Phillies Missing Links of the 1990s - #12 Manny Martinez

#34
Manuel (de Jesus) Martinez
Outfield

I mean no disrespect to Manny Martinez with this next observation, but if I can't remember one thing about your time with the Phillies, you're truly an obscure Phillies player.  I have zero recollection of Martinez playing with the Phillies for 13 games in July and August 1996.

Claimed off waivers from the Mariners on July 11th, Martinez was recalled from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on July 22nd when the Phillies parted ways with J.R. Phillips.  Over the next four weeks, Martinez started 10 games for the Phillies, with nine starts in right field and one start in center field. He hit .222 (8 for 36) with a pair of triples with nary a home run or RBI in sight.  Sent back to Scranton on August 15th in favor of Wendell Magee, Jr., Martinez's Phillies career was over.

He'd re-appear in the National League a few years later, playing 73 games with the 1998 Pirates and serving as the Expos' regular center fielder in 1999.  Martinez played professional baseball through 2008, making stops in Korea, Mexico and the independent Atlantic League.

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'2"  Weight:  169
Born:  October 3, 1970, San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic
Signed:  Signed by the Oakland Athletics as an amateur free agent, March 10, 1988.
Major League Teams:  Seattle Mariners 1996; Phillies 1996; Pittsburgh Pirates 1998; Montreal Expos 1999
Professional Affiliations:  Oakland Athletics 1988-1994; Chicago Cubs 1995; Seattle Mariners 1996; Phillies 1996; Pittsburgh Pirates 1997-1998; Montreal Expos 1999; Florida Marlins 2000

Phillies Career
13 games, .222 (8 for 36), 2 triples, 11 strikeouts, 2 stolen bases
Acquired:  Selected off waivers from the Seattle Mariners, July 11, 1996.
Debut:  July 22, 1996 - Started the second game of a double header against the Reds in center field, as the lead-off hitter, going 1 for 4 with a single off Scott Service.
Final Game:  August 15, 1996
Departed:  Granted free agency, October 15, 1996. Signed as a free agent with the Pittsburgh Pirates, December 19, 1996.

1997 Best Calgary Cannons #17

2000 MLB Showdown 1st Edition #271

2000 Pacific #266

1 Martinez Baseball Card in My Collection
First Card:  1997 Best Calgary Cannons #17
Last Card:  1997 Best Calgary Cannons #17

Other Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  2000 MLB Showdown 1st Edition #271
First Topps Base Card:  N/A
Last Mainstream Card:  2000 Pacific #266
Other Notable Cards:  1990 ProCards #3433, 1996 Best Tacoma Rainiers #17

Sources:  Baseball Reference and The Trading Card Database

Phillies Missing Links of the 1990s
1 Louie Meadows
2 Dave LaPoint
3 Darrin Chapin
4 Mickey Weston
5 Bob Wells
6 Tom Edens
7 Omar Olivares

8 Kevin Elster

9 Jim Deshaies

10 Chuck Ricci
11 Dennis Springer
12 Manny Martinez
13 Rafael Quirico
14 Bronson Heflin
15 Glenn Dishman
16 Rob Butler
17 Mike Robertson
18 Matt Whiteside
19 Robert Dodd
20 Joel Bennett
21 Joe Grahe
22 Domingo Cedeno
23 Torey Lovullo

This is a continuing series looking at those players who spent time with the Phillies but possess no baseball card proof of their time in Philadelphia.  In some cases, the First and Last Mainstream cards listed above have been subjectively chosen if multiple cards were released in that year.

2017 Chachi #35 Luis Garcia

#57
Luis Amado Garcia
Relief Pitcher

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'3"  Weight:  240

Born:  January 30, 1987, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Home:  Dover, NJ

Signed:  Signed by the Los Angeles Dodgers as an amateur free agent, January 22, 2004

Teams:  Phillies 2013-

Acquired:  Signed as minor league free agent, formerly with the Newark Bears of the independent Canadian-American Association, March 25, 2013

2013 Choice Lehigh Valley IronPigs Update #8

2013 Chachi #49

2014 Topps #451

11 Garcia Baseball Cards in My Collection per The Phillies Room Checklist
First Card:  2013 Choice Lehigh Valley IronPigs Update #8
First Phillies Card:  2014 Topps #451
First Topps Flagship Base Card:  2014 Topps #451
First Phillies Team Issued Card:  2015 Phillies Team Issue #57
Latest Card:  2017 Phillies Team Issue #57

Click to enlarge

Complete Chachi Checklist
2013 Chachi #49
2014 Chachi #37
2015 Chachi #21
2016 Chachi #38
2016 Chachi Fan Appreciation Day #2
2017 Chachi #35

Card statistics through 6/16/17.

2016 Chachi #71 Leading Firemen - Gomez, Neris, Mariot

Perhaps the hardest thing to watch during the latter part of the Phillies season was the complete implosion of Jeanmar Gomez as the team's closer.  Unofficially removed from the closer's roll during the final weeks of September, Gomez tallied a 19.13 ERA (17 earned runs in 8 innings) over his final 12 games.  The emergence (and dominance) of Hector Neris as an extremely effective late inning reliever means that he's probably one of the few pitchers guaranteed a spot in the team's 2017 bullpen.

Memory Lane - Chachi Leading Firemen Cards
2005 - Billy Wagner, 38
2006 - Tom Gordon, 34
2007 - Brett Myers, 21
2008 - Brad Lidge, 41
2009 - Brad Lidge, 31
2010 - Brad Lidge, 27
2011 - Ryan Madson, 32
2012 - Jonathan Papelbon, 38
2013 - Jonathan Papelbon, 29
2014 - Jonathan Papelbon, 39
2015 - Jonathan Papelbon, 17 (no card created)
2016 - Jeanmar Gomez, 37

2005 Chachi #59

2006 Chachi #68

2007 Chachi #66

2008 Chachi #62

2016 Chachi #70 Strikeout Leaders - Eickhoff, Hellickson, Velasquez

Vince Velasquez and Aaron Nola led the Phillies pitching staff in strikeouts for most of the season, but Jared Eickhoff and Jeremy Hellickson were able to pull ahead late in the season due to Nola's injury and the shut down of Velasquez.

Memory Lane - Chachi Strikeout Leaders Cards
2005 - Brett Myers, 208
2006 - Brett Myers, 189
2007 - Cole Hamels, 177
2008 - Cole Hamels, 196
2009 - Cole Hamels, 168
2010 - Roy Halladay, 219
2011 - Cliff Lee, 238
2012 - Cole Hamels, 216
2013 - Cliff Lee, 222
2014 - Cole Hamels, 198
2015 - Cole Hamels, 137 (no card created)
2016 - Jared Eickhoff, 167

2005 Chachi #58

2006 Chachi #67

2007 Chachi #65

2008 Chachi #60

2016 Chachi #69 Pitching Leaders - Hellickson, Eickhoff, Velasquez

The win is becoming an old school statistic, but it's still impressive to me that Jeremy Hellickson and Jared Eickhoff produced the highest win totals for the Phillies since Cliff Lee's 14 in 2013.  We're taking a step in the right direction here.

Memory Lane - Chachi Wins Leaders Cards
2005 - Jon Lieber, 17
2006 - Brett Myers, 12
2007 - Cole Hamels, 15
2008 - Jamie Moyer, 16
2009 - Joe Blanton, J.A. Happ and Jamie Moyer, 12
2010 - Roy Halladay, 21
2011 - Roy Halladay, 19
2012 - Cole Hamels, 17
2013 - Cliff Lee, 14
2014 - Kyle Kendrick, 10
2015 - Ken Giles, Cole Hamels, Aaron Harang and Aaron Nola, 6 (no card created)
2016 - Jeremy Hellickson, 12

2005 Chachi #56

2006 Chachi #65

2007 Chachi #63

2016 Chachi #68 ERA Leaders - Eickhoff & Hellickson

Only two Phillies pitchers threw the amount of requisite innings (162) to qualify this year for the team's ERA title.  Jared Eickhoff barely squeaked by Jeremy Hellickson with his 3.65 ERA to Hellickson's 3.71.

Memory Lane - Chachi ERA Leaders Cards
2005 - Brett Myers, 3.72
2006 - Brett Myers, 3.91
2007 - Cole Hamels, 3.39
2008 - Cole Hamels, 3.09
2009 - J.A. Happ, 2.93
2010 - Roy Halladay, 2.44
2011 - Roy Halladay, 2.35
2012 - Cole Hamels, 3.05
2013 - Cliff Lee, 2.87
2014 - Cole Hamels, 2.46
2015 - Aaron Harang, 4.86 (no card produced)
2016 - Jared Eickhoff, 3.65

The 2005 through 2008 Chachi ERA Leaders cards have never before been featured on this blog.

2005 Chachi #57

2006 Chachi #66

2007 Chachi #64

2008 Chachi #68

2016 Chachi #67 Home Run Leaders - Howard, Franco, Joseph

I toyed with the idea of just having Ryan Howard and Maikel Franco on this team home run leaders card, but I really wanted to also include Tommy Joseph.  Joseph's appearance on this card is made all the more impressive by the fact that he wasn't even on the team's list of non-roster invitees in spring training and he didn't get the call to the Majors until mid-May.

Howard has appeared on his share of Chachi Home Run Leaders cards throughout his career (see below), and this will mark his final appearance.  For those reasons, and because I really like the smiling picture of The Big Piece from his final spring training photo day, he got top billing on the card over Franco.

Memory Lane - Chachi Home Run Leaders Cards
2005 - Pat Burrell, 32
2006 - Ryan Howard, 58
2007 - Ryan Howard, 47
2008 - Ryan Howard, 48
2009 - Ryan Howard, 45
2010 - Ryan Howard, 31
2011 - Ryan Howard, 33
2012 - Jimmy Rollins, 23
2013 - Domonic Brown, 27
2014 - Marlon Byrd, 25
2015 - Ryan Howard, 23 (no card created)
2016 - Maikel Franco & Ryan Howard, 25

Clicking on the years above will take you to the post featuring prior home run leaders cards.  Only the 2005 Home Run Leaders card has never appeared on this blog . . . until now!

2005 Chachi #53

2016 Chachi #66 RBI Leaders - Franco, Galvis, Howard

Despite a late season surge from Freddy Galvis, Maikel Franco held on to lead the team in RBIs for the first time.

Memory Lane - Chachi RBI Leaders Cards
2005 - Pat Burrell, 117
2006 - Ryan Howard, 149
2007 - Ryan Howard, 136
2008 - Ryan Howard, 146
2009 - Ryan Howard, 141
2010 - Ryan Howard, 108
2011 - Ryan Howard, 116
2012 - Jimmy Rollins & Carlos Ruiz, 68
2013 - Domonic Brown, 83
2014 - Ryan Howard, 95
2015 - Ryan Howard, 77 (no card created)
2016 - Maikel Franco, 88

The only prior year Chachi RBI Team Leader card that I haven't posted to date is from the inaugural Chachi set, featuring Pat Burrell and Chase Utley.

2005 Chachi #54

2016 Chachi #65 Batting Leaders - Hernandez, Herrera, Franco

After a year's absence from the Chachi set, team leader cards have returned.  I skipped the process of creating team leader cards last season as I didn't feel like creating a brand new 1985 Topps based template for team leaders with poor to mediocre team leading statistics.  This year's performance was a little better (8 wins better to be exact) so I decided to forge ahead with some team leader cards.

I don't think anyone would have predicted that Cesar Hernandez would lead the team in hitting this season, and if not for the second half swoon of Odubel Herrera, Herrera would have won the title for the second year in a row.

Memory Lane - Chachi Batting Leaders Cards
2005 - Chase Utley, .291
2006 - Ryan Howard, .313
2007 - Chase Utley, .332
2008 - Shane Victorino, .293
2009 - Shane Victorino, .292
2010 - Placido Polanco, .298
2011 - Shane Victorino, .279
2012 - Jimmy Rollins, .250
2013 - Chase Utley, .284
2014 - Ben Revere, .306
2015 - Odubel Herrera, .297 (no card created)
2016 - Cesar Hernandez, .294

Here are the three Batting Leaders cards, from 2005, 2008 and 2010, that have not yet appeared on this blog until now.

2005 Chachi #52

2008 Chachi #55

2010 Chachi #53

Farewell Ryan Howard, So Long 2016 Phillies, Bring on 2017! #ChachiNow

2016 Chachi #64

Phillies 5, Mets 2
Game 162 - Sunday Afternoon, October 2nd in Philadelphia
Record - 71-91, 4th place, 24 games behind the Nationals

One Sentence Summary:  The Phillies won their season finale and bid an emotional farewell to Ryan Howard, the last man standing from their glory years.

What It Means:  I attended 16 Phillies games this season and finished the year with an impressive 8-8 record.  I'll take that . . . but I'd like to have a personal winning record next season.

What Happened:  Jared Eickhoff finished off his impressive season with six innings of one-run ball against the Mets.  Colton Murray earned his first career win and Hector Neris closed out the game for his second save.  Maikel Franco had a four-hit game, Aaron Altherr reached base three times and Cesar Hernandez had two hits to pad his team leading .294 average.

2016 Chachi Fan Appreciation Day #1

2016 Chachi Fan  Appreciation Day #2

2016 Chachi Fan  Appreciation Day #3

2016 Chachi Fan  Appreciation Day #4

2016 Chachi Fan  Appreciation Day #5

2016 Chachi Fan  Appreciation Day #6

2016 Chachi Fan  Appreciation Day #7

2016 Chachi Fan  Appreciation Day #8

Featured Cards/Field Report:  As has become tradition, we wanted to be there for the final game and I was very happy to have Jenna and our youngest son Ben along with Doug and me this year.  We parked our car and as we were walking to the ballpark several hours before gametime, I noticed that Phillies outfielder Roman Quinn (I thought) was walking in front of us.  I sent Doug as an advanced scout to check him out and Doug confirmed my initial suspicion.  Quinn was kind enough to pose with our kids right there on the sidewalk and provide a few autographs.

Inside the ballpark, Doug and I stationed ourselves at the first base entrance, confident that Phillies players would once again appear to welcome fans to the final game.  Jenna and Ben opted for one last climb within the Phillies Phun Zone.  We were rewarded for our patience when Luis Garcia and Neris appeared and both signed Doug's photo cards.

We then made the mad dash around the ballpark, stopping at each entrance gate so that Doug could add to his autograph collection.  Strangely enough, the Phillies employees stationed with Jake Thompson and Patrick Schuster indicated that neither pitcher was signing autographs but they'd be happy to pose for pictures.  (Ben had caught up to us by the time we met Schuster.)

Doug also posed for photos and/or received autographs from Tyler Goeddel, Michael Mariot and Phil Klein.

We stood and cheered during the pregame and postgame ceremonies honoring Howard and during each of his four at-bats.  It was a very touching and classy presentation, which has become the 30-year norm for the Phillies organization.

It was sad saying goodbye to Howard and the era he represented.  It was tough leaving the ballpark knowing that a long, cold winter looms.  But I'm hopeful for the future and I'm excited for what comes next.

Howard's card in Ashburn Alley, one last time

Howard's first at-bat

Top of the 9th

The boys and me

Memory Lane - Game 162
This was the eighth season in a row that I've posted on the daily highs and lows of the Philadelphia Phillies, which far exceeds my consecutive year streak of maintaining an annual Phillies scrap book when I was younger.  I'm looking forward to this daily habit in 2017 and I sincerely appreciate everyone who stopped by to read and comment throughout the season.

October 4, 2009 - Catcher Paul Hoover singled in the winning run in the 10th in a 7-6 win over the Marlins.
October 3, 2010 - The Phillies lost 8-7 to the Braves in their final tune-up before facing the Reds in the N.L.D.S.
September 28, 2011 - The Phillies closed out the 2011 regular season with a 13-inning victory against the Braves, setting a franchise record with their 102nd regular season win.
October 3, 2012 - The Phillies closed out their 2012 season with a lethargic 5-1 loss to the N.L. East Champion Nationals.
September 29, 2013 - Zach Miner got the ball for the Phillies and lasted 2 1/3 innings in a 12-5 loss to the Braves.
September 28, 2014 - Cole Hamels pitched another fine game and suffered through another outing with minimal run support.
October 4, 2015 - Phillies avoid 100 losses and Ichiro makes his pitching debut in a 7-2 victory.
October 2, 2016 - Phillies bid an emotional farewell to franchise icon Ryan Howard.

Want to revisit every game of the 2016 season?  My handy game summary index can be found here.

Poll Results - How Do You Track Your Collection?

2016 Chachi #72

A little over a month ago, in an effort to seek a viable alternative to Zistle, I asked the question how do you track your baseball card collection?  Only 15 readers/collectors voted, but the results are pretty much what I expected.

There's no denying that Zistle is a powerful card tracking tool, and I sincerely hope they straighten out their legal woes and get back on track.  The "winner" of the poll was the good, old fashioned spreadsheet which has become an increasingly attractive option to me.  With a spreadsheet, or any self-maintained database, the collector is in charge of the input, the data fields and the integrity of the data. With Zistle, I'm reliant on an administrator approving my suggested edits and as I've seen recently those edits could take months or be completely ignored altogether.

Not surprising to me, not one person responded that they use the Beckett database to track his/her collections. 

For the short-term, I'm going to stick with Zistle.  For the long-term, I'm going to start laying out a spreadsheet format with the goal of eventually migrating my collection tracking away from a third-party provider.  This is serious stuff.

Thanks to everyone who commented and voted in this little poll!