A Little More Now

I've strongly criticized ToppsNow on Twitter for the team distribution that we have seen employed by Topps and, more to the point, the double standards that exist for players that get cards versus those who don't. It's crazy, I know, but I actually want to spend my $10 to get a Brewer on a card. 

That said, I also understand well the facts here. The Brewers are a team in transition that are not winning many games. They have only had one walk-off win this year -- and it coincided with Topps's All-Star Topps Now blitz. 

As you may know if you follow me on Twitter, I am tracking the cards issued by team. Up until recently, I've left out those horribly overpriced relics and autographs that have invaded the product. My plan is to let the regular season play out and see where the numbers are. You know Topps will issue a ton of cards during the post-season, but I want to see only the regular season numbers to see how they shake out.

And, at the end of the year, I'll probably do something more global in terms of data crunching. With all the data crunching I do for cards, you would think that I'm not a lawyer but rather an engineer or a scientist of some sort. The numbers in baseball fascinate me, and these are no different.

I'm also going to try to find the top moments that Topps ignored. If you have a nominee, comment below or send me an email or DM on Twitter.

I write all of this to tease the future, but also to celebrate the present. Topps issued two more of the ToppsNow cards that I felt needed to be added to my collection.

With music, maestro?

Of course, ya'll need to come with me NOW. I really have found that this song gets me going in the morning when I need a kickstart. Back in July, I went to my doctor and found that I had hit stratospheric levels of weight that scared me -- I was up at 254 pounds, and I felt worse than that. I finally got serious about getting off my ever-expanding ass and working out and eating right. 

Thanks to a modified Mediterranean diet -- mixed with a very liberal dose of "stop eating every f**king thing you see and want" -- along with doing a walk of at least 30 minutes every morning except Saturdays, I've kicked myself into better shape. I went back today and, fully dressed except for shoes, I weighed in at 233 there. I'm not done by any stretch of the imagination, but losing 21 pounds in 6 weeks is pretty good progress. 

If only Prince Fielder could have found a way to get himself into better shape and avoid all the pounding and beating that his ample body took, perhaps he'd still be playing major league baseball. To be fair, I have no idea what caused the neck problems that ended his career and caused him to have two surgeries to fuse vertebrae. Nor do I know whether he could have done anything to prevent the issue. 

Still, he tried to lose weight through any number of things -- vegetarianism, for instance. I guess he didn't realize that a vegetarian pizza is still a pizza.

For those of you who live in Milwaukee, this song may at least sound a little bit familiar. It's the at-bat song for the #11 prospect in all of baseball -- a guy most of you have heard of. He's made his major league debut, he's gotten his first major league hit, he's stolen his first major league base, and he has even hit his first major league homerun at the young age of 21. He's scuffling a bit right now as he adjusts to the level of his competition -- he is, after all, over 7 years younger than the average National Leaguer.

And ToppsNow? It's pretty much ignored Orlando Arcia.

It irked me a bit, suffice it to say. 

Topps being Topps, though, they found a way to shoehorn him into the Topps Now collection without actually issuing a card for him.

Arcia is #3, greeting the man-giant Chris Carter. This card was issued for the Brewers scoring a run in every single inning in a game against the Braves. That's happened less frequently than a perfect game has been pitched. And yet, I honestly believe it was a close call for Topps as to whether or not to issue this card.

Nonetheless, I'm glad to get to put this one into my collection. At least Arcia has a good chance to be around past 2016 as a Brewer -- unlike the previous three Topps Now Brewer cards of Fielder retiring, Lucroy getting traded, and Aaron Hill hitting three homers before getting shipped to Boston.

Thanks for stopping by, and have a good week.