Frankenset Page #28

In my personal opinion, the first 2 days of the BBWAA awards have not gone the way they should, and I'm not even making the argument that Alex Cora should've won AL Manager of the Year. Simply, I feel mistakes were made in the voting thus far.

If we think back to Monday, Ronald Acuña Jr. took home NL Rookie of the Year. No problems with that, I presume, given he hit .293 with 26 homers in a season in which he helped drive the previously 72-90 Braves to the playoffs. 

As for the AL Rookie of the Year, I have a problem. Sorry, but I'm still not buying the Shohei Ohtani hype, and there's no way he was better in 2018 than Miguel Andujar. Everyone's raving about the guy who made history by pitching and hitting even though he barely reached 50 innings pitched before not throwing a pitch for the rest of the season.

Granted, he put up a respectable .285 average with 22 homers in less than 250 at-bats, but that's also a point against him; his lack of plate appearances. Furthermore, if J.D. Martinez can't be considered as a top 3 candidate for AL MVP due to being a DH, Shohei Ohtani shouldn't have won Rookie of the Year, plain and simple. 

Snitker for NL Manager of the Year was also a pretty easy choice, though the real competition was for the AL honors. To be fair, every one of the 3 candidates (Kevin Cash, Alex Cora, and Bob Melvin) made strong cases as to why they should win, though I personally think Cash had less of a chance of succeeding since the Rays were sellers at the deadline and still won 90 games.

All I'm saying is, they better not mess up Cy Young tonight nor MVP tomorrow night. Blake Snell, Jacob deGrom, Mookie Betts, and Christian Yelich better be the 4 names called. However, I have the 27th page of the frankenset before any more names are announced. Page 27 includes cards #244-252.

#244 1973 Topps Ed Acosta

I could definitely see myself piecing together the 1973 Topps set someday in the near future for no reason other than I have a significant number of cards from the early 70's product. It's not as if I'm a huge fan of it, but with 1972 and 1975 Topps completed, it could be on my radar before I realize it.

#245 1999 Topps Chrome Sandy Alomar Jr.

The 1999 Topps and Topps Chrome set appears more like a Stadium Club set rather than a Topps Flagship product, easily one of the more minimal sets produced in the 66 years since the very first Topps Flagship set was released back in 1952. Although the surface of Sandy Alomar Jr.'s card isn't looking too hot, the picture is a classic choice for any catcher's baseball card.

#246 2016 Topps Heritage Logan Morrison

If Topps hadn't made such an effort to create such blurry images to resemble the actual 1967 Topps set, I'd think much more highly of the 2016 Topps Heritage set than I currently do. Instead, it's more of a "good effort" set that ultimately couldn't get out of its own way and made a totally unnecessary mistake along the way.

#247 2005 Topps Rafael Furcal

It's pretty cool to see the Atlanta Braves #1 from 2001 point 1 finger up to the sky after it appears he hit a double at a home game. Similar to Ronald Acuña Jr., Furcal won the NL Rookie of the Year as a member of the Atlanta Braves back in 2000, the last Brave to win the award before Acuña took home the honors just a few days ago.

#248 2015 Topps Gypsy Queen Jose Quintana

I'm not sure I'll ever know where the photo was taken, but I absolutely love the background in which Jose Quintana's 2015 Topps Gypsy Queen card was taken in front of, even if it is a little bit blurry. You don't typically see a baseball card with a ton of trees and plants in the background. Not to mention the fact that the dark brown border compliments the green background details quite well.

#249 2017 Topps Gypsy Queen Luke Weaver

Here we have back-to-back Gypsy Queen cards with the latter of the 2 being from the 2017 Gypsy Queen set, showcasing Cardinals rookie pitcher Luke Weaver in a photo that appears to have been taken at Wrigley Field given the sheer amount of Cubs blue that's visible in the background among what appears to be a few scattered Cardinals fans as well.

#250 2016 Topps Stadium Club Bartolo Colon

From what I hear, Bartolo Colon aims to return for yet another season in 2019 which would be his 22nd big league season. I vaguely understand all the fans' hype around "Big Sexy," but if you look at his stats, the guy has been downright awful ever since his 2016 All-Star season with the New York Mets.

#251 2007 Topps Heritage Tom Gordon

Not that I'm head over heels for the 1958 Topps set, but 2007 Topps Heritage was one of the best recreations of an original Topps product we've ever seen. This could be due to how abstract and crazy the set was with all the colors, but even so, Topps did a hell of a good job with a set that's unbelievably over 10 years old now.

#252 1991 Topps Mel Rojas

I'm a huge fan of the 1991 Topps set, one of the most underrated sets ever made. I also love nearly every Montreal Expos jersey, especially ones that are powder blue. Together, they create an incredible combination and no one is going to be able to ever convince me otherwise.