Wednesday, November 30, 2011

2006 Topps 52 Signatures #52S-SM Scott Mathieson

Reliever Scott Mathieson was released yesterday and the story on the Phillies website declared that the release was granted so that Mathieson could "pursue an opportunity to pitch with a professional team in Asia."  I find that to be a little cryptic.  Is he headed to Japan?  South Korea?  Taiwan?  The wording makes it seem as if Mathieson doesn't actually have anything locked up yet, but he's going to travel to the continent and peddle his wares.

The Phils selected Mathieson in the June 2002 draft and he made it into 15 games with the team in 2006, 2010 and 2011.  Along the way he had three right elbow surgeries, including two Tommy John procedures.

Mathieson has been included within the Triple-A Lehigh Valley IronPigs' team sets over the past two seasons, but the Asia-bound righty hasn't appeared in a baseball card set as a Phillie since way back in 2006.

Moving On
Dane Sardinha (10-11) 10/10/11 - Filed for free agency
Brandon Moss (11) 10/17/11 - Outrighted to Lehigh Valley and filed for free agency
Brad Lidge (08-11) 10/24/11 - Team option declined
Roy Oswalt (10-11) 10/24/11 - Team option declined
Ross Gload (10-11) 10/30/11 - Filed for free agency
Raul Ibanez (09-11) 10/30/11 - Filed for free agency
Ryan Madson (03-11) 10/30/11 - Filed for free agency
Jimmy Rollins (00-11) 10/30/11 - Filed for free agency
Juan Perez (11) 11/2/11 - Became a minor league free agent
Scott Mathieson (06, 10-11) 11/29/11 - Released

Coming Back
Pete Orr (11) 11/3/11 - Re-signed by the Phillies as a minor league free agent with an invitation to Spring Training
Brian Schneider (10-11) 11/17/11 - Re-signed by the Phillies to a one-year contract

New Additions
Jim Thome (03-05) 11/5/11 - Signed as a free agent formerly with the Cleveland Indians
Jonathan Papelbon 11/14/11 - Signed as a free agent formerly with the Boston Red Sox
Ty Wigginton 11/20/11 - Acquired with cash from the Colorado Rockies for a player to be named later or cash

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I know that it's not what you meant in stating that he hasn't appeared in a set since 2006, but according to Beckett, Mathieson appears on three different 2007 Topps Co-Signers Dual Autograph cards.

Jim said...

I meant he hasn't appeared in a non-confusing set I completely ignored since 2006. ; )

Section 36 said...

They made a dual autograph card of a guy they didn't think was worthy to make a base card of? Three of them?

Anonymous said...

Section 36: Last year, Topps made an autographed insert card for Brian Schneider without issuing a base card. This year, they did something similar (insert, no autograph) for John Mayberry. Consistency is not something Topps does well.

Jim: non-confusing Topps sets are probably rarer than we all realize. :-)