Gavins in Pro Ball - 2019 Recap

As I like to do each year around this time as the calendar winds down, let's take a look at active professional baseball players named Gavin and how they performed this past season.


Gavin Lux

Of course the big news in 2019 as far as Gavins in baseball was Gavin Lux. He tore up the minor leagues and got a September call-up to the Dodgers, becoming just the 3rd Gavin to make his major league debut. As a 21-year old getting his first taste of MLB action, he hit .240 with a pair of tatters in 75 at-bats. Not exactly a Juan Soto-like debut, but he held his own. He also had a big moment with a home run in the NLDS against the Nats, though Los Angeles ultimately went down in dramatic fashion. While I generally root against LA, part of me was hoping Gavin would play in the World Series. Maybe next year. The big question will be if Lux can make the team out of spring training or if he'll start the year in AAA. Or perhaps another team will convince the Dodgers to trade him away for a solid pitcher or two (He was apparently highly sought-after at the trade deadline).

If you're wondering, the first Gavin to play in the postseason was Gavin Floyd, who took the loss in the deciding Game 4 of the 2008 ALDS as the Rays knocked off the White Sox.


Gavin Cecchini

Cecchini is the "middle child" of the 3 Gavins who've made the Majors. He played in 36 games with the Mets in 2016-2017. Then after playing well in the minors in for the first part of 2018, he was lost to an injury on the cusp of being called up again. Looks like he was slow to get back to full strength, and spent all of 2019 in the minors, mostly in AA. On the year, he hit .248 with 3 homers. So yeah, it was a rough year for him. The Mets just recently cut him loose, so he's currently a free agent (and now officially a bust as a former 1st round pick). I hope he can bounce back with a new team in 2020 at age 26 and make it back up top, though it's not looking great at this point. (His older brother Garin Cecchini, who got into a handful of games with the Red Sox in 2014-2015, seems to have retired after most recently playing in Mexico in 2018.)


GAVINS IN THE MINOR LEAGUES

This list seems to get larger every year, as the name Gavin became more popular for baby boys born in the 90s. Less Garys and Georges being born these days, with more Gavins picking up the slack.

Gavin Collins

Drafted by the Cleveland Indians in the 13th round of the 2016 Draft from Mississippi State University, the 24-year old Collins spent 2019 at high-A Lynchburg, playing C, 1B, and DH, while batting .262 with 7 homers. Respectable numbers. Hopefully he gets promoted to AA in 2020.


Gavin Collyer

Here's a new name to the list. Collyer was drafted by the Texas Rangers in the 12th round of the 2019 Draft out of high school. His pro career got off to a bumpy start: He came on in relief in 6 rookie league games, totalling just 5 innings-pitched and 6 earned runs given up. But that's a small sample size and the 18-year-old right-hander has plenty of time ahead of him. (Thanks to Zippy for giving me a heads-up that he had Perfect Game cards on the market. I ended up snagging this lot of 3 different parallels on eBay recently.)


Gavin Garay
After putting up a nice OPS of .949 in 2018, that number dropped way down to .656 in 2019.. not what you want to see from a guy mostly used at DH. Garay, 22, played for the Brooklyn Cyclones (Mets A- club) this past season.


Gavin Jones
Another new player this year, Jones was a late draft pick by the A's back in June. He's a corner infielder who didn't show much with the bat during his debut season in rookie league. But he also pitched a perfect inning to finish a game once, so that's cool.


Gavin LaValley

Ah, LaValley, a guy I've supercollected over the past few years. He's now spent two and a half seasons at AA. Hit a middle-of-the-road .254 with 10 dingers in 2019, playing first and third base. He'll be 25 next year and hopefully get a shot at AAA, so it's crunch time for him.


Gavin Sheets

Sheets, a 2nd round pick in 2017, had a solid 2019, with his 16 homers and 83 RBI both easily leading the White Sox AA affiliate. He hit .267 and mostly played at 1B. (I'm sorry I don't really use advanced stats or hunt down scouting reports, but click the name link if you care to dig deeper.)


Gavin Stupienski

(signed custom)

Stupienski, a former Diamondbacks prospect, hung on for another year, playing for a couple different independent teams in 2019, though the numbers he put up weren't too impressive. Geez, it seems like besides Lux and Sheets, 2019 was generally a rough year for ballplayers named Gavin!


Gavin Wallace
Wallace just turned 24 (yesterday was his birthday), but still hasn't made it out of A-ball. He pitched 109 innings, striking out 90 and walking 22 while giving up 124 hits in the Pittsburgh organization.


---Now for a few guys that have Gavin in their name, though it's not their first name--

Grant Gavin

Grant spent all of 2019 in AA. The righty reliever pitched 52.1 innings, striking out 73 and walking 25 while giving up 43 hits. Not bad numbers. It's likely the Royals promote him to AAA next year.


John Gavin

John was an 8th rounder in 2017 who pitched for the San Jose Giants in 2019. The lefty put up a 2-8 record with a 5.38 ERA. Ouch. I'll be rooting for him to bounce back in 2020.


Stephen Gavin Alemais
I don't think this guy was on my radar before, but I should probably give a little love to him since his middle name is Gavin. I don't think there's been a Gavin middle-namer in the majors since Scott Erickson. Anyways, Stephen was a 3rd round pick by the Pirates in 2016. He's a light-hitting middle infielder who played at AA in 2019.


That wraps up the list of Gavins who played pro baseball in 2019. Best of luck to them all in 2020!

And a respectful tip of the cap to the only Gavin who appears to have hung up his cleats since last year's update...
Gavin Lavallee
Lavallee (not to be confused with the similarly named Gavin LaValley) didn't play in 2019 after a career in the independent Pecos League from 2016-2018. He hit .299 in 131 career games. Wishing him the best with what the next chapter of his life has in store for him.


Non-baseball Gavins in pro sports

Gavin Escobar 

After getting released by the Dolphins in late 2018, Escobar joined the San Diego Fleet of the newly-formed Alliance of American Football for 2019. He caught 14 passes for 142 yards during his time in the AAF before an injury ended his season (shortly followed by the league folding). He's currently a free agent and his prospects of getting back to the NFL are looking dim at this point.


In hockey, Gavin Bayreuther became the first NHL Gavin in several years (following Gavin Morgan in 2003-04). Bayreuther (pronounced "BAY-roo-thuhr") is in the Dallas Stars organization, though he's currently playing for the Texas Stars in the AHL (basically the minor league of hockey). He's got some recent Upper Deck cards out, though I've yet to pick up any. These days, I'm less enthusiastic about collecting cards of guys named Gavin-- especially non-autos and non-baseball guys-- though still happy to receive any cards I need in trade. (I'm especially burnt out on Gavin Floyd, Cecchini, and Escobar unless it's something cool like a 12/25 card.)

Oh yeah, I forgot I had picked up this signed custom (?) from eBay back during his pre-NHL days.


A bonus Gavin with cards

Gavin Hinchliffe

Hinchliffe is still in college, but he has Leaf Perfect Game cards on the market. I generally keep this annual list of mine professionals-only (There are many NCAA Gavins), but I make an exception if an amateur has real trading cards out there. I suppose it'll be a while till we find out if Hinchliffe makes a go of it in the game, though his collegiate performance hasn't been much so far.

Again, best of luck to him and all my other Gavin brethren!

p.s. Oh, and I just now discovered that there's a high schooler named Gavin Casas who has cards in 2019 Panini USA Baseball Stars and Stripes, so I'll probably have to pick up an auto of his soon (despite how unsettling it is collecting cards of someone who is still a minor).

Joe Morgan 2003 Topps Retired refractor autograph

If you'll indulge me one more "I'm sad about my awesome dog who recently died unexpectedly" post, I'll get it out of my system and don't plan on mentioning the unfortunate situation again. This is kind of a downer post (more of a eulogy, really) and I don't blame you if you skip it.

But yeah, it's been a rough couple of weeks for me and my wife. We had been thinking Annie just had a minor digestive issue to work through-- the vet originally suggested we try switching her to a different kind of dog food-- but nope, it turned out to be some serious shit and before we knew it we were kneeling on the floor tearfully telling her we loved her as the vet put her out of her suffering for good. Just devastating.

The fellow bloggers I've met in person can attest the fact that I'm not much for social graces. I'm an introverted homebody who'd rather spend a weekend watching movies and playing old school video games than going out and doing stuff with people. But if my wife said, "We're invited to a party this weekend.. and it's dog-friendly, so Annie can come too," then I'd be much more willing to go. Yeah, I'll admit I'm generally not a big fan of interacting humans, but dogs are more my speed.

Annie was great at making friends. And always a terrific buffer for awkward me when dealing with people. Hell, an argument could be made that she was my best friend. Loved hanging out with her. Something like going on a hike wouldn't hardly interest me at all, unless Annie was going too, in which case, yes. She was a happy pup and my mission in life was to keep her as happy as she could possibly be, as she was a sweetie who deserved that.

Man, she was so sweet. She had problems with her teeth and had to have several of them removed a couple years ago. To keep her remaining teeth healthy, we needed to brush her teeth on a near-daily basis. At first we used a doggie toothbrush, but it quickly became apparent that using our fingers was more efficient. And while Annie wasn't a big fan of it and could have chomped off our fingers in one bite if she wanted, she was a sweetie and reluctantly let us jam our fingers in her mouth and rub doggie toothpaste around her teeth. I'd often tell her, "I'm sorry, buddy-- I know this sucks, but it'll help keep your chompers working strong for ya when you're an elderly pooch." It's heartbreaking that she never got to that point (Hell, had I known she'd pass away at 7, I wouldn't have bothered with all the teeth-brushing and saved us both the unpleasantness!).

I hope you never had to have a pet make an extended stay at the emergency vet, as not only is it super stressful worrying about them, but it's also very expensive. She was at DoveLewis, Portland's only 24-hour emergency vet, for 5 days. The bill crept past 5 figures. And while we had pet insurance for her (which we got after our pervious dog, the saint Lucy, got cancer and left us far too soon-- and at an expense of several thousand dollars) that should hopefully cover about half of it, that's still a lot of money. Had Annie stuck it out for an extended period of time, we were ready to drain our savings if it meant there was a chance she'd possibly get back to her previous quality of life. I was all ready to give up buying new cards, even starting to think about selling off much of my collection, that's how much she meant to me. But thankfully (?) it didn't come to that and her health took a turn for the worse to where throwing more money at it to keep her zombified for hopefully another few days (and a one-in-a-million shot she'd recover) didn't make sense.

But still it was a lot of money, and so I've been trying to watch my spending. But then a few days after she passed, a card popped up on eBay I had to jump at. I love Topps Retired refractors and I search for them multiple times per day. This particular time I was at a low point and thinking how nice it would be if a Retired refractor I needed popped up at a reasonable price, and the Cardboard Gods showed sympathy for me and this one appeared with a very fair buy-it-now price...

This 2003 Topps Retired Joe Morgan refractor auto will always have special significance to me for being the first card I bought after Annie left us. I don't know if I can link her up to Joe Morgan much other than they're both kind souls who never gave much thought to advanced metrics. I never really collected Joe Morgan much, but always respected him as a player. And I always liked listening to him and Jon Miller back during their ESPN Sunday Night Baseball broadcasts in the 90s and 00s. And yeah, I think this is a beautiful card!

Check out the shoulder. I've seen this happen before. Looks like there was originally a Reds logo that got photoshopped out (why?), though the "holofoil lines" (or whatever you call them) must have been traced before that happened, as they've left a shadow that shows up when the light hits it. Sort of like how Annie is gone, though in a way she's still here with us in our hearts (--yeah yeah, I'm grasping at straws here trying to to link my dead dog to this baseball card I bought, but give me a break-- my dog died.)

A couple people shared this video with me on Twitter in their condolences, and it is pretty great for anyone who finds themselves in this sad situation.

I knew the first time I saw Miss Hailey that this was going to hurt. Because every relationship always does in one fashion or another. Every relationship you have with anyone or anything you love will eventually end in tears.
But it is the deal we make, it is the agreement we accept, and it is the opportunity I would never turn down. You can avoid the pain and tears of losing a loved one....all you have to do is never love. I choose the pain and tears.
But Dr. Seuss was right: "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."

That's a long, productive career. Wish Annie could have stuck around for even half of that timespan. I figured once she hit 10 years old, it'd be time to really spoil her and cherish every day with her, though we never even got that far. That'll haunt me, but I know we still gave her a wonderful life and even if she only made it to 7, I'm sure a lot of other dogs out there would happily trade places with her to get all the treats and fun adventures she got in those few years.

Oh hey, both Joe and Annie were born in September and they both took a lot of walks!

We'll take some time to mourn, but probably next Spring we'll get a new pup. But it's going to be a sad winter here, as my wife and I are still shellshocked over losing our sweet girl. Plus my wife's family cat died last year, so now we've got no cute fuzzy creatures to cuddle. :(

A live shot of Lucy Lou, our first dog, from doggie heaven.

Man, Lucy was the best. It was heartbreaking we got less than 2 years with her before cancer took her down. We really thought our karma would bounce back with the next dog, and while Annie was awesome, her career was cut short, to put it in sports terms. Both Hall of Famers, no doubt, but hopefully dog #3 comes through with longevity to rival the likes of Julio Franco and Bartolo Colon.

I'm a little worried though. Lucy and Annie were both very good girls who didn't chew what they weren't supposed to (--ok, once when Annie was a tiny pupper, she chewed up one of my plastic gloworm toys [guess she loved glow-in-the-dark stuff as much as me], but that's the only time I can think of that she chewed something that wasn't one of her own toys). Bringing a new dog into the house scares me for my card collection. Annie would often curiously sniff my cards, but never chew them. Such a good girl! I could trust her with a Trout rookie and not give it a second thought. I can only hope my next dog rocks at least somewhat close to that level.

Love you, Annie Lou!

Ok, I think I've now said all I needed to say about my dear departed dog. Thanks for letting me get that out. Regular baseball card content to resume going forward.

card show corrosion

Thanks to everyone who's given me condolences for the loss of my pooch. I appreciate it. The cardsphere is a great bunch of folks.

I was on the fence about going to the monthly card show today, and it went down to the wire, but after breakfast, I decided to throw on some real pants head out. It turned out to be a light day for me as far as my wallet was concerned, as I think I only spent $11. But I brought home a bunch of cheap cards I can use.

Most of my time was spent at a nickelbox that featured a 25-for-$1 deal, and ended up with 125 cards for $5 (working out to 4¢ each).

I'd snag any certified auto for 4 cents, but with Heath Bell being a notable Padre.. slapped that down on my stack ASAP. And the McGriff tickles me as it's a rare example of a player spitting on his card.

Probably my favorite pickup of the day was this 1970 Kellogg's Richie Allen. Not perfect condition, but at just 4 cents, hell yeah.

Some more 4-cent cards.

I also bought a few 50¢ cards...

This shiny Manon Rheaume was a National exclusive from 1993.

Good stuff.

Bo #/1000. Griffey and Mantle #/150, though the Moments & Milestones set barely counts for serial numbered cards.

And some Ted Williams cards that are also kinda numbered.

Numbers on the bottom, though it doesn't say out of how many.

And that's about it. Thanks for reading.

Big glow-in-the-dark cards post and a tribute to Annie

I've been kicking this around for over a year now, but my big glow-in-the-dark cards post is finally finished. I ended up making it a "page" instead of a "post" just so that it'll be easier for me to keep it updated. I intend to update it as needed with new info. I know it might not be as interesting to everybody as it is to me, but I love glow in the dark cards!

Please check it out...
LIST OF GLOW-IN-THE-DARK CARDS
(Sorry to make you make an extra click, but I think it'll be worth it. Lots of fun stuff there.)

My sweet pooch Annie Lou got real sick real fast and we had to put her down on yesterday. Probably the hardest day of my life. My wife and I don't have kids, but Annie was the closest we had, with the 3 of us being a tight family unit. We're just devastated to suddenly lose her at only 7 years old, but Annie packed a lot of happy wiggles into that time, so we need to focus on the happy times. She was the sweetest girl in the world. I only saw her being the slightest bit aggressive ONCE and that was while protecting a smaller pup buddy of hers. She only wanted everybody to be happy, spreading smiles and smooches everywhere she went. Love her so much.

Anyways, Annie loved chasing the laser pointer, much like cats. And so with that same fascination of lights in the dark, I'd like to dedicate my big glow-in-the-dark cards page in Annie's memory.

Chances are I'll be posting less often for the next little while, though I'll try not to make it a full-on "hiatus". Thanks as always for reading.

List of glow-in-the-dark trading cards <-- here's the link again

And now for the Annie tribute..

tiny pup

early puppy pic contrasted with a grown pooch.

maybe the greatest photo I've ever taken.

just a couple of bros

How y'all doing?

waasup

At Christmastime she always took the ribbons like a champ and it was a favorite holiday tradition.

catching snowballs

untitled post for November 1st, 2019

I wanted an on-card Padres auto from Dave Winfield and ended up scoring this one. It's pretty cool.

Goose Gossage has a lot of similarities with Dave Winfield:

- Spent the lion's share of their careers with the Yankees.
- Put in some time quality in San Diego.
- Won a World Championship once.
- Bounced around with a few different teams near the end of their careers.
- Formidable facial hair.
- Hall of Famer

Goose here is my 50th 2003 Topps Retired auto. There are 70 left in the set for me to track down. Snatched this one up recently for a fair price. It's not a refractor, but still.

Tough times at Baseball Card Breakdown HQ as our official mascot and licensed card-sniffer Annie Lou is currently at the emergency vet and in rough shape. Please send her some good vibes.