Pat Dodson, 1987 Topps


Bats: Left
Throws: Left
Debut: 9/5/86
Final Game: 6/22/88

Career Line: .202/.314/.424

I have sometimes wondered what qualifies a player to earn a title on thier baseball card. Sometimes it is obvious, like Andy Benes was a #1 draft pick, so that's an easy one. But what about the ambiguous "future stars" title?

Pat Dodson came up through the Red Sox organization. He was a solid Minor League player. But in 3 "seasons" at the major league level he only had 99 career at bats in which he hit .202/.314/.424. However, those career stats are a little inflated thanks to a 12 at bat debut where he had 5 hits, 3 for extra bases, including 1 home run.

Was it that 12 at bat, 9 game stretch during the fall of '86 that earned him the future stars status? His OPS+ for those 9 games was 265.

Dodson played sparingly for 3 seasons. He was granted free agency in 1988, and never played an MLB game again. He appeared in just 52 games. At the Minor league level he hit a lot of home runs and he walked a lot. He didn't have a great average, but he was a typical 1980s power hitter--low average, big power. Once in the Big Show he struck out a lot. 33 times in 99 at bats.

On a somewhat positive note, he finished his career with no errors in the field, and never grounded into a double play. I suppose that is some saving grace to a 99 at bat career?