Card of the Week: 2002 Flair #89 Curt Schilling

Posted by Andy on April 17, 2010

Flair was the high-end version of Fleer. When Fleer started producing these cards in the mid 1990s, they were awesome. They were printed on high-quality glossy stock, included foil stamping, and utilized unorthodox colors and designs. By today's standards these cards don't look like anything special. And even by the time the 2002 set came out, they were nothing special. But in the mid 1990s, Flair cards were something special. They weren't mass-produced and were much higher quality than the average cards on the market, including Fleer's main release.

Regarding the design, I especially like the including of the uniform number so prominently on the front, as well as the use of dual photos on one side. Among the negatives are duplication of one photo on the front and back, needless use of multiple wacky fonts, and a fairly sparse back with no commentary and a limited set of stats.

Here are the most starts in a season in the 2000s (defined here as 2000-2009) where the starter threw at least 70% strikes.

Rk	Player	Year	#Matching		W	L	W-L%	ERA	GS	CG	SHO	SV	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	SO	WHIP
1	Curt Schilling	2002	22	Ind. Games	15	5	.750	3.31	22	2	0	0	160.1	146	59	18	12	188	0.99

2	Brad Radke	2005	20	Ind. Games	7	9	.438	4.01	20	3	1	0	134.2	147	60	22	8	83	1.15

3	David Wells	2003	18	Ind. Games	11	3	.786	3.26	18	2	1	0	129.2	140	47	15	7	61	1.13
4	Carlos Silva	2005	18	Ind. Games	6	5	.545	3.46	18	2	0	0	125.0	139	48	16	3	48	1.14
5	Curt Schilling	2001	18	Ind. Games	14	1	.933	3.20	18	5	1	0	137.2	138	49	25	15	148	1.11
6	Johan Santana	2005	18	Ind. Games	10	1	.909	1.88	18	3	2	0	134.1	96	28	12	18	149	0.85

7	Jon Lieber	2004	16	Ind. Games	10	4	.714	4.75	16	0	0	0	102.1	131	54	11	5	67	1.33

8	David Wells	2000	15	Ind. Games	12	1	.923	2.97	15	7	1	0	112.0	114	37	8	8	83	1.09
9	Curt Schilling	2004	15	Ind. Games	11	2	.846	2.44	15	3	0	0	114.1	90	31	7	8	99	0.86
10	Johan Santana	2006	15	Ind. Games	10	2	.833	2.45	15	0	0	0	110.1	80	30	13	12	127	0.83
11	Greg Maddux	2007	15	Ind. Games	6	4	.600	3.55	15	1	0	0	91.1	101	36	3	2	58	1.13
12	Paul Byrd	2007	15	Ind. Games	7	5	.583	4.56	15	1	1	0	96.2	127	49	14	7	45	1.39
13	Paul Byrd	2006	15	Ind. Games	6	3	.667	4.53	15	1	0	0	89.1	110	45	14	7	46	1.31

14	David Wells	2004	14	Ind. Games	6	3	.667	2.95	14	0	0	0	94.2	87	31	7	7	53	0.99
15	David Wells	2005	14	Ind. Games	6	2	.750	3.84	14	2	0	0	96.0	106	41	13	3	54	1.14
16	Rick Reed	2001	14	Ind. Games	7	4	.636	2.56	14	2	0	0	102.0	88	29	5	7	65	0.93
17	Brad Radke	2001	14	Ind. Games	9	1	.900	3.08	14	4	1	0	105.1	95	36	14	6	66	0.96
18	Pedro Martinez	2005	14	Ind. Games	7	4	.636	2.07	14	3	0	0	100.0	70	23	6	9	102	0.79
19	Cliff Lee	2008	14	Ind. Games	11	1	.917	2.22	14	3	2	0	105.1	102	26	6	10	74	1.06
20	Paul Byrd	2002	14	Ind. Games	8	5	.615	2.78	14	6	1	0	103.2	92	32	14	4	57	0.93

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 4/14/2010.

We see some of the usual suspects among guys who didn't walk very many batters--David Wells, Paul Byrd, Greg Maddux, Brad Radke, and Schilling. This list is a follow-on to an earlier post I made about Roy Halladay where I noted his high strike percentage but some readers pointed out that this doesn't necessarily mean the game was so great.

This is evident when you scan the list above. There are no bad pitchers on there but some of the sets of games, such as Jon Lieber's 2004 performance, are not particularly special. Note too that for all of 2002, Schilling had a 3.23 ERA, meaning that games in which he threw fewer strikes than 70% he had a lower ERA than in the 22 games above when he had a 3.31 ERA.

What does it mean? Well it means the same as a lot of other statistics. Strike percentage is a fairly good indicator of the quality of the game but alone doesn't mean all that much.

6 Responses to “Card of the Week: 2002 Flair #89 Curt Schilling”

Johnny Twisto Says:
April 17th, 2010 at 11:14 am
Notice the multiple Twins on the list. That's been a definite focus in Minnesota since even before Gardenhire and Rick Anderson took over. Since 1996, their staffs have finished 1st or 2nd in the AL in fewest BB almost every season, except for a couple years when they were 3rd. I like organizations that have a well-defined philosophy and implement it well.
Seth Says:
April 17th, 2010 at 2:33 pm
Specifically notice the presence of the 2005 Twins atop this list. Radke, Santana, and Silva threw a lot of strikes that year and totaled 8 complete games between them that season.
DoubleDiamond Says:
April 17th, 2010 at 9:05 pm
9 of the occurrences in the list (just under half) involve pitchers who have spent some time with the Phillies (Schilling, Byrd, Lieber, Lee, Martinez, and Silva), but none were with the Phillies at the time they accomplished this feat.
MrDave Says:
April 18th, 2010 at 9:04 pm
Another interesting note about this is that three pitchers (Schilling, Wells, and the immortal Paul Byrd) account for half of the list.
Brendan Says:
April 18th, 2010 at 10:42 pm
God, they still make baseball cards? Childhood was a long time ago.
Neil Paine Says:
April 19th, 2010 at 10:27 am
Flair rocked. As a kid, those thicker-stock cards were one of the most awesome things you could get. Of course, packs cost something like $4 for 3 cards, and they were symptomatic of what hurt the sports card industry in the 90s, but man they were sweet at the time. Almost as good as Refractors.

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