Since it hit the same other niches, for that, it gets a slightly lower grade of A-.

#66 Kris Medlen

After yesterday’s “uncorrected error” disappointment, I wanted a palette cleanser. So the streak is over because as far as I can tell this card isn’t connected in any way to the Andre Rienzo.

#66 Kris Medlen

First impression of what’s going on: When I said palette cleanser, I meant something that I looked at and immediately thought it was awesome. While this isn’t necessarily the best of the remaining cards, it’ll probably be among them. The crop is a bit too tight, cutting of his foot in the upper right, It doesn’t necessarily take away from the photo but it will probably keep it from getting a A+.

DETROIT, MI - APRIL 27: Kris Medlen #54 of the Atlanta Braves pitches while wearing a Atlanta Black Crackers Negro League Tribute uniform during the game against the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park on April 27, 2013 in Detroit, Michigan. The Tigers defeated the Braves 7-4. (Photo by Mark Cunningham/MLB Photos via Getty Images)

The Reality of the Photo: With all that extra space, there’s no reason the crop needed to be that tight. This caption is actually pretty thorough as we get the teams involved, the date of the game, score, and which throwback uniform Kris Medlen is wearing. But let’s check out the BOXSCORE anyway.

As the photo caption said, the Tigers won 7-4. It looks like Medlen probably gave up the first five runs and ultimately suffered the loss.

Yep. Giving up five runs is one of those things that could go either way in the win/loss column. Some of the better teams can overcome that but the perennial contender Detroit Tigers held the Braves off. Maybe I’m just used to cubs pitching but the innings didn’t seem particularly bad for Medlen; the Tigers just kept chipping away.

A single followed by a home run accounts for two runs in the bottom of the second.

After the Braves battled back to take the lead, Medlen gave up three consecutive singles that plated a run.

And then one of those pesky walks was followed by another home run in the bottom of the fourth.

Let’s get back to the positive stuff, the niches.

Starting with the free advertising, we see two Nike swooshes. One of his shoe and one on his undershirt.

We can also see a Rawling logo on Medlen’s glove.

On to the uniform. Last season, the Tigers hosted the 11^th Annual Negro League Weekend for their series against the Braves. Here is a link from the Tigers website that talks about the weekend festivities. The Saturday game was the only one that featured the throwback uniforms though.

I’ll admit I’m way undereducated about the Negro Leagues but here’s a link I found interesting regarding the Atlanta Black Crackers.

And done properly are the high socks. Nice!

On to the back:

Rookie Fact: Kris, a righty, held left-handed hitters to a .183 Batting Average.

I couldn’t find anything (with minimal effort) that broke it down but holding any group to a .183 batting average is pretty impressive, depending on the sample size.

Unfortunately for Medlen, it looks like he’ll be out for the entire 2014 campaign.

Information I’ll be tracking:

Card Number: #66

Player Name: Kris Medlen

Team: Atlanta Braves

Position: Pitcher

Game Date: April 27, 2013

Opponent: Detroit Tigers

Stadium: Comerica Park

Division: American League Central

Home/Away: Away

Outcome of the game: 7-4, Tigers over the Braves, Loss for the player depicted

Alternate/Throwback Jersey: Yes, throwback.

Bats/Throws: Right/Right

Birthdate: 10/7/1985

Birthplace: California

Cameos by: N/A

Photographer: Mark Cunningham

Niche collections this card could fit into: Horizontal, Throwback Uniform, Free Advertising, High Socks

My Grade: After filling in the Information I’ll Be Tracking portion of this card, I did find a link to Andre Rienzo from yesterday. Both pitchers were on the losing end of a 7-4 game. But I am officially done with the streak. Going random for a little while.

I also really wanted to like both cards, but what separates today’s card are the niches it fits into. The throwbacks are awesome. While researching them, I learned a little about the Negro Leagues which is an intangible part of this grading system. And I've already express my love of horizontal card and in spite of the crop, this was an excellent use of the format.

This card gets a solid A.

#160 Bruce Rondon

#160 Bruce Rondon

First impression of what’s going on: You see this pose often in a game but I can’t think of a time where I've seen it on a card. I associate it with taking a big breath after a notable play. Usually the pitcher is in a jam or maybe just got out of one. Or he could just be taking a stretch between pitches. There’s no obvious concern on Rondon's face, so despite the just-bad-enough crop, I kind of like it.

DETROIT, MI - AUGUST 22: Bruce Rondon #43 of the Detroit Tigers pitches during the eight inning of the game against the Minnesota Twins at Comerica Park on August 21, 2013 in Detroit, Michigan. The Twins defeated the Tigers 7-6. (Photo by Leon Halip/Getty Images)

The Reality of the Photo: The caption doesn't give any specific information on the play. If he had just given up a run or hit, I think that might have been mentioned. On the other hand, Rondon is a relief pitcher, in the 8^{th inning} of a game the Tigers end up losing 7-6. Let’s see if the BOXSCORE has anything to say.

Uh oh. The winning run for the Twins came across in the 8^th inning.

And Rondon was charged with the loss. Not that starter Justin Verlander pitched a particular gem that day, but you still don’t want to come away with a loss. Let’s see how bad it was.

Three batters faced, a flyball, a walk, and a fielder's choice that advanced the walked batter to second.But then Rondon is pulled for Drew Smyly who gives up a double to Chris Herrmann. That's a bad break for Rondon, but walks tend to come back and haunt you.

There’s nothing real notable on the card that would get it into any of my niche collections. Rondon does have some tattoos and I know there are some guys into that.

On to the back:

Rookie Fact: Bruce’s four-seam fastball averaged 97.9 MPH in 2013.

I don’t know of any sites where I can verify this information so I’ll have to trust its accuracy. This is a pretty impressive fact though. Middle relievers have the benefit of coming in as a short term fix and can just blow away the batters without worrying about having to conserve energy.

Information I’ll be tracking:

Card Number: #160

Player Name: Bruce Rondon

Team: Detroit Tigers

Position: Pitcher

Game Date: August 21, 2013

Opponent: Minnesota Twins

Stadium: Comerica Park

Division: American League Central

Home/Away: Home

Outcome of the game: 7-6, Twins over Tigers, Loss for the player depicted

Alternate/Throwback Jersey: No

Bats/Throws: Right/Right

Birthdate: 12/9/1990

Birthplace: Venezuela

Cameos by: N/A

Photographer: Leo Halip

Niche collections this card could fit into: Tattoos

My Grade:  I like the picture, but it comes in a losing effort. His overall stats, the blurb and rookie fact are kind of average so I’ll give this one a C+.

There weren't many photo options for Rondon since he only pitched in 28.2 innings. And again, the photo choice wasn't even the problem. There were a couple of throwback/alternate uniforms photos but the poses were kind of boring too. Meh.