Hello Ted,
Always enjoy a 19th century thread. Seems dating sets has become a little more popular, a subject I enjoy.
You are at least partially right in that the A36 album could be ordered in 1889. It did however debut in 1888. There are seven known variations of redemption coupons with 4 issued in 1888 and another three issued in 1889. All of them offer the A36 album with exception of the first 1889 coupon which only touted the cabinets and upcoming round album (A35).
Regarding Dunlap, "Captain" and "Manager" are two different titles and were almost always two different people. The captain was typically a player, manager not. Dunlap became captain on the Pittsburgh team in 1888. Note this 1888 Old Judge as evidence (not mine although it is on my wantlist). I also have some newspaper photocopies that discuss him being named captain but it is easier to hyperlink to this 1888 OJ (this style OJ, Fb, date to 1888).
The real question is whether N162s, like the A36 album, were also distributed into 1889. To that question I do not have an answer although I think not. Goodwin was very careful to update N172s when players moved, accuracy seemed rather important to them. Brouthers would move from Detroit to Boston between 1888 and 1889 but we see no such update to his N162 card.
(Yet that didn't stop Goodwin from offering albums that were then inaccurate; perhaps they continued to offer the album until printed supply ran out sometime in 1889. I note that Goodwin dropped the coupon count from 75 to 50 in 1889 to perhaps encourage the supply to be exhausted)