Sunday, December 20, 2009

1998 Bowman Chrome, Jeff Wallace



#106 Jeff Wallace

The final 1998 Bowman card is from the Collective Troll. This one is of former reliever Jeff Wallace, who spent three seasons with the Bucs and one with the Devil Rays. In 137 innings of work, Jeff was 3-3 with a 4.20 ERA.

It looks like the Pirates mainly used him as a left-handed specialist. He appeared in 90 games with them and pitched 86.2 innings. In his one season with Tampa Bay, he made 29 appearances (one was a start) and pitched in 50.1 innings. His ERA that season was 3.40. That was the lowest of his career since his brief 11 appearance rookie year. It seems strange that a season like that would be the last time he pitched in the Majors.

The Red Sox claimed Jeff off of waivers after that season and he pitched in 24 games the following minor league season. He appears to have hung them up after that.

Interestingly, Jeff was originally drafted by the Royals. He was sent to the Pirates in the deal that brought Jay Bell and Jeff King to Kansas City.

1 comment:

Play at the Plate said...

Not a terrible sig. It least is has some character to it. That Troll is generous isn't he?