Showing posts with label 2002 Fleer Authentix. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2002 Fleer Authentix. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 28, 2019

Wall of Fame: Bobby Abreu (2019)


The Phillies recently announced that this years Wall of Fame inductee is Bobby Abreu. An interesting selection, on paper he is one of the organizations great players, however on the field he represents the long lean period between the 1993 Wheeze Kids and the Late 2000s championship squads.

2002 Fleer Authentix #56 Bobby Abreu

Abreu is often derided for his mediocre defense and to be honest I cannot remember him crashing a wall. Perhaps one of the effects if his tentative approach in the field is that he rarely missed a game. During his eight full seasons with the Phillies Abreu played at least 150 games every year.  An All-Star player never missing game can accumulate some impressive numbers, and Abreu did just that. As a Phillie Abreu tallied 195 Home Runs and 254 steals (7th in team history). His .928 OPS ranks 2nd in club history behind only Hall of Famer Chuck Klein. The component numbers (.416 OBP, .513 SLG) are top 10 as well. Advanced stats really don’t back up the no-defense critique, Abreu’s dWAR in Philadelphia was -1.5, below average but not really noteworthy especially when spread across 8+ season. Related note: during his gold glove 2005 campaign had a dWAR of -1.5.


2002 Fleer Authentix #56 Bobby Abreu (b-side)

Kind of a neat idea here. The player photos are on a facsimile tickets of their teams Home Opener. In the game represented here the Phillies defeated the Marlins 6-2. The tickets are purely representative – there is no mentioning of the game on either side of the card, nor the games results or how the player performed. 

Fortunately for that we have Baseball-Reference. 

And it was a good day for Bobby Abreu who went 4 for 4 with a couple of a doubles and a Home Run producing 3 RBI and scoring a pair of runs. Likely one of the best days of his career. 

Team Phungo has been to a lot of Phillies Home Openers and this happens is one of those games. Happy to be adding this one to cards that rep Phungo Games. 

2002 Fleer Authentix
Two years ago we profiled Scott Rolen's card for this set, that column can be found here

Bobby Abreu Index
1998 Topps #351: First Phillies Card, Bob vs Bobby Abreu 2011 #60YoT match
1999 Topps Stadium Club #39: Group Break, Cameo Mickey Morandini as a Cub. Named "Bob"
2000 Topps #38: Asian Zodiac Year og the Tiger (2010). Named as "Bob"
2000 Topps #38: Phillies All-Decade Team 
2002 Topps Opening Day #13: Snapshot of Topps Opening Day cards
2003 Bowman Heritage (Nachos Grande Swag)
2005 Topps Update #UH218 (2005 07 11 Home Run Derby Detroit)
2008 Topps Heritage Bat Relic: Hobby Box Break (w/ Yankees)
2009 Phungo BFI: Portrait (w/ Yankees)
2010 Topps #15: First Pack (w/ Angels)

Sources and Links


Monday, November 27, 2017

2018 HoF Candidate: Scott Rolen

Each of the last couple of years I have reviewed a couple of Hall of Fame candidates and gave my verdict. Tonight we return to the feature to look at the 2018 candidates. The first subject that we will look at is Scott Rolen.

I am not sure if "polarizing" is the word to describe Scott Rolen. He is kind of a low key guy but brings out a lot of opinions in folks. He was a great player in Phladelphia on bad teams - eventually he got tired of playing with the struggling clubs and pushed the Phillies to trade him.

That is where the story gets tough for Phillies fans. Baseball is a business and Scott Rolen as a player as a limited time to earn a living - regardless it hurts a little to see a player asked to be traded away from your favorite team.

2002 Fleer Authentix #86 Scott Rolen

For our Scott Rolen Profile I have chosen a card that falls under our Gamed Dated obsession.

Over the last 25 years I estimate that I have been to about a dozen opening day games including the one played on April 5 2002. The above Scott Rolen card is made to appear like a ticket to that 2002 Phillies Lid-Lifter (fun term I have seen in old school Sporting News headlines, but never hear anymore).

The Phillies defeated the Florida Marlins 6-2 in this particular opener. Not all of this info is given on the Fleer "Ticket". We can see "Florida Marlins" hidden behind Rolen's legs. Also Veterans Stadium.  The Date is pretty much screened but we can make out Friday and April. The full date was April 5th 2002. 

I am happy to say it was a good day for Scott Rolen who reached base all 5 times he batted.  His plate appearances resulted in a double, single and Three Walks. The Phillies other offensive hero was Bobby Abreu who logged a 3-Run Homer as one of his four hits. Brandon Duckworth got the W pitching six innings of 1-run ball and racking up 10 strikeouts. 

Flip
2002 Fleer Authentix #86 Scott Rolen (b-side)

Couple of things to note on the back of 2002 Fleer Authentix. The % of team totals line is an interesting stat idea, easily demonstrates what Rolen meant to the Phillies offense in 2002. The card finishes with Phillies franchise info. I suppose that feels somewhat connected to a card noting the teams Home Opener. Also note that the card represents a game played in 2002 but the stats on the back are for the 2001 season.

Lazy Phungo
Someday I will dig through the Phungo Ephemera Museum and get an image of a real ticket to this game and plop it into this posting, however right now I am to busy/lazy to go through that effort.

Phungo Verdict
YES
I think this will surprise folks who know me but Yes I think Scott Rolen deserves Hall of Fame recognition. He is borderline, but when I remove my biases against him, as a player I think his numbers are HOF worthy. 

I don't think it will happen but it would be nice if the Phillies and Scott Rolen could get together so that he could be recognized on the franchises Wall of Fame.

2002 Fleer Authentix
For another look at the game featured on this card check out our posting dedicated to the Bobby Abreu card from the set here.

Sources and Links
Phungo Scott Rolen Index
2018 Hall of Fame Ballot
Game Dated Cards Index
Baseball-Ref

Updates: 2019 05 28 - Added 2002 Fleer Authentix Bobby Abreu paragraph 

a thousand words

a thousand words
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