#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.

#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.)

#110T Lee Smith

IMPACT FACTOR 5/10: Smith was great for the Red Sox in his first two years, and then phenomenal in his third year, when they traded him away for Tom Brunansky. It probably wasn't a great trade for the Red Sox, although Brunansky did play pretty well for the BoSox.

#109T Joe Slusarski

IMPACT FACTOR 2/10: Slusarski pitched 3 ineffective seasons with Oakland.

#105T Mike Schooler

IMPACT FACTOR 5/10: Schooler was a top closer for the Mariners until he was undone by injuries.

#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.

#88T Jim Poole

IMPACT FACTOR 1/10: Poole appeared briefly in the majors with the Dodgers in 1990 before being traded for two guys who never made the show. He did, however, go on to have a pretty nice 11-year major league career.

#87T Jeff Pico

What exactly is that in the background of the card, just below the "C" and "O" in his last name? It sort of looks like a wagon wheel. This is a pretty cool posed shot, although it kind of looks like Pico plays for the "CUPS".

IMPACT FACTOR 3/10: Pico was a below-average reliever for 3 years with the Cubs. He did put together a fairly nice 1989 with an average ERA over 90.2 innings, but he didn't appear in the post-season with them that year.

#84T Steve Peters

Check out all those people lined up against the fence in the background. Second from the left looks like a hottie!

IMPACT FACTOR 2/10: After a successful cup of coffee in 1987, Peters was brutal in 1988 and never pitched in the majors again. He gets a 2 instead of a 1, though, because he was part of the trade that brought Omar Olivares to the Cardinals.

#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.

#77T Jesse Orosco

IMPACT FACTOR 2/10: Orosco, as we've already noted, pitched one great year for the Dodgers but was lousy in that post-season. He doesn't deserve much credit for their championship. Jesse pitched two more effective years for the Dodgers in his second stint with the team--12 years later!

#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.

#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.

#54T Jeff Innis

IMPACT FACTOR 3/10: Innis was very effective for the Mets in 1991 and 1992 (as well as pitching well in limited innings in 1987-1990) and left as a free agent after 1993, although he never appeared in the majors with another team.

#52T Jay Howell

Here's another card showing some scoreboard, like Matt Young's card.

IMPACT FACTOR 5/10: Howell, acquired in the same trade that saw Matt Young, Alfredo Griffin, Bob Welch, Kevin Tapani, and Wally Whitehurst switch teams, was a very effective reliever for the Dodgers for five seasons before leaving as a free agent. He was not very helpful in the 1988 postseason, though, pitching only 3.1 innings and giving up 3 earned runs.

#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.

#45T Bryan Harvery

IMPACT FACTOR 5/10: Harvey was one of the better closers in the game in the late 80s and early 90s, and had two truly outstanding seasons in 1991 (with the Angels) and 1993 (with the Marlins.)

#41T Rich Gossage

IMPACT FACTOR 2/10: Gossage came to the Cubs in a pretty meaningless trade. Only he and Keith Moreland had lengthy major-league careers and both were past their primes by this time. The Goose had one below-average year for the Cubs before moving on and having several good years with other teams to close out his career.

Finally, here is our first HOFer in the traded set!

Hall of Fame count: 46