2015 Mountain to Climb - Insert Sets Want List

2015 Insert Goals


pending arrival = red


1998 Upper Deck Blue Chip Prospects 
1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 21, 25, 26, 27, 29 

2003 Topps/Heritage Chrome
1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 16, 17, 23, 26, 27, 29, 35, 36, 38, 43, 44, 51, 55, 56, 65, 67, 72, 74, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 82, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 94, 95, 97, 99

2004 Topps Presidential Pastime 
1, 4, 10, 16, 33, 36, 38, 39, 41

2009 Upper Deck/O Pee Chee Face of the Franchise
5, 6, 7, 17, 19, 27, 30

2014 Topps/Archives 1986 Design
101, 208, 213, 217, 220, 224, 227, 231, 232, 234, 243, 245, 246

2011 Topps/Allen & Ginter Ascent of Man - COMPLETE

2013 Topps/Allen & Ginter Civilizations of Ages Past - COMPLETE

2015 Mountain to Climb - Parallel Sets Want List

2015 Parallel Goals


5 Set Total - 150/335 = 44.8% COMPLETE

pending arrival = red

2000 Pacific - 23/102 = 22.5% COMPLETE

2000 Pacific Ruby

146, 154a

2000 Pacific Gold

141, 142, 143a, 144, 145, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153, 154a, 154b

2000 Pacific Copper

140, 142, 143a, 143b, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153, 154a, 154b

2000 Pacific Emerald Green

140, 141, 142, 143a, 143b, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, 154a

2000 Pacific Platinum Blue

140, 141, 142, 143a, 143b, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153, 154a, 154b

2000 Pacific Premiere Date

140, 141, 142, 143a, 143b, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151, 153, 154a, 154b

2005 Upper Deck/Reflections - 13/45 = 28.9% COMPLETE 

2005 Upper Deck/Reflections Purple

3, 112, 129, 240, 279

2005 Upper Deck/Reflections Red

3, 129, 240, 250, 267, 284

2005 Upper Deck/Reflections Blue

3, 112, 240, 250, 267, 279

2005 Upper Deck/Reflections Turquoise

112, 118, 129, 240, 250, 267, 279, 284

2005 Upper Deck/Reflections Emerald

3, 118, 129, 250, 267, 279, 284

2005/2006 Topps/Turkey Red - 36/68 = 52.9% COMPLETE 

2005/2006 Topps/Turkey Red Red - COMPLETE

2005/2006 Topps/Turkey Red White

39, 270b

2005/2006 Topps/Turkey Red Black

19, 39, 47, 61, 72, 261, 270a, 270b, 365, 388, 492, 527, 554, 596

2005/2006 Topps/Turkey Red Gold

19, 39, 47, 61, 72, 245, 261, 270a, 270b, 365, 388, 432, 492, 527, 554, 596

2008 Finest - 25/48 = 52.1% COMPLETE 

2008 Finest Refractors - COMPLETE

2008 Finest Blue Refractors 

147

2008 Finest Green Refractors 

122

2008 Finest Black Refractors 

13, 69, 85, 122, 139

2008 Finest Gold Refractors 

9, 13, 69, 79, 85, 122, 139, 147

2008 Finest Red Refractors 

9, 13, 69, 79, 85, 122, 139, 147

2012 Bowman/Chrome - 53/72 = 73.6% COMPLETE 

2012 Bowman/Chrome Refractors - COMPLETE

2012 Bowman/Chrome X Fractors - COMPLETE

2012 Bowman/Chrome Green Refractors - COMPLETE

2012 Bowman/Chrome Blue Refractors - COMPLETE 

2012 Bowman/Chrome Purple Refractors - COMPLETE

2012 Bowman/Chrome Gold Refractors

56, 118, 150

2012 Bowman/Chrome Orange Refractors

56, 69, 118, 119, 150, 156, 168

2012 Bowman/Chrome Red Refractors

56, 69, 118, 119, 150, 156, 168, 207, 216

Just a Quick Check In and the First Cards of the Newest Rockies (assuming they sign)

Hey everybody.  I hope you all haven't forgotten about me.  I have been hard at work both in real life and on the 2015 Quarry Unlimited set which is moving along at a really nice pace.  I think it looks really good so far with the exception of a couple of teams (White Sox, A's) that just won't satisfy me.  But I should have those minor issues worked out by the time I am ready to show it off.

Anyway the main reason I checked in today is to show off the first? cards of the newest Rockies draft picks.  Of course I didn't Photoshop fake Rockies uniforms on players that have never worn them, so you will see some unfamiliar uniforms to say the least.  I am using the templates from each of the first three years (1986 Topps, 1977 Topps, 1988 Score) of the Quarry Unlimited series to showcase the new guys.  Let's take a look at the future Coors Field superstars.

Round 1 Pick #3 Brendan Rodgers - high school SS

Rodgers was called the best "talent" in the draft by several sources.  I like this pick a lot more than reaching for a pitcher.  The great news is that he has reportedly already agreed to terms with the Rockies and will probably begin his career in either Grand Junction or the Rockies new affiliate in Boise.

 Round 1 Pick #27 Mike Nikorak - high school P

 This is the pick that the Rockies got for losing Michael Cuddyer.  Nikorak is rated very high and he sports a 97 MPH fastball, but then again so does everyone else nowadays.  Although unlike everyone else, Nikorak throws a knuckle curve which I am excited to see in action.  Like Rodgers, I think he will begin his career in either Grand Junction or Boise and he will probably be a starter.

  Round 1 Pick #38 Tyler Nevin - high school 3B

 With their competitive balance selection the Rockies took third baseman Tyler Nevin.  In case that name sounds familiar, yes he is the son of former overall #1 pick Phil Nevin.  The younger Nevin is projected to be a big time power prospect and will probably end up at either first base, third base, or the outfield.

Round 2 Pick #44 Peter Lambert - high school P

Finishing off the Rockies first day was their second round pick Peter Lambert.  I am a bit more worried about this pick because Lambert's best pitch is his curve ball and those tend to not work very good at altitude.  He is also going to be a starter more than likely because he does have 4 pitches.  

The best thing about Lambert has to be that he attended San Dimas High School in California.  I don't know anything about the baseball team at that school, but I know for a fact that San Dimas High School football rules.

EXCELLENT!

I will probably be checking in a few more times before the season finishes, but I still want to spend my time working on my customs.  I feel I contribute more to the community by taking a sabbatical while doing the Quarry Unlimited set instead of making bad jokes and forgotten 80s references a few times a week.

Thanx for reading.

2014 Quarry Unlimited - The Grand Finale

Usually the third part of a trilogy is by far the worst.  Return of the Jedi, The Matrix Revolutions, The Godfather Part III, The Dark Knight Returns, Spider Man 3, X Men The Last Stand, and many, many other have proven this to be true.  However on occasion you get the likes of Revenge of the Sith, LOTR: Return of the King, and Toy Story 3.  In those cases the third part of a trilogy is equal to or even far superior to the first two installments.  I would like to think that the 2014 Quarry Unlimited set is closer to the second group than the first.  Although I am very proud of my first two sets, I feel I did my best work with this year's set.  I hope you have enjoyed the third year of the Quarry Unlimited set.  Before I put this year's set into the archives, let's take a look at the best cards from the set, as voted by you.  For the first time, we have a tie for first place which will bring out the tiebreaker.  As in past years, let's take a look at every card which got 3 or more votes.

3 votes

4 votes

5 votes

 6 votes

8 votes

I mentioned when I listed the nominees for you to vote on that I would not be listing my personal top 10.  I had two reasons for that.  First, I didn't want to influence anyone's votes either positively or negatively.  Second, and most importantly, I needed some kind of tiebreaker.  I made my top ten, in order, before the voting started.  Whichever card ended up higher on that list is going to be crowned, Best Card of the Set for 2014.  Like Mel Brooks famously said, "It's good to be the king."

Without further adieu.

THE BEST OF THE SET WITH 8 VOTES

 My top ten was as follows
1. L.J. Hoes
2. Mike Aviles
3. David Price
4. Roman Mendez
5. Jason Rogers
6. Allen Craig
7. Devin Mesoraco AS
8. Reid Brignac
9. Starling Marte
10. Darwin Barney

This is actually the first time in the three sets that my personal #1 and the voters #1 were in agreement.  Some of you mentioned how difficult it was to narrow it down to 10, and I fully agree.  There were at least 10-15 others that I could have made an argument for being included in my top 10.  In fact, 35 of the 42 cards got at least 1 vote.  My final cut was Hanley Ramirez who was one of the seven that didn't get a single vote.  To me that gives an indication there were far more great cards this year than in other years.  Just a fantastic group. 

In 2012, the Royals were easily the Best Team of the Set.  In 2013, the Phillies were even more easily the Best Team of the Set.  2014 was no so easy.  The top 16 cards represented 16 different teams.  The highest wild cards actually finished with a higher vote total than the #1 card from their team, so it really was difficult to pick a best team set.  In the end, I just have to go with my first instinct and award the 2014 Best Team of the Set to the Cleveland Indians with the Mets a very close second.

I had a blast once again doing this even though the amount of time put into this project is just crazy.  In fact, I had so much fun with this set in 2014 that I will not be hedging at all.  Barring unforeseen circumstances, there will DEFINITELY be a 2015 Quarry Unlimited set.  I already have a set in mind and, as with past years, I will go ahead and showcase a blank template as a teaser.

The 2015 Quarry Unlimited set will be based on 1976 Hostess.  Don't you just love the cut marks on the edges?  Like other sets, there will be a couple of slight changes.  The "patriotic" color scheme, which worked really well for the Bicentennial, will be replaced by a team color palette.  The other change will be less noticeable.  I will be resizing the card to the standard size as opposed to the original smaller panels.  Who knows?  I may even try to do a little bit of three panel work as well. 


Thank you guys so much for making this a wholly enjoyable project once again. 


Thanx for reading.

2014 Quarry Unlimited - The Recap Part 2

Don't forget to vote for your top 10 cards in the 2014 Quarry Unlimited set.  Check out the nominees here.

I hope you guys have enjoyed this year's offering of the Quarry Unlimited set.  I think it is my best effort thus far, but I am still proud of my previous 2 years as well.  I figured after 3 years I might start getting burned out custom cards, especially with doing over nearly 5000 total cards, but it hasn't happened yet.  I'm thinking about doing a 2015 Quarry Unlimited set as well just so I can match Topps Total in longevity.  But before we think about that, let's take a look at some trivia about the 2014 Quarry Unlimited set.


First player alphabetically
Fernando Abad (David Aardsma in 2013)

Final player alphabetically 
Mike Zunino (Mike Zunino in 2013)

Team with the most cards
Texas Rangers - 64  (Yankees and Cubs - 57 in 2013)

Team with the fewest cards 
Atlanta Braves - 39 (Tigers and Reds - 40 in 2013)

Team with the most players in first year with the franchise
Texas Rangers - 40 (Cubs - 35 in 2013)

Team with the fewest players in first year with the franchise
Milwaukee Brewers - 13 (Tigers - 9 in 2013)


Best border color by team (my opinion)
Blue - 7;  Yellow - 6; Green - 5; Red - 5; Purple - 5; Orange - 2

Worst border color by team (my opinion)
Orange - 9; Green - 7; Red - 4; Yellow - 4; Purple - 3; Blue - 3

Border color of the #1 card per team(my opinion)
Red - 9; Blue - 8; Purple - 7; Orange - 3; Green - 2; Yellow -1

Total # of player cards in this set
1432  (46 less than 2013)

Total # of cards including subsets in this set
1548

Total # of unique players appearing in this set
1325  (21 more than 2013)

Total # of players appearing with multiple teams
107  (9 more than 2013)

Total number of players appearing on 3 or more teams
6  (same as 2012 and 2013)

Six players appeared in games for three different franchises in 2014.  Here they are in chronological order of appearance.

As with every multiple appearance by a player, I made sure each border color was different for each team.  There are a couple of interesting facts about these cards as well.  Jerome Williams became the first pitcher to ever get a win against the same team (Oakland) with three different franchises in the same season.  Cool fact, but the next one is even more interesting to me.  Kelly Johnson appeared for three AL East teams in 2014 after appearing for the other two AL East teams in 2012 and 2013.  So he appeared in games for all 5 AL East teams in two seasons.  Here is Johnson in his other two uniforms from 2012 and 2013 Quarry Unlimited along with his three 2014 cards.

Other than Steve Finley in the NL West, can you think of any other players that have been a part of all 5 teams in a single division?


Total # of players sharing the same name
12   (2 more pairs than in 2013)

There are 6 pairs of same names in this year's set, but interestingly only 1 of them was also in 2013.  1 pair was in 2012 and 1/2 of one pair was in 2013.  We also had a manager/player pairing for the first time since 2012.

The David Carpenters are the only pair that have each appeared in all 3 Quarry Unlimited sets.  The Chris Youngs make a reappearance after Chris R. Young made a nice comeback from missing the 2013 season.  Chris B. Young is the only player to switch teams this year going from the Mets to Yankees in mid season.  The Jose Ramirezes should be fairly simple to tell apart just because one is a pitcher and one is a position player.  The Michael Taylors are both prospect outfielders, Michael D. Taylor of the White Sox is probably better known because he has also played three years for the A's in his career and was involved in the Roy Halladay trade a few years back.  Michael A. Taylor is the rookie from the Nationals.  The Bryan Prices are the first manager/player combo since the Brad Mills combo of the then Astros manager and the Angels reliever in 2012.

Finally, we come to the clusterfuck that is Miguel Gonzalez.  Miguel Gonzalez of the Orioles appeared in the same name category in 2013 as well, but with a different partner.  Last season Miguel Angel Gonzalez of the Orioles was paired with Miguel Antonio Gonzalez of the White Sox.  Antonio did not make it back to the majors in 2014 though.  However, Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez of the Phillies did.  So not only are all three players named Miguel Gonzalez, but all three share the same middle initial of A.  I really hope two of them pull a Giancarlo Stanton and start going by a different name in 2015.


Total # of Rookie Prospects cards in 2014
100

Total # of RPs traded during the 2014 offseason (as of 1/28/15)
11

This is one that I found somewhat amusing considering how much prospects are thought of nowadays.  Here is the list of RPs and their new homes.

Chris Bassitt - New Team - A's
traded in the Jeff Samardzija deal

Anthony DeSclafani - New Team - Reds
traded in the Mat Latos deal

Mike Foltynewicz - New Team - Braves
traded in the Evan Gattis deal

Kendall Graveman - New Team - A's
traded in the Josh Donaldson deal

Jace Peterson - New Team - Braves
traded in the Justin Upton deal

Anthony Ranaudo - New Team - Rangers
traded for Robbie Ross

Robbie Ray - New Team - Diamondbacks
traded in the Didi Gregorius 3 way deal

Chasen Shreve - New Team - Yankees
traded in the Manny Banuelos deal

Steven Souza - New Team - Rays
traded in the Wil Myers 3 way deal

Nick Tropeano - New Team - Angels
traded in the Hank Conger deal

Andrew Heaney - New Team - Angels
first traded to the Dodgers in the Dee Gordon deal,  then traded in the Howie Kendrick deal

Team write ups with the most pageviews
1. Toronto Blue Jays Part 1
2. Toronto Blue Jays Part 2
3. (tie) Houston Astros Part 2 and St. Louis Cardinals Part 1

Team write ups with the fewest pageviews
1. Arizona Diamondbacks Part 2
2. Arizona Diamondbacks Part 1
3. Boston Red Sox Part 2

I always find the pageview stats fascinating.  The Diamondbacks can probably be easily explained since they were the final team posted and the Red Sox were not that far behind.  The Blue Jays success is a bit more puzzling unless I have finally made an impact in Canada after all these years.  Woohoo!

Number of big screw ups while presenting this year's set
ZERO

Or at least none that were pointed out at least.  I have been ending this recap with an acknowledgement of a screw up.  In 2012 I forgot to include Don Mattingly in the Dodgers team set.  In 2013 I had to make a corrected Daniel Nava card because my original was an error that actually pictured Dustin Pedroia.  This year, no major screw ups.  That makes me happy.


Tomorrow evening I will post an index of teams.  Friday is the Grand Finale.  Don't forget to vote for your favorites if you haven't already.

Thanx for reading.