Collecting Cleveland Indians Topps team sets from 1952-present, as well as post-war minor and major league autographs.
Aaron Laffey spent eight seasons in the big leagues. He was a decent pitching prospect–he opened up the 2008 season as the Indians #5 overall prospect–but he never really found any sustained success in the majors. The Indians traded him away in March 2011 for minor league outfielder Matt Lawson,[…]
This is one of my Top 50 favorite autographs in my collection–I wrote the J.D. Martin a bunch over the years, and for whatever reason it was not until late in his career I was finally able to snag one TTM. JD Martin was the Indians 2001 first round pick,[…]
Kosuke Fukudome was traded from the Chicago Cubs to Cleveland in July 2011. The Indians had to part ways with two prospects to get him, pitcher Carlton Smith and outfielder Abner Abreu. The 2011 Cleveland Indians, like pretty much every season since, were having trouble fielding a major-league caliber outfield.[…]
Relief pitcher Louis Head was drafted in the 18th round by the Cleveland Indians in 2012. He was a very good bullpen arm while moving up through the Cleveland organization, and seemed like he had the potential to make the big leagues at some point. But in 2018 he struggled[…]
Starting pitcher Juan Hillman was drafted by the Indians in the 2nd round of the 2015 draft. He was rated one of the Indians top 15 prospects in both 2016 and 2017, but he he struggled at Low-A in both 2017 and 2018 and fell off the prospect map. This[…]
Fausto Carmona–or Roberto Hernandez, however you want to remember him–did not have a particularly impressive career. Over 11 seasons he went 71-99 with a 4.60 ERA/89 OPS+. He was selected to one All-Star game, in 2010. But there will always be 2007. That season Carmona went 19-8 with a 3.06[…]
Years ago Omar Vizquel did a private signing, and I sent three of these 2007 Heritage cards in to get signed. They came out pretty well–this being the best of the three. Omar had a heck of a career: 24 seasons in the big league, three All-Star selections, and 11[…]
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.[…]
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.
The Philadelphia Phillies drafted outfielder Anthony Gose 51st overall in the 2008 MLB Draft. He was a good prospect and was included in a couple of reasonably high profile trades that saw him go to the Astros in 2010 (part of a package for Roy Oswalt), the Blues Jays later[…]