Collecting Cleveland Indians Topps team sets from 1952-present, as well as post-war minor and major league autographs.
I was able to get this autograph TTM from Mookie Betts in 2012, while he was playing for the Low-A Lowell Spinners. It’s hard to believe, but at the time he was not a huge prospect and was not even ranked by Baseball America.
On July 6th, 2012 the Lake County Captains played the West Michigan Whitecaps. The Captain’s line-up had two future major league players batting at the top of the order, with Jose Ramirez leading off and Francisco Lindor in the #2 hole.
aphet Amador signed with the Houston Astros back in 2013. He was 26 at the time and a veteran of the Mexican League. His numbers in Mexico were impressive; the season before signing with Houston he hit .368/.419/.693 with 36 homers for the Mexico City Red Devils.
Paul Goldschmidt had a career year in 2022, hitting .404/.578/.981 with 35 HR. He led the league in slugging, OPS, and OPS+.
Mike Schmidt spent 18 seasons in the big leagues and would retire with 548 HR, and a career 148 OPS+. He was selected to 12 All-Star teams, and won 10 Gold Gloves and six Silver Sluggers. He won three NL MVP awards.
Russell Branyan was a very well thought of prospect when he was coming up through the minors. In 1999 he was Cleveland’s #1 prospect, and was through to the premier power hitter in all of minor league baseball.
From 2004-2008, Wladimir Balentien was one of the Seattle Mariners best hitting prospects. He was projected to be a power-hitting outfielder and a solid outfield defender. But like so many power-hitting prospects, he struggled to make contact in the majors. He did not have the same issue in Japan.
Quincy Nieporte is a 27-year-old first baseman in the Detroit system and spent all of 2022 with AA-Erie. A 26th-round pick, Nieporte really isn’t a big prospect, but that does not stop him from putting up some big numbers.
Eugenio Suarez had one of the better seasons of his career in 2022, with a 129 OPS+ and 31 HR. Suarez has a rough 2021 (82 OPS+), so this was a very nice bounceback campaign for him. And it was great for Seattle as well, since he was no small[…]
I am not a Yankees fan by any stretch of the imagination. But in the late-1980s, Don Mattingly was one of the most well-known players in the game, so I was well aware of his career. And I was also from Cleveland, so it’s not like there was anyone on the Indians who were going to outshine him.