Custom Card of the Day: Phillips Edition

(Is it cocky to have an All Star banner for a player who's ahead of the AS voting weeks before the All Star game? Yeah, but I've been right before)

Brandon Phillips is one of those players that has a number of consistent seasons, yet nobody really talks about him. The last time he played less than half of a season was the 2005 season, which he spent with the Indians, hiding behind Ronnie Belliard. He's had an incredibly consistent career, appearing in two all star games, and becoming one of the stars of the Cincinnati roster. Yet if people talk about the Reds, they bring up Votto, or Chapman, or Cueto. Not Phillips.

Is it because Phillips lacks the star power? Phillips should be a star in his speed, defensive ability, and leadership aspect, yet people still think of Votto as the leader. Is it because he's like the one they always forget, leave out? Is it because people think he isn't as good as he is?

Either way, Phillips is likely going to get the All Star nod this year, unless Chase Utley stages a last minute comeback. And then, maybe, people will see that he's a halfway decent ballplayer.

Coming Tomorrow- Though his team is doing awfully, he's hitting a lot of homers.

Custom Card of the Day: Beltran Edition

I don't hate Carlos Beltran.

Yeah, if you know me, you know that I hate the Cardinals with every fiber of my body. But I don't have Carlos Beltran. Why? Because he was good with the Mets, I guess. I never really had a problem with him, he never spat in my teams' faces, and he always seemed like a fun player.

There are other people on the Cardinals that I absolutely despise. Daniel Descalso, Yadier Molina, Allen Craig, even, yes, David Freese. And there are some that I'm just indifferent about, like Matt Holliday and Michael Wacha. And I have no problem with Beltran. Which is odd.

It's like not having a problem with David Ortiz. Like I think he's a great player, but my hate is reserved for the rest of that team. I can respect Beltran's stuff, and he can stand out from that dreary team.

Yet having the one player you like on a team you despise is much better than having a player you despise on a team you like. Like, seeing Cody Ross on the Giants was infuriating for me, because I liked the Giants. However, sometimes it just feels weird. This weekend, I watched Chien-Ming Wang pitch a game for the Toronto Blue Jays, a team I sorta dislike. And it's kinda weird.

Still, I'm glad Beltran's playing well again, and I hope he keeps it going. If not, I'll just have to root for Wacha.

Coming Tomorrow- The generally consistent Reds 2nd baseman.

Custom Card of the Day: Napoli Edition

And so, yet again, the Red Sox are on top. This was sort of bound to happen, as the Yankees and Red Sox have been alternating 1st and 2nd like those two kids on the block that would always wear matching shirts. It just becomes redundant after a while, to the point where you just want one of them to stop.

Unlike last year, the Red Sox actually have some respectable players on their team. Unfortunately, Mike Napoli is not one of them.

Napoli...I really don't get why he appealed to people with the Rangers. He was a sub-par catcher who hit .250 and just belted homers when he was healthy. He was in no way shape or form an impressive player. He was good, and he had some sort of fan following there, but there was a reason why he shared playing time with Bengie Molina during his last season.

Thankfully, Napoli has been hitting well for Boston, which I can understand. I mean, after all, they do feed off of players who do nothing but hit (see Ross, Cody and Ortiz, David). Napoli is at least having a nice season so far, but not to the point of deserving an All Star nomination. He may be good, but he's not THAT good.

As long as he's good enough to make Boston fans happy, he's fine by me.

Coming Tomorrow- One of the less infuriating Cardinals, and I say that solely due to his efforts in Queens.

Custom Card of the Day: Cespedes Edition

I feel like that, since last year was such a big year for rookies, Yoenis Cespedes became severely overlooked. While millions of fans were fawning over Mike Trout and Bryce Harper, Cespedes was quietly doing his thing, hitting home runs and acquiring the super-fan status he has today.

A lot of that has paid off. Cespedes, while being practically the only star in Oakland with a clean chin, has racked up a nice amount of hits and home runs, while also playing his position well. And now that he's left 'rookie' status, and leaked into 'serious player' status, people have begun to take notes and finally check him out.

And also, like I said, he's one of the few stars left on the A's, other than Josh Reddick and Jarrod Parker. The A's have a very thin team, yet they're still playing very well. Is it coincidence that there happens to be a Brad Pitt movie AND a Jonah Hill movie coming out?

You know, because...because Moneyball?

Ah, whatever. Just keep paying attention to Yoenis Cespedes. Something big's gonna happen soon.

Coming Tomorrow- Presenting one of the first place Red Sox. This one's the first baseman that used to be a catcher. Not that one, the other one.

Custom Card of the Day: CarGo Edition

This was one of the first customs I made after getting the new and improved Photoshop Elements, and through that technology I discovered some technology that had been on the old one the whole time, just without my knowing. The shadowing makes the text look so much like the older one, which is always nice.

The Rockies have fallen to third, like most of us predicted would happen. They are only 1.5 games back, but it looks like those Diamondbacks I've been hyping up have finally been doing well.

Still, the Rockies are still a stronger team, stronger than the one from last season. They have a lot of youth, including the still-consistent Carlos Gonzalez, who seems like the Dante Bichette of this team, solely because he's probably not going to have too many achievements outside of Colorado.

Not much else to say tonight.

Coming Tomorrow- The A's traded away all the young guys who made the team great last year. Well, most of them. Because the sole reason to go to A's games still remains, the fun outfielder from Cuba.

Archives Mania! Part 2- Baseball

Alright, you've seen my David Wilson game used, and tales of RG3's and Pierce's. Now, here's the baseball stuff

Pack 1-
75- CJ Wilson is my first card. Alright. He's not as good as he was with the Rangers, but he wasn't very good with the Rangers anyway.
118- Brandon Belt. I like how they pull off the 1985 design. Especially this card.
191- MARK TEIXEIRA! BOOYAH!
43- Starling Marte, who is becoming very big for Pittsburgh
185- STAN MUSIAL!
31- Brock Holt, who sounds like the alias of a Spider Man villain
99- JOEY VOTTO! A great player
120- Ted Williams, who's always great to pull. My only gripe here is that his stats are too small.

Pack 2-
80- Jered Weaver. Once again, the pack begins with an Angels pitcher in the 1982 design.
135- Adam Wainwright. See what happens when this guy stays healthy?
195- Dave Winfield. Once again, the third card in the pack is a Yankee. Although I'd much rather compare Granderson to Dave Winfield.
10- Matt Kemp. Didn't I just make a 1972 Matt Kemp this year? Ripoffs.
217- MOOKIE WILSON SHORT PRINT! WOOHOO!
193- Adam Eaton rookie, which is pretty damn cool.
46- Justin Morneau, who's aged a little bit.
91- Brandon Beachy

Pack 3-
71- Darwin Barney.
103- Mike Minor
182- Andre Ethier, who just seems to be phasing out
And a 1969 4-in one of Warren Spahn, Sandy Koufax, Steve Carlton and Clayton Kershaw. As much as I love Kershaw, that's some pretty big company to be in.
128- Mark Trumbo
177- Starlin Castro, who always seems to do well for a crappy team
39- Lance Lynn, another Cardinals pitcher
98- Jesus Montero. So I guess we were BOTH short-handed in that trade?

Pack 4-
35- Adam Dunn, who seems a little too happy to be having a crappy batting average
74- Miguel Montero, who seems a little too happy to be an overrated catcher
117- Carlos Santana, who seems a little too worried to have an awesome record currently.
160- Felix Hernandez
1983 All Stars of NOLAN RYAN! That's awesome!
113- Jake Peavy
159- Troy Tulowitzki, finally having a nice season
20- ALBERT PUJOLS

Pack 5-
22- Alex Rios
79- Josh Willingham
112- Kris Medlen, who finally started pitching well last season
A Tall Boy insert of Dante Bichette. I just wish it were his son.
82- Tom Seaver. I wish they would have used a different photo than the one we've seen 10000 times.
150- Jose Bautista
188- Mat Latos, who's actually been doing well for the Reds
14- Yoenis Cespedes

Pack 6-
176- Jose Altuve, the only good player on the Astros
26- Jayson Werth, a reused shot from Heritage
83- Jim Johnson
123- Jean Segura, snagged in the Zack Greinke trade. No, not that one, the other one.
223- Matt Williams SHORT PRINT, which is kinda nice.
66- Tim Hudson, who got his 200th win this year
125- Kyle Lohse, now sucking for the Brewers
199- Eric Hosmer

Pack 7-
200- Mike Trout, who's actually pretty good.
2- Gary Carter, may he rest in piece.
77- Tony Cingrani rookie
ANNNND....WE have another hit. And it's even better than the David Wilson rookie!
This is a John Mayberry SR., the one for the Royals, not the Phillies, ON CARD AUTO. I absolutely love this, and think Topps is awesome for doing these. Even if Mayberry isn't a big star, it's still incredibly cool.
33- Corey Hart, who wears his sunglasses at night.
52- Desmond Jennings (brotha)
136- Nelson Cruz, who probably took steroids
181- Avisail Garcia

Pack 8-
144- Paul Molitor, which is pretty nice
184- Kyle Seager
41- Doug Fister, such an unfortunate name
57- Todd Frazier, of my mom's hometown, Pt. Pleasant
1983 All Star of Darrell Evans. Is it me, or are there only two cards in this set. I got the Ryan, I've got the Evans, and those are the only two I've seen
16- Cal Ripken Jr, the greatest Baltimore Oriole of all time
72- Harmon, the killer, Killebrew
111- Brandon Morrow to top it off

Well, that was an amazing box. I love both of these products, because they have great designs and even better hits. The on-card auto from this one is probably my favorite card I've gotten since the Bench/Posey game used last year. It's that good. This is a great set, and you can bet your ass I'll be getting more.

Archives Mania! Part 1- Football

I haven't gotten cards since the heyday of Gypsy Queen and Heritage. It has been a long few weeks without cards, so I needed some. Which is why I felt it necessary to head on over to Target and pick up two blasters. I already knew I'd be getting some Archives baseball, because that is indeed how I roll, but I saw that Archives football was FINALLY out, so I got a blaster of that.

I will open the football blaster first:

Pack 1-
and the first card is...
144- Steven Jackson, 1986. Alright, that's a good way to start, I guess
185- Phil Simms, 60's design. I like how they're incorporating legends in here with the current players. Simms is pretty nice.
43- Chris Long
69- Troy Polamalu, who fans of the 31 other teams love to hate
111- Ben Tate.
163- Greg Little. Those Browns are a good team that just gets unlucky
1- Andrew Luck. And that's the card I needed to get.
77- Torrey Smith, a member of the great Ravens team.

Pack 2-
129- Davone Bess
164- Ahmad Bradshaw. Kinda weird that these still have only 2011 stats.
46- Coby Fleener rookie.
91- Brandon Pettigrew.
217- Cool, a Louis Lipps short print! That's actually pretty awesome
119- Darren Sproles
186- Michael Egnew rookie
4- Jermichael Finley. I do not think he's still on the team.

Pack 3-
150- ROBERT GRIFFIN III! FINALLY! Finally I get an RG3 rookie!
179- Brian Urlacher, now on some other team
17- Carson Palmer. This set has been shelved so many times that Carson Palmer is still the Raiders QB. Wow.
96- Chris Johnson. I feel like the 85 set is kinda odd being reprinted. Never really liked it.
86- Chandler Jones rookie
128- Isaiah Pead rookie
151- Ryan Tannehill rookie, the third of the awesome QBs
23- Marques Colston

Pack 4-
103- Julio Jones
161- DESEAN JACKSON! Still awesome!
28- Ben Roethlisberger, still one of the more overrated QBs out there.
Brandon Lloyd 1000 Yard Club Insert. I love these.
63- Jay Cutler
106- AJ Jenkins rookie
166- Mohamed Sanu rookie
36- Matt Forte.

Pack 5-
53- Michael Turner
124- CLAY MATTHEWS!
153- Brian Orakpo, on one of his off days from playing chess with the Geico cavemen
35- Kurt Warner, sporting a nice throwback with the Rams.
a 1970 glossy insert of Arian Foster, which is awesome
52- Kevin Kolb, still a disappointment for any team he comes across
142- Matthew Stafford, an underrated QB
178- DeVier Posey RC

Pack 6-
99- Pierre Garcon
141- Darrius Heyward-Bay, the love child of Jason Heyward and Jason Bay?
199- Robert Turbin RC. Did they stuff all the rookies into the 60's design?
201- Oh, cool! A short print of Willie 'Flipper' Anderson! Sweet!
24- David Wilson RC
64- Luke Kuechly, defensive ROY
133- Ryan Matthews
200- Ray Rice, one of the few Ravens who decided to stay on the team.

Pack 7-
26- Willis McGahee
54- Malcom Floyd
Annd....well, we've got a game used on our hands today
It is a 1985 design (sorta) game used of David Wilson of the Giants. He evidently did pretty damn well for the Giants last season, so that's nice. Always nice to pull a game used
105- Marshawn Lynch
38- Travis Benjamin rookie
56- Lamar Miller rookie

Pack 8-
154- BERNARD PIERCE, a Temple alum
49- Kendall Wright rookie
89- Reggie Bush, now on daaaaa Bears
117- Rashard Mendenhall
A Super Action insert of Alfred Morris, which is nice
101- Doug Martin rookie! That's awesome
181- Percy Harvin, now on the Seahawks.
32- And we end with JJ Watt

That was an awesome blaster, complete with a David Wilson Game Used, which is nice. A little later I will post the baseball blaster.