Mike Boddicker 1989 Topps

Sometime in the last year or so I received this card but I'm not sure if it was from the Baseball Card Bandit (BCB):

On July 29, 1988; Lou Gorman made a trade that worked out well for both teams sending Red Sox prospects Brady Anderson and Curt Schilling to the Baltimore Orioles for veteran right hander Mike Boddicker. Anderson was a big time prospect and broke camp with the big-league at the beginning of the year and was sent back to Pawtucket by May. Schilling was a wild righty with good stuff, but a five-cent brain. At the time, no one really expected Schilling to do anything but Boston fans were nervous about losing Anderson. 

Anderson didn't have his breakout year until four season later in 1992 and became a three-time All Star with O's for the rest of the 1990s. Curt Schilling has a very good shot of making the Hall of Fame (if he can shut his mouth for more than five minutes) but didn't reach his potential until after the Houston Astros (who acquired him from an exasperated Orioles club) sent him to Philadelphia. In the City of Brotherly Love and with the Arizona Diamondbacks and back to the Red Sox, Schilling took off and became a perennial All-Star as well as one of the more dominant pitchers for the next 15 years. He lead his teams to four World Series, winning three of them -- including two all timers in 2001 and 2004. 

Mike Boddicker played with the Sox for two-and-a-half seasons compiling a 39-22 record before signing a free agent deal with the Kansas City Royals in the winter of 1990 and played for the Brewers in his last season. 

Why did this deal work out for both teams? The Orioles received two players that had they used patience with BOTH former Sox prospects would have seen a better return on their investment. But they only stuck with Anderson and he proved to be a player to wait for. Anderson had one of the strangest home run years in 1996 when he 50 round trippers, he never hit more than 24 before or after that year. When the O's began a mini renaissance in the Charm City, Anderson was one of their better players. 

Boddicker was the perfect fit for the Sox needs from 1988 through 1990. In July of 1988, the Sox were hot as hell flushed with Morgan Magic. They had Roger Clemens and Bruce Hurst to lead them, but after that, the pitching staff was pretty bleak. Gorman got Boddicker and he was the perfect third man in the rotation, going 7-3 with a 2.63 ERA for his new team. Not too bad. 

And with Hurst departing for San Diego that winter, he fit in nicely behind Clemens as the number two man on the staff winning 15 and 17 games in the next two seasons before taking off to KC. 

The reason why this trade works out for both teams is because where they were at at the time. The Sox were in the middle of a pennant race and couldn't afford to waste time on players that might be good in two, three or in Schilling and Anderson's case, four to five seasons down the road. Baltimore, on the other hand, had nothing but time. That year they started 0-22 and were in the midst of a full-fledged rebuild--wasting Cal Ripken's prime in the mean time--they had nothing else to do but see if the kids they had in their minor league system would hit. And some did. 

Most of the time, baseball trades aren't that big of a deal, they really don't change a team too much. Every once in awhile there will be a steal of a deal (like when Gorman sent Jeff Bagwell to the Astros for Larry Andersen in 1990) but those are few and far between. Even more rarer are the trades that help both teams, like this one. 

Randy Kutcher 1990 Topps

On May 1, 2018 I received this card from the Baseball Card Bandit (BCB):

On Facebook, I wrote: It’s been a little while,but the BCB dropped off another card a few days ago. This time it’s from Hong Kong and it’s for former Red Sox backup backup outfielder Randy Kutcher. 

If you don’t remember Randy Kutcher, I don’t blame you. I’d always confused him with Sox fourth outfielder Kevin Romine. Romine was a bit better though. Kutcher was dreadful. 

2019 Notes: in a few days you'll read a bit about Kevin Romine. For some reason the Sox were really intent on keeping two back-up outfielders in the late 80s. Kutcher played five years and finished with a 228/285/377 slash and 10 homers. Romine played seven years at 251/306/325 and seven dingers. These two players are practically the same, I'm not sure why one of them were on the Red Sox, never mind two. 

For some reason, I want to say that Kutcher was always whispered as the team's third-string catcher. And according to baseball-reference, he did catch! In 1989, Kutcher played one game (2.2 innings) as a catcher in the major leagues. Good for him. 

He didn’t do much for the Sox. He wasn’t fast, he didn’t hit with power—in 1989 he hit more triples (three) than homers (two), which is odd. For some reason he got 160 ABs that year and basically struck out a third of the time. Use that stat the next time someone tells you Joe Morgan was a genius. 

In 1989, that many strikeouts was a big deal. And also he barely walked. All-in-all Randy Kutcher pretty much sucked. However he was:

- traded by the Sox to the San Francisco Giants for Dave Henderson at the 1987 trade deadline, which definitely colored my view of Kutcher. Hendu was my favorite, I was devastated when they let him go. BTW, did you know that Hendu wore a “Fuck Boston” T-shirt under his uniform for the rest of his career? The fuck, Dave?

2019: when I read about Henderson -- and I can't recall exactly where I found this -- it really bugged me. From what I remember, he was beloved in Boston. Even when he sucked in 1987 (and Henderson was not good when he won the starting centerfield job that season) I don't recall anyone booing him. Maybe he was pissed off at Boston management, but then again GM Lou Gorman rescued him from Baseball Siberia, aka the Seattle Mariners. 

- he was born in Alaska. I bet him and Curt Schilling talked a lot about that during spring training before Curt was sent to Baltimore. At least I imagine they did. I sometimes used to make up fake baseball player conversations. 

2019: I can't recall any athlete whose star has fallen faster than Curt Schilling -- non double homicide division. I don't even want to get into his issues, it's just way too depressing. 

- in high school, one of my friends Christopher Graham Baird called him “Crater Faced” Kutcher. That was an appropriate and funny nickname. Kudos to you, Chris! Your nickname is more memorable than the player.

Brady Anderson 1988 Topps Traded

On May 23, 2016, I received the above card. Here is what I wrote about it on Facebook:

“After taking the weekend off the Baseball Card Bandit strikes (Ha! Baseball pun!) again. 

Good old Brady Anderson he lasted a little bit with the Red Sox, a little bit on steroids (allegedly) and a lot in our hearts. 

Kudos BCB.”

At the beginning of the 1988 season, the Boston Red Sox were floundering. Most of the rookies that were inserted during the previous season were experiencing sophomore slumps and the leftover veterans weren’t doing much better. For a young squad, they were a dead-ass team and they were going nowhere, fast.

In the middle of the season General Manager Lou Gorman knew a change was needed, so he fired field manager John McNamara and replaced him with Joe Morgan. At the time, the Sox were nine games behind the Detroit Tigers and the Morgan hire was supposed to last long enough for Gorman and Cardinals pitching coach Mike Roarke to work out a deal bringing him to Boston.

The Red Sox won Joe Morgan’s first game as a manager and proceeded to win 12 in a row. They also set a Major League record by winning 24 straight home games in a row too. For a team that was buried at the All-Star break, a month later the Red Sox were sitting on top of the American League East standings. Walpole Joe wasn’t going anywhere and Roarke never got a chance to manage in the bigs.

Now Gorman had to change direction and build for a playoff run. He sent Anderson, who played in 41 uninspiring games with the Sox at the beginning of the season, to the Baltimore Orioles for starting pitcher Mike Boddicker. The Sox sweetened the deal by adding Curt Schilling to the transaction too.

There are times when you’re over a barrel and you have to do something, and for Gorman this was one of those times (though it wouldn’t be the first time he got fleeced by an opposing GM). Boddicker pitched very well for the Red Sox for the next few years and in 1988 he was slotted behind Roger Clemens and Bruce Hurst as Boston’s number three pitcher. The Sox stumbled a bit in September, but held on to get crushed by the Oakland Athletics in four straight games in the American League Championship series.

Brady Anderson started slowly with the Orioles, this was the Orioles team that opened the season with 21 straight losses, so there wasn’t a lot of pressure on anyone to win right now. Anderson played a decent centerfield but didn’t hit over .231 or slug more than four home runs in the ensuing three seasons. In 1992, Anderson turned it on becoming an All-Star for the first time and jacking up his counting stats. He launched homers (21), stole bases (53) and went from being good-field, no-hit to good-field, good-hit. The Orioles found themselves a weapon.

The next two years, his numbers stayed about the same: mid-300s on base and mid-400s for slugging. But in 1996, Anderson went bananas, slamming 50 home runs on the season. It was a magical season for him, but it also brought a lot of eyeballs and suspicion.

His previous nine seasons, Anderson never came close to 30 home runs (21 was his high), never mind 50. Where did this power surge come from? When people talk about the Steroid Era, after you get past the Mark McGwires, Sammy Sosas and Barry Bondses, Brady Anderson’s name is usually the next one to be brought up. And I admit that it does look a little fishy. Brady Anderson was a speedy centerfielder type. He ran well, hit in the mid .260s and showed flashes of power. How did he hit 50 home runs?

I don’t know. All I know is that he did. If he did take steroids why did he only do so for one year? He wasn’t a free agent that season, he couldn’t shop his talent around until after the 1997 season – and he slumped big time then, only hitting 18 homers and seeing his slugging percentage tumble by 150 points. Wouldn’t it make sense to keep the juice going for one more year to quiet the nay-sayers and get an even bigger payday? It’s not like Major League Baseball even tested for steroids or anything, he could cycle whenever he felt like he needed a boost and goose his numbers higher and higher.

I don’t know and I think that’s why I’m not comfortable tossing him on the steroids pyre with the rest of the known steroids guys. Baseball is a funny game, every once in a while, players come along and outperform their career norms and then the next season they turn into a pumpkin. Before he gained fame as the manager who led the Mets to their last World Series victory, Davey Johnson hit 43 Ding Dong Johnsons for the Atlanta Braves in 1973. The following year he hit 15 and the year after that he hit zero. Prior to 1973, the second baseman’s career high was 18.

Things happen, sometimes the lightening you catch in the bottle lasts for the full season. Maybe that’s what happened to Brady Anderson.

The closest Anderson came to matching his career high in bombs was during the 1999 season when he hit 24. He was out of baseball three seasons later.

Did the Sox make the right move trading Anderson (and Schilling) for Boddicker? I say yes. Anderson was never going to be allowed to develop for four seasons in Boston. Fans would have been calling for his head by the end of the 1990 season. Plus, the Red Sox needed Mike Boddicker in 1988 and 1990. The Athletics lost to two huge underdogs the year that they crushed the Sox, so even though they looked infallible, they obviously weren’t unbeatable. Maybe if Clemens got Orel Hershiser or Jose Rijo hot, they could have snuck passed the A’s and played in the Series.

As far as Schilling goes, he got lit up in his stints with the Orioles and later the Astros, before he got his shit together with the Phillies. The Sox share the blame in not recognizing the talent of Schilling with Baltimore and Houston, but a lion’s share falls on Schilling’s shoulders too.

The story is, Schilling was messing around in a Houston gym during the winter when Roger Clemens was working out. Clemens saw what Schilling was doing and reamed him out and said that he was too good to be that bad. Schilling took the advice to heart and began to dedicate himself to pitching and all of the things that go along with it. The following year, he led the Phillies to the 1993 World Series.

Two quick thoughts:

The Red Sox did a pretty good job of scouting in the early 1980s: Mike Greenwell, Ellis Burks, Jody Reed, Todd Benzinger, Sam Horn, John Marzano, Brady Anderson, Jeff Bagwell, two-time All Star Scott Cooper, Tim Naehring, Mo Vaughn, John Valentin, Phil Plantier and John Flaherty all made the bigs and experienced a bunch sort of success. Schilling was about the only pitcher the Sox signed during this time that did anything.

I wonder how that compares to the late 60s/early 70s run of developed players: Jim Rice, Fred Lynn, Dwight Evans, Carlton Fisk, Ben Oglive, Cecil Cooper, Juan Beniquez, Ernie Whitt and Butch Hobson. Again, not a lot of pitchers in the mix here. But man, do the Sox scouts know how to pick hitters or what? Damn.

My parents brought my brother and I to a Sox/Orioles game in September 1988 and both of us were obsessed with getting autographs. We got to the park early and were trying to get someone, anyone to sign. My brother being smaller and more adventurous than me climbed on the Orioles dugout and stuck his head down and gave his and my baseball to someone for an autograph, who passed it along to some other guys before giving it back to my brother. I was excited about one signature: Brady Anderson, nonplussed about another: Joe Orsulak and upset with my brother for the third: Curt Schilling.

“Why did you get Schilling,” I asked. “He sucks. I’m glad you got Anderson because he’s going to the Hall of Fame, but we wasted a good spot on the ball for Schilling.”

Then, as now, I was a bit of a dick AND I act like I do, but I know nothing about baseball.

Spring Training Thoughts

Here's a couple of thoughts that I've had during the only time that I wish I was in Florida:

+ Coco vs. Jacoby, who do you choose? Last year Jacoby Ellsbury came up to the bigs and made the most of his time. He hit for average (though no power), ran like crazy (though the Sox don't like to do that too much) and played a pretty good centerfield (thouhg not better than Coco Crisp). He played in 33 games, had 114 plate appearances (not including the playoffs) and posted these numbers: .353/.394/.509. Make no mistake about it, those are some terrific statistics, but he amassed them in essentially a month's worth of work. One has to wonder, was this just a fluky streak?

On the other hand, Crisp has posted back to back years of .264/.317/.385 in 105 games and .268/.330/.382 in 145 games, which are numbers much lower than anything he did in Cleveland. Though he does have sensational defense and probably should have won the Gold Glove this year. The numbers are pedestrian, but Crisp has maintained that he's been injured for the last two years. One has to wonder, is he serious?

If you're Red Sox GM Theo Epstein, what do you do? Do you trade the veteran and cross your fingers that the rookie does well? Do you keep the veteran and send the rookie back to AAA for more seasoning? Here's what we do know, Ellsbury isn't going to hit .350 for the entire year and he is going to go through a slump. But where is he going to level off at? .310? .290? .270? He's probably not going to hit for much power, but how many homeruns will he have? 10? 15? 20?

While he hasn't been the answer to Johnny Damon, Crisp has been consistent in Boston and you know what you have in him. Ellsbury is the wild card, he could be terrific, he could be Crisp, he could be worse. Depending on whether you're an optimist or a pessimist depends on who you keep. If you trade Crisp now, you're getting 50 cents on the dollar. Trading Ellsbury at his peek value, you're getting $1.50 on a dollar.

One thing not to consider is the fans' love of Ellsbury. There are some people who wouldn't trade him straight up for former Twin Johan Santana. These are the same fans who will boo the crap out of him if he's batting .197 for April.

+ Curt Schilling dishes it out, but he can't seem to take it. I am a media yenta; I care about the feuds between the press and the players. I find the behind-the-scenes dealings between the two factions fascinating, especially considering each camp (for the most part) can't stand one another. That's why the little slap fight between Schilling and Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy cracks me up.

On Sunday, Shaughnessy wrote a scathing column pretty much calling Schilling a lying fat ass when it came to his injury. Up until Monday, Schilling hasn't said anything about the injury to the press, but decides to give an impromptu press conference that morning, only he didn't invite anyone from the Globe. This is a complete BS move.

Shaughnessy probably wasn't going to cover the press conference, he's notorious for his hit-and-run style of writing a hatchet job and not showing his face in the clubhouse/locker room for weeks. The people which were going to be hurt by this snub are Sox beat writers Gordon Edes and Amelie Benjamin. I have no idea whether Benjamin or Edes have done anything to piss Schilling off other than have the gall to work at the same paper that Shaughnessy works at. Anyway, Edes was forced to write the story while watching the live feed from NESN.

Schilling routinely calls Shaughnessy CHB (which stands for Curly Haired Boyfriend, which is a nickname the great Carl Everett gave to him when he was flipping out on Edes one day) and has not hid his intense dislike for the writer. In his blogs and on message boards he's given Shaughnessy a tough time, and that's fine. I'm not defending Shank (another nickname), but if Schilling is going to rip Shaughnessy, he has to expect to get ripped back.

And taking his revenge out on his innocent colleagues isn't the way to settle the score. Schilling is one of the first people to admonish someone for painting all ballplayers with the same brush. He should listen to himself.

+ Pedro Martinez showed up at Mets camp with a gigantic smile and told everyone that he has been clean, steroid free and essentially that proves he's been the best pitcher of the generation.

I have to agree.

From 1997 through 2003, his highest ERA was 2.82. The league's minimum ERA was in the mid 4's. Take a peek at his numbers, they are eye-popping:

Pedro's Stats

Add in the fact that he's had to deal with Bunyon-esque sluggers, a tighter baseball and smaller ball parks and it can be argued that these seven seasons are the greatest seasons ever.

There was a lot of off-field baggage that came with Pedro Martinez, he was petulant and often felt that he was the target of an imagined snub or turned small differences into bigger molehills, but the Red Sox and Major League Baseball will never see a pitcher like Pedro Martinez ever again. His 1999 17 strikeout, one-hit (a homer by the immortal Chili Davis) game against the New York Yankees was the best and most dominant game that I've ever seen pitched.

As we get further and further from the steroid era, Pedro Martinez will get the proper accolades that he deserves and will one day be seen as the right-handed Dominican Sandy Kofax.

He was that good.

+ Andy Pettitte cheated, sort of came clean, then came “all the way” clean and is now a paragon of integrity. Roger Clemens cheated and lied about it and he's (to quote another infamous HGH abuser Debbie Clemens) “been treated worse than Hitler.”

What does that say about America? We're suckers for apologies and Roger Clemens is an idiot for not realizing this. I pretty much feel the same way that most of America feels, Clemens is a dirt bag who tried to throw everyone in the world (his wife, his mother, his best friend and his agents) under the bus in order to make himself look innocent. It's not working and if it wasn't such a disgusting act of cowardice, I'd almost feel sorry for the dumb Texan.

Aside from that, my take on this entire mess is that it sucks for baseball that the best hitter (Barry Bonds) and one of the best pitchers (Roger Clemens) were doped up. And it sucks more for baseball that their plan for fighting this was a two-pronged attack of ignoring the problem and then denying the problem existed. Once again, the fans (the real guardians of the game) are the ones who end up getting screwed in the end all in the name of greed.

The good news is that Bud Selig has recently signed a contract that will allow him to stay the commissioner of baseball through 2011. This is after he renegged on his promise that he was going to step down after his contract finishes up at the end of the 2008 season. Once a car salesman, always a car salesman.

Play for me Johan Santana

You're the Boston Red Sox. You have won the American League East, the American League pennant and the World Series Championship (the second time in four years). You have a bonafide stud pitcher in Josh Beckett, a potential stud in Daisuke Matsuzaka (both under 28-years-old) and two veterans who probably have something left in the tank in Curt Schilling and Tim Wakefield. You also have a slew of prospects that have done well in their brief call-ups (Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz) plus a bunch of kids on the farm.

You want the best left handed pitcher of the last ten years but you don't need him as much as your chief rival to the south does. If you mortgage the farm and paid upwards of $20 million a year for the next five years, you can pretty much count on going to the playoffs every year for the next half a decade. Do you trade for him?

(The last two paragraphs employ a style that New York Daily News columnist Jimmy Cannon made famous. I didn't intentionally think about writing the first couple of sentences like this, but I guess I was influenced by Cannon's collection of columns bound into the book, “Nobody Asked Me, But ...” which I am currently reading. It's a decent read if you care about sports from the 50s and 60s and you should be able to get it at a used bookstore.)

Let's look at what we do know: despite a mediocre record last year (which doesn't really mean a hell of a lot) and the fact that he gave up way more home runs than he did during any point in his career, with the Red Sox, Johan Santana is a lock to win at least 18 games. You slot him as your number two guy after Beckett and the Sox staff gets longer. Daisuke, who I think is going to have a monster year this year, goes to three, Schilling goes to four and either Wakefield or Buchholz takes the fifth slot. Even with an injury, either Wakefield or Buchholz takes the injured pitcher's spot and the Sox don't miss a beat.

No one can match this rotation. Not the Yankees, who on their best days have three number two guys (Wang, Pettitte and Mussina) and a couple of kids (Kennedy, Hughes and maybe Chamberlain). But the wheels on Pettitte and Mussina could easily come off (as Schilling and Wakefield's could) and Wang proved during last year's post season that he's not an elite star. And how good are the rookies? They are pinning their hopes for two fifths of their rotation on kids. Is that a recipe for success? I don't know.

Now, let's look at what we don't know: is Santana coming down from his super star stratosphere? It would seem that the answer is no, as his peripherals were still solid last year. But what if he spits the bit in Boston? What if the number of players that the Sox give (and there are some reports that this could be a five-for-one swap) almost dry out the system making other in season trades impossible? Is the money that Santana will command worth it? Does the check he cashes eventually trickle down to Beckett, David Ortiz, etc.? Guys that were here, proved themselves in Boston and now want to be paid as much as the new guy?

Obviously, you can't worry about the latter question, but one thing you could concern yourself about is what I heard a few weeks ago on WEEI, a Twins beat writer from one of the Twin Cities (I can't remember who it was) expressed thoughts that Santana could be nicked up a bit, which is why he was hit harder last year than in previous years. He claims that Santana wasn't throwing the slider as much because his elbow was killing him. I have no doubts that the Sox will do their due diligence in checking over the medical records, but the injury concern will always be there for a guy who has thrown the amount of innings that Santana has.

I suppose that one has to look back at the last times that the Sox made a transaction such as this. In 2005 Boston sent Hanley Ramirez, Anibel Sanchez and two minor leaguers to the Florida Marlins for Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell. The rap on Beckett was that he'd eventually cost big money (the Fish were selling him on the cheap because they were afraid of Beckett's up coming arbitration case and the Sox had to take Lowell because he was making too much cash). Ramirez has turned into one of, if not the best, shortstops in the National League. Sanchez threw a no-hitter his rookie year and had solid numbers, but was hurt for most of last year and the other two kids haven't made the bigs yet.

Despite concerns about arms injuries (there was actually a rumor floating around that Beckett's agent told the righthander to go on an extended Texas hunting trip so that he could not be reached if the Sox called to inquire about it) and blister questions, Beckett has been as good as advertised. It took him a season to get settled (which is why I think Matsuzaka is going to be great in 2008) but he won 20 games and destroyed the Angels, Indians and Rockies during the 2007 post season.

In 1997, the Red Sox were desperate for a starter since the Steve Avery experiment failed miserably and Boston GM Dan Duquette sent highly regarded prospects Carl Pavano and Tony Armas Jr. to the Montreal Expos for Pedro Martinez. This is a more apt comparison because people were questioning Pedro's body size (too small), acumen (“wild” headhunter who played before just family and friends at Olympic Stadium) and add in the fact that he wanted a big contract extension. How did it turn out for the Sox? Pedro was absolutely transcendent for most of his Boston career—the pitching numbers he threw up at the end of the century were among the best ever, perhaps all time if you take into account the era and home park he played in as well as the team behind him. He was a main cog in the 2004 championship. Pavano and Armas are both good pitchers, but they aren't Pedro.

What I'm saying is that the Red Sox were able to win two World Series Championships in direct result of trading youth for known greatness. In the long run, were these trades worth it? If you're the Sox, no matter how good Ramirez does or how well Pavano pitched, yes these trades were worth it because the bottom line for this franchise is winning. Were the Boston Red Sox a better team with Pedro Martinez and Josh Beckett? Yes. Would they have been able to win a World Series without either? It's hard to say, but probably not.

The beauty of having a lot young chips is cashing them in for a guy like Martinez or Beckett or Santana. You can't have everyone in your rotation or in your starting lineup. The trick is to keep the great ones and trade the good ones.

Do these history lessons make the trade a slam dunk? Of course not, but judging how this same scenario played out twice in the recent past plus the added caveat of keeping Santana away from the Yankees, one would have to think that the Red Sox should do whatever they can to import another star from Minnesota.