Jeffrey Hammonds Retires....Let the HOF watch begin!

ndleo

I guess you can officially bury all those Hammonds rookies you were holding on to. The "next Barry Bonds" can spend the rest of his time next to Gregg Jefferies and Ben McDonald.

CDsNuts

I remember when the Orioles drafted him and he was the next ________ (fill in the blank with any popular black guy who could do everything). Remember all the classic Brien Taylor-Jeffrey Hammonds duels?

Lee

FavreFan1971

And next to these NFL greats

Ken Sims (#1 over all 1982)
Art Schlicter (Gambler!!)
Ryan Leaf
Todd Blackledge (Picked ahead of Marino - Kelly)
Tony Manderich
Blair Thomas
Andre Ware
David Klingler
Dan Wilkinson
Heath Shuler
Ki-Jana Carter
Lawrence Phillips

Anyonelse think of more flops????

baseballfanatic

Greg Jeffries, Jeff Treadway, Kevin Seitzer, Jim Lindeman, Scott Lusader and anyone else I had a 100 count lot of in 88....

Brian48

Nobody can be as bad as Ryan Leaf.

lawnmowerman

<< <i>Nobody can be as bad as Ryan Leaf. >>

I think Heath Shuler would give leaf a run for his money.

matt

softparade

Todd Marinavich took the cake and ate it too IMO. He sucked.

Stone193

Some guys never got to play. Remember the Brien Taylor story?

mike

lawnmowerman

<< <i>Some guys never got to play. Remember the Brien Taylor story?

mike >>

I dont know the story, I always wondered what happened to him. I know I still have a few of those Stadium Club rc cards though

Matt

Stone193

<< <i>

<< <i>Some guys never got to play. Remember the Brien Taylor story?

mike >>

I dont know the story, I always wondered what happened to him. I know I still have a few of those Stadium Club rc cards though

Matt >>


Matt
Brien got in a fight with a family member, injured his shoulder and never played in the majors even tho he signed a 1.5 million bonus.

This was the HYPE of the century - I remember when the 92T Gold sets were going for ridiculous money because they contained auto cards of Taylor - never so glad I procrastinated on buying the set!

mike

Lothar52

did he keep the 1.5 million?

loth

Stone193

<< <i>did he keep the 1.5 million?

loth >>


Ryan
He got for "signing" and I believe he keeps it - he did try rehab in the minors and stuff but was a dud!
Does anyone remember chasing those topps cards for the 'golds'?!

mike

goudeygold

More proof of the hype machine going bust.

GG

softparade

Taylor blew his shoulder out in the fight that Mike speaks off. Before the injury he was hitting 100+ on the guns with good control for a kid. Not sure how is breaking stuff was but that kid screwed up big time.

Dan

DirtyHarry

The premise is as ridiculous as the post about the premise. Who cares? Regards.

OSClabs

A few flops come to mind...

Todd Van Poppel
Rashan Salaam
Mike "Need Calcium" Sherrard

Stone193

<< <i>The premise is as ridiculous as the post about the premise. Who cares? Regards. >>


Harry
Had a bad week?

DirtyHarry

Bad year. Sorry ndleo. Post away...

Carew29

What about the great Todd Van (Pooped out) Poppel---The next Nolan Ryan my a**

Carew29

A couple more come to mind

Brian Bosworth
The Buffalo Bills
XFL

zef204

Jerome Walton, Gary Scott, Ty Griffin

jayhawke

Hammonds' career wages(salary only) are an incredible 31 million dollars.
A friend of mine played american legion against him. He was a hell of a legion player. He had a few good pro years.

NickM

There are players who simply did not live up to the hype, like Hammonds, Gregg Jefferies, etc., but who had lengthy and productive major league careers, and then there are flops. [Hammonds is not in the class of a Jefferies, Todd Zeile, Kevin Seitzer, Robin Ventura, or the like, but no one with a 12 year career in the majors was a flop.]
I'll use Ventura as an example. Had he played one generation earlier, he'd be a semi-star on the level of Ron Cey (compare their career statistics). His rookie card would not be a common card, and there would be a small group of fans who would be serious collectors of his cards. As it is, because he came of age in the hype-driven baseball card market, the fact his career stats are "only" .267 BA, 294 HR, 1182 RBI, 1006 runs, 1885 hits, 338 2B, 1075 BB, and 6 Gold Glove Awards means his cards are considered huge disappointments. The stratification of modern card values into HOFer and common, with no room left for players who had productive careers that are not Hall-worthy to be other than a common, is IMO a major weakness in the market. Vintage cards have their share of semi-star cards (and I'm not just talking about Dodger and Yankee premium pricing) - Kluszewski, Ken Boyer, Flood, Cash, Boog Powell, etc. IMO over time the modern card market will develope a similar middle tier of card values, as these cards become vintage.

Nick

Stone193

Nick
Nice writeup! Thanx.

mike

CDsNuts

Nick, to some degree you're correct, but if a future HOFer's RC such as Palmeiro or Alomar is only worth in $1-2 in "real world" terms, how much could a guy like Ventura or Bonilla go for? .25? .50? To most people if a card is truly worth less than $1 it's a common and is treated as such in the market. But if you take a set like 93 Finest refractors it compares well to a vintage set in terms of semistars. A Ventura would go for around $15-20 and not be considered a common. Examples: Joe Carter, Chuck Finley. When a set is valued very low, there is not much room to distinguish between superstars and semistars, but when a set has high value, the market adjusts.

Lee

baseballfanatic

How about the Mets great Big 3 "untouchable" prospects of Generation "K": Paul Wilson, Jason Isringhausen, and Bill Pulsipher in the early 90's........?

ndleo

How about Todd Van Poppel? I remember stories comparing him to Ryan and Clemens. He has all of the physical tools, but never really panned out.

Anybody know why he was a bust? I don't think he ever got hurt.

jackstraw

I actually believe Van Poppell is still playing? I want to set Detroit but could be wrong.
Hockey fans will recall Alexander Daigle who was the next great that just stunk at the pro level.

gosteelers

Yankees fans, remember Kevin Maas and his expensive 1990 Fleer RC's?

Lee,
I've seen Ventura's '93 Refractors go anywhere from $30-$100. The two examples you provided, Carter (way OC), ususally goes for about $50 and a Finley PSA 9 should go for around $40-$50, but this particular seller seems to be having some issues with regard to feedback, hence the low final bid. Hell, he had a Mussina PSA 9 '93 Refractor that went off last night for about $25...This is $100 ungraded...

Mark

ndleo

I know for a fact that the Tigers are Van Poppel free. I think he was here for a month or so and was shipped out. I actually thought he had a chance to put it all together in Detroit. He was only 26 and I thought a new team might help him out. Plus the fact I had 200 of his Classic and Upper Deck Rookies may have tinted my view. Hey even Randy Johnson took some time.

But alas my hopes were quickly dashed. Todd could throw hard, but only in a straight line. He didn't have a second pitch worth a crap. Also he has a really slow delivey that made running on him a breeze. But he did look like an ace warming up. He was real tall and lanky, he looked liked a gun slinger.

It is amazing how the scouts blew it on this one.

Just for laughs, here is the Baseball America Top 20 Prospects from 1993 and how the ended up. I used the Star designation pretty liberally to include players that have been to at least one All-Star game. OK means that they had a couple of good years and lasted over 10.:

1. Chipper Jones, ss, Braves - HOF
2. Brien Taylor, lhp, Yankees - Bust
3. Cliff Floyd, of, Expos - OK
4. Carlos Delgado, c, Blue Jays - Star
5. Tim Salmon, of, Angels - Star
6. Wil Cordero, ss, Expos - OK
7. Todd Van Poppel, rhp, Athletics - Bust
8. Jason Bere, rhp, White Sox - Bust
9. Allen Watson, lhp, Cardinals - Bust
10. Tyrone Hill, lhp, Brewers - Bust
11. Kurt Miller, rhp, Rangers - Bust
12. Dmitri Young, 3b, Cardinals - Star
13. Manny Ramirez, of, Indians - HOF
14. Ray McDavid, of, Padres - Bust
15. Rondell White, of, Expos - OK
16. David McCarty, 1b-of, Twins - Bust
17. Tavo Alvarez, rhp, Expos - Bust
18. Brad Pennington, lhp, Orioles - Bust
19. Jeffrey Hammonds, of, Orioles - Bust
20. Javy Lopez, c, Braves - Star

FYI - Piazza was #38, Jeter #44, Pedro Martinez #62, Bob Abreu #95.

Makes you wonder about the $100 certified auto jersey rookie card you just bought.

gosteelers

ndleo,
I thought Piazza was taken in something like, the 53rd round or something? I thought it was earlier than 1993, also. Didn't he and Pedro have '92 Bowman RCs?

Mark

ndleo

The list was for players still eligible for the ROY. I don't think Piazza was in the majors prior to 1993.

Stone193

I think that both Piazza and Jones were prospects in 1992 but were not in the majors. In fact Jones, during spring training, if memory serves, hit first base wrong and has an ankle injury which knocked him out for the entire season.

ndleo
Thanx for the list and the assessments - they look pretty much on target to me. I was making jokes about the 92UD - but I want to say that Manny's card is #63 and probably undervalued?

mike

ndleo

Here is the 2005 Top 20 BA Propsect list. If the trend holds most of these guys will be commons within 5 years. I think the best player is Delmon Young. Prince Fielder could be huge bust (literally).

1. JOE MAUER, c, Twins
2. FELIX HERNANDEZ, rhp, Mariners
3. DELMON YOUNG, of, Devil Rays
4. IAN STEWART, 3b, Rockies
5. JOEL GUZMAN, ss, Dodgers
6. CASEY KOTCHMAN, 1b, Angels
7. SCOTT KAZMIR, lhp, Devil Rays
8. RICKIE WEEKS, 2b, Brewers
9. ANDY MARTE, 3b, Braves
10. HANLEY RAMIREZ, ss, Red Sox
11. LASTINGS MILLEDGE, of, Mets
12. DALLAS McPHERSON, 3b, Angels
13. MATT CAIN, rhp, Giants
14. JEFF FRANCOEUR, of, Braves
15. PRINCE FIELDER, 1b, Brewers
16. ADAM MILLER, rhp, Indians
17. JASON KUBEL, of, Twins
18. JEREMY HERMIDA, of, Marlins
19. CHAD BILLINGSLEY, rhp, Dodgers
20. JEFF NIEMANN, rhp, Devil Rays

yankeeno7

Mark "Bird" Fidrych
Joe Charbonneau
Rich Ankiel...but interesting to see how he makes it as an outfielder. Good arm and the boy can hit.
Dave Magadan

goudeygold

KEVIN MAAS... oh how you forget the realities of the hype machine.

I'd put my money on dallas McPherson for the 2005 prospects list. but then again he is already on the "hot" list so its too late to make any moolah...

GG