2001 Fleer Red Sox 100th Pt. 16: Babe Ruth

NAME: Babe Ruth

POSITION: Starting Pitcher, Outfielder

WHY IS HE HERE?:  Arguably the most famous baseball player of all time.  Ruth started his career in Boston as a starting pitcher, but gradually was moved to the outfield.  He had a record of 89-46 with a 2.19 ERA in 1,190.1 innings with 483 strikeouts.  He had his best season in 1916 when he was 23-12 with a league-leading 1.75 ERA.  In his only full season as a position player for the Red Sox in 1919 he set a then-record with 29 home runs and led the league in runs (103), RBIs (113) and twice led in home runs.     

WOULD I PUT HIM IN IN 2001?:  Absolutely.  

ANY BETTER CHOICES IN 2001?:  The only better choices are already in the set.

WOULD I PUT HIM IN NOW?:  Once again, of course.

ANY BETTER CHOICES NOW?:  Guys like David Ortiz and Mookie Betts are probably among the more popular players since this set came out.  And those players absolutely would be in the set.

The Worst Red Sox Team of All Time Pt. 33: Howie Storie

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.

Howie Storie is another one of those ultra-obscure players to play for the Red Sox in 1932.  Storie actually played parts of two seasons for the Red Sox, but that was for a total of 12 Major League games.  During that time, he did not make a single error and he caught one of the two attempted base stealers on him.

Storie was just 20 years old when he made his Major League debut with the Red Sox in 1930.  That year, he appeared in six games, accumulating 20 plate appearances.  He had two hits and three walks against two strikeouts and scored two runs.  That gave him a line of .118/.250/.118.  

He spent most of the 1932 season in the minors, appearing in 34 games with a line of .227/.227/.351.  Of his 22 hits, four were doubles and four were triples.  He made it into another six games in the Majors, but had just eight plate appearances, mostly early in the season.  He had three hits and had a line of .375/.375/.375.  

Storie played in 13 games in the minors in 1933 and hit just .167.  He was released at some point in the season, and that was it for his career.

2001 Fleer Red Sox 100th Pt. 15: Joe Dobson

NAME: Joe Dobson

POSITION: Starting Pitcher

WHY IS HE HERE?:  Dobson was a consistent and reliable starting pitcher for the team during the late 1940's and was an All Star in 1948 (16-10, 3.56).  He won 106 games with the Red Sox which is tenth in team history.  He had a record of 106-72 with a 3.57 ERA in Boston.  

WOULD I PUT HIM IN IN 2001?:  Probably not.  I was a little surprised by Dobson's inclusion in the set.  Even though he was seventh in career wins in team history at the time the set came out, he was never really dominant.  

ANY BETTER CHOICES IN 2001?:  Well, just looking at the wins leaders, Bob Stanley does not appear in the set and he had more wins than Dobson.  Ellis Kinder is also not in the set and he had some huge seasons for Boston.  Tom Brewer, Ernie Shore and Rube Foster also deserve consideration.

WOULD I PUT HIM IN NOW?:  Not unless it's a huge set.

ANY BETTER CHOICES NOW?:  Among starting pitchers since 2001 that are not present in the set are Tim Wakefield, Curt Schilling, Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, Clay Buchholz, Rick Porcello and Chris Sale.  

The Worst Red Sox Team of All Time Pt. 32: Andy Spognardi

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.

Andy Spognardi is another of those super obscure players from the 1932 season.  1932 was his only Major League season, but he did get a bit more playing time than guys like Hank Patterson, Johnny Lucas and Regis Leheny.  Spognardi was a Boston native who signed a contract with the team and did not spend a day in the minors before making his Major League debut.  He played 17 games in the Majors in 1932 and that was it for his Major League career.

Spognardi played second, third and shortstop for the Red Sox.  In his 41 plate appearances, he accumulated a surprisingly successful .294/.400/.324 line with nine runs scored, a double, an RBI and six walks.  Despite that, he played just a handful of games in the minors the next two seasons and never made it back to the Majors.

According to his biography on SABR, Spognardi was just using baseball to help pay some of his medical school tuition.  He became a doctor after his playing career was over.

Mailday Madness Pt. 11

Keeping this thing going.  Let's get into this.

This was just a one-card trade for Hanley Ramirez.  That's right, that's Hanley, not Manny.  I believe I have talked about this before, Hanley was the first prospect I really collected from the Red Sox.  I got in on the ground floor, grabbing his very first minor league card as soon as it came out.  Then in 2003 when he started getting Major League cards, I grabbed a lot of them.  As such, I have a rather impressive amount of his first year cards, including an autographed X-fractor and a printing plate.  I probably could have made some decent money had I sold my cards in the first few years of his Major League career when he was one of the most exciting players in the game.  Unfortunately, Ramirez was traded after he made just two at-bats in Boston before he was traded to the Marlins in the Josh Beckett/Mike Lowell deal.  Ramirez did come back to Boston in 2015 and had a really good year in 2016.  

1.  Jarren Duran.  As I am typing this I just picked up Duran for my fantasy team.  Hopefully he can build on his season from last year.

2.  Alex Verdugo.  This is a nice-looking Verdugo card.

3.  Enrique Hernandez.  Hey, the border of this card matches Hernandez's socks.

4.  Bobby Dalbec.  Dalbec is probably at the turning point in his Boston career.  With C.J. Cron on hand now, it becomes less likely that Dalbec will stick around.

1.  Nick Pivetta.  Pivetta is in the running for Opening Day starter.  He is not my first pick, I would go with Brayan Bello.  Pivetta is a reliable starter though and fun to watch.

2.  Trevor Story.  I am predicting a 20/20 bounceback season for Story this year.  He looks healthy and has been playing well this Spring.

3.  Jackie Bradley Jr.  It looks like JBJ has retired.  He finishes with a line of .225/.303/.381 with 109 home runs, 449 RBIs and 69 stolen bases.  His most impressive stat is his 10.3 career dWAR.  

4.  Manny Ramirez.  This is one of my favorite insert sets of recent years, particularly the non-Chrome cards where they are actually die-cut.

5.  Johnny Damon.  It is sort of odd looking over Damon's career that he was only an All Star twice.  And both of those came during his time with Boston.  That's right, never with Kansas City and never with the Yankees.  

6.  Cecil Cooper.  Cooper spent six seasons with the Red Sox and hit .283/.324/.447 with 40 home runs.  He was then traded to the Brewers in the deal that brought back George Scott and Bernie Carbo and got a lot more playing time and blossomed.

7.  Kyle Schwarber.  It looks like the pitcher Boston gave up in the Schwarber deal stalled out.  Aldo Ramirez looked like a decent prospect in 2021, but struggled after the deal and hasn't pitched since.  I am not sure what happened.

1.  Hirokazu Sawamura.  Sawamura had a pretty good ERA during his two seasons in Boston, but his FIP was a less-than-impressive 4.59 and his release becomes a little more clear.  I still liked him though and was disappointed when he was simply released.

2.  Jonathan Arauz.  A Rule 5 pick by Boston prior to the 2020 season, Arauz hit .204/.280/.320 with four home runs and 18 RBIs in 59 games played as a utility infielder.  He has played with the Orioles and Mets since, but has never hit much.

3.  Xander Bogaerts.  

4.  Rafael Devers.  Here's another City Connect uniform card.

5.  Dustin Pedroia.  Pedroia will be on the Hall of Fame ballot for next season.  

1.  Michael Chavis.

2.  Rafael Devers.

3.  Hirokazu Sawamura.

4.  Tanner Houck.  Houck looks like a good bet to make the starting rotation this season, giving Boston three home-grown starters for the first time in a very long time.

5.  Chris Sale.  Sale and Houck are almost mirror-images of each other on the mound.

6.  Rafael Devers.

7.  Mookie Betts.  Betts has a lot of really cool cards that I missed out on.

8.  Jarren Duran.

More Wong Updates

I started my fantasy baseball draft today.  How early is too early to grab Connor Wong?  It takes several days for us to do our draft, so it will probably be awhile before I start to think about trying to grab him.  As I am writing this, I just made my fifth round pick.  Triston Casas is my only Red Sox player so far.

Anyway, here are the Wong cards.

Here is the Holiday Easter Eggs parallel and the Yellow parallel.  I don't like the Easter parallels quite as much as the Halloween parallels from Topps Update last year.  They are just kind of odd.  Unfortunately, I recently missed out on a Printing Plate from 2024 Topps, not because I was outbid, but because I got really busy suddenly and just missed the auction ending.  It was annoying.

Mailday Madness Pt. 10

This one will be pretty quick.  I have just two packages to show off and neither of them are very big.  The Red Sox are in a bit of trouble with Lucas Giolito going down with an injury, possibly for the entire season, and Vaughn Grissom also having issues.  It would be nice to add another starter, but the team seems unlikely to do that.  

1.  Moe Berg.  My parents called me one day and my dad started talking to me about this movie they had just seen the night before called The Catcher was a Spy.  Of course I remembered this as the title of the biography of Berg which I have read a couple of times.  Berg was an enigma.  I have yet to see the movie, but maybe I will check it out soon.

2.  Cy Young/Roger Clemens.  It is pretty cool to have a card featuring the pitchers who are tied for the all-time team record in wins (192).  Tim Wakefield came close with 186 wins.  

3.  Kutter Crawford.  Crawford is a pitcher I think could turn into something pretty good.  I am not predicting stardom, but a good middle-of-the-rotation arm.  He had some impressive peripheral numbers.  

1.  Josh Beckett.  Beckett won 89 games with the Red Sox.  He is tied for 18th all-time on the Red Sox leaderboard with a legendary figure himself.  He is tied with Babe Ruth.

2.  Mookie Betts.  The MVP subsets/inserts from Donruss sets were not as beloved as the Diamond Kings, but some of the choices were still pretty unusual.  They were also not nearly as long-lasting.

3.  Rafael Devers.  Devers has been on fire this Spring.  I am looking forward to seeing what he will do this season.

4.  Corey Kluber.  Kluber goes down as another star pitcher who spent just one year with the Red Sox.  Unfortunately, his last season was a disaster.  He appeared in 15 games, starting nine (and notching his only career save), but had a record of 3-6 and an unsightly 7.04 ERA.  He struck out 42 and walked 21 in 55 innings.  

Another Wong Bites the Dust

I don't mean to imply anything by that title of course.  It just worked.

Here is the next Wong update.  Two cards in today.  

The first card is the 2022 Topps Chrome Purple Speckle Refractor.  This is one that is somewhat common, yet has eluded me.  Part of that is that I just did not realize I did not already have it.  The second one is the regular Holiday parallel from 2024 Topps.  I am not sure what this design is, or how it relates to Easter, but I have never claimed to know much about that particular holiday.

Mailday Madness Pt. 9

This is another big one.  An individual I made a trade with recently decided he wanted to get rid of some Red Sox duplicates he had and offered to just send me a bunch.  So, all of the below cards were free.  Tough to argue with that.

1.  Xander Bogaerts.  This features a cameo from Rafael Devers.  Bogaerts and Devers always seemed like great friends.  It was sort of concerning after Bogaerts defected that Devers would do the same.  Luckily that did not happen.

2.  Carlton Fisk.  Is this another shot from his Game 6 World Series-winning homer?  I don't really know.  

3.  Bobby Dalbec.  Boston recently signed C.J. Cron, which spells trouble for Dalbec making the team this year.

4.  Rafael Devers.  This is a pretty cool shot with the stadium in the background.

5.  Alex Verdugo.  Last year I was planning to push Verdugo to 100 cards.  He will get there this year, probably mostly due to TCDB.

6.  Bobby Dalbec.

7.  Xander Bogaerts.

8.  J.D. Martinez.  I am running out of things to say about some of these players.  Martinez shows up in a ton of these packages.

9.  Kyle Schwarber.  Schwarber had a very odd year last year with the Phillies.  He hit just .197, but walked so much that his OBP was a respectable (but not great) .343 and he hit 47 home runs and drove in 104 runs.  His brief time in Boston, he hit .291 (which would have been a career high by a significant margin had it been over an entire season) but with a similar walk rate, so his OBP was .435.  I still wonder what it would have been like to keep him over Martinez after 2021.  

10.  Chris Sale.  Here's another player who shows up a ton in these packages.

11.  Rafael Devers.

12.  Mookie Betts.  And yet another one.  This package in particular contains a lot of Mookie cards.  And I am kind of okay with it because I have come to realize how lucky I was to witness his tenure with Boston.  He was easily one of the greatest all-around players the team has ever developed and it is so frustrating that they traded him away.  And I say that as probably the biggest Connor Wong fan.

13.  J.D. Martinez.

14.  Andrew Benintendi.  And another one.  Benintendi has had such an odd career.  If he has another season like last year, I'm not even sure he is a regular player anymore.  It's so strange to go from the seventh overall pick to this.

15.  Mookie Betts.

16.  Rafael Devers.

17.  Mookie Betts.  I need to get back to my Diamond King Roundup posts.  I left that series incomplete.

18.  Mookie Betts.

19.  Mookie Betts.

20.  Mookie Betts.  

21.  Mookie Betts.  See what I mean about there being a lot in this?  I like this card because I had a Shohei Ohtani from this insert set.

22.  Mookie Betts.  I really like this one too.

23.  Ted Williams.  Williams likely should have won at least a couple more MVPs than his two.  It's a shame he never got another chance to play in a World Series after 1946.

24.  Mookie Betts.

25.  Mookie Betts.

26.  Chris Sale.

27.  Andrew Benintendi.

28.  J.D. Martinez.

29.  Mookie Betts.

30.  J.D. Martinez.

31.  Mookie Betts.

32.  Rafael Devers.

33.  Chris Sale.

34.  David Ortiz.  In his postseason career, Ortiz hit .289/.404/.543 with 17 home runs and 61 RBIs in 85 games.  His average and OBP are slightly better than his regular season numbers while his slugging percentage is slightly worse.  These things tend to even out after larger samples, so this is not surprising.

35.  Team Card.  This is the 2018 World Championship team, one of the most dominant teams of my lifetime, and certainly the most dominant Red Sox team.

36.  Rafael Devers.

37.  J.D. Martinez.

38.  David Ortiz.

39.  Roger Clemens.  I started paying attention to baseball in 1991, but didn't really watch a lot of games until around 1995, and even then could only watch nationally-televised games and superstation teams.  Unfortunately that meant I missed out on a lot of the Roger Clemens dominance.

40.  Xander Bogaerts.

41.  Nomar Garciaparra.  One thing I am beginning to think that Hall of Fame voters are getting completely wrong is that players with insanely high peaks should be in.  Sandy Koufax and Dizzy Dean are in, why isn't Nomar Garciaparra in?  He was easily one of the best players in the game for about a seven-year stretch.

42.  Cy Young.  I love this photo and have seen it several times on cards.  It looks like he's in someone's backyard.  

43.  Roger Clemens.

44.  David Ortiz.

45.  Xander Bogaerts.

46.  J.D. Martinez.

47.  Carl Yastrzemski.  Yaz won three batting titles during his career (1963, 1967, 1968).  The one he won in 1968 came when he hit just .301 and was the only player in the league to hit over .300.  That was when baseball decided to lower the pitching mound a little.

48.  Nomar Garciaparra.

49.  Wade Boggs.  Boggs is another player, like Mo Vaughn, that I get kind of nostalgic about.  I didn't get to see him play much, but his career in the 80's was so fascinating.  How did he never come close to an MVP award?

50.  David Ortiz.

51.  Chris Sale.

52.  Michael Chavis.  Another player that appears a lot.  I was thinking about some of the big prolific home run seasons around the game.  2019 was one of the biggest.  I was thinking about how few Red Sox seemed to have benefited from that, but then I remembered Chavis.  He hit 18 home runs.  It was his rookie season so it didn't seem odd because he had great power in the minors, but he has not come close to that since.  

53.  Rafael Devers.

54.  Pedro Martinez.  As with Mookie Betts, I am happy I was able to witness the historic dominance of Pedro Martinez.  I often say I have not seen anyone better than he was during his peak years with Boston.  

55.  Andrew Benintendi.

56.  Gorkys Hernandez.  This is an odd one.  Hernandez was acquired to be a backup outfielder in 2019, but ended up playing in just 20 games.  He hit just .143/.218/.245 with zero home runs and two RBIs.  I am surprised he ended up even getting a card.  

57.  Christian Vazquez.  Two others that clearly seemed to benefit in 2019 from the juiced ball were Christian Vazquez (23 home runs, second best is nine) and Xander Bogaerts (33, second best is 23).  1996 and 1987 are other big home run seasons.

58.  Nathan Eovaldi.  Eovaldi is often cited as an example of the team being cheap, but the Red Sox actually offered him a better deal than the one he eventually got.  He thought he could get a better deal elsewhere and when that did not happen, he came back to the Red Sox, who had already moved on.  Unfortunately, Corey Kluber did not work out.

59.  Chris Sale.

60.  Eduardo Rodriguez.  This is one player I really wish would have stayed in Boston.  Rodriguez was often frustrating, but when he was on, he was so good.

61.  J.D. Martinez.

62.  Michael Chavis.

63.  Christian Vazquez.

64.  Xander Bogaerts.

65.  Enrique Hernandez.  Hernandez recently re-signed with the Dodgers, which seems to be his preferred team.

66.  Rafael Devers.

67.  Jackie Bradley Jr.  Maybe one of the greatest defensive center fielders in team history.  I still like to go back and watch highlight videos of him on Youtube.

68.  Tanner Houck.  Houck has looked good this Spring.  He could be in line for a starting rotation spot, but I still think he would make a good closer.

69.  Xander Bogaerts.

70.  Pedro Martinez.

71.  Carl Yastrzemski.

72.  Ted Williams.

73.  Tanner Houck.

74.  Nomar Garciaparra.

75.  Bobby Dalbec.

76.  Nick Decker.  Decker was the second-round pick in 2018.  He has struggled in the minors and is now 24 and still in Class A.  I think he is quickly running out of time.

77.  Michael Chavis.

78.  Durbin Feltman.  Feltman was the third-round pick in 2018.  Once thought to be on the fast track to the Majors, he never really got going in the minors.  He was released and spent last season in the Athletics system where his numbers improved, but back in AA ball.  

79.  Darwinzon Hernandez.  Hernandez spent last season in the Orioles system where he put up some good numbers.  Control continues to be an issue.  He has good stuff, if he can harness it.

80.  Dustin Pedroia.  I would put Pedroia in a category similar to Nomar, though his peak is not as high.  It's a shame that injuries prematurely ended his career.  Had he had a few seasons of decline instead of an abrupt end, his chances of election to Cooperstown would look pretty good.

81.  Rafael Devers.

82.  David Price.  Price will probably go down as a big free agent bust.  After signing the biggest free agent contract in team history, he delivered just four seasons of mostly injury-plagued ball.  2016 was the only year he was fully healthy and he had a rough 3.99 ERA, though he did strike out 228 batters in 230 innings.  In Boston, he was 46-24 with a 3.84 ERA and 609 strikeouts versus 156 walks in 588 innings.  All of that can be forgiven though with his amazing performance in the 2018 World Series, for which he should have won MVP.

83.  David Price.

84.  Andrew Benintendi.

85.  Jackie Bradley Jr.

86.  J.D. Martinez.  What's this?  A boring Stadium Club photo?

87.  Chris Sale.  This one makes up for it.

88.  Wade Boggs.

89.  Craig Kimbrel.  Kimbrel and Kenley Jansen both look like potential Hall of Famers.  Kimbrel spent three seasons in Boston and saved 108 games with a 2.44 ERA and a shocking 305 strikeouts in just 184 innings.  He will not wear a Red Sox cap on his plaque, but I hope he gets in all the same.

90.  David Ortiz.  Closing things out is a hug between Ortiz and Dustin Pedroia.

Mailday Madness Pt. 8

I'm just going to do one package today because the next one will be a big one and I don't have a ton of time to generate a post this morning.

1.  Rafael Devers.  There are rumblings that Devers has been working on some things with his swing over the offseason and that he has built up a little more muscle.  If he has protection in the lineup, a 40-homer season is possible.

2.  Chase Meidroth.  Meidroth was the fourth-round pick in 2022 and looks like a potential utility player in the Majors, primarily at second and third.  He is a decent contact hitter, but doesn't have much power.

3.  Nomar Garciaparra.  I need to work on getting some of the Panini products from last year to grab some of the retired players.  I do hope that Panini branches out somewhat on different players in 2024.  Let's see George Scott, Rick Burleson, Jim Lonborg, Bill Monbouquette, Rudy York, Billy Werber, Buddy Myer, Dutch Leonard and Duffy Lewis.  I could go on and on and on, but some kind of stars of the past set would be a lot of fun.

4.  Kenley Jansen.  Jansen has not been very happy with the direction of the team and I suppose I get that.  He is coming close to the end of his career and wanted to play for a winning team and Boston's direction has been pretty confusing lately.  

5.  Adam Duvall.  Duvall is still a free agent.  After Boston signed C.J. Cron, I don't see them bringing him back, but he had some good moments in 2023.

6.  Mikey Romero.  Romero was the first-round pick in 2022 and looks like a decent hitter, but might have to move to second base.  With the number of middle infield prospects in the system, it would be difficult for Romero to stick out.

7.  Masataka Yoshida.  Yoshida will be the full-time DH in 2024 which will hopefully keep his bat consistent.  He had some down times in 2023 which kind of overshadowed the moments he was at his best.

8.  Ted Williams.  This is one of those manufactured patches.  Williams won the MVP in 1949 when he hit .343/.490/.650 with 43 home runs and 159 RBIs.  He led the league in OBP, slugging, home runs, RBIs, runs (150), doubles (39) and walks (162) for a team that missed the playoffs by one game.  He missed the batting title by percentage points.

2024 Topps Series 1 Breaks

My wife drove to Rochester, NY to get a dog one weekend recently and I was bored so I decided to track down some 2024 Topps.  Luckily I did not have to go far.  I ended up grabbing a blaster and one of those jumbo hanger packs.  Here are the Red Sox cards:

1.  David Hamilton.  This is the only card I got in the hanger pack.  Hamilton was one of the prospects acquired when Boston sent Hunter Renfroe to the Brewers for Jackie Bradley Jr.  He made his Major League debut last year and speed is his best tool.  He played in 15 games and stole two bases while hitting .121.  He is going to have to improve on that if he is going to be given another shot in the Majors.

2.  Connor Wong.  Can't complain here.  I got the base card right away.  I have been buying up parallels, but left the base card.  I have not gotten a lot of Wong cards in packs, but there have been a few.

3.  Nick Robertson.  Robertson was one of the players acquired when Boston sent Enrique Hernandez back to the Dodgers.  He appeared in nine games with the Red Sox with a 6.00 ERA, striking out 13 and walking five in 12 innings.  Robertson was traded to the Cardinals after the season as part of the package in exchange for Tyler O'Neill.

4.  Masataka Yoshida.  One player I do not have any trouble pulling cards of is Yoshida.  This is one of the Holiday parallels.  Yoshida is expected to primarily play DH this season.  I love that this card features the City Connect uniform.

A Wong Patch

This is the Panini National Treasures Purple parallel.  It is serial-numbered to seven and has an autograph and a huge patch.  The patch appears to be one corner of the Red Sox logo.  That's pretty damn cool.  Wong has been slowed somewhat by elbow soreness, but has hit when he has been in the lineup.  I am looking forward to seeing if he has improved over the offseason.

More Mailday Madness Pt. 7

Here we go again.  Let's get into this, shall we?  Not all of these are trades, there are a couple of Ebay buys in here.

1.  J.D. Martinez.  This was actually a one-card trade.  The person who offered it didn't have a lot of stuff but had a player collection of Jake Lamb and wanted one of my cards.  Even though it was such a small trade, I decided to do it.

2.  Eric Hosmer.  It occurs to me that I have not talked about Hosmer in the context of a One-Year Wonder post.  Not that he would possibly unseat Nick Esasky for One-Year Wonder First Baseman.  Hosmer played in just 14 games and hit .244/.320/.311 with no home runs and just four RBIs.  

3.  Tanner Houck.  I firmly believe Houck has the stuff to be a closer.  He also seems to have the mentality to do it.  Let's see that happen.

4.  Mo Vaughn/Fred Lynn.  Two Red Sox MVP winners separated by 20 years.  Lynn won in 1975 when he was also the Rookie of the Year and Vaughn won it in 1995.  

1.  Tanner Houck.

2.  Jarren Duran.

3.  Tris Speaker.  Speaker holds the all-time career record in doubles with 792.  His career high was 53 which he accomplished in 1912.  

4.  Trevor Story.

5.  Roger Clemens.  One of these days maybe Clemens will get into the Hall of Fame.  

6.  Alex Verdugo.

7.  Rafael Devers.  This is one of those manufactured patch things.  I don't tend to focus much on these.  I get them in trades but rarely buy them on my own.

I turned down a trade offer that had this cool Dwight Evans insert in it because the other party made a comment about requiring cards in near-mint condition.  I refuse to make any guarantees about condition because some people are too nitpicky, so the trade didn't work.  The other card in the deal was a Bowman prospect autograph of someone who seems less than likely to make the Majors.  I really wanted the Evans card though so I tracked it down on Ebay.

This is my first relic of Kenley Jansen.  I usually like to get these All Star Stitches cards, particularly with a player who would be new.  I do have to say I strongly dislike the fact that the All Star games do not feature players wearing their team uniforms any more.  

This was a pretty good trade I think.  I got the Independence Day parallel of Reese McGuire, serial-numbered to 76 in exchange for an Aaron Judge parallel.  

Wong Update

It's been a little while since I have done one of these and I only have one card to show off today.  Yes, I am still focusing on the Wong collection.  I have been trading for a lot of cards and just buying Wong cards.  He is in the 2024 Topps Series 1 set, so there will be more coming soon.  But for today, this is it:

This is the 2022 Bowman Chrome Rookie Autograph Gold Refractor.  These used to be the top cards people chased in the early years of prospecting Bowman cards.  Now, it is just one of several colors offered.  They still seem to be a bit more expensive than some of the other parallels, even those with lower serial numbers.

Anyway, Wong made his Spring debut today at DH due to some elbow soreness.  He was 2-2 with a double and two RBIs.

More Mailday Madness Pt. 6

Yep.  Still going strong.  One of these days I might actually be caught up on these.

1.  J.D. Martinez.  Martinez is one of those free agents that still have yet to get a new home even though Spring Training has already started.

2.  Xander Bogaerts.  Bogaerts has been moved to second base with the Padres.  That contract is getting worse and worse.

3.  Trevor Story.  Hoping for a fully healthy Story this season.

4.  Babe Ruth.  Ruth is another of those players I never get tired of seeing in sets.  Obviously Red Sox cards only.  

5.  Enrique Hernandez.  Hernandez, like Martinez, is still out there as a free agent.

6.  Rafael Devers.  Devers already has 172 career home runs.  He will not turn 28 until October.  He has a very real chance of breaking 200 home runs this season.  400 home runs seems very much in play for him.

7.  Trevor Story.

8.  J.D. Martinez.

9.  David Ortiz.  Ortiz is #2 on the Red Sox all-time home run list with 483.  

10.  Miguel Bleis.  Bleis has slipped a bit in the prospect rankings after spending most of last season on the Injured List.  He still has a lot of talent though and hopefully will get back on track in 2024.

11.  Rick Ferrell.  Ferrell was the first major player Tom Yawkey acquired after buying the Red Sox in 1933.  He was a worthwhile pickup too as he was eventually elected to the Hall of Fame, though there is some controversy about that.  One theory goes that voters mistook him for his brother Wes. 

12.  Enmanuel Valdez.  Tough to say where Valdez fits in.  The guy can hit, but he's so horrible defensively that you cannot really put him anywhere.

13.  J.D. Martinez.

14.  Alex Verdugo.  This is actually a really nice card where you cannot tell Panini does not have a license.  

15.  Ted Williams.  Another player I always enjoy getting cards of.  The team's franchise player should be in a whole lot of sets.

1.  Hanley Ramirez.  Ramirez was my first attempt at focusing on a Red Sox prospect.  I picked up a lot of cards of him in 2003 and followed him very closely into his Major League debut in 2005.  Then, Boston traded him.  I'm glad he eventually came back and played with Boston and had a great year in 2016.  He hit .286/.361/.505 with 30 home runs and 111 RBIs.  But Boston missed out on the dynamic player he was in his early years with the Marlins.

2.  Brock Holt.  Holt is probably the most random Red Sox All Star during my fandom.  His All Star season of 2015 saw him hit .280/.349/.379 with two home runs and 45 RBIs as a utility player.  Boston had better options, particularly David Ortiz and Dustin Pedroia.

3.  J.D. Martinez.

4.  Jay Groome.  Now 25 and coming off a season in which he had an ERA above 8.00, time is probably running out on Groome.  

5.  Bobby Dalbec.  Dalbec is already raking in Spring Training.  That is always the case though.  It would be nice if he could carry that over.

6.  Adam Duvall.  Another free agent still out there.  After a blistering start to the 2023 season, Duvall cooled off quite a bit, but still hit 21 home runs.

That will be it for today.  More to come.

2001 Fleer Red Sox 100th Pt. 14: Pedro Martinez

NAME: Pedro Martinez

POSITION: Starting Pitcher

WHY IS HE HERE?:  One of just a few active players in the set, Martinez had only been in Boston for three years by the time this was released, but won the Cy Young Award twice and finished second in the other season.  He was an All Star all three seasons and finished second in the MVP vote in 1999 as well as winning the All Star Game MVP.  He led the league in wins once, and ERA and strikeouts twice while setting a new team record in strikeouts in a season with 313 in 1999.  That record still stands.  

WOULD I PUT HIM IN IN 2001?:  Yes.  It was just three seasons at that point, but they were amazing seasons and he was already putting up some of the best numbers by any pitcher in team history.

ANY BETTER CHOICES IN 2001?:  All of the better choices are already in the set. 

WOULD I PUT HIM IN NOW?:  Absolutely.  He didn't win another Cy Young Award, though he deserved at least one, but he only added to his legacy, helped the team win a World Series and entered the Hall of Fame with a Red Sox cap on his plaque.

ANY BETTER CHOICES NOW?:  Again, the only better choices (and that's a debate) are already in the set.  There really was no one like Pedro Martinez from 1998-2004.

The Worst Red Sox Team of All Time Pt. 31: Jack Russell

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.

Jack Russell actually had a lengthy career.  This is even more surprising when one considers his .376 career winning percentage at a time when winning games was everything.  Russell spent most of his time pitching for terrible teams, which somewhat made up for his abysmal winning percentage.

Russell came up with the Red Sox at the age of 20 in 1926, appearing in 36 games with five starts and 98 innings pitched.  He was 0-5 with a 3.58 ERA (114 ERA+, 3.82 FIP), which was his best mark during his eight seasons in Boston.  He had his best season with the Red Sox in 1928 when he had a record of 11-14 with a 3.84 ERA (105 ERA+, 3.82 FIP) in 201.1 innings pitched.  He struck out 27 while walking 41.  He followed that up with a 6-18, 3.92 ERA season in 1929, then led the league in losses in 1930 when he went 9-20 and this time pitched as poorly as his record with a 5.45 ERA (85 ERA+).  He improved somewhat in 1931.

1932 was Russell's final season with the Red Sox, and he did not make it all the way through the year.  He pitched in just eleven games with the Red Sox before being traded to Cleveland in June for Pete Jablonowski (Appleton).  At the time of the trade he was just 1-7 with a 6.81 ERA.  His numbers improved after the trade.  

After the trade, Russell became a reliever primarily.  He was an All Star for Washington in 1934, a year after he went 12-6 with a 2.69 ERA and a league-leading 13 saves.  He was traded back to Boston in June of 1936 in exchange for Joe Cascarella and went 0-3 with a 5.63 ERA in 23 games, mostly in relief.  He was released after the season.

In eight seasons with the Red Sox, Russell's record was 41-94, but his ERA was 4.58 (94 ERA+, 3.85 FIP).  He threw 1,215 innings with 202 strikeouts and 294 walks.  He was generally a much better pitcher than his record showed and was generally pretty good at avoiding walks and fielding.

More Mailday Madness Pt. 5

Yep, still going on this.  I am getting close.  Ish.  There is going to be another large one here soon, which will probably delay things just enough for a whole lot of other packages to come in.  Which will be annoying, but still.  

Anyway, several packages will be in this one.

1.  Chris Sale.  I am looking forward to my first Vaughn Grissom card.  I have run out of things to talk about with Sale.  Unfortunately his Red Sox tenure was downhill from buckling Manny Machado's knees for the final out of the World Series in 2018.

2.  Andrew Benintendi.  This is from Benintendi's game-saving catch for the last out of Game 4 of the ALCS in 2018.  The bases were loaded with two outs and Craig Kimbrel pitching against Alex Bregman.  Bregman smashed a sinking liner that Benintendi dove for and came up with.  It was a great play from an underrated defensive outfielder.

3.  Carlton Fisk.  Fisk of course had some big moments in the postseason himself.  His game-winning home run in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series is one of the most famous home runs of all time.

4.  Rafael Devers.  Devers has yet to have a signature moment in the postseason, but he has hit .303/.382/.573 with eight home runs and 26 RBIs in 26 postseason games.  Those are damn good numbers.  I targeted this card in particular.

1.  Jarren Duran.  Duran is expected to be the leadoff hitter for the Red Sox this season and will likely play left field, moving Masataka Yoshida to DH and allowing Ceddanne Rafaela to play center.

2.  Andrew Cashner.  Cashner was once traded for former Red Sox prospect Anthony Rizzo.  He was Boston's big trading deadline pickup in 2019 when he was 9-3 with a 3.83 ERA for Baltimore.  His numbers immediately tanked though and he went 2-5 with a 6.20 ERA with the Red Sox.  He was even removed from the rotation.  That was his last Major League action.  Luckily Boston did not give up much to get him.

Meet Roman Anthony.  These are my first cards of Anthony.  He was the second round draft pick in 2022 and had a fantastic season in 2023.  He was so impressive that some sources have him as the Red Sox top prospect, edging out Marcelo Mayer.  I am not that sold on him yet, but another strong season may change my mind.  

1.  Ryan Kalish.  Kalish was once a highly-regarded prospect whose career was mostly wrecked by injuries.  He had an impressive rookie season in 2010 when he hit .252/.305/.405 with four home runs, 24 RBIs and ten stolen bases while playing impressive defense in 53 games.  

2.  Rafael Devers.  This is one of the image variations.  Check out the Santa hat.

3.  Bobby Dalbec.  Dalbec has been talked up this Spring and could make the roster as a bench bat.

4.  Nomar Garciaparra.  Derek Jeter gets a lot of credit for his postseason success, but Nomar's slash line was better, granted in significantly fewer games.  He hit .321/.386/.589 with seven home runs and 24 RBIs in 32 games.  

5.  Kevin Youkilis.  Youkilis had some huge offensive seasons for Boston in 2008 and 2009.  He was the 2008 AL Hank Aaron Award winner when he hit .312/.390/.569 with 29 home runs, 43 doubles and 115 RBIs.  He was third in the MVP voting.

1.  Kenley Jansen.  Jansen may be a future Hall of Famer.  He has 420 career saves with a 2.52 career ERA and 1,159 strikeouts in 813.2 innings pitched.  He has a few years left and could possibly get close to 500 saves.  I am rooting for him.

2.  Ellis Kinder.  Don't get too excited, these 1954 cards are just reprints, not the vintage cards.  Kinder was a very important part of the Red Sox rotation in the late 1940's and had some great seasons in relief in the early 1950's.  Kinder had a record of 86-52 in eight seasons with the Red Sox.  He had a 3.28 ERA and notched 93 saves.  In 1949 he was 23-6 with a 3.36 ERA and finished fifth in the MVP vote.  His best year in relief was 1953 when he was 10-6 with a 1.85 ERA and a league-leading 27 saves.

3.  Ted Lepcio.  Lepcio was a part of the youth movement that manager Lou Boudreau pressed into action at the expense of established stars like Bobby Doerr, Dom DiMaggio and Johnny Pesky.  Lepcio was a utility infielder and only once played in more than 100 games.  His best season was in 1956 when he hit .261/.335/.454 with a career-high on 15 home runs (he never hit more than nine any other season) and 51 RBIs.

4.  Buster Mills.  Mills was a coach at this time, but he was a very good One-Year Wonder in 1937.  That year he hit .295/.361/.418 with seven home runs and 58 RBIs, along with eleven stolen bases.  He was then traded to the Browns along with the well-traveled Bobo Newsom for Joe Vosmik.

5.  Hal Brown.  Brown was originally with the Red Sox system, but was traded to the White Sox prior to making his Major League debut.  He was then re-acquired by the Red Sox in a trade that sent Vern Stephens to the White Sox.  His best season in Boston was in 1953 when he went 11-6 with a 4.65 ERA.  He then spent several seasons as a back-of-the-rotation starter in Baltimore.

6.  John Burkett.  Burkett had some great years with the Giants early in his career, once finishing fourth in the Cy Young vote.  He spent his last two seasons with the Red Sox going 25-17 with a 4.85 ERA.  He was past his prime but ate up some valuable innings with a roughly league-average ERA, particularly in 2002.  

7.  Manny Delcarmen.  Delcarmen was a local kid who was an underrated part of the Red Sox bullpen in 2007.  He appeared in 44 games with a 2.05 ERA in 44 innings, striking out 41 and walking 17 and notching one save.  He had another good year in 2008 before his career started going downhill.

8.  Enrique Hernandez.  Hernandez had one of the greatest power displays I have seen in a postseason by a Red Sox player.  He hit five home runs in the 2021 postseason.

9.  Shea Hillenbrand.  Hillenbrand's best season was 2002 when he was elected to his first All Star Game and hit .293/.330/.459 with 18 home runs and 83 RBIs.  He was generally a good hitter whose defense made it difficult to keep him in a lineup.  

10.  Angel Santos.  Santos was a fourth-round pick of the Red Sox in 1997 and made his Major League debut in 2001.  He played in just nine games with the Red Sox and hit .125/.211/.188 with two hits, including a double and an RBI.  He was traded in 2003 to the Indians for Jamie Brown.

11.  David Murphy.  Murphy was the Red Sox first-round pick in 2003.  He played in parts of two seasons with the Red Sox, hitting .250/.357/.500 with his first Major League home run.  He was the primary piece sent to the Rangers in 2007 for Eric Gagne.  He spent several seasons as a solid outfielder with the Rangers.  He signed back with the Red Sox in 2016, but did not make it out of Spring Training.

12.  Paul Schreiber.  Schreiber was a pitching coach in the early 1950's.  His Major League career consisted of 12 games over three seasons with the Dodgers and Giants.

13.  Alex Verdugo.  Verdugo is going to look very different with the Yankees this season.  The facial hair and jewelry will have to go.  I suspect his stay in New York will be short.

1.  Triston Casas.  Casas was Boston's first-round pick in 2018 and looks like a rising star coming into the season.  

2.  Christian Arroyo.  Another former first-round pick (though by the Giants), Arroyo never really put it together.  His best season was 2022 when he hit .286/.322/.414 with six home runs and 36 RBIs as a utility man.  Arroyo will try to catch on with the Brewers this year.

3.  Ted Williams.  My favorite stat is Williams's career OBP was .482.  That is utterly insane.  For his entire career, he got on base almost half the time.  

4.  Roger Clemens.  Clemens was an All Star five times with Boston, though not in 1984 as per this card's design.  That was his rookie season.  

5.  Carlos Quintana.  Closing things out today with one of my early favorites.  There are not many Quintana cards still out there for me to get unfortunately.  

And that's it for today.

Second Stadium Club Blaster

I tried my luck at a second blaster of 2023 Stadium Club recently.   I had decent luck last time, pulling two Red Sox out of 40 cards.  So, I thought, why not try again?  I actually did slightly better this time.

1.  Triston Casas.  This card is amazing.  A shot of Casas at first with a large shot of the stadium in the background, complete with Samuel Adams giant sign.  This is one of my favorite shots in a long time.

2.  Carlton Fisk.  I believe this is a shot from the 1975 Game 6 World Series home run, but it is from a different angle and time.  There are a lot of cards from that home run, but they mostly focus on either him waving the ball fair or jumping up after realizing it was a home run.  Not many from just after hitting it.

3.  Alex Verdugo.  And here is a clubhouse shot of Verdugo.  These are kind of interesting at times.  You get an idea of the player's personality off the field.  Not the most exciting though.

More Mailday Madness Pt. 4

That's right, we are still doing this stuff.  I am still working my way through all of the recent TCDB trades.  But, sometimes it takes awhile before I can get around to taking pictures of the cards in order to get posts together.

So, here's the next batch.

1.  Roger Clemens.  1995 Studio was kind of odd.  I have no idea why they did the cards to look like credit cards.  Anyway, this is the gold parallel version.  Clemens had a bounceback year in 1994 after his career-worst year in 1993.  He led the league in ERA+ (176) and hits per nine innings (6.5).  He was second in ERA and strikeouts in the strike-shortened year.  1994 is an underrated season by The Rocket.

2.  Jonathan Papelbon.  It's hard to remember now, but Papelbon actually came up as a starter.  He made three starts in 2005 and had a 3-1 record with a 2.75 ERA in 17 total games.  He didn't notch his first save until 2006 when he took over the closer role.  There was some talk that he would go back to the rotation in 2007, but that did not happen.

3.  Noah Song.  I talked a lot about Noah Song just recently.  He could still have some promise, but at 26, it's no sure thing.  It will be interesting to see how he looks in Spring Training.

1.  Jose Canseco.  When I did this trade I did not realize at first that these two players were actually traded for each other.  Canseco was coming off two decent, but injury-riddled, seasons with the Red Sox and wanted to be traded away after Kevin Kennedy was fired as manager.  Boston accommodated him, but I always felt like they maybe could have gotten more for him.

2.  John Wasdin.  Wasdin was a former first-round pick but had a couple rough seasons in Oakland.  Things would not really improve in Boston.  He pitched in a variety of roles, most commonly as middle relief, but he started a handful of games and even saved a couple.  His ERA in 170 games in Boston though was 4.66 (103 ERA+).  He was eventually traded to Colorado in the deal that brought Rolando Arrojo and Mike Lansing over.

This is the first scan from this trade.  It featured ten of the Pacific Tom Seaver cards, all of the remaining cards Red Sox cards I needed from the set.  Seaver is one of my absolute favorite One-Year Wonder players in Red Sox history.  It's so interesting to me that he spent the last half of his final season with the Red Sox.  If only he had been healthy to play in the World Series against the team for which he was most famous.

That trade also included a Bobby Dalbec relic.  I do not get a ton of relic cards these days, but I am always interested in getting at least one for every player available.  This is my first Dalbec relic.

1.  Babe Ruth.  Yeah, there's some other guy on this card too.  Ruth was the original two-way star.  He did not actually do the two-way thing for a lengthy amount of time.  He was almost exclusively a pitcher from 1914 through 1917, though he made some pinch-hitting appearances.  In 1918 he started playing the field a little bit and was more of an outfielder than a pitcher by 1919.  Oddly, Ruth never appeared in right field for Boston.  He primarily played left field (47 games in 1918 and 110 in 1919) with some center field and first base thrown in.

2.  Connor Wong.  Surprisingly, this member came to me with a Connor Wong I did not already have.  This is the Silver Foilboard parallel from 2023 Update.  

3.  Rafael Devers.  DEVERS!

4.  Trevor Story.  Story may finally be healthy.  Let's see what he can do in Boston.

5.  Nick Pivetta.  Pivetta has taken something of a leadership role among the pitchers recently.  That is sorely needed with Chris Sale gone.  Pivetta has been a solid pitcher in Boston and he may be ready to have a big season.

6.  Jarren Duran.  There have been some trade rumors swirling around Duran.  I kind of hope they do not trade him because he is a very exciting player to watch.  Though it would open up an opportunity for Ceddanne Rafaela.

That's it for now.  Still much more to come.