Random Topps Card of the Day: 2004 Topps Traded and Rookies #T73 Greg Golson

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Saturday, November 03, 2012:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 2004 Topps Traded and Rookies #T73.
• Player Name, position, team: Greg Golson, outfielder, Philadelphia Phillies.
• Major League Debut: September 03, 2008.
• Last Line of Statistics: 2004 stats (John Connally HS, Austin, TX): N/A G, 78 AB, 32 R, 38 H, 9 WB, 3 EB, 4 HR, 26 RBI, 20 SB, N/A BB, N/A SO, N/A SLG, N/A OPS, .487 AVG.
• Any special information about player: Drafted by the Phillies, #1st, June 2004. Bats: right. Throws: right.
• Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 3. This is his first Topps card.
• Blurb on the back: "A blur on the basepaths, Greg runs the 40-yard dash in a dizzying 4.29 seconds.  "If he gets on first, he'll end up on third," said Brenham High School coach Jim Long.  "That's how fast he is." In 2003 for John Connally High in Texas, Golson batted .507 with 18 steals in 18 tries.  As a USA Today First Team All-American in '04, he ripped .519 while swiping 13 in 13 tries.  He went 21st in the '04 draft."
• Commentary: The 2004 Topps set.  What more can I say about it?  It is the first set since 1997 to feature all white borders again.  Easy to sort by team name because of the large gold foil lettering at top.  And what about that silhouette at the lower left corner of every card?  Love it.  Love it.  Love it.  A future subject of "What Card is This?" Greg Golson, thanks to his being selected in the 1st round in the 2004 MLB draft, found his way onto Topps' final "Traded and Rookies" set.  I understand the Rookie Card deal with MLB, but it's cards like this that I personally miss seeing in the eponymous Topps set.  Even if they have to make an insert set out of it, and yes, I'm pretty sure every prospector out there would either horde or jack up the prices on singles, but they should at least, in some way, include those who were selected in that year's draft just so that there is some semblance of a complete retrospective of that year's MLB season.  Anyway, Golson was a speed demon in high school as you can tell by his stats and the praise heaped on him by rival HS coaches.  His minor league stats show that as well, considering he's stolen 192 bases in nine minor league seasons.  But he's only seen limited duty in the majors, appearing in only 40 games total in four years, for three different teams (Phillies, the Rangers, and the Yankees).  In 2012, he found himself at the Spring Training facility of the Royals only to have his contract purchased by the White Sox before the end of March.  He spent all of 2012 in the Sox' AAA affiliate in Charlotte.  He is 27 years-old heading into next season, and with the possible overhaul of the White Sox' roster, look for Golson to compete for a spot to stay in the majors in 2013.
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.20-$0.50.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 5.

Tomorrow is Retro Sunday, the one day of the week that we feature a card from 1951-1975. The card we will feature tomorrow is: 1954 Topps #172. Come back at 1:00 PM CST to see who (or what) it is.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama