Today on the blog, we have my 1977 "National League Centennial" card for underrated starter Jon Matlack of the New York Mets:
Matlack joined an already solid New York Mets
staff in 1972 and proceeded to post a 15-10 record in his rookie year, with a very nice 2.32 earned
run average over 32 starts, including four shutouts.
Those
numbers got him a Rookie of the Year Award, easily finishing ahead of
second-place Dave Rader and fellow teammate John Milner, who finished
third.
It would pretty much be the prototypical Matlack season as he’d go on to
lead the league in shutouts twice, and average about 15 wins over the
next seven years.
Easily
overshadowed by teammates like Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman through the
1970's, he was about as solid a #3 starter you could ask for.
Overall, he’d split his time as a big league pitcher evenly between the Mets and
Texas Rangers, over 13 seasons, and retire with an excellent 3.18 E.R.A., along with a
final record of 125-126 and 30 shutouts in 361 appearances, 318 of them
starts, with 1516 strikeouts.