Wednesday, April 8, 2015

2015 Phillies Team Issue


Number of Cards:  43
Card Size:  4" x 6"
Description:  Keeping with a theme that's been used for the past two seasons, the card fronts feature full color photos with a bottom border containing the player's name, number and position.  The blue design used on the bottom of the cards features a baseball with a Phillies P in it and is the same design featured on the cover of the 2015 Phillies Media Guide.  The horizontal card backs feature biographical information and complete career statistics.

How Distributed:  Sets are available for sale at Citizens Bank Park for $5 and I purchased my set on opening day, April 6th.

Complete Standard Checklist:  The cards are unnumbered, but I've presented them below ordered by uniform number.
  • 2 - Ben Revere
  • 3 - Jeff Francoeur
  • 4 - Andres Blanco
  • 5 - Steve Henderson CO
  • 6 - Ryan Howard
  • 7 - Maikel Franco
  • 8 - Juan Samuel CO
  • 9 - Domonic Brown
  • 10 - Larry Bowa CO
  • 12 - John Mizerock CO
  • 13 - Freddy Galvis
  • 16 - Cesar Hernandez
  • 18 - Darin Ruf
  • 22 - Bob McClure CO
  • 23 - Ryne Sandberg MG
  • 24 - Grady Sizemore
  • 25 - Cody Asche
  • 26 - Chase Utley
  • 29 - Cameron Rupp
  • 30 - Justin De Fratus
  • 31 - Jerome Williams
  • 33 - Cliff Lee
  • 34 - Aaron Harang
  • 35 - Cole Hamels
  • 37 - Odubel Herrera
  • 38 - Chad Billingsley
  • 41 - Charlie Manuel MG (Alumni)
  • 43 - Mario Hollands
  • 45 - Pete Mackanin CO
  • 46 - Jeanmar Gomez
  • 51 - Carlos Ruiz
  • 52 - Andy Oliver
  • 53 - Ken Giles
  • 54 - Rod Nichols CO
  • 55 - David Buchanan
  • 56 - Cesar Jimenez
  • 57 - Luis Garcia
  • 58 - Jonathan Papelbon
  • 59 - Kevin Slowey
  • 63 - Jake Diekman
  • 75 - Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez
  • Phillie Phanatic
  • Phillies Broadcasters
One and Done (3):  Jimenez, Oliver, Slowey
First Appearances (11):  Billingsley, Blanco, Francoeur, Garcia, Gomez, Gonzalez, Harang, Herrera, Rupp, Sizemore, Williams
Returning Players (18):  Asche, Brown, Buchanan, De Fratus, Diekman, Franco, Galvis, Giles, Hamels, Hernandez, Hollands, Howard, Lee, Papelbon, Revere, Ruf, Ruiz, Utley

The number of One and Done cards could grow, but for now I've listed only Oliver and Slowey here as neither of these pitchers are still with the organization.  The following players make their Phillies baseball card debut with this set, and any of these players are potential candidates for eventual One and Done club membership - Billingsley, Blanco, Francoeur, Gomez, Harang, Herrera and Jimenez. (UPDATE - I've added Jimenez to this list as well.)

The First Appearance designation is for players who have never before appeared within a Phillies team issued set.  These players may have already appeared on other Phillies baseball cards.

Manager (1):  Sandberg
Coaches (7):  Bowa, Henderson, Mackanin, McClure, Mizerock, Nichols, Samuel
Phillie Phanatic (1)
Broadcasters (1):  Newcomer Ben Davis takes over for Jamie Moyer this year, and he joins Tom McCarthy, Larry Andersen, Scott Franzke, Jim Jackson, Matt Stairs, Mike Schmidt and Gregg Murphy on this card.
Other Cards (1):  Manuel (Alumni Card)

I'm counting the Charlie Manuel Alumni card as part of this regular set although the card uses the standard Alumni set design as opposed to the design of the rest of the 2015 team issued cards.  The Manuel card contains a 2011 copyright date on the back.

Variations/Rarities:  Only time will tell if any variations or rarities spring up using this card set's design.

Trivia:  The Phillies did a nice job in terms of player selection for this set.  Of the team's opening day 25-man roster, only reliever Dustin McGowan is omitted from the set which is totally understandable given that McGowan didn't officially join the organization until the day before the season opener.

4 comments:

Steve F. said...

While the Manuel card has a 2011 copyright date, the information on the back is clearly new. Also, of course, he wasn't an alumnus yet in 2011. (Nothing of importance there--just thought I'd mention that.)

Jim said...

I'm really interested to see if the Phillies do anything else with this. It would be fairly diabolical of them to insert a different alumni card in the set as the season progresses.

Anonymous said...

I actually bought two sets to see if the Phillies had, in fact, done something diabolical as you had suggested. I was actually relieved to find that both sets contained the Manuel card.

Jim said...

I resisted the urge to buy another set on Friday night. I'm going to wait a few more series and then check again. It's like buying a $5 lottery ticket . . .