Collecting Cleveland Indians Topps team sets from 1952-present, as well as post-war minor and major league autographs.
Corey Jolks was one of the Top 500 players from the 2017 draft, and would be taken that season in the 8th round (241st overall). He is currently in AA-ball, hitting .272/.320/.412 with 2 HR. Why I like him He is not really a prospect anymore, but he does hit.[…]
2003 Grandstand Boise Hawks Rich Hill, his first minor league card. One of my favorite in-person autographs was getting Rich Hill while he was pitching with the Cleveland Indians back in 2013. During his brief stint with the Tribe, he went 1-2 with a 6.28 ERA/1.733 WHIP/ 61 ERA+[…]
JT Brubaker went to college at the Univerity of Akron–near my hometown–so I was very happy when he was drafted by the Pirates in the 6th round of the 2015 draft. I wrote to him in college but never got anything, but I was able to get him in 2015[…]
Ronny Rodriguez spent part of 2018 and all of 2019 on the Tiger’s major league roster as a super-utility player. Over those two seasons, he hit .221/.254/.396 with 19 HR, good for a 70 OPS+. He was granted free agency in November 2020 and is not playing baseball right now.[…]
Mike Blowers had a nice 11-season career. I remember him best for his 1998 season with Oakland when he hit .237/.302/.386 with 11 HR as the team’s primary third baseman as the team transitioned away from Scott Brosius and moved into the Eric Chavez-era at the hot corner. He would[…]
Matt Whitney was the Indians 1st round pick of the 2002 draft–33rd overall. He was a great prospect, who got comparisons to Manny Ramirez, Scott Rolen, and David Wright at different points in his minor league career.
2012 Topps Gypsy Queen Dual Autograph Relic Justin Verlander . I can’t say that I am a huge fan of Justin Verlander. But I am a fan of baseball, and if you are a fan of baseball…you have to appreciate Verlander’s career to this point: 2006 AL ROY, 2011 AL[…]
Twins outfielder Byron Buxton is having himself a season. He is hitting .370/.408/.772 with 9 HR and leads the majors in WAR with 2.86. This should not be a huge surprise; Buxton was the 2nd overall pick of the 2012 draft and from 2013-2016 was considered one of the[…]
This weekend I took a couple of minutes to try and appreciate who good a player Frank White was, and what a huge role he played on the Kansas City Royals dynasty that would end up winning the World Series in 1985. White was a glove-first type (he won eight[…]
When I first got into autograph collecting, Esteban German was one of the Athletics biggest prospects and a personal favorite of mine. In 2001 he was the Athletics MiLB player of the year and looked like he would turn into a prototypical leadoff hitter at the big league level. But[…]