#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.

#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.

#113T Ed Sprague

A little while ago, on Doug Robbins' card, we noted that Sprague's dad is mentioned on the back of the card.

IMPACT FACTOR 4/10: Sprague was a decent 3B for the Blue Jays and played on both the 1992 and 1993 championship teams. He hit well in those post-seasons except for the 1993 World Series.

#24T Sil Campusano

Wow, this is a great photo. It's a great pose by a fresh-faced rookie, and we can see a lot of the spring training facility in the background.

IMPACT FACTOR 1/10: Campusano lasted half a season with Toronto before going back to the minors and being being Rule V drafted away by the Phillies.

#17T Pat Borders

IMPACT FACTOR 7/10: Borders wasn't the greatest hitter but he came up money with the Blue Jays in the 1992 and 1993 postseasons, when he hit very well and played a major role in two championships.

Borders had a great career, sticking around until 2005, age 42. Yeah, he had a career OBP of just .288, but he must have done something right with pitchers.

This is an underrated rookie card.

#775 Dave Stieb

Why this card is awesome: Because there's a lot to like about this card. Firstly, Pat Gillick, who went on to become a successful GM, is mentioned on the back. Second, I think that's 2B Garth Iorg in the background. Thirdly, Stieb is a very underrated player. I'm surprised, in fact, that he got a card number divisible by 25, but he deserved it in my book.

Cool stat: Stieb pitched some awesome games in his career. In addition to his 1990 no-hitter, I still find it incredible that both of his last 2 starts in 1988 were one-hitters, with the lone single coming with 2 outs and 2 strikes in the 9th inning in each game. I have talked a lot about Stieb, one of my favorite players, on the B-R.com SOTD blog, for example here and here.

#749 Mark Eichhorn

Why this card is awesome: Because we saw Duane Ward, a relatively ignored great reliever for the Blue Jays, and here is another such guy in Eichhorn. See below for more.

Cool stat: For relievers with a minimum of 800 IP, check out the highest career ERA+. You'd never think of Eichhorn, right? But there he is at #6 all time, right behind Quisenberry, Wilhelm, and Hoffman, and right ahead of Franco and Sutter.

Serious--this guy kicked ass.

#729 Blue Jays Leaders

Why this card is awesome: Because it looks like George Bell just told a joke but the other guy (Lloyd Moseby I think?) Fred McGriff didn't find it funny.

Cool stat: IN 1988, Toronto was one of three teams to have 7 of their 9 starters (all AL clubs) hit at least 10 homers.

#722 Manny Lee

Why this card is awesome: Because, again, that ridiculous abbreviation "S. P. DE-M., D. R." kills me. It's a tad disrespectful, I think. You don't see "W. D. C., U. S." on any of these cards.

Cool stat: Lee remains the only guy to ever strike out 100 times in a season with no homers. Another way you can look at this is like this, which shows others who got close. Oh Gary Pettis!

Lee, who usually was called Manuel (not Manny) later in his career, was an abysmal offensive player, finishing with a career OPS+ of (gulp!) 73.

#696 Duane Ward

Why this card is awesome: Because although this isn't a rookie card, it's an early card of a guy almost forgotten to time who had a huge hand in two World Series wins for the Blue Jays.

Cool stat: Over 1992-1993, among relievers, Ward had the 3rd-best ERA+ (minimum 100 IP) and 3rd-most strikeouts. And he had a 1.12 ERA over the two World Series that year. And then he got hurt and it was all over.

#682 Jimmy Key

Why this card is awesome: Because I can't look at this card without thinking of Jimy Williams' card. Clearly they must have been sitting near each other at about the same time. Imagine it like this:


See? Isn't that a nice slice of life?

Plus, if this is how it actually was, I think they were holding hands. Awww.

Cool stat: So Jimmy Key finished second in the AL Cy Young voting in 1987, yet still doesn't get a card ending in a 5 or 0? That's the story of his career, I guess. Few people seem to think much of him, yet he finished with a .614 W-L% and two World Series rings. Among lefties with at least 150 wins, Key was in the top 10 for W-L%.

#623 Mike Flanagan

Why this card is awesome: Because it's the other half of our future GM duo, along with Kenny Williams. It's kind of weird to see Flanagan in a Blue Jays uniform since he has basically been an Oriole lifer.

Cool stat: I thought for sure that Flanagan faced the most batters from 1978 to 1980, but he was just third, far behind Phil Niekro.

#618 Cecil Fielder

Why this card is awesome: Because of two things. Firstly, I love those houses in the background. Secondly, this was a forgotten card from the 1988 set. Fielder didn't play much in 1988 and then was sold to a Japanese team after the season. For all intents and purposes, he was gone from major league baseball (at least in North America.) After a year away in Japan, Fielder reappeared in MLB with the Tigers and swatted 51 homers. See below for more on this.

Fielder pronounces his first name as a rhyme with "vessel," hence the nickname "Cecil the Vessel." Most other players with the name Cecil, such as Cecil Cooper, pronounce it more like a rhyme with diesel.

Cool stat: Fans today don't necessarily appreciate just how monster Fielder's 1991 season was. If you look at 50-homer seasons by year, you first notice that it happens all the time these days, a total of 12 times in the 2000's. But look down at #24, that was Fielder's 51-homer season. Prior to that, it had been 13 years since anybody did it, going all the way back to George Foster's 1977. For a time there in the 1980s, it seemed like it might never happen again. And then Big Daddy busted on the scene and blew everybody away. (Incidentally, if you live under a rock, note that #2 on that list is Fielder's estranged son, Prince.)

2003 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites #27 George Bell

Why this card is awesome: Because, oh I don't know. I'm not a huge Bell fan, but I remember going to a few games at Comiskey in May 1992 and I loved how the announcer used to say "George.......BELL" where the "Bell" was both louder and deeper in tone. You White Sox fans know what I'm talking about.

#590 George Bell

Why this card is awesome: Because of the oh-so-cool Michael Jackson one-gloved look. Did Bell actually bat that way?

Cool stat: In history, there have been 14 times that a player hit 40+ homers but didn't reach 40 walks in the same season. Bell's famous 1987 is on that list.

After Bell had 31 HR and 108 RBI in 1986 and followed that with 47 HR and 134 RBI in 1987, it must have been tempting for Topps to give him a better card number than #590, especially considering that he won the 1987 AL MVP. But I guess they knew something. Bell had a few pretty good years left but never came close to repeating the massive numbers from '87.

#565 Lloyd Moseby

Why this card is awesome: Because although Moseby's in a classic baseball card pose (rest on bat) I can't think of another example of the pose in this set. Can you?

Cool stat: Moseby is thought of as a pretty productive player, but he wasn't really. He played in 1588 games. Let's say I ranked all players with fewer than 1600 career games by total bases in their careers. You'd expect Moseby to rank reasonably highly, wouldn't you, if for no reason other than that he's so close to the 1600-game cutoff? Well in reality, he ranks 54th. He's about 900 total bases behind Albert Belle, who played about 50 fewer games. He's about 400 total bases behind Nomar, who has played almost 250 fewest games.

I'm not saying Moseby was bad--he wasn't. But with a career OPS+ of 102, he was pretty much average. Just like Bobby Ojeda.

#541 Juan Beniquez

Why this card is awesome: Because, in Beniquez, I give you the Oscar Gamble of the 1980s.

Cool stat: Check out this list of fewest RBIs in a season by a player with at least 350 AB and a .330 BA. Beniquez comes in 12th since 1901. How about Luis Castillo in 2000? How the hell do you bat .334 over .539 ABs and get only 17 RBI? Florida wasn't even that bad of a team.

#505 Willie Upshaw

Why this card is awesome: Because look at those two goons in the background. The guy on the left clearly has his cap pulled over his face and is snoozing. And the guy on the right has just awful 80s hair.

Cool stat: From 1982 to 1985, just two guys had at least 5 3B and 15 HR each year. Upshaw was one. You will NEVER EVER guess the other, so click here to find out.

#463 Fred McGriff

Why this card is awesome: Because it's such a classic photo! A young Blue Jay, dressed all in blue, in front of a sea of blue seats. I love it.

Cool stat: From 1988 to 2002, which two players have the most seasons with at least 22 homers? Of course Fred McGriff is one, or else I wouldn't be citing the stat. Barry Bonds is the other.

I would love to see Fred McGriff in the Hall of Fame. According to B-R.com's HOF Monitor and HOF standards, he's right there at the level of a typical HOFer. But I doubt he'll make it since, despite being one of the most consistent power hitters from 1988 to 2002, he only led the league in homers twice, with totals that now seem paltry (36 in 1989 and 35 in 1992) and never led the league in RBI, OBP, SLG, total bases, or anything else. (Interestingly, he did lead the league in OPS in 1989 while being second in SLG and 4th in OBP.)

#438 Rob Ducey

Why this card is awesome: Because Ducey's ready for anything, wearing what appears to be a plastic shirt under his jersey.

Ducey was involved in a strange set of transactions in 2000. The Phillies traded him to Toronto on July 26 for minor-leaguer John Sneed. Then, on August 7, he was traded back to the Phillies for Mickey Morandini. Morandini himself was returning to the Phillies, who had previously traded him away to the Cubs for Doug Glanville. Weird.

There is no truth to the rumor that Rob's middle name is "made a".

Cool stat: Ducey had exactly two walk-off plate appearances. They were both bases loaded walks in the bottom of the 10th inning. Neat. Plus, one came against California while he was with Toronto, and the other came with California against Milwaukee.