#230 Andre Rienzo

One more link to a rookie. Yes, I know that’s three in a row but this gimmick is running a bit thin for me. I’ll probably go back to random soon.

#230 Andre Rienzo

First impression of what’s going on: I mentioned yesterday that my expectations were a little lower for Rookies since they probably have a fewer photo opportunities compared to the veterans. And being a rookie pitcher is probably even tougher since you don’t even really have an opportunity to play every day.

With that said, and aside from the bad crop along the top, this card isn’t bad. There’s a little Free Advertising I’ll touch on a bit later and some interesting pitching mechanics. There’s been thousands of pitchers and thousands of different ways to through the ball. I’m sure there are a lot of pitchers whose upper body goes perpendicular to the ground but I don’t think it shows up on cards that often. Maybe this is the fastest part of the pitching process? Or I could be making that up. But it sounds good, right?

CLEVELAND, OH - JULY 30: Starting pitcher Andre Rienzo #64 of the Chicago White Sox pitches during the first inning against the Cleveland Indians at Progressive Field on July 30, 2013 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images)

The Reality of the Photo: One thing I didn’t see in the photo but is mentioned in the caption is that Andre Rienzo wears #64 as a starting pitcher. That’s a Spring Training number if I’ve ever heard one. Rookies, man. I wonder if that number is special to him for some reason or if he was just happy to get one handed to him by the clubbie.

Other than that, the caption doesn’t say much about the game, so let’s go to the BOXSCORE and see how he did.

It looks like he may have been roughed up a little in the 5^th and shouldn’t have taken the loss, even though his team did lose.

No loss for Rienzo. Holds is a category that's new to me, so I’m not sure how you can get credit for a hold and the loss. Seems shady, Donnie Veal. Reeeaaaal shady.

One more company and I’d have to give Rienzo the “Nascar Award” for advertisements. But he sneaks by with just two, the Nike swoosh on his undershirt and his Rawlings glove.

On to the back:

Rookie Fact: Andre’s 7-IP, 0-ER debut was a first for a White Sox hurler since 1989.

That’s cool, as that’s about a quarter century. But wait a minute… 

That’s Rienzo’s entire MLB career in one screenshot. The game pictured on the front was his MLB debut and we just talked about how he gave up three runs in the 5^th inning. All earned. And if you look at the rest of the chart, he had no other 7-IP appearances and in every appearance he gave up at least one Earned Run. Uh-oh, Topps. Busted!

It didn’t say it on the back of the card but after the talk about Brazil in the blurb, I decided to look it up. Rienzo is just the second MLB player born in Brazil. Here’s a staggering chart from Baseball-Almanac.com.

Information I’ll be tracking:

Card Number: #230

Player Name: Andre Rienzo

Team: Chicago White Sox

Position: Pitcher

Game Date: July 30, 2013

Opponent: Indians

Stadium: Progressive Field

Division: American League Central

Home/Away: Away

Outcome of the game: 7-4, Indians over the White Sox, Loss for the player depicted

Alternate/Throwback Jersey: No

Bats/Throws: Right/Right

Birthdate: 6/5/1988

Birthplace: Brazil

Cameos by: N/A

Photographer: Jason Miller

Niche collections this card could fit into: Rookie Card, Free Advertising

My Grade: I wanted to like this card. I saw Andre Rienzo when he came through and played against my local minor league team in 2011. He, and many of the other Winston Salem Dash signed autographs for my kids so I’m a little partial. The photo itself is pretty cool and it’s a rookie card. But the bad fact on the back kind of sours it for me. I remember when Error cards were “cool” to collect and some companies even issued corrected versions. But bad facts are just lazy. This card gets a C-.

#317 Lonnie Chisenhall

I think going forward I’ll find something to tie cards together for consecutive posts and then link another card through a different attribute. Kind of a six degrees of Kevin Bacon thing but with cards. Let’s see how long I can keep it going. From Mike Leake (Reds) to Aroldis Chapman (also Reds) to…

#317 Lonnie Chisenhall

First impression of what’s going on: Bringing Chapman and Lonnie Chisenhall together are Throwback uniforms. As much as I like the Reds versions, this Cleveland Indians one is bad. So horrendous, it almost comes back around to glorious. We've got a couple of cameos but I don’t know enough about the Indians or umpires to recognize them. If I had to guess, this is probably a home run but could be just about anything. For the umpire to be where he is, it must be one of those “No Doubters” I mentioned in a previous post. Probably not a walk off though, as the on deck guy isn't jumping around or anything. Surprisingly, this is also one that Topps could have actually cropped a bit tighter.

CLEVELAND, OH - JULY 13: Lonnie Chisenhall #8 of the Cleveland Indians runs the bases after hitting a grand slam home run during the sixth inning against the Kansas City Royals at Progressive Field on July 13, 2013 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images)

The Reality of the Photo: Ok, a grand slam. You’d think the on deck guy would be a little more excited! But since the caption didn't give the final score, maybe the Indians were still down by five, even after the grand slam. So let’s check out the BOXSCORE.

Screenshot from Baseball-Reference.com

Nope, it actually quintupled the Indians lead.

Screenshot from Baseball-Reference.com

And as the top play of the game, it raised the probability of the Indians winning by a staggering 21% to 98%. That’s pretty high considering it was only the 6^th inning. That percent would creep back down after the Royals tacked on a few runs, but the end result was an Indians win.

Screenshot from Baseball-Reference.com

A peek at the inning summary shows that after a single, a double and an intentional walk (with two swinging strikeouts mixed in), Chisenhall drilled the first pitch he saw to drive everybody in. This was his first career grand slam.

As for the jersey, Chisenhall and the Indians are sporting the 1902 Indians jersey. This was the only game these were worn this season.

Screenshots from Chris Creamer's Sportslogos.net

Back to the boxscore, I’m concluding that the Indian in the background is Yan Gomes, the #9 hitter in the lineup behind Chisenhall. Any Indians fan care to verify that? Also according to the boxscore, the home plate umpire for the game was Dan Iassoga. The Royals catcher that was cropped out of the card but still shows up in the photo is Salvador Perez.

On to the back:

Rookie Fact: Though a lefty himself, Lonnie hit five of his seven homeruns off of southpaws.

I guess there’s some sort of statistical analysis about this, but as a lefty myself, I always liked hitting against left handers, too. Between the fact and the blurb there isn't much for me to look into. Oh well. Good thing the front was exciting. But for those curious, a pair of his first seven home runs came off lefty Mark Buehrle in the same game.

Information I’ll be tracking:

Card Number: #317

Player Name: Lonnie Chisenhall

Team: Cleveland Indians

Position: Third Base

Game Date: July 13, 2013

Opponent: Kansas City Royals

Stadium: Progressive Field

Division: American League Central

Home/Away: Home

Outcome of the game: 5-3, Indians over Royals, Win for the player depicted

Alternate/Throwback Jersey: Yes, throwback

Bats/Throws: Left /Right

Birthdate: 10/4/1988

Birthplace: North Carolina

Cameos by: Dan Iassoga, Yan Gomes

Photographer: Jason Miller

Niche collections this card could fit into: Partial Southpaws, Throwback, Cameo, High Socks, Career Milestone (First Grand Slam), Umpire

My Grade: This card is easily one of the best of the Series. It hits several of the bigger niche collections. The questions is, does it deserve an A+? The weak back side is the only thing keeping me on the fence. And to me, an A+ is a “No Doubter” so this card has to settle for merely an A.

#191 Chris Perez

Staying in the American League, today we have Chris Perez of the Cleveland Indians.

#191 Chris Perez

First impression of what’s going on: That’s a lot. A lot of red, lot of green, lot of off-white and a lot of hair. Kind of a generic shot, a pitcher doing what a pitcher does. I don't know the Indians uniforms well enough to know if this is a throwback or alternate, but it is not their normal home jersey. The crop job doesn't help the overall appeal of the card. Cutting off legs and feet can be unavoidable, but I hate missing arms, elbows and hands. And in this case, the forearm. I don’t blame the border design on this one because, depending on the source photo, it could have easily been zoomed out.

And a look at said photo confirms that. Look at all the room!

Photo courtesy of Getty Images. Photographer: Jason Miller

CLEVELAND, OH - APRIL 14: Closing pitcher Chris Perez #54 of the Cleveland Indians pitches during the ninth inning against the Chicago White Sox at Progressive Field on April 14, 2013 in Cleveland, Ohio. The White Sox defeated the Indians 3-1. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images)

The Reality of the Photo: Yep, a pitcher doing what a pitcher does. And plenty of space to not have zoomed in quite so close. Giving this photo a horizontal layout on the card may have worked better.

The caption mentions this was taken during the 9^th inning. That makes sense seeing as Perez is the Indians' closer. But then again, Getty was wrong yesterday, right?

Taking the date from the caption I headed over to Baseball-Reference.com for the BOXSCORE and further details.

Ok, they could be right today. Looks like Perez pitched the top 9^th inning, despite his Indians trailing the White Sox 3-1. Most closers only come in when their team is leading. His pitch count for the appearance was 9 and without much else to go on, the photo could have been taken during his strikeout of Dayan Viciedo, the four pitches thrown to induce Conor Gillaspie’s groundout to third base or the single pitch that caused Alexei Ramirez to fly out to deep right center.

Chris’ line for the day:

A perfect inning of work but unfortunately it came in a losing effort for his team. They failed to rally in the bottom half of the inning, despite a two out walk by pinch hitter, Carlos Santana.

Earlier today, I debuted a new niche collection with the Notable Fan designation. This card inspires the Free Advertising label with Perez displaying, not one, but two fairly prominent Nike swoosh logos.

Undershirt and glove

I vaguely remember seeing a blog post last year in regards to all of the advertising on the legendary AJ Pierzynski card, but I’m sorry I can’t site the source. If somebody else remembers, I would be glad to give credit where its due.

On to the back:

Again, since the backs are relatively the same, I’ll just be breaking down the content.

Rookie Fact: Chris’ first major league save came in August when he was 6-for-6

This stat made me chuckle a little bit.  Being a rookie usually means a late season call up so to have a first of anything in August isn't anything to look down upon. And going 6-6 is certainly commendable. But my first thought was it sounded like it was trying too hard to put a positive spin on something. Sure enough, when I went to his Baseball Reference page, his first save came in his 24th relief appearance. Granted, he worked mostly in a setup role, but he is also credited with a blown save and a blown loss before he earned his first save. I do give credit to the Topps writer who put a good spin on it. It's exactly what I like to do when writing blurbs for former Cubs in my custom ATCRCS set.

And as you can see by the rest of his stats on the back of the card, Perez went on to become a pretty solid reliever, racking up over 100 Saves since joining the Indians.

Information I’ll be tracking:

Card Number: 191

Player Name: Chris Perez

Team: Cleveland Indians

Position: Pitcher

Game Date: April 14, 2013

Opponent: Chicago White Sox

Stadium: Progressive Field

Division:  American League Central

Home/Away: Home

Outcome of the game: 3-1,White Sox over Indians, Loss for the player depicted

Alternate/Throwback Jersey: One or the other, not sure which

Bats/Throws: Right/Right

Birthdate: 7/1/1985

Birthplace: Florida

Cameos by: N/A

Photographer: Jason Miller

Niche collections this card could fit into: Free Advertising, Throwbacks/Alternate Jersey, Awesome Hair, Former First Round Draft Pick

My Grade: With all due respect to Perez and through no fault of his own, this card gets a B- from me. Its just an average card with a bad crop but it does get a few extra bonus points thrown in for meeting the criteria of four niche collections. That's only one less than Murphy's card earlier, but this is still just an average card. As for the Awesome Hair category, long hair by itself doesn't qualify it. The flowing mane action resulting from his throwing motion that removes any doubt it belongs.

That wraps up day one. Come back tomorrow to see whether the randomizer continues to favor the American League.