Collecting Cleveland Indians Topps team sets from 1952-present, as well as post-war minor and major league autographs.
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[…]
Jerome Williams was a very good pitching prospect. He was the Giant’s #1 prospect in both 2001 and 2002, and their #3 prospect in 2003. He made the majors in 2003 with the Giants and he held his own, going 7-5 with a 3.30 ERA/1.260 WHIP. But he struggled in[…]
Not that I need another Travis Hafner autograph, but this card was too nice to pass up. The Indians traded Einar Diaz and Ryan Drese to the Rangers for Travis Hafner in 2002. It was a very good trade. Never forget how amazing Hafner was from 2004-2007: .296/.410/.567 with an[…]
An on-card autograph! I could not pass it up. Will Wilson was selected by the Angels with the 15th overall pick of the 2019 draft. I saw Wilson play here in Hawaii while with North Carolina State, so it was neat seeing him go so high in the draft. Wilson[…]
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[…]
Back in 2002, the Indians sent 1B Russel Branyan to the Reds for 1B Ben Broussard. I guess it’s not a great deal for the Indians if you are just counting career WAR (11.2 for Branyan, 4 for Broussard), but Broussard would have a very solid four-year run with[…]