Archives Base Set

Last Archives post until I end up trading for a bunch of cool autographs of guys who played 20 years ago.  Until then I will do a little bit on the base set.  Like the recent additions of the Archives sets, this year's set is based on three previous set designs: 1957, 1976, and 1983.  I am a little bit partial towards the 1983 design, but that was the first year that I collected baseball cards and I love that set.  A lot.

The 1957 design is also a favorite too.  It's really simple, but sometimes simplicity is a good thing.  Topps has always done a really good job of getting the details correct on the remakes in Archives.  It's cool to see players from a different era like Ken Griffey Jr. and Cal Ripken pop up on this classic Topps design.  Topps also used this card design in the 2006 Topps Heritage set, so it was the second go around for players like Ken Griffey and Jorge Posada, but at least Topps changed up their pictures and did not rehash something from a past set.  

I am not a huge fan of the 1976 set.  It's before my time and I am not sure there is a card in that set I ever felt like I had to own.  I picked up an Eckersley somewhere along the line, but it was not a priority.  I like this Goldschmidt card because people should like Goldschmidt right now.  The most bizarre card in the set appears in the 1976 section of the set......

That Khris Davis card is clearly a picture of Carlos Gomez.  Topps had a card similar to this in the Heritage set with a picture of Shelby Miller on a card of Lance Lynn.  It could just be an editing, quality control, type of issue.  Imagine that, or maybe it's somehow intentional.  Pretty sure it could be part of the Ginter Code.  The answer this year is........

and we are finally to my favorite part of the set.  As mentioned before I love this set and was really happy with how these look.  Except that looks like a familiar Mike Schmidt picture..... Colors and borders from the cards match the cards from the 1983 set, but the Rays cards with the yellow writing is a little bit hard to look at.  I understand that Topps is taking a little bit of creative liberty with the design on the teams that did not exist at the time the set was made, but yellow print is really a good thing.  

#MyCardMonday

Who is the hottest player in all of Triple A?  The easy answer is Durham Bulls third baseman Richie Shaffer.  The Clemson grad has been on the Bulls for 18 games and has posted a .311/.411/.721 slash line with 7 home runs, 4 doubles, and 14 RBIs.  He had been playing well before this week, but he took it to another level this weekend when he posted a three home run game against the Louisville Bats (Reds).  Not quite Mark Whiten, but it was still a great performance.

So I figured today would probably be a good day to go ahead and share out my latest Richie Shaffer card which comes from his days back at Clemson.  This on card signature comes from the 2012 Leaf Valiant set.....

I think it's going to take a lot for the needle to move on Shaffer, but I am guessing that the Rays are going to give him an opportunity to be a big bat in their line up sooner than later.  His cards are still dirt cheap despite his success this year.  I am waiting for Shaffer to slow down a bit, but his 1.480 OPS over the last 7 days suggests that he is going to be just fine hitting in Triple A.  

My Best Archives Pull Was, Oh Wait....

Well, I typed up that post about the autographs and inserts that were in my Archives box yesterday, and in an attempt to save my best card for last, I actually forgot to put the card in the post.  Not too smooth, but I decided to wait until this morning to post the card.  In the meantime, I had a chance to sort out my base cards to assemble my set and found that I pulled an even cooler card than the card I had originally thought was the best card from my boxes.

Here was the card I forgot from my post yesterday.......

This card is a knock off of the 1990 Topps Frank Thomas rookie card error/variation that left his name off the front of his card.  Topps actually made a whole series of these this year and put them in packs at more than 1:1000 rate.  Pretty tough pull and they have been selling really well on Ebay.  Kind of a cool variation.  As of yesterday afternoon this was my best card from my boxes of Archives.  Then I started sorting out my base set and found this card......

I am not sure what the rate is on the short prints is in Archives, but it seems to be a pretty tough pull.  This card is currently selling north of $200 on Ebay.  I think Mr. Bryant needs a new home.

Archives Hits

A pair of posts coming up the next few days on the new Topps Archives product.  I have really enjoyed this product in recent years.  It's a great place to see some of the old Topps designs again on cardboard and it's also a chance to get some really cool autographs.  While I think that Topps can be really repetitive with their player selection on autographs, but the Archives product offers lots of new and different names.  There are a few Hall of Fame autographs sprinkled in the product, but the majority of the signatures come from some really good players who are not quite Hall of Fame players.  

With my first post on the product I am going to go ahead and look at the hits and inserts that I pulled out of my two boxes.  Let's start out with a really common insert in these boxes.....

I really like the look of these cards which are a copy of the 1968 Topps Playing Cards.  If you have never seen the originals they are pretty common and not too expensive.  It seems that these are about 3-4 per box.  Good looking cards.  

The most talked about insert cards in this year's Archives set is the Will Ferrell insert cards.  The actor/comedian appeared in a whole bunch of spring training games this year by hopping from game to game all on the same day.  The non-autographed cards have been selling for a few bucks each while the autographed versions of these cards (/10) have been selling for crazy amounts.  

That small print reads $1,999.95.  I am a little short on this card, or I am sleeping on the porch.  

I also picked up two colored parallels.  These are both silver and numbered out of /199.  The David Wright card is nice.  Fernando Rodney?  Sure.  Is he still shooting an arrow at the end of games?

Let's do a couple of more.  Still got to show off my best card and some autographs.  

Not sure how I feel about the inclusion of the Topps Original cards in the Archives product.  Topps has been putting these in their base set these last couple of years.  Not sure that putting them into more sets is cool.  Maybe it would be cooler if Topps would put some better names into the product.  Brent Strom?  Not excited.  

One more non-autograph to share, but I am going to wait to share that one....Let's do some autographs.   

This was my favorite autograph.  Vina was a nice player for the Cardinals in the early 2000s and helped lead the team to the playoffs several times.  Without looking I am going to guess that the Cardinals years were the high point of his career.  His signature has changed a little bit over the years, but it is still a nice autograph.  

Nice Bordick.  I am pretty sure that this is going to find a new home with a local collector.  

Franco is great card.  I would love to see this card with a Reds photo, but I can live with the Mets.  It's on card and the guy had a great career.  

and then there is this one.  I have become pretty cynical about Topps ever coming up with redemption cards.  Further, I am not sure I am a big fan of Yasmany Tomas though either.  

Friday Five: Top 5 Sets From 2000

A quick run down tonight.  I have not had the usual amount of time this evening to crank out my post.  2000 was a great year for my collection.  As discussed last Friday, I was really into Pacific cards around this time, and loved busting their wax.  It's not like the whole Top 5 list is made out of their products, but in the process of putting this list together I had a lot of fun looking through all of my old Pacific cards from this year.  Without further ado, the Top 5 Sets from 2000.....

5. Pacific Private Stock 

This product ran three years and was something different each of the three years.  I did a run down on the 1999 version about a year and a half ago.  This is completely different than the 1999 version, but I still really like this portrait look.  The set had the usual Pacific trappings with different colored parallels and some cool insert sets.  The one constant between the 1999 and 2000 versions of this Pacific product were the inclusion of minis in the packs of cards.  

and who does not love minis?  It was a fun set to put together and, again, I love the look of the portraits.  I keep my sets in boxes, but if I was ever going to start doing binders and sheets I would wear out the pages in this album.  Well done by Pacific.  

4. Pacific Revolution

This is a pretty nice base set, but nothing great enough to make my list by itself.  One important thing I challenged myself to do in 2000 was to assemble a complete autograph or relic set.  I was successful a few times during the calendar year.  The first set I put together was both the autograph and relic set from the 2000 Topps HD set.  It's a small set and I pulled the toughest autograph, Adrian Gonzalez,  from a pack of cards.  I spent tons of time looking at those cards.  The Pacific Revolution set was my second attempt at putting together an autograph set.  I loved these cards......

There are some tough autographs in this set, but nothing that will run you more than $100.  Probably the toughest one is the Maddux, which did run me a pretty penny back in the day.  If you do not own one of these autographs there are 26 cards in the set and there are some really cheap copies out there.  

That's it for Pacific.

2000 SPx

This set was awesome when it first released.  There were tons of autographed rookies and people were crazy about them.  My favorite was the Rick Ankiel, but there are people who spent good money on players like Josh Beckett, Vernon Wells, Pat Burrell, Lance Berkman, Carlos Beltran, and Eric Gagne.  I look at these cards now, print run 1500, and laugh a little bit.  One of the card shops I used to visit in St. Louis was owned by a father and his son.  I was in buying cards the one day and the old man was working the shop.  I bought a few packs of these and get this 20 minute lecture about how the set was popular now, but one day I would laugh at the print runs when compared to the price.  Good call old guy.  For the record I never attempted to put together this set of autographs, but I did get a nice Chipper Jones out of this set to go with the Rick Ankiel.  

2000 Fleer

Sometimes you just need a good simple base set to assemble.  This was my favorite one from 2000.  I worked really hard on this one.  Lots of packs, lots of sorting, and when I finished I picked up the insert sets too.  So, basically its the 1954 Topps set with the players from 2000 on the cards.  The boxes of this product can be found for less than $30.  If you are looking for some cheap fun look no further......

2000 Greats of the Game

This set is far and away better than any of the other sets on this list.  I loved this set.  Loved.  The base set was cool looking with the copperish colored frames, they do chip, and the color photograph in the middle.  This was the second year that Fleer made this product, but it was nice to see them give up on the whole Sports Illustrated Baseball Card thing.  The real star of this product was the autographs.....

Lots of Hall of Famers in this product with on card signatures.  If your budget is high all of the big names from this era are here if you can find them.  Some of the autographs have become a little tricky to track down.  There are also a good number of very good players in this product who signed cards, maybe not in the Hall of Fame, but their cards are reasonable in price and not too difficult to track down.  

All-Draft Team

Same thing as last night, but with opposite results.  This is a run down of a team of players, 8 position players with a starting pitcher and relief pitcher, who were all picked in the first five picks of the draft over the last 30 years.  There were some positions that were really tough to fill.  Namely second base and relief pitcher.  There have not been many selections for those two positions in the top 5 picks, so the names limited the choices greatly.  However, other positions, like third base could have had four or five really easy selections.  Here the list.......

C- Joe Mauer

The Twins elected the St. Paul, Minnesota native with the first overall pick in the 2001 MLB Draft.  There was a lot of grumbling at the time over the Twins passing over USC pitching prospect Mark Prior who went to the Cubs second overall.  Prior quickly reached the Majors and pitched the Cubs to within a few outs of the 2003 World Series.  After that injuries caught up with the pitching prospect, Mauer came up with the Twins in 2004 and the rest is history.  He's now in his 12th year with the Twins and has posted a .316/.397/.455 line and is rated as the 10th best all time catcher by the JAWS rating system.  Mayer won the MVP award in 2009, has five Silver Sluggers, 6 All-Star Game Appearances, and 3 Gold Gloves.  The various Hall of Fame measuring sticks have him just short of Cooperstown and the Twins have moved their former top pick to first base to save a little bit of wear and tear on him.  

1B- Will Clark 

The Mississippi State star went to the Giants second overall in the 1985 MLB Draft.  Over a fifteen year Major League career the scrap first baseman posted a .303/.384/.497 line with 284 home runs, 440 doubles, and over 1200 RBIs.  While he has a career 137 OPS+ his best years were spent as a Giant where he posted an OPS+ of 145 and 35.5 of his 56.2 career WAR.  His half a season, spent as a Cardinal, was also spectacular (.345/.426/.665, 12 home runs, and 42 RBIs in 51 games).  Great career and a fun player to watch.  

2B- Rickie Weeks

This was the most challenging position on this list.  There were not many choices for second base.  Weeks is the best of them.  Honestly, Weeks had some decent years for the Brewers, but there just were not that many of them.  Weeks was drafted by the Brewers second overall in the 2003 Draft and spent his entire career in Milwaukee up until this year.  He is currently with the Mariners.  Weeks has a .247/.345/.421 career line with 150 home runs, 204 doubles, and 126 steals.  Could have been much worse, but it's also hard to believe that a career 104 OPS+ with a WAR of 23.7 is the best second baseman taken in the top 5 picks of the MLB Draft over the last 30 years.  

3B- Chipper Jones

Is ARod considered a third baseman?  The list here was long and came down between Chipper and ARod.  I am happy that ARod is having a nice season, but the jerk factor off set his career WAR below Chipper Jones OPS+ added to his photo commentary offered during this year's college football national championship game, and that time he rescued Freddie Freeman from the Interstate during a snow storm.   Jones was selected by the Braves first overall in the 1990 draft.  Chipper spent 19 years with the Braves and ended his career with a .303/.401/.529 line with 468 home runs, 549 doubles, 150 steals, 1623 RBIs, and a reservation in the Hall of Fame in a few years.  

SS- Barry Larkin 

The Reds made the former U of M star was picked by the Reds with the fourth selection in the 1985 Draft.  Over a year career as a Red Larkin had a .295/.371/.444 line with 198 home runs, 441 doubles, 379 steals, and lead the Reds to their first World Series, in 1990, since the Big Red Machine took home a pair of rings back in the 70s.  Larkin was the 1995 National League MVP, won 9 Silver Sluggers, and 3 Gold Gloves.  While JAWS only rates him as the 13th best shortstop, he was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2012.  

OF- Ken Griffey Jr. 

This was the slam dunk easy name that I put on this last with zero research.  The M's picked Junior first overall in the 1987 MLB Draft and got themselves one of the best players of his generation.  Griffey made his debut for Seattle in 1989 at the age of 19.  He would spent the first 11 seasons with the Mariners and hit more almost 400 home runs with the team.  He forced a trade to the Reds before the 2000 season and was never quite the same player once he got to Cincinnati.  He was often injured and his skills started to diminish with age.  Still in 9 seasons as a Red he hit more than 200 home runs.  Overall, Ken Griffey Jr. his 630 home runs, 524 doubles, and 2781 hits to go with his career line of .284/.370/.538.  JAWS rates him as the fifth best center fielder of all-time behind Willie Ways, Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, and Mickey Mantle.  Well, at least he's ahead of DiMaggio.  Not bad company.  

OF- J.D. Drew

The outfielders in the draft over the past 30 years outside of Griffey are solid, but there is nobody else who is in the same ballpark as Griffey.  I like J.D. Drew.  He had a good career that was mainly spent with the Cardinals and Red Sox with a stop over in Atlanta and Los Angeles.  Drew was an uber prospect coming out of Florida State.  He won ever award possible in college.  The Phillies drafted him and he did not sign.  The Cardinals drafted him and thought he was the next Mickey Mantle.  In the end it turned out that Drew was just a low key guy with a little bit of pop, a little bit of speed, and a pretty good ability to get on base.  On five different occasions during his career Drew posted an OBP that was greater than .400.  He only hit more than 30 home runs once and only drove in 100 runs once.  Mickey Mantle he was not, but he was still a good Major League player who ended his career with almost 250 home runs, an OPS+ of 125, and career WAR of 44.9.  Oh, and a World Series ring with the Red Sox.  

OF- Ryan Braun 

I am not sure that Bruan is going to be the player he once was, but like I said, the list of outfielders drops off after Griffey.  In 2011 and 2012 Braun posted MVP type seasons with 33 and 41 home runs and led the National League in OPS both seasons with marks of .994 and .987.  Then came his steroid suspension.   Since he has hit 9 home runs in 61 games, 19 home runs in a full 2014, and now has 13 through the quarter mark of 2015.  His career line of .304/.366/.548 is still very good, but his current line of .261/.332/.497 might be closer to what we get out of Braun for the next few years.  What started out as a Hall of Fame looking career has turned into a rather meh career.  Let's not forget the jerk factor is strong with Braun too.  

P- Kevin Brown 

I was really surprised that Kevin Brown ended up on my list.  He was the fourth pick in the 1986 MLB Draft, so as I flipped through the names I took note of him as a really nice player and kept searching.  There are plenty of pitchers who have been selected in the first five picks of the MLB Draft, some of have had some really good seasons, but none had as good of a career as Kevin Brown. The sinker baller was best known for:

1.  Signing a huge contract with the Dodgers after single handedly pitching the Padres into the 1998 World Series

2.  Sending that Mets Clubhouse guy 10K in cash in a FedEx box for some HGH

Seriously, he was underrated for much of his career.  He pitched huge amounts of innings and ended up with more than 200 wins by the time his 19 year career ended.  His best season was with the 1996 Marlins when he went 17-11 with a 1.89 ERA and an ERA+ of 215.  JAWS has him as the 46th best starting pitcher of all-time which is just ahead of some all of Famers like Jim Bunning and John Smoltz.  

RP- Gregg Olson

There are not many relief pitchers who are drafted in the top 5 picks, but this guy was not too shabby.    The Orioles took Olson 4th overall in 1988 out of Auburn.  I forgot just how good he was for awhile.  When you first glance at his numbers they look alright.  Olson had a 40-39 career record with 217 saves and an ERA+ of 123.  His similar platers on Baseball Reference include guys like Ugeuth Urbina, Keith Flounce, and Fernando Rodney.  Good closers, but not great.  In 1993 Olson tore a ligament in his elbow.  Before the ligament tear Olson had a career ERA+ of 176 and saved 160 games over a six year period.  In 1989 he had a WAR of 3.3 as the Orioles closer and posted a 2.4 and 2.6 in the following years.  That's basically what Craig Kimbrel has done for the Braves the past few years.  After leaving Baltimore Olson bounced around for a few years before he landed in Arizona with the expansion Diamondbacks.  He went on to save 44 games for the Snakes and ended his career with two more years pitching for the Dodgers.  

All-Flop Team

I like following amateur baseball and spend plenty of time checking in on college baseball.  Having a few big colleges and the USA Baseball complex near my house certainly helps out the efforts.  I had thought long and hard about making a draft post about some of the players selected this year, but I am going to wait a little bit longer to finish up that post.  Certainly a lot of opinions are forming, but I still need to do a little bit more reading on a few players.  Especially a few of those Cardinals draft picks....I was loaded to do some blogging about college pitchers.  I guess not.

Anyway, just to show a little bit of the uncertainty around the Major League Draft I took a little bit of time to make an All-Flop team.  Don't worry, there is All-Draft team list coming out tomorrow night. So, here is what I did to make my list.  I am fielding a player at each position, with a starting pitcher, and a relief pitcher.  All of these players were selected in the first five picks of the MLB Draft within the last 30 years, but accomplished little to justify their high selection.

C- Eric Munson

Munson was originally drafted by the Braves in the second round of the 1996 draft, but decided to go play at USC for a few years.  He was a great college player for the Trojans earning Freshman All-American honors and helped the team win the College World Series in 1998.  He was selected twice to play for the USA College All-Star team and was an All-American his senior year.  Munson is still in the top 5 of most important offensive categories at USC.  The Tigers drafted the catcher third overall in 1999 passing on Barry Zito, Ben Sheets, Alex Rios, and Brian Roberts.  Munson played in 361 Major League games over 9 years with a career line of .214/.289/.394.  His two best seasons were for the 2003 and 2004 Tigers when he hit 37 home runs over two years and posted an OPS+ of 102 in 2003.  His only number north of the average player rating of 100 during his career.  

1B- Dave McCarty

I am going to start off my blurb about David McCarty by giving him a tip of the cap for effort (I call it grit).  He was the National College Baseball Player of the Year at Stanford in 1991 and was drafted by the Twins 3rd overall that summer.  The guy had some good years in the minors.  There was a partial season in Triple A where he hit .385/.477/.629 and another full season when he went .353/.419/.590.  McCarty never developed the pop that people that he would have when he turned pro, that's still the knock against Stanford players right?, and his .242/.305/.371 Major League suggests he hit almost nothing there.  He only hit 36 career home runs in almost 1,500 at bats.  McCarty reinvented himself as a pitcher and reappeared in the Majors with the Red Sox for a few games during the 2004 season.  

2B- Dustin Ackley 

I am willing to take Dustin off this list, but he's doing more and more by the day to earn his spot here.  Honestly, this guy is one of the best college players I have ever seen with my own eyes.  The Mariners took the UNC second baseman with the second overall pick in the 2009 draft.  A few years later he's not even the best player the Mariners drafted out of UNC that year (Kyle Seager).  Currently Ackley is somehow occupying a roster spot with a line of .197/.252/.331.  That's a .583 OPS.  How is he not been released or sent to Triple A?  His career line in almost 2000 plate appearances is .242/.306/.364.  Ouch.  

3B- Josh Booty 

The Marlins drafted the two sport star fifth overall in the 1994 draft and paid him a (then) record of 1.6 million dollars to sign with the team and not play football.  Booty hit home runs, but there were a lot of contact issues in the Minors.  His career line is .198/.356/.356, but he did have two season with more than 20 home runs.  He also had two season with more than 150 strikeouts, including a 195 K effort in 1996 when he played in just 128 games.  The Marlins did call Booty up to the Majors for a cup of coffee a few times in the late 1990s and he was voted a World Series ring in 1997.  However, he went back to football in 1999 when he decided to play for Nick Saban at LSU.  

SS- Matt Bush 

Bush was a hometown kid the Padres used the first overall selection on in the 2004 draft.  From the start it screamed flop when Bush was arrested a few days after he was picked.  He was arrested a few more times over the next decade while posting a .219/.294/.276 line for the Padres as a hitter.  Bush later signed with the Rays and tried his hand at pitching, but ended up in jail again after striking someone with a car with a BAC of 0.18.  He was released and is serving out some jail time somewhere in Florida.  He will be just the third number one overall pick not to reach the Majors.

OF- Donovan Tate

The Padres selected Tate 3rd overall in the 2009 Major League Draft.  Tate was also a top football prospect at the time and the Friars ended up paying him almost 7 million dollars to skip out on college football.  Tate has had some problems with injuries and also had a stint in rehab after failing a few drug tests (not for steroids).  In five years in the Minors the once highly touted prospect has only progressed to the Padres High A Ball team where he is batting .228/.308/.337 for the 2015 season.  His career line is not much better.  Again, I am willing to take him off the list at some point if I revisit, but he is going to have to start hitting soon.

OF - Mark Merchant

Who was picked first in the 1987 MLB Draft?  Ken Griffey Jr.  Who was picked second?  This guy.  If you want to know why the Pirates were bad for a huge chunk of the 1990s you need to check out some of their drafts starting in the late 1980s.  I am sure that Merchant was doing something good as a high school baseball player in Florida, but the Pirates passed up Craig Biggio, Travis Fryman, Jack McDowell, Kevin Appier, and Delino DeShields for this guy.  The corner outfielder spent a chunk of time with the Pirates before ending up with the Mariners after being traded for Rey Quinones.  From what I can tell it seems like he had quite a few injuries, but still seemed to be a .260 hitter with doubles power when he was healthy.

OF- Jeff Jackson

The Phillies took Jackson with the 4th pick in the 1989 draft.  They passed on Frank Thomas, Mo Vaughn, Chuck Knoblauch, and Charles Johnson just to name a few.  Jackson never reached the Majors and spent nine seasons with the Phillies, Cubs, and Pirates organizations posting a .234/.311/.354 line.  Jackson never developed any pop in his bat, but did have a few 20+ steal seasons in the Minors.

SP- Brien Taylor 

Taylor is one of the most legendary figures of the MLB Draft.  The Yankees took the Eastern North Carolina high school baseball player with the first overall draft pick in 1991.  He started out with two great seasons in the Minors before tearing his shoulder up in a fight at home during the off season.  Taylor never regained his stuff and his career was ruined.  He, along with Matt Bush and Steve Chillcot, are the only players drafted first overall to have never played in a Major League game.  

RP- Matt Anderson

The Tigers used the first overall pick on the Rice relief pitcher in the 1997 MLB Draft.  Anderson could throw 100 MPH, but I am not sure he could ever really throw strikes.  He played six season with the Tigers, and actually had a winning record, but posted an ERA above 5 and never had an ERA+ above 100 outside of his rookie season of 1998.  He bounced around in the minors for awhile with the Rockies, Giants, and White Sox, but never got more than one brief appearance with the Rockies after his time with the Tigers ended.