Given that the 2011 season gets underway tomorrow for a dozen teams, I wanted to put down my thoughts on what the season might hold for the Cubs and their fans. I go into every season with high hopes, but I don't go into every season with high expectations. And this season is one of the ones without very high expectations. I think I am a little more pessimistic than many Cubs fans about this season.
I just don't think we have a real contender this season. At least not a World Series contender. I see us in the 75-85 win range. They won 75 last year, so that is a little bit of an improvement. And I think the personnel moves from the offseason basically justify that type of small improvement. We have three meaningful changes in our regular rotation - Carlos Pena takes Derrek Lee's spot, Matt Garza takes Ted Lilly's spot, and Kerry Wood is a quality addition in the bullpen. We also have Mike Quade taking the place of Lou Piniella as manager if you want to consider that. To me, all of these combined add up to a small improvement, not a big one. In order to make a bigger leap, we need better performances from players we had last year. Starlin Castro seems like the only candidate is this area (maybe Cashner?). And I'll be hopeful there, but second year players are just as likely to slip a little as they are to jump a little.
One thing that does give me a fair amount of hope is that we play in the NL Central, which has three decent teams in the Reds, Cardinals, and Brewers. But none of those teams are serious World Series contenders either, at least in my eyes. So if we can come in at the top end of our range, we may be in the race in the Central. And who knows what we might be able to pick up at the trade deadline if that is the case.
As far as individual performances, I expect Carlos Marmol to represent the Cubs on the All Star team. I don't believe anyone else is a likely All Star, but Zambrano, Garza, Dempster, Castro, and Soto have a chance to play at a level that will get them to Arizona. Let's all root for us to have multiple All Stars for the first time since 2008!
I'm going to go a bit against the grain and say that I don't think that Carlos Zambrano will make as big of a comeback as many think he will. I don't believe he will be as bad as he was in the first half of 2010, but he won't be as good as was in the second half either. I'll say 15-10 with an ERA in the 3.30 range.
One player I am especially interested in seeing how he performs this season is Geovany Soto. He had the good rookie season, then had a poor second season. But he had a better season last year than many realize. I think he has a chance to have a very good season and establish himself as one of the best catchers in the league. If he does, that will be one of the catalysts that puts us in the NL Central race.
Below are some rough predictions for our presumed contributors this season. I'll revisit this at the end of the season, see how I did. Let's go Cubbies!
Carlos Pena - .225, 18 HR, 75 RBI
Blake Dewitt - .270, 5 HR, 70 RBI
Starlin Castro - .310, 10 HR, 80 RBI
Aramis Ramirez - .280, 28 HR, 95 RBI
Alfonso Soriano - .260, 25 HR, 80 RBI
Marlon Byrd - .290, 12 HR, 65 RBI
Tyler Colvin - .245, 20 HR, 75 RBI
Geovany Soto - .295, 25 HR, 95 RBI
Ryan Dempster - 14-13, 3.80 ERA
Carlos Zambrano - 15-10, 3.30 ERA
Matt Garza - 17-12, 3.30 ERA
Carlos Marmol - 35 Saves, 15.2 K/9 IP
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Cubs Breakdown - 2011 Topps Packaged Team Sets
2011 Topps Packaged Team Sets
These team sets are a regular yearly issue from Topps and while they are basically just renumbered versions of some of the Cubs cards from base issue Topps, the timing of the release gives us a preview of some cards that won't be released until Series 2. The cards marked with a '**' on the checklist below are the cards that weren't in Series 1. One other notable card in this set is the Starlin Castro card, which has the same photo as his card in Series 1, but also features the Topps Rookie Cup which his regular Series 1 card does not.
#CHC1 Starlin Castro
#CHC2 Marlon Byrd
#CHC3 Aramis Ramirez
#CHC4 Tyler Colvin
**#CHC5 Kerry Wood
#CHC6 Ryan Dempster
**#CHC7 Carlos Pena
#CHC8 Carlos Marmol
#CHC9 Andrew Cashner
#CHC10 Carlos Silva
**#CHC11 Blake Dewitt
**#CHC12 Kosuke Fukudome
**#CHC13 Alfonso Soriano
**#CHC14 Geovany Soto
**#CHC15 Matt Garza
**#CHC16 Carlos Zambrano
**#CHC17 Wrigley Field
These team sets are a regular yearly issue from Topps and while they are basically just renumbered versions of some of the Cubs cards from base issue Topps, the timing of the release gives us a preview of some cards that won't be released until Series 2. The cards marked with a '**' on the checklist below are the cards that weren't in Series 1. One other notable card in this set is the Starlin Castro card, which has the same photo as his card in Series 1, but also features the Topps Rookie Cup which his regular Series 1 card does not.
#CHC1 Starlin Castro
#CHC2 Marlon Byrd
#CHC3 Aramis Ramirez
#CHC4 Tyler Colvin
**#CHC5 Kerry Wood
#CHC6 Ryan Dempster
**#CHC7 Carlos Pena
#CHC8 Carlos Marmol
#CHC9 Andrew Cashner
#CHC10 Carlos Silva
**#CHC11 Blake Dewitt
**#CHC12 Kosuke Fukudome
**#CHC13 Alfonso Soriano
**#CHC14 Geovany Soto
**#CHC15 Matt Garza
**#CHC16 Carlos Zambrano
**#CHC17 Wrigley Field
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Addition to the Master Checklist - 2008 Sports Equation Math Flash Cards
User KLARNOLD over on Freedom card Board posted a new set that I was previously unaware of a couple of months back and I wanted to put up a post here about it as well. A company called Sports Equation put out some math flash cards in 2008 that picture MLB players. There are 30 cards per set (one player from each team) and there are four different sets (one each for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division problems). The cards themselves are 3" x 5" in size and each one features a picture of the player along with a math problem. The same photo is used for each player on each of the four different versions.
From what I can tell, these are relatively tough to come by. They don't appear to be readily available anywhere on the internet just based on a short search earlier today. Alfonso Soriano represents the Cubs in the set, but I've listed all of the players below for reference purposes.
Vladimir Guerrero (Angels)
From what I can tell, these are relatively tough to come by. They don't appear to be readily available anywhere on the internet just based on a short search earlier today. Alfonso Soriano represents the Cubs in the set, but I've listed all of the players below for reference purposes.
Vladimir Guerrero (Angels)
Carlos Lee (Astros)
Eric Chavez (Athletics)
Vernon Wells (Blue Jays)
Chipper Jones (Braves)
Prince Fielder (Brewers)
Albert Pujols (Cardinals)
Alfonso Soriano (CUBS)
Eric Byrnes (Diamondbacks)
Russell Martin (Dodgers)
Randy Winn (Giants)
Grady Sizemore (Indians)
Ichiro (Mariners)
Hanley Ramirez (Marlins)
David Wright (Mets)
Ryan Zimmerman (Nationals)
Nick Markakis (Orioles)
Khalil Greene (Padres)
Chase Utley (Phillies)
Freddy Sanchez (Pirates)
Michael Young (Rangers)
Carl Crawford (Rays)
David Ortiz (Red Sox)
Ken Griffey Jr (Reds)
Matt Holliday (Rockies)
John Buck (Royals)
Magglio Ordonez (Tigers)
Joe Mauer (Twins)
Paul Konerko (White Sox)
Derek Jeter (Yankees)
Eric Chavez (Athletics)
Vernon Wells (Blue Jays)
Chipper Jones (Braves)
Prince Fielder (Brewers)
Albert Pujols (Cardinals)
Alfonso Soriano (CUBS)
Eric Byrnes (Diamondbacks)
Russell Martin (Dodgers)
Randy Winn (Giants)
Grady Sizemore (Indians)
Ichiro (Mariners)
Hanley Ramirez (Marlins)
David Wright (Mets)
Ryan Zimmerman (Nationals)
Nick Markakis (Orioles)
Khalil Greene (Padres)
Chase Utley (Phillies)
Freddy Sanchez (Pirates)
Michael Young (Rangers)
Carl Crawford (Rays)
David Ortiz (Red Sox)
Ken Griffey Jr (Reds)
Matt Holliday (Rockies)
John Buck (Royals)
Magglio Ordonez (Tigers)
Joe Mauer (Twins)
Paul Konerko (White Sox)
Derek Jeter (Yankees)
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Cubs Breakdown - 2011 Topps Heritage
2011 Topps Heritage
The 2011 version of Topps Heritage started appearing this past week. This is one of the more highly anticipated sets of the year, with a huge cult like following. Topps typically throws a variety of little quirks into the Heritage issue and this year continues that trend. For me though, whether I like this set typically depends on how well I like the design that is being used. This year's version of the set is based on the 1962 Topps set, and given that the wood grain borders are one of my favorite design elements of any Topps set ever, I'm a big fan of this year's set. That is a good thing because 1963 Topps features one of my least favorite designs for a Topps set. So I will have to appreciate this set for at least a couple of years!
In addition to a great looking design, this issue also bring a plethora of Cubs cards in the base set to go along with several quality insert offerings. The base set brings us our first Cubs cards for our two biggest offseason acquisitions, Carlos Pena and Matt Garza. The Garza features a classically bad airbrush job on his hat, but this actually kind of adds a little bit of desirability to the card for me. It just kinds of fits in with the throwback theme. We also get the first major league card of Casey Coleman (I know cubsfan731 will be happy), along with cards of under exposed guys like Darwin Barney and Welington Castillo.
As far as parallels go, we have the usual chrome parallels, with a new green version for this year as well as new black bordered paper cards. Topps chose a unique design for the black and green chrome refractors which feature a small amount of the wood grain kind of 'peeking through'. I'm not sure I like this better than just using full wood grain treatment within the colors, but they are not bad and they are different than what we normally see. We also have some 'tint variation' parallels for the cards from #110-196. Green Tints are available in hobby packs, Blue Tints in special Wal-Mart packs, and Red Tints in special Target packs. These are alright as far as quirks go, they are based on the green tint variations from the actual 1962 Topps set.
As for the regular inserts, I like the Baseball Bucks inserts. I like the stamp inserts as well, but the two tone black and blue frames make them hard to look at in my opinion. And then we have the Real One autos of Ernie Banks and Starlin Castro along with various relic and relic auto cards of these two, including a couple of duals with both Banks and Castro featured. The designs are all pretty attractive for these sets with the wood grain prominently featured.
Below is a summary of the Cubs from this issue. Enjoy!
Base Set - only 1 full version of the set
#14 Carlos Pena
#25 Starlin Castro
#47 Kosuke Fukudome
#66 Geovany Soto
#115 Alfonso Soriano
#170 Aramis Ramirez
#191 Ryan Dempster
#224 Casey Coleman
#228 Marlon Byrd
#276 Darwin Barney
#359 Carlos Zambrano
#406 Tyler Colvin
#431 Welington Castillo (SP)
#446 Carlos Marmol (SP)
#485 Matt Garza (SP)
#495 Rookie Parade Andrew Cashner, Jonny Venters, Kenley Jansen, Jenrry Mejia, and John Axford (SP)
Chrome (Partial Parallel Set) - 5 Versions - Regular Chrome #/1962, Refractors #/662, Black Refractors #/62, Green Refractors, and Black Borders (non-chrome)
High numbers were issued in 2011 Topps Chrome. No Green Refractors or Paper Black Borders for high numbers.
#5 Starlin Castro
#44 Casey Coleman
#47 Marlon Byrd
#87 Carlos Zambrano
#137 Carlos Pena
#144 Kosuke Fukudome
#161 Alfonso Soriano
Tint Variations (Partial Parallel Set) - 3 Versions - Green Tint, Blue Tint (Walmart Exclusive), and Red Tint (Target Exclusive)
There are some small variations and other quirks between the base cards and the tint variations.
Cards #110-196 only from the base set have tint variations
#115 Alfonso Soriano
#170 Aramis Ramirez
#191 Ryan Dempster
Real One Autos - 2 Versions - Blue Ink & Red Ink (#/62)
EB Ernie Banks
SC Starlin Castro
Real One Dual Autos
BC Ernie Banks & Starlin Castro - available via redemption only
Baseball Bucks
#16 Starlin Castro
#17 Aramis Ramirez
#18 Tyler Colvin
Baseball Flashbacks - No Cubs Included
Baseball Flashbacks Seat Relics - No Cubs Included
Baseball Flashbacks Dual Seat Relics #/10 - No Cubs Included
Baseball Flashbacks Seat Relic Autos #/25 - No Cubs Included
Baseball Flashbacks Autos #/25
EB Ernie Banks
Clubhouse Collection Relics - No Cubs Included
Clubhouse Collection Dual Relics #/62 - No Cubs Included
Clubhouse Collection Relic Autos #/25
EB Ernie Banks
SC Starlin Castro
Clubhouse Collection Dual Relic Autos #/10
BC Ernie Banks & Starlin Castro - available via redemption only
Coin Relics
EB Ernie Banks 1962 Quarter
Cut Autos - No Cubs Included
New Age Performers - No Cubs Included
News Flashbacks - No Cubs Included
Then & Now - No Cubs Included
Dual Framed Stamps #/62
I haven't seen a full checklist for these yet, but last year each player appeared on two different pairs.
Marlon Byrd (w/ Chris Young & w/Mat Latos)
Starlin Castro (w/David Wright & w/Francisco Cordero)
Tyler Colvin (w/Jorge Posada & w/Edwin Jackson)
Ryan Dempster (w/Mark Teixeira & w/Chris Young)
Carlos Marmol (w/Chris Coghland & w/Barry Zito)
Aramis Ramirez (w/Brian Wilson & w/Michael Young)
Alfonso Soriano (w/Neftali Feliz & w/Prince Fielder)
Triple Stamp Box Toppers
#6 Alfonso Soriano, Starlin Castro, and Carlos Marmol
50th Anniversary Buybacks - Buybacks of real 1962 Topps cards with a special gold stamp on them
#25 Ernie Banks
#47 Bob Will
#66 Cuno Barragon
#89 Barney Schultz
#119 Danny Murphy
#170 Ron Santo
#191 Jim Brewer
#240 George Altman
#264 Dick Ellsworth
#274 Sammy Taylor
#288 Billy Williams
#309 Moe Morhardt
#359 Bobby Locke
#372 Jack Curtis
#387 Lou Brock
#446 Don Elston
#458 Bob Buhl
#461 Ken Hubbs
#477 Andre Rodgers
#495 Don Cardwell
#546 Moe Thacker
#552 Cubs Team Card
#557 Bob Anderson
#585 Glen Hobbie
#597 Jim McKnight
A few examples below
Stamp Buybacks - Framed 1962 Topps Stamp Buybacks, print runs vary
#102 Chicago Cubs Emblem
#103 George Altman
#104 Ernie Banks
#105 Dick Bertell #/2
#106 Don Cardwell
#107 Dick Ellsworth
#108 Glen Hobbie
#109 Ron Santo
#110 Barney Schultz
#111 Billy Williams
The 2011 version of Topps Heritage started appearing this past week. This is one of the more highly anticipated sets of the year, with a huge cult like following. Topps typically throws a variety of little quirks into the Heritage issue and this year continues that trend. For me though, whether I like this set typically depends on how well I like the design that is being used. This year's version of the set is based on the 1962 Topps set, and given that the wood grain borders are one of my favorite design elements of any Topps set ever, I'm a big fan of this year's set. That is a good thing because 1963 Topps features one of my least favorite designs for a Topps set. So I will have to appreciate this set for at least a couple of years!
In addition to a great looking design, this issue also bring a plethora of Cubs cards in the base set to go along with several quality insert offerings. The base set brings us our first Cubs cards for our two biggest offseason acquisitions, Carlos Pena and Matt Garza. The Garza features a classically bad airbrush job on his hat, but this actually kind of adds a little bit of desirability to the card for me. It just kinds of fits in with the throwback theme. We also get the first major league card of Casey Coleman (I know cubsfan731 will be happy), along with cards of under exposed guys like Darwin Barney and Welington Castillo.
As far as parallels go, we have the usual chrome parallels, with a new green version for this year as well as new black bordered paper cards. Topps chose a unique design for the black and green chrome refractors which feature a small amount of the wood grain kind of 'peeking through'. I'm not sure I like this better than just using full wood grain treatment within the colors, but they are not bad and they are different than what we normally see. We also have some 'tint variation' parallels for the cards from #110-196. Green Tints are available in hobby packs, Blue Tints in special Wal-Mart packs, and Red Tints in special Target packs. These are alright as far as quirks go, they are based on the green tint variations from the actual 1962 Topps set.
As for the regular inserts, I like the Baseball Bucks inserts. I like the stamp inserts as well, but the two tone black and blue frames make them hard to look at in my opinion. And then we have the Real One autos of Ernie Banks and Starlin Castro along with various relic and relic auto cards of these two, including a couple of duals with both Banks and Castro featured. The designs are all pretty attractive for these sets with the wood grain prominently featured.
Below is a summary of the Cubs from this issue. Enjoy!
Base Set - only 1 full version of the set
#14 Carlos Pena
#25 Starlin Castro
#47 Kosuke Fukudome
#66 Geovany Soto
#115 Alfonso Soriano
#170 Aramis Ramirez
#191 Ryan Dempster
#224 Casey Coleman
#228 Marlon Byrd
#276 Darwin Barney
#359 Carlos Zambrano
#406 Tyler Colvin
#431 Welington Castillo (SP)
#446 Carlos Marmol (SP)
#485 Matt Garza (SP)
#495 Rookie Parade Andrew Cashner, Jonny Venters, Kenley Jansen, Jenrry Mejia, and John Axford (SP)
Chrome (Partial Parallel Set) - 5 Versions - Regular Chrome #/1962, Refractors #/662, Black Refractors #/62, Green Refractors, and Black Borders (non-chrome)
High numbers were issued in 2011 Topps Chrome. No Green Refractors or Paper Black Borders for high numbers.
#5 Starlin Castro
#44 Casey Coleman
#47 Marlon Byrd
#87 Carlos Zambrano
#137 Carlos Pena
#144 Kosuke Fukudome
#161 Alfonso Soriano
Tint Variations (Partial Parallel Set) - 3 Versions - Green Tint, Blue Tint (Walmart Exclusive), and Red Tint (Target Exclusive)
There are some small variations and other quirks between the base cards and the tint variations.
Cards #110-196 only from the base set have tint variations
#115 Alfonso Soriano
#170 Aramis Ramirez
#191 Ryan Dempster
Real One Autos - 2 Versions - Blue Ink & Red Ink (#/62)
EB Ernie Banks
SC Starlin Castro
Real One Dual Autos
BC Ernie Banks & Starlin Castro - available via redemption only
Baseball Bucks
#16 Starlin Castro
#17 Aramis Ramirez
#18 Tyler Colvin
Baseball Flashbacks - No Cubs Included
Baseball Flashbacks Seat Relics - No Cubs Included
Baseball Flashbacks Dual Seat Relics #/10 - No Cubs Included
Baseball Flashbacks Seat Relic Autos #/25 - No Cubs Included
Baseball Flashbacks Autos #/25
EB Ernie Banks
Clubhouse Collection Relics - No Cubs Included
Clubhouse Collection Dual Relics #/62 - No Cubs Included
Clubhouse Collection Relic Autos #/25
EB Ernie Banks
SC Starlin Castro
Clubhouse Collection Dual Relic Autos #/10
BC Ernie Banks & Starlin Castro - available via redemption only
Coin Relics
EB Ernie Banks 1962 Quarter
Cut Autos - No Cubs Included
New Age Performers - No Cubs Included
News Flashbacks - No Cubs Included
Then & Now - No Cubs Included
Dual Framed Stamps #/62
I haven't seen a full checklist for these yet, but last year each player appeared on two different pairs.
Marlon Byrd (w/ Chris Young & w/Mat Latos)
Starlin Castro (w/David Wright & w/Francisco Cordero)
Tyler Colvin (w/Jorge Posada & w/Edwin Jackson)
Ryan Dempster (w/Mark Teixeira & w/Chris Young)
Carlos Marmol (w/Chris Coghland & w/Barry Zito)
Aramis Ramirez (w/Brian Wilson & w/Michael Young)
Alfonso Soriano (w/Neftali Feliz & w/Prince Fielder)
Triple Stamp Box Toppers
#6 Alfonso Soriano, Starlin Castro, and Carlos Marmol
50th Anniversary Buybacks - Buybacks of real 1962 Topps cards with a special gold stamp on them
#25 Ernie Banks
#47 Bob Will
#66 Cuno Barragon
#89 Barney Schultz
#119 Danny Murphy
#170 Ron Santo
#191 Jim Brewer
#240 George Altman
#264 Dick Ellsworth
#274 Sammy Taylor
#288 Billy Williams
#309 Moe Morhardt
#359 Bobby Locke
#372 Jack Curtis
#387 Lou Brock
#446 Don Elston
#458 Bob Buhl
#461 Ken Hubbs
#477 Andre Rodgers
#495 Don Cardwell
#546 Moe Thacker
#552 Cubs Team Card
#557 Bob Anderson
#585 Glen Hobbie
#597 Jim McKnight
A few examples below
Stamp Buybacks - Framed 1962 Topps Stamp Buybacks, print runs vary
#102 Chicago Cubs Emblem
#103 George Altman
#104 Ernie Banks
#105 Dick Bertell #/2
#106 Don Cardwell
#107 Dick Ellsworth
#108 Glen Hobbie
#109 Ron Santo
#110 Barney Schultz
#111 Billy Williams
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