do you believe in the man in the mirror?

i had high hopes for joc pederson back in 2015. the tim wallach collector had sent me a bunch of joc cards back then with a note that said something along the lines of him being the best player he had seen in albuquerque for some time. long time dodger fans know to take that kind of praise with a grain of salt after the likes of mike marshall and billy ashley tore up the place but couldn't quite match that success in the big leagues.

anyway, pederson had a great start to the 2015 season and went on to provide a lot of fantastic postseason memories for dodger fans everywhere. i will never forget his home run off of justin verlander in game 2 of the 2017 world series, even though the dodgers wound up losing that particular game, and, of course, the series. he signed with the cubs this offseason, and published a really great goodbye to dodger fans. his relating of the advice that tommy lasorda gave him resonated with me and is similar to advice i had received a long time ago, although not from tommy. after reading the post, i decided to finish my pederson 2017 topps chrome rainbow, or at least take it to a full page of 9 cards.

when i first saw joc's 2017 topps card, 

i wasn't fully a fan - too bottom heavy with too much empty space, even though it looked like it was done to keep the ball in the frame. then i saw the topps chrome refractor 

and was sold.  i quickly went and added the chrome sapphire version as soon as it was available 

because of the darker blue accents, but my rainbow stalled out there.  no longer.

this 6-card rainbow consists of the refractor, pink refractor, purple refractor, blue refractor, blue wave refractor, and the gold refractor. it would probably look better if i were to replace the blue wave with the green refractor, but the only one i could find has an exorbitant price tag attached. maybe someday.

i also have these four refractors

the prism, xfractor, sepia, and negative refractors. there are a few others out there that i am keeping an eye out for - i'd love to complete the full rainbow.

[edit - i picked up the orange refractor, numbered to 25]

if not for the topps update sandy koufax legends variation or the dodger team card that showed the players and coaches saluting vin scully, the joc refractor would have been my favorite dodger card of 2017.

now let's see what he looks like in cubbie blue - i think he may just be my current favorite non-dodger.