Just the Commons, Ma'am 5: Another 51 Topps Opening Day Blue Parallels

Don't worry, I won't be showing all 51 of the Blue Opening Day parallels I got from JustCommons, but I have scanned a number of my favorites from the lot. After adding these to my collection I am down to just needing 4 cards to complete the set, which incidentally is the same number of cards I still need from the 2013 Opening Day Blue Parallel set. I really ought to track those down one of these days.

Over the last week I have not been paying a lot of attention to my baseball cards. Or to much of anything, for that matter, outside of the baseball video game sim OOTP 15. DO NOT TRY THIS GAME! IT WILL TAKE OVER YOUR LIFE! I find myself playing just until the All-Star break, then maybe just until roster expansion, but then my team wins a few games and I decide I'll just close out the season, and then it's a few hours later and I've played two more years' worth of games. My fictional Houston Astros team had a couple of championship runs during the first three years of play, boosted mostly by strong pitching, but injuries in my lineup late in the season have contributed to me getting bounced from the playoffs early on over the past three years. I also draft way too many catchers and middle relievers.

Carlos Gomez found himself in a spot of trouble recently when he showboated a bit after hitting a triple off of Gerrit Cole. Cole had some choice words for him as he slid into third, Gomez went after Cole, the benches cleared, and Travis Snider got a black eye from Martin Maldonado. Gomez is on a couple of my rosters in fantasy baseball, and he's been pretty good so far this year.

Seattle has not been very good this year, and it appears that they might have a mold problem, as Hernandez and Iwakuma seem to have some mossy growth on their chins. Must be all the humidity up there. Or maybe that's pine tar.

I love that uniform that Lohse is sporting. Super classy. I'd wear that cap.

I'll close out this post with a few guys who are on my borderline player collections list. I don't necessarily seek out cards of these guys, but when they come to me I feel pretty good and kind of set them off to the side. Unless I need them for a set. Then they go in the set. It's too bad Topps couldn't have managed to get a Future Stars logo on that Ryu card, too, just to really overload that thing with clip art.

And here are a couple of pitchers who I am a fan of, but I don't think I got them in any of my fantasy leagues this year, and so I have no idea how they are doing so far. Maybe I should look it up. Samardzija is 0-2 after five starts, but it's not really his fault. Through 35.1 innings, he's got 27 strikeouts, a 1.53 ERA and a 1.10 WHIP. Those are some pretty good numbers.

Scherzer has been similarly dominant, but he actually has a couple of wins to his name. He also has five starts with a record of 2-1, and through 33.0 innings pitched he has 44 strikeouts, a 2.45 ERA and a 1.03 WHIP.