1986 ProCards - Tommy Dunbar.

Looking at Tommy Dunbar's 1986 ProCards card today. Tommy is having a ball as he models the windbreaker under the jersey look. I mean, just look at that grin. The guy can't be faking that.

Tommy was pictured on both minor and major league cards in 1986. By the time this card came out though Tommy's big league career was over. In 1980 Tommy was drafted by the Rangers and signed. He made his first major league appearance in 1983 as a September call-up. He wrapped up his MLB career in July of 1985.

After that Tommy didn't give up though. He played in the minor leagues until 1991. 1986 would be his last season with the Rangers organization. For the next five years he bounced around between five different organizations.

Two interesting notes on Tommy. While he was mostly an outfielder he did pitch in three games for Memphis in 1990. He went a total of three innings and posted a 3.00 ERA. Not too bad. The other interesting item is Tommy's managing career. In 1993 he managed for the Reds in the Rookie League. He lasted just one season at that endeavor and posted a losing record. Quite the varied career.

Pratt's printing.

Today's random autograph card comes from the 2002 SPx Prospects set and is number 142 in the set. The card features Andy Pratt and one of his autographs.

When I first got this card in a lot I wondered who Andy Pratt was. That was as far as I got until today when I decided that I had better look him up on Baseball-reference.com.

The first thing that caught my attention was that Andy never played for the Rangers. He was selected in the ninth round of the 1998 draft. He signed shortly thereafter. In the same year he played with the Gulf Coast Rangers in the Rookie League. 1999 was A ball and in 2000 he moved up to Double A. His entire 2001 season was spent at Double A Tulsa.

In April of 2002 the Rangers traded Andy to the Braves for Ben Kozlowski. He finally made his debut with Atlanta in September of that year for one game. In 2004 he showed up four times for the Cubs. Those five games were the extent of Andy's MLB career. Not very many but probably five more than most of us.

500!

So here I am at 500 posts since starting this blog. I must say that the just under two years since the start has been very enjoyable. I have met some great folks and made a few nice trades. Hopefully I have been able to entertain you and possibly even make you think once in awhile. I had thought about having a contest or giveaway to mark the occasion. To be honest though, I am not sure I have anything that anyone might want to compete for. Perhaps I will try and secure a few things for the two year mark.

Some things have changed since I started writing. A few blogs I followed have been retired and others have come on the scene. Inspired by some fellow bloggers I have gotten back into the autograph request game. My collecting focus has shifted a bit as well. Jon Matlack, shown here on card 215 of the 1982 Donruss set, is still my main focus. I am surprised looking at my stats to see that I have only posted three of his cards before this one. Ivan Rodriguez and my Rangers collection have flip-flopped on the priority list. I am still a fan of Pudge but am currently more excited about finishing off Rangers team sets.

Speaking of finishing off Rangers team sets, I have decided to start posting some of my wantlists on Wednesdays. I figure I can do a team set at a time. Since I have Jon's 1982 Donruss card up I might as well start with that one. Only need two cards to finish it up:

1982 Donruss
89 Jim Kern
341 Steve Comer

Let me know if you have either of these cards and perhaps we can work a trade. I have older and newer commons from most teams and actually do have a small trade list.

Thanks to everyone for making the first 500 a great time. I will do my best to keep you amused and interested.

Congrats Zack!

Zack Greinke won the AL Cy Young Award today. As much as I would have liked to see Scott Feldman with the award, I am glad Zack won it. The Royals need all the lift they can get and it is nice to see a different uniform in the highlight reel.

Since Zack never played for Texas I decided to see if he favorably compares to any pitchers who have. Checking baseball-reference.com I see that I am in luck. Listed as the third most similar at age 25 (Zack's current age) is none other than Burt Hooton.

Burt played one season for Texas and was a decade past 25 when card 56T in the 1985 Topps Traded set was issued. In his 25th year he played for the Cubs and Dodgers. His ERA was 3.07 as compared to Greinke's 2.16. Hooton went 18-9 in 33 starts while Greinke was 16-8 in the same number of starts. Burt managed 153 strikeouts to 68 walks while Zack went 242 strikeouts to 51 walks.

One you move past the win-loss record it becomes clear that Greinke was the more dominating. Probably why he won the Cy Young Award at age 25 while Burt Hooton didn't get a single vote.

Was he robbed?

Elvis Andrus was featured on card number 944 of the 2009 Upper Deck set. He also played in 145 games for the Rangers this year as he became their starting shortstop in his first season above Double A ball. This for a team in contention until the last three or so games of the season. Andrew Bailey appeared in 68 games for Oakland as he nailed down their closer's slot in his first season in the Bigs. This for a team that was close to elimination by the All-Star break.

Elvis had 541 plate appearances for the Rangers. Bailey faced 325 batters for the A's.

Elvis played 1238 innings for Texas while compiling 261 putouts, 407 assists, 98 double plays, and 22 errors. This translated to a fielding percentage of .968 with a range factor per game of 4.61. The league average was 3.89. Bailey played 83.1 innings for Oakland while compiling 91 strikeouts, allowing 17 runs, 24 walks, and 5 home runs. This translated to a 1.84 ERA. I was unable to locate the league average ERA for closers.

Elvis racked up 128 hits. Of these: 17 were doubles, 8 were triples, and 6 were home runs. He knocked in 40 runs and drew 40 walks. He successfully swiped 33 bases and was caught 6 times. This all translated into a .267 batting average, a .329 on base percentage, and a .373 slugging percentage. His OPS was .702. Bailey never lifted a bat in the five games he was eligible to do so.

Andrew Bailey won the AL Rookie of the Year today. Was Andrus shorted?

Through the mail success.

Working a twelve hour shift today so my time is limited. As such I will leave you with this 1993 Topps Gold card of Matt Whiteside that I received in the mail today. I had sent this card and one other one out to Matt on November 2. He graciously signed and returned both. One unique aspect is that he signed both cards in what looks like red ballpoint pen.

Who is Chris Stewart?

Chris Stewart is one of those players that I don't have any recollection of. Here he is though, on card number 254 of the 2007 Allen and Ginter set. This, along with his inclusion in the 2007 Topps regular set, sparked my interest.

According to Baseball-reference.com Chris made his major league debut in 2006 for the White Sox. He appeared in six games for them before being dealt to the Rangers in January of 2007. It was apparently a minor trade as the White Sox received one minor leaguer in return.

In 2007 Chris appeared in 17 games for Texas. This was almost a threefold increase in his playing time from the year before and a career high. According to the almighty Wikipedia, Chris snagged the backup catcher's job in Spring Training of that year. The Rangers then dropped Stewart to Triple A in early June after acquiring Adam Melhuse.

The Rangers released Chris in March of 2008. In April he signed with the Yankees on a minor league contract. He appeared in one game for them on April 29, 2008 before being granted free agency in November. The White Sox signed him in December. In March of this year the Sox sent Chris back to the Yankees for future considerations.

At least Chris has gotten a taste of the majors. That's a lot more than most of us can say. Playing at the Triple A level he is just an injury or two away from another call-up. I suppose that's a decent possibility for a catcher.