Collecting Cleveland Indians Topps team sets from 1952-present, as well as post-war minor and major league autographs.
Frank Thomas was a very good player. I think some people forget how good. In 19 seasons in the big leagues, Frank Thomas hit .301/.419/.555, hitting 521 HR. He retired with an OPS+ of 156 and OPS of .974. He accumulated 73.9 WAR. He was selected to five All-Star games,[…]
Krishna Raj is a freshman starting pitching with Tulane University. He has had a couple of bumpy outings, but overall he has had a very nice season–especially for a freshman. Over 17.1 innings he has only allowed 12 hits while striking out 16. He does walk too many guys, with[…]
I got this autograph in-person a couple years ago in Lake County. Albert Abreu was on the Houston Astro’s low-A team when I got this autograph. He was already well thought of prospect at the time. My notes: Abreu entered the season as one of the Astros top 15[…]
Nolan Arenado is a very good baseball player. This season he hit .297/.374/.561 with 38 HR while also playing Gold Glove defense. He ended the season #3 in MVP voting, the fourth year in a row that he was in the Top 10. I have a couple Arenado autographs, but[…]
Jacob deGrom won the 2018 Cy Young Award. He did it despite winning 10 games. which if you know how these votes (and voters) work, is very impressive. Luckily voters looked past his win total and looked at the numbers that count: over 217 innings he only allowed 152 hits[…]
Everyone likes to talk about Bryce Harper, but I think Anthony Rendon should deserve just as much respect from Nationals fans. This season Rendon hit .308/.374/.535 with 24 HR–good for an OPS+ of 137. This was the third season in a row that he hit at least 20 HR. He is 28,[…]
I know that he lost Game 7 of the World Series and all…but I still miss Bryan Shaw. I got this autograph that season–2016–while on vacation. Dude was a rock while he was with the Indians. From 2013-2017 he averaged 72 innings, 61 hits and 67 K’s.[…]
Back in 2016, I drove the two hours from Lake Country to Mahoning Valley to see the Astro’s short-season affiliate play the Scrappers. One of the big reasons I wanted to make the drive to get Stephen Wrenn. Wrenn was the 6th round pick of the Astro’s out the University of Georgia. Being[…]
Neat autograph that I was able to get in person during the 2016 season. Nelson Cruz got on my radar back in the early 2000s when he was traded by the Mets to the Athletics for Jorge Velandia. But like so many A’s prospects during that time, he never made the majors[…]
Chris Paddack an 8th round pick of the Marlins in 2015 out of a Texas high school. He came over in July 2016 as part of the Fernando Rodney trade. He lost his 2017 season to Tommy John surgery but needed no time to get back up to speed in[…]