For those who missed the previous posts, the general conceit of this series is that I’m making my own custom box set in the 1980’s Fleer style and each weekend I will feature a custom card of one of “Baseball’s Best Relievers” and another custom featuring one of “Baseball’s Best Supersubs”.
Our reliever of the week is the Rays’ Shawn Armstrong. In 2023 he’d made 39 appearances with 52 innings pitched, serving as the team’s ‘opener’ six times and racking up a 1.38 ERA and a 0.904 WHIP. He’s made postseason appearances in 2022 and 2023 and has not given up a postseason run.
Armstrong’s most recent licensed, pack-issued cards are from 2020 when he appeared in Heritage High Number. His last Major League card of any kind was in the 2021 Topps Now Road To Opening Day set.
The Mariners’ Dylan Moore is our Supersub for the week. Last year he played games at every position but catcher and pitcher, but he did pitch in one game in 2019. Over his career he’s finished in the top 10 in stolen bases three times, and tied for 2nd most in 2020. He was also in the top five in getting hit by a pitch in 2020 and 2022.
Moore made his Major League debut in Tokyo, as the Mariners and A’s were starting the 2019 season in Japan.
He appeared in 2015 Bowman Draft as a member of the Rangers organization, but all of his Major League games have come with the Mariners. His cardboard for 2023 came in Topps Update and Chrome Update.
The Shlabotnik Report 