Yeah. Sounds About Right.

You're asking my opinion on Aroldis Chapman landing on the Cubs?

Look...I made peace with the fact that Aroldis Chapman wouldn't be playing for my team for too long...some time ago. I'm not exactly...distraught. Am I sad? Yes, of course I'm sad- if I ran the world Aroldis Chapman would be a Yankee for eternity and there'd be tons of cards of him as a Yankee. But, this is the 2016 season, and the Cubs need a closer than isn't Hector Rondon.

And the Yankees just took Chapman as a means of stopping everyone else from getting him anyone- Cashman saw the discount, took it and ran. He already had a perfectly good closer in Andrew Miller, who..will be closing a few more games now that Chapman's gone. But the Three-Headed Monster idea was the best lemons-to-lemonade scenario they could have dreamed of.

Once Hector Rondon began the season by blowing saves, I kinda knew Chapman would end up closing for Chicago eventually. The writing was on the wall. So I'm not too broken up about it. If anything, Chapman to the Cubs is a bit obvious. I would have loved to see a rogue team jump in and snatch him.

So yeah...Aroldis Chapman's not a Yankee anymore. Boo hoo. But at least now he might be closer to a World Series.

Ballot Stuffing That I Am Surprisingly Okay With

In years past, there have been a couple of different methods, by various growing fan bases of teams, to get as many starters for that team onto the All Star team, regardless of whether or not they deserve it that year. For St. Louis fans, this is almost routine.

In 2011, the Giants fans were responsible for most of the ballot-stuffing, as Pablo Sandoval (I believe) wound up replacing a much-deserving David Wright at third. This also was happening last season, as ALL OF MISSOURI was voting their players to starting positions, including people like Omar Infante and Jhonny Peralta who hardly even deserved them. It took tons of re-voting to get Mike Moustakas off of the starting third, and getting Josh Donaldson where he rightly belonged. It was easier for Matt Holliday, as he was injured by ASG time last year.

So, with a week left to go before voting closes, it's the right time to report on another case of ballot stuffing by unified fans. However...this time it's one I'm okay with.

Not because I like the Cubs- even though I do like the Cubs, it's not my main reasoning. No...this is much better reasoning- all four infielders that are being voted into starting positions, by all of Chicago, RIGHTFULLY DESERVE those infield spots.

Unlike years where maybe Moustakas isn't the best third baseman in baseball, or maybe David Wright deserves it over Panda, this year...it makes sense. Anthony Rizzo's the best at first. Ben Zobrist's the best at second. Kris Bryant's the best at third.

The only real stretch this year is Addison Russell at shortstop. I wouldn't have originally thought him the best shortstop in the league this year, but...then I looked at who he was up against...and I realized that there wasn't a TON of competition.

Trevor Story could be an option, but he's cooled down so much since April. Brandon Crawford's great, but he's more 'reserve infielder' material than starter material, as is Aledmys Diaz. So...really, Addison Russell, even as the Rey Ordonez of this infield arrangement, is still the best choice at shortstop for the NL. And BELIEVE ME...I tried figuring out a different arrangement. I tried troubleshooting. Corey Seager, as good as he is this season, doesn't even deserve the starting job.

I tried to find an equation in which these four guys DIDN'T make sense as the starting infield for the NL All Star team, and other than one of two options that would be good enough replacements...I still felt the all-Cubs one was the best, regardless of ballot-stuffing or anything. The All-Star game should be the best of both leagues playing each other...and it fits, in this situation.

Coming Tomorrow- His brother's heating up the NL West, so his only option is to heat up the AL West. And, as his team is a little better this year, that's marginally easier for him.

Proof That Topps Has Indeed Learned Something (!!!)

(once I get a good enough photo of 2015 Topps' base set, I will paste it here)

Well, it finally happened. D'you see the border of the upcoming Topps' set? What color is that border?

If you said any variant of the word 'white', for the first time since 2007, you're WRONG! 

The border for this year's base cards will VARY with team colors, which is usually reserved for some insignificant decal hidden somewhere amidst the white. 

I bring this up because I was talking about THIS EXACT THING earlier in the year. I even said that if Topps made a set with a varying border for each team, I'd even stop talking crap about their products. And while I should be clear and say that the whole border isn't all in on this (it trickles down and starts at about halfway down the card), it's still better than basically doing a variation on the same formula for five straight years. 

So...the base set is different, finally. It looks nothing like any of the last five Topps sets. One could even argue that it has more similarities to a Topps Magic Football set than a Topps Baseball set. Plus, they've made the decision to raise the number of base-cards to 350, meaning that our final tally could be around 700, not counting Update. That means that there are FORTY MORE CARDS, which could either be FORTY PLAYERS that have not been on Topps cards before (one of which better freaking be Matt Wieters), or FORTY BULLSHIT SUBSETS that we really didn't need. I, obviously, would prefer the former.

So...JUST FROM THE BASE SET ALONE...Topps is really hooking me in. I usually back into contrarian stance whenever the new Topps subset comes out, but the base set alone is really impressing me, and I say this with definite shock in my fingers.

Plus, the insert sets, while not entirely progressive, are a lot better than the same tired cliches. I mean, there is a Legendary Lineage kind of set, but that's basically it. The one Baseball/History set that they're putting out looks pretty cool, and definitely a step up. I like the Free Agency one, as it may produce some very nice cards of signed-players, doing exactly what the 2012 Update Insert Series did painfully wrong. 

For the first time in a while, I haven't found too many things wrong with the Topps set. Give me time, they'll turn up eventually.