#494 Kevin Young, Adell Davenport, Eduardo Perez, and Lou Lucca

It's about time to reboot this blog, now that time has marched on and we're a full quarter-century past the release of 1993 Topps. I'll try not to disappear for another two years and change this time.

About the Front: That is one stylish shirt that Adell Davenport is wearing.

About the Back: Eduardo Perez was, of course, born in Cincinnati while his father Tony Perez was in the prime of his Hall of Fame career with the Reds.

Triple Play:

1. Kevin Young spent 12 seasons with the Pirates and Royals, batting .258/.324/.438. His best performance came in 1999, when he batted .298/.387/.522 (128 OPS+) with 41 doubles, 26 HR, 106 RBI, and 22 steals in 32 tries.

2. Adell Davenport had just batted .288/.340/.510 in his first full season at AA Shreveport, with 19 homers and 88 RBI. His 14 games at AAA Phoenix in 1993 proved to be the former 18th-round pick's ceiling as a pro; he was out of baseball after a stint with the Sioux Falls Canaries of the independent Northern League in 1995.

3. Eduardo Perez had a 13-year MLB career with the Angels, Reds, Cardinals, Devil Rays, Indians, and Mariners. He batted .247/.326/.431 with 79 homers and 394 RBI. Since retiring, he's worked for ESPN as a Baseball Tonight analyst and broadcaster, and had brief coaching stays with the Marlins and Astros. He's had some success as a manager in the winter leagues, winning in Puerto Rico and Venezuela in consecutive seasons.

3a. A 32nd round draftee out of Oklahoma State University, Lou Lucca climbed steadily through the minor league ranks before stalling out at AAA. He spent six-plus seasons at that highest rung of the minors, batting .274/.318/.434 with 71 homers and 342 RBI. From 2002 through 2007, he made stops in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Italy, and a number of American independent circuits. In the winter of 1999-2000, Lou was one of the leading hitters of the Roberto Clemente League in Puerto Rico, topping all hitters with 10 homers, 37 RBI, 32 runs scored (tied with Felipe Crespo), and 15 doubles (tied with Alex Diaz).

11-Year-Old Kevin Says: For some reason, I thought Lou Lucca looked a lot like Luke Perry. In hindsight, not so much.

Bill James Said: Young: "The under-achiever of the year; he's a .280 hitter, but fell into a slump, put pressure on himself, and didn't start to hit until September." Kevin batted .236/.300/.342 in 1993, his worst performance in a full season.

Perez: "Should hit .250 or better with double-figure homers, still learning at third but could be OK." He pretty much pegged the homer total. Eduardo had four seasons of double-digit homers despite never being a full-timer, and spent the biggest chunk of his time in the field at first base.

On This Date in 1993: February 8. General Motors sues NBC for a misleading report that aired on Dateline NBC that claimed that GM's pickup trucks could easily catch fire in collisions. The TV network settled the lawsuit the next day.

#451 Ramon Caraballo, Jon Shave, Brent Gates, and Quinton McCracken

About the Front: Woah, Brent Gates was only in A-ball in 1992? The A's pushed him hard in 1993, as he spent most of the year in the big leagues.

About the Back: Let me try to fill in the blanks on these prospects, and at least give you their 1992 minor league stats. Caraballo batted .287/.338/.382 with 29 steals (in 51 tries, yuck) while splitting time between AA Greenville and AAA Richmond. Shave hit .287/.343/.373 at AA Tulsa. Gates had a line of .321/.414/.465 with 39 doubles and 88 RBI at high-A Modesto. And McCracken batted .280/.347/.353 in 67 games at low-A Bend, with 18 steals in 24 attempts.

Triple Play:

1. Aside from a six-game stint as a pinch runner and defensive replacement with the Braves in 1993, Ramon Caraballo's lone big league experience came in 1995, when he batted .202/.269/.323 in 34 games with the Cardinals. In recent years, he's coached for the Orioles' Dominican Summer League club.

2. Jon Shave had an interesting stat line for his 17-game introduction with the Rangers in 1993. He batted .319, but drew no walks and had a pair of sac flies and three bunts, giving him an on-base percentage of just .306. He didn't re-emerge in the majors until 1998, when he played 19 games in Minnesota. He returned to Texas in 1999, batting .288 in 43 games while playing all over the infield. He spent the following two years at AAA (Oklahoma City in 2000, Pawtucket in 2001) before retiring.

3. Gates is the star of this group, relatively speaking. He jumped to the bigs in 1993 after a dozen games each at AA and AAA. Though he played seven seasons in MLB, he peaked as a rookie, hitting .290/.357/.391 with 29 doubles, seven homers, and 69 RBI. He had an OPS+ of 107, but didn't top 89 in any other season with Oakland, Seattle, and Minnesota. He managed the West Michigan Whitecaps, a low-level affiliate of the Tigers, in 2001. After leaving baseball, he began working in insurance in Grand Rapids, MI.

3a. Quinton McCracken actually played in parts of 12 major league seasons, spanning from 1995 through 2006 with the Rockies, Devil Rays, Twins, Diamondbacks, Mariners, and Reds. He was just a Marlins stint short of representing every 1990s expansion team. 2002 was his standout year, as he batted .309/.367/.458 (107 OPS+) in 400 plate appearances with Arizona. He also collected four hits in 11 at-bats (.364) in the Diamondbacks' NLDS loss to the Cardinals that fall. Quinton worked in player development for Arizona in 2011-2012, and has been the Astros' Director of Player Development since 2013.

11-Year-Old Kevin Says: Of all of the prospects on these four-player cards, I'm glad that somebody named "Quinton McCracken" was on the fringes of the major leagues for more than a decade.

Bill James Said: Caraballo - "Mark Lemke is not exactly Roberto Alomar, but Caraballo's batting average wouldn't be a lot better than Lemke's, he has no power, and his poor strikeout/walk ratio and stolen base percentages are significant liabilities."

Shave - "An unspectacular talent, 26 years old with no power and limited speed, but a good fielder with good work habits, and should hit around .275."

Gates - "An argument can be made that a good second baseman who hits .290 with collateral contributions has had a better rookie season than an outfielder who hits 30 homers." It certainly sounds like Bill would've considered voting for Gates (who finished sixth in Rookie of the Year balloting) over Tim Salmon.

On This Date in 1993: July 13. MLB Players Association chief Donald Fehr warns of a possible player strike in September if negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement between ownership and players don't start gaining momentum. The 1993 season remained intact, but we wouldn't be so lucky in 1994.

#423 Ryan Klesko, Ivan Cruz, Bubba Smith, and Larry Sutton

About the Front: This is our first glimpse at the design for 1993's Top Prospects cards. In an interesting twist, Topps has selected one prospect per position from each minor league level, so you have some idea of how close the players are to the major leagues. They also chose to place these four player portraits over a background image of dirt, as a subtle way of telling you not to pin all of your hopes on unproven minor leaguers. Or maybe I'm reading too much into things.

About the Back: No minor league stats? Not even one line per player for 1992 or career numbers? That's weak sauce.

Triple Play:

1. Ryan Klesko was the only one of these four to have an appreciable big league career, batting .279/.370/.500 (128 OPS+) with 278 homers and 987 RBI in parts of 16 seasons with Atlanta, San Diego, and San Francisco. He was an All-Star with the 2001 Padres, as he bashed 34 doubles and 30 home runs, drove in a career-high 113 runs, and even stole 23 bases in 27 tries.

2. Ivan Cruz had cups of coffee with the Yankees (1997), Pirates (1999-2000), and Cardinals (2002), totaling 41 games. He was the first pro player ever interviewed by Night Owl, one of my favorite journalist/blogger types. In all, Ivan hit 281 home runs in professional baseball, which includes stints in Mexico and Japan.

3. Charles Lee "Bubba" Smith never reached MLB, but spent 16 years playing ball professionally. Some of his statistics from Mexican leagues are not available, but he clubbed at least 367 home runs, with a single-season high of 40 in 123 games for the Samsung Lions of the Korean Baseball Organization in 1999. 61 of his 117 hits that year went for extra bases.

3a. Larry Sutton's big league career spanned from 1997-2004, but 111 of his 252 total games played came in 1998 with the Royals. Overall he batted .236/.302/.346 (67 OPS+) with 12 home runs and 78 RBI. Like Smith, he had a successful stint in Korea, leading the KBO with 35 dingers in 119 for the Hyundai Unicorns (!) in 2005.

11-Year-Old Kevin Says: I absolutely didn't think that Ivan Cruz was within three years of the age of the other three men on this card. Maybe it was the mustache.

Bill James Said: Klesko - "A young, white Fred McGriff - a lefthanded power-hitting first baseman, capable of hitting 25-30 home runs in a season."

On This Date in 1993: May 11. Miguel Sano is born in San Pedro de Macoris, D. R. Despite missing all of 2014 with Tommy John surgery, the third base prospect for the Twins would still be listed as Baseball America's #13 overall minor league player entering the 2015 season.