Series Preview - Red Sox at Phillies: September 8th

2020 Chachi Fan Favorites #25

2020 Chachi 1991 Topps Missing Links #9

Double Header Tuesday 4:05
Citizens Bank Park - Philadelphia, PA

At the Ballpark:  This was originally a two-game series scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, but with the Marlins series now at seven games (in five days) these games will be played as a double header to give the Phillies an off day on Wednesday.

Also, Brandon Workman is the current saves leader for the Phillies and he's tied for the Red Sox team lead in that category too.  Have two teams with the same pitcher as their saves leader ever faced off in a series?  In September?

Red Sox 14-28
5th Place in the A.L. East, 14 games behind the Rays

Red Sox Probables
Martin Perez (2-4, 4.07)
TBD

Red Sox Leaders
Average:  Alex Verdugo - .311
Runs:  Alex Verdugo - 27
Home Runs:  Xander Bogaerts - 10
RBIs:  Xander Bogaerts - 26
Stolen Bases:  Xander Bogaerts and Alex Verdugo - 3

Wins:  Three tied with - 2
ERA:  Martin Perez - 4.07

Strikeouts:  Nathan Eovaldi - 33
Saves:  Matt Barnes and Brandon Workman - 4

Phillies 20-17
2nd Place in the N.L. East, 2 games behind the Braves

Phillies Probables
Zach Eflin (2-1, 4.45)
Vince Velasquez (0-0, 6.60)

Phillies Leaders
Average:  Bryce Harper - .272
Runs:  Rhys Hoskins - 30
Home Runs:  J.T. Realmuto - 10
RBIs:  J.T. Realmuto - 27
Stolen Bases:  Roman Quinn - 8

Wins:  Aaron Nola and Zack Wheeler - 4
ERA:  Zack Wheeler - 2.47

Strikeouts:  Aaron Nola - 67
Saves:  Brandon Workman - 5

1991 Phillies - The Missing Link

1991 ProCards #2547, 1992 Score #867, 1992 Topps Debut #110 and 1991 Upper Deck #483

This post will get me up to speed, at least for the 1990s, in my analysis of Phillies players with very few or no Phillies baseball cards at all.  I'll continue this series of posts through at least 1999, and then I may go back in time and re-visit the forgotten Phillies, or at least the woefully unrepresented on cardboard Phillies, from the 1980s.

Here's a quick summary of those unfortunate few players with no Phillies baseball cards to their names:

1990 Phillies - Louie Meadows
1992 Phillies - Darrin Chapin and Mickey Weston
1993 Phillies - None

43 different players appeared with the 1991 Phillies at some point during the season.

3 Cards or More
40 Players

Rick Schu gets credit here using the Dickie Noles rule that I instituted with my review of the 1990 team.  Schu has no Phillies cards from his second stint with the Phils, but he appeared on plenty of cards during his initial term from 1984 to 1987.  Schu made it into 17 games with the 1991 Phillies, which would be his final big league action until appearing in one game with the 1996 Montreal Expos.

2 Cards
Amalio Carreno (3 games in 1991) - 1992 Score #867 and 1992 Topps Debut #27
Doug Lindsey (1 game in 1991, 2 games in 1993) - 1992 Topps Debut #110 and 1993 Stadium Club Phillies #10

Lindsey makes an appearance on the 1993 list with the same two cards.

0 Cards
Dave LaPoint (2 games in 1991)

This was the end of the road for the 12-year veteran as LaPoint pitched horribly in his two starts with the Phillies (5 innings, 6 walks, 10 hits, 16.20 ERA), earning a quick release.  The Phils signed LaPoint on April 7th and he was with the organization for a little over two weeks before his release on April 23rd.  Given his very short time with the club, it's easy to see why he never made it onto a Phillies baseball card.

As a bonus feature with today's post, here's my scrapbook page from LaPoint's Phillies debut, which features the wonderful headline, "A disa-LaPointing debut with Phils."  And yes, I used to re-do the boxscores on my Commodore 128 for purposes of my scrapbook.  (Click to enlarge.)

1993 Phillies - No Missing Links

1993 Ultra #437, 1994 Pacific #481, 1994 Stadium Club Phillies #236 and 1993 Stadium Club Phillies #10

It was fun going through the 1992 Phillies roster and determining which players appeared on only a few (or no) Phillies cards, so I thought I'd do the same thing for the the 1993 club.  Amazingly enough, each of the 40 players who spent time with the team in 1993 eventually found their way on to a Phillies baseball card.  Unlike 1992, there wasn't much roster turn-over, so while it's impressive that the players listed below received a Phillies baseball card, it's not completely inconceivable.  I may continue this exercise for a few more years, but I would suspect the coverage ratio of Phillies players to players receiving Phillies baseball cards will drop significantly in the mid to late '90s.

3 Cards or More
33 Players

2 Cards
Mark Davis (11 games in 1980 and 1981, 25 games in 1993) - 1982 Topps #231 and 1993 Ultra #437
Jeff Manto (8 games in 1993) - 1993 Medford Phillies Update #30 and 1994 Pacific #481

Kevin Foster (2 games in 1993) - 1994 Stadium Club Phillies #236 and 1994 Topps #786

Doug Lindsey (1 game in 1991, 2 games in 1993) - 1992 Topps Debut #110 and 1993 Stadium Club Phillies #10

1 Card
**Bobby Thigpen (17 games in 1993) - 1994 Donruss #273
Donn Pall (8 games in 1993) - 1994 Topps #328
Paul Fletcher (1 game in 1993, 10 games in 1995) - 1993 Bowman #272

1994 Donruss #273, 1994 Topps #328 and 1993 Bowman #272

**I now know that Thigpen also has an elusive card in the 1993 Medford Phillies Second Update set. Please see this post for further details.