This is our old blog. It hasn't been active since 2011. Please see the link above for our current blog or click the logo above to see all of the great data and content on this site.

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.

More reading:

For a short summary of Flair, see Wax Heaven's post about them. This includes a series of Ken Griffey cards produced in the line.

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

  1. Johnny Twisto Says:

    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.

  2. Seth Says:

    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.

  3. DoubleDiamond Says:

    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.

  4. MrDave Says:

    Another interesting note about this is that three pitchers (Schilling, Wells, and the immortal Paul Byrd) account for half of the list.

  5. Brendan Says:

    God, they still make baseball cards? Childhood was a long time ago.

  6. Neil Paine Says:

    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.