All I've Got of Him: Albert Almora

Albert Almora was the Cubs first round draft pick in 2012. That makes him the first pick by the Theo / Judd regime.  Almora was called up to the Cubs last week when Jorge Soler went on the DL with a hamstring strain.  It took Almora a little longer to reach the majors compared to some of the other recent draftees, but he picked straight out of high school.  The others came from college.

Despite a MLB career of just two games, I've already got a mini stack of Almora.  Bowman, Heritage Minors and Pro Debut have been the contributors.  In all, I've got 14 cards of Albert Almora.

2016 Pro Debut Inserts

Pro Debut will typically have a few inserts sets and the Cubs were represented in most.

This is the Eugene Emeralds card from the Promo Night set.  They went with the Simpsons...d'oh!

Ian Happ was included in the Distinguished Debuts set.  He hit safely in his first five pro games and hit home runs in the second and third game.

The mascot patches are back again and this year the Iowa Cubs mascot Cubbie was included.  

2016 Archives Super Cubs

The 2016 Archives set included an insert modeled after the 1969 Super set.  The Cubs netted three spots on the 30 card checklist.

The posed shots on these have a definite 1969 feel to them.  Well done, Topps!

Four Years...Forty Games Better

I saw this little factoid yesterday.  Yes, the Cubs are getting better!

The tile has the 2012 Cubs position players.... Soriano, Campana, DeJesus, Valbuena, Castro, Barney, Rizzo, Soto.

It was not a very good team.  In 2012, it took the Cubs 96 games to win 40.  They won their 40th game on July 24 and had a record of 40-56.

The 2016 team is much better. They won their 40th on June 6, raising their record to 40-16.  It took them 56 games to get to 40, which is a 40 game improvement over the 2012 team.

I like the improvement!

2016 Pro Debut Cubs

Well, their not quite Cubs yet, but they hope to be some day.

The 2016 Pro Debut set features 11 different Cubs prospects.  Topps keeps up the misnamed set because of the 11 players, only two made their pro debut last year.   One player, Willson Contreras, has been a pro since 2011, which means his pro debut was five years ago.

The players represent three of the Cubs minor league teams.

Rookie League Eugene Emeralds

 

 

High A Myrtle Beach Pelicans

 

AA Tennessee Smokies:

 

 

 

 

A Couple Finest 2016 Inserts

There are four Finest insert sets and the Cubs have players in two of them.  I've been able to pick up both cards.

Anthony Rizzo has a card in the Franchise Finest set.  

The Finest Firsts set includes Kyle Schwarber.  Schwarber went 4-5 in his first MLB game, on June 17 against the Indians.

Typically Topps labels insert sets according to the initials of the set's title.  That means that Franchise Finest is labeled FF. Rizzo's card is FF-AR.  So far so good.

Now the dumb thing...  Finest Firsts is also labeled FF.  Schwarber's card in FF-KS.  But why would Topps use the same designation for both sets?  

Because Topps is Topps.

Five Random Cubs Cards

I've got 14,252 Cubs cards from 108 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades.

1900s - 1970s: 1971 Topps #90 Joe Pepitone  Pepitone played in just 117 games in 1971 due to bone chips in his elbow.  He did, however, set a career-high average of .307

1980s: 1985 Donruss #442 Dennis Eckersley   I never noticed how weirdly out of focus the background on the card is.  All of the Cubs top five starters, including Eckersley, spent time on the DL in 1985.  He was on the list in August due to tendinitis in his right shoulder.

1990s: 1990 Score #150 Mark Grace This card comes from the rainbow era for Score.  This green-bordered card looks nasty against the Cubs blue.

2000s: 2005 Fleer #14 Greg Maddux  Fleer went retro in 2005 and we have this very basic looking card of Greg Maddux.

2010s: 2013 Aunt Millies Planting the Ivy The Aunt Millies set is not widely known.  Right now there are just six listing on Ebay, all from the same seller.  I wouldn't want to have to put the set together now.