Random Topps Card of the Day: 2009 Topps #623 Aaron Hill

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Wednesday, October 24, 2012:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number:  2009 Topps #623.
• Player Name, position, team: Aaron Hill, second baseman, Toronto Blue Jays.
• Major League Debut: May 20, 2005.
• Last Line of Statistics: 2008 stats (Blue Jays): 55 G, 205 AB, 19 R, 54 H, 14 2B, 0 3B, 2 HR, 20 RBI, 4 SB, 16 BB, 31 SO, .361 SLG, .685 OPS, .263 AVG.
• Any special information about player: Drafted by the Blue Jays, #1st, June 2003.  Bats: right. Throws: right.
• Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 8. This is his fifth Topps card.
• Blurb on the back: "One year removed from a breakout campaign, aaron was limited to two months of action by a concussion in 2008.  In '07, however, his 47 doubles and 66 extra-base hits were a positional record for a franchise that counts Roberto alomar among its second basemen.  Only a dozen second sackers in AL history have ever compiled a higher doubles total."
• Commentary: Topps unleashed one of its best designed sets ever with their 2009 Topps Baseball set. Larger picture than last year's design, with triangles (imagine scrapbook picutre holders) on two opposite corners of the picture, the home plate with logo (reminds me of a design element used in a 1991 design by some card company...), and a black name plate at the bottom in silver foil.  Really loved it.  I can't believe it's been four seasons since this came out.  As the blurb in the back kindly pointed out, 2008 was a down year for Aaron Hill thanks to concussion related matters.  This might be the first card I've seen include the word concussion (I'm sure it's been brought up before), and in this day and age where concussions are a big deal, what better way, probably, to introduce kids to the word than with a baseball card.  How did Aaron do in 2009?  He was named an All-Star, he reached career (as of 2012) highs in home runs (36), RBI's (108), led the AL in plate appearances (734), scored 103 runs, had an OPS of .829, won the Silver Slugger, and was 12th in MVP voting.  I think he did rather well.  After parts of seven seasons with the Blue Jays, Aaron was traded to the Diamondbacks on August 23, 2011.  He had a fantastic 2012 season (.302-26-85-.882 OPS), and looks to be one of the D'back's key players in 2013.
• Beckett value: $0.15-$0.40.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 30 cards.

Tomorrow's card will be 2010 Topps #547. Post will arrive at 1:00 PM CST. Hope you will be too.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama