Wednesday, March 26, 2014

2014 Topps Heritage #280 Ryan Howard

Phillies 6, Yankees 0
Spring Training Game 27 - Tuesday Night, March 25th in Tampa
Record - 9-15-3

One Sentence Summary:  Jeff Manship pitched four scoreless innings while Ryan Howard and Marlon Byrd hit back-to-back home runs and the Phillies defeated the Yankees, 6-0.

What Happened:  This was a nice little ballgame from the Phils.  The offense produced, while Manship and five relievers combined to shutout the Yankees.  Reliever Mike Adams, who hadn't appeared in game action since last June due to injuries, made his spring debut and pitched well.

Featured Card:  If you're already sick of Topps Heritage, this just isn't the place for you.  I'm getting closer to trotting out the entire team set in these game summary posts.  This is Howard's card from the set and as long as he's able to hit leftys in the regular season, we should see a lot more smiles coming from him.

2013 Topps Update #US58
Camp Head Count:  39 - 3 + 1 = 37.  We've now reached that portion of spring training in which guys are reassigned to the minors, but still stick around for game action, or guys are brought in from minor league camp just to provide roster depth before the team officially heads north.  In a flurry of catcher moves, the Phillies optioned Cameron Rupp to the minors, reassigned (again) Sebastian Valle and brought in catcher Koyie Hill to big league camp.

Veteran shortstop Ronny Cedeno was released after hitting .182 in 13 games.  The Phillies and Bobby Abreu agreed to push back the final decision regarding his opt-out until Sunday.

And finally, Phillies Room favorite Kevin Frandsen officially became a free agent, ending his three year tenure with the organization.  Here's wishing him well wherever he ends up . . . unless he's playing against the Phillies.

Thanks for everything, Kevin.  You should have had more Phillies cards.

2 comments:

Steve F. said...

Either way, the card Frandsen got is a good one--although I always thought it looked like a Photoshop job. That's the problem with Topps doing Photoshops to show things that never happened (like Roy Halladay wearing #32, or Jayson Werth batting as a National before he ever batted as a National--http://www.natsnq.com/?p=5538). Sometimes even their actual photos start to look like fakes. I'd be more than happen if the brought back their airbrush artists.

Jim said...

It pains me that his next baseball card will come as a member of the Nationals.