Collecting Cleveland Indians Topps team sets from 1952-present, as well as post-war minor and major league autographs.
Scott Brosius was in the big leagues for 11 seasons (1991-2001). He is best known for his four seasons with the Yankees, especially his 1998 season. That year, Brosius hit .300 with a 121 OPS+, was selected to his only All-Star team, and won the World Series and World Series[…]
Much like the Aaron card I posted earlier today, this card purchase was inspired by watching Ken Burns’s baseball documentary. I jumped at this card since the autograph was still nice and bold. It would seem many of these have not aged well, though from what I can tell it’s[…]
Ken Griffey jr. was easily the most popular player in the game when I was growing up. I still think of him as one of the greatest that ever played the game, though I try to quickly remind myself that isn’t really the case. During his peak–I will say from[…]
Watching Ken Burns’s baseball documentary reminded me of how amazing Hank Aaron‘s career was and inspired me to drop a little money to add another autograph of his to my collection. I liked this card, in particular, since it was an Emerald version. Green is my favorite color. It was[…]
Will Brennan was drafted by Cleveland in the 8th round of the 2019 draft out of Kansas State. He was a decent prospect coming out of college, with good outfield defense and great on-base skills. But he did not have a ton of pop, so his ability to limit strikeouts[…]
Peak Vladimir Guerrero, from 1998-2008, was something else. During that period Guerrero hit .325/.392/.581 with 149 OPS+. He averaged 35 HR a season. My favorite stat is that he only averaged 70 K’s and 59 walks a season. The dude liked to swing. And when he swung, he normally made[…]
Brandon Moss is one of my favorite players, having played for both Cleveland and Oakland. Moss was a very productive bat during his three seasons (2012-2014) with the A’s, hitting .254/.340/.504 and averaging 25 HR a season. Good for an OPS+ of 135. This included his only All-Star selection in[…]
Nick Markakis spent 15 very good seasons in the big leagues. His career was defined by consistency: he was rarely injured (averaging 144 games a year), and retired with a very solid line of .288/.357/.423, good for a 109 OPS+. His best season came very late in his career. In[…]
Man, Steve Carlton was great. I mean, he is in the Hall of Fame, so of course, he is. But man! Look at this: 329 career wins During his peak–from 1967 to 1984–he averaged 262 innings a 17 wins a season. 262 innings! He won 20-games six times, including a[…]
If we just avoid the issue of PEDS, Jason Giambi was a great player. He spent 20-seasons in the big leagues and retired with 440 HR and 139 OPS+. While he didn’t have a Hall of Fame career even before the specter of PEDS hung over his career, he was[…]