Collecting Cleveland Indians Topps team sets from 1952-present, as well as post-war minor and major league autographs.
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[…]
Kevin Newman was the Pirates 1st round pick back in 2015. 19th overall. Newman had consistently ranked as one of the Pirates Top 10 prospects since being drafted and made the majors this season. He has zero power, but his contact skills and defense are top notch. This season he[…]
Andrew Calica was drafted in the 11th round of the 2016 draft out of UC Santa Barbra. I was lucky enough to snag him prior to him getting drafted when USB came rolling through Hawaii in 2016. Since going pro he has moved steadily through the system, advancing[…]
George Valera was signed out of the Dominican in 2017. He was considered one of the best international prospects at the time. Because he was raised in the United States for 13 years before moving to the Dominican he was able to skip the island summer league and jump right[…]