Random Topps Team Set of the Week: 2011 St. Louis Cardinals

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

• Team: 2011 St. Louis Cardinals
• Record: 90-72, MLB World Series Champions.
• Managers: Tony LaRussa
• Card on the Top: Albert Pujols

The checklist consists of the following players:

• STL1 Albert Pujols
• STL2 Chris Carpenter
• STL3 Allen Craig
• STL4 Ryan Franklin
• STL5 David Freese
• STL6 Jaime Garcia
• STL7 Matt Holliday
• STL8 Jon Jay
• STL9 Yadier Molina
• STL10 Colby Rasmus
• STL11 Skip Schumaker
• STL12 Adam Wainwright
• STL13 Jake Westbrook
• STL14 Pedro Feliz
• STL15 Lance Berkman
• STL16 Ryan Theriot
• STL17 Busch Stadium

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:

• Allen Craig earned a cup-of-coffee in 2010, but did not make it onto the base set in 2011. He did, however, show up in Update Series:
  
  

• Ryan Franklin was the closer for the team that year. His regular Topps card used a different picture:
  
  

• It's almost the same picture of David Freese, but his regular Topps card looks to show what happened a second or so later in the same at bat:
  
  

• As with all of the 2010 Topps All-Star Rookie Team selections, Jamie Garcia had two cards in the Topps set. One with, and one without the trophy. Now the card in the retail set used the same picture of the regular card that did NOT have the trophy on it. Here are both examples of Garcia's Topps' cards:
  
  

• Skip Schumaker's card showed him on the field after making a great defensive play:
  
  

• Lance Berkman was a rent-a-player for the Yankees in 2010, but found himself out of the Bronx and west of the Mississippi in 2011. While his base card shows him in the Yankees' gray uniform, his traded card depicts him in Cardinal red:
  
  

• Ryan Theriot's base card does NOT depict him on the mound...although it does look like it though, doesn't it?:
  
  

Of the 17 players included in this set, 6 players have different pictures on the retail set compared to the base set, and then there is the Garcia situation (I don't know if you can call it a different picture issue or not).

Next week's featured set will be the 2006 Toronto Blue Jays. 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