#128T David Wells

Here's the irony of this card:

Those of you who aren't familiar with David Wells will look at the above photo and think, "Gee, that guy is a little chubby," while those of us who are familiar with Wells look at the same photo and think, "Gee, I can't believe he was ever that skinny!"

This is another fantastic rookie card from the 88 Topps Traded set.

IMPACT FACTOR 4/10: Wells, along with Duane Ward, were the two unheralded members of the Blue Jays bullpen that led them to success in 1992 (and in Ward's case also in 1993.) Wells was a great reliever for the team and pitched wonderfully in the 1992 post-season.

Wells went on to have a very good career, winning more than 60% of his decisions, including a 20-win season in 2000 with Toronto during his second stint with the team. He appeared in a whopping 17 post-season series with the Blue Jays, Reds, Orioles, Yankees, Red Sox, and Padres. Sure, he was in the right place at the right time quite often, but in many cases, it was his own presence that made it the right place.

Wells was a colorful and often obnoxious player, but he was a damn tough competitor and made the most of his talent.

#127T Bob Welch

IMPACT FACTOR 7/10: Welch came to the Athletics after many years with the Dodgers and did not disappoint. Although his W-L stats were inflated beyond what he deserved thanks to a great Oakland offense, he nevertheless pitched mostly very well in 7 seasons with Oakland, including his Cy Young winning season of 1990 with a 27-6 record. He also pitched quite well in numerous post-season starts for the A's, with the lone exception of a 1988 start against Boston.

#119T Scott Terry

Terry's just about in Jay Baller territory with that chest hair. I like cards like this that show handwritten name and number, though, as on his glove with "TERRY 37."

IMPACT FACTOR 4/10: Terry pitched 5 mostly very good seasons with the Cardinals. I'm not sure why he didn't pitch again after 1991 but I can only assume it was due to injury. He was also well-known for two booming home runs he hit in 1989.

#117T Bill Swift

I can't understand why Topps produced this card. They gave Swift a regular-issue 1986 card, as well as a regular-issue 1987 card. On both cards, he was with the Mariners. Then, despite not appearing in the big leagues in 1987 or changing teams, they produced this 1988 traded card. Hmm. Odd.

IMPACT FACTOR 5/10 Swift was a below average pitcher for the Mariners over his first four seasons until blossoming as a reliever in 1990 and 1991. Then, they traded him with Dave Burba and Mike Jackson for Kevin Mitchell and Mike Remlinger. That was a lot to give up: Swift, Burba, and Jackson all had productive careers after the trade. Remlinger never appeared in the majors for Seattle, leaving as a free agent and being productive elsewhere. Mitchell had one pretty poor year in Seattle, but they traded him straight up to Cincinnati for Norm Charlton, who gave them one great year before leaving as a free agent. (Charlton came back to Seattle later and was effective for a number of years afterward.)

#116T Todd Stottlemyre

IMPACT FACTOR 5/10: Stottlemyre, son of Mel and brother of Mel, was a fairly average pitcher over his 7 years with Toronto, pitching well in the 1992 playoffs and poorly in the 1993 playoffs. He ended up being significantly better in the second half of his career, although he had a lot of injury problems.

#111T Pete Smith

IMPACT FACTOR 4/10: Smith was a part of the bad Braves teams of the late 80s and the good Braves teams of the early 90s. Considering how weak the team was for most of those years, his overall numbers are pretty good. He was great in 1992, going 7-0 with a 180 ERA+ and pitching very well in the post-season. There are two knocks against Smith's value to the Braves: he came to Atlanta in a pretty lopsided trade (see the back of the card below) and he was injured a lot.

#104T Calvin Schiraldi

IMPACT FACTOR 2/10: Schiraldi pitched decently for parts of two seasons with the Cubs, but he (and Al Nipper) was picked up for Lee Smith and traded away for players who didn't do much for the Cubbies.

#92T Jose Rijo

IMPACT FACTOR 8/10: Rijo was a so-so major league pitcher until he joined the Reds, when he was a dynamite anchor of their rotation for years. After 8 seasons, he disappeared due to injury but came back after missing 4 seasons to pitch quite effectively in a brief stint in 2001. He was a big, big reason why the Reds won the 1990 World Series, holding the Athletics to 1 earned run over 15.1 innings in two starts. In short, Rijo was the kind of ace pitcher every baseball fan should want his team to have, with the possible exception of his injuries.

#91T Dennis Rasmussen

Nice to see that by the time this photo was taken, Rasmussen had given up on trying to grow a decent mustache. Also, can anybody figure out what writing or symbols are visible through his mesh jersey?

IMPACT FACTOR 4/10: Rasmussen was awesome for the Padres in 1988 when he came over mid-season in a trade for Candy Sierra (who was not a stripper, amazingly.) After that, he had two pretty mediocre seasons as a starter and then walked as a free agent.

#89T Ted Power

IMPACT FACTOR 2/10: Power pitched poorly in part of one season for the Royals and was then traded for two young players who did very little for KC. The only reason he gets a 2 instead of a 1 is because he was involved in the trade that brought Kurt Stillwell to KC, not that Stillwell was a wonderful player or that it didn't cost KC a lot to give up Danny Jackson.



I imagine He-Man holding this card and yelling "I HAVE THE POWER!!!!"

#85T Dan Petry

Here's a neat oddity. Petry was traded from Detroit to (what was then called) California for the guy featured on the very next card in the set, Gary Pettis.

IMPACT FACTOR 2/10: Petry was a below-average pitcher for 2 seasons for the Angels.

#83T Melido Perez

IMPACT FACTOR 3/10: Perez pitched 4 seasons for the White Sox and was (much like his brother) reasonably decent with fairly frequent flashes of brilliance. For example, in 1990 he made 35 starts and finished with an ERA+ of just 83 and yet he threw 3 complete-game shutouts. Eventually he was traded to the Yankees in what turned out to be a stinky deal for Chicago. They got Steve Sax who had very little left, but gave up Perez, Domingo Jean, and Bob Wickman. Jean had a very brief major league career, but Wickman turned out to be one of the best relievers of the last 15 years.

#79T Dave Palmer

IMPACT FACTOR 2/10: Palmer came to and left Philly as a free agent, pitching one below-average season with them. I'm pretty sure he's the guy who tripped badly on third base for them--anybody remember?

#75T Al Nipper

IMPACT FACTOR 2/10: Nipper pitched one very nice season for the Cubs, but in order to get him and Calvin Schiraldi, they gave up Lee Smith, who pitched 10 more effective seasons after leaving Chicago.

#74T Charles Nagy

IMPACT FACTOR 6/10: Nagy pitched 13 seasons with the Indians, was an anchor for their starting rotation, and was one of the key players who turned the Indians into serious contenders in the mid 1990s. He made 14 post-season starts for the team from 1995 to 1999, which is tied for 4th-most in baseball over that period. There are two things that keep his score from being a little higher: he was injured a fair amount and he didn't pitch all that well in the playoffs.

#73T Mike Morgan

In 1988, 26 different pitchers had at least 1 complete game as well as 1 save. That high number surprised me. Morgan had the worst ERA+ of them all. The Orioles moved him around, obviously, try to get some effective pitching out of him.

IMPACT FACTOR 4/10: Morgan pitched one ineffective year with the Orioles, that same 1988 mentioned above. How, then, does he get an impact score of 4? Easy. The Orioles acquired him by trading Ken Dixon to the Mariners, and Dixon never played in the big leagues again after leaving the Orioles. However, when they ditched Morgan a year later, they shipped him to the Dodgers in exchange for Mike Devereaux, who became the Orioles' center fielder for a bunch of years and helped them climb back to prominence.

#70T Larry McWilliams

Now here's something odd. McWilliams has no regular-issue 1988 Topps card. I never noticed that until just now. He spent a lot of 1987 in the minors, either rehabbing injuries or because he wasn't pitching all that well. I guess Topps elected to leave him out of the set on that basis, despite the fact that he had been a longtime major leaguer at that point.

IMPACT FACTOR 2/10: McWilliams came and left the Cardinals as a free agent, pitching just one year with them. The nice thing was that he pitched the entire year after having lots of injury problems previously.

#68T Jack McDowell

Blackjack! Here's one of the best rookie cards in the set!

IMPACT FACTOR 6/10: McDowell was a fantastic pitcher for the White Sox in the late 80's and early 90's. He was the first of 4 outstanding #1 draft picks by the White Sox, followed by Robin Ventura in 1988, Frank Thomas in 1989, and Alex Fernandez in 1990. McDowell, along with those other players, helped return the White Sox to prominence after years of futility. After winning 20 games in 1992, he won 22 (and the Cy Young award) in 1993, helping get the White Sox to the post-season for the first time in a while. Had McDowell not been hit hard twice by the Blue Jays in the ALCS, he would have gotten a higher score. Eventually, the White Sox traded him just as he was losing his effectiveness to the Yankees, picking up a useful part-timer in Lyle Mouton.

#55T Danny Jackson

IMPACT FACTOR 5/10: Jackson came over in the Ted Power / Kurt Stillwell trade, having one excellent year (1988), one decent year (1990), and one crummy year (1989) for the Reds. He helped the Reds beat the Pirates in the 1990 NLCS but was ineffective in the World Series, deserving little credit for the Reds' championship. He departed as a free agent.

#51T Ricky Horton

IMPACT FACTOR 2/10: Horton came to the White Sox in that same Lance Johnson trade, a pretty good deal for Chicago. He pitched one fairly bad season for them before being traded to the Dodgers for Shawn Hillegas. Hillegas was at best decent for the ChiSox over parts of three seasons, and was then packaged in a trade that brought Cory Snyder. Snyder was abysmal for the White Sox before being traded for 2 guys who did almost nothing for the White Sox.