Most of these are action shots instead of the more standard Heritage posed pictures. That makes senses since many of the players were with other teams in the spring during picture day, so no posed Cubs pictures were available.
Three of the seven Cubs are catchers, since no Cubs catchers were included in the base Heritage set. Look carefully at the Tucker Barnhart card and you'll notice an oddity. Though a catcher, he is wearing a regular fielders glove. He also has an odd smile on his face. The reason for both - he was pitching. In fact, he pitched in four games for the 2023 Cubs. Over the four innings he gave up just one run, for an ERA of 2.25.
Topps did a very quick turnaround on the Jose Cuas and Jeimer Candelario cards, as they were both trading deadline pickups on July 31.
I noticed the infielder's glove on Barnhart's hand, but didn't know the back story behind it. I do love the Amaya and Mastrobouni cards at the spring training complex.
ReplyDeleteJose Cuas makes me think that in baseball today that there are a lot of pitchers out there I never heard of.
ReplyDeleteLooking at the update set combined with the regular issue Topps did a nice job with the Cubs.