1989 Topps Major League Debut #150: Todd Zeile

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.

1989 Topps Major League Debut #136: Lenny Webster

Lenny Webster

PHOTO: As with a number of cards in this set, this is another nice perspective shot where we can see all the way from the grass to the clouds behind Webster. I just wish it were less overexposed and more in focus.

STAT: Nearly a third of Webster's 33 career homers came on the second pitch of the at-bat.

ANAGRAM: Lenny Webster, Twins = Blew twenty sinners

CAREER: 4/10

Webster was a pretty good backup catcher for a bunch of years and was a starter in one year (1998 with the Orioles.) He had a number of productive years with the bat, especially as a backup catcher.

1989 Topps Major League Debut #98: Marty Pevey

Marty Pevey

PHOTO: This guy is clearly a catcher. Nice batting practice Expos jersey on display.

STAT: Pevey had only 2 extra-base hits in his career, but at least he drove in a run and scored a run in both of those games. The Expos went 6-5 in the 11 games that Pevey started.

ANAGRAM: Marty Pevey = A very empty

CAREER: 1/10

Just 42 career plate appearances...

1989 Topps Major League Debut #94: John Orton

John Orton

PHOTO: I like that we can see that Orton is really using his own bat, judging by the matching #14s on the knob and on his back.

STAT: Orton had 4 career homers, and surprisingly half of them have cards in this set: Wilson Alvarez and Jaime Navarro. Of course, I've also posted cards for Tim Leary and Shawn Hillegas before.

ANAGRAM: John Orton = Jot on horn

CAREER: 2/10

Part of 5 seasons in the bigs totaling fewer than 500 plate appearances. I guess McKaskill was wrong (see card back below.)

1989 Topps Major League Debut #93: Greg Olson

Greg Olson

PHOTO: This guy is quote obviously a catcher, making it easy to differentiate him from Gregg Olson the pitcher. Catcher photos without the face mask or protective gear freak me out a little. Would you want a catch a 95 MPH fastball without a mask or chest protector?

STAT: Check out Tom Glavine's career numbers by catcher. The last column, tOPS+, breaks out Glavine's own offense-allowed numbers by catchers. Olson's figure of 88 means that batters did far less against Glavine when Olson was catching him as compared to the rest of the catchers. Javy Lopez also did well (but not as well as Olson) with a 93. Mike Piazza and Paul LoDuca were both over 100. Here's the same stuff for John Smoltz. Here, Olson was average with a 99. Smoltz did better with Lopez (90) but was generally quite close to 100 for most of the otehr guys (Berryhill 102 and Estrata 108 for example.)

ANAGRAM: Greg Olson = Loser gong (failed game show contestant)

CAREER: 3/10

Olson couldn't stick long in the majors thanks to arriving when he was already 28 and just not hitting much at all. He did hit pretty well in the 1991 playoffs includin the most important hit of this 1991 NLCS game.

1989 Topps Major League Debut #91: Joe Oliver

Joe Oliver

PHOTO: If I had told you there was a card in this set featuring a player without a right hand, you'd all have guessed Jim Abbott, and you'd have been correct. But look at this photo above...it's not hard to imagine that Oliver's right arm terminates at its elbow and he's just waving to somebody in the distance. I also feel the need to point out that his pants are way too tight.

STAT: For players with at least 3000 plate appearances, Oliver has one of the lowest triples totals (3) of all time. Most of the guys high on this list were catchers (surprise, surprise.)

ANAGRAM: Joe Oliver = Oreo jiver

CAREER: 4/10

Oliver was an old-school catcher, meaning tough as nails, slow as dirt, and didn't hit all that much. He was the starting catcher for the champion Reds of 1990 and otherwise had a fairly unremarkable career.

1989 Topps Major League Debut #82: Matt Merullo

Matt Merullo

Merullo's grandfather Lennie was a shortstop for the Cubs in the 1940s. Lennie Merullo turned 92 a few days ago!

PHOTO: A fine posed shot, I guess. There seem to be lots of posed shots in this set with distracting things in the background, such as a telephone poll or whatever that is we see here.

STAT: Merullo had 7 career homers, and 4 of them came in the 9th inning (and one off Jeff Reardon tied the game.) Only one of his homers came before the 7th inning.

ANAGRAM: Matt Merullo = Trammell out! (of the Hall of Fame, I presume)

CAREER: 2/10

He didn't quite reach 500 at-bats in the majors.

1989 Topps Major League Debut #76: Kelly Mann

Kelly Mann

PHOTO: Hey, what time is it? 12:35, that's when! I love it! This is our second catcher in a row.

STAT: Mann's lone career homer came in this game, which is from Bizarro World. The Braves still sucked, but not for long. And the Reds starting pitcher? Norm Charlton?!? It's easy to forget that Charlton did start 37 games in his career.

CAREER: 1/10

Just 18 career games.

1989 Topps Major League Debut #75: Tom Magrann

Tom Magrann

PHOTO: Heck yes, awesome catcher photo. I just hope this wasn't during live game action. If so, somebody should tell Magrann that he's using that mask incorrectly.

STAT: Excluding pitchers, Magrann has the 3rd most PAs since 1989 without ever getting one base.

ANAGRAM: Tom Magrann = Ram man tong (sorry...)

CAREER: 1/10

He got into 9 games but had just 10 ABs and struck out 4 times.

1989 Topps Major League Debut #60: Chris Hoiles

PHOTO: I'm not crazy about photos that don't allow the reader to identify anything about the player. In other words, this is the type of photo usually given to a pitcher, and it would be fine if Hoiles were a pitcher. But as a catcher, I'd rather see a photo of him wearing some sort of catching gear or at least swinging a bat so we know he's a position player.

STAT: Hoiles was part of the first team ever (the 1996 Orioles) to have 7 players hit at least 20 homers. It's since been done twice. The Orioles were a good team that year until little Jeffrey Maier came along.

CAREER: 4/10

Hoiles was a good offensive player, posting the 4th-highest OPS+ for a catcher from 1992 to 1998 (minimum 1000 PAs.) I'm not sure why his career ended so abruptly after the 1998 season, when he was still a good offensive player.

It's also surprising to me that Hoiles was never an All-Star.

1989 Topps Major League Debut #54: Scott Hemond

Scott Hemond

PHOTO: That's quite an odd, overexposed photo, not to mention the weird net with nearby trees in the background.

STAT: Take a peek at the pitchers Hemond faced most often in his career. No wonder he didn't put up much in the way of offensive numbers. The top 20 guys are all among the better pitchers of his era.

CAREER: 2/10

Hemond was a pretty good prospect coming up but totaled only about one full season of plate appearances in his 7-year career.

1989 Topps Major League Debut #42: Joe Girardi

Joe Girardi

PHOTO: Not a bad photo of Joe, but who is the guy next to him?

STAT: Since 1989, Girardi has the 6th-most stolen bases among catchers although I suspect Russel Martin, already #5 with many fewer plate appearances, will top that list within 6 or 7 years. Of course, it should be mentioned that Girardi is also among the leaders in caught stealing for the same period.

CAREER: 4/10

Girardi didn't hit much but was on a bunch of playoff teams, including the Rockies' first-ever such appearance in 1995 and the Yankees championship teams of 1996, 1998, and 1999.

If we add in his career as a manager, I'd probably bump him up to 5 thanks mostly to what he did with the Marlins in 2006. Wait and see on his Yankees tenure...

1989 Topps Major League Debut #38: Darrin Fletcher

Darrin Fletcher

PHOTO: Not a bad photo and I especially like how the background fade from blue to red sort of matches the bleed on the card border from gray to red.

STAT: Fletcher was a starting catcher for 9 seasons, from 1993 to 2001, but was the only guy to have at least 300 but no more than 500 PAs in each of those 9 seasons. He never played enough to get over 500 PAs in any season of his career.

CAREER: 4/10

Fletcher was an average offensive player, especially if you ignore the first few years of his career. Not a flashly payer, Fletcher's best year was probably 1999 when he put up 80 RBI.

1989 Topps Major League Debut #28: Jeff Datz

Jeff Datz

Who Datz? Never heard of him before.

PHOTO: Ho hum photo except for nice Tiger Stadium background. This card is blurry...wonder if it's just my copy.

STAT: Check this out. On the first pitch of his first major-league plate appearance, Datz was hit by Jeff Montgomery. Also odd that both of Datz' career hits were singles in the top of the 9th inning of games his team was losing 9-2. And he also hit into a double play in the top of the 9th inning of a game his team was winning 9-2. Weird.

CAREER: 1/10

Just 10 major-league at-bats.