The Philly Show Fall 2024: Part One - Room Tone

Being a collector without a steady paycheck is tough, you guys. 

I've been doing alright with it, freelancing and whatnot, making what I can and occasionally selling big pulls on eBay, but a lot of the time it's a better idea to conserve energy and funds rather than take a swing at 25 dollars for 7 packs mostly containing dupes. It's a shame that in a year where Topps has its most inspired flagship design in 10 years it still feels so uninspiring to collect it.

So I've only been collecting periodically. And honestly because every release date is pushed two months forward and everything Topps would have put out by now probably won't wrap up til February, I don't suppose I was missing much. But recently a few big paychecks cleared, and I had enough funds to comfortably spend money on cards again.

Interestingly, though, one of the people who employed me recently mentioned that the Philly Show was coming up, and he was planning on going. "We usually go Friday, there's less people, less signers." And that seemed like a good idea, if only to beat the rush.

Folks...you couldn't have been able to tell the difference. I think I would have had to park the same distance from the venue on a Saturday vs. where I parked yesterday. Hey, you have to admire the dedication of the hobbyists, I suppose. The Philly Show has only gotten better over the past few years, and it's done so by not catering solely to the mojo collector or the hard-case-lockbox type bro. There are still plenty of budget sellers in that room, and I made it a point to go through the majority of them. 

The most I spent for a single card was 33 cents. The least...well, let's get into the nitty gritty of the day:

Dealer #???-???

Okay. Let's go over the basics. When I go to card shows, I bring a ton of plastic containers to hold cards in, and for a while, until I start really running out of space, I designate containers to be specific to a dealer I get cards from. Ultimately I run low on space and just start filling the empty inches in preexisting containers. I go into card shows with a system of how not to mix up which cards came from who, and that system ends up dissolving into a disorganized mess. 

So, I apologize. The cards in this post probably came from one of three or four different dealers I visited throughout the day. But what we must make clear is this: they were all ten cents or less, and they were all very similar in output. There was one dealer with the patented Philly nickel bins, one where I every time I passed there were maybe three or four people crammed in front of the limited real estate. I got to talking to a Philly collector named John, who was next to me at the nickel bins, once I eventually edged my way in. Pleasant company. I later ran into John again at a completely different dime bin, where he even went 'this wasn't the one I left you at, right?'. 

Regardless of the jumble of different dealers throughout this post, I can confirm that I definitely enjoyed the crawl. A lot of the cards in here did feel like they were stretches for a dime, or nickel, bin, in a good way. Yes, the nickel bins were filled with Wander Franco cards, but you also found rookies that *had* gone on to good things. Or genuinely cool inserts, like this Tony Oliva from last year's Heritage High Number.
 

Still, the mix of the day did yield cards from sets I'd long held in high regard. These two were cool inclusions for the set of Upper Deck's Goodwin's Champions set, an underrated show of creativity undermined by the expiration of their license the same year.

This card of Luis Aparicio marked another in my conquest to eventually complete 2017 Archives.

Yes, there were current rookies. Getting a Topps PCA rookie for 10 cents is gonna be a serve in a few years. Same with getting a Wellsy rookie. My am I happy with what he's been doing in the bronx.

2023 rookies abound, including Greene and Mason Miller, two more I was surprised to see priced so low.

I'm puzzled by a great deal of the existence of these modern Topps Heritage Chrome sets, not only because it's kind of a wild idea to start Heritage over again in Chrome but also consistently committing to releasing it a year late. The one good thing about these sets is the checklist, which is routinely entertaining. 

A few recent Topps Holiday moments in time. I think these sets may be more important than Update in regards to chronicling late-season acquisitions. Bell and Benny's late season work with those teams haven't gotten much play otherwise.

A whole bunch of modern Stadium Club. I haven't been able to get my hands on the 2023 SC, so it's awesome to get some of these, including that AWESOME Ozzie photo.

Modern Topps inserts. I wish the 2024 Blueprint insert was on a similar stock to the Tarot of the Diamond ones from GQ.

Heritage Inserts. I found a lot of cheap Hunter Greene cards, and am relieved by that.

Various recent Topps 35th inserts. I like finding these, they're my kind of stuff. All three of those Sonny Gray's were in the same bin, the same row even. Was somebody just getting rid of their Sonny Gray cards??

Tons of really cool Chrome/Finest inserts here. LOVE the Heart of the City one. 

Various WBC cards from 2023. A nice smattering here of future MLB-ers [Lee], former MLB-ers [Didi] and up-and-coming MLB-ers [Duran]. 

Various Topps giveaway sets. The Hobby Rip Night ones were apparently very recent, so it was nice to find them in the wild.

Also cool to run into in the wild?

582 Montgomery cards. I'd never come across these before, as I am not wealthy, and there was a ton in some of these boxes. So I got as much as I could. I'm not sure they'd arrive at my price point again. 

Here's a whole pages worth of various 582 cards from over the years. Turner and Chisholm have since joined teams of mine, and so I enjoy finding their cards now.

I only did a tiny bit of prospecting yesterday, but all of these were understandable. Wood's supposedly gonna be huge, Manzardo's just heating up for Cleveland, and this Deyvison de los Santos character I've been following ever since he had an extremely good spring with the Guardians, though he'd be returned to the Diamondbacks due to not making the team. The Marlins have him now, and I do think he'll factor into the team's 2025 plans, especially since the roster seems to be so open. De Los Santos could be a major home run hitter for these guys going forward. So I figured I'd stock up.

An old Bowman brick rookie card of collection favorite Cameron Maybin, and a Bowman card of Luisangel Acuna, which I can admit to picking up just to ensure a Mets fan didn't get to it. 

One table had a ton of Upper Deck Retro from 1998. Like, I must have passed six or seven different swaths of purely the same 12 or 13 base cards, these ones included. Like somebody broke a couple tubs and they all came out the same. 

This did include some incredibly cool inserts, of HOFers, and a rare 99 Retro card of Scott Rolen.

These boxes did have some 2000s stuff to intrigue me, like some various 2000s Bowman Heritage material, and some requisite UD and Topps insert. I still don't know who Upper Deck was trying to fool with their 2010 sets. That's clearly a Twins logo there.

The 90s stuff did appear in droves, and an impressive amount, too. These were two very cool mid-90s Inserts. Like, any opportunity to get a Fleer Pro-Visions I'm gonna take, especially the super cool 1995 ones.

Various Topps inserts, ranging from subtle to dufex-friendly. 

A glut of 1993-era fun, including more SP base cards, as I feel like I'm finding these more and more in the past few years.

1996 Fleer E-Motion XL. Not a set you come across often. Even cooler that it also included a Padres Rickey. Gusto is right.

A lot of these 90s cards did feel a little bigger than dime box fodder. I found a couple Griffeys and Piazzas, and star cards from Collector's Choice. 

And we'll end this one on two very cool dime box choices- a Pinnacle Certified issue of Hideo Nomo, one I've searched for for a while, and a Baseball Heroes insert of Joe Morgan as a Philadelphia Phillie, a sight you don't see often at all.

Tomorrow, though, I'll cover the really interesting stuff. There was one table that I thought was made just for me. 

On the Prospect of Another Yankee October

 

A year after absolutely shitting the bed midyear and infuriating the fanbase, the New York Yankees are a playoff team once again, and look to clinch the AL East for the third time in the Aaron Boone era. After tussling with Baltimore all year, and coming into a particularly hairy midyear slide once again, the Yanks are chasing 90 wins, 5 games ahead of the competition, and look to be a high seed in what will surely be a contentious playoff picture.

Now. There are some things we know about the Yankees, just from looking at patterns. We know that as a first or second seed, there's a probability that they'll lose momentum in the bye week and get toppled by a lesser competitor. This is something that can happen with a 12-team playoff picture. The season is about your 1 and 2 guys, but sometimes the season comes down to six seeds, and that's an equally exciting story to some people. But, of course, when you follow a team that's dominated the whole year and then watch them get creamed by a team with less wins that just got lucky, that's more heartbreaking. 

We also know that the Boone-era Yankees have yet to make a World Series, much like any Yankee team since the 2010s began. Randy Arozarena, Corbin Carroll, Jeremy Pena and Evan Carter all played in World Series' the first chances they got, and Aaron Judge has still yet to get there. Again, a lot of that owes to hubris, and to the argument that this team isn't as well built for October, as they always find a way to run out of steam early. Some people point to Boone, as they did to Girardi, as a bad postseason manager. I think that's an oversimplification. 

You also have to remember that there's a nonzero percentage that the Yankees come face to face with Houston yet again. This...tends to happen. Every time it's happened since 2015, the outcome's been the same. What's funny, though, is that the recent regular season series' against the Astros have all gone New York's way. Hell, our season BEGAN with a 4-0 sweep of the Astros. Now, I'm a writer and storyteller, and I do understand how poetic it would be if after the season started that way, the Astros got their revenge and swept us to END our season. That doesn't mean I want it to happen. That'd just be cruel. And besides, we just match up better against the Astros. And you can really see the cracks starting to show, with Verlander showing his age, Altuve getting mad at little shit, Tucker's injury being downplayed, and people starting to leave. So if there's any year where the Yankees could finally beat Houston in the postseason, it could be this one. 

As it stands now, the team looks good. Clarke Schmidt is back from the IL, and despite being the losing pitcher in yesterday's Seattle match, he looked sharp, and he's still having a phenomenal year. Soto and Judge are still hot, and Rizzo's getting hot himself. Cortes and Rodon are polishing off excellent full season campaigns. Chisholm fits right in with this team. Clay Holmes is still an issue but Weaver, Hill, Kahnle and Cousins give me hope. I feel really good about this team, and it'd be nice if we made the leap.

I bring up all of the earlier points because I am prepared for the worst, and it could happen. If you're going by the patterns, you'd be led to believe that it's not destined to be. But I see a definite road to the end. There are matches against teams we can beat in our future. This definitely could happen, and I'd love to see that it does.

Coming Tonight (?): When he's cold, you laugh. But then he gets hot. And you pray there hasn't been a mass calamity recently. 

Many Frazzled Returns

 

I don't think I ever pinpointed which last place team was the most fun to cover. I mean, I probably will formally in a superlatives post in a few weeks. But...honestly, it was harder than usual to really pinpoint which of the six counted as fun. There were GOOD last place teams, like the Jays and Pirates, and insanely depressing last place teams, like the White Sox and Angels, but nothing really evoked the scrappy, enjoyable feel of several last place teams of the past few years, at least not til very late in the year.

The Rockies may be the single most passable last place team in the league. In that there's stuff that works, clearly, and there's players they can bank on, but there's so much dullness elsewhere that it's hard to really savor it.

Okay, so there are good starters this year, right? Austin Gomber and Cal Quantrill. But of course, because they have to pitch in Denver all year they're gonna end up with high ERAs and no wins, and it's all gonna even out after really strong starts. There's a chance for the three contracted veterans to make it back this year, right? Yeah, but only one's gonna actually factor into the season. Kyle Freeland started 19 games this year, had a 4.89 ERA and struck out 79. There's really not that much you can say about that. German Marquez came back for one game then immediately went back on the IL. Antonio Senzatela just had his first start of the season, but I think it's safe to say it's too late for him to have any actual impact on the team.

Pretty much every Rockies team since Story left has rolled into a routine. Okay, Bryant's gonna be disappointing, the rotation's gonna fall apart, the bullpen's gonna start decent and hit a landmine, Blackmon's not gonna do anything close to his prime, maybe a couple young people will do something cool but not the ones we're truly banking on. And even with Tovar, Doyle, Toglia and McMahon having great seasons, there's a ton more routine than anything. Just run of the mill stuff for these Rockies. Team average of .242, team ERA over 5. That's just...how it is. 

Next year might be the same, even if there's more pieces ironed on now. The rotation seriously needs to improve, and it takes all three of the contracted guys actually staying healthy. Marquez is off the payroll after 2025, and while it'd be hysterical if he pitched well the moment he has the potential to no longer play for the Rockies, you have to worry that the same outcome's gonna happen again. Same with Bryant, you just really can't trust him anymore after he's pulled this shit three years in a row. Even if there's more improvement, even if Drew Romo comes into his own, you've still got so many of the same problems that could persist.

And all of this while the rest of the NL West continues to improve. So unless a lot of things suddenly spring to life in Denver, it may be another long season for the Rockies' fans.

Coming Tomorrow- He was hurt for a few months, but he's healthy again in time for a playoff run. 

Skenes Was Not Enough

 

Rowdy Tellez is the Sam Travis of Daniel Vogelbachs. So that's one of the reasons the Pirates are in last. 

It's upsetting, because this was a better Pirates team than the last few, and there were more strides forward than usual, but in a year where the NL Central as a whole wasn't very good, someone had to come in last, and despite a great deal of effort, it was going to be the Pirates. Because even as they were competing, they were still plugging Rowdy Tellez, Yasmani Grandal, David Bednar and Michael Taylor into crucial roles. Michael Taylor can do cool things every once in a while, but he hits .200 or less every year while doing it. Tellez is a decent power bat, but he strikes out way more than he actually connects, and even then his power material was not great this year. Grandal was clearly past his prime this year. Bednar's injury made him a liability, and it took the Pirates way too long to yank him out of the closing role. 

Again, considering that one of their other options was Aroldis Chapman, I kinda see why they weren't racing to, but...it's telling. 

And all the while you get Jalen Beeks, Bryan de la Cruz and Isiah Kiner-Falefa to help you and only Beeks really does. De la Cruz has had some good moments, but he's only hitting .206. IKF, despite a return to prominence in Toronto, is only hitting .246 with 10 RBIs. Then Ke'Bryan Hayes, who's already struggling, gets hurt, Joey Bart is on and off the IL, Marco Gonzales gets hurt again and Jack Suwinski once again just can't hit for average. Every time you think this team has the necessary tools to get things going, something else falls apart. And it sucks, because Bryan Reynolds, Paul Skenes, Jared Jones, Bailey Falter and Oneil Cruz really put in excellent seasons this year. And it all gets undone by the other guys.

What does intrigue me is some of the more recent call-ups. First there's Billy Cook, and can I just say how excellent it is that a guy for the Pirates is named Cook. Cook had some early contact moments and has cooled down in some subsequent moments. Then came Nick Yorke, the guy that people thought the Sox were really silly trading for Quinn Priester. Yorke, in his first 3 games, has 3 hits and a steal. Yorke looks like he's gonna be a contact machine as he develops, and he could be the 2nd baseman of the future for this team. This, along with Skenes, Jones, Keller and Falter still doing pretty damn well, makes me feel a little better about this team's development. It just sucks that it couldn't come together this year, because it was going so well early on, for the second year in a row.

Next year had better be something. It feels like it's coming together, they just need luck to be on their side. And potentially a better 1st baseman than Rowdy Tellez.

Coming Tonight: One of the longest tenured Rockies, watching his team become a surprising spoiler at this stage of the season. 

The Last Gasp of Collective Futility

 

Sometimes, when the schedule is set up, they luck out with September matchups. Like, they stumble onto really relevant series' between competitive teams in the thick of competition. A Phillies-Mets series as both fight for playoff spots. A Yankees-Mariners series as the M's fight to stay alive. Surprisingly enough, a Tigers-Royals series as the Tigers crawl towards the Twins' playoff spot. 

But other times, the opposite happens. Where there'll turn out to be series that mean nothing. It's like a Week 16 Thursday Night Football match between the Jets and Raiders. Like, that's not gonna be riveting [maybe this year is different, who knows]. And so we have a September matchup between the White Sox and Angels, two genuinely terrible teams that have both been eliminated from playoff competition. Unsurprisingly they've been close. Today's game ended with a Jordyn Adams walk-off in extras, despite the fact that the Sox were leading for most of the game.

The White Sox' patheticness has been well reported. They're currently 36-117, meaning they might not even win 50 games this season, which...is incredible. Their biggest hitter, Luis Robert, is hitting .225. Their best pitcher, Garrett Crochet, has been limiting his innings for the past two months. One of the most crucial contracted players, Yoan Moncada, missed 5 months and has played 12 games this season so far. And people like Bryan Ramos, Miguel Vargas, Zach DeLoach and Chuckie Robinson, all of whom have been relied upon in the past month, are hitting under .200. Former All-Star Andrew Benintendi is hitting .226 with a .685 OPS this season. I have no idea what happened to this man. I really hope it wasn't the injury he got with the Yankees, I'd feel awful if that was it. 

The emerging people now aren't even revelations or team-lifters, it's just 'well this guy isn't completely sucking right now'. Davis Martin was pushed into a starting role after people left, and he's been pretty decent, with a 4.27 ERA and 43 Ks. Unfortunately he's 0-5. Y'know, cause he plays for the White Sox. Is he a good pitcher for the long run? Who knows?? If you're a good pitcher on the 2024 White Sox, that may not mean anything further. Look at Erick Fedde, his Cardinals numbers paled in comparison to his Sox numbers because he was suddenly playing for an actual MLB team rather than Savannah Banana fodder. 

The Angels, though, might have the more heartbreaking story. Mike Trout was off to an incredible start this year, and then almost immediately he gets hurt and the season is a wash. Again. Anthony Rendon similarly had a snakebit year, only playing 57 games this year despite genuinely looking like he wanted to play baseball this year. Even great pieces that accumulated throughout the season, like Luis Rengifo and Jose Soriano, got hurt right when they became the most useful. And so the rest of the season was just this upsetting stride to the finish, with lots of disappointment and lots of blown opportunities.

Again, you can give the Angels credit for finding pieces that work, like Zach Neto, Nolan Schanuel and Ben Joyce. They also got an excellent season out of Tyler Anderson, despite wasting a year getting to this point. But there's also a lot of people who were supposed to be great for this team, like Brandon Drury, Jo Adell, Caden Dana and Kyren Paris, just haven't gotten it done this year. Griffin Canning, finally healthy after a lot of setback years, is basically just a body this year. He's made 29 starts this year, one less than Anderson, and he's mostly been good for innings eating, with a 5.16 ERA and a 6-13 record. Canning was decent when he had more of a team around him, and now he's just...a pitcher. Y'know, good he was here all year, hope he keeps it up. 

This series clearly isn't gonna be as well remembered as some other ones this season, but at the very least the stakes aren't as high. It's two teams on the same rung, it might be close, no use trying to be better than you are. Hopefully a series like this will actually mean something in a couple years. 

Coming Tomorrow- His former team just clinched a division without him. He's gotta feel great about that.

A Bunch of Sluggers Held Together With a Rubber Band

 

On paper, it must seem odd that the Marlins were able to take down the Dodgers last night, especially considering that they gave up 9 runs during this loss. I mean, this is a 1st place Dodgers team that has Shohei Ohtani, who hit homer #48 last night. How can the Marlins even match up?

But then you really look at what this team looks like now. There aren't really any stars, but there's a lot of surprisingly efficient role-players. And last night, the only person in the starting lineup not to get a hit was Griffin Conine, who's been decent enough otherwise. Meaning people like Jonah Bride, Xavier Edwards, Otto Lopez and Jake Burger were able to get things done for this team. Jonah Bride has become a surprisingly impeccable DH for these guys. In 59 games he's got 28 RBIs and 7 home runs. That's a pretty nice line for a guy who couldn't get anything done with Oakland. 

And the most crucial bit of this team might be the duo that came over here from Baltimore in exchange for Trevor Rogers. Connor Norby, now that he has somewhere to play, has been genuinely awesome in Miami, hitting .260 with 28 hits, 15 RBIs and 6 homers. Kyle Stowers, who was supposed to be the big power guy in the deal, has taken a little longer to warm up, but last night he showed his strengths, with a nice RBI triple. On a full year, Stowers could be a ton more potent, and much more useful to the Marlins. Very fascinating that these two are doing so well for the Marlins as the O's skid to a crawl.

And then, as disastrous as the pitching has been this year, with standout performers like Ryan Weathers and Jesus Luzardo getting hurt, Edward Cabrera has finally achieved stability atop the rotation. Cabrera, despite arriving late and some dire first half starts, now has a 4.55 ERA and 98 Ks. There have been a ton of August/September starts where Cabrera's dominance has returned, and where he genuinely looks like he did when the Marlins were better. There's talk of Alcantara being back in full force next year, but given another setback, hopefully a fuller Cabrera season will keep the rotation steady, in addition to potential strong follow-ups from Valente Bellozo, Eury Perez and hopefully Weathers. 

The Marlins, while clearly still being a bad team, have the sort of lineup that can click into place every so often and dominate. It happened against the Phils last week, and it's happening against the Dodgers. With refining, this could be the new standard. Maybe not immediately, but perhaps soon.

Coming Tonight: By the grace of whoever, hopefully one of the last times I have to talk about the White Sox this year. 

Trouble With the Ninth

 

One of the more palatable developments of the Blue Jays' second half, aside from Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s impressive hot streak and the come-up of Will Wagner [before he got hurt], has been the rise of Bowden Francis. With a vacancy in the rotation thanks to Yusei Kikuchi's move to Houston, Francis has been getting more and more starting reps after a season of serviceable long relief work. In 11 starts, Francis has gone 5-3 with a 3.14 ERA and 63 strikeouts. 

However, there's been this alarming trend recently for Francis, one that's gotten him attention in a good way, even if it's not what he'd been hoping for. On two separate occasions this season, Francis has taken a no-hitter into the ninth inning and immediately given up a run. Two separate occasions. One was against the Angels, which involved 12 strikeouts and mounting tension before Francis simply ran out of steam. The second time was most recently, where Francis very nearly pulled off the feat of no-hitting the Mets on September 11th, which is a lot like making Nick Castellanos strike out four times on the day of a national tragedy. And then right when it looks like Francis is gonna get away with it, he gives up a Lindor homer in the ninth. That's twice. 

And in addition to that, you can add 3 other starts this season where Francis gave up less than 1 run or less than 3 hits. That is five overall, all since August. All from a guy who was really struggling early on as a starting option and had to wait til somebody dropped to be a factor again. Whatever Bowden Francis figured out, he's more locked in that ever, and the Jays are hoping this is gonna be a normal thing. The downside is he hasn't pitched SINCE the Mets game, and while he's probably just needed extra time cause he keeps going far into games, hopefully he's not overtaxing himself this early.

The Jays are at least becoming a very nice spoiler in the waning months of the 2024 season. Bo Bichette is back, but Leo Jimenez did extremely well filling in for him. Ernie Clement and Spencer Horwitz might be answers going forward. Chad Green has been surprisingly potent in the ninth. Vlad's looking at a 100 RBI year with 30 homers to boot. Hell, Jose Berrios has 16 wins. For a Jays team that isn't going to the playoffs, that's still great.

This season for the Blue Jays, thanks to at the very least a stronger back half, won't be a complete disaster. There's ways these guys can pick back up and go again next year. I dunno if they're the complete competitor they'd been for the majority of this decade so far, but they're far from a disappointment. 

Coming Tomorrow- Maybe it's because the bar's so low, but a veteran pitcher doing well in Miami, which seems like something that couldn't happen.