2002 Upper Deck, Bob Malek

#46 Bob Malek

Here is the "Futuer Gem" that I referenced yesterday and it was sent to me by Paul, of Paul's Random Stuff.

Bob was a first team All-American at Michigan State. He was drafted by the Mets in the fourth round of the 2002 draft and he signed quickly enough to get into 28 Brooklyn Cyclones games that year. He moved up to their Sally League team the next season and even got promoted to the Florida State League before the halfway point in the season. Amazingly, his average rose after each promotion.

He spent most of his third season in the FSL, but he did get into 14 AA games. The following season was spent entirely with the AA team and he hit .277 with 37 RBI and 4 home runs in 116 games. At some point during that season or sometime during the next season, Bob must have hurt himself.

The reason why I say that is because Bob did something in 2006 that doesn't happen too often. That season, Bob played in at least two games with almost every minor league team the the Mets have. He played two games with the GCL Mets, three with Brooklyn (low-A), six with St. Lucie (high-A), sixty-three with Binghamton (AA), and eighteen with Norfolk (AAA). Since I have started this blog, that is first time that I have noticed that. Granted, I don't look at too many minor league stats for the average Major Leaguer, but I still thought that that season looked interesting.

After that whirlwind season through the Mets system, Bob played in six FSL games the next year before his apparent release. He then found himself playing for the Bridgeport Bluefish of the Atlantic League for the majority of the season. After that, he was picked up by the Dodgers and he played in 28 AA games before getting released. That was in 2008 and that appears to be the last season that he played.

Bob has a neat looking signature. If you look at his Bowman card that is used on the Baseball Cube page that is linked at the top, you can see that his signature changed a bunch after going pro.

This is the last '02 UD card that I have for here and I must say that this is a good looking set, although based on a small sample size. After the last few years of UD, this close-up shot almost looks out of place.