2011 Topps Heritage Minor League #89 Jarred Cosart

Astros 8, Phillies 3
Spring Training Game 1 - Saturday Afternoon, February 23rd in Clearwater
Record - 0-1

One Sentence Summary:  Sweet glory hallelujah, baseball is back!

What It Means:  See the One Sentence Summary above.  Also, it was the first game for the new American League Houston Astros.

What Went Wrong:  The gloves (four errors) and the bullpen looked a little rusty.  On a positive note, Cole Hamels pitched two scoreless innings, Chase Utley played his first Spring Training game since 2010 and collected an RBI-single and Ben Revere looked good on the base paths.  Pete Orr hit the team's first home run of the spring with a solo shot in the eighth.

Featured Card:  Former Phillies prospects Jarred Cosart and Josh Zeid (traded away in the Hunter Pence deal) and Jonathan Villar (part of the Roy Oswalt deal) appeared in the game for the Astros.  Cosart pitched two perfect innings and there's a good chance he'll head to Houston to start the season.  He received a handful of Phillies cards in various 2010 and 2011 Topps and Bowman minor league sets.

Camp Head Count:  61 minus 3 = 58.

A few weeks ago, I put together a post listing the 20 non-roster invitees scheduled to be in camp this spring with the Phillies.  Two of those 20 players are already gone.

Right-handed reliever Juan Cruz was the first to go, and he never even made it to camp.  Following the signing of Chad Durbin, Cruz had second thoughts about his chances to make the team's 25-man roster and he opted out of his contract.  (Some reports indicated that he had never finalized his contract.)

2013 Chachi
Transactions #17

Yesterday, infielder Andres Blanco was released.  Seems odd to invite a guy to spring training in December and then release him before the first game of the spring, but such was Blanco's fate.

This afternoon, the team parted ways with reliever Michael Schwimer.  Schwimer was traded to the Blue Jays for first base prospect Art Charles.  The righty reliever twice earned the ire of Phillies brass last season.  The first time came when he tweeted a few transactions early in the season that had yet to be made public.  The second time came when he refused to report to Triple-A Lehigh Valley following a demotion, insisting he was injured.  Schwimer had Phillies cards in both team-issued releases last year as well as a card in Topps Series 2.

Charles' first card came within last season's Bowman Chrome release.  He was a 2010 draft pick by the Blue Jays and he has yet to play about Low A.

(And in case you're wondering, I went with option #2 from my last post in order to create Schwimer's Chachi Transactions card.)

2012 Chachi #30 Michael Schwimer

#44

Michael Fredarick Schwimer

Relief Pitcher

Bats: Right  Throws: Right  Height: 6'8"  Weight: 240

Born: February 19, 1986, Fairfax, VA

Home: Alexandria, VA

Drafted: Selected by Phillies in 14th round of June 2008 draft

Teams: Phillies 2011-

Acquired: Via draft

Contract Status: Pre-arbitration eligible

2012 Phillies - The Missing Links (So Far)

2012 Topps #658, 2012 Topps Giants #SF7, 2012 Topps #154 and #465

With the half-way point of the 2012 season quickly approaching, and with almost a dozen different Topps offerings on the market, I wanted to take a look at which 2012 Phillies players have yet to appear on any Phillies baseball cards.  Given the recent trend of Topps not including the fringe guys (back-up catchers, bench players, middle relievers) in their sets, the hope of adding a Phillies baseball card of one of these guys to my collection diminishes with each passing month.  If and when the Phillies issue a second edition of the postcard-sized set available at the ballpark, some of these guys just might get the Phillies cardboard appreciation they deserve.

As of this writing, 35 different players have suited up for the 2012 Phillies.  (Game data below through June 17th.)

3 or More Cards
23 Players

Brian Sanches hasn't had a Phillies card since 2007, from his first stint with the club, but his Phillies cards from 2006 and 2007 earn him entrance into the "3 or More" club above.

2 Cards
Juan Pierre (58 games in 2012) - 2012 Phillies Team Issue #10 and 2012 Topps #658
Michael Schwimer (12 games in 2011 and 12 games in 2012) - 2012 Phillies Team Issue #44 and 2012 Topps #465

1 Card
Pete Orr (46 games in 2011 and 23 games in 2012) - 2011 Phillies Team Issue 2 #5
Ty Wigginton (61 games in 2012) - 2012 Phillies Team Issue #24
Chad Qualls (29 games in 2012) - 2012 Phillies Team Issue #50

Laynce Nix (22 games in 2012) - 2012 Phillies Team Issue #19

These four players are still waiting for their first standard size Phillies card.  I'm actually a little surprised that Wigginton didn't make it into Topps Series 2.  (I would have swapped out the card of Jose Contreras for a Wigginton card.)

2012 Choice Lehigh Valley IronPigs #26, #15, #14 and #21

0 Cards
Mike Fontenot (25 games in 2012)
Hector Luna (16 games in 2012)
Erik Kratz (2 games in 2011 and 5 games in 2012)
Jake Diekman (13 games in 2012)
Raul Valdes (11 games in 2012)
B.J. Rosenberg (2 games in 2012)

I would think that pitching prospects Diekman and Rosenberg will eventually find themselves with Phillies cards.  And if Fontenot's playing time dramatically increases with the injury to Freddy Galvis, he could be a good candidate for the Topps Update series.  But honestly, the only hope for the other three guys (Luna, Kratz and Valdes) is inclusion within the aforementioned second edition of the Phillies Team Issue set.

2011 Chachi #48 Michael Schwimer

#39

Michael Fredarick Schwimer

Relief Pitcher

Bats: Right  Throws: Right  Height: 6'8"  Weight: 240

Born: February 19, 1986, Fairfax, VA

Home: Alexandria, VA

Drafted: Selected by Phillies in 14th round of June 2008 draft

Teams: Phillies 2011-

Acquired: Via draft

Contract Status: Pre-arbitration eligible

Complete Topps Base Set Checklist:

Schwimer has yet to appear in a base Topps set.