I wrote a little bit a few weeks back about the disappearance of the nickname cards in the Triple Threads product. Always a highlight for me during the year, the absence of the nicknames has made me a little less likely to collect these cards. Just a refresher, but they looked like this:
So, after adding my Snell autograph, I went back and did a little work on a second player from Triple Threads trying to add a few cards of Padres pitcher Joey Lucchesi, or Joey Fuego to those who follow his career. I like the nickname. It's catchy. I am also not sure it's very apt considering he is a lot of deception mixed in with some breaking pitches.
I have followed Joey's career since he was at Southeast Missouri and have been collecting his cards since he was first drafted by the Padres. He's not a player I would have guessed to appear in Triple Threads, but I am not going to complain.
Here is the card.
Yep, no Joey Fuego. We have this gem instead. Why did Topps pick this phrase for his Triple Threads card?
There you go.
Chris Sale, Jordan Zimmerman, Clayton Kershaw, and Joey Lucchesi.
There are other Joey Lucchesi cards from Triple Threads. One is above average, so I might have to find that card. Maybe, maybe not.
I spent last week working on some cards of players who share a college with me. I have two degrees from two different school, and managed to find a card from each school. The idea of finding a card of a player from NC State is not all that surprising, but the whole Southeast Missouri State thing is a rarity. Throw in the fact that one of these cards was an exchange, which never seem to actually pan out in my world, and I did not even know of the other's existence before this month.
Let's start with the NC State player, who is also a prime Cardinals prospect.
Andrew Knizner was drafted out of NC State a few years ago. The infielder, turned catcher, was a good college player, but was a bit of a mess defensively before entering the Minors. While in Raleigh, Knizner was switched from third base to catcher literally before the start of a game. He's been a bit of a project on defense, but apparently has improved. The Cardinals always have some catcher in waiting behind Yadier Molina, but Yadier never seems to slow down. I am not sure if the team is serious this time, or if Knizner will end up playing somewhere else. Meaning either a different position, or in a different town.
I am not a big fan of Leaf cards, but this is the only Knizner autograph that is out there. The card also uses a picture of Knizner from college. The red looks good on a Cardinals card, but check out the sleeves on the jersey. Check out the sleeves on the catcher's jersey in this picture....
The mask and chest protector are different in this picture, but this is Knizner from college. Sleeveless jersey, red stripe on the side of the pants. Pretty cool that Knizner's first Cardinals autograph also has him wearing an NC State jersey.
Next.
This was an exchange card from Bowman Chrome last year. I never count on these to actually show up anymore. This one showed up.
Lucchesi went to Southeast Missouri State a few years back. It has been awhile since there has been a player from that school in the Majors. In the past twenty years there have been a total of four players from the small teacher's college: Lucchesi, Justin Christian, Shae Simmons, and Kerry Robinson. Not a lot there. The fact that Lucchesi played an entire Major League season pretty much makes him the greatest player to ever come out of Southeast Missouri.
The school even gets a shout out on the back of this card.
Lucchesi has a good stuff, and the card does a good job of describing the pitches he throws, but there are also a lot of arms and legs in his delivery. This does not do his pitching motion justice, but I think he is definitely a hard player to hit against....
especially for lefties. Last year he struck out slightly more than one-third of the left-handed batters that he faced. I think he's going to be around for awhile.
Before we go, y'all know I hate those Topps stickers on the exchange cards. That's no way to enjoy a baseball card. I want to see the card, not a giant white sticker.
That's better. I should have taken it out of the top loader too, which always shows every scratch and scuff mark on cards with reflective surfaces. For another day though....
I spend a lot of time writing about college baseball players from NC State, as well as a few others that I get to see from opposing ACC schools and at USA Baseball during the summer. Rarely do I get a chance to write about a baseball player from Southeast Missouri, which is the other college that I attended long ago in the late 1990s.
It's a small teachers college located in Cape Girardeau, Missouri that is roughly halfway between St. Louis and Memphis. Yes, the sports teams are Division I, they play in the Ohio Valley Conference with Murray State, Austin Peay, Belmont, and many others. There have only been a handful of players from the school to reach the Majors.
The two of the more recent and notable players from the school were Shae Simmons.....
and Kerry Robinson.
There is finally another former Redhawk who has made it the Majors. In fact, since Shae Simmons was released in the middle of the summer by the Cubs, there is only one former Redhawk playing in the Majors at the moment. I would have done a spot on him earlier in the year, but it took a long time for him to get an actual baseball card.
Meet Padres pitcher Joey Lucchesi.
There is a lot going on in that motion, but it has worked well for him this year. He currently has 8 wins and should get at minimum of one more start before the end of the season. Lucchesi missed a little bit of time this season, but his numbers have been solid. He has an ERA in the 3.50 neighborhood and is averaging almost 10 strikeouts per inning.
I ended up picking up one of the three or four cards of Lucchesi that have all suddenly appeared during the past month. Don't worry, I will end up with the others too.
This is from Panini Illusions.
You know I don't really keep track of Panini, so I am not sure what else there is in this set. Looks sort of like the late 1990s Flair cards with the logos airbrushed off the uniforms.
Regardless, I am happy to finally add a card of Joey Lucchesi to my collection. After all, there have been ten players from Southeast Missouri State to reach the Majors and Joey Lucchesi is already the best pitcher to have come from the school, and probably will be the player with the best resume shortly.
For example, the most wins by any former Redhawk in the Majors, prior to Lucchesi, was Shae Simmons with 1. Not sure how you pitch in three different seasons and only get one win, but it happened. Lucchesi's first game pitched with at the beginning of April, by the middle of the month he had passed Simmons with two wins. He also has 131 strikeouts, which is also the most. If he sticks around for awhile, he will probably even pass by many of the position players in offensive stats outside of Kerry Robinson.
He has even already past Shae Simmons and Kerry Robinson in terms of WAR.
It's nice to see another former Redhawk with some staying power reach the Majors. When it is all said and done Joey Lucchesi will likely stand alone as the greatest player to have ever come from Southeast Missouri.
