1989 Topps Major League Debut #137: Mickey Weston

Mickey Weston

PHOTO: Weston's holding the ball out front in an unusual way...almost looks like he's taunting the batter.

STAT: Weston gave up homers to mostly very good players (including McGriff, Hrbek, Downings...) but his last one was to, umm, Ken Hill?

ANAGRAM: Mickey Weston = We come stinky

CAREER: 1/10

Just 45.1 innings pitched for Weston, compiling a 7.15 ERA.

1989 Topps Major League Debut #118: Mike Smith

Mike Smith

PHOTO: Well, well, well. This is certainly one of the most interesting photos in the set, immediately reminding me at Al Leiter's 1988 Topps card (not that it's Leiter on that card.) I guess this was taken late in the day or something, although the black edges all around Smith does make this one look Photoshopped.

Four Mike Smiths have played MLB.

STAT: Interesting list--the 5 guys to homer off Mike Smith. One of them is Bam Bam.

ANAGRAM: Mike Smith = I skim them

CAREER: 1/10

Only 23 big-league innings for Mr. Smith, plus a 8.22 career ERA.

1989 Topps Major League Debut #78: Ben McDonald

Ben McDonald

PHOTO: I just hate these media guide type photos. Nothing more to say.

STAT: McDonald's final career numbers are pretty good. He's remembered even better than he was thanks to his top games, led by 4 shutouts with game scores of 87 or higher.

ANAGRAM: Ben McDonald = Condemn bald!

CAREER: 5/10

As mentioned above, McDonald's legacy is a little bit better than his actual numbers, probably because for a while he was one of the few good pitchers the Orioles had. The 5 is a bit generous for a guy who only played 9 seasons, but his ERA+ of 115 playing mostly for crummy teams is hard to overlook.

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 #13: Juan Bell

Juan Bell

PHOTO: For some odd reason, I didn't know until after Bell retired that he is the younger brother of George Bell, which is pretty obvious from the above photo as they bear quite a resemblance to each other. Want to see? Check out the elder Bell's 1988 Topps All-star card.

STAT: The Baseball-Reference PI is down right now as 1954 and 1955 are being added to the database, so I can't search on this. However, I noticed that Bell began his career with two seasons where he didn't get on base at all and produced an OPS+ of -100. True, he appeared in only 13 games total, but it's still pretty impressive.

CAREER: 1/10

Bell had a very disappointing career, especially as one of the star prospects the Orioles acquired when they traded Eddie Murray to the Dodgers. Bell was fairly unusual in that he was really bad with both his bat and his glove.