2010, 2011 & 2012 Topps Carl Pavano

While combing through some cards looking for league leaders, I came across this interesting trio of Carl Pavano cards.

 

The first time Pavano led the league was in 2009. He spent most of the season with Cleveland before being traded to Minnesota in August. He gave up a combined 113 Earned Runs to lead the American League, narrowly edging out Baltimore pitcher Mark Guthrie's 112. Braden Looper of St. Louis led the National League and tied Pavano for the Major League lead with 113.

 

Fast forward to 2010, a full season with a better team. Now all of a sudden, Pavano falls out of the top 10 for Earned Runs and manages to tie Cliff Lee for the league lead with 7 Complete Games. You don't throw 7 complete games by giving up a ton of runs so naturally, he tied for the league lead in Shutouts as well. He and Oakland pitcher Dallas Braden each threw 2 shutouts.

 

Fast forward another year, and Pavano seems to have fallen a little. This time, he's back in the top 10 for Earned Runs at #5 after breaking 100 again. However, now he's leading the league in Hits with 262, thirty two more than the second place finisher CC Sabathia and eighteen more than National League leader Ricky Nolasco.

 

Pavano missed most of 2012 with a strained shoulder and is currently a free agent. So if he finds a team to sign him and somehow gets a 2013 Topps card, it won't show him leading the league in anything from the most recent season.

 

 

2010 Topps Miguel Tejada

I was away from baseball for most of Miguel Tejada's career so my first reaction to the back of this card was "Wow! I didn't know he was such an iron man in the games played department."

 

Six straight seasons playing in all of his teams games, while tying for the league lead in five of those seasons. How did he play all 162 games in 2003 and not even tie for the league lead? Some knucklehead on the Yankees (Hideki Matsui) played in 163 games that year. Here's an article that explains how that happened because it didn't involve a one game playoff like I thought. 

 

Tejada has the fifth longest games played streak with 1,152 consecutive games. It ended after he broke his wrist being hit by a pitch but not before he had one more at bat the next day. I don't follow the Orioles despite living just outside of DC on the Virginia side but I vaguely remember him being hurt. That's probably why I didn't associate him with such a long streak.

 

 

But the real point of this blog is to focus on his most current category where he led the league. As you can see by the card, Tejada led the National League in doubles in 2009 with 46. This was 4 behind his other league leading season of 50 back in 2005 with the Orioles and 10 behind the Major League leading 56 doubles by his former Orioles teammate Brian Roberts. Tejada finished in the top 10 in doubles two other times in his career and was consistently above thirty except for his first two (partial) seasons and an injury shortened season.

 

After his league leading season with the Astros in 2009, Tejada re-signed with the Orioles as a free agent for the start of the 2010 season. He was later traded to the Padres midseason, just in time for this photo to be taken for the Update series. (I doublechecked, this is a Getty photo, not a photoshop job.)