Baseball Cards: Topps 2011

For those of you keeping tabs on my blog-worthy activities, I have finished the story mode of Injustice (but I haven't yet attempted climbing any challenge ladders), I have constructed a ballot for my next round of All-Star voting, as of the season's 1/4 mark (roughly 40 games), but have yet to actually cast the votes. And I've been happily reigniting my passion for baseball cards. The first set I presented was the most recent set. Last week's set was the oldest set I have. So continuing the pattern of starting at the extremes and working towards the middle from both ends, here's a roster made up of cards from the Topps 2011 set. This was the set that originally inspired me to revisit the simplicity of baseball cards, and I must admit I went a little overboard in terms of purchasing packs - I had more than 100 valid player cards to choose from when constructing this roster - but give me a break, they were the first baseball cards of any kind I had purchased in more than five years. Here's what the team looks like, arranged in their projected batting order from top lef to bottom right.

Derek Jeter might not honestly be the best choice to lead off and play SS - benchwarmer Alexei Ramirez was worth more WAR than his counterpart up the middle 5.5 to 1.8 (3.0 of which came with his glove, in a season in which he curiously won a Silver Slugger award). But because Cap'n Jetes outscored the "Cuban Missile" in fantasy points 1,883 to 1,694 (in a season in which he curiously won a Gold Glove) and because he has a team captain worthy personality and because we happen to share a birth sign, I've given him the honor. In addition to being the best second baseman on the market, Martin Prado also qualified at 3B (although don't expect Adrian Beltre and his 2,213 points to be unseated any time soon), and would move to LF the following season. Albert Pujols is a no-brainer here, as he led all fantasy offensive players in scoring in 2010 (only Jose Bautista and his 54 HR came close), led his league in two Triple Crown categories (his .312 average didn't make the top 10), and finished second in MVP voting.

With an all-time great like Pujols in there at 1B, I obviously envision Adam Dunn as DH - and he would go on to play that role with his new team, the Chicago White Sox, in whose uniform he is not pictured. While Beltre topped Dunn's overall point output, I constructed the order so as to have a nice R/L/R/L/R split starting with Pujols and going all the way to Choo and Young. The last two spots were battles up to the end: Yadier Molina was an All-Star and won the NL Gold Glove, but Ruiz scored almost 2.0 more PPG and notched exactly 1.0 more WAR than the Cardinals backstop. And there were three things going for Andres Torres over Hunter Pence (in his last full year with Houston) despite the 200+ point gap in Pence's favor: 1) their PPG were virtually identical, 2) Torres leads the WAR battle by nearly 2.0, and 3) Torres actually qualifies to play LF. Pence is still on the bench (along with Ichiro [no last name printed on the card]), so never fear, a platoon is possible.

Talk about a rotation topped by a couple flashes-in-the-pan. Ubaldo Jimenez scored the most fantasy points in his career by a huge margin in 2010, for which he earned the start in that year's All-Star Game (which I attended, and at which I saw Ubaldo launch one of his warmup tosses into the stands... a prelude of things to come?). Josh Johnson had a couple of good seasons back to back, but he would never come within half a win-above-replacement of his 7.2 in '10. After a decade of solid quiet dominance ending in 2010 (his split season between the Phillies and the Astros), Roy Oswalt would never again break 1,000 points. Tim Hudson has not only been solid for his entire career, he's also a frequent contributor to my baseball card teams: earlier this week, I indulged myself in one more 36-pack of Topps 2013's, out of which I drew Huddy (who, incidentally, replaces an injured Josh Beckett in my roster) and also Hunter Pence. Chris Carpenter, who had already overcame two lost seasons due to injury by 2010, is at this moment staring in the face of a third.

Rafael Soriano leads this relief corps, coming off the 2,146-point season that got him the job of Mariano Rivera's setup man (and eventual place-holder). There's Jonathan Papelbon, another member of my Topps 2013 squad, but this time he's in his original uniform. I was not sure which lefty to choose from as the long reliever: Jonathan Sanchez led by more than 100 points and helped pitch his team to a World Championship, but Gio Gonzalez led slightly in WAR and is still performing well today. In the end, it was purely an A's/Giants decision for me.

Sticking to this pattern I've established for myself, the next set I will cover will be Topps 1992. This set could be my favorite set of all time, mostly for sentimental reasons, but also because it's quite cool. You will find out in what ways next time!