New Arrival: Barolo Colon, sp, Texas Rangers

I grew up in Cleveland in the 90’s, and Bartolo Colon was a big part of those late 90’s and early-00’s Indians clubs. And he was even important to the post-Colon Indians since the club got a nice haul of prospects when he left–to include Grady Sizemore, Brandon Phillips and Cliff Lee.

Since leaving the Indians Colon has gone on to have a long and, some would argue, borderline Hall of Fame worthy career. Personally I am not sure about the HOF part, but otherwise, he has had a nice—and long–run.

• Made his debut in 1997. Was not impressive, going 4-7 with a 5.65 ERA. But that would not last long, and by 1998 he was an All-Star, going 14-9 with a 3.71 ERA/128 ERA+.
• Career record of 245-182 and a 1.306 WHIP.
• That is good for 46.4 WAR over 21 seasons.
• He has rated Top 10 Cy Young votes five times, and won the award in 2005 while with the Angels.
• That 2005 season would be his career best in wins (21), though only one of two times he would ever crack the 20 win barrier.
• He has been an All-Star four times–and as recently as 2016, when he went 15-8 for the Mets.
• This season–he is 45 years old–he is still putting up league average numbers with the Braves. He is 5-6 with a 4.65 ERA/1.172 WHIP/97 ERA+

I was able to get this card for less than the price of the slabbing, so I am pretty thrilled. The cards put out by Topps that mimic the 1952 Topps set will always be some of my favorites, though many don’t look great signed because they are really colorful with some dense pictures. But I think this one came out really nice.