- Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 2002 Topps Traded and Rookies #T242.
- Player Name, position, team: Garrett Guzman, outfielder, Minnesota Twins.
- Major League Debut: n/a.
- Last Line of Statistics: 2001 stats (GCL Twins): 39 G, 138 AB, 22 R, 49 H, 14 2B, 5 3B, 2 HR, 22 RBI, 4 SB, .572 SLG, 9 BB, 16 SO, .355 AVG.
- Any special information about player: Drafted by the Twins #10th, June 2001. Bats: left, Throws: left.
- Any special information about this specific card: Guzman's first (and so far only) regular Topps card. If there was ever a case FOR the Rookie Card rules mandated by the MLBPA, this would be one of them. In the battle to get the most rookies onto the regular cards, prospects like Garrett Guzman found their way onto the Traded and Rookies sets that came out at the end of the year. If Topps had followed the 2006 guidelines back in 2002, Garrett Guzman would have been included in the Bowman Prospects insert set instead of the Topps Traded set. Guzman has yet to make it to the major leagues, and is now a journeyman minor leaguer. A car accident almost ended his career in 2005, and off the field issues aside (I know what they are, and you might know what they are, but this is a family blog, so please don't post anything about it in the comments, got it??!) are among the number of obstacles that has taken him off the road to the majors. In 2009, he was last seen playing for Camden Riversharks of the independent Atlantic League. And there is no sign of him anywhere in the 2010 MLB or MiLB rosters.
- Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.15-$0.40.
- How many cards of this player do I own?: 1 card.
Sincerely,
JayBee Anama
There's actually dozens of cases FOR the rules they finally adopted regarding rookies. Topps ruined a lot of their Major League sets back then by including these bozos and never-would-be's wearing the hats and warmup jerseys of teams they would never be good enough to play for. I kept wondering when they would start putting 7th and 8th graders on the cards in the misguided and silly effort to be THE FIRST, but the new rules came in just in time to save the day.
ReplyDeleteAnother in a long line of bad changes Topps made in order to keep up with the 'competition'.