1990 Topps – All-Star Rookie Team, Future Stars and #1 Draft Picks

Topps All-Star Rookies

Topps again had 10 members on the All-Star Rookie team with the trophy designation on the players’ individual cards.  Interesting, I have everyone in the set except the 2 pitchers as of right now.

Gregg Olson is the most notable omission – he was the AL Rookie of the Year, saved 27 games for the Orioles and posted a 1.69 ERA.  But his omission is actually understandable – Tom Gordon went 17-9 for the Royals and took the RHP slot.  Dwight Smith in the outfield is probably the more unfair omission – he hit .324 in 380 plate appearances, and was 2nd to his teammate Jerome Walton in the ROY voting.  Greg Briley hit .266 with 13 homers and got the nod in the last OF slot.

• LHP – Jim Abbott
• RHP – Tom Gordon
• C – Bob Geren
• 1B – Carlos Martinez
• 2B – Gregg Jefferies
• 3B – Craig Worthington
• SS – Gary Sheffield (yes, he was a shortstop!)
• OF – Ken Griffey Jr., Jerome Walton, Greg Briley

Future Stars

The Future Stars subset was back for the 4th year, again with 5 cards.  I’ve got 4 of those 5 cards right now.  After Sheffield, Jefferies and Sandy Alomar were in the set last year, this set doesn’t have quite the staying power.  But only Sanchez was a bust – the back of his 1990 card had his full career stats as he never made it back to the majors after 1989.  Vaughn is probably the most notable – he had a 50-homer season, made 4 All-Star games, a couple of 4th-place MVP-finishes and smacked 355 dingers and over 1,000 RBI in his career.  Zeile had over 250 homers and 1,000 RBI in a 16-season career – I was shocked to see he never was an All-Star.  Gardner won 99 games and Anthony played 9 seasons and had a decent career.

#1 Draft Picks

Topps brought back the first round draft pick subset from the previous year.  They had the first 9 picks, but #10 overall pick Charles Johnson went to college at Miami.  They replaced him with the next player on the board who signed – which was Jeff Juden,  The players below are in order of draft slot – except I don’t have Paul Coleman, who was 6th, so I had to swipe a pic of him from the ‘net.  Thomas far and away had the best career – but McDonald did post a winning record with 78 career victories.  In addition to being the first overall pick, McDonald had won the Golden Spikes award as the top amateur player while at LSU.