Collecting Cleveland Indians Topps team sets from 1952-present, as well as post-war minor and major league autographs.
I have no idea how good of a prospect Rangers OF Trevor Hauver is. Hauver came into this season one of the Ranger’s Top 25 prospects. Between low and high-A he hit only .220, but with showed great pop (17 HR) and great on-base skills (.387).
Justin Duchscherer had a short, but fantastic career. He was only in the majors for 8 seasons, but was selected to two All-Star teams and retired with a 139 ERA+ over 454.2 innings.
Bobby Brownlie. He was, for a hot minute, a very big deal.
Isn’t this a cool card? You can’t go wrong with a card signed by both Jim Thome and Roberto Alomar. The 2002 Upper Deck Vintage set is still, I think, one of the most attractive modern sets ever.
I had this card in my collection for years. Then I had an opportunity to get in on a private signing and decided to send this card in. It came out pretty OK.
Cal Poly visited Hawaii a couple of years ago, and pitcher Taylor Dollard was on their roster. He was a well thought of prospect, and I was able to get his autograph. He would go on to be drafted by Seattle in the 5th round of the 2020 draft.
Carlos Beltran had a fantastic career and was a borderline Hall of Fame player.
I am a big Kyle Tucker fan. I was able to get him in person back in 2016 when he was with the Low-A 2016 Quad Cities River Bandits. So it’s been fun following his career ever since.
Austin Riley was the 44th overall pick of the 2015 draft, and by 2019 was the Brave’s #1 prospect and the #22 best prospect in baseball. But plenty of highly rated players flop when they get to the big leagues, and it certainly looked like that could’ve been the case with Riley.
From 2004-2008 outfielder Brad Snyder was one of Cleveland’s best prospects, ranking as high as #3 in 2006. His power-speed combination had some people comparing him to Fred Lynn, which is a very high compliment. Unfortunately, strikeouts were a problem that dogged Snyder as he moved up through the minors,[…]