Bursts of Potential

Going through my Reds binder the other day, one of the things I noticed was that the Reds world, probably like most of the rest of baseball, is littered with prospects that never made it or players that showed signs of potential for a year or two and then fizzled out. Some of these players I remember, some I've honestly never heard of in my life.

I thought it would be fun to look at a few random cards I pulled out of my Reds binder just for this occasion.

The card you see at the top is of Scott Williamson, one time Reds fireballing reliever who was crucial to the surprise Wild Card run the team had in 1999 that culminated with them losing 6-0 in a play-in game against the Mets. Williamson had probably his best season in the bigs that year too. He made his only All-Star Game and also won the NL Rookie of the Year Award, besting players like Preston Wilson and Warren Morris (who?). After that season, he had a few more seasons with the Reds, nothing like that rookie season, and then bounced around to the Red Sox, Cubs, Padres, and Orioles.

Ben Broussard never appeared in a game with the Reds (would this then count as a "zero-year" card?) as was swapped to Cleveland for Russell Branyan in the summer of 2002. Broussard had a good run at the Cleveland first baseman from 2003-2006 as was a decent bat for some of those early 2000s Indians clubs that were just right on the verge of making the playoffs. 

When the Reds picked Ty Howington out of high school in the first round of the 1999 Draft, everyone at the time was predicting he would be anchoring the Reds pitching staff by the mid part of the 2000s. Ultimately, that never happened. He debuted at age 19 for Low-A Dayton in 2000, went 5-15 over 26 starts and pitched 141 innings. He spent the next few seasons battling arm and elbow injuries in the lower minors of the Reds system, never advancing as high as Double-A Chattanooga as was out of organized baseball entirely by 2005. 

Brandon Larson was touted as the Reds third baseman of the future in the early 2000s. He tore up minor league pitching and was a late season call-up for a struggling Reds team in 2001. In 35 plate appearances, he hit a paltry .121/.171/.182. Compare that to the .255/.312/.415 line he had in Louisville. He bounced between the Reds and Triple-A Louisville over the next few seasons and in 109 total MLB games between 2001-2004 with the Reds ended up with a career .179 average. Meanwhile, third base would be held down by a rotating door of players like Ryan Freel, Joe Randa, and Edwin Encarnacion to name a few.

Into the Mailbag

I haven't gotten cards in the mail in a real long time but in the span of a week I received one bubble mailer and a few PWEs.

It's amazing what happens when you make a blogging comeback.

The wonderful 2002 Reds team card above was part of a nice PWE I received from Fuji about a week or so ago. It's probably one of my favorite team cards in my collection now. There's several cool things about it ... the dirt infield, the interesting uniforms the team was wearing then but my favorite thing is that it's one of the last team photos from old Riverfront Stadium (which just celebrated the 50th anniversary of its opening on June 30th).

There were also cards from players I enjoyed watching when I was growing up, namely Barry Larkin and Sean Casey. 

Some cool horizontal cards. I remember how emotional everyone was when the Reds traded Aaron Boone to the Yankees in 2003.

Another one of my favorite Reds players, Hal Morris, on a card design I've always liked, 1992 Leaf.

It's not just Reds players that Fuji threw in, he also hit up some of my other player collections. I always welcome cards of Hall of Famers.

Charlie Hough is a guy I always liked collecting, especially when I was a kid. I'm not sure why I gravitated towards his cards, maybe it's the insanely long career he had and the fact he played for the Marlins of all teams when they weren't even around when he debuted.

In a separate mailing from Fuji way back in January, he loaded me up on cards for my 1984 Topps set build that I've been working on seemingly forever.

Lots of good stuff, right?

Anyway, look for an updated 1984 Topps waitlist to show up on the blog soon as soon as I get these filed away and can figure out what I still need.

Thanks for all the great cards Fuji! Really appreciated.

Dragons Are Real

I needed a new baseball hat. 

I'd lost my only Dayton Dragons hat several years ago and I've wanted a new one since then. I had a coupon code for the Dragons online shop so I took a look through the hats and, lucky me, I managed to find the exact one I'd lost. 

While I was on the site, and to justify paying the shipping costs for them to literally send it 45 minutes down the freeway, I did a bit more browsing. I happened to noticed that all the team sets from 2017, 2018, and 2019 were on sale, some of which they were pretty much giving away. The discount from my coupon code took even more off of the already discounted sets (it came out to about $10 for the three sets). The sets and my hat arrived pretty quickly soon after.

I thumbed through the sets and had thought about doing a full post on each one but realized that'd be a lot of work and a lot of time to look up each player. So instead, I'll run through all three sets here and touch on the highlights of each one. I won't show every card, otherwise, we'll be here until next baseball season.

2017 Dragons

1- Jesse Adams

2- Brantley Bell

3- Michael Beltre

4- Cassidy Brown

5- Andy Cox

6- Aaron Fossas

Fossas is the nephew of former MLB pitcher Tony Fossas. 

The design of these cards is okay. I like the black and green but there's nothing in the background except for black. The player's name is easy to read in the scan but in real life, the green blends in with the black. Also, why is there a giant empty grey space in the middle of the card? I'm guessing it's for signatures as these are called "Signature Series" cards. 

7- T.J. Friedl

I've heard a lot about him and he could be in the majors in the next year or so.

8- Luis Gonzalez (no, not that Luis Gonzalez)

9- Ryan Hendrix

10- Brian Hunter

11- Andrew Jordan

12- Joel Kuhnel

Saw action with the Reds last year as a reliever appearing in 11 games.

13- Scott Moss

14- Patrick Riehl

15- Wennington Romero

Check out the awesome orange jersey!

16- John Sansone

17- Tony Santillan

One of the Reds top pitching prospects.

18- Jose Siri

Now with the Mariners organization. Had a Midwest League record 39-game hitting streak in 2017.

19- Jesse Stallings

20- Tyler Stephenson

The Reds first round pick in 2015 and was added to the Reds 40-man roster after the 2019 season.

21- Taylor Trammell

Started last year in Double-A Chattanooga and was part of the three-team trade in July 2019 that netted the Reds Trevor Bauer from Cleveland.

22- Hector Vargas

23- Bruce Yari

24- Luis Bolivar MGR

25- Darrin Ebert (Coach card)

26- Kevin Mahar (Coach card)

27- Daryle Ward (Coach card)

28- Gem (Mascot)

29- Heater (Mascot)

30- Checklist

So that's the 2017 set, the design leaves a bit to be desired but there's a ton of notable prospects in there.

Moving on now to 2018

2018 Dragons

These cards are not numbered so I'm going in order (alphabetical by last name) according to the TCDB checklist. I will number them for the sake of sanity.

1- Wendolyn Bautista

2- Michael Beltre

3- Luis Bolivar MGR

Each set came with manager and coach cards and in each set Luis Bolivar was the manager. This is the best of the three by far.

4- Tyler Buffett

5- Hendrik Clementia

6- Narcisco Crook

7- Jeter Downs

Part of the trade in the winter of 2018 that netted that ridded the Reds of Homer Bailey and netted them Yasiel Puig, Alex Wood, Matt Kemp, and Kyle Farmer (who is the only one of the four still with the team).

This set looks a lot more lively than its predecessor. I love the action shots, the green banner with the players name and uniform number. These cards are just fun to look at in general.

8- Seth Etherton (Pitching Coach)

9- Stuart Fairchild

I've heard his name mentioned during Spring Training games and so far he's made it up to Double-A Chattanooga. I could've sworn he saw action with the Reds last year but I was wrong.

10- Jose Garcia

11- Gem

I love how mascot cards are included in these sets.

12- John Ghyzel

13- Miles Gordon

14- Hunter Greene

And here we are ... Hunter Greene the Reds #1 pick in the 2017 draft. He missed the 2019 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery and with there being no semblance of a minor league season this year, it'll probably be 2021 before he's back in some sort of game action.

15- Heater

The other mascot.

16- Mark Kolozsvary

17- Morgan Lofstrom

18- Kevin Mahar (Bench Coach)

19- Montrell Marshall

20- Tyler Mondile

21- Dauri Moreta

22- Packy Naughton

That's a fun name to say.

23- Ryan Nutof

24- Sarkis Ohanian

25- Austin Oreweiler

26- Connor Ryan

27- John Sansone

28- Leandro Santana

29- Mac Sceroler

30- Cory Thompson

31- Daryle Ward (hitting coach)

That's the 2018 set. I really like the design, plus there's some more up and coming prospects like Jeter Downs and Hunter Greene. The mascot cards are super cool too.

Onwards to the last set ...

2019 Dragons

1- Mariel Bautista

2- Connor Bennett

3- Luis Bolivar MGR

4- Justin Bucko (Strength and Conditioning Coordinator)

5- Andrew Cleves (Trainer)

I'd just like to note that the mascot cards in this set were replaced by cards of the Strength and Conditioning Coordinator and the team Trainer.

6- Andy Cox

7- Jerry D'Andrea

8- Eddy Demurias

9- Mike Devereaux (hitting coach)

Yes, that Mike Devereaux who played in the majors for 12 years, most notably with the Orioles from 1989-1994. Now, he's the Dragons hitting coach. Did you know he finished in the top ten of MVP voting in 1992? A slash line of .276/.321/.464 with 24 homers and 107 RBIs will do that for you.

10- Alexis Diaz

Let's check out the design here. This is a really, really nice set. Gone is the nasty great box and it's replaced with a minimalist lower third with the players name, position and the Dragons logo. Plus we get a full bleed photo. Definitely my favorite set of the three.

11- Seth Etherton (pitching coach)

Another former major leaguer and a former Reds player as well. He pitched a grand total of 7 games for the Reds in 2003.

12- Dylan Harris

13- Miguel Hernandez

14- Morgan Lofstrom

Pretty cool card here of the catcher in action with all his gear on.

16- Carlos Machorro

I dig the orange uniform top with black undershirt. I might have to try to pull that off around Halloween sometime.

17- Pabel Manzanero

18- James Marinan

19- Juan Martinez

20- Shard Munroe

21- Reniel Ozuna

There were several night cards in this set and this is one of my favorites. It's such a bizarre card too, the stands are completely empty aside from one dude who looks bored to death.

22- Matt Pidich

23- Lyon Richardson

24- Carlos Rivero

25- Adrian Rodriguez

26- Eduardo Salazar

27- Ricky Salinas

28- Jay Schuyler

29- Michael Siani

30- Jared Solomon

According to TCDB, the Jared Solomon card is an uncorrected error card where his last name is spelled wrong.

31- Bren Spillane

32- Jonathan Willems

Whew, that was a lot of cards and a lot of typing! The 2019 set was light on players I knew but the design is definitely spot on.

These cards were definitely worth the ten bucks or so I spent on them. Minor league team sets are always fun to go through and I say if you can find discounted card sets on a team website like I did, go for it.