Collecting Cleveland Indians Topps team sets from 1952-present, as well as post-war minor and major league autographs.
I spent like $30 on this card. At the time–2008–it was not the worst idea. Beau Mills was taken by the Indians with the 13th overall pick of the 2007 MLB draft. His bat was one of the best in the draft that year, but he was defensively limited to[…]
Payton Henry is a pretty exciting young catching prospect. He was drafted in the 6th round (171st overall) by the Milwaukee Brewers in 2016 out of high school in Utah. He is a power bat and showed that tool off in Low-A when he hit .327/.380/.707 with 10 HR. What’s[…]
Matt Krook was the 35th overall pick in 2013 out of a San Francisco high school, but he did not sign since he failed his physical with the Marlins. So he went to college at Oregon. He ended up needing Tommy John surgery and missed his sophomore season. When he[…]
In 2013 Scott Kazmir signed a minor league deal with the Cleveland Indians. He would go on to have a very nice season, going 10-9 with a 4.04 ERA/1.323 WHIP/94 ERA+ over 158 innings. He was no small reason why the Indians were able to sneak into the post-season as the[…]
Joey Wendle was one of the Indians better middle infield prospects from 2012-2014. But there was no room for him with Jason Kipnis on the roster, and so he was traded to the A’s for Brandon Moss. It was not a terrible trade. Moss was the kind of power hitter[…]
Back in 2014, I went to my first Division 2 game, Hawaii Pacific v. Azusa Pacific University. I was after Azusa’s Josh Staumont, who was at the time the #1 prospect in D2 ball and a projected first-round pick. I got him 10 minutes after I showed up. It was[…]
I got this autograph from Todd Frazier back in 2014 when the Red’s were in town playing the Cleveland Indians. He was a good signer every time he was in Cleveland. It’s one of the big reasons that, despite playing for the Yankees, I still kind of root for him.[…]
I got this autograph in-person back in 2014 while the Dodgers Low-A team was visiting Lake County. Joey Curletta was originally a 6th round draft pick of the Los Angeles Dodgers back in 2012. He has been traded twice since then–being sent to the Phillies in 2016 and Mariners in[…]
I had a thing for Cespedes since the day he signed with the A’s. In 2014 I built a vacation around graphing the A’s in Cleveland–their roster was stacked with players that I liked, and they had a reputation as a decent signing team. I figured it would be a[…]
Back in the day, I lived within a couple hours of the Cubs AAA affiliate. I didn’t go to many games, but I followed them close enough to know when a good player was in town, either with the Des Moines Cubs or a visiting team. In the process, I[…]