2013 Finest '93 Finest #93F-CH Cole Hamels

Phillies 8, Reds 0
Game 59 - Friday Night, June 6th in Cincinnati 
Record - 25-34, 5th Place, 7 games behind the Braves 

One Sentence Summary:  Cole Hamels delivered a vintage Hamelsian performance, as the Phillies beat the Reds, 8-0, snapping their six-game losing streak.

What It Means:  If Hamelsian isn’t already a word, it should be.

What Happened:  Hamels pitched into the eighth inning, scattering five hits and striking out seven during his outing.  The ice cold bat of Domonic Brown showed some life, as he contributed a two-run double in the fourth to start the Phillies scoring.  Chase Utley had three hits to raise his batting average to .320.

Featured Card:  For over a decade now, Topps has been mining from and re-using its own baseball card designs from its over sixty years in the business.  So I guess it was only a matter of time before they started turning to set designs from other than their flagship offerings.  This Hamels card was from an insert set included within the 2013 Finest set, called '93 Finest.  To the uninitiated perhaps stumbling across this here blog, the title of this post probably seems like some sort of strange, nerdy baseball card code.

2013 Choice Lehigh Valley
IronPigs Update #9

But rest assured, dear reader, the name of the set from which this card hails is 2013 Finest '93 Finest, given that the set is an homage to the original Finest set released in 1993.  The "number" of the card follows the pattern Topps has used recently with many of its insert sets by using a prefixed abbreviation of the set's name, followed by the player's initials.  I'm glad we've cleared that up.

Transactions:  In a flurry of roster moves, the Phillies purchased the contract of infielder Ronny Cedeno, designated both reliever Cesar Jimenez and outfielder Tyson Gillies for assignment and activated reliever Luis Garcia from the disabled list and optioned him to Triple-A.  The Gillies news only solidifies the fact that the original Cliff Lee trade with the Mariners was a complete and total bust.

Gillies ended up clearing waivers and reporting back to the IronPigs, but with his .217 average and history of behavioral problems, does it really matter at this point?