Monday, July 11, 2016

2016 Bowman Inception - The Rest of the Dodgers Cards

Below is a final look at the Dodgers cards found in Topps' 2016 Bowman Inception set.  Featured are the Autograph Relics, Veteran Autograph Relics, Inceptionized Bowman Prospect Autographs, Origins Autographs and various other rarities.

Autograph Relic

#IAR-CS Corey Seager                          #IAR-JP Jose Peraza

2016 Topps Now - #239 - Kenta Maeda


Kenta Maeda closes out the first half of the season with his fourth 2016 Topps Now Baseball card of the year. Yesterday afternoon he dominated the San Diego Padres to win his eighth game.  Maeda went a solid seven innings, gave up no walks, two hits and recorded a career high thirteen strike outs.  Even more amazing, he made some history.  Via Jon Weisman at Dodger Insider:
Maeda is the ninth pitcher in Dodger history to strike out at least 13 in a game while walking none. Kershaw has done it the past five times, including twice this year. Before Kershaw, there were Dazzy Vance, Van Lingle Mungo, Don Drysdale, Sandy Koufax, Kevin Gross, Brad Penny and Chad Billingsley.
That's some lofty company!

Go here to check out the card and to order.

UPDATE: The print run for this card is 322 copies.

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Blog Kiosk: 7/11/2016 - Dodgers Links - Piazza, Cotton and Kenta Maeda


What a fantastic way to end the first half of the Baseball season.  Kenta Maeda was on the mound and absolutely stymied the Padres. With 97 pitches he recorded a career high 13 strike outs, two hits, no walks and a single lone run on a homer by Derek Norris in seven innings pitched.  Via Ken Gurnick at MLB.com:
"You could see the look in Kenta's eye after that last outing. He was set to dominate and that's what he did, and it was just what we needed," said manager Dave Roberts. "Even for his psyche, for the starters, and to go into the break so strong, it was great for him."
...
"We chased offspeed out of the zone," (Padres manager Andy) Green said. "He pitched us backwards all day long and we didn't seem to make an adjustment. He could spin us early, hard and late, mix in a fastball periodically, but it was pretty much all offspeed."
BTW, Maeda is the ninth Dodger pitcher in history to ever record at least 13 strike outs and zero walks in a game.  On another note, Yasiel Puig is once again surrounded by persistent trade rumors (link here).  I have doubts anything will get done since management clearly will not take a discount, and rightly so.  Since coming back from the DL in late June Puig is slashing .317/.417/.467/.883 with two home runs, eight RBI's and a BABIP of .347.

Photo of Kenta and Yasiel on the bench above via Jon SooHoo/LA Dodgers 2016Go here to check out more pics by Jon from yesterdays game.  Below are more links to check out:
  • This Day in Dodger History: In 1978 Steve Garvey becomes the first two-time MVP in All-Star history.  In the game played in San Diego Garvey hit a game-tying, two-run single and a triple to help the NL beat the AL, 7-3.
  • Happy Birthday, Hal Gregg, Dick Gray and Billy Ashley!