The Underrated Baseball Rookie Card List

by Joeyd011 - 286 cards (Last updated on Feb 6, 2020)



71. 1964 Topps #38 Jim Wynn


Jim Wynn - 1,665 Hits, 285 Doubles, 225 SB's, 291 HR's, 964 RBI's, .250 Career Hitter, 3 Time All-Star.


72. 1964 Topps #128 Mickey Lolich


Mickey Lolich - 1968 WS MVP, 217 Wins, 2,832 SO's, 3.44 Career ERA, 3 Time All-Star, 1 WS Ring.


73. 1964 Topps #267 Wilbur Wood


Wilbur Wood - 164 Wins, 1,411 SO's, 3.24 Career ERA, 3 Time All-Star.

Wilbur has 4 consecutive seasons with 20 or more wins. During each of those seasons, he pitched well over 300 innings per season. That is completely unheard of by today's standards.


74. 1965 Topps #526 Athletics 1965 Rookie Stars (Rene Lachemann / Johnny Odom / Skip Lockwood / Jim Hunter)


Jim Hunter - HOF Career, 1974 CY Young Award, and AL Pitching Title, 224 Wins, 500 Games Pitched, 181 Complete Games, 2,012 SO's, 5 20+ Game Winning Seasons, 3.26 Career ERA, 8 Time All-Star, 5 WS Rings, 3 with Oakland, 2 with the New York Yankees.

Catfish had a HOF Career that speaks for itself, but this card can be found rather cheap. Great looking card for any collection.


75. 1965 Topps #477 Cards 1965 Rookie Stars (Fritz Ackley / Steve Carlton)


Steve Carlton - HOF Career, Multiple Pitching Titles, 4 CY Young Awards, 329 Wins, 709 Career Starts, 6th All-Time, 5,217.7 Innings Pitched, 9th All-Time, 4,136 SO's, 4th All-Time, 3.22 Career ERA, 1 Gold Glove, 10 Time All-Star, 2 WS Rings.

Steve is obviously one of the greatest pitchers of all time. He played for 24 years, and dominated batters in most of those years. He had six 20 game winning seasons.

This '65 card can be found rather cheaply, especially when considering how great of a pitcher he was.

Carlton was a misunderstood personality, who did not care for the media, and the media ripped him up every chance they got, often baiting him into saying something off the wall with their obnoxious tactics.

Due to this misunderstood representation, many fans perception of Carlton seems to be a little swayed. To me, baseball is ultimately about baseball, not a popularity contest, and Steve was one of the greatest to ever pitch.


76. 1965 Topps #461 Braves 1965 Rookie Stars (Clay Carroll / Phil Niekro)


Phil Niekro - HOF Career, 1967 NL Pitching Title, 318 Wins, 3,342 SO's, 3.35 Career ERA, 3 20 Game Winning Seasons, 5 Gold Gloves, 5 Time All-Star.

If you're a fan of the knuckle ball, then this Phil Niekro rookie card is a great card to have in your collection.

Phil also holds the current record of 121 wins for a pitcher over 40 years of age.


77. 1965 Topps #473 Orioles 1965 Rookie Stars (Paul Blair / Dave Johnson)


Paul Blair - 1,513 Hits, 282 Doubles, 134 HR's, 620 RBI's, 171 SB's, 8 Gold Gloves at Center Field, .250 Career Hitter, 2 Time All-Star, 3 WS Rings.

Davey Johnson - 1,252 Hits, 242 Doubles, 136 HR's, 609 RBI's, .261 Career Hitter, 3 Gold Gloves at Second Base, 4 Time All-Star, 2-Time Manager of the Year Award, 2 WS Rings.

I was watching a 90's era Atlanta Braves playoff game recently on YouTube, and former player Ken Singleton (who is also on this list) was doing the play by play, when he mentioned Paul Blair. Blair played before my time, but Singleton compared Andruw Jones's stellar defense in center to Paul Blair from back in the day. After hearing that, I knew he had to be good. So when I looked up his stats, I found that he was an 8-Time Gold Glove winner in Center, and is totally a rookie card worth obtaining.

Dave "Davey" Johnson was also a notable player, with some solid offensive production. In 1973, Johnson hit 43 Home-Runs. He also acquired three Gold Gloves as a second baseman in his career, and has two WS rings while playing with the Baltimore Orioles. Johnson was also a successful MLB manager.


78. 1965 Topps #266 Bert Campaneris


Bert Campaneris - 2,249 Hits, 313 Doubles, 79 HR's, 646 RBI's, 649 SB's, 14th All-Time, 2,097 Games Played at Shortstop, 13th All-Time, 6 Time All-Star, 3 WS Rings.


79. 1965 Topps #145 Luis Tiant


Luis Tiant - 1968 AL Pitching Title, 1972 AL Pitching Title, 229 Wins, 2,416 SO's, 49 Shutouts, 3.30 Career ERA, 3 Time All-Star.


80. 1965 Topps #550 Mel Stottlemyre


Mel Stottlemyre - 164 Wins, 1,257 SO's, 2.97 Career ERA, 3 20 Game Winning Seasons, 5 Time All-Star, Career New York Yankees.

Page:

Comments

Sep 1, 2018 - 7:55PM
Vvvergeer

I swear I've commented on this excellent list in the past. Perhaps I'm confusing it with another. Anyway...outstanding work. I love a lot of your choices -- not sure how "underrated" the cards or players are in some cases, but great list, nonetheless. 

v3

Sep 1, 2018 - 9:27PM
Joeyd011

Thanks Vvvergeer.  Yes, you have definitely commented and made suggestions to this list in the past.  I believe Rick Reuschel was one of them.  Over the years I have made additions, used suggestions, and revamped the list overall.  Part of the revamp work was cleaning up the statistical information, and doing some updating regarding the many little fun facts and/or thoughts on certain players.  It has been a while since I've updated the list with new additions, and the previous comments made were from a few years ago (time flies)....so, I decided to continue with a fresh comment section.  Thanks again for revisiting the list.

Joe

Dec 14, 2018 - 8:50PM
switzr1

Cool list Joey. I want to go after some of these cards, especially some from the 70s. I would point out that Bernie Williams was ALCS MVP, not AL MVP, in 1996.

Dec 15, 2018 - 1:59PM
Joeyd011

Thanks for revisiting this list Switzr1.  I corrected the Bernie Williams error, and will be adding more cards soon.

Dec 29, 2018 - 5:08AM
Alomar_Collector

How can you leave out the '88 Score Rookie/Traded & '88 Score Rookie/Traded Glossy of Roberto Alomar? They both sell for peanuts considering the print run. Best overall 2nd baseman of all time (offense and defense). Most Gold Gloves of any 2nd baseman in history. Would have reached 3,000 hits if he'd have had better seasons offensively during his 2 years in New York. But he faded fast after 2003. His mind was no longer in the game and he was ready to move on.

Feb 7, 2020 - 8:17AM
DarkSide830

That Young one is certainly interesting. Say, is Willians Astudillo eligible for this list yet, or too early in his career?

Feb 12, 2020 - 3:50PM
Joeyd011

DarkSide830, thanks for checking out this list.  This particular list consists primarily of retired players, or players near the tail end of their career.  An active player 'underrated rookie card' list is something that I have thought about doing, but haven't quite got around to it.  It's a great idea that would definitely generate a whole lot of opinions, and constantly evolve I'm sure.  But if you have any recommendations for this list that you can think of, I'd be glad to see what they are.

Joe  



Leave a Comment

Log in or register to continue.



Create a List

You can create your own lists under Lists.

Your Collection

You have 0 of these cards in your collection.

Disclaimer

This list was created by site member Joeyd011. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the Trading Card Database.

  

Copyright © 2024 Trading Card Database LLC
Designated trademarks and brands are the property of their respective owners.