Traded Sets

New contest: win a free relic card!

2009-11-18T20:36:00.005-05:00

I'm back to run a contest to promote the Baseball-Reference.com Blog. I have been a contributor to that blog for over two years. Recently, Sean Forman (proprietor of Sports-Reference.com, which includes B-R as well as sites for the other major North American professional sports) unveiled a major upgrade to the Play Index, a searchable database tool that allows users to look up all sorts of amazing things. The blog is dedicated to showing and discussing those results. Any baseball would probably enjoy reading the blog, which has daily updates.

So, I'm running a contest to try to promote interest in the blog. This contest is totally free--you do not have to be a subscriber to the Baseball-Reference Play Index to participate. I am giving away cards to the top 4 finishers in a contest that runs from now until the end of the year, i.e. 11:59 PM ET on December 31, 2009. Those top 4 people will each get to choose one card from the 12 listed at the bottom of this post. See the nice pictures!

How do you earn points? It's easy. There are three ways:

Every time you post a comment on the Baseball-Reference.com blog (on any post made from today through the end of the year--archived posts do not count) you get a point. Your comment must be directly related to the post and directly related to baseball. You can make multiple comments on the same post and get multiple points, but if it looks to me like you're just padding things out intentionally, I'll ignore your padded comments. To be eligible, you must make a comment on this blog right here saying what your username is on the B-R blog. That's how I'll know to keep a total of your comments.
If you have your own baseball blog (team fan, stats, baseball cards, etc) and you post a link on your blog to this contest page, you get 5 bonus points added to your total. To be eligible, you must post your blog link in the comments on this post below.
If you have any friends who like baseball and might want to read the Baseball-Reference.com blog but don't care about the baseball card contest, you can have their comments on the B-R blog count towards your total. All they need to do is post a comment on this blog below saying what their username is on the B-R blog, and who they want to give their points to.

That's it! Now here are the 12 cards from which the winners get to select:

2007 Topps AS TWH All-Star Stitches Trevor Hoffman
2009 Upper Deck SP Legendary Cuts GM-FP Carlton Fisk / Jorge Posada jersey
2009 Upper Deck O-Pee-Chee OPC-EFG Ellsbury / Figgins / Granderson triple jersey
2003 Upper Deck Sweet Spot NG1 Nomar Garciaparra jersey
2008 Upper Deck Goudey M-CY Chris Young jersey
2009 Upper Deck Series 1 GJ-KY Kevin Youkilis jersey
2005 Topps Bazooka BM-MT Mark Teixeira memorable moments jersey
2009 Upper Deck SP Legendary Cuts GM-RT Cal Ripken / Troy Tulowitzki jersey
2009 Upper Deck A Piece of History SS-AL Adam LaRoche jersey
2009 Upper Deck Series 1 GJ-JA Conor Jackson jersey
2002 Upper Deck Timeless Teams Jersey Card J-DE Dwight Evans jersey
2004 Topps Bazooka Blasts BB-AR Alex Rodriguez bat

So, remember--post your B-R username below, and start commenting over on the Baseball-Reference.com blog!

Wrapping it up

2009-09-08T12:13:00.002-04:00

Sorry for the long absence.

We have two contests to wrap up:

First, MMayes won the MLB Network hat by virtue of his guess of 138 runs scored on July 26th. There were actually 142 runs scored, so that's a good guess.

Also, Night Owl won the 1990 Upper Deck High # tournament, thanks to Nolan Ryan winning best card in the set. He wins the set.

I'm done with card blogging. I will be focusing on stat-based baseball blogging, primarily on the Baseball-Reference Blog. I will also be starting a personal stat blog and I'll let you know when that's up and running.

When is this card? 2008 Upper Deck Tim Lincecum #362

2009-08-21T08:00:00.001-04:00

This Tim Lincecum card is easy to date. He's starting at home and there are ample matchups visible on the scoreboard. Here's the game in question, occurring on May 6th 2007.

Interesting notes on this:

Second baseman Ray Durham is visible.
The rightfielder, just slightly visible, is Randy Winn.
The All-Star logo from 2007 in San Francisco is visible.
This game was the 4th-worst start of Lincecum's career to date, as measured by game score. He went just 4.1 innings while giving up 5 earned runs, 5 hits, and 5 walks. The damage included homers by Ryan Howard and Shane Victorino.

ANAGRAM CONVERSATION

Tim Lincecum talking to Milt Pappas:

Milt Pappas = Slap Pap, Tim!
Tim Lincecum = Nice cum, Milt!

STAT

Lincecum is having a historically excellent start to his career. Among pitchers with at least 400 IP over their first 3 seasons, Lincecum ranks in the top 10 for best winning percentage, and that comes for playing for a middling Giants team.

Poll: The best card of 1990 Upper Deck High # Series

2009-08-20T08:00:00.001-04:00

Here it is...the final poll to determine the best card of this set, as well as the winner of the set.

I'm skeptical about how Oil Can Boyd won his semifinal. If you are the reader attached to one of these final 5 cards, you might want to encourage all your friends to hit up this post and vote for your card, otherwise I fear that Boyd is going to win. (And I think we can all agree that his card is actually the worst of these 5...)

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When is this card? 2007 Upper Deck Albert Pujols #443

2009-08-20T08:00:00.000-04:00

I can't be entirely sure about the date of this photo, but it's almost certainly from this game on June 23, 2006. That's the only time that Pujols faced Justin Verlander (the pictured pitcher) that year and it came in Detroit. In the top of the 5th of that game, Pujols doubled to deep right field and was thrown out, I assume either trying to advance to third base or oversliding at second.

ANAGRAMS

Albert Pujols = Jabs polluters
Justin Verlander = Turns javelin red

BEST STAT

Total bases over the first eight years of a career--Number 1: Phat Albert

When is this card? 2007 Upper Deck David Dellucci #394

2009-08-19T08:00:00.002-04:00

This one is easy to date. The top score is Oakland at San Francisco. Delluci played with the Phillies only in 2006. Dan Haren (#24) pitched just one game at the Giants that year (thanks to interleague play being so limited.) It was this game on June 24, 2006. The other game on the scoreboard is the Nationals (WAS) at the Orioles (BAL.)

Incidentally, the Jason Varitek card from the same set is from the same game, when Chris Coste was thrown out at home in the 9th inning.

ANAGRAM

David Delluci = Add lucid evil

(corrected)

David Dellucci = Civil clad dude

STAT

Ince 1969, Delluci has the fewest stolen bases in a season with at least 12 triples. That happened in his 1998 season with the Diamondbacks.

When is this card? 2007 Upper Deck Marcus Thames #114

2009-08-18T08:00:00.000-04:00

This one was a little tough to figure out, mainly because even though this is a 2007 card, it turns out that the photo was from 2005. Thames himself would probably remember this himself since this looks like a pretty awesome catch. (At least, I assume he's about to catch the ball.)

My starting point for this card was the bottom right portion of the photo that features a game with a team starting with "H", which can only be "HOU" for the Astros. Roy Oswalt is #44 for them. The home team in that game starts with a letter that also has a leading vertical, and the name must take up less space than "HOU" since it starts further to the right. The only NL teams that fit this category are MIL, FLA, PIT, and PHI (and possibly LA if they used LA instead of LAD.)

So I looked through Roy Oswalt's starts, and then tried to match up to a #35 pitcher on one of those other teams. I found a 2006 game where he faced the Marlins' #35 Dontrelle Willis, but then I ran into a problem with the top part of the scoreboard. That game features either the Orioles ("BAL") or the Red Sox ("BOS") at home. On the day of that Oswalt/Willis game in 2006, there wasn't a #30 pitching for Baltimore or Boston.

So then I went back to 2005, and it was pretty easy to find the date: May 11th 2005. Hmm, but that's a Wednesday...unusual since the game featured on the Thames card is a day game. But the Tigers game that day (at the Rangers) was a day game, as was the Red Sox game.

ANAGRAMS

Marcus Thames = Rams mustache = Muscat harems

STAT

At the moment, Thames has by far the fewest career at-bats of any player with 100+ career homers. Of course, that's a bogus stat since he just hit his 100th career homer. But, he also has the fewest at-bats of any player with 95 to 105 career homers.

When is this card? 2009 Upper Deck Raul Ibanez #335

2009-08-17T08:00:00.001-04:00

Here's another card we can date. Although there's very little into on the scoreboard in the background, it's pretty easy to determine that the matchups are the Rangers (TEX) hosting the White Sox (CHW) and the Athletics (OAK) hosting the Angels (LAA).

Based on the game start times, we can narrow the date down to July 13, 2008. The Mariners were visiting the Royals that day, meaning that the scoreboard would show games in Central Time. The LAA/Oakland game was scheduled for 1:08 PM, which is Pacific Time. That would be 3:08 CT, matching what we see on the scoreboard.

Ibanez fielded ground balls in the 1st inning, 6th inning, 7th inning, and 8th inning, not to mention other times he might have made such a pose (such as throwing the ball around the infield after a strikeout.)

ANAGRAM

Ruin ablaze

STAT

Ibanez is having a great 2009 to the surprise of many people. Those folks haven't been paying attention, though, because Ibanez is in the top 15 for OPS+ among outfielders with 4000 PAs from 2001 to 2008. That doesn't even include his awesome 2009.

When is this 2009 OPC card? #501 Orioles team checklist

2009-08-14T08:00:00.000-04:00

Here's a nice photo of Camden Yards. That looks like an Angels player at first base. On the out-of-town scoreboard, we can easily see two different games of the Pirates at the Phillies.
Here's a close-up:

See the two PIT-PHI games on the right? We've got the following games as well: Reds at Cubs, Dodgers and Rockies, Braves at Marlins, Padres at Astros, Rangers at Rays, Mariners at Twins, and a few other ones that I can't quite read.

Check out this list of the Phillies-Pirates games from the last bunch of years. They played a double-header in 2004 and one earlier than that in 2001. Surely the photo couldn't be so old? But in fact, it is from 2001. May 23, 2001 is the date of this game, as it's the only one that has all the right matchups.

The Orioles did host the Angels that day.

So, this is an 8-year-old photo on a 2009 baseball card. Wow. I wonder how old the other team stadium photos are? (Unfortunately, most of the others cannot be dated in this fashion.)

But here's one cool thing. Guess who that first base coach is? It's #33 Eddie Murray. Bonus Hall of Famer card! The Angels' first baseman that day was--guess who?--Wally Joyner. I bet you didn't think you'd be seeing Wally Joyner on a 2009 baseball card, but there he is. The rightfielder, also visible in the photo, is another retired star: Tim Salmon.

Overall all, this card is totally bizarre and totally cool.

ANAGRAM

Baltimore Orioles = A toilsome broiler

When is this 2009 OPC card? #371 Carlos Lee

2009-08-13T08:00:00.000-04:00

First off, this is an interesting photo of Carlos Lee. While it's great to see him about to catch a fly ball, there are two problems: 1) it's a routine fly ball, making it less than totally exciting and 2) his glove is obscuring his face. If it were a more unusual catch, I could forgive the blocked face.

I plan on showing a series of the best and worst cards from this set coming up, and this will be among the worst cards.

Anyway, let's see if we can date the photo.

Here's what we know:

That's the left-field scoreboard at Minute Maid Park so this is an Astros home game.
Other games that day include the Padres visiting the Marlins, the Mets visiting the Diamondbacks, and the Cubs visiting the Cardinals.
The scoreboard at this stadium doesn't just show basic totals, though. It shows full linescores for each game, meaning that, for example, the Padres scored 1 run in the 2nd inning and 1 run in the 3rd inning of their game. This should make it pretty easy to identify the date.

Turns out that the Padres visited the Marlins for just one 3-game serious in 2008. By clicking on the 3 box scores, it's easy to figure out that the day in question was May 4th, 2008, based on this box score. We can also see the NYM/ARI and CHI/STL matchups from that day. Turns out that the Astros hosted the Brewers that day and won in the 12th inning.

Interestingly, Lee was taken out of this game after he made the last out in the 9th inning. I'm not sure why that would happen unless he had a minor injury of some sort. He played in the next series of games so he couldn't have gotten very badly injured, if at all. Checking out the box score, Lee had two outfield assists in the first two innings!

As for outs that Lee recorded in the game, he caught a Ryan Bruan fly ball in the 4th inning and a Prince Fielder fly ball in the 7th inning. This photo has got to be one of those two balls. With a game start time of 1:06 PM central, this photo was taken sometime roughly around 3:00 to 4:00 PM eastern on 5/4/2008.

ANAGRAMS

Carlos Lee =

Carol's eel
Real close

STAT

Lee is often overlooked as being one of the best players in the game, but among guys with at least 4500 plate appearances since 2002, he's in the top 15 for OPS+.

When is this 2009 OPC card? #330 Jake Peavy

2009-08-12T08:00:00.000-04:00

It's sweet to show pitchers doing something other than pitching and this is a nice photo of Peavy digging in as he approaches 3rd base. That ass probably belongs to 2008 Padres third base coach Glenn Hoffman.

So, can we find the date for this card?

For starters, we know that it's a Padres home game since they're wearing white uniforms. We can also see that the Dodgers visited the Rockies that day, and either the Braves (ATL) or the Cardinals (STL) visited a team with a short abbreviation, probably the SF Giants. Plus to Nationals played at home.

This one was very difficult to figure out. Turns out that there are no 2008 games that fit all the above criteria. However, this game in 2007 fits just fine.

On that day (April 19, 2007) all of the following happened:

The Rockies (COL) hosted the Dodgers (LAD)
The Giants (SF) hosted the Cardinals (STL)
The Nationals (WSN) hosted the Phillies (PHI)
The Padres hosted the Diamondbacks

How, the one thing that doesn't quite fit is that the team visiting the Nationals seems to have only 2 letters in its team abbreviation (which the Phillies do not.) However, other than the Padres, the only other NL team that ever uses a 2-letter abbreviations is the Padres (SD) themselves and since they are the home team in the game featured in the photo, their score would not be shown on the out-of-town scoreboard. Furthermore, the Phillies beat the Nationals that day by the score of 4-2, which is the score shown in the photo.

Finally, in the Padres game, Peavy hit a triple in the bottom of the 3rd inning. Since it's somewhat rare for pitchers to be running between second and third, I think we can safely assume that this card is indeed from the 4/19/2007 game.

That game started at 12:36 PM (west coast time) so this photo was probably taken between 4:30 and 5:00 eastern time.

Incidentally, Glenn Hoffman was also third base coach in 2007, so I still think that's his ass.

ANAGRAMS

Jake Peavy + Hoffman's ass = Pajamas off! Sky heavens!

STAT

Since 1901, only 22 times has a pitcher struck out at least 200 batters in a season but finished with an ERA+ below 100. Peavy did it in 2006, and is just 1 of 2 guys to do it in the last 12 seasons. Nolan Ryan did it 5 times and the vast majority of the pitchers who did it were very good.

When is this 2009 OPC card? #470 Prince Fielder

2009-08-11T08:00:00.000-04:00

Other blogs have already posted this card. I found it alarming because of just how large Fielder looks. That's number 12 Freddy Sanchez taking his lead.

So when was this photo taken?

Let's see. We need to start with 2008 games of the Brewers visiting the Pirates. Based on the team matchups visible on the scoreboard, we can easily narrow the game down to August 29, 30 or 31.

The August 29th game was a night game and the photo was clearly taken during the day. The August 30th game was also a night game, despite it coming on a Saturday.

So this photo was clearly taken on August 31st, 2008. But we can tell a little more, even. Sanchez got to first base only once in the game, walking to lead off the 4th against C. C. Sabathia. This game was part of Sabathia's excellent streak for the Brewers last season. Since the game started at 1:35 PM, this photo was probably taken sometime around 2:15-2:30 PM on the last day of August.

ANAGRAM

Brewers / Pirates = Wet raspberries

STAT

Over his Age 23 and Age 24 seasons, Fielder cracked the top 20 for most total bases. A few other recent players make the top 20, including Albert Pujols, Vladimir Guerrero, Nomar Garciaparra, Hanley Ramirez, and Troy Glaus.

What the heck??

2009-08-10T13:33:00.002-04:00

Hubie Brooks is getting roundly trounced by Oil Can Boyd in semifinal #3. That's not right. If you haven't voted yet, please go over there and vote for Brooks.

Also let me take this opportunity to comment on the future of this blog. For the time being, I'm going to concentrate on the 2009 O-Pee-Chee set. I'll be posting a "When is this card?" post each day this week (Friday's is AWESOME!) and also we'll look at some of the best and worst photos in the set next week.

After that, I'm not sure what will happen. Things have been incredibly busy for me at both work and home lately although I expect that to settle down some. I was looking at getting my hands on one of those early 1990s Stadium Club sets that came in the Skydome model, but now I don't think I want to spend the cash needlessly. I may look for another set to write up--but if anybody has any ideas, or even a set you want to donate to the cause, just let me know.

When is this 2009 OPC card? #173 Adrian Beltre

2009-08-10T10:00:00.000-04:00

There is a handful of 2009 O-Pee-Chee cards with photos that can be dated.

Let's start with an easy one, this Adrian Beltre card.

On the scoreboard in the background, we can see that the Angels were playing at the Tigers that day. Checking out the Angels' 2008 schedule, we see they played two series at Detroit. One was over April 25 to April 27 and the other was Sept 2 to Sept 4. We can also see in the photo background that the Yankees were visiting the Rays on this day. Over the April dates, though, the Yankees were at the Indians. However, the Rays did host the Yankees Sept 2, 3, and 4.

In the photo, the pitcher for the Angels was #20, which was Jon Garland. He pitched for the Angels on September 3rd. Zach Miner was the Tigers' starter in that game and he wore #31, jiving with what we see in the photo above. Lastly, the Rays' starter that day was Edwin Jackson, and he wore #36, also matching up with what we see in the photo.

So, clearly, this photo is from September 3rd, 2008.

On that day, the Mariners were visiting the Rangers and they lost 1-0. Beltre did manage 2 hits, though.

ANAGRAMS

Adrian Beltre =

Radiant rebel
Ran liberated
Alert brained

STAT

I just wrote recently about Adrian Beltre over at the Baseball-Reference.com Blog where I pointed out how overrated he is and how bad his 2009 has been.

Tournament semifinal #5

2009-08-10T08:00:00.000-04:00

I picked the sky blue background to match a couple of the cards. Nice!

Make sure you're a follower of this blog, and then vote below.

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Tournament semifinal #4

2009-08-07T08:00:00.000-04:00

Vote below! Can anyone beat HOFer Carter? I doubt it.

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Tournament semifinal #3

2009-08-06T08:00:00.001-04:00

Semifinal #3

Follow the blog (if you're not already) then vote for the best card below. I myself can't see any reason for voting for any card other than Hubie Brooks.

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Tournament semifinal #2

2009-08-05T10:30:00.002-04:00

Here's semifinal #2. Remember--you must be a follower of this blog to vote, and you can vote for whichever card you this is best for any reason. Aside from the Fetters card (which is interesting for other reasons) these are some really nice photographs.

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Is Mark McGwire a Hall of Famer?

2009-08-04T09:44:00.002-04:00

I'm curious about whether you think Mark McGwire is Hall of Famer, considering ONLY his stats. I don't know how to judge the steroids/PEDs issue yet.

Please vote in the poll below and feel free to add a comment.

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Tournament semifinal #1

2009-08-03T10:41:00.002-04:00

So here we go with tournament semifinal #1. Each of these cards has been assigned to a reader. If you need a reminder, here is the list.

I don't have a lot to say about these players--I wrote everything I had to say on their original posts earlier on this blog.

There are just two rules for voting:

1) Please make sure you are a follower of this blog (see sidebar) before voting, otherwise your vote will not count.

2) Vote using whatever criteria you wish, such as best player, best photos, best-looking cards, nicest guy, etc. The poll is below.

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Tournament settings

2009-07-31T12:25:00.003-04:00

The total number of runs scored on Tuesday was 199. That means the cards get ordered by decreasing length of the player's name.

So here are the 25 cards as well as which reader is assigned to each card.

1 #702 "Rookie Threats" madding
2 #777 Keith Hernandez Carl Crawford Cards
3 #761 Gary DiSarcina White Sox Cards
4 #745 Dave Winfield dayf
5 #783 Mark Langston D a V e
6 #737 Carlos Baerga Don
7 #708 Tom Brunansky T-Dog
8 #786 Cecil Fielder Real_Name
9 #742 Mike Fetters AceWild
10 #711 Dave Justice Captain Canuck
11 #791 Hubie Brooks FanofReds
12 #749 Oil Can Boyd Stormy
13 #726 Todd Hundley Kevin
14 #714 Glenn Braggs Fuji
15 #729 Jeff Reardon Bo
16 #758 Nick Esasky Brian
17 #766 Dave Parker steveisjewish
18 #774 Gary Carter Rod
19 #797 Randy Myers Drew
20 #723 Jim Leyritz Mmayes
21 #718 Greg Myers Luke
22 #754 Joe Carter mmosley
23 #793 Kevin Bass skoormit
24 #734 Nolan Ryan night owl
25 #771 Fred Lynn RoofGod

Night owl, you damned nearly got yourself either Joe Carter or Kevin Bass (both Giants on these cards.) They missed only because "Rangers" comes alphabetically after "Giants".

These cards are going to be posted in 5 sets of 5 starting next week. Remember, the readers assigned to the card that wins the entire tournament will win the entire set, so get ready to argue on behalf of your card.

Tournament order

2009-07-28T08:00:00.000-04:00

Our tournament of the 25 best 1990 Upper Deck High # series is going to start soon.

I'm going to order the 25 winning cards based on the total number of runs scored during Tuesday's games. I'll add up all the runs and then take the last digits. For example, if the total is 125 runs, then the number I'll use is 5.

Here's a list of the 10 possible numbers and the way I'll order the 25 cards. Then I'll assign the cards to the numbers you chose. This makes it all fair and square.

0: increasing by card number
1: decreasing by card number
2: increasing by name alphabetically
3: decreasing by name alphabetically
4: increasing by team name then player name alphabetically
5: decreasing by team name then player name alphabetically
6: increasing by age
7: decreasing by age
8: increasing by length of player's name then by team name alphabetically
9: decreasing by length of player's name then by team name alphabetically

Moving day

2009-07-27T11:25:00.002-04:00

My family and I are moving to a new home today and tomorrow so I'm not sure if I'll be posting very much.

But in the meantime, here's a little game for you.

The street number of our new home is one of major significance in baseball history. Guess the number and its baseball significance and I'll send you some free cards. Post your guess below and enter as many times as you like.

1990 Upper Deck #797 798 799 800

2009-07-27T08:00:00.001-04:00

Randy Myers
Chris James
Bill Gullickson
Upper Deck Checklist 701-800

BEST PHOTO

The James card is similar to Keith Hernandez's card and has an equally nice batting-cage shot on the back. Overall, a very nice card. The Gullickson card is neat too. On the front, he's sitting in front of that wood paneling in front of which many Astros have posed. On the back is the final picture of the set, and it's a sloppy-haired candid photo.

But let's not ignore the checklist...I really like that mottled yellow background on both sides and how the checklist is self-referential, listing itself on the back.

BEST STAT

Chris James hit pretty well against HOF pitchers except for Nolan Ryan. He also hit multiple homers off Randy Johnson and Tom Glavine and a single homer off Roger Clemens. He also homered once against Randy Myers, also pictured in this group. Plus he was 4-for-9 against Bill Gullickson with a triple.

BEST IN 1990

Chris James had his most playing time in 1990 and put up his best season. Gullickson had a typically average season.

But it was Randy Myers who had the best season in 1990. He was, of course, the leader of the Nasty Boys with the 1990 champion Reds. He had 86 innings, 98 strikeouts, and a 192 ERA+.

BEST ANAGRAMS

Randy Myers = Many dryers
Chris James = Jams riches
Bill Gullickson = Bill sucking - LOL!

BEST CAREER

James and Gullickson had some good seasons but Myers is clearly the best of the bunch.

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1990 Upper Deck #793 794 795 796

2009-07-24T08:00:00.001-04:00

Kevin Bass
Bryn Smith
Juan Samuel
Sam Horn

BEST PHOTO

I like the Smith card. It's two photos probably from the same spring training game but taken from very different angles. On the front, the guy in the background is a 3B, probably Todd Zeile even though he was primarily a catcher that year. On the back, the background player is probably 2B Jose Oquendo.

I dig the Kevin Bass photo card, too. The posed shot on the front is unusual and neat. But, he stole Terry Kennedy's bat (#16).

Nice smirk for Juan Samuel, too, and an action shot showing him do what he did best (run, I mean, not get thrown out...heh.)

BEST STAT

Juan Samuel led the universe in strikeouts from 1984 to 1987, including leading the NL each of those years. My eye tracks down that list to #5 ~~Gyrates Tip~~ Gary Pettis, who managed 496 strikeouts in 4 seasons despite hitting only 9 home runs. Yes, NINE!

BEST IN 1990

Hmm, this is a toughie. Bryn Smith had a down year in 1990 and Bass and Samuel both had slightly below-average OPS+ numbers. I'm going with Sam Horn, who had 14 HR and 45 RBI in just 79 games. The knock on my choice is that he played only those 79 games.

BEST ANAGRAMS

Kevin Bass = Vans & bikes
Sam Horn = Harm son (of Sam Horn..?)

Tough anagrams here as the short names "Bryn Smith" and "Juan Samuel" aren't very fertile material.

BEST CAREER

Another very tough decision. Bass, Smith, and Samuel finished with slightly above-average numbers. Horn finished with really good numbers except for perhaps the most important one: games played. I can't pick a batter with just 389 career games as having had the best career. Nobody had much post-season experience, with Bass and Samuel just getting a whiff each. (No pun intended on the use of the word "whiff" although we could certainly apply that term to Samuel and Horn both.)

Anyway, at the end of the day, I'm going with Juan Samuel. He was runner-up for Rookie of the Year, a 3-time All-Star, topped 40 steals 4 different times and twice led the league in triples.

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Burleigh

2009-07-23T20:36:00.002-04:00

BURLEIGH GRIMES, 1960 FLEER

What, were you expecting me to post about a different "Buerhle"?

Incidentally, Sean from Baseball-Reference.com told me in the 4PM hour today, Mark Buerhle's page on his site achieved 6,000 hits. That's 100 hits per minute for just 1 of the more than 50,000 pages that update daily. Wow.

MLB Network (and a contest)

2009-07-23T10:39:00.003-04:00

Earlier this week I got a tour of MLB Network in Secaucus. I was invited by a group that had some business there.

I got to see the studio, production room, offices, as well as the areas where all the research and graphic design are done. In one of the main hallways is a section of wall where many of the former ballplayers who have visited have signed their names. One area has all Hall of Famers (including Bob Gibson, Goose Gossage, Cal Ripken, Tom Lasorda, and Bill Mazeroski) while another area has many other star players.

I can't go into any deatil about why I made the trip or who else was there, but suffice it to say that there were some interesting discussions. A number of ideas were floated around and perhaps there will be a collaboration.

Anyway, my hosts passed along to me this MLB Network cap.

It's brand new, made by New Era, and has an adjustable strap in the back. If you want it, just enter here as follows:

1. Comment on this post to enter the contest.

2. To win, you must be a follower of this blog to enter (you can do so using the Following widget on the right sidebar.)

3. In your comment, include a brief statement about your experience with MLB Network. Does your cable company carry it? Do you watch it? If not, why not? If yes, what do you like or dislike about it? I'm not asking for a paragraph here, just a sentence or two.

4. Also, guess the total number of runs scored by all teams in the games scheduled for this Sunday, July 26th. The closest person wins the hat, assuming you've done #2 and #3 above correctly. Rained out games or games that are make-ups of previous rain-outs don't count.

5. Make your comment posting before games start on Sunday. Ties are broken by whoever posted their guess earlier, so you best not duplicate someone else's guess or you've already lost.

So a valid entry, assuming I'm a follower of this blog, would be:

- I get MLB Network on Comcast in my area. I really enjoy how they cut to live games then cut back to studio for immediate analysis by the former players on what just happened.

- I predict 135 runs scored.

1990 Upper Deck #789 790 791 792

2009-07-23T08:00:00.000-04:00

Lloyd Moseby
Ron Kittle
Hubie Brooks
Craig Lefferts

BEST PHOTO

No doubt the Hubie Brooks card is something special. The pose on the front is pretty commonly seen these days, with especially the 2009 O-Pee-Chee set coming to mind (much more on this to come.) Back in 1990, it was very cool, particularly with all the clouds in the background. The back photo is a fantastic action shot, making great use of the portrait-style photo. The outfielder-throwing-the-ball action shot is one of the rarest birds.

The rest of the cards and pretty ho-hum. Kittle's card is especially bad with not one but two right-facing-profile photos. At least Moseby is shown in both home and away uniforms.

I have to make mention of Craig Lefferts, who got a card in this set by virtue of signing with the Padres as a free agent, coming back to San Diego after having been traded to the Giants in the interim. The Padres would go on to trade Lefferts away again in 1992 for Erik Schullstrom and Ricky Gutierrez. Gutierrez, however, was later packaged and traded away by the Padres along with Derek Bell, whom the Padres had obtained in a series of trades after the first time they traded away Lefferts back in 1987.

It's pretty weird but I explained it all back here.

BEST STAT

From 1984 to 1991, Kittle had 140 HR (44th place), Brooks had 127 HR (53rd place), and Moseby had 124 HR (57th place). But here's the difference between these guys. Ranking instead by RBI over that period, Brooks jumps up the 26th place, while Moseby sticks at 51st and Kittle falls to 110th. Kittle had a high rate of hitting HR but didn't play enough to bat in lots of runs by other means. Moseby was average. Brooks didn't have a lot of power but did produce a decent number of runs by other means.

BEST IN 1990

Interestingly, all four of these guys had pretty good years in 1990. They were all above-average players with the 3 hitters all posting OPS+ values over 100 but less than 110. The best season was probably had by Lefferts who was used exclusively as a reliever and posted a 2.52 ERA (152 ERA+) over 78.2 IP, picking up 23 saves in the process.

BEST ANAGRAMS

Lloyd Moseby = Boomed slyly (or, if you prefer, "belly sodomy")
Hubie Brooks = Bookish rube (or, if you prefer, "huskier boob")
Craig Lefferts = Greater cliffs (or, if you prefer, "fecal frig, rest")

BEST CAREER

This is a tough call. All of these guys are interestingly similar. They all had some excellent years and were pretty steady performers. They all ended up a little over league-average for their careers, except for Brooks who ended with an OPS+ of exactly 100. They all had careers that were not very long--they all either started a little late in the majors (age 25 or older) or ended early (by age 33.)

If I had to pick one, I'd go with Lefferts, giving him the nod by virtue of more post-season experience including two World Series. Overall, he pitched pretty well in the playoffs too.

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Poll added

2009-07-22T14:14:00.001-04:00

The poll for the most recent post has been added. Click here to vote.

1990 Upper Deck #785 786 787 788

2009-07-22T08:00:00.001-04:00

Dave Hollins
Cecil Fielder
Matt Young
Jeff Huson

BEST PHOTO

That Huson photo is great. He is perfectly still and it could easily be a posed shot, if not for that ball careening towards him from the left.

It also appears that Fielder discarded his bat right into the catcher's mouth as it's sticking straight out from back there.

Otherwise, these photos leave something to be desired. The Hollins photos are obviously taken from the same at-bat, as are the Fielder ones likely. Only Young is sporting two different jerseys.

BEST STAT

Not a stat so much, but Hollins was involved in 3 very interesting transactions:

December 4, 1989: Drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies from the San Diego Padres in the 1989 rule 5 draft.

July 24, 1995: Traded by the Philadelphia Phillies to the Boston Red Sox for Mark Whiten.

August 29, 1996: Traded by the Minnesota Twins to the Seattle Mariners for . The Seattle Mariners sent David Arias (September 13, 1996) to the Minnesota Twins to complete the trade.

Hollins was one of the best Rule V Draft pickups ever, at least until he fizzled after only a couple of really good years. Later, he was traded for a much better player in Mark Whiten. Still later, he was traded for a WAY better player, although that time David Arias was totally unknown. In fact, he still hadn't started using the last name we all recognize today. Click on Arias' name above to see him called by his more recognizable moniker.

BEST IN 1990

I cannot emphasize this enough. Not only was Cecil Fielder the best in 1990 but that season was one of the greatest seasons in baseball history, not only due to his excellent performance but also because of its phenomenal surprise and impact.

Fielder came almost literally out of nowhere, having been an unknown major leaguer who played in Japan in 1989. His return to MLB in 1990 was not a story--few people recognized his name and even fewer cared. Then he hit 7 HR in April and a few eyebrows were raised. Then he slammed 11 more homers in May and suddenly all eyes were on him. Collectors were scurrying to find his rookie cards. Turns out he had an 1988 Topps card. But wait, he also had a 1987 Topps card...and holy crap! He also he a 1986 Topps card!

Fielder rolled into the All-Star break with 28 homers and people started to ask: could this unknown slugger break the 50-HR barrier? At that point, it had been done just once since 1965, and that was all the way back in 1977 by George Foster. Many people were skeptical that Fielder could keep it up. Lots of folks said that once the scouting reports caught up with him, his numbers would dwindle.

But then something funny happened--his numbers didn't dwindle. He finished July with 7 HR, giving him 33 for the season. Surely he'd slow down in August? Nope. Nine more homers, giving him 42 heading into the final month. He reached 48 homers in his team's 153rd game on September 23rd. Then he reached 49 homers in his team's 156th game on September 27th. Then he went homerless--1 game, 2 games, 3 games...5 games without a homer, and the 162nd and final game was upon Fielder.

Many people doubted that Cecil Fielder would homer on that final day. Just like Dawson and McGwire in 1987, many suspected, he'd finish 1 homer shy of the 50-HR barrier. Many, many people tuned in to watch his final game that year, coming against the Yankees on October 3rd.

Fielder batted second in this game, I assume in an attempt to give him an extra at-bat in this game. He batted second only twice in 1990. In the first inning, he was walked and the Yankee fans booed. He scored on a Gary Ward grand slam and batted again in the second, this time lining out. After two outs in the 4th, Tony Phillips did what he did best and walked. Four pitches later, Fielder launched his 50th home run of the season into the left field stands. Insanity reigned as the Yankee crowd cheered.

Then, to erase any trace of the memory that Fielder's 50-HR season was ever in doubt, he launched a 3-run bomb in the 8th inning, this a line drive that also reached the left field stands.

And so it stood. An unknown slugger with huge biceps and an even larger smile broke the 50-HR barrier and Big Daddy was born.

In the years that followed, Fielder's accomplishment was tarnished, not by him (he hit 44 HR the following season and 30+ homers 4 additional times) but by the rest of baseball. Enter steroids and 9 different 50-HR seasons from 1995 to 1998. Fielder's season became a memory forgotten by many, but not by me.

After all, I was at Yankee Stadium on October 3rd, 1990. I brought my glove, and had the great fortune of catching Fielder's 50th home run ball in the left field stands. It remains my most prized possession.

OK, I made that last paragraph up, but everything else is true :)

BEST ANAGRAMS

Dave Hollins = Handles viol (of banned substances, perhaps?)
Cecil Fielder = I feel circled
Matt Young = Gutty moan

BEST CAREER

All 4 of these guys did some good things in the big leagues but Fielder had the best career. Aside from what I've already mentioned, he was a major contributer to the Yankees' World Series win in 1996, amassing 14 RBI in 14 post-season games that year. Add to that his big smile and massive influence, and this guy was one of baseball's brightest stars in the 1990s.

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1990 Upper Deck #781 782 783 784

2009-07-21T08:00:00.000-04:00

Mike Marshall
Billy Jo Robidoux
Mark Langston
Paul Sorrento

BEST PHOTO

It's kind of weird seeing Marshall in a Mets uniform. His career tanked as soon as he went to the Big Apple. (In case of newbies, do not confuse this guy with the pitcher Mike Marshall, who had a much better playing career than the guy whose card is pictured here.) But the photo on the back is quite cool, capturing Marhsall's leg kick in profile.

BEST STAT

The two Mike Marshalls were both in the big leagues in 1981 but they did not face each other. The batter got a September 1981 callup but his team didn't face the Mets, which is whom Marshall the pitcher was with at the time.

I talked about this elsewhere, but I recall this Mike Marshall once making all 3 outs in an inning--he made a conventional out as well as hitting into a double play in an inning in which his team batted around. A reader thought this was a spring training game...does anyone remember for sure?

Marshall hit way more homers off Bob Knepper (7) than he did against any other pitcher.

BEST IN 1990

This is a tough call. Robidoux barely played in 1990, Marshall was awful, Sorrento was pretty bad in an early call-up, and Langston had the worst year of his career (10-17 record, 4.40 ERA which was an 86 ERA+)

But I'll give it to Langston because he did pitch 223 innings, which was definitely a big help to his team. Amazingly, he had such a bad year for him and yet gave up only 13 home runs.

The other three cards show the player wearing the same uniform on front and back, which sucks, and in particular Sorrento's card leaves a lot to be desired with a so-so posed shot on the front and a candid shot of him slowly giving himself oral cancer on the back.

But talking of leg kicks, how about Langston's awesome one on the back of his card? It's such a great photo that I can almost forgive Upper Deck for using a photo with most of his face obscured.

BEST ANAGRAMS

Mike Marshall = A hammer kills
Billy Jo Robidoux = Job: I idol burly ox
Mark Langston = Ram long tanks

BEST CAREER

No doubt it was Mark Langston, who finished 179-158 (.531) despite pitching the first 5.5 seasons of his career with a veyr bad Seattle team. He still led the league in K's 3 times and topped 200 a total of 5 times. He ended up being a very important player for the Mariners franchise as he legitimized them in the 1980s and then was traded for 3 guys including Randy Johnson, who reached his HOF potential with the Mariners.

May 25, 1989: Traded by the Seattle Mariners with a player to be named later to the Montreal Expos for a player to be named later, Gene Harris, Brian Holman and Randy Johnson. The Seattle Mariners sent Mike Campbell (July 31, 1989) to the Montreal Expos to complete the trade.

I'm a little shocked by his neutralized pitching numbers, though. They have him at 153-161 (.487) for his career and never winning more than 16 games in any season (he actually won 19 twice and 17 once.)

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1990 Upper Deck #777 778 779 780

2009-07-20T08:00:00.000-04:00

Keith Hernandez
Billy Hatcher
Marty Clary
Candy Maldonado

BEST PHOTO

Wow, the Hernandez card is absolutely shocking--both photos on the card are very unusual and quite awesome. (In my opinion, this is THE BEST card in the set, but of course time will tell in our tournament.) The front photo, featuring Mex in the batting cage, is a very unusually close shot and gives a great view of Hernandez's face and swing. (I believe #25 is coach Dom Chiti, but I'm not sure about that.) The back photo is equally interesting. Let's count the ways:

Hernandez, perhaps the best fielding first baseman of all time, has just made a fantastic over-the-shoulder catch.
He is off both feet, with a nice puff of dirt.
The fans immediately behind him are in wheelchairs, which (due mainly to the low percentage of fans in wheelchairs at any given game) is unusual to see on a card.
A few of the fans look pretty damn scared!

To be honest, I don't know if a card gets any better than this. The card is great and Hernandez was a great player.

The Hatcher card is pretty nice, too, although far more ordinary. We have Hatcher's name and number on the front and a nice action-running shot on the back showing him holding both batting gloves in his right hand (and the entire bottom of one shoe visible.)

Maldonado appears to be levitating his bat on the back of his card...sweet!

BEST STAT

Maldonado never homered to win a game but he did have 4 walk-off plate appearances: two singles, a walk, and a sac fly.

BEST IN 1990

The choice here is actually very clear--but do you know the answer? It's Maldonado, who had his third-best season in 1990, launching 22 HR while collecting 92 RBI and a 116 OPS+. His best season was 1987 with the Giants and #2 was 1992 with the Blue Jays as a totally forgotten member of that championship team.

Hatcher wasn't fantastic during the regular season of 1990 but came up big that year in the postseason. I know I wrote about his post-season recently somewhere but I can't find it. Oh well.

Hernandez and Clary were both in the final year of their big-league careers in 1990.

BEST ANAGRAMS

Keith Hernandez = Harkened zenith
Billy Hatcher = Chilly breath
Marty Clary = Clay martyr
Candy Maldonado = Lady and a condom

BEST CAREER

We have 3 guys who were key parts of championship teams and they all did good things in the post-season. But Hernandez did a lot more in the regular season than Hatcher and Maldonado, and that's saying something because those guys were no slouches.

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Baseball-Reference.com

2009-07-19T10:20:00.003-04:00

Read all about it right here.

I'm very proud to be a guest writer on B-R.com's blog. I get a lot of questions about this so let me clarify: as of the moment, I am an unpaid guest contributing solely through invitation from Sean. I have no ownership, no say in what goes on, and no knowledge of the workings of the site other than some minor stuff around the blog.

Mike Fetters winner

2009-07-17T11:31:00.003-04:00

The readers have spoken, and metsthoughts has won the Mike Fetters contest. I think he had a bunch of friends log on and vote for him, which is fine by me.

I just noticed that these patch cards are worth quite a bit...I probably wouldn't have given one away for free had I known it!

1990 Upper Deck #773 774 775 776

2009-07-17T08:00:00.000-04:00

Wow, this grouping is full of kids. Three youngsters and one Kid.

David Segui
Gary Carter
Rafael Valdez
Glenallen Hill

BEST PHOTO

Three things stick out about the fronts: how young Segui looks, how you can see a bit of Carter's brain by looking up his nostrils, and how Valdez seems to be struggling to write on a baseball with a Bic pen.

The card backs are all nice changes of pace from their fronts, but not so nice to show Hill looking at a pop-up.

BEST STAT

In just 3 career games, Valdez gave up 4 home runs. That's not quite the record, as 4 guys who appeared in no more than 3 games gave up more homers. All good players hit those homers off Valdez.

BEST IN 1990

Not a single guy here played a full season in 1990. Nobody appeared in as many as 100 games. I guess I pick Carter, who in 92 games with the Giants hit 9 HR with a 104 OPS+. Hill showed some promise as he put up 12 HR and 32 RBI in 84 games, but batted just .231.

BEST ANAGRAMS

David Segui = Guide divas
Gary Carter = Racy garter (heh) = Great carry
Rafael Valdez = Rave fall daze
Glenallen Hill, Blue Jays = A jellybean selling hull = Hell bells: A ninja gulley

BEST CAREER

Clearly Gary Carter had the best career. David Segui is one of those guys really hurt by being linked to steroids. He wasn't a fantastic player and the casual fan chalks up whatever he did well in the game to steroid use, which I doubt is a fair analysis. From 1995 to 2001, Segui was a well above-average player even though his HR and RBI totals didn't rank him high among first basemen. Again, had he played outfield instead of 1B, I think he'd be more highly-regarded these days. Oddly enough, Glennallen Hill is in exactly the same boat as Segui. Hill finished with a 112 OPS+ and had a handful of great seasons as a part-time player. But nobody is going to remember that now.

(Incidentally, I just saw a video of Hill homering onto the roof of a building across from Wrigley in 2000. Pretty amazing...I'm sure it's on YouTube. Go check it out.)

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You down with O-Pee-Chee?

2009-07-16T16:16:00.003-04:00

(Yeah, you know me!)

OK I have collected a little over half of the 2009 OPC base set and I'm ready to do some trading. I've got lots of doubles, as well as black parallels, mini-parallels, a Wladimir Balentien auto, and a bunch of other stuff. Whatever team you like, I've got stuff for you.

If you have 2009 OPC cards to trade me, please see my want list here, then email me to let me know what you've got, where I can find your want lists, etc.

Also, as a special bonus, I will send you the return postage for all trades--that's right--I'll send my stuff first, and send you the stamps to return your package to me.

Email is 88topps at gmail dot com.

1990 Upper Deck #769 770 771 772

2009-07-16T08:00:00.000-04:00

Pascual Perez
Gary Pettis
Fred Lynn
Mel Rojas

BEST PHOTO

Well it ain't Pettis' photo. Upper Deck nicely shows him missing a bunt, with the baseball whizzing by. On the back, it looks like he just received news about the death of a loved one.

I really like the Perez photos. His front shot captures him making one of his typical funny moves. You might remember that he did a lot of fist-pumping and other gesticulating on the mound. There are also bonus chunks of dirt flying between his legs. On the back, we can see that the Yankees were playing the Braves that day.

It's sad and odd to see Lynn wearing a Padres uniform. After all those great years with Boston, California, and Baltimore, Lynn was reduced to half his former self by 1990, his last year in the big leagues.

BEST STAT

Perez really could have been great if not for the injuries. He has the most seasons all-time for a starting pitcher with an ERA under 4.00 but also fewer than 100 innings pitched. The guy just couldn't stay healthy but was was good when he did pitch.

BEST IN 1990

Well this is a tough call. Perez, Lynn, and Rojas all played partial seasons in 1990--Perez due to coming back from injury, Lynn because he was winding down his career, and Rojas because he was just coming up as a rookie. Pettis is the only guy who played a full year and he wasn't all that good. I really don't know who to go with here, but I guess I'll take Rojas, who pitched fairly well that year.

I also didn't know until just now that Rojas is the nephew of all 3 Alou brothers. I guess his mother must be their sister. (And, somewhat less shocking, he is not related to Cookie Rojas.)

BEST ANAGRAMS

Pascual Perez = A supple craze
Gary Pettis = Gyrates tip (hell YES!)
Fred Lynn, OF = Fondly fern
Mel Rojas = Jam loser

BEST CAREER

Freddy Lynn. Over 300 HR and 1000 RBI, career 129 OPS+, 1 MVP, ROY, 9 consecutive all-star appearances, and several gold gloves. Overrated in Boston, underrated everywhere else.

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Ichiro

2009-07-15T16:21:00.002-04:00

What a classy guy.

Contest: 1990 Upper Deck High Numbers CHALLENGE

2009-07-15T10:59:00.002-04:00

OK, time to start assembling contestants for our 1990 UD High # Challenge. This is going to be a tournament-style competition where each of you will be assigned one card. The card that wins the poll as the best in the set shall determine the winner, and the winner receives this entire set.

Right now, we have polls up for each post of 4 cards, paring down the number of cards for the tournament from 100 to 25. We still have 8 more posts to go to run through all 100 cards. If you want to vote in past polls, please look at the Blog Archive over on the right. Any post that starts with "1990 Upper Deck" contains a poll at the end that allows you to vote on that set of 4 cards. Please take a few minutes to go through and vote if you haven't done so already.

Once all 25 semi-finalist cards have been decided, I am going to put them in a particular order, using a system that I will reveal later (it might be card number or alphabetical order, for example.)

Here's what you do to enter: add a comment to this post, picking a number between 1 and 25. Make sure that nobody has picked your number so far. Later, when I order the cards, you will be assigned one of the 25 finalist cards, and it will be your job (if you wish) to argue on behalf of your card to try to get it to win the reader polls and the tournament. Note that if you want to enter this contest but not bother arguing for your card, you can do that (but it probably decreases your chances of winning.)

As a fun little extra, when you pick your number below, can you relate it to some piece of baseball trivia, such as a stat or uniform number?

1990 Upper Deck #765 766 767 768

2009-07-15T08:00:00.001-04:00

Wilson Alvarez
Dave Parker
Mike Blowers
Tony Phillips

BEST PHOTO

The Phillips photo is pretty neat, although it almost looks posed, like the ball is just sitting there on the ground. I like his open hand about to close down on the ball, though.

The photo on the back of Parker's card was almost certainly taken on April 9, 1990, since the Brewers opened their season at Chicago and there is red, white, and blue bunting. Looks like the Brewers and White Sox played an interesting home-at-home series at the beginning of that season, playing one game in each city.

BEST STAT

Check out the list of all-time leaders in most seasons with 100 walks and 100 runs scored. I bet you never would have guessed Tony Phillips would come in so high, on the level with Wade Boggs and ahead of lots of great players.

BEST IN 1990

This is another pretty easy call. Dave Parker had his last really good season in 1990, finishing with 21 HR and 92 RBI and a 118 OPS+. Alvarez wasn't in the majors, Blowers only played part of a season, and Tony Phillips was just starting the renaissance that lasted for the second half of his career.

BEST ANAGRAMS

Wilson Alvarez = Razes own villa
Dave Parker = Repaved ark
Mike Blowers = Be like worms
Tony Phillips = Sloppily hint

BEST CAREER

Dave Parker had the best career of this lot, but he did have some competition. Tony Phillips went from being a very average player to one of the best leadoff hitters in the game. Wilson Alvarez had a lot of talent but injuries ruined his career.

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1990 Upper Deck #761 762 763 764

2009-07-14T14:00:00.000-04:00

Gary Disarcina
Wayne Edwards
Pat Combs
Mickey Pina

BEST PHOTO

Well these are some boring photos. That's Brian Downing in the background of DiSarcina's card. On the back, that might be 3B Jack Howell but it's impossible to know. Edwards looks fairly doofy on both the front and back of his card.

BEST STAT

Since 1992 DiSarcina has 2 of the 21 worst seasons for runs produced (which is R + RBI - HR) minimum 500 plate appearances.

BEST IN 1990

Wayne Edwards was clearly the best of this lot in 1990. It was his only full season and it was a good one, with Wayne pitching 95 innings, surrendering only 81 hits and 41 walks while earning a 3.22 ERA.

BEST ANAGRAMS

Gary DiSarcina = Airy cardigans
Wayne Edwards = Wayward needs
Pat Combs = Stomp cab
Mickey Pina = Me, I panicky!

BEST CAREER

Well, clearly Gary DiSarcina is the best of this group since he was the only guy to stick in the majors for more than 4 seasons. Mickey Pina never even made it to the majors, making it quite surprising that he had a card in this set.

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Lack of posts...

2009-07-13T10:14:00.000-04:00

Sorry about no posts dating back to Friday. My actual real job has been keeping me busy and today my daughter is sick so we're spending the day together.

I think I've decided to collect 2009 O-Pee-Chee, mainly because I'm a little too far out of touch with today's game.. Would you believe that I never, ever watch baseball on TV? Not a lick of it. And I let my gameday audio subscription expire too because of no time to listen. But for a few reasons, including my continued blogging at Baseball-Reference.com, I think I need to get back into the daily details of the game.

Anyway, I really like the OPC set and will start blogging each card. If you have some to trade email me at 88topps at gmail dot com.

Want list 2009 O-Pee-Chee

2009-07-10T15:34:00.009-04:00

Email me at 88topps at gmail dot com to discuss a trade

Still needed for 2009 UD O-Pee-Chee base set:

5 A.J. Pierzynski
13 Kyle Lohse
31 Martin Prado
35 Chase Headley
52 Gil Meche
57 Bobby Crosby
64 Chone Figgins
66 Brian Giles
67 Khalil Greene
72 Jhonny Peralta
74 James Loney
79 Raul Ibanez
81 Joel Peralta
98 Jeremy Sowers
133 Cristian Guzman
135 James Shields
145 Alex Gordon
154 Edwar Ramirez
155 Jair Jurrjens
162 Cha-Seung Baek
181 Cory Wade
194 Adam Jones
201 Brett Myers
234 Fernando Rodney
262 Kelly Johnson
265 Chad Billingsley
267 Brandon Moss
269 Jose Arredondo
273 Luke Scott
274 Scott Feldman
279 Lyle Overbay
290 Carlos Delgado
297 Luis Castillo
317 Akinori Iwamura
318 Hideki Matsui
320 Miguel Cabrera
322 Jack Wilson
323 Jeremy Reed
324 Chris Coste
345 Bobby Jenks
351 Livan Hernandez
376 Kevin Kouzmanoff
378 Brian Fuentes
379 Mark Reynolds
396 Marlon Byrd
400 Evan Longoria
413 Marcus Thames
418 Justin Duchscherer
421 Peter Moylan
433 Adam Lind
447 Kelly Shoppach
448 Eric Hinske
451 Miguel Tejada
453 Ryan Zimmerman
463 Chris Perez
465 Dan Uggla
472 Travis Buck
484 Hunter Pence
489 Wilson Betemit
491 Ryan Garko
521 Tampa Bay Rays

Bartolo watch

2009-07-09T11:32:00.000-04:00

This is the most ridiculous story of the year. Not the pat about Colon not checking in, but rather Guillen's theory that he's depressed about the death of Michael Jackson.

1990 Upper Deck #757 758 759 760

2009-07-09T09:20:00.004-04:00

Alex Sanchez
Nick Esasky
Stan Belinda
Jim Presley

BEST PHOTO

Hey, look! This foursome features not one but two guy who went to the Braves and were totally washed up! (In Esasky's defense, a medical condition ruined his career.)

For a guy who appeared in just a few major league games, we've seen enough of Alex Sanchez already. His 1989 Topps ML Debut card is on this blog, and his 88 Topps O-Pee-Chee card is back on the 88 Topps Cards blog.

Esasky is rocking the porn 'stache and looks like a total doofus. Somebody needed to tell Nick that it wasn't 1982 when they took that photo.

Sanchez and Belinda are both shown with ball in mid-flight on the backs of their cards, although the Sanchez photo is a horizontal cheat from the photo on the front of his card.

On the back of Presley's card--holy crap--ANOTHER duffel bag! And a guy who looks like he's wondering what happened to 1985.

BEST STAT

From 1983 to 1988, Nick Esasky was the only player in MLB to have double-digit homers every year without ever appearing in more than 125 games in any season.

BEST IN 1990

Given that Presley was washed up, Esasky was unable to play, and Sanchez didn't appear in the majors after 1989, Belinda was the best by default, having a pretty decent season. Read more about him here.

BEST ANAGRAMS

Nick Esasky = Icky snakes! = Kinky cases
Jim Presley = Simply jeer = Limp jersey

BEST CAREER

This is also a tough call. I think it's clear that Esasky was the best player, but he played only one full season in the majors (1989 with Boston, where his 30 HR and 108 RBI earned him a big free-agent contract with the Braves that led to absolutely nothing due to vertigo.) Presley put up some big HR numbers but was generally not a very productive player. Belinda had by far the longest career and also a little post-season success. Belinda was also good enough to be traded for 3 pretty good players: Jon Lieber, Dan Miceli, and Dante Bichette (traded with Jeffrey Hammonds.)

So, I guess I'm going with Belinda.

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Is scheduled publishing still broken?

2009-07-09T09:09:00.000-04:00

My posts scheduled for publishing still are not publishing...I am shocked that this problem is continuing. Are others still having this problem as well or am I missing something?

1990 Upper Deck #753 754 755 756

2009-07-08T08:00:00.002-04:00

Howard Farmer
Joe Carter
Ray Lankford
Sandy Alomar Jr.

BEST PHOTO

It's so rare to see so much of an umpire as we do on Alomar's card. I believe that's Ken Kaiser--can someone confirm?

Farmer's ball is right there on the corner of the card...I love the 3D! I should mention that I think he's the only player in this set of whom I hadn't previously heard.

Carter looks so casual, but man that photo looks like Joe Carter. He had a great smile and seemed to flash it often. I'm about to rip his ability below, but I cannot rip his enthusiasm or energy. Upper Deck captured his spirit on this card. (No truth to the rumor that Carter sued UD to try to get his spirit back.) Hell, Joe's even smiling on the back of his card AND giving a thumbs up.

Finally, the photo on the back of Lankford's card is pretty unusual. This is our second straight post showing a duffel bag.

BEST STAT

I'm straying a bit from our regular stat format to point out 2 interesting things:

Two of these players (Joe Carter and Sandy Alomar) were actually traded for each other. The Indians' trade of Carter to the Padres was an absolute classic, with them picking up not only Alomar but also Carlos Baerga (plus Chris James.) Alomar and Baerga were franchise cornerstones for Cleveland and brought that team back from the brink.

Also, Carter was involved in trades (almost exactly a year apart) with both Alomar brothers. One day shy of a year after he was traded for Alomar and Baerga, Carter was traded with Alomar to Toronto in the most famous trade of 1990:

December 5, 1990: Traded by the San Diego Padres with Roberto Alomar to the Toronto Blue Jays for Tony Fernandez and Fred McGriff.

BEST IN 1990

Here's a source of a great debate. In 1990, his only year with the Padres, Joe Carter hit 24 HR with 115 RBI. Knowing that Alomar is the only other player in this group to play more than 40 games, you'd think that I'd pick Carter as best in 1990. But Carter's year was quite deceptive. His OPS+ was only 85, meaning he was actually quite below average productivity. That's because he batted only .232 and hit only 28 other extra base hits (27 doubles and 1 triple.) If you check out his advanced batting stats you can see that he actually contributed to -1.5 of the Padres' wins that year, meaning he actually cost them wins, not helped them win.

Anyway, I've written a lot in other places about how overrated Joe Carter was. If he hadn't hit that Series-winning homer in 1993, I think more people would realize this.

In 1990, Sandy Alomar played in 132 games, drove in 66 runs, had an OPS+ of 108, and won Rookie of the Year. He's the best player in 1990.

BEST ANAGRAMS

Howard Farmer = Armored wharf
Joe Carter = Jeer actor = Or, a reject?
Ray Lankford = Dry anal fork
Sandy Alomar Jr = Any major lards

BEST CAREER

Wow, this is by far the toughest call so far.

I'm not a Joe Carter fan but the guy did hit 396 career homers (currently 47th all-time) and was a big contributor on two World Series championship teams.

Sandy Alomar was a below-average hitter despite a couple of great years, but was an excellent catcher for many seasons. He played in 10 post-season series and performed especially well in 1997, driving in 19 runs (HOLY SHIT!) in that post-season, including 10 in the World Series.

But we also can't skip over Ray Lankford. He was pretty much finished by age 35, but before then he had 10 straight years with an OPS+ above 110 and was one of the top power-speed players in the game.

To tell you the truth, I'm having a pretty difficult time choosing among these 3 guys. I guess we can rank Lankford 3rd just because his career was a little shorter and he didn't play as much in the post-season. But it's not a distant third, and I have no clue how to rank Carter and Alomar ahead of him.

How would you rank these 3 guys?

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Poll to determine Mike Fetters contest winner

2009-07-07T10:35:00.002-04:00

There were a lot of funny entries for the Mike Fetters contest and I have picked my favorites. Please vote in the poll below. The author getting the most votes wins the prize.

MMayes entered:

"Dear 1972 Mike:

Things are going good now that you're 8. You've got a cool little glove here. Hang in there, even though things might get tough and you might get tempted to quit baseball for girls. You're going to make it as a big leaguer and have a long career, so don't let the girls distract you (except for Jenny Griggs in 1984...she'll be worth it).

Best wishes

1990 Mike"

RoofGod entered:

On lineup card:

"1B Ben Dover"

metsthoughts entered:

Dear photographer,
Sorry for stepping on your nuts.
Mike Fetters

D a V e entered:

Dear Diary,

I have a new best friend, his name is Devo. That is short for Devon White. He is such an Angel - that's it... a movie! Angels in the outfield. Must pitch movie idea to Disney tomorrow. Secondly must pitch tomorrow.
Remember Mike, I deserve good things, I am entitled to my share of happiness. I refuse to beat myself up. I am an attractive person. I am fun to be with. I am Mike Fetters.

Just about all of the entries made me laugh, with the exception of dayf's because I really hate Naked Gun and other movies of that genre. (Nothing personal, dayf!)

I liked RoofGod's entry because of the idea of writing on a lineup card, and metsthoughts' entry because it took into account where the photographer was when taking Fetters' photo.

Anyway, here is the poll. You vote, and somebody wins.

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1990 Upper Deck #749 750 751 752

2009-07-07T08:00:00.000-04:00

Oil Can Boyd
Mike Benjamin
Alex Cole
Eric Gunderson

BEST PHOTO

This is a weird mix of card. The two Giants cards are both boring except for the wicked wrist bend that Gunderson is sporting. The Boyd card is a ripoff as Upper Deck used very similar photos on the front and back. The only saving grace is the top-half crop on the back photo with the use of the horizontal layout.

The Cole card, though...whoa. We could talk about this one all day. The front is a very unusually casual shot with Cole carrying his own bats and duffel bag. I assume that's his bag, as nobody wore #18 for the Padres in 1990. Yes, nobody--not even Cole. That's because he didn't play for the Padres in 1990. Upper Deck obviously had this photo and decided to issue a card for Cole based on his great rookie season with the Indians, which started after the Padres traded him to the Indians in July 1990.

BEST STAT

Here's a good one. Cole's 1990 performance ranks in the top 25 all time for fewest plate appearances for a player scoring at least 43 runs. Note that almost every other instance on the list is either from way, way back in history or from the Steroids Era (1993-present), when scoring is up. The only exceptions are Wilson in 1978, Cangelosi in 1987 (although that was a very screwy year), Terrell in 1974, and Cole.

BEST IN 1990

Benjamin and Gunderson barely played in the majors in 1990. Boyd was the best, posting a 10-6 record along with an excellent 2.93 ERA. Special mention should go to Cole, though, who played in only 63 games but scored 43 runs thanks in large part to a .379 OBP.

BEST ANAGRAMS

Oil Can Boyd = I can bloody
Alex Cole = Axe cello
Eric Gunderson = Reduce snoring = Endure scoring

BEST CAREER

This is sort of a sorry lot. Cole and Gunderson both ended up with below-average numbers although both guys did some good things in the majors. Mike Benjamin was way below-average offensively but did play more than a season's worth of games at each 2B, 3B, and SS. In the end, I guess I have to go with Dennis Boyd. After all, the guy pitched professionally in 2005 and attempted a major-league comeback this year at age 49!

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1990 Upper Deck #745 746 747 748

2009-07-06T10:00:00.000-04:00

Dave Winfield
Delino DeShields
Dann Howitt
Tony Pena

BEST PHOTO

Two different players here are holding up two fingers. DeShields is doing it on the front of his card while Howitt is doing it on the back of his. Of course, they're doing it for totally different purposes. DeShields is telling his waitress he wants two more shots of Jagermeister while Howitt is showing just how big a fan of Ozzy Osbourne he is.

I would be remiss not to mention the photo on the back of Tony Pena's card. This might be the best photo in the entire set. They made use of the space to show a horizontal shot, allowing them to capture Pena's leg stuck out while catching, something unusual for a catcher which Pena often did. Simply fantastic.

BEST STAT

Winfield had an OPS+ of at least 105 in every season he played from 1973 to 1993 (he missed all of 1989 due to injury.)

BEST IN 1990

DeShields and Winfield both had good seasons in 1990 but Big Dave takes the cake.

BEST ANAGRAMS

Dave Winfield = Flawed divine = Waved infield
Delino DeShields = I diddle no less, eh?
Tony Pena = Neat pony!

BEST CAREER

HOF Dave Winfield

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Contraction

2009-07-04T08:00:00.001-04:00

Several years ago, King Bud was talking about contracting a few teams in MLB that couldn't cut it financially. I came up with a way to cut out half the teams in baseball by combining teams as follows:

Minnesota Twindians
Florida Marliners
Tampa Bay Blue Rays
Washington Cardationals (try "keeping up with" them)
Baltimore Oroyals
Altana Padraves
Los Angeles Rangles of Arlington
Chicago CubSox
Cincinnati RedsOX
Houston Piros
New York Phillets
Oakland GiA's
Colorado Yonkies
Los Angeles Brewgers
Arizona Tigerbacks

Contest: What is Mike Fetters writing?

2009-07-03T10:18:00.005-04:00

Check out today's card post right here. Mike Fetters appears to be writing something. Post a comment below saying what you think he's writing, and what he's writing it on. I'll pick the few best entries and make a poll to decide the winner. I'm going for humor.

YOUR PRIZE if you win is an unopened bonus pack from a 2009 Series 2 Topps blaster containing one of those baseball legend historical commemorative patch cards.

UPDATE: Yeah I am an idiot. It's a 2009 pack, not 2008 (corrected above.)

1990 Upper Deck #741 742 743 744

2009-07-03T08:00:00.002-04:00

Hector Villanueva
Mike Fetters
Mark Garnder
Matt Nokes

BEST PHOTO

First things first. The Fetters photo is fascinating, and I'm posting a contest about it. Save your thoughts about this card until you see the contest.

I'm getting a little tired of the Wrigley batting shots, as Villanueva's is the 4th or 5th already in the first 40-some cards of this set. The photo on the back of Hector's card is unfortunate too. Villanueva was not a thin guy but by putting him right in front of a chubby umpire I think he looks even heavier than he was.

The Nokes photo is also very odd. It's so weird to have a closeup from such a high angle, plus his eyes are almost invisible. It's nice, though, to see the "1" on Nokes' sleeve, which all the Yankees wore that year to honor Billy Martin, who died in Christmas day 1989.

Finally, another odd photo on the back of Gardner's card. His glove hand is strangely twisted with the ball inside the mitt. His pullover is also twisted around, allowing us to the tag with the number "40" written on it, which was indeed his number that year.

BEST STAT

Villanueva's K/BB performance in 1990 is among the 50 most-recent seasons with at least 27 Ks and no more than 4 BBs among non-pitchers.

BEST IN 1990

This is a toughie. None of these 4 guys was great in 1990. Nokes had an off-year as he was traded from the Tigers to the Yankees. Fetters was just getting started and didn't fare too well (but went on to have a great career--see below.) Villanueva barely played, getting just 120 plate appearances, but he hit pretty well, swatting 7 homers. (Never mind that 27/4 K/BB ratio, heh.) The best, though, was probably Gardner, who pitched 152.2 innings with a good 1.245 WHIP and 107 ERA+. He went only 7-9 that year and in fact this was only 1 of 2 seasons when he had a better-than-average ERA+, the other coming in 2000 with the Giants.

BEST ANAGRAMS

Hector Villanueva = A helluva contrive = Unclothe a revival
Mike Fetters = Meekest rift
Mark Gardner = Grand remark
Matt Nokes = Takes most (not to mention "monk teats" and "meat knots")

BEST CAREER

I wrote about Mike Fetters previously on this blog right here. He had the best career out of this bunch.

I do want to make special mention of Matt Nokes, though. This guy had a pretty good career playing as a half-time or sometimes full-time catcher. He always hit pretty well. The thign that really hurt Nokes is that first full season he had with 32 homers. Had he hit 22 instead of 32, expectations for him would have been more reasonable and his career would be viewed better than it is.

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Reminder: Shopped cards

2009-07-02T09:41:00.002-04:00

Firstly, Shopped Cards #19 is still going on. Head over there and see if you can figure it out before Jason posts the answer. Heh.

Secondly, here are the answers to the Shopped Cards contest.

The winner was Kevin from Orioles Card "O" the Day. He was home sick the day I posted the contest and therefore put a couple of hours into it right when it was posted.

1. Cal Ripken #650
2. Steve Bedrosian #440
3. 2005 TATFF Mark Grace #4
4. Mike LaValliere #539
5. Jim Lindeman #562
6. Garry Templeton #640
7. Junior Noboa #503
8. Joe Hesketh #371
9. Larry Andersen #342
10. Alan Ashby #48
11. Mike Scioscia
12. Don Carman #415
13. Jim Pankovits #487
14. Tony Gwynn All-Star #402
15. Rey Quinones #358
16. Carlton Fisk #385
17. Mike Scott #760
18. Alex Trevino #512
19. 2004 TATFF Dave Stewart #54
20. Stan Clarke #556
21. Frank White #595
22. Scott McGregor #419
23. Rafael Palmeiro #186
24. Mark McGwire #580

1990 Upper Deck #737 738 739 740

2009-07-02T08:00:00.001-04:00

Carlos Baerga
Greg Smith
Scott Sanderson
Joe Kraemer

BEST PHOTO

These are all pretty ho-hum photos. That Sanderson headshot is way too up-close and overlit for my liking although it is nice to see the alternate jersey. I can't find much of note except the Texas Ranger behind Sanderson on the back of his card.

BEST STAT

From 1990 to 1993, Sanderson was one of 5 pitchers to register double-digit wins and losses in every season. He was the worst pitcher of the bunch.

BEST IN 1990

Sanderson was best in 1990, as he went 17-11 in his lone year with the Athletics despite a slightly below-average ERA. He also appeared in 2 games in relief in the 1990 World Series, pitching a scoreless inning of relief in one and getting bombed in the other (2 outs, 3 hits, one walk, 2 earned runs). It's also worth noting that his neutralized stats suggest that he deserved to go 9-12 in 1990.

But of the other candidates, only Baerga played much, doing decently in his rookie year.

BEST ANAGRAMS

Carlos Baerga = A scarab ogler
Scott Sanderson = Dance, snort, toss

BEST CAREER

This, too, is a tough call. Sanderson and Baerga were both average players. (Seriously. Sanderson finished with a career ERA+ of 102 and Baerga finished with a career OPS+ of 100.)

But I'll give the edge to Baerga for 2 reasons: firstly, he was a second baseman, so finishing with an average OPS is pretty good and secondly, he did well in the post-season, driving in 8 runs in the 1995 post-season (4 each in the ALCS and World Series.)

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1990 Upper Deck #733 734 735 736

2009-07-01T08:00:00.001-04:00

Terry Shumpert
Nolan Ryan
John Burkett
Derrick May

BEST PHOTO

All 4 photos on the front are great. You might miss it at first glance, but Shumpert is actually completely off the ground in his photo. Ryan's likeness was captured from a low angle, getting clouds in the frame. Burkett is making a pretty awesome grunt face (click on the image to see a close-up) and May is shown in a nice running shot.

Of the photos on the back, the first thing that struck me is that Upper Deck got one of Burkett showing him in his bowling set. As you might know, Burkett is (and was while an active player) an avid bowler and his set stance in baseball was very similar to his set stance in bowling.

The back of Shumpert's card features a bonus shot of Lance Johnson (#1), giving the card extra points in my book.

BEST STAT

Derrick May homered off John Burkett on June 13, 1993.

BEST IN 1990

Shumpert and May didn't play much in 1990 and while Burkett had a decent season, Nolan Ryan was best with a 13-9 record, league-leading 232 strikeouts and 1.034. It was also the last season in which he pitched 200 innings.

BEST ANAGRAM

Terry Shumpert = Hurry, tempters!
Nolan Ryan = Oral nanny = Ran a nylon
John Burkett = Betroth junk
Derrick May = Dick my rear

BEST CAREER

Clearly Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan had the best career.

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It would appear that someone has a bone to pick with Todd Walker

2009-06-30T13:50:00.002-04:00

...based on some of the content in his Wikipedia page.

Thanks for the tip to Brian, who should probably be working on some cases right now.

The best player in the game today

2009-06-30T11:12:00.005-04:00

It's Albert Pujols, and it isn't even close.

This is a 2008 Topps Target insert based on the T-205 design.

I just made a Photoshop action that allows me to create cool mirrored cards like this, although I got the idea from another blog, but I forget which. Can somebody remind me which blog displays cards like this?

1990 Upper Deck #729 730 731 732

2009-06-30T08:00:00.002-04:00

Jeff Reardon
Mitch Webster
Brian Bohanon
Rick Parker

BEST PHOTO

This is a pretty interesting group of photos. Reardon has a nice action shot on the front, and a fairly casual shot on the back. Webster, oddly, has squinted eyes on both the front and back. What's the deal there? Bohanon's photo on the front is very cool, with the ball practically coming off the card.

But I want to draw your attention to the Rick Parker card for a moment. Check out that photo on the front. Ignore the odd look on his face. I have to believe that this photo was taken at a moment when the ball got away from the catcher and Parker was considering dashing home from third base. Or perhaps he has just rounded third and is watching the throw into the catcher to see if he should continue. In any event, I've invented a fun game called "Pretend that Rick Parker has just rounded FIRST base". Then, it just looks like he's doing some bizarre hotdog action, daring the catcher to try to throw him out. And his facial expression becomes priceless.

BEST STAT

Rick Parker didn't have a lot or particularly notable career but he did have a hell of a game in this 23-run beatdown the Giants handed the Braves. Parker's 3-run homer in the 4th inning put the Giants ahead to stay and he finished with 4 hits, 6 RBI, and 4 runs scored. This was the Braves' last year of ineptitude as they took first place the following year.

BEST IN 1990

Jeff Reardon was the best in 1990, despite having a lower-than-average save total for him. His next year, 1991, would be his last great year.

BEST ANAGRAM

Jeff Reardon = Jar offender
Mitch Webster = Wet birch stem (neato!)
Brian Bohanon = Ah, Iran bonbon

BEST CAREER

Jeff Reardon, obviously, although both Mitch Webster and Brian Bohanon had some good seasons.

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1990 Upper Deck #725 726 727 728

2009-06-29T08:00:00.000-04:00

Scott Radinsky
Todd Hundley
Scott Hemond
Lenny Webster

BEST PHOTO

Nice photos here for fans of catchers, although Hundley has managed to look pretty dorky on both the front and back of his card. Unusually for this set, the Radinsky card is the onyl one displaying two uniforms.

BEST STAT

Hundley's 1996 is often cited as one of the all-time monster years for catchers, but it wasn't actually all that good. In fact, it ranks only 37th all-time for Runs Created in a season by a catcher. Many seasons both before and after rank quite a bit higher.

BEST IN 1990

None of these guys was noteworthy in 1990. Hundley, Hemond, and Webster barely played in the majors that year and Radinsky had an ERA+ of just 80 over 52.1 innings. Still, I guess he was the best. In case you were curious. Hundley hit just 1 HR in half a season in the minors that year.

BEST ANAGRAM

Scott Radinsky = Dork's sanctity
Todd Hundley = Oddly hunted
Scott Hemond = Modest notch
Lenny Webster - I refer you to the anagram on his 1989 Topps ML Debut page.

BEST CAREER

Todd Hundley has one huge year in 1996 (41 HR 112 RBI) followed by an excellent year in 1997. He also had two seasons that he played only about half the year--1995 and 2000--that were really good. Otherwise, he was pretty damn forgettable and finished with a career OPS+ of 102. Although Hundley might have had more value on paper, I'm going to award this one to Radinsky, who had 5 seasons as a well above-avergage reliever and a handful of other decent years, plus came back after missing all of 1994 with Hodgkin's Disease.

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Shopped Cards #19

2009-06-26T10:45:00.002-04:00

Shopped Cards is back, baby!

You had better believe me--this one is TOUGH!

Yes or no questions only.

Answer:

The crop was taken from the right side of the card, and then it was rotated and had its colors inverted.

Tony Gwynn Jr

2009-06-26T09:37:00.002-04:00

Is it just me, or is it insanely cool to see Tony Gwynn Jr. kick ass for the Padres, hitting well over .300 just like his papa?

Anybody have some Gwynn JUNIOR cards to trade me? Email me at 88topps at gmail dot com.

1990 Upper Deck #721 722 723 724

2009-06-26T08:00:00.002-04:00

Craig Grebeck
Shawn Boskie
Jim Leyritz
Bill Sampen

BEST PHOTO

Of the photos on the front, the ones for Leyrtiz and Sampen are by far the most interesting, with a nice 3B-fielding pose for the former and an excellent shot capturing the stadium from head to toe in the background for the latter. Is that Stade Olympique?

BEST STAT

Craig Grebeck hit only 19 career homers, but 5 of those came off Kenny Rogers and David Wells. Grebeck hit increidbly well off Rogers in particular, with 9 hits and 9 RBI in 29 at-bats. And, for what it's worth to you, I was at this game when he homered in the 7th inning.

BEST IN 1990

With the exception of Grebeck, none of these guys had a bad season in 1990. Sampen and Boskie both pitched 90-some innings with Sampen having the edge, coming in with a 2.99 ERA.

BEST ANAGRAMS

Shawn Boskie = Banishes wok = Swab honkies
Jim Leyrtiz, Yankees = Jerky senility maze
Bill Sampen = Nimple pals (or, OK, penal limbs)

BEST CAREER

None of these guys was a star although everyone except Boskie had at least one great year. Boskie was decent some years but managed to lead the league in HR allowed in 1996 despite pitching only 189 innings. Wow.

The best career here belongs to Jim Leyritz, although he's helped by playing mainly for really good Yankees teams. In the regular season, Leyritz was pedestrian, finishing with a 106 career OPS+. But in the post-season, the guy was cash money. He batted only .213 but he had--get this-- 8 HR and 20 RBI in 72 career post-season plate appearances. Think about those numbers for a minute.

Of course, the story gets a lot worse for Leyritz will his very serious issues over the last couple of years. I believe he is still awaiting trial on vehicular manslaughter charges.

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Posts not publishing

2009-06-25T09:17:00.001-04:00

Starting about 3 days ago, my scheduled posts stopped auto-publishing on time. Is anybody else having this problem?

Bud Bulling

2009-06-25T09:04:00.003-04:00

Over the 83 Fleer Project, this card was just posted:

It's signed by Bud Bulling, the guy on the right. I'd never heard of Bulling before, and he certainly didn't have a particularly long career. I figured that he must be on this card for some reason, so I looked up the game mentioned on the card (from 5/6/82) and the box score is right here.

It appears that Bulling had what at one time would have been called the "game-winning RBI", a now-defunct stat crediting the player who drove in the run that put his team in the lead for good in a game. This game, Gaylord Perry's 300th win, is an example of why the GWRBI was a dumb stat. Yeah, Bulling's 3rd-inning single put the Mariners ahead 1-0, but it was guys behind him who built the score to 5-0 that prevented Perry from relinquishing the lead, as he did eventually allow 3 runs in the game.

Game-wining RBI was a stat that MLB kept and Topps actually displayed it on their cards for a while.

For example on the back of Eddie Murray's 1988 Topps card, just below his Major League Totals stat line, you can see GW-RBI for 1987 and GW-RBI for his career.

Topps continued to show it in 1989.

But in 1990 they stopped after MLB dispatched GW-RBI as an official stat.

Here are some older cards just so you can see the GW-RBI notations:

But going back to 1985, Topps didn't have the GW-RBI that year:

Interesting the the Baseball Trivia Quick answer is still the same, and probably will be for a long, long time.

I believe Topps cards even earlier than 1985 also did not carry the GW-RBI stat.

1990 Upper Deck #717 718 719 720

2009-06-25T08:00:00.003-04:00

Tim Layana
Greg Myers
Pete O'Brien
John Candelaria

BEST PHOTO

Upper Deck makes great use of the dual photos here by showing Myers in full catching gear, face obscured, on the front, but giving us a good look at the guy while batting on the back. My only beef is that both photos were taken at Comiskey, featuring him in the same road jersey. (Most of the cards in this set seem to feature two different jerseys in the photos.)

I have to say that I love the O'Brien card. It's got an action batting shot on the front and an action fielding shot (pretty rare for a 1B) on the back, plus he's rocking different uniforms. The front photo must be a spring training game since he's wearing a warmup jersey but there is no batting cage.

The Candelaria card here maintains his perfect streak of looking terrible on every single one of his baseball cards.

BEST STAT

Greg Myers is one of three catchers to play every season from 1989 to 2005. Can you name the others?

BEST IN 1990

Interestingly, only one of these guys played a full season in 1990, and he was also the best that year: Tim Layana. In his only full season in the majors, Layana pitched to a 114 ERA+ over 80 innings.

BEST ANAGRAMS

Tim Layana = Anal amity
Greg Myers = Merry eggs
Pete O'Brien = Teenier bop = bee protein
John Candelaria = Nonracial jehad

BEST CAREER

I'll give special mention to Greg Myers, who was a good backup catcher for many years and had a very long career as a result. But the best player in this bunch is Candelaria, who was a good pitcher for many years and a great pitcher for a couple, notably 1977 with the Pirates. Also, except for 1 of 2 games in the 1979 World Series, he pitched excellently in the post-season and was part of the '79 championship team, combining with Kent Tekulve on a shutout in Game 6.

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Another Shopped Cards contest

2009-06-24T09:31:00.002-04:00

If you liked my big Shopped Cards contest, be sure to check out this one over at The Writer's Journey.

1990 Upper Deck #713 714 715 716

2009-06-24T08:00:00.001-04:00

Scott Ruskin
Glenn Braggs
Kevin Bearse
Jose Nunez

BEST PHOTO

Wow can you imagine the excitement in the Bearse household? He finally gets to the big leagues and has his first-ever major league baseball card, and when they gaze upon it, they see little Kevin damn near sucking his thumb in the photo. AWESOME!

With the exception of the Nunez card, all the rest show players in both home and road jerseys between their two photos, which is exceptionally cool. The photo on the back of Braggs' card seems to be airbrushed to blur out the guy standing right behind him.

BEST STAT

Of Braggs' 70 career homers, only 23 (33%) were tying or go-ahead, a below-average fraction.

BEST IN 1990

Another tough decision. Bearse barely pitched in the majors at all in 1990, his only year in the big leagues. Nunez was no good in 1990. Glenn Braggs was decent enough in 1990, and actually pretty darn good after his trade to the Reds mid-season. But in this group of guys, it was ScottRuskin who was best, splitting time between the Pirates and Expos after moving as part of this significant trade:

August 8, 1990: Traded by the Pittsburgh Pirates with a player to be named later and Willie Greene to the Montreal Expos for a player to be named later and Zane Smith. The Pittsburgh Pirates sent Moises Alou (August 16, 1990) to the Montreal Expos to complete the trade.

Lots of talent moving in the trade as all 4 guys had some good big-league years.

Anyway, in 1990 Ruskin pitched a total of 75.1 innings, compiling a very good 132 ERA+ while getting into 67 games.

BEST ANAGRAM

Scott Ruskin = Rustic knots (or uncorks tits, if you prefer)
Kevin Bearse = Is breakeven, or bereaves kin
Jose Nunez = Nouns, jeez!

BEST CAREER

This is a bit of a sorry lot to choose from, and Glenn Braggs wins by default. All 4 guys had short careers, with Braggs' 7-season odyssey being the longest. He still finished a bit below league-average OPS-wise, but at least he was part of a World Series champ, even if he did manage just 1 hit (but 2 RBI) in the 1990 post-season with the Reds.

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Did Glenn Wilson comment on my blog?

2009-06-23T11:31:00.003-04:00

OK, here's a wacky story. Loyal readers will know that before this blog, I started off with the 88 Topps Cards blog. I got something like a thousand comments on that blog, and there was just one that I deleted.

My reason for deleting this comment was that I thought it was left by a troll who simply wanted to criticize card collectors as basement-dwellers and losers (which, no doubt, some of us are.) His comment included the assertion that I have personally never stepped foot on a baseball field which, while not technically true (I got to walk on the field at the Kingdome a while back), is true in the spirit in which the commenter meant it, in the sense that I'm not really in a good position to judge MLB talent.

Anyway, the comment was originally posted on my 88 Topps entry for Glenn Wilson, then of the Phillies. You might want to go read that first so you can full appreciate the rest of what I'm about to reveal here.

Now, here is the text of the comment that post posted to the page for Wilson's card.:

"You guys are too lame. None of you must have girlfriends, or all ugly wifes. Heres the deal. Andy, you have never stepped foot on a major league field, so how n the he!! would you know who is worthy of a all-star selection or not, and jred, that lame nick name arm could throw you out from the warning track with a 30 foot head start...... yall have fun!! "

Instantly, you can probably see why I deleted this comment. It really seemed to be a random troll. If the comment took serious issue with the content and made any type of actual counterargument, I probably would have let it stand despite its nastiness.

I often think back to this comment, remembering the ppoint about me having never stepped onto a major-league field. The commenter was right about that, and it makes me think twice about how I criticize players, since I really have only the numbers or what a player says in interviews to go by. I don't know these guys and I don't know what it's like to play baseball.

This morning, I went back to the email notification for the comment just to re-read it and remind myself of its lesson. Then I noticed the full text of the email:

glenndub1 has left a new comment on your post "#626 Glenn Wilson":

You guys are too lame. None of you must have girlfriends, or all ugly wifes. Heres the deal. Andy, you have never stepped foot on a major league field, so how n the he!! would you know who is worthy of a all-star selection or not, and jred, that lame nick name arm could throw you out from the warning track with a 30 foot head start...... yall have fun!!

It's from a user named "glenndub1" which I suppose is Glenn W, which I further suppose is none other than Glenn Wilson. If you click on his name above, you can see that the account was created just when I posted Wilson's card, so the author probably created the account expressly to comment on the Wilson card.

It seems to me fairly likely that the comment came from Mr. Wilson himself. His reaction to my criticism that he was not an all-star caliber player is exactly how I might expect that player to respond, by calling into question my credentials for making such a determination. The rest of his post was a shot at the rest of my community who seemed to agree.

Regardless, I want to tell the author that although I thought much of the content of his comment was overly harsh and irrelevant, I do see his point and have tried to incorporate its message into my approach.

1990 Upper Deck #709 710 711 712

2009-06-23T08:00:00.001-04:00

John Franco
Mark Davis
Dave Justice
Storm Davis

BEST PHOTO

There's something to like about all these photos:

Franco's headshot is kind of boring, but the "blue seats to infinity" behind him is cool, plus there's a nice action shot on the back.

Mark Davis' photo was taken at an unusual angle, allowing us to get some clouds in the picture. I couldn't quite figure out what he's signing--probably a game program.

Justice has a nice posed shot on the front and a nice look at his funky helmet on the back. I think he wore that only early in his career.

Storm Davis has no hat in both photos, which is quite unusual. He's totally rocking the Top Gun look on the back in another very casual candid photo. Personally I think this card would have worked a lot better with an action shot on the front to go with the candid sunglasses laugh on the back--it would have highlighted just how casual and off-beat the back photo was.

BEST STAT

Of the 272 pitchers to throw at least 50 innings in 1990, Mark Davis had the 5th-worst WHIP (walks + hits per inning pitched.) This from the guy the Royals just signed to a 3-year, $14 million contract at a time when the average major-league salary was still below $1 million per year.

BEST IN 1990

No doubt that Justice was the best in 1990, as Franco had a good (but average for him) year and both Davises had down years, with Mark Davis in particular being quite awful, one of the worst free-agent signings in the last 30 years.

BEST ANAGRAMS

John Franco, Mets = He confronts jam
Storm Davis = Smart voids
Mark Davis, Royals = He sucks bad free agent signing (ha! made you look!)

BEST CAREER

This is a pretty tough one to figure. John Franco finished 3rd in career games for a pitcher and 4th in saves. Those career rankings cannot be overlooked, as nobody gets that high in any category without having excellent talent, execution, and longevity. David Justice topped 300 HR and 1000 RBI and was one of the best power hitters of the 1990s. He played in an incredible 21 post-season series, benefiting from playing for all excellent teams (Braves 1991-1995, Indians 1997-2000, Yankees 2000-2001, Athletics 2002.) In just under 400 career post-season at-bats, he totaled 14 HR and 63 RBI, very good numbers for the playoffs.

In the end, though, I have to go with John Franco as the best of this group. Justice probably had more total value in his career (as closers are generally over-valued) but I can't fault Franco for how he was used. He did what his managers asked of him, and did it extremely well.

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Loathing Fehr

2009-06-22T15:51:00.002-04:00

Some great news today as Donald Fehr has announced his retirement as head of the Players' Association. With all his years on the job, I believe Fehr had become far too powerful and influential and is one of the main guys who prevented steroid testing (not to mention a salary cap.) I'm sure the new guy will be much the same (or have you not heard "Won't Get Fooled Again"?---Meet the new boss, same as the old boss...) but perhaps with less entrechment we'll see a slightly more modern and enlightened approach.

Cardboard Flunkie

2009-06-22T13:58:00.003-04:00

Good ol' dayf from Cardboard Junkie sent me a package. Unfortunately, I was extremely disappointed that he chose not to enclosed a letter after my most recent package to him included a detailed description of some significant assets. Oh well, I can always hope.

Anyway, dayfid sent a pretty awesome little collection of things, including:

A Bobby Higginson card I asked about but still don't understand

Why is Bobby holding up a piece of paper with his name? Can anybody give me more info on this card?

And a 2009 Topps Adam LaRoche that I think is one of the best-looking photos I have ever seen:

and oh, a Mike Schmidt jersey card

Wow, what a sweet card. The black, white, silver and gold motif really works. I love the black Phillies logo. This card is very similar to a Phil Niekro one I sent dayf about 8 months ago. He posted it to his blog but now I can't find it.

And check out this Tino Martinez card:

A bit beat up but still very cool. Dayfid and I had been talking about 2002 Topps Traded relics, and I'm sure that's why he sent me this spiffy card (no, wait, he mailed them before we had that chat...wait a second...does he have spooky powers???) I'm looking for the Eric Young bat card from this set, if anybody has one to trade.

I find the graphic on this card a bit odd. Those 3 white lines connecting the patch to the image are strange. I get the third one--a bat. But the first one is a ball--do they really put hacked up little pieces of ball on some of these cards? And what is in the second image? Is that a glove? No idea. Cool card, though.

Lastly here is a sweet Robin Ventura jersey swatch:

The unorthodox shape of the patch is pretty cool and I'm one of just 3 people on earth who care about Ventura's time with the Yankees, so dayf nailed that one too.

Thanks dayf! Your awesomeness grows each year.

1990 Upper Deck #705 706 707 708

2009-06-22T08:00:00.002-04:00

Tim Leary
Chuck McElroy
Gerald Perry
Tom Brunansky

BEST PHOTO

For photos on the front, I think Brunansky's is quite clearly the best. It's simply a beautiful posed shot with the stadium nicely framing Bruno, in a warm-up jersey. Gerald Perry has a nice action shot, although a close-up of his head reveals a bit of a scary look:

Now, ok, I get that Perry has an overbite. I'm not the most beautiful person in the world and neither is he. But this photo makes it look like he's got goth makeup on around his eyes, plus his eyebrows and facial hair look painted on. What the hell is going on here?

The photos on the back reveal two priceless shots. First we see a whole lot of reflection in McElroy's glasses. If you look carefully, you can see the ass of another player in the lens on the left, and a whole row of players warming up on the right. But the real gem here is the back of Perry's card, with a journalist (is that Johngy?) carrying what was even for then a bit of an old-fashioned tape recorder. Not to mention that ridiculous microphone...

Oh, and there's a bonus shot of a very blurry Dwight Evans in the background behind Brunansky on the back of his card.

I've got nothing to say about Tim Leary's photos except....booooooring.

BEST STAT

From 1986 to 1988, Brunansky is one of the 7 guys to get 20+ HR and 10+ stolen bases each year. The other 6 are all big names. Bruno hit a lot of triples in his career as a power hitter but finished with more caught stealings than stolen bases. I wonder what that means...fairly fast guy but not a good baserunner, perhaps?

BEST IN 1990

Let's see...that would not be Tim Leary, who led the league with 19 losses (although didn't actually pitch all that badly, as is true for most guys with big loss totals.) Turns out 1990 would be Leary's last fairly decent season.

McElroy didn't pitch much in the majors in 1990, and Perry actually had his worst full season that year (not that it was terrible.)

Out of this bunch, it was Brunansky who was best in 1990, especially once he joined Boston. Unfortunately it didn't carry over to the post-season, where Bruno managed just 1 hit in the 4-game sweep by Oakland in the ALCS.

BEST ANAGRAMS

Gerald Perry = Regard reply
Tom Brunansky = Bonny muskrat = brusk antonym
Tim Leary = Try email

BEST CAREER

In a bit of an upset, it turns out that Chuck McElroy had the best career of this group. Brunansky was almost certainly more valuable, but for what McElroy did, he performed the best, finishing with a career ERA+ of 111 over 739.1 innings.

It's also worth noting that Leary gets a bum rap because of that 19-loss season in 1990, but did have a handful of decent years where he threw a lot of innings. He's better than most people remember him.

Interestingly, Gerald Perry just lost his job a few days ago as hitting coach for the Cubs.

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Curve ball

2009-06-21T19:20:00.002-04:00

I found a really interesting demonstration of why curve balls may be so effective at fooling hitters. Try it out yourself right here. To me, this explanation holds a lot of water. It's not so much that a curve ball is curving that makes it tough for batters to hit--because over time batters can learn to track the path of a curveball and project where it will end up. Rather, it's essentially an optical illusion--a disruption to the optical sensing of the ball's location. It lasts only a split second, but of course even on a slow 70-mile-per-hour pitch, a momentary confusion over actual trajectory and location is enough.

This links up a bit to something I read in a recent issue of Wired Magazine (The May issue, also known as the Mystery issue) where a master pickpocket talked about some of his techniques. He talked about distracting the victim with one hand while making the heist with the other hand. His distracting hand, though, worked best when moved in an arc instead of a straight line. Apparently, a fairly recent manuscript published in the journal Nature (co-authored by a group of magician-type people) discovered through research that the human eyes cannot successfully track an object traveling in a curved path. When, by contact, an object moves in a straight line, we have learned to track its trajectory and then project to the eventual end point. Our eyes, it turns out, automatically move to the end point when we see something in linear motion. However, when an object is moving in a curve, the only way to discover the end point is to continue to track the object with the eyes--the eye-brain connection doesn't allow us (for fast-moving objects at least) to project the end point and automatically move our eyes to that location.

This, too, could help explain why a curveball or slider is so much tougher to hit than a straight fastball.

Shopped Cards: the contest

2009-06-19T13:15:00.007-04:00

UPDATE: We have a winner already! Much more quickly than I expected, I got lots of entries, including 4 yesterday that were perfect. Please feel free to continue to work on the puzzle and email me your guesses if you like--I'll score them for you. I'll post the answers to this puzzle sometime next week.

Here's a special Shopped Cards contest!

This card is comprised of 24 different baseball cards. The only hint I'm giving is that they are all cards posted on my 88 Topps Cards blog.

To enter the contest, identify as many of the cards as you can. Use this key to identify your cards:

In other words, you should compile a list. #1 is XXX, #2 is YYY, and so forth. Email me your list at 88topps at gmail dot com by Sunday night, June 28th, 11:59 PM. I'm giving this contest a while to run to make sure that everybody has time to work on it.

The winner will be the entrant with the most total points. You get +1 point for each correct guess, -1 points for each incorrect guess, and 0 points for each blank. So, you're better off leaving a number blank than guessing at random. When you email me your entry, I will email you back to confirm. Once you email me your entry--that's IT--you cannot update/change it later. Ties will be broken by the earlier date/time of entry.

What's the prize, you ask? It's as follows:

The 1988 Score Rookie & Traded set
The 1989 Topps Major League Debut set
An assortment of a few hundred 2008 & 2009 cards
At least a couple of unopened packs
A few insert/short print singles

I'm disabling comments for this post because I don't want anybody to spoil things for anybody else. If you have questions, email me using the address above. If there is pertinent information for everybody, I'll post updates on this page.

Links/shoutouts on your blog to this contest page would be appreciated. And while your visiting my old blog, don't be shy about posting comments...I'll reply if they warrant a response.

1990 Upper Deck #701 702 703 704

2009-06-19T10:00:00.001-04:00

Jim Gott
Rookie Threats - Delino DeShields, Marquis Grissom, Larry Walker
Alejandro Pena
Willie Randolph

BEST PHOTO

For starters, you can click on the photos for larger versions. The card backs are down toward the bottom.

Three things catch my eye about this set of photos. Firstly, it's tough to ignore the trio of young Expos on the card, with the bonus Brave walking in the background. Secondly, it's striking to see Willie Randolph in an Oakland uniform. I can accept Yankees, Dodgers, Brewers (due to his great 1991 season) and Mets, but Oakland slips under the radar. Thirdly the back of the Pena card (see below) deserves a more detailed look.

I should mention that I'm not crazy about the use of quotation marks around the words "Rookie Threats." That's not a correct use of this punctuation.

BEST STAT

Here's an awesome stat I just found to kick things off. Since 1981, just 3 pitchers have at least 7 career shutouts and 70 career saves. Who are they? John Smoltz and Dennis Eckersely are the easy ones. The tough one? Alejandro Pena. Go back a little futher and Bob Stanley joins the list.

BEST IN 1990

Willie Randolph was not very good in 1990 and looked finished, but as mentioned he rebounded to have an awesome season with the Brewers in 1991. Jim Gott was solid in 1990, as was Pena. But the best has got to be one of the Expos. Walker and Grissom had yet to really get going, and DeShields had the best year of the three. In terms of value, DeShields wins but he's probably just a smidge ahead of Gott.

BEST ANAGRAMS

Rookie threats = Shakier tooter
Alejandro Pena = A jalapeno nerd
Willie Randolph = A downhill peril

BEST CAREER

It's clear that the only contenders among this set are Larry Walker and Willie Randolph. Willie was a solid player, part of 5 teams that went to the World Series and 2 champions (although he didn't play in the 1978 post-season) and he also recently managed the Mets for 3 1/2 seasons with some success. Walker, on the other hand, had a fantastic career (helped only somewhat by Coors Field) although had less success in the post-season. Still, based on Walker's strength as a player, he gets the nod here.

So we need to see that photo on the back of Pena's card. Here it is:

Right away this is a very unusual photo. It's not immediately clear which guy is Pena, although I have to assume he's the fellow looking into the camera. It's unusual (or at least was unusual in 1990) to see a card photo that is so casual, i.e. a guy wearing a towel on his head. And who else is in the photo? I assume these are all members of the bullpen, since these guys appear to be sitting on chairs or a bench down one of the lines. You can see arms from a fan in the background. The guy in the foreground appears to have a uniform number starting with a 5 and a name starting perhaps with a P. My first thought was Bill Pulsipher, was this photo was far too early, as Pulsipher didn't debut until 1995. The only Met pitchers with a 5 in their uniform number that year were Sid Fernandez (50) and Ron Darling (15) and clearly it's neither of those guys. Hmm. Could be a bullpen catcher or a coach maybe. The guy all the way on the left is easy to identify...That's Julio Machado.

OK so here we have a poll to decide which of these 4 cards should continue on in our quest to find the best card in this set. There are no rules on what criteria to use for voting. You can vote for the best player, the best photo, the best-looking card, or whatever else tickles your fancy.

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1989 Topps Major League Debut #151 & #152: Checklists

2009-06-19T08:00:00.000-04:00

Well, here we are at the end of the 1989 Topps Major League Debut set. We go out with a whimper, not a bang, thanks to the set ending with two checklists.

But wait--these are hardly ordinary checklists. Given numerous choices, Topps made a great decision to list the players by debut date. They could have gone by card number (or name, which is the same order) but instead they chose to group the players by another interesting piece of information. I guess this would be infuriating if you were missing, say, card #42 and wanted to know which player that was.

But this way, you can see some neat stuff, like how Xavier Hernandez and Kevin Appier debuted on the same day, June 4th.

You can also see that many more players debut in the second half of the season. They fit the first 3.5 months of the season on the first card and just 2.5 months on the second card.

The first 13 days of September saw at least one major league debut...pretty neat.

Anyway, that's all for this set!

Frank Luccesi

2009-06-18T16:19:00.001-04:00

Check out the most recent comments on my Frank Luccesi post at 88 Topps Cards.

1990 Upper Deck High # Series

2009-06-18T15:15:00.000-04:00

OK here we go with our next set.

The 1990 Upper Deck High # Series (cards 701 to 800 in the set) comes in a pretty boring cardboard box.

It gets even worse when you open the box.

But the cards inside are pretty damn nice, far nicer than the 1989 Topps set we just saw.

Hold on to your hats. Starting on Monday, we'll be posting one post per day with 4 cards per post, as well as stats, commentary, and a poll. In a month, we'll blast through this entire set, determine the best card, and give away the entire set.

1989 Topps Major League Debut #150: Todd Zeile

2009-06-18T15:00:00.000-04:00

Todd Zeile

PHOTO: This is the last player card in the set and it's a nice photo. The red teams (Reds, Cardinals, Phillies) had on-average the best cards in this set thanks to the red borders. This is also another of many, many photos in this set taken at Shea Stadium.

STAT: Among the 44 guys to amass 2000 hits since 1989, Zeile has one of the worst career OPS+ values. Of the guys worse than him, a few did it on longevity alone, while guys like B.J. Surhoff did it, like Zeile, with a mixture of longevity and some hitting talent.

ANAGRAM: Todd Zeile = I'd let doze

CAREER: 6/10

Zeile is a tough guy to grade. In his favor: above average hitter, played multiple positions, hit well in the post-season including stellar performances in the 1996 ALCS and 2000 NLCS, despite never making the leaderboard for hits in any season he's one of just 258 players to top 2000 hits, and he had a long career. Against his case: played in 150 games in only 8 seasons, above-average but few truly great seasons, never topped 300 total bases, topped 100 RBI or runs only once, stole 53 bases but thrown out 51 times, below-average defensively.

Want list

2009-06-18T12:00:00.004-04:00

People keep asking me for my want list, so this is basically it.

These days, I'm only collecting bat or jersey cards. Here are the players I'm most interested in, although I will gladly take any player from the late 80s or early 1990s.

Harold Baines
Steve Carlton
Tony Clark
Carl Crawford
Julio Franco
Ken Griffey
Tony Gwynn
Rickey Henderson
Ryan Howard
Ichiro
Randy Johnson
Don Mattingly
Fred McGriff
Paul Molitor
Terry Mulholland
Tim Raines
Mike Schmidt
Bernie Williams
Eric Young
Robin Yount

Similar names would be considered too.

1989 Topps Major League Debut #149: Clint Zavaras

2009-06-18T12:00:00.000-04:00

Clint Zavaras

PHOTO: Not a great photo, plus half bodies of two non-uniformed personnel in the background.

STAT: Zavaras didn't have great numbers but he allowed only 4 homers in more than 50 innings, plus only one of those homers wasn't a solo shot.

ANAGRAM: Clint Zavaras = Valiant czars

CAREER: 1/10

52 innings and a 5.19 ERA in his one major-league season

1989 Topps Major League Debut #148: Eric Yelding

2009-06-18T08:00:00.000-04:00

Eric Yelding

PHOTO: OK, that's some serious bling around Yelding's neck. Does anybody know what that is? On the big image, it looks like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.

STAT: Yelding has the second-worst season, ranked by OBP, among guys with at least 25 caught stealings in that season. Yeah, that's bad. Oh, Omar Moreno.

ANAGRAM: Eric Yelding = Idly generic

CAREER: 2/10

Yelding is another in a long line of fast players who couldn't get on base. Fortunately, teams saw that he was so bad offensively that he didn't stick around nearly as long as similarly talented guys.

Interesting that he played more games at SS and in the OF despite being listed as 2B on this card.

Shopped Cards #18

2009-06-17T20:52:00.001-04:00

Yes or no questions only.

Answer:

Bye bye, jackass!

2009-06-17T19:42:00.002-04:00

See you in 45 years, Mel Hall.

1989 Topps Major League Debut #147: Matt Winters

2009-06-17T15:00:00.001-04:00

Matt Winters

PHOTO: Seems like the Royals have a guy like this every so often. Big, tall, heavy guy who hits a lot of homers but not much for average. See also Bob Hamelin, Steve Balboni, Calvin Pickering, Ken Harvey...

STAT: Winters topped 20 HR in a season 5 times in the minors.

ANAGRAM: Matt Winters = Man twitters! (or smarten twit)

CAREER: 1/10

Just 122 plate appearances with the big team.

Pulling for Wang

2009-06-17T14:07:00.002-04:00

I'm pulling for Chien-Ming Wang today, in what might be the final start of his career if he can't pull it together. A bad outing probably also spells the end for Yankees' pitching coach Dave Eiland.

Franco bat card - MINE AT LAST

2009-06-17T13:55:00.005-04:00

I've been looking for a Julio Franco bat card for a long time and I finally got myself one.

I think this Bazooka card is the only bat card issue for Franco, although that could certainly be wrong. I've searched high and low for others and never found one. I also have never found a GU jersey card for Franco.

I really like these Bazooka designs. The Bazooka line of cards is, in my opinion, playful and very much in the traditional spirit of baseball cards.

I have a bunch of other Bazooka GU cards thanks to a bunch of trades. Here they are.

I love the fortune on this card. While I like the card overall, I wish they used a bigger photo of Baines. I pulled a card just like this of Dave Justice that I sent to dayf that I wish I had kept.

Here's a nice one of one of my favorites, Carl Crawford:

Using the double O for the bat segment was genius.

Here's a similar card for A-rod:

That's a nice photo there showing him about to make contact.

And a similar card of Mark Teixeira:

Here's a Bazooka jersey card for Teixeira:

The swatch is, oddly but playfully, in the shape of Bazooka Joe. Also, the August 17th date is remarked upon on the back. Tex hit for the cycle that day.

Here's a very nice David Ortiz bat card. The 3 pennants of different sizes was a great design choice. This is probably the nicest-looking card out of the bunch.

1989 Topps Major League Debut #146: Craig Wilson

2009-06-17T12:00:00.001-04:00

Craig Wilson

This is the first of three guys to play MLB named Craig Wilson. Don't confuse him with the guy who played for mostly the Pirates in the 2000's.

PHOTO: Wowsers, this is an awful airbrush job. Fake jersey, fake background, fake everything. What's the deal?

STAT: Wilson, known mostly for his career with the Cardinals, hit his only career homer off another guy known mostly for his career with the Cardinals. And neither guy was actually playing for the Cardinals at the time.

ANAGRAM: Craig Wilson = Cowgirl a sin

CAREER: 2/10

Just 402 career plate appearances, but he had a great season as a part-time player in 1992.

1989 Topps Major League Debut #145: Paul Wilmet

2009-06-17T08:00:00.000-04:00

Paul Wilmet

PHOTO: I've never heard of this guy before, but the first thing I thought when I saw the photo was that he looked awfully old to be a rookie. Indeed, as you can see from the card back, Wilmet was born in late 1958, making him 30 when this photo was taken.

STAT: It's kind of sad to look at this guy's career. He spent 8 years in the minors (missing 1983 for some reason), got bombed in the majors at the end of 1989 and after a lackluster year in the minors in 1990, was done in pro baseball.

ANAGRAM: Paul Wilmet = Will eat ump

CAREER: 1/10

15.43 ERA in 2.1 major league innings

Shopped Cards poll

2009-06-16T17:26:00.002-04:00

Here is your chance to have input into the future of Shopped Cards posts. Please feel free to post other thoughts/suggestions in the comments.

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Shopped Cards #17

2009-06-16T15:32:00.004-04:00

Yes or no questions only. You can ask them even if I haven't answered them all yet. This one is tough.

Answer:

Negative

Original

1989 Topps Major League Debut #144: Dana Williams

2009-06-16T12:00:00.000-04:00

Dana Williams

PHOTO: This right here might be the ugliest card in the set, and that's saying something because Williams himself is a damn handsome man with a great smile. The big solid blue batting practice jersey clashes with the turquoise background, and the dots on the jersey clash with the dots on the borders...ugh. Just horrible.

STAT: Judging by his minor league numbers, Williams looks to have been a pretty good hitter with some speed.

ANAGRAM: Dana Williams, Red Sox = Wild animals road sex

CAREER: 1/10

6 career plate appearances.

Life intercedes

2009-06-16T10:04:00.003-04:00

I rarely travel for work but today I am visiting clients off-site so I'm going to skip Shopped Cards for today. I have a nice one for tomorrow planned, though.

With regards to the future of this blog, I am going to go forward with the 100-card 1990 Upper Deck High Number series. Each post will feature 4 cards and a poll to elect the best of the group. That will leave 25 cards. Each card will be assigned to a reader through a random drawing, and then your cards will be pitted against each other in subsequent polls. You will get the chance to argue for the merits of your card. The reader assigned to the ultimate winning card wins the whole set.

1989 Topps Major League Debut #143: Dean Wilkins

2009-06-16T08:00:00.000-04:00

Dean Wilkins

PHOTO: Don't confuse Dean Wilkins with Rick Wilkins, a catcher who came up (also with the Cubs) a couple of years later. Dean Wilkins is the guy who looks like a sullen alcoholic on his 1989 Topps Major League Debut baseball card.

STAT: Only two batters got more than 1 hit off Wilkins: Darryl Strawberry (3) and Ricky Jordan (2).

ANAGRAM: Dean Wilkins = Swindle a kin

Sorry, he doesn't look like an alcoholic--he looks like someone who would steal from his own brother.

CAREER: 1/10

31 innings and a 7.55 career ERA.

1989 Topps Major League Debut #142: Kevin Wickander

2009-06-15T15:00:00.000-04:00

Kevin Wickander

PHOTO: Wow this is an almost identical photo to that on Russ Swan's card, absence of baseball and all.

STAT: Wickander didn't give up many home runs (even rate-based he was good.) However, his last 2 were doozies--both grand slams when his team was already down by 4 runs.

ANAGRAM: Kevin Wickander, Indians = Advanced in kinkier wins

CAREER: 3/10

Wickander was an above-average lefty who put together several nice seasons although, like a lot of lefty relievers, didn't pitch many innings. He also walked too many batters.

Shopped Cards #16

2009-06-15T13:00:00.006-04:00

OK, here is a new twist on Shopped Cards.

We're starting off with a blacked-out image that I have divided into a grid of 70 pieces.

Now you can ask either a yes or no question about the image OR you can ask to have a particular region exposed. There are 10 columns (1 through 10) and 7 rows (A through G) so if you want an area exposed you can post, for example "B3" or "G10."

Just so you know, the final answer for this particular puzzle will be in the form of "A BLANK with a BLANK." If your answer is not in that format, then it's probably not complete so you won't get it correct.

You have 20 posts to get it right (questions + exposures.)

I will be scrupulously following the rule of ignoring all comments after the most recent new comment that I haven't answered. So just wait until I answer before asking your question/exposure.

As areas are exposed I will update the image below.

Answer:

1989 Topps Major League Debut #141: Wally Whitehurst

2009-06-15T12:00:00.000-04:00

Wally Whitehurst

PHOTO: Ugghhh....overexposed, blurry. Yuck.

STAT: Whitehurst pitched a lot against the Cubs. The two batters he faced the most in his career were Mark Grace and Ryne Sandberg. Grace got a few singles and not much else while Sandberg hit the ball all over the place (doubles and triples and homers, oh my!)

ANAGRAM: Wally Whitehurst = Hurl witty whales

CAREER: 3/10

Whitehurst was an average-ish pitcher who had a couple of nice seasons and a couple of dull seasons. He was part of two memorable trades, one I've mentioned at least 5 times on my various blogs.

December 11, 1987: Traded as part of a 3-team trade by the Oakland Athletics with Kevin Tapani to the New York Mets. The Los Angeles Dodgers sent Bob Welch and Matt Young to the Oakland Athletics. The Los Angeles Dodgers sent Jack Savage to the New York Mets. The Oakland Athletics sent Alfredo Griffin and Jay Howell to the Los Angeles Dodgers. The New York Mets sent Jesse Orosco to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

October 26, 1992: Traded by the New York Mets with a player to be named later and D.J. Dozier to the San Diego Padres for a player to be named later and Tony Fernandez. The New York Mets sent Raul Casanova (December 7, 1992) to the San Diego Padres to complete the trade.

Names, revisited

2009-06-15T10:45:00.003-04:00

Back on this post I asked about names because it seems like a lot of the guys in this set don't go by their first name, or a nickname.

Here's what I found.

Players not going by their middle name or nickname of middle name (17):

Beau Allred, Kevin Appier, Blaine Beatty, Joey Belle (technically, since he later switched to his first name), Tommy Greene, Ken Griffey, Gene Harris, Xavier Hernandez, Greg Hibbard, Scott Little, Greg Litton, Randy McCament, Ben McDonald, Scott Scudder, Dwight Smith, Mike Stanton, Doug Strange

Players going by some name other than their first or middle (2):

Goose Gozzo, Chip Hale

And so that leaves 131 players who go by their first name or nickname of their first name.

The breakout is 87.3% going by their first name, 11.3% going by their middle name, and 1.3% going by a different name.

In our poll, we had 36 votes, with 94.4% going by their first name, 5.6% going by their middle name, and 0% going by some other name, altough JayBee should have voted "other" but my poll wasn't clear.

So, looks like I was right that there's a higher percentage of players in this set going by their middle names, as least compared to our small control group.

1989 Topps Major League Debut #140: Ed Whited

2009-06-15T08:00:00.001-04:00

Ed Whited

PHOTO: Here's a nice rainbow card with just about every color you can think of represented. The bat says "15" but that's Jeff Treadway's number. Whited wore 10.

STAT: Whited's lone career HR came in the bottom of the 9th in this game, bringing the Braves closer but they still lost.

ANAGRAM: Ed Whited = Did he wet?

CAREER: 1/10

Just 82 career plate appearances.