One Year Wonder: Class of 2022

One way to try to catch up on these is to go each year and cover the players.  I had everyone from 2021 covered (Adam Ottavino, Danny Santana and Kyle Schwarber).  I did previously cover Matt Strahm and Michael Wacha in individual posts, but I thought I would do a post for the remaining players.  I will only cover those for whom cards have been made, so no Yolmer Sanchez, Jake Diekman, Abraham Almonte or Jaylin Davis, all of whom were covered in my Red Sox With No Cards post covering 2022.  That leaves me with two players.  

ERIC HOSMER

Eric Hosmer was once a big star.  He was a major part of the Kansas City Royals team that appeared in back-to-back World Series, winning it all in 2015.  He was a four-time Gold Glover and also won a Silver Slugger and was an All Star in 2016.  He hit over .300 a couple of times, twice hit 25 home runs and had a 100 RBI season.  Then, he signed a huge deal with the Padres and that was a horrendous move for him.  He had a decent power season his second year in San Diego, but by and large his hitting stats took a nosedive.  The Padres attempted to move him in the deal that brought Juan Soto to the Padres, but he exercised his no-trade clause.  He was convinced to waive his rights and approve a trade to the Red Sox, which the Padres sweetened by adding a couple of prospects in return for former top prospect Jay Groome.  Hosmer appeared in just 14 games for the Red Sox, hitting .244/.320/.311 with just three doubles, no homers and four RBIs.  He played for the Cubs in 2023, but his power was still gone and that was it for the former Royals star.  Hosmer does not come close to being in the conversation for All-Time One-Year Wonder first-baseman, which is held by Nick Esasky.

TOMMY PHAM

Pham has had an interesting Major League career.  He was a role player for a few seasons with the Cardinals before a big season in 2017 in which he hit over .300 and had more than 20 home runs.  The next season was similar, but had him traded to the Rays in a deadline deal.  He had another big year in 2019 before being traded to the Padres along with Jake Cronenworth for a package that included Hunter Renfroe.  He had a chaotic stint in San Diego.  He signed with the Reds prior to the 2022 season and was reasonably productive.  He was traded to the Red Sox for a minor leaguer at the deadline.  Pham played in 53 games for Boston, hitting .234/.298/.374.  He had 12 doubles, six homers and drove in 24 runs.  After the season, he was once again a free agent.  Since 2022, he has played for the Mets, Diamondbacks, White Sox, Cardinals, Royals and Pirates.  He is still active at this time, though he is once more a free agent.  Pham also does not come close to being in the conversation for All-Time One-Year Wonder left-fielder, which is held by Cliff Floyd.

The Worst Red Sox Team of All Time Pt. 36: Bennie Tate

Failure is often even more fascinating than success. I am definitely intrigued by the 1932 Boston Red Sox, the worst Red Sox team of all time. The team finished with a record of 43-111, for a winning percentage of .279 and very little went right. 

Finally, a player who played more than a year or two.  Tate had a ten-year career as a catcher in the Majors, primarily playing for the Washington Senators.  He spent his first seven years in the Capital, generally playing a little less than half the games.  In the 1930 season, he was moved to the White Sox and had a nice season.  

Tate started the 1932 season with the White Sox, but after just four games he was traded to the Red Sox.  Tate was involved in the same deal that brought slugger Smead Jolley along with Johnny Watwood and $7,500.00.  Fellow catcher Charlie Berry and utility man Jack Rothrock went the other way.  

Tate was the primary catcher for the Red Sox the rest of the 1932 season, playing in 81 games with Ed Connolly as the second catcher most of the year.  Tate hit .245/.297/.348 with 12 doubles, five triples, two homers and 26 RBIs.  He drew 20 walks and struck out just six times the entire season, which is crazy.  He was not great at stopping the running game, allowing the most stolen bases in the league in 1932.

1932 was Tate's only season in Boston.  He spent the 1933 season and most of 1934 with the Montreal Royals before making it back to the Majors with the Cubs in 1934 for a handful of games.  He played a few more years in the minors after that, but never appeared in the Majors again.

2001 Fleer Red Sox 100th Pt. 18: Pete Runnels

NAME:  Pete Runnels

POSITION:  Second base/first base

WHY IS HE HERE?  Runnels spent six years in Boston, winning two batting titles (.320 in 1960 and .326 in 1962).  He finished second to Ted Williams in 1958.  During his time in Boston, Runnels hit .320/.408/.427.  He was an All Star five times.

WOULD I PUT HIM IN IN 2001?:  Probably.

ANY BETTER CHOICES IN 2001?:  All of the better choices are already here.  Dale Alexander is the only Red Sox batting champ to not appear, but Runnels has a better argument than him anyway.

WOULD I PUT HIM IN NOW?:  Maybe.

ANY BETTER CHOICES NOW?:  So, the major key here is batting champions since that is Runnels's primary claim to fame.  The Red Sox batting champs since 2001 are Manny Ramirez, Bill Mueller and Mookie Betts.  Of those, Ramirez and Betts would be obvious selections for inclusion.  Mueller is a little more questionable.  Runnels probably deserves a spot over him.  

Contemporary Era Ballot

So, the Contemporary Era Ballot was released this week and I have to say, I am not happy about it.  For whatever reason, the powers that be are making things extremely difficult for players to be elected starting this year.  There are eight players on this year's ballot and most of them are players that have been on this ballot year after year after year.

So anyway, let's look at this year's candidates:

BARRY BONDS

I don't know what more there is to say about Bonds.  We all know why he should be in and we all know why he is not.  I think it's time to put him in.  

ROGER CLEMENS

Everything I said about Bonds goes for Clemens as well.  There is the added caveat that Clemens is the only player who played for the Red Sox on the ballot, so he is of course my preference to get in this year.  I will talk more about why the fact that Clemens is the only Red Sox player on this ballot is so aggravating.

CARLOS DELGADO

Delgado is one of those players that is a lot better than he is remembered for being.  Part of that was playing in the relative anonymity of Toronto during a time when they were not as good.  He hit 473 home runs in his career as well as driving in 1,512 runs.  His slash line was an impressive .280/.383/.546 but he was kind of lost in the shuffle of the steroid era.  So, is he a Hall of Famer?  I don't really see it, but he was damn good.  I think he is a bit below the standard for Hall of Fame first-basemen.  An interesting sidenote about Delgado is that he was in the Red Sox system at the very end of his career in 2010.  He appeared in five games for the Pawtucket Red Sox.

JEFF KENT

This is the kind of player I could easily see getting elected.  Kent is the record holder for most home runs by a second-baseman.  He had 377 career home runs and was the NL MVP in 2000.  The issue with that distinction is that he was really a second-baseman in name only.  He was not generally a very good defensive second-baseman.  I could see him getting in and have advocated for him in the past.  He peaked at just 46% of the writers' vote though, so it seems like a longshot for him to get in now.

DON MATTINGLY

How many chances is Mattingly going to get?  He has been on this ballot four times in a row.  He has not been elected yet.  He was on the writers' ballot for 15 years, with a high of 28% of the vote and made it to 50% of the vote the last time he was on this ballot.  He is not really all that close to election.  Meanwhile, there are multiple other players who seem to not get anything close to a decent shot.  Nothing would really surprise me regarding his candidacy, but I don't think he is quite there for the Hall of Fame.  He had four or five great seasons, and was mostly ordinary outside of those seasons.  He is well below the standard for Hall of Fame first-basemen.

DALE MURPHY

Murphy also seems to get endless opportunities at election, but is further away than Mattingly.  I get it, he won back-to-back MVP awards and his peak was definitely longer than Mattingly's.  I could see him getting in first, but he is still below the Hall of Fame standard for his position, mostly because after his peak was done, he was mostly awful.  He was a nice, clean-cut guy, I get it, but a line of .265/.346/.469 and 46.5 WAR out of a center fielder is not getting it done.  His highest vote total on the writers' ballot was 23%.

GARY SHEFFIELD

Sheffield's candidacy is kind of a blend of Barry Bonds and Jeff Kent.  He was implicated in the same BALCO scandal as Bonds for using PEDs but was largely unscathed by the controversy as a result of claiming ignorance.  He generally performed well in the writers' voting, making it up to 63% of the vote in his final year on the ballot.  He had 509 home runs and a 140 OPS+, but his surly personality did not endear him to many teams.  He played for eight teams in his career, only once for more than four seasons.  

FERNANDO VALENZUELA 

Probably the biggest surprise on the ballot.  I'm not sure his placement here makes much of any sense.  He certainly had an impressive peak and was the first (and so far only) pitcher to win the Rookie of the Year and Cy Young Award in the same season (1981).  The problem is that he pitched for Tommy Lasorda who tended to completely ruin his pitchers.  Valenzuela was certainly famous enough, pitching for Los Angeles and being Mexican-born, but he was not a pioneer.  There had been Mexican players before.  Valenzuela's career simply does not match up to being a Hall of Famer, he had a record of 173-153 with a 3.54 ERA (104 ERA+).  He notched 2,074 strikeouts.  He only lasted two years on the ballot.  I just do not see it with him.  

SO WHO IS MISSING?

Taking off my Red Sox fandom for a moment, I think the biggest player that is missing is Lou Whitaker.  I simply do not understand why he cannot seem to even make the ballot.  He absolutely should be in the Hall of Fame.  Shortly behind him is Dwight Evans and Curt Schilling.  Again, both players are well-qualified to be Hall of Famers.  And yes, both of them played for the Red Sox, so I have another reason to want them in, but those three players are easily more qualified than almost everyone on this ballot outside of Bonds, Clemens and maybe Sheffield.  I just do not understand what is happening with these ballots.

PREDICTIONS

Well, like I said early on, my preference would be for Bonds and Clemens to finally make it in, if only so we don't have to worry about those guys showing up on these ballots in the future.  Plus, it's hardly a Hall of Fame without the all-time home run leader and a guy on the short list of greatest pitcher of all time.  But a lot of stupid things have happened with this vote since Harold Baines managed to get elected and the stupidest realistic thing I can think of is for Don Mattingly and Dale Murphy to get in (the stupidest thing would be for Valenzuela to get in, but that doesn't seem likely, of course neither did Baines getting in), so I guess that's my prediction.  The new rule going into effect this year is that anyone who does not get five votes cannot appear on the next ballot for this Committee.  If anyone goes more than once without receiving five votes, they are permanently ineligible, which is just ridiculous and insane.

This Week in Pickups

It's not all mail days this week.  After seeing a bunch of raves about Topps Holiday being such a fun break, I picked up a Mega Box as well as one of those ball things.  This was in different days and I will get to those.  The big news is of course the Dodgers winning the World Series.  But I also snatched victory from the jaws of defeat in my jury trial this last week.  But nobody wants to hear about that, so let's see some cards.

Up first is the Mega Box break:

1.  Garrett Crochet.  The best Red Sox card from either of the breaks was this Crochet card, which is the Silver Glitter parallel.  I am expecting Crochet to be the runner-up in the Cy Young vote.  He also had a terrific performance in Game 1 of the ALDS.  

2.  Alex Bregman.  Bregman is a Silver Slugger finalist, but stands next to no chance at it since Jose Ramirez is also a finalist.  Bregman is the biggest free agent decision Boston has.  He has not yet officially opted out, but it is expected.

Here we have a bunch of Rafaela cards, and one Alex Bregman.  As I am writing this, it has been announced that Rafaela won the Gold Glove Award this year.  Absolutely well-deserved.  I want to highlight the Topps T205 cards.  Topps had this set in 2003 and it was one of my favorite sets, so I am thrilled to see it be revived this year instead of T206 which has been done to death.

Up next is a TCDB trade:

1.  Ceddanne Rafaela.  I have tried working out trades for this card a couple times and finally pulled it off.

2.  Wilyer Abreu.  Abreu also won the Gold Glove today.  This is his second.  I was pretty surprised by this because of his time on the IL.

3.  Wilyer Abreu.  There are three Abreu cards in this trade.  He is finally starting to gain some traction in my collection.

4.  Wilyer Abreu.

5.  Chris Martin.  Martin had a great stint in Boston, not many middle relievers get Cy Young votes, but he did in 2023.

6.  Alex Bregman.  The third Bregman card in this post.

7.  Fred Lynn.  Since we are talking Gold Glove Awards today, Lynn won four in his career, all with the Red Sox.

8.  Aroldis Chapman.  I was no huge fan of Chapman coming into the season, but he really won me over with his electrifying performance this year.  He saved 32 games, went 3-5 with a 1.17 ERA and struck out 85 batters in 61.1 innings.

Another Rafaela card.  This is my first variation of the 2023 Select Youth Explosion autograph.

And here is the Holiday ball break:

1.  Walker Buehler.  One of these days I will catch up on some of the One-Year Wonders.  Buehler qualifies.  Let's just say that things did not work out as hoped with Buehler this year, which was very disappointing.

2.  Ceddanne Rafaela.  Yep, got a Rafaela in a pack.  He seems to come to me in packs reasonably often.   What I love about this card is that it is the only card in the team set where the photo has changed from his flagship set release.

3.  Jarren Duran.  I'm probably going to get Duran into my Century Club just in time for him to be traded.

And the next two scans are more TCDB trades.

1.  Mike Myers.  The award for the most random player to appear this year is Myers, with this card appropriately arriving in the mail on Halloween.  Myers was an effective LOOGY for several years and had a 3.44 ERA in 90 games for the Red Sox over two seasons (just 52.1 innings).  He was on the 2004 World Series roster.

2.  Bronson Arroyo.  I love how Panini puts some random retired players in their sets.  Last year was Mike Lowell.  Arroyo is weird because he was a fan favorite player, but spent far more time with the Reds than the Red Sox.  

3.  Tris Speaker.  Nice shot that I have not seen before.

4.  Terry Francona.  Still my favorite manager to get cards of.  Francona will be in the Hall of Fame someday.

5.  Bronson Arroyo.  The most random player to appear more than once in my pickups.  I had fewer than 20 cards coming into the week and I add two at the same time?

6.  Marcelo Mayer.  I am looking forward to seeing what Mayer can do over a full season, but he needs a steady position.  This will be one of the stories of the offseason.

1.  Carl Yastrzemski.  Going back to Gold Gloves, Yaz won seven, obviously all with Boston.  This is the second most in team history.  Dwight Evans won eight.

2.  Roger Clemens.  Seven-time Cy Young winner Clemens should have won at least one more, in 1990.

3.  Ted Williams.  Williams was certainly NOT a Gold Glove winner.

4.  Kutter Crawford.  I would like to see him healthy again next season.  He was good for 180 innings in 2024 and led the league in games started.  There is something to be said for that.

5.  David Ortiz.  Another player who could not be mistaken for a Gold Glover.  I maintain he wasn't as bad at first when he had to play there, and he did make a great play in the 2004 World Series throwing out Jeff Suppan returning to third base in a critical situation.

6.  Babe Ruth.  I still love grabbing Ruth cards that show him with the Red Sox.

That's it for today.  I might be able to start posting more regularly now since I got my laptop back.

Ceddanne Mail

Last week's mail was pretty slow.  Just three packages with five cards.  All of them Ceddanne Rafaela cards.

Most of the cards were autographs too.  Each package contained an auto, the three Topps Inception cards in the second and third row all came together.  I had been watching this lot a few times over and decided I would pull the trigger after receiving my winnings from my fantasy baseball league this year (I finished fifth, but was in the money).  The Finest card in the first row was purchased to replace a card that seemingly disappeared in the mail (the fourth time that has happened lately), but unfortunately I grabbed the Sky Blue, when I should have grabbed the Blue.  So, now I have another one coming.  We are about a week away from Gold Glove announcements.  Hopefully Ceddanne will win it.  He did win the Fielding Bible Award, so I think the Gold Glove is next.  The big question will be the Platinum Glove.

Topps Now Maildays

I am showing off three Topps Now cards I received last week.

Officially this is listed as a team card, but I am going to call it just a Ceddanne Rafaela card.  After all, Rafaela delivered the winning hit that propelled the Red Sox into the postseason, a walkoff triple.  He seems to have a flair for the dramatic.  Unfortunately, it didn't carry over into the postseason.  He has things to work on this offseason, his numbers were better this year, but he seems to have stretches where he completely loses his approach.  He was named a finalist for the Gold Glove in center field and I am looking forward to finding out if he wins, which he should.

Payton Tolle was the team's second-round pick last year.  He made his Major League debut on August 29 against Paul Skenes and the Pirates and struck out eight batters.  His fastball is electric, but he needs to work on his secondary pitches or he will not be a starting pitcher.  

As great as Tolle's debut was, Connelly Early's was better.  Early carved up the A's, striking out 11 and tying a club record for a debut.  The Red Sox won 6-0.  Early was good enough that he pitched the decisive game in the Wild Card series against the Yankees.  Unfortunately, the defense let him down in the fourth inning because he had been pitching well.  Early should be in the rotation next season.