Collecting Cleveland Indians Topps team sets from 1952-present, as well as post-war minor and major league autographs.
… Man, baseball can be an unfair game sometimes. See: Colorado Rockies outfielder Sean Bouchard. … Sean Bouchard was having a fantastic season with AAA Albuquerque in 2022, hitting .300/.404/.635 with 20 HR and 12 stolen bases. And even with his power, he was still walking at a good rate.[…]
Going through a box of autographs that I had yet to catalog, and found a nice surprise: the 2022 National League Rookie of the Year.
Brady Clark was one of the first autographs I ever got when I got into collecting back in the early-2000s. Last month there was a private signing for him, and I was able to send two cards in. It was a nice chance to finally get his autograph on a nice item.
Andrew McCutchen, at his peak, was a great player. From 2010-2015 he had a 146 OPS+ and averaged 23 HR and 22 SB per season. He was selected to five All-Star teams, and won a single Silver Slugger and four Gold Gloves. He has slowed down quite a bit since then.
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.
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.
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.
Willie Mays was a pretty good baseball player. After 23 seasons in the big leagues, he retired with 660 HR and a line of .301/.384/.557, good for a 155 OPS+. Mays was selected to 24 All-Star teams, 12 Gold Gloves, two MVP awards, the 1951 Rookie of the Year Award,[…]
The 2007 Cleveland Indians were a good team. They won 96 games, and beat the Yankees in the ALDS, but could not quite get past the David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez-led Red Sox in the ALCS. The Cleveland rotation had a good rotation, with two 19-game winners in CC Sabathia and Roberto Hernandez, and a 15-win season from Paul Byrd. But it is tempting to think what would have happened if Cliff Lee would have been a productive member of that rotation.