Random Topps Team Set of the Week: 2011 Topps Colorado Rockies

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Team Set of the Week:

• Team: 2011 Colorado Rockies
• Record: 73-89, fourth place, NL West Division.
• Manager: Jim Tracy
• Card on the Top: Carlos Gonzalez

The checklist consists of the following players:

• COL1 Carlos Gonzalez
• COL2 Todd Helton
• COL3 Ian Stewart
• COL4 Seth Smith
• COL5 Ubaldo Jimenez
• COL6 Aaron Cook
• COL7 Jhoulys Chacin
• COL8 Eric Young Jr.
• COL9 Jorge De La Rosa
• COL10 Dexter Fowler
• COL11 Ty Wigginton
• COL12 Chris Iannetta
• COL13 Ryan Spilborghs
• COL14 Huston Street
• COL15 Troy Tulowitzki
• COL16 Jason Hammel
• COL17 Coors Field

The cards in order from the set (the checklist at the end was cut from the back of the package. What, you don't do that?):

Key differences between the team set and 2011 Topps eponymous set:

• Jose De La Rosa's retail card features another shot of the Rockies' left-hander:
  
  

• Ty Wigginton played for the Orioles the year before, so it's no surprise that Topps regular card featured him as an O. He does appear in the Update Series set as a member of the Rockies.:
  
  

• Ryan Spilborghs base card features him on the basepaths:
  
  

• On Jason Hammel's base card, he's discussing strategy with his catcher, or possibly making dinner plans for the team:
  
  

So of the 16 players included in this set, four have picture variations that can only be found on the retail sets. Surprisingly, none of the other 12 players' cards features a different cropping of the same picture, which is often the case found in some of these team sets.

UPDATE: Thanks to both the Shablotnik Report and Cards from the Quarry for indicating that Jason Hammel had not one, but TWO cards in Series 2 (#338 and #642). The retail set uses the same picture from #338, so the "variation" if you will is card #642. It was bad enough when Topps decided to make two cards for each of the members of the 2010 All-Star Rookie Team. But when you look at it, this is not the first time Topps has included two "base" cards of a single player within the same set. One of these days, we'll have to compile a list of these cards (I can think of a few in the 2007 Topps set...).

Next week's featured set will be the 2009 Detroit Tigers. Hope you'll be here when we compare the cards from the retail set to their counterparts found in Topps and Topps Updates and Highlights sets.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama