they came from 2004...

today i'm showing some cards that were released in 2004.  the first few don't look like cards from 2004, however.  like this 2004 fleer platinum edwin jackson card

that was modeled after 1984 fleer cards.

and then there is this 2004 fleer tradition card

that brings to mind the 1990 fleer design although the banner here has more flow to it.

this 2004 topps all-time fan favorites brett butler card

uses the 1991 topps design.  unfortunately, topps kept the orange frame design of the giants cards. 1991 was butler's first year with the dodgers, and he led the league in runs scored and walks.  he was featured in the flagship set as a giant, receiving a dodger card (with the proper blue frame) in the traded set.

finally, there is this 2004 topps cracker jack card of adrian beltre

that is a play on the 1915 cracker jack design

don't worry - there were some original designs used in 2004 - like the design of the 2004 upper deck flagship set.  here's juan encarnacion's card from that set

i like the 2004 upper deck set because of the inset photo behind the players' names.  that's a dodger stadium scene, in case you can't tell (the same scene - differently cropped - that's on the back of dodger cards in the 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams set).  unfortunately, upper deck did not apply the photo consistently to cards in the set

it may just be that the horizontal cards in the set didn't get the inset photo, i don't know.  here are some landscape oriented cards for you to ponder - shawn green

is in pittsburgh, i believe

hideo nomo

is in the dodger stadium dugout

and robin ventura

is on the road somewhere - maybe san francisco - as that's where jeff weaver is on his card

which is vertical and features the stadium inset photo.

there's not much of a discernible background photo at all on this 2004 topps clubhouse collection eric gagne relic card

but i guess we are supposed to be focusing on the fabric and not the photo.

it would be interesting to know what sort of designs fleer and upper deck would have these days.  i am sure, like topps (heritage, archives, gypsy queen, allen & ginter), they would issue sets that incorporate some older set designs, but there would be some unique designs, too.

at least i hope there would be.

black and blue ryu and some other dodger cards

i'm continuing with a sort of random rambling theme today.

this is a 2013 panini black friday hyun-jin ryu card

it was somehow available on black friday, 2013. i don't recall how i obtained it (sportlots, maybe), but it is not worth standing in line waiting for stores to open to obtain.  still, panini did the same sort of thing last year, and i'm guessing panini is doing it again this year.  ryu is out for the season now, following shoulder surgery.  

this is a 2013 panini pinnacle matt kemp museum collection parallel

it doesn't scan as well as the museum collection inserts from the 1990's.

still more panini - this time from 2014 panini golden age

dusty baker

davey lopes

and zack wheat

as pleased as i was to see dusty and davey and other dodgers from the team of my youth in this set, i don't consider them to be from the golden age.  wheat, sure, but not the others.

wheat also got an insert card in the release - it's a 1913 the national game card

and i wish this had been the base set design

now here's a 2007 topps turkey red andy laroche card

and a 1999 topps chrome jeff shaw card

moving on to 2010 upper deck, here's a biography insert of jeff weaver

marking the time that he beat his brother jered in a game between the dodgers and angels.

olmedo saenz didn't have too many cards, but he spent four seasons with the dodgers and made it into the 2007 topps update & highlights set

even though 2007 was his fourth year with the club.  not much of an update there - more like an omission.

last card for today is a 2008 topps stadium club beam team autographed card of delwyn young

i secretly hoped that delwyn and delmon young (no relation) would have wound up on the same team just for the potential confusion factor.  would they have had their full names on the backs of their jerseys? who knows.

the evolution of the ace, part the fourth

not too far to go now, here's jeff weaver (2004-2005)

weaver was acquired from the yankees in the kevin brown deal.  he was one of three dodger pitchers (kaz ishii and jose lima were the others) to win 13 games in 2004, but it was weaver who led the rotation in starts, innings pitched, and strikeouts.  in 2005, weaver again led the team in wins, innings pitched and strikeouts on what was a very disappointing team.  it was the year of jim tracy's parade of ja(y)sons (phillips, grabowski, werth, and repko).  'nuff said.

derek lowe (2006)

derek lowe was 16-8 in 2006, tying brad penny for the team lead in wins.  however, lowe's era was 3.63 compared to penny's 4.33, and lowe also pitched more innings and had a better whip.  he also threw the lone complete game of the season for the dodgers, a 4-2 win over the mariners, lowe's original team.

brad penny (2007)

penny was 16-4 with a 3.03 era in 33 starts in 2007.  he started the all-star game for the national league, and finished third in the cy young voting.

chad billingsley (2008)

bills put up good numbers in 20 starts and 43 overall appearances in 2007 (12-5, 3.31 era) and then went 16-10 in 32 starts with a 3.12 era in 2008.  he threw his first career shutout that year, and struck out 201 batters.  he also won game 2 of the nlds against the cubs before struggling in game 2 of the nlcs against the eventual world champion phillies.

clayton kershaw (2009-present)

(thanks for the sticker, night owl). even though kershaw was just 8-8 in 2009, i'll still anoint him as the ace thanks to his 2.79 era.  he made 30 starts for the dodgers, and led the staff in strikeouts despite pitching fewer innings than randy wolf or billingsley.  2010 saw kershaw go 13-10 with a 2.91 era and 212 k's over 204.1 innings pitched in 32 starts.  of course, his 2011 numbers were even better, as he captured the pitching triple crown with 21 wins, a 2.28 era, and 248 strikeouts.  his 0.98 whip also led the league.

so, there you have it, in four installments.  from newcombe to kershaw - the evolution of the dodgers' ace.

up next (and by next i mean someday), the infield...

was it a dream, weaver? or did you really double dip as a dodger?

[this is the thirty-fourth installment in the double dippers posts.  here are the previous posts - brett butler, omar daal, eric young, nick willhite, chris gwynn, mickey hatcher, dave anderson, don zimmer, rafael landestoy, dave hansen, jose vizcaino, hideo nomo, greg maddux, mike maddux, jon garland, chan ho park, vicente romo, gene mauch, denny lewallyn, von joshua, joe moeller, dioner navarro, rudy seanez, bart shirley, randy wolf, ismael valdes, bobby castillo, mike devereaux, pete richert, jay johnstone, jesse orosco, lee lacy, and giovanni carrara.]

local boy jeff weaver came home to la in december of 2003, thanks to a trade with the dodgers in which kevin brown and his albatross contract were shed.  here's weaver's 2005 fleer card, which came towards the end of his first stay in la.

weaver was pretty consistent over his first two seasons as a dodger, starting 34 games in each year, pitching 220 and 224 innings, and striking out 153 and 157 batters, respectively.  as a result, he was 27-24 with an era over 4.00 when he became a free agent after the 2005 season.  jeff decided to join his brother jered in anaheim, giving reason for this cool 2006 upper deck card

weaver pitched poorly for the angels, compiling a 3-10 record and a 6.29 era in 16 starts before the halos traded him to the cardinals in july.  in saint louis, weaver didn't do a whole lot better until the postseason, when he turned things around and went 3-2 with a sub-3.00 era in the nlds, nlcs and world series combined.  he was 1-1 for the eventual world champions against detroit in the series, striking out 14 batters in 13 innings along the way.

weaver left saint louis as a free agent and signed with the mariners, hence this 2007 topps chrome card

after going 7-13 with a 6.20 era in seattle (although he tied for the league lead in shutouts with 2), weaver spent 2008 in the milwaukee and cleveland organizations without appearing in the majors.  the dodgers brought him back as a free agent prior to the 2009 season and used him primarily as a reliever.  he turned in a 6-4 record with a 3.65 era - his lowest since 2002 - over 79 innings in 28 games, 7 of which were starts.  one of those starts came against the angels, with his younger brother making the start for the interlopers from anaheim.  the elder weaver prevailed, winning bragging rights at thanksgiving for years to come.

weaver also made his first appearance in the postseason since winning it all with the cardinals when he relieved in game 1 of the nlds.  he wound up with the win after pitching 1.1 innings of scoreless relief.  here's his 2010 upper deck card showing him back in dodger blue.

weaver was in the bullpen full time in 2010, his last year in the big leagues, and had a 5-1 record despite allowing his era to climb back up over 6.00.

here's to you, jeff weaver, dodger double dipper!

the allure of 2006 fleer

all that's missing from these 2006 fleer cards is some 'now with' text. 

i especially appreciate the fact that upper deck didn't adjust the set numbering (set up in team blocks just like the fleer sets of the 80's) to move the old dodgers to their new teams.  this made it easy to identify the milton bradley, jeff weaver and jason phillips cards as ones i wanted to own.

here's to you 2006 fleer!

taste like dodgers

i recently completed a trade with taste like dirt.  here is but a sampling of the dodger goodness i received.

1993 upper deck jose offerman

offerman was coming off of his first full season as the dodgers' shortstop in 1993.  i remember hoping that he had forgotten that he had hit a homerun in his first big league at bat and that he would start hitting the ball on the ground more.  but alas, his gb/fb ratio worsened (to a low of 0.78 in his final year as a dodger).  i blame dennis martinez.

1999 fleer tradition roger cedeno

this is awesome.  not cedeno - the card.  cedeno is listed as a met but still in dodgers' clothing.  this card doesn't show up on any team set checklist, so i would never have sought it out. the dodgers sent cedeno to the mets in the deal that brought todd hundley to la (the first time).  like cedeno, he had his better years away from the dodgers, including his 1999 season with the mets when he stole 66 bases and hit .313.

1999 fleer tradition scott radinsky

similar to the cedeno, this radinsky card is really a card on card, as radinsky joined the cardinals as a free agent.  unlike the cedeno card, i actually did seek this card out a few months ago since it's one of the few radinsky cards ever made.

1999 fleer tradition eric weaver

here's another awesome card - awesome in the same way that the cedeno card is awesome (i would never have suspected there was an eric weaver card, let alone one of him in a dodger uniform) but also awesome because we see the outfield fence at dodger stadium.  in particular, we see the homage to the world champion 1959 dodgers.  weaver pitched pretty well for the dodgers in 1998 - he went 2-0 in 9+ innings of work with a 0.93 era and 1.14 whip.  the dodgers traded him to the mariners for scott prouty, a 19 year old prospect who didn't pitch professionally after the trade.  not sure what happened there.

i should note that there was another dodger uniformed/non-dodger affiliated card in the package, but it was bobby bonilla so i won't bother to show it.

instead, here's a 1999 topps dave mlicki

the dodgers acquired mlicki from the mets in the hideo nomo deal.  he pitched fairly well for the blue in 1998, going 7-3 in 20 starts.  the dodgers traded him to the tigers in mid-1999 for some middle relief.

2007 topps heritage wilson betemit

man, the braves seemed to sour on betemit pretty quickly, didn't they?  one minute he was uber-prospect, and the next minute he's being traded for danys baez and the unstable aybar brother.  over at jon weisman's dodger thoughts, references to betemit during his stint with the dodgers were often made with pearl jam's 'better man' included.  i find it interesting that the royals play that song when he comes to bat.

2007 topps update & highlights hong-chi kuo

that's all star hong-chih kuo to you.  it's too bad that kuo is probably scheduled to blow his elbow out any day now.  he has made george sherrill even more obsolete than sherrill has made himself this year.

2008 upper deck baseball heroes nomar garciaparra

ooh - the charcoal parallel.  if only nomar could have swung a hot stick in the playoffs.  he was the tying run in game 2 of the 2007 nlcs and lidge made him look bad.  not just bad, but old.  that sucked.  this card doesn't suck, though.

thanks jim!

a scotty pods welcome, goose joak style

ned made a move.  not for pitching, but for another outfielder - this time it's scott podsednik.  while i recognize that manny and reed johnson are out, and that garret anderson is performing exactly as we all expected, i am still kinda surprised by this move.  i would suggest giving xavier paul as many at bats as possible and only make this move if the pitching is upgraded first.  without pitching, we're not going anywhere.  on the flip side, podsednik's wife will now become the most blogged about dodger wife since jose lima sang the national anthem.

here's a quick 2010 goose joak original (o-pee-chee style!) that i whipped up for pods.

there are also a bunch of goose joaks that i have been meaning to display, but haven't gotten around to it.  here are some of them.  a lot of these photos are from the marlins series early in the season.  that's how long they've been hanging around.  the photos are either getty images or from jon soohoo, the dodgers' official photographer.  enjoy.  or at least tolerate.

jeff weaver

tough night last night.

carlos monasterios.

dodgers are 5-2 in his starts. 

russell martin.

at this point, i would rather have carlos santana back.  sorry russ.

hiroki kuroda

i am really hoping he can put together a string of good starts in august and september, but he's already made as many starts this year as he did all of last year.

charlie haeger.

i don't think we'll see him back in the bigs this year.

reed johnson

our fourth outfielder is still backing up manny.  too bad he's doing it on the dl.

goose joak rotation, plus a couple other bullpen stragglers

here are a few more 2009 goose joak originals. this time, i have a bunch of starting pitchers, with a couple of recent bullpen callups, plus a 40 man roster guy.

first is greg maddux. the goose joak final tribute. i thought i had posted this before, but i guess not. maddux just had his number retired by the cubs last weekend, but i have to believe he goes to the hall as a brave.

our ace, chad billingsley.

he's good. perhaps the only good thing about my fantasy team in marie's league.

randy wolf.

in his second go around with the dodgers. he's pitching fairly well right now.

now for some injured guys. hiroki kuroda.probably on the dl for a couple more weeks. i was hoping he would have the type of sophomore season that daisuke had last year.

jason schmidt.

apologies to andruw jones, but this has to be ned's worst signing. to jason's credit, he's still trying to come back.

speaking of comebacks, here's another second time dodger - jeff weaver.

he pitched 4 shutout innings in his season debut. good enough to displace james mcdonald in the rotation. since he was last with the dodgers, he's bounced around but won a world series ring. that has to count for something, right?

ronald belisario. apparently his stuff was why weaver didn't make the team out of spring training. is he going to be the new 8th inning guy? who knows.

finally, here is a guy on the 40-man roster, victor garate.i was looking for a photo of recent call up brent leach, but found this guy instead. he pitched for the great lakes loons of the midwest league last year and set a mark, striking out 12 in 6 innings of work.