Random Topps Team Set of the Week: 2007 Topps Texas Rangers

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

• Team: 2007 Texas Rangers
• Record: 75-87, fourth place, AL West Division.
• Manager: Ron Washington
• Card on the Top: Michael Young

The checklist consists of the following players:

• TEX1 Michael Young
• TEX2 Brad Wilkerson
• TEX3 Frank Catalanotto
• TEX4 Ian Kinsler
• TEX5 Brandon McCarthy
• TEX6 Vicente Padilla
• TEX7 Eric Gagne
• TEX8 Mark Teixeira
• TEX9 Kenny Lofton
• TEX10 Kevin Millwood
• TEX11 Hank Blalock
• TEX12 Akinori Otsuka
• TEX13 Nelson Cruz
• TEX14 Gerald Laird

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 2007 Topps eponymous set:

• Eric Gagne signed with the Rangers as a Free Agent on December 19, 2006. With the Rangers, he saved sixteen of the 30 games he finished. He was traded to the Boston Red Sox in a deadline deal on July 31, 2007. For some reason, he wasn't included in the base set, but did appear in the Updates and Highlights set...as a member of the Red Sox. So if you want to remember Gagne as a Ranger on a 2007 Topps card (and design...), the retail set is the only place to find it.:
  
  

• Here is another side of Kevin Millwood that you don't see in the retail set:
  
  

So of the 14 players included in this set, there are two cards that features a different picture in the retail set that was used in 2007 Topps set. Not too many differences between the regular and retail sets, and that Millwood card would throw off most collectors unless they collect his cards.

Next week's featured set will be the 2006 Arizona Diamondbacks. 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.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama