2014 Quarry Unlimited - #8 Cleveland Indians Part 1

Every year when I put together these rankings, there is always a surprise team or two that ends up higher or lower that I would have first thought once it get put down on paper.  This year one of those teams is the Indians.  I have never really been a big fan of the Indians and I don't really like their manager, but somehow here they sit at #8.  I'm left to ponder why I have them at #8.

The first reason that comes to mind is their position in the standings.  Right now they are on the cusp of the playoffs and are usually the underdog around August and September.  I tend to root for the underdog in most cases.  But I don't think that really applies here because the Royals were the plucky underdog in the AL Central and I didn't want Cleveland to catch them.

My next thought was that some of the players on the team are really likable.  I do like Jason Kipnis and Jason Giambi, but for the most part the Indians are really unknown to me.  Except for Nick Swisher and I can't stand that guy.  The Gabe Kapler, Nick Swisher, Frank Thomas pre-game analyst grouping during the World Series was the worst trio since Germany, Italy, and Japan in WWII.  Horrible, just horrible.

My final thought was that the Indians just had a lot of good photos this year and in my mind I moved them up because I liked a few of the cards.  I did the same thing last year with the Phillies.  In my opinion, the Indians are one of the top two "cardogenic" teams in this year's Quarry Unlimited set (the second team hasn't shown up yet) and maybe I did move them up because of that.  I think I will stick with that explanation because otherwise I will have to admit to myself that my rankings are completely arbitrary and I am not quite ready to do that.

INDIANS TEAM TRIVIA

Total # of Indians in 2014 - 46

# of new Indians in 2014 - 19

Best score in 2014 - May 14 at Blue Jays 15-4

Worst score in 2014 - September 1 vs. Tigers 12-1

Border color that worked best with this team - Green

Border color that worked least with this team - Purple

Position on last year's list - #10 = UP 2

Let's take a look at the first half of the 2014 Cleveland Indians with the manager's card leading the way.

PURPLE

GREEN

BLUE

I'll be back tomorrow with Part 2.  As usual, your thoughts are always welcome and encouraged.

Thanx for reading.

2014 Quarry Unlimited - #7 Tampa Bay Rays Part 2

YELLOW

RED

ORANGE

ROOKIE PROSPECTS

My Top 5 Rays Cards
1. David Price (purple)
2. Curt Casali (rookie prospects)
3. Ali Solis (green)
4. Alex Cobb (green)
5. Ryan Hanigan (blue)


The Rays have been near the bottom among good photos over the past two years of the Quarry Unlimited set.  This year, they might have the best card of the set.  Sorry for the upcoming bad pun, but the Price is definitely right here.  Unfortunately after the trade of David Price to the Tigers, that photo will probably never be seen on real cardboard.  That's a big reason why I do multiple cards for traded players.  For obvious reasons, the Rookie Prospect cards had a much smaller photo selection than the majority of the others.  However, the Casali turned out as one of the best from that subset.  The Solis is cropped a bit weird, but I think it still worked.  The really good play at the plate cards were virtually non-existent this year.  The whole throwback uniform trend is basically just a money grab, especially for the Rays who created "What if" throwback uniforms to occasionally wear.  That being said, those uniforms look awesome.  I would be perfectly okay if the Rays adopted that look as their actual uniform.  The Ryan Hanigan card just makes me smile.  If anyone ever needed a photo to define the phrase "What the *uck?" the Hanigan would definitely be it.



Coming tomorrow - #8 Cleveland Indians

Thanx for reading.

2014 Quarry Unlimited - #7 Tampa Bay Rays Part 1

Today I am featuring the franchise that I am starting to dislike.  I like the players and the team is easy to root for, but there is no team that reminds me more of the inherent problems between the big-markets and the small-markets than the Tampa Bay Rays.  Every good player that is on the Rays is as good as gone after 5 or 6 years.  Except for Evan Longoria and that is just because of the very risky (though brilliant in hindsight) contract given to him before he became a superstar.  Both the manager (Cubs) and the general manager (Dodgers) departed this franchise since the season ended to move up to big market franchises.  Not to mention the fact that Tampa Bay has the worst stadium (well except for maybe Oakland) and least fanbase of any team in the league. 

Tampa really reminds me of the Montreal Expos.  No, not the current Montreal Expos that people remember nostalgically.  The actual Montreal Expos from the 90s and early 2000s.  They were playing in a horrible stadium in front of maybe 5,000 fans on a good day and when they fielded a third place team it was considered a victory.  Tampa has been more successful, but I have a feeling that we are heading back to the "Devil Rays Days" when Tampa failed to win 75 games for their first 10 seasons or so.  It makes me mad because aside from the 2007 Rockies and the 2014 Royals, the 2008 Rays were my favorite World Series team of the 21st century.  Now they are heading for a decade or more of being nothing more than a AAAA organization.

RAYS TEAM TRIVIA

Total # of Rays in 2014 - 43

# of new Rays in 2014 - 17

Best score in 2014 - April 19 vs. Yankees 16-1

Worst score in 2014 - September 25 at Red Sox 11-1

Border color that worked best with this team - Green

Border color that worked least with this team - Red

Position on last year's list - #4 = DOWN 3

Let's take a look at the first half of the 2014 Tampa Bay Rays with the manager's card leading the way.

PURPLE

GREEN

BLUE

I'll be back tomorrow with Part 2.  As usual, your thoughts are always welcome and encouraged.

Thanx for reading.