The team set is a shell of its former self

That, right there, is a team set.

Yeah, I know you can't read it -- it's too blurry. Sorry, I scanned it instead of waiting forever for a photo of it to upload to my ancient computer. Sometimes you've got to take shortcuts.

Isn't that right, Topps? Sometimes you've got to take shortcuts?

Let's talk about this particular team set.

I live on the east coast. So I miss out on a lot of Dodger-centric items that appear only on the west coast. People know this and are good to me and sometimes send me some Dodger things you can find only "out there". That was the case with the team set. Angus of Dawg Day Cards found the 2017 version out west and thought of me. I am humbled.

Annually, I pine for the Dodger team factory set, because it's almost unattainable from where I sit (OK, I could stop complaining and just hop on ebay and buy the thing, but there are so, so, so many cards and so, so, so little time). The team set is interesting because often there are different photos from the flagship set or a manager card or a stadium card or some such wonderfulness. The very few Dodger team sets that I own from past years all have those little quirks that I love.

OK, NOW, let's talk about this particular team set.

The 2017 Dodgers team set has no quirks.

It is just 17 cards of the same photos of the same players that you can find in the flagship set.

What is the point of that?

Here. Here they are:

Adrian Gonzalez gets his own scan because, what the hell, Topps, 17 isn't divisible by anything.

If you are familiar with the Dodgers in the flagship set -- and I am that -- then you know you just looked at cards that are identical to those flagship cards, except the Topps logo lacks foil. On the back, the card number is different and the player's Twitter or Instagram handle is not mentioned like it is in the flagship set. That's all the differences.

So this team set has now lost the only point it had for existing. Why get the team set if it's just duplicates?

There are two slight changes in the team set -- really nothing worth obtaining unless you're the most rabid player collector.

The team set Corey Seager card lacks the Topps rookie cup.

The team set Andrew Toles card lacks the rookie card logo.

That's all that's different on the front.

Oh, except the cards that came out of the team set were slightly warped and I had a hell of a time lining them up evenly on the scanner. Not sure if that's because they were jammed into the packaging or it was the heat from out west or the fact that modern day cards ARE SO DAMN FLIMSY.

Hmmm, maybe that last one, huh?

The last month or two when I've visited the card aisle at Target, I've noted the team sets available here in my little corner of the east. Yankees, naturally. Red Sox, yup. For a really strange reason there is an entire row of Tigers team sets, which is very odd because there are no -- OK, there are five, five Tigers fans in all of upstate New York.

I'd look at those Tigers team sets and think, "If Tigers, then why not Dodgers? Why not?" If only.

And now I have one and, man, sound of a balloon deflating.

The lack of variety in the team set is a trend based on the last couple of Dodgers team sets. The blog cards as i see them mentioned that a few months ago.

But this was really disappointing. In a card year full of disappointment, I admittedly didn't expect to be won over by this team set -- given that I don't want to see the 2017 design on anything else -- but not one variation? The calling card of the team set?

One other thing.

The Dodgers' flagship set this year contains 28 cards. That seems on the high side, but not dramatically so. The 17 team set cards means that 11 players were left out of the team set -- actually 10 since one of the flagship cards is the team card.

Here are the flagship cards with the players who are in both flagship and the team set crossed off:

DeLeon
Ethier
Forsythe
Gonzalez
Grandal
Hatcher
Hernandez
Hill
Jansen
Kazmir
Kendrick
Kershaw
Maeda
Pederson
Puig
Reddick
Romo
Ruiz
Seager
Segedin
Toles
Turner
Thompson
Urias
Utley
Van Slyke
Wood
team card

Most of the players who were not included in the team set are logical selections. Players who have moved on to other teams (DeLeon, Kendrick, Reddick, Ruiz), or are recent arrivals (Forsythe, Romo), or are marginal players/relievers who should never appear in games (*cough*Hatcher, Kazmir, Segedin).

Then there is Yasiel Puig.

He is not in the team set.

A regular on the Dodgers for four years. Not in the team set.

I suppose the reason these team sets are still being made is people are still buying. It's a shortcut for team fans who don't want to buy packs featuring a bunch of teams they don't care about. (Won't they be surprised when there's no Yasiel Puig card?).

But for us dedicated team collectors, it's just a package of dupes.

Now, back to my vintage.


(P.S.: I realize that other team sets may contain picture variations, but someone else will have to figure that out for themselves. I'm not buying any of the 15 Tigers team sets hanging on a rack at my Target).