One thing I'm enjoying about the Great Sort is finding cards I either didn't know I had, or finding players I forgot played for a certain team..
Obviously most of my focus is Jays and Expos. But I forgot Greg Vaughn played for the Devil Rays. I forgot Kent Bottenfield was an Angel..
But of course, this one deals with cards of Expos players..
Ben Washburn.
One of the things I like about this era of cards is seeing guys who either never made it, or if they did, were so forgettable you have to look them up every time you come across the card...
Ben never made it to the Majors. He was done by 24. According to some information I found he had an arm injury.
Brandon Phillips
Obviously, Phillips is better known as a member of the Reds.. But how did he get from Montreal to Cincinnati?
In 2002, he was traded with Cliff Lee, Lee Stevens, and Grady Sizemore to Cleveland for Tim Drew and Bartolo Colon.
In 2006 he was traded to Cincinnati for Jeff Stevens.
Now, we all know that had the Expos been able to keep Lee, Phillips, and Sizemore, they would have been gone as soon as they got expensive.. They were traded as part of the playoff push for the Expos in 2002..
Donnie Bridges
He also never made the Majors. He spent the majority of his time in the Expos system, with a couple seasons in Florida and one with Washington
Grady Sizemore.
I mentioned above in the Brandon Phillips writeup that he was part of the Colon Trade.
Josh Girdley
Another player who didn't get out of the minors.. And another player whose career was cut short by injury. He's currently an instructor at a baseball academy.
Luke Lockwood
He also never made the Majors.
He played from 1999-2007
Milton Bradley
Bradley was drafted by the Expos in 1996. He actually played part of 2000 and 2001 in Montreal.
2001 he was traded to Cleveland for Zach Day.
Now, obviously we all know his anger management issues.. Doing to research, it's still affecting him post career..
I may do a few more of these as I find cards of players.. We are getting into the 40-man and Topps Total era....
The early 2000's are pretty much my dead zone when it comes to baseball knowledge. I took a break from collecting from 2001 to 2007 and it impacted what I remember about sports. I continued to watch sports, but opening packs and looking at cards definitely brings me closer to the game. I discovered I know a lot less about baseball, basketball, football, and hockey from that era than I did when I collected.
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