#102T Nelson Santovenia

IMPACT FACTOR 2/10: Santovenia was a below-average backup for several years with the Expos.

#94T Luis Rivera

IMPACT FACTOR 2/10: Rivera was a no-hit shortstop for Montreal who wasn't terribly great with his glove either. They did pick up Spike Owen in a trade for Rivera, and Owen did some good things with Montreal.

#9T Bret Barberie

IMPACT FACTOR 1/10: Barberie signed with the Expos, the forth team to draft him, and had two lackluster seasons with them in 1991 and 1992. So unimpressive was his performance that they left him unprotected in the expansion draft and he became the first starting 2B for the Florida Marlins. (I would have given him a larger impact factor, except that I am basing my scores on the impact the guy had for the team he first played for when these cards were issued.)

#765 Neal Heaton

Why this card is awesome: Because this is a great action shot of Heaton in mid-pitch. Check out how bent his wrist is.

Cool stat: Heaton's yet another guy that George Bell hit the most homers off of. Well, Jorge and Darrr-rrryl, both.

#748 Reid Nichols

Why this card is awesome: Because, hey, it's another Expos card at Shea. Boy oh boy. Also, he led the league with 156 hits in 1979, but had just a .293 BA? Interesting...

This was Nichols' last card.

Cool stat: Nichols hit one triple every year from 1980 to 1985. He was the only guy to do that.

#720 Tim Raines

Why this card is awesome: Because, boy oh boy, is Tim Raines underappreciated. Look at all the slanty text on the back of the card. This guy was an awesome ballplayer. This photo is another one of the Expos taken at Shea Stadium.

Raines' son played big-league ball too. His name was, uhh, Tim Raines. They both played for the Orioles in 2001.

Cool stat: Check out all the guys who have more CS than Raines but fewer SB. Raines was a better base stealer than everybody from #5 on down. And his career SB% (84%) is higher than Brock's (75%) and Henderson's (80%). Ty Cobb's career totals are inaccurate because CS were not recorded for many of the years he played. A pretty good argument can be made that Raines was the best base stealer of all time.

In his first year of eligibility, Raines did not make the HOF, but he had a strong showing and will probably make it. I, for one, am all in favor of that.

The first person to criticize Raines for the cocaine thing get banned from the blog. He admitted his mistakes publicly and took all necessary steps to correct them. He screwed up and took full responsibility, which is more than can be said for most people these days.

#674 Mike Fitzgerald

Why this card is awesome: Because I can't figure out which Expo that is in the background. It follows that it's the on-deck hitter, for starters, and it's clearly a white guy or fairly light-skinned Latino player. It looks like he's wearing #1, but the Expos didn't have a guy wearing #1 in 1987 or 1988. So then I looked at the lineups for the 1987 Expos. Interesting that early on, Fitzgerald batted 5th, but he slid later and later during the year until he was stuck in the 8-hole ahead of the pitcher. It's likely that this photo was taken earlier in 1987, though, and that means he batted mainly in front of Vance Law, who wore #2. Seems like that might be Law--there is perhaps a shade of eyeglasses on the guy, and otherwise the color and build is correct. Perhaps it's a pitcher, but those only pitchers with a #1 in their jersey are Floyd Youmans, who that clearly is not, and Randy St. Claire, who had only 6 AB in 1987 (and probably none of them came following Fitzgerald, although that's easy to check.)

Anybody else have any ideas?

This is also the final card in the trade mentioned on the back, having already posted the 4 other guys mentioned.

Cool stat: In 1986, Fitzgerald had one of the top seasons for a backup catcher. For catchers with no more than 250 PAs and an OPS+ over 120, he had one of the highest RBI totals.

#647 Pascual Perez

Why this card is awesome: Because, oh man, there are SO MANY stories about Pascual Perez. Again I'm going to invite readers to comment on some of them. Suffice it to say that this guy was one of the most colorful players to ever appear in the majors.

Anyway, this is another card that makes it sound like his brother was retired (just like Al Leiter's card) but in fact Melido was just getting started.

Cool stat: Pascual Perez pitched one of the few rain-shortened no-hitters we've seen since 1956. These games don't count as official no-hitters because the revised rules state that the game must go nine innings. Incidentally, brother Melido achieved the feat as well. Games 2 and 4 on that list are in fact no-hitters, but were 8 inning CGs because they were losses on the road.

#614 Herm Winningham

Why this card is awesome: Because of the reminder of the interesting trade on the back that sent Gary Carter to the Mets. I can't decide if it was a terrible trade for Montreal or not. Fitzgerald ended up as a decent backup catcher, and Brooks was a pretty good player who played most of the time. Winningham was fairly inconsequential, and Youmans was at time brilliant but never consistent. Still, Montreal had Carter for most of his best years, and the 4 guys they got back helped keep them competitive while they developed a great farm system.

I always thought that Herm's name sounded like he had just taken top prize in a county fair--with the Winning Ham, you know.

Cool stat: Back in 1990, Winningham had a 3-triple game. Such games are far rarer than 3-homer games. Since 1956, there have been just 13 games where a guy got 3 triples, whereas we've had 361 games where a guy got at least 3 homers.

#588 Jeff Parrett

Why this card is awesome: Because two straight years of making the Expos and then going back to the minors should have told you something about where Parrett's career was heading. The most notable thing he achieved was getting traded for Dale Murphy.

Cool stat: My comment immediately above is a bit harsh. Parrett did finish with a 104 ERA+, but he never had a single seasonal ERA+ between 90 and 114, except for his first full year in 1987 when he posted a 100 even. Every other year, he either sucked or kicked ass. You never knew what you were getting.

Unfortunately, I can't think of any way to look this up on the Play Index to demonstrate how odd it was. So check out his main page yourself.

But I promised a cool stat for every card, so how about Parrett's career performance against Dale Murphy?

#560 Tim Wallach

Why this card is awesome: Because, hey look, more Expos in the background! In the first half of the set, I mentioned that a lot, but we haven't seen it in a while. Of course, given that Timmy himself played for the Expos, it somehow seems less interesting...

Cool stat: Wallach's 1987 was weird, as that year was weird for many players. For players with at least 123 RBI in a season, Wallach makes the top 25 for worst OPS+ in that season.

#529 Tim Burke

Why this card is awesome: Because he led the league in games pitched in his rookie year. That's probably pretty rare, right?

Cool stat: In fact, only 6 guys since 1901 have appeared in at least 78 games in their first season. (Mind you, the Baseball-Reference.com Play Index doesn't discount cups of coffee, so some players might have appeared in a handful of games one year, and then a ton of games in their official rookie season the following year. They don't make this list.)

#504 Bob Rodgers

Why this card is awesome: Because it's funny for me to look at the back of this card and not see lots of young players who would become stars later. Starting right around 1988, the Expos became masterful and drafting and developing young talent. In 1989, for example, they got at-bats from Larry Walker and Marquis Grissom. In 1990 they added Delino DeSheilds and Moises Alou.

I also had no idea until writing this post that Rodgers previously managed the Brewers, including the beginning of the 1982 season, when they eventually went to the World Series.

Cool stat: Buck Rodgers wasn't a very good hitter in his playing days. In 1964, for example, he had one of the 10 worst OBP that season for a player with at least 500 AB.

It's interesting how, among managers in all sports who were former players, so few of them were great as players. I heard a theory that this is because great players, when they become managers, get frustrated at why their players cannot produce better, failing to recognize that most players are not as good as they once were. Supposedly, this is what killed Ted Williams as a manager. Throughout sports, there are many examples of star players becoming lousy coaches or managers: Williams, Larry Bird, and Isaiah Thomas come to mind. There are numerous examples of very good players who became good managers (Doc Rivers, Joe Torre, and Buddy Bell come to mind) but I can't think of a single star player who became a great manager.)

#488 Andy McGaffigan

Why this card is awesome: Because McGaffigan looks like he's on the verge of cracking up. After seeing this card, I always assumed that McGaffigan was a joker.

Cool stat: From 1981 to 1988, just 5 guys had fewer hits than IP every single year. It's an impressive list, and McGaffigan's on it.

#464 Jay Tibbs

Why this card is awesome: Because of holy sneaker tongues, Batman! Also this is the second player from the last 4 cards born in Alabama, the Wizard of Oz being the other.

Cool stat: In 1989, Tibbs went undefeated over 8 starts. Believe it or not, that makes the top 20 since 1901 for most starts in a season with no losses. (That doesn't include a few guys this year, such as Brandon Webb, who's undefeated at the moment.)

#431 Casey Candaele

Why this card is awesome: Because is it just me, or does Candaele look extremely bundled up here?

Candaele was an odd choice to be an All-Star Rookie. Yeah, he had a decent year in the minors in 1986, but didn't seem to be star material. I wonder why Topps chose him?

Cool stat: Candaele had two career 4-hit games.

#403 Tim Raines All-Star

Why this card is awesome: Because Raines hit .330 in 1987 but was buried 40 points behind Tony Gwynn. If not for Gwynn, Raines might have gotten the recognition he deserved.

Raines didn't do so well on the HOF ballot last year (his first year of eligibility) but he will make it in around 2013. Mark it down. He's one of my all-time favorite players.

#399 Tim Wallach

Why this card is awesome: Because this card is another nice demonstration of how stupid the game-winning RBI stat was. Andre Dawson, who famously won the 1987 NL MVP despite the Cubs being a last-place team, managed to tie for first place in GW RBI. This could happen only if Dawson had a simply incredible, probability-defying season, or if the stat was not really a very good measure of much anything. Dawson had a great year, no doubt, but I'm still going with the second explanation.

I also like the shot of Wallach wearing the batting helmet. It's a nice card for a somewhat underrated player.

#371 Joe Hesketh

Why this card is awesome: Because, this time Topps said, "Hey Joe--we like to try to get shadows on everybody's face. To make doubly sure in your case, let's put the sun behind you AND have you raise both your arms up in a totally fake-looking pitching pose." Actually, I do like the card, in part because of the very retro pose, and in part because I see at least 9 different green things on this card. (I count a green border, green team name, big green fence in the back, short green fence in the front, big green tree on the left, two smaller green trees in front of it, a much smaller green tree in front of those, and the edge of another green tree all the way on the right.)

Cool stat: Hesketh was a pretty good pitcher and I'm surprised he didn't have more success in his career. He had some very nice games, and in particular seemed to really like game scores of 77 or 75.

#365 Floyd Youmans

Why this card is awesome: Because that Expo in the background (probably Vance Law) doesn't look ready to play, considering he's not in a defensive stance nor is he looking toward the batter. Is there any chance that Youmans is actually warming up on a sideline mound here?

Cool stat: For pitchers with 500 to 600 IP in their careers (not including active pitchers, or else Joe Nathan would be first) Youmans is 4th in fewest hits allowed per 9 innings. Of course, he walked a lot of guys, as did most of the other leaders on this list (or else they would have pitched a lot more than 500-600 innings.)