2013 Allen and Ginter Set

You read that title right; we're throwing back allllll the way to 2013.

I bought the full set (almost) from Nachos Grande last year, and it's been sitting on my shelf as I procrastinated entering the cards into my Zistle account. I actually purchased the non-SPs only, and this was also at the beginning of Puig-mania, so a Puig-free set was offered at a substantial discount, so I decided to take a chance that Yasiel Puig would cool off a bit, along with the prices for his cards. So far that doesn't seem to be happening, though. In any case, the set I purchased was 299 of the 300 base cards. In a separate purchase, I bought all 50 of the SPs, so I'm at 349/350, needing only a Puig to finish off the set.

I decided while flipping through the cards again that I'd go ahead and post the Cardinals like I normally do, but there were a large number of them by my criteria. I tried to split them up somewhat logically, though with all of the retired players the divisions became a bit fuzzy. Today was supposed to be players who have moved on from the team.

2013 Allen and Ginter
#5 Albert Pujols
#12 Dan Haren
#20 John Smoltz
#27 Shelby Miller
#46 Colby Rasmus
#93 A.J. Pierzynski

The Shelby Miller trade caught me off guard, and I had to re-scan my cards. Also, I don't know what I was thinking putting A.J. Pierzynski in this pile, even though he is technically a free agent right now. He could still be a Cardinal next year, though he may just as easily be playing somewhere else. Also, Smoltz retired after a partial season with the Cardinals, so one could argue he should have been in the next post, with guys like Ozzie Smith.

2013 Allen and Ginter
#183 Ryan Ludwick
#189 David Freese
#208 Allen Craig
#235 Carlos Beltran
#245 Mark Buehrle
#284 Will Clark

Will Clark's another guy who finished with the Cardinals, though he clearly had the most productive years of his career elsewhere. And Mark Beuhrle has never been a Cardinal, though I still suspect he'd give them a pretty good hometown discount. I like to track his cards just because he grew up in the same town as me.

In conclusion...these are some random 2013 Allen and Ginter cards of guys I collect for reasons not limited to playing for the Cardinals?

2013 Topps Update Jumbo Pack #5

With this pack, I'm half done with the box. Before this pack, I was already half done with the set.

2013 Topps
#US4 Matt Adams
#US67 Kyle McClellan
#US104 Matt Carpenter
#US165 A.J. Pierzynski
Emerald Parallel #US215 Travis Blackley
Franchise Forerunners #FF-7 Matt Harvey/David Wright
Gold Parallel #US108 Ryan Kalish #0169/2013
Making Their Mark #MM-42 Wil Myers
1971 Topps Mini #TM-27 Stan Musial

Thanks to the recent pickup of A.J. Pierzynski, this pack had 5 Cardinals in it, including a mini Musial. I mentioned when I pulled an Emerald parallel that I was hoping the Cardinals would pick him up to replace the injured Yadier Molina, and so far he seems to be worth the risk.

2013 Topps Update
Chasing History #CH-103 Anthony Rizzo
All-Star Stitches #ASR-DB Domonic Brown

Here's one of the hits in the box, a Domonic Brown jersey. I'm always a little ambivalent about the all-star jersey cards. On one hand, it's the wrong color for many teams. It'd be weird to have an orange Cardinals jersey swatch, but it's not quite as jarring for a guy that doesn't play for my home team. Still, he's a Phillie, and shouldn't be in orange. However, this jersey is from a specific day, and doesn't contain the standard disclaimer of most relic cards about not being from a specific game, event, or even season.

This pack had 41 base cards, and I already had all 41. On its face that feels a little disappointing, but I was bound to get that many doubles eventually, and I think it gives me a little insight into Topps' collation practices. Assuming my box contains a full set, this pack is completely unnecessary to build it. It would seem that the 330 cards are mechanically distributed among 9 or less packs, and this pack comes off of another line, which makes some sense because it contains one of the guaranteed hits of the box. I'm not sure I can explain how that relates to the other 2 hits, though, because even at 45 base cards per pack, 7 "regular" packs wouldn't quite finish the set. There must be just a bit more complexity at work.

Update Series Completion: 168/330 (50.9%)

2013 Topps Update Jumbo Pack #3

I'm up to my third pack of Update, and again, 4 Cardinals showed up. For some reason Matt Adams has 2 cards in this set.

2013 Topps Update
#US152 Randy Choate
#US168 Michael Wacha
#US213 Matt Adams
#US205 Prince George of Cambridge SP
Emerald Parallel #US165 A.J. Pierzynski
Making Their Mark #MM-38 Yasiel Puig
Gold Parallel #US159 Donald Lutz #/2013
Postseason Heroes #PH-16 Nolan Ryan
1971 Topps Mini #TM-34 Yu Darvish

Based on a very small N, it looks like the SP Variations are more common in Update than Series 1 and 2, much like they were in previous years. I've already got 2 in my first 3 packs, and maybe more...it's sometimes hard to notice the subtle ones. In my entire Series 1 and 2 boxes, I got 1 SP each. It's weird to think this baby could be King of England in my lifetime.

Among the rest of the inserts, there's A.J. Pierzynski, who I was sort of hoping the Cardinals would pick up when he was designated for assignment right around the time of Yadier Molina's injury. So far that doesn't look like it's going to happen. There's also a nice Nolan Ryan there, from an insert set I haven't seen yet.

2013 Topps Update
#US189 Kyle Lohse
Chasing History #CH-112 Johnny Podres

To close out this pack, here's Kyle Lohse in one of my favorite current throwback uniforms. I feel ok liking this uniform because it's from an era before the Brewers were division rivals. For the same reason, I much prefer Houston's current uniforms to anything from their NL Central Division days.

There were another 43 base cards in this pack, and all 43 were new. If this keeps up (it won't), i'll have the full set at pack 8. Unfortunately, my Wilson Betemit card has a significantly bent corner, so if I don't wind up with a duplicate, I'll probably seek out another copy before I call my set complete. For now, though, I'll count him in the numbers for simplicity's sake.

Update Series Completion: 130/330 (39.4.%)