Player Name: Brandon Phillips
Sets From: 2000 Bowman, Bowman Chrome, Bowman’s Best, Topps Traded. Topps Chrome Traded.
Why are these cards a must have?: Brandon’s career has been absolutely puzzling to me. Since about 2001 he was one of the top prospects in baseball. A 5 tool player and a middle infielder to boot. He was originally on the Expos, but when Bartolo Colon ended up on the trading block to Expos in one of the most lopsided deals of all time sent Phillips, Grady Sizemore, Cliff Lee, and Lee Stevens to the Indians for Colon and Tim Drew. Phillips who was already in AAA at the time was immediately called up and just floundered. Then the Indians sent him back down and essentially left him in AAA for the next 2 years. He was then dealt to Cincy for a player to be named later (Jeff Stevens). Essentially just throwing him out. At the ripe old age of 25, far removed fromhis stud prospect status, the Reds gave him a shot. He rewarded them with three very solid seasons. He finally became the 5 tool player he was supposed to become and became one of the moreprolific 2nd baseman in baseball right now. His 162 game average is 0.260/20/79/23, which although his average is a bit low, I’d take that power and speed in my lineup any time.
On a scale of 1 – 10, how must have are these cards: 3, hey, I’m a realist, 3 seasons doesn’t make a career, he has a long way to go to increase his rating. In the book they run about $1 – $6 on eBay you can find it for around $1 – $3. The autographed version of the Topps Traded card will run you around $20.
I was going to let it slide but now that Brandon Phillips has made the list I really think you need to go back and add Carl Crawford.
Look at 162 game averages and you’ll see that Crawford averages 16 runs, 38 hits, 11 triples, 29 stolen bases and 33 points of batting average more than Phillips while hitting 8 fewer home runs but still having higher SLG and only 2 fewer RBIs. And he’s been playing full seasons since 2003.