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. 35: 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.

Last Week's Maildays

Yesterday's post was the previous week.  This post is for last week.  I did save three Topps Now cards for a separate post that will go up tomorrow.

Only four Ceddanne Rafaela cards this week.  But they were pretty good ones.  I want to highlight the Bowman Sapphire Yellow in the second row and my first Printing Plate of Rafaela.  So, four more for the week.  Until tomorrow.

The next two scans are for a TCDB trade that did not include a Rafaela card.

1.  Jose Offerman.  This was a throw-in after a different card couldn't be found.  Offerman had a great start in Boston and was having a terrific year in 1999.  He was an All Star that year and hit .294/.391/.435 with 107 runs scored, 37 doubles, a league-leading 11 triples, 18 stolen bases and 96 walks versus 79 strikeouts.  Those are great numbers.  Unfortunately, he declined every year after that.

2.  Jarren Duran.  I really think we have seen the end of Duran's career in Boston.  I could be wrong, but I just think he is the easiest player to justify trading among the outfielders.  I will riot if they trade Ceddanne.

3.  Trevor Story.  Story had a great bounceback season and was a 20/20 guy this year.  He has an opt-out in his contract and it will be interesting to see if he exercises it.  Honestly, if he does, I don't think Boston will try too hard to bring him back.  But I can't see him making more money elsewhere either.  Ultimately, I do not think he will exercise it.

4.  Rafael Devers.  I still can't believe I will not see him in a Red Sox uniform anymore.

5.  Chris Sale.  Sale has resurrected his career in Atlanta and looks to be back on the Hall of Fame track.  

6.  Jarren Duran.

7.  Pedro Martinez.  

8.  Marcelo Mayer.  I want to see what a fully healthy season looks like from him.  Defensively, he is incredibly special.  He definitely has power.  He needs to work on his approach at the plate though.

9.  Xander Bogaerts.

10.  Bobby Doerr.  I think this was the last time we saw Diamond Kings in Donruss.  There is not much point to doing them now since Donruss cannot include current players.  But that was always my favorite subset/parallel.

11.  Tim Wakefield.  I still add Wakefield cards whenever I can.

12.  Carl Yastrzemski. 

13.  Dustin Pedroia.

14.  Carl Yastrzemski.  Celebrating Yaz's membership in the 3,000 hit club.

15.  Justin Turner.  Turner needs a One Year Wonder post soon.

16.  Brayan Bello.  I want to see Bello take that step forward next season into being a number two starter.  He was more good than bad this season, but he struggled down the stretch.

17.  Kenley Jansen.  I am hoping to see Jansen in the Hall of Fame someday too.

And finally, I was Zippy Zapped again:

Nice Clay Buchholz auto.  More the card than the signature as he has a bizarre signature.  This is apparently a redemption replacement autograph.  I am not sure what it was replacing though.  

Thanks again Kenny!

A Week of Ceddanne Maildays

This was actually supposed to be posted last weekend, but I was supposed to start a jury trial on Tuesday and so I was a bit too busy to get anything done.  So here we go.  That week's maildays was made exclusively of Ceddanne Rafaela cards.

The first card is another of those Leaf Exotic cards.  It was listed as another Giraffe parallel, but upon closer examination, I have determined it is more likely to be the Deer parallel.  

I had to add the 1990 design autograph.  That was always a favorite design of mine.  There are also three Bowman parallels from 2023.  I have been getting quite a few of those lately.

Here are the next batch.  I placed an order on COMC to get a few cards, one of which never got delivered from an earlier Ebay purchase.  I did a search for Rafaela aqua cards, so there is going to be a lot of aqua-colored parallels.  That card that never arrived is the middle card in the bottom row.  I also added a couple of the Donruss parallels that I really like.

A couple cards to highlight here are the first card in the middle row, which is the Fuchsia Lunar refractor and is a lot cooler in person.  Then there is the A&G Rip card.  It was already ripped or it would have been a lot more expensive.

So, 25 more Rafaela cards for the collection.  I still maintain I am not super-collecting him, but I think the results are starting to show otherwise.  I have not gone to the extent I did with Connor Wong though.  

R.I.P. Mike Greenwell

This one was pretty sad.  I started watching baseball in 1991.  One of the mainstays of the team at that point was Mike Greenwell.  He instantly became one of my favorite players, behind the big stars like Wade Boggs and Roger Clemens.  He continued with the team for several years and while he was not a big star, his status as the elder statesman of the lineup was a reason that he remained a favorite player.  He was an important player from my early years as a Red Sox fan.

Greenwell was with the team from 1985 through the 1996 season.  He spent his entire Major League career with the Red Sox.  He did attempt to play in Japan in 1997 and tried a comeback in the Majors, but was unsuccessful.  Greenwell was a two-time All Star (1988 and 1989) and won a Silver Slugger (1988).  His best season was in 1988 when he hit .325/.416/.531 with 22 home runs, 119 RBIs and 16 stolen bases.  He finished second in the MVP vote to Jose Canseco.  He was never quite that good again, but he did finish with a line of .303/.368/.463 with 1,400 hits, 130 home runs and 726 RBIs.  After his career, he went into local politics a little bit.  He struggled with cancer recently, ultimately losing that battle last week.   

My condolences go out to his family.  

2025 Topps Chrome Blaster

I really had the urge to break some packs this weekend and there are not many options where I am.  I picked up a blaster of Topps Chrome out of lack of other options.  I probably should have gone with my gut and grabbed Donruss.  Topps Chrome is way too expensive for what you normally get.  They should probably guarantee an autograph, even if it is just a minor rookie, for $40.00.

Anyway, here are the new Red Sox:

Yep, just the one card.  I did pull the Connor Wong base card, but I already had it.  So, just the base Richard Fitts.  Boston's biggest issue going into the postseason was a lack of depth.  Part of the problem was the extreme number of injuries suffered by the pitching staff.  Fitts, Hunter Dobbins, Kutter Crawford, Tanner Houck, Lucas Giolito and Dustin May were all starting pitchers that were unavailable in the postseason.  Fitts had a 2-4 record with a 5.00 ERA in 11 games, striking out 40 and walking 16.  He could be part of the puzzle next season.

Sunday Mailday Plus a Zippy Zapping

This might be how we do these for a little while.  Especially as the vast majority of stuff is Rafaela cards.  This post will include a recent Zippy Zapping though.  

In other news, the Red Sox season is over.  I am not happy about how it ended up.  I am sure I will discuss that at length in future posts.

1.  Bailey Horn.  Topps Chrome this year featured a number of Rookie Autograph cards of players that are appearing on Red Sox cards for the first time.  So, I have a bunch of cards to track down.  Bailey Horn was the first one I grabbed.  Horn was acquired early in the 2024 season to provide a lefty arm out of the bullpen.  The results were mixed.  He appeared in 18 games with a 6.50 ERA, striking out 13 and walking ten in 18 innings, but there were times he looked pretty good.  He had a disastrous game against the Rockies in which he gave up five earned runs in an inning and a third.  His numbers would not have been as bad without that.

Here are the Ceddanne Rafaela cards I received this week.  There are quite a few more coming in.  I grabbed a bunch of cards off of my wantlist after his walkoff hit propelling the Red Sox into the postseason so that they didn't get bought up.  That tends to happen after a big moment.  So, there are some pretty colorful parallels here.  Unfortunately, his performance did not carry over into the postseason apart from one very impressive at-bat in which he drew a walk that led to a rally in the game the Red Sox won.  So, now we wait to find out if he won the Gold Glove, which he should.

And next is the Zippy Zapping:

He came through with a couple of the rare Sega Card-Gen cards of David Ortiz and Adrian Gonzalez this time.  I needed both of them.  He has been dismantling most of his collection lately, which is always somewhat sad to see.  It's not something I have ever considered really.  Collecting has been a big part of my life for 35 years.  It may fade in and out, but I am glad I have never taken the step where I dismantled a collection.  It's an escape for me.  I have an incredibly difficult job that can be difficult to compartmentalize, but I can lose myself in baseball.  It's the one thing I can truly unplug the stresses of my job from and focus on.  So, I don't know if this is the last thing I will receive from him, but if it is, thanks for everything Kenny!  You certainly didn't have to send anything, but I always appreciate it.  

The Last Mailday Post of the Regular Season

Well, the Red Sox managed to make it to the postseason.  I do not envision posting much during the postseason as I have a busy work schedule in the next few weeks.  I will maybe try to do a mailday post each weekend.  I kind of like this way of handling things.  

Boston finished the season with a record of 89-73, a big improvement over last season and won the second Wild Card.  They will next be heading to New York to take on the Yankees in a three-game set to determine who will play Toronto in the Division Series.  Fingers crossed.  There were definitely times in the season that I did not think they would make it, particularly after trading Rafael Devers and then the stretch run got kind of shaky for awhile.

Anyway, bring on the maildays, with the first being a TCDB trade. 

1.  Jarren Duran.  Duran didn't have quite as good a season as he did last season, but he was tied for second-best player by bWAR going into the last game of the season.  He led the league in triples for the second season in a row.  His RBIs were up, but most of his other numbers were down from last season.

2.  Ceddanne Rafaela.  What a season he has had.  He was hot and cold for most of the year, but he has been great the last week and he had a HUGE walkoff hit to clinch the postseason on Friday night.  He is the player Duran was tied with for bWAR going into the final game.  He should win a Gold Glove, at least.

3.  Fred Lynn/Masataka Yoshida.  This card is celebrating Red Sox rookies in the top five in average.  Just a few weeks ago, I was strongly hoping the Red Sox would move on from Yoshida in the offseason, but he has been a monster lately.  Now, I don't know what to think.  Boston still has issues with too many lefties in the outfield/DH spots.  Yoshida seemed like one of the most obvious players to move away from, now what?

Of course this post will have several Rafaela cards.  This is the 2023 Bowman Chrome Gold Refractor.

On to another TCDB trade:

1.  Juan Marichal.  This card is celebrating the first Topps Traded set which featured this great Marichal card.  I count it.

2.  Ceddanne Rafaela.  Rafaela also finished with 20 stolen bases, joining Trevor Story, Jarren Duran and David Hamilton to give Boston four players with 20+ stolen bases for the first time since 1912 (Tris Speaker, Harry Hooper, Larry Gardner, Heinie Wagner).

3.  Enrique Hernandez.  Interesting timing to get this card and the next one as these are two players that were instrumental in Boston's 2021 postseason success.  Hernandez hit five home runs in the postseason in 2021. 

4.  Nathan Eovaldi.  Eovaldi won the Wild Card game against the Yankees in 2021.  

And closing things out are some colored parallels of Rafaela.  The second card had a tracking number that said it was delivered a week before it showed up.  I still have one other card out there that has been almost three weeks since the tracking number said it was delivered.  I am starting to wonder if that will ever arrive.  

Underrated Player of the Year: 2024

In this series, I look at one player per year from 1991-the present who came out of nowhere or had a great year that no one really noticed or expected. 

David Hamilton was one of the prospects acquired when the Red Sox sent Hunter Renfroe to the Brewers for Jackie Bradley Jr.  It was a widely criticized move at the time and it definitely seemed weird.  But, the prospects were the major draw to the deal.  Unfortunately, only Hamilton has developed into any sort of value.

Hamilton made his Major League debut in 2023, playing in 15 games and stealing a couple of bases, but his rookie season came in the 2024 season.  He originally started playing shortstop after Trevor Story went down with an injury, but his defense was inadequate there.  He eventually settled in at second base and started playing very well defensively.  His bat also came around.  Speed was never a problem for him.  Hamilton was second on the team with 33 stolen bases, just one behind Jarren Duran.  Had he not gone down with an injury late in the season, he likely could have challenged 40 stolen bases.  For the season, Hamilton hit .248/.303/.395.  He had a little bit of pop, knocking eight home runs with 17 doubles and a triple.  He scored 47 runs and drove in 28.  His 2.6 bWAR was seventh on the team, impressive for a player who only made it into 98 games.

The Worst Red Sox Team of All Time Pt. 34: George Stumpf

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.

There are a ton of obscure players from the 1932 Red Sox.  George Stumpf is yet another one of these.  The Lousiana native played parts of four seasons in the Majors, but the only year he appeared in more than 25 games was 1932.  He did have a lengthy minor league career spanning 20 seasons.

Stumpf made his Major League debut in 1931, playing in seven games with a .250/.276/.357.  As mentioned, 1932 was the only season he played a significant chunk of the season.  Stumpf appeared at all three outfield positions and played in 79 games.  He was less than impressive at the plate though as he hit just .201/.278/.254.  He hit his only Major League home run and had 34 hits, 18 runs scored, two doubles, two triples, 18 RBI and a stolen base.  He had a 42 OPS+ and a -1.4 WAR.  That is not a good player.

In 1933, his line was an impressive .341/.400/.415, but that was in 22 games.  He didn't appear in the Majors again until 1936 when he played ten games for the White Sox.  His career Major League line was .235/.302/.296.  Across all levels in his 20-year career, he hit .288 and had 116 home runs.  

Underrated Player of the Year: 2023

In this series, I look at one player per year from 1991-the present who came out of nowhere or had a great year that no one really noticed or expected.

Going back through my posts, I realized that I missed the 2023 season for this post.  It was probably due to the fact that I was holding out to do Chris Martin, because he is the best option for this post.  And he did not have a card in 2023.  For some stupid reason.

Martin has had a long career and pitched for a lot of teams.  This was actually his second stint with the Red Sox, though he did not pitch in the Majors during the first one.  Martin was originally signed by the Red Sox in 2011 from an independent league.  He was traded to the Rockies along with Franklin Morales for Jonathan Herrera after the 2013 season.  He was brought back to the Red Sox for the 2023 season and did not disappoint.

Martin was an excellent setup man, appearing in 55 games and throwing 51.1 innings.  He finished 12 games and even picked up three saves.  He had a record of 4-1 with an incredible 1.05 ERA with a 1.032 WHIP.  He struck out 46 and walked just eight.  Martin was so good that he finished 12th in the Cy Young vote.  Not bad for a middle reliever. 

Mailday Roundup

Rather than trying to figure out how to put a big spin on things and divide up the maildays, I figured I would just do one big catchup post.  There's quite a bit of stuff in here, mostly Rafaela cards, but after this post I will be caught up through yesterday (I am not at home to collect the mail today, so there might be another post tomorrow for mail).

Up first is the Ceddanne Rafaela Presidential parallel from Donruss and this is serial-numbered to 46.  The border features profiles of the various presidents.  I have not done a deep look to see which ones I can recognize. 

This one is pretty cool.  I bought this from a guy on Twitter.  This is the 2023 Bowman Platinum Patch card.  I am not sure what uniform this would be from.  It looks more like one of the City Connect jerseys, but for a 2023 product, it would be strange if they got a hold of one of those since he made his Major League debut late in the season.  It seems more likely to be from a minor league uniform.  At any rate, this is my first true 1/1 of Rafaela.  I am not counting that Leaf Pre-Production Proof.

This is the black parallel of Connor Wong and I got this for just over a dollar.  I was shocked by that.  But that is how far down Wong's cards have fallen in popularity.  He has been much better in recent weeks.

Up next is one of several TCDB trades in this post:

1.  Fred Lynn.  There was a 10-card insert set in last year's Heritage High Numbers devoted to Fred Lynn.  That makes sense since the design was based on the 1975 Topps set and that was the year Lynn made history by becoming the first player to win Rookie of the Year and MVP in the same season, a feat only matched once.  I need to try to grab all of these, this is my first.

2.  Naoyuki Uwasawa.  Yet another Uwasawa card.

3.  Ceddanne Rafaela.  Yes, this was the card that started this trade.  This is the Topps 206 card.

4.  Mike Lowell.  I finally got the base card of this, which I have been trying to do for some time.  Lowell was in the Josh Beckett trade purely so the Marlins could get rid of his salary, but he turned into a valuable member of the team and won the World Series MVP in 2007.  

1.  This is the Dark Green parallel from this year's Heritage and it arrived in a one-for-one trade on TCDB for a Don Mattingly parallel from this year's Donruss.

2.  This is the 2023 Leaf Special Release Draft Silver and I have no idea the context for its release.  Some kind of special multi-sport set I guess.

1.  I tried to get this A&G Gold Border parallel in a big trade with several Rafaelas, but the member on TCDB just declined the trade without a word even though we matched up on a lot of stuff.  I hate that when it happens.  I usually try to work something out with people if I can, and if I can't usually will write a note.

2.  This is the Halloween parallel from last year's Update featuring the pumpkins.  I like this Halloween parallels a lot more than the other ones.

3.  Here we have the 2022 Leaf Metal Snakeskin Crystal parallel.  I think these are pretty cool with the animal skin patterns.  This was later taken up by Leaf Exotic.

1.  Wade Boggs.  This was a make-up package.  The original trade had a Jarren Duran parallel and a Roman Anthony card, but the envelope arrived and had been clearly sliced open and the cards removed.  The other party graciously sent me some replacements, but I really wanted that Roman Anthony.

2.  Conrad Cason.  A lot of teams are experimenting with two-way players now that Shohei Ohtani has been so successful, not that I think anyone will match him.  Cason is Boston's attempt and he was an eighth-round pick last season.  He made his professional debut this year, but has only played in a few games before getting hurt.  He is just 18, so there is time to see what happens.

3.  Franklin Arias.  Currently Boston's top prospect, I think there is a reasonable chance Arias gets dealt for pitching or maybe some offense this offseason.

1.  This is the Dark Yellow parallel from Heritage this year.

2.  This is the base Holiday parallel from last year's Topps.  I still have no idea what this design is supposed to be.

1.  Jimmie Foxx.  This is a short-print from 2022 Diamond Kings.

2.  Ted Williams.  A nice Williams shot that has not been over-used yet.

3.  Garrett Crochet.  Crochet will almost certainly be the runner-up in the Cy Young vote this year.  He had been neck and neck with Tarik Skubal until the last couple of weeks, but Crochet had never thrown this many innings before and he seems a bit tired down the stretch.

4.  David Ortiz.  I never get tired of getting Ortiz cards, still one of the greatest Red Sox players of my lifetime, and probably the most likable as well, unless you're a Yankees fan.  I have a friend, one of the prosecutors I deal with frequently, who is a Yankees fan and even he says that watching Ortiz on baseball games is fun because he is so likable.

5.  Brayan Bello.  Bello has also started to tire down the stretch, but he has put together the kind of season Boston envisioned when he was signed to his extension last year.  Hopefully he keeps building on this success.