1989 Topps Major League Debut #147: Matt Winters

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.

1989 Topps Major League Debut #110: Jeff Schulz

Jeff Schulz

PHOTO: Ahh, the look of shock and awe on a rookie's face. Schulz appears to be watching several of the players having sex on the field during batting practice.

STAT: In just his 14th career plate appearance, Schulz hit a 2-run go-ahead triple off Roger Clemens. That game was Kevin Appier's 16th-career start and second career shutout.

ANAGRAM: Jeff Schulz, OF, Royals = Huffs jellos of crazy

CAREER: 1/10

Just 85 career major-league plate appearances.

1989 Topps Major League Debut #73: Rick Luecken

Rick Luecken

PHOTO: It seems to me that the Royals make the best cards. They always have had great uniforms that were all blue with a little white, black, or gray mixed in. Topps could always use blue as the team color (as with the two banners on this card) and get fantastic color unity. Even with the crazy red-gray border used for this set, the colors work.

STAT: Luecken did not have a notable major-league playing career, but I noticed on this list that he faced both Ken Griffey and Ken Griffey Jr (as I'm sure many pitchers in 1989-1990 did.)

ANAGRAM: This guy started the fire. Rick Luecken = Nuke clicker. Also Uncle kicker.

CAREER: 2/10

The only thing earning Luecken a 2 instead of a 1 is that he was involved in two notable trades:

December 10, 1986: Traded by the Seattle Mariners with Danny Tartabull to the Kansas City Royals for Scott Bankhead, Mike Kingery and Steve Shields.

December 15, 1989: Traded by the Kansas City Royals with Charlie Leibrandt to the Atlanta Braves for Jim Lemasters (minors) and Gerald Perry.

Both trades had a significant impact on the franchises involved and so Luecken must have carried some perceived value even though he was the throw-in each time.

1989 Topps Major League Debut #6: Kevin Appier

Kevin Appier

Now we're cooking with gas, as Appier is one of the many excellent rookies in this set.

PHOTO: I assumed when I saw the photo that #55 was another spring training number, but on this page you can see that Appier wore 55 for several years with K.C. before switching to #17. When Appier returned to the Royals in 2003 after a 5-year absence, he went back to #55 even though nobody else on the team was wearing 17.

STAT: Other than Carlton Fisk, Eddie Murray, and Cal Ripken, Appier pitched very well against HOF batters. Check out Dave Winfield: 26 at-bats, 3 singles, no RBI. Ouch. In fact, nobody held Winfield to fewer hits with at least 25 plate appearances.

CAREER: 7/10

Appier was one of the best pitchers of the 1990s, but many people don't know this because the Royals were so bad. His actual career record was 169-137 (.552) but his neutralized record was 183-117 (.610) with a 21-win season in 1993 (a year he actually won only 18 games.)

It must be mentioned, however, that the Royals made a dismal trade when they shipped him to Oakland at the trading deadline in 1999. In return, they received three guys who did very little in the majors. (Jeff D'Amico, Brad Rigby, and Blake Stein.)