#713 Brian Tollberg
Here is a Padrograph of Brian Tollberg. Brian has done something that very few players have done. He went undrafted and started his career in an independent league and made it to the Major Leagues. While most people think of the indy leagues as a place for players that couldn't hack it in affiliated ball, many players do begin their pro careers in them. However, most of them aren't able to climb all the way to the top like Brian did.
Brian played college ball at North Florida. He didn't get drafted, but he was able to earn a spot on the Chillicothe Paints in the Frontier League. He went 7-4 there and was signed by the Brewers the following season. He advanced up to AA with them before being traded to the Padres. After four seasons with the Padre organization, he finally made his Major League debut in 2000. He spent all or parts of four seasons with the Padres and he finished his Major League career with a 15-16 record and a 4.48 ERA.
After his stint in San Diego, Brian spent a couple of seasons in AAA and the Atlantic League. 2008 was his final season playing and he finished his career the same way he started it- in an independent league.
This card must be the most commonly available card of Brian Tollberg. It is the only one that I think I have and it is the card that Baseball Almanac and The Baseball Cube use on their Tollberg pages.
3 comments:
I think I ran into more 2000 Bowman cards of him, but it's not like Tollberg has very many different cards -- less than 3 dozen including minor league team issues.
It's always nice to hear about the guys that are able to make it from the Indy leagues all the way to the top. I had never heard of Tollberg so thanks for the nice story Zach.
No problem, Ryan. It's always fun researching these guys; you never know what you are going to find.
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