Collecting Cleveland Indians Topps team sets from 1952-present, as well as post-war minor and major league autographs.
Eddie Basinski spent three seasons in the major leagues. From 1944-1945 with the Dodgers and 1947 with the Pirates. He was never a full-time player and he would slash .244/.292/.319 with 4 HR over 602 at-bats–good for an OPS+ of 68. But don’t let anyone tell you he was not[…]
Brandon Nimmo is a really good player. This season–his third in the big leagues and first as a full-time player–saw him hit .263/.404/.483 with 17 HR, good for an OPS+ of 150. Nimmo was a first-round pick back in 2011 and has generally been considered one of the better hitting[…]
I never really appreciated how great John Smoltz was until recently. I blame that partially on the fact that I grew up a Cleveland fan, and after the 1995 season tried to not think too much about the Braves. But Smoltz…man. He was really good. Good enough that after reading[…]
Kevin Pillar is not a terrible player. He is not great, but you could do a whole lot worse. This season he hit .252/.282/.426 with 15 HR–good for an OPS+ of 93. His defense in centerfield is good, though this year he seemed to lose a step. At 30 it[…]
Wally Post was a really great player for the Reds’s in the 1950’s–so much so that he was inducted into the Cincinnati Hall of Fame in 1965. But if you are not a fan of the Reds there is a good chance that you have never heard of him. While[…]
Vince Fernandez was drafted out of UC Riverside in the 10th round of the 2016 draft by the Colorado Rockies. He was a very solid D1 player, showing good pop and on-base skills. He hit .350/.431/.509 with 8 HR during his junior season prior to the draft. I was lucky[…]
I got this J.J. Matijevic autograph back in 2016 while the University of Arizona was playing here in Hawaii. My notes at the time: This weekend Arizona is visiting Hawaii…and the series is not going well for Hawaii. There are a couple Arizona players that have really impressed me on the[…]
Fred McGriff was a very good baseball player–and I think people sometimes forget how good. McGriff spent 19 seasons in the big leagues and was an above average player for pretty much all of them. His “peak” seasons ran from 1987 through 2002 and during that time he averaged 30[…]
I really like Amed Rosario. No idea why. I think maybe it’s his autograph, which I kind of dig. Maybe because he is decent hitting shortstop with plus defense. Those are always fun. It helps that his autograph is so cheap that instead of driving downtown to get him in-person[…]
I wrote to Bobby Jenks in 2009-2010, sending a signature card to get signed. This is what I got back and was initially disappointed. At the time I was not much into getting Ginters signed…but this changed that quick. The card looked fantastic–clean design that really lets the autograph pop.[…]