Rhapsody in blue

That is beautiful. Another reason to like the 2015 Topps set. So much BLUE.

Those are all of the Dodgers base cards that I received from Nachos Grande's 2015 Topps group break. The Dodgers have 12 cards in Series 1 and I received at least seven of each card  -- and 8 of Yasiel Puig and Joc Pederson -- so you're looking at exactly 100 Dodgers cards. The image is cropped, but trust me they're all there.

For a closer study of the 12 Dodgers in Series 1, here is a better look at the crookedly scanned 12:

I am happy to say that, unlike the Braves set, the majority of the Dodgers players in Series 1 are still with the team. Only Matt Kemp is elsewhere at this point.

The designated rookie -- since every team must have one in Topps the last few years -- is actually two players, Yimi Garcia and Joc Pederson. I'm banking on at least one of them doing better than the 2010 Topps designated Dodger rookie -- Carlos Monasterios.

As for my favorite card of the bunch, I'm still going with the base card of Clayton Kershaw. I also like the Yasiel Puig card and, for once, Andre Ethier has an interesting photo. It's also nice to see Brandon League's blue glove instead of his tattoo manifestation.

So who does this leave for Series 2? Juan Uribe, A.J. Ellis and Kenley Jansen for sure. After that, it's a matter of which new Dodgers Topps can track down -- Jimmy Rollins, Brandon McCarthy, Brett Anderson, etc. Fringe selections might be Scott Van Slyke, Justin Turner, Chris Heisey, J.P. Howell, people like that. In short, not nearly as exciting as Series 1.

But let's see what other Dodger cards I received in the break:

These are necessary evils. Believe me, I don't want Adam Wainwright in my collection.

Although I received multiples of these leaders cards, too, I think I'm missing one. Kershaw was third in the NL in strikeouts last year, but that card (which also would feature Stephen Strasburg and Johnny Cueto) is MIA. I don't even know if it exists. I'll have to check.

On to the inserts.

Archetypes.

Topps making sure everyone knows it's using its player license. Nobody in the world needs a new Jackie Robinson card. Especially not one with this pose again.

Fernando apparently has replaced Koufax as the designated Dodger pitcher of the past to feature in current sets. Not that I'm complaining. This is Valenzuela in the Baseball History insert set.

Here he is in the Highlight Of The Year insert set. Both of the above cards commemorate the same thing. Sheesh.

Here is Fernando with Kershaw in the Inspired Play insert set. These look a little better than past "duo" insert series.

Sick of Fernando?

OK, let's see some Gallery of Greats.

Nachos Grande Chris likes these a lot. I was a little leery of them, just because it's not exactly an original concept -- framed cards have been going on for more than a decade -- and because some of the framed cards are clunky and sort of ugly.

But seeing them in hand, they're a lot more pleasant than those other cards. The shiny picture part is not overwhelmed by the frame, which is not as raised as in other examples. The cards are actually much thinner than other framed cards. You'd think that would be a drawback, but actually it's kind of delightful. They're almost dainty (yes I used dainty and delightful in back-to-back sentences). I know I'm going to be able to fit them in a binder page without bending everything out of shape.

This is possibly Hanley Ramirez's last card as a Dodger. But let's not focus on that (or the nick on the photo that was like that when Chris pulled it out of the pack), but on the pickup truck in the background!

Someone snuck a 4 x 4 into the hallowed hall of Gallery of Greats.

The Dodgers sure do have a lot of these. How many do you suppose the Rays have? Sometimes it's tempting to chuck it all and collect the Rays. (P.S.: not really) (P.P.S.: wonderful scoreboard).

Yup, a fourth Dodger. This is why I forked over my hard-earned money to Nachos Grande. I can't be running all these down.

Also, Kershaw is trying to cover up the pickup truck, but I know it's still there.

These are from the First Pitch set that you've all heard about, and the Dodgers have a bunch in this set, too.  I would think this is because they have the largest pool of celebrity people from which to draw.

Of course, that doesn't explain how I hadn't heard of two of them before 2015 Topps came out (don't get all indignant soccer fans, you should be used to this by now).

The Dude is doing a good job of making up for that though.

That does it for all of the inserts.

As for parallels and hits, I did abysmally on parallels, but pretty good on hits. Yet, there was just one card for each.

That's the parallel. It's a rainbow foil Kemp. I tried my best to make the shiny come through on the scanner, but didn't do very well. I guess this card is my Kemp collecting farewell. I hope I don't lose my enthusiasm for collecting 2005-14 Kemps. That all depends on how he does playing for the ... ick, Padres.

That's the hit.

Kershaw hits go for insanity these days (I'm so glad I grabbed some of them back in 2009-10 before the masses figured out he'd be great). So anything anyone can pull for me is fantastic. And Chris pulls plenty of Kershaw cards.

He even used a Kershaw Bowman Chrome card as packing material, which I don't necessarily recommend, especially since he has all those 1991 Donruss cards at his disposal.

Many thanks to Nachos Grande for the break and the cards -- even if he did sneak in the one card in the package that was not blue.