Collecting Cleveland Indians Topps team sets from 1952-present, as well as post-war minor and major league autographs.
Coming back to Cleveland in the Rosario trade was Noah Syndergaard. This was more about money–and Cleveland helping eat some salary–than about value back. I had heard that most Dodgers fans were sick of Syndergaard, but I did not appreciate how bad a pitcher he had become until I saw it in person.
Infielder Juan Brito is having a fantastic first season in the Cleveland organization. On the season he is hitting .292/.406/.449 with 5 HR between High-A and AA.
I am still, five years later, upset that Cleveland traded Yandy Diaz. Someday, I really hope that we learn the real reason why they decided to trade him away. I don’t really buy the glove and launch angle thing.
I had a small pile of cards that didn’t have names on them, and for years have been meaning to start going through and identifying who I could and tossing the rest. Most were nothing special. But when I got to this card I was like like “Wait a minute…I…know this autograph.”
… Man, baseball can be an unfair game sometimes. See: Colorado Rockies outfielder Sean Bouchard. … Sean Bouchard was having a fantastic season with AAA Albuquerque in 2022, hitting .300/.404/.635 with 20 HR and 12 stolen bases. And even with his power, he was still walking at a good rate.[…]
Going through a box of autographs that I had yet to catalog, and found a nice surprise: the 2022 National League Rookie of the Year.
Brady Clark was one of the first autographs I ever got when I got into collecting back in the early-2000s. Last month there was a private signing for him, and I was able to send two cards in. It was a nice chance to finally get his autograph on a nice item.
Andrew McCutchen, at his peak, was a great player. From 2010-2015 he had a 146 OPS+ and averaged 23 HR and 22 SB per season. He was selected to five All-Star teams, and won a single Silver Slugger and four Gold Gloves. He has slowed down quite a bit since then.
Austin Riley was the 44th overall pick of the 2015 draft, and by 2019 was the Brave’s #1 prospect and the #22 best prospect in baseball. But plenty of highly rated players flop when they get to the big leagues, and it certainly looked like that could’ve been the case with Riley.
On July 6th, 2012 the Lake County Captains played the West Michigan Whitecaps. The Captain’s line-up had two future major league players batting at the top of the order, with Jose Ramirez leading off and Francisco Lindor in the #2 hole.