Bucky Walters

I have long wanted to do a post about Bucky Walters and now is the perfect time to do so given that I recently added this Helmar Art Stamp.  This is of course not from the original set.  More of a later continuation of it.

Walters had a fascinating career.  He came up with the Boston Braves 1931 where he played sparingly.  In 1933 the Red Sox purchased his contract from a minor league team.  With the Red Sox, he primarily played third base, with the occasional game at second.  He was with the Red Sox into the 1935 season, making it into 75 games and hitting .244/.301/.420 with eight home runs and 46 RBIs.  Not exactly eye-opening numbers.  So why the interest?

In June of 1934, the Red Sox sold his contract to the Phillies and his career changed overnight.  Walters had a strong arm and the Phillies eventually turned him into a pitcher.  And Walters was one of the best pitchers in the game for a stretch in the late 30's to early 40's.  He was a 6-time All Star and won more than 20 games three times, including a high of 27 in 1939.  He also led the league in ERA twice as well as a host of other categories.  Walters finished his career with a 198-160 record and a 3.30 ERA.

This is another example of the Red Sox not quite knowing what they really had.  Boston obviously had Babe Ruth early in his career when he was a pitcher, though he was basically a regular position player by 1919, the year before he was sold to the Yankees.  They had Lefty O'Doul briefly in the 1920's when he was a pitcher before he went on a tear for the Giants, Phillies and Dodgers, with a high of .398.  And here they had Walters, who went on to stardom as a pitcher, playing third base at a time when they could have used some better arms.

Forum Deal

Still on the lookout for some of the Topps variations, I completed another deal that also brought in some nice inserts and parallels:

1.  Andrew Benintendi.  My favorite Donruss cards are the ones where it doesn't matter that the company does not have a Major League license agreement.  This Benintendi is one such card. 

2.  Andrew Benintendi.

3.  J.D. Martinez.  This is one of the aforementioned variations.  Not the most exciting one though. 

4.  Michael Chavis.  It seems like he shows up in every post lately.

5.  Wade Boggs.  Boggs may actually have been underrated if one looks at his career from an analytical standpoint.  For Boston, he hit .338/.428/.462 with an OPS of .890 and an OPS+ of 142.  Those numbers are insane.

6.  Ted Williams.  Of course one of my favorite stats of all time is that for his career, Williams's OBP was .482.  That number is the best of all time.  Also, his career OPS+ is 190. 

7.  Wade Boggs.

8.  Pedro Martinez.  Here is the second variation in the package.

9.  Brock Holt.  This is the black parallel of Holt. 

Pack Breaks

I had to make a supply run to Walmart the other day.  If I can get close to the baseball cards, I try to grab some.  This time, I managed to grab hanger packs of Opening Day and Gypsy Queen.  I pulled a few random Red Sox.

1.  Michael Chavis.  I seem to be pulling him a lot.  I expect him to be in a lot of sets early on since he was the hot young player for the team last year, even if his final slash line and prolific strikeout numbers are not super exciting.

2.  Eduardo Rodriguez.  I seem to be seeing more of him lately as well.  I am fine with that.  I have been predicting breakout for him for some time.

3.  J.D. Martinez.  Obviously he is in everything as the big power bat in the Red Sox lineup.  His numbers dipped a bit last year, but are more in line with his career numbers.  2018 was the outlier as an insane season.  Either way, he is a fantastic hitter and a worthy successor to David Ortiz as the team DH.

More Online-Only Cards

A couple more online-only cards found their way to me:

1.  Christian Vazquez.  This is my first Topps Total card from the year.  I still like the idea of this set, but I hate that it is online only and so damn expensive.  Nevertheless, I will still add the cards I can.

2.  Mo Vaughn.  Sometimes, these weekly Throwback Thursday sets baffle me.  This one in particular looks like Topps drew names out of a hat.  What the hell do Luis Robert, Yordan Alvarez, Shogo Akiyama, Mo Vaughn, Dave Winfield and Mark McGwire have in common?  No really, I'm asking.  I have no idea.  I will gladly add the Mo Vaughn though.

2020 Topps Now Road to Opening Day

As I do most years, I picked up the Topps Now Road to Opening Day Red Sox team set.  This year, there was no autograph version of the set, which was a tad disappointing.  There was the addition of a parallel in every set though, so there's that.

Up first is the parallel:

Andrew Benintendi.  Oddly, this card lists him as a catcher.  I'm pretty sure Benintendi has never played catcher professionally.  This card is numbered to 25.

And now for the set:

1.  Andrew Benintendi.

2.  Alex Verdugo.  I was surprised to see him in the set.  According to the checklist, he was not going to be in it and Dustin Pedroia would have a card.  Nothing against Pedroia, but I would prefer to see the team's top acquisition than a guy who might be lucky to play this year at all (assuming there is a season).

3.  J.D. Martinez.

4.  Jackie Bradley Jr.

5.  Xander Bogaerts. 

6.  Michael Chavis.  My wife likes this card.

7.  Rafael Devers.

8.  Darwinzon Hernandez.  Nice to see him get in the set, even if his role is less than clear.  Will he start?  Close?  Set up?

9.  Christian Vazquez.  My wife also likes this card.

10.  Chris Sale.

11.  Eduardo Rodriguez.

12.  Nathan Eovaldi.  When healthy, he's terrific.  Unfortunately, he's rarely healthy.

13.  Mitch Moreland.  I like Moreland, I really do, but I was surprised to see Boston bring him back, especially with Chavis around.  That kind of muddies the waters with the bench roles, impacting the chances of Tzu-Wei Lin and Marco Hernandez, as well as Rule V draftee Jonathan Arauz.  You can't have all three.  Even two is stretching it, especially with Chavis around.

14.  Ryan Brasier.  I am surprised to see Brasier here instead of Brandon Workman.  Brasier was a revelation in 2018 but was returned to the minors at one point in 2019.  Workman on the other hand has the inside track on the closer role.

15.  Matt Barnes.  Barnes is Workman's primary rival in getting the closer role, but he generally does much better as a setup man.

I would have liked to see a couple of the other new guys.  Jose Peraza, Martin Perez, Collin McHugh, Kevin Plawecki and Jonathan Lucroy are all on the team this year.  Perhaps they could have gotten a couple of them in.

A 2020 Zippy-Zapping

Another PWE Zippy-Zapping made its way into my mailbox recently.  Two 2020 cards fell out. 

1.  Rafael Devers.  This is one of the Utz cards, a nice food issue from Topps.  These are apparently a regional issue, because I have never heard of the brand before there were cards last year.  This year's was even better because the design and pictures are not just a rehash of the Topps design of the year.

2.  Eduardo Rodriguez.  Yes, this is a Red Sox card, forget those two Astros guys.  E-Rod had a terrific year last year and started to gain some recognition.

Thanks Kenny! 

One-Card Wonder Pt. 46: Ken Poulsen

Recently I did a post about a set covering the 1967 Red Sox Impossible Dream season.  Unfortunately, not every player who played for the team that year made it into the set.  It was missing Tony Horton, Bill Landis and Ken Poulsen.  Horton appears in some oddball sets for the Red Sox, but Landis does not.  At first, I thought Poulsen also did not have any cards, until I came across this Fritsch One Card Winner, an oddball set devoted to adding cards of players who did not previously appear on cardboard.  I love this set, and I have Merlin Nippert from it as well. 

Poulsen's Major League career consisted of five games with the Impossible Dream Red Sox.  He doubled in five at-bats.  After the season Poulsen bounced around the Yankees system for a few years, but never again made the Majors.