Junk Wax Prospector - Brian Barber - St. Louis Cardnials
The 1991 draft class was the first I followed very closely. At the time, it seemed to me like every first round pick would translate into a lengthy All-Star career. Being only a few years in to the card collecting game, I lacked perspective. Every 18 year old kid that starts off strong in Rookie League will not go on to a 20 year career, ending with a Hall of Fame induction.
But that's where the fun came in...
If I didn't agree that the Atlanta Braves made a mistake in taking Chipper Jones instead of Todd VanPoppel, in the 1990 Draft, I wouldn't have learned such a valuable lesson from it...
During his senior year at Dr. Phillips High School in Orlando, Florida, Brian Barber set a team record of 11-0 (with 8 complete games) that still stands today. He was named State, Regional and National Gatorade Player of the Year in 1991. To this day, he is still the only player to ever be awarded all three.
Horrible shirt aside, Barber was drafted by St. Louis in the first round (22nd overall). This was a bonus draft pick that came from the New York Mets, as compensation for signing free agent OF Vince Coleman.
As a result of their last place finish in 1990, and a mass shedding of veteran contracts, the Cardinals had 5 of the first 39 picks in the draft. Barber was their third pick of the first round, following Dmitri Young (4th overall) and Allen Watson (21st overall). All three were going to be superstars!
After signing, Barber was assigned to Rookie League, pitching for the Johnson City Cardinals. From the picture on the card, it looks like their bullpen is located in the park behind my parent's house...
Looking at his numbers, for an 18 year old without a dominant fastball, they were encouraging, but some flags were raised. The walks were troubling, but his pitches were avoiding bats. Barber's hits per 9 and home runs per 9 ratios were very good.
After the 1991 season, Baseball America ranked Barber as the #9 prospect in a fairly stacked Cardinals organization.
Barber reported to St. Louis Cardinals Spring Training in 1992. During his first appearance in a major league game, Barber struck Jose Canseco out, shortly after turning 19.
It's customary for the major league team to invite top draft picks to training camp to have the top coaches work with them in preparation for their upcoming minor league seasons. What Barber did over the full 1992 season would tell a great deal what kind of prospect he would end up being.
When spring training ended, Barber was assigned to the St. Petersburg Cardinals. In 19 starts, he pitched to a record of 5-5, with a 3.26 ERA. In 113.1 innings, Barber gave up 46 walks. An improvement over his Rookie League numbers, he gave up only 99 hits and maintained his excellent home runs per 9 ratio.
Mid-1992, Barber was promoted to high A, in Springfield, Illinois. Control issues seemed to come back, but the hits were still down, and the strikeouts were coming up. While it wasn't a dominant performance, 1992 showed there was a lot to like about his future.
For the season, split between low A St. Petersburg and high A Springfield, his record was: 8-9, 3.40 ERA, 164 IP, 138 H, 70 BB, 158 K. Another factor to consider in those numbers was his age. Barber was an average of 3 years younger than his peers in the league.
That offseason, a publication that I cannot remember the name of, made the comparison of Brian Barber's potential, to that of future Hall of Famer, Greg Maddux. Through 1992, I watched Maddux pitch a lot on WGN, for the Cubs. He was moving on to the Braves, so I could continue to watch his games, now on TBS... I liked watching Maddux throw a complete game in 85 pitches, allowing 1 run on 6 hits, 1 walk, with 8 strikeouts. As much as I hated the Atlanta Braves, Maddux threw enough of those games in the 1990's to send him to Cooperstown...
If Brian Barber could turn into anything close to what Maddux was, that's one hell of a career!
Barber began the 1993 season at AA, with the Arkansas Travelers in the Texas League. Going 9-8, with a 4.02 ERA in 143 1/3 innings. His numbers for AA ball were down from single A, as he allowed 154 hits and 56 walks, and striking out 126, during his age 20 season. Now 4 years younger than his peers in AA...
To finish out the 1993 season, Barber made a one game appearance in AAA, for the Louisville Cardinals. It wasn't pretty... He took the loss, giving up 4 hits, 4 walks and 3 runs in 5 2/3 innings. He did have 5 strikeouts... And he was only 20...
His status as a Cardinals top prospect skyrocketed. Baseball America ranked Barber as the #30 prospect in baseball after the 1993 season.
Even I was optimistic at the time, and almost impatient.
Yeah! Shouldn't Barber be in the majors for 1994? He's ready! (No, he's not...)
St. Louis exercised restraint and didn't name Barber as their 1994 Opening Day starting pitcher. Instead, he attended Spring Training, pitched well, then was assigned back to AA Arkansas. Which was a good move in that he was still only 21. It would be wise to finally allow him to dominate a level before moving up...
Which he almost did for only six games to start the season... His numbers with the 1994 Arkansas Travelers: 1-3, 3.25 ERA, 31 hits and 16 walks allowed in 36 innings, with 54 strikeouts. The walks are still a problem, but those strikeout numbers jump out at you...
The return to AAA Louisville was another mixed bag. A 4-7 record, posting a 5.38 ERA in 85.1 innings pitched. 79 hits, 46 walks, but 95 strikeouts... Worse, the beginning of some minor arm troubles started to surface...
Barber had not yet been promoted to the 40-man roster in 1994, so he was allowed to keep playing minor league games during the players strike. Coming into the 1995 season, after the strike was settled, Barber was still considered a top prospect. Card companies took notice, and Barber had a card in multiple sets, featuring him as a St. Louis Cardinal.
I have never liked graded cards, but way back when that craze first started, I picked up a PSA graded Brian Barber 1995 Bowman's Best Refractor. I figured it was his "best" card, and a graded copy made sense. I don't remember what I paid for it, but this card, in all of it's sealed-up ecasement, was displayed prominently on my desk at Kenyon for many years. It's a good thing it was encased because it got spilled on multiple times...
Barber started the 1995 season back at AAA Louisville. Pitching to a 6-5 record, with an ERA of 4.70, in 107.1 innings. He gave up 105 hits, 46 walks and struck out 94 batters. All at 22 years old... Over five years younger than the average AAA player. Promising, but he's just not ready...
He would make his debut on August 12, 1995, in San Diego against the Padres. Barber lasted only 4 innings, walking 5 and giving up 6 hits. The Padres scored only three runs off those numbers, and Barber left the game to a no-decision.
He spent the rest of the 1995 season in the majors. With 4 starts and 5 relief appearances.
Barber pitched well against the Colorado Rockies. In two appearances, spanning 8 2/3 innings, he allowed only 7 hits, 2 walks and struck out 7, while giving up three runs in an August 1995 start at Coors Field in Denver. I would have been in favor of the Rockies trading for him...
His final 1995 season statistics for the St. Louis Cardinals: 2-1, 5.22 ERA, 29 1/3 innings, 31 hits, 16 walks, 27 strikeouts. Not awful, not great... Barber definitely had youth on his side, and that potential led to even more Brian Barber cards in 1996 sets.
1996 did not go as planned. He was called back to St. Louis to make an April 14 start against the Phillies in St. Louis. Barber lasted only 3 innings, gave up 5 runs on 4 hits and 6 walks. After the game, he went on the disabled list. Arm troubles led to a large chunk of the season being missed.
Barber did return from injury to pitch in 11 games for AAA Louisville, but went 0-6 with a 5.62 ERA. That ERA was deceptively below average, as it was built from giving up 49 hits and 26 walks in 49 2/3 innings. Even more troubling, while the walk rate was steady, Barber's strikeout rate was down by a lot... Only 33 strikeouts for a rate of 6 per 9.
This 1996 Pinnacle card always bothered me. Barber is shown here pitching for the St. Petersburg Cardinals. Which he hadn't done since 1992... Seriously Pinnacle, he pitched in 9 games for the major league team, plus spring training, during the whole year leading up to this set's release! You couldn't find a current Cardinals picture?
1997 was split between three levels of the Cardinals minor league system. from 2 games at high A in the Carolina League with Prince William, three games with AA Arkansas, and another 18 starts back at AAA Louisville. While trying to deal with persistent minor arm issues. His combined 1997 record between the three leagues: 5-10, 7.13 ERA, 120 IP, 149 H, 54 BB, 102 K... Yikes...
Still a prospect according to 1996 Topps... I've always liked this card for the contrasting four faces on it... For some odd reason, these four remind me of a comedy troupe...
Fun fact... With the exception of a sacrifice bunt for the 1999 Royals, Barber went 1 for 8 (a single) as a major league batter, with 1 walk and 2 strikeouts. His first (and only) major league hit came in his debut game, against the Padres Glenn Dishman.
At the end of the 1997 season, Barber was released by the St. Louis Cardinals. In December, he signed with the Kansas City Royals for the 1998 season.
There were no cards made featuring Brian Barber with the Kansas City Royals. I found two old mug shots online, so they will have to suffice. (Thanks ESPN and Baseball Reference, you saved my story!)
Barber turned in a good season for the AAA Omaha Royals in 1998. In 22 starts, he went 8-4 with a 3.75 ERA, over 136 2/3 innings. Decent numbers as he allowed only 114 hits, but still walked 53. the strikeouts were down too, with only 100. It was apparent that Barber was evening out around this level. Comparisons to Maddux would likely never work out the way whatever magazine that was predicted...
Still, Kansas City rewarded his stay in Omaha with a promotion to the Royals starting rotation to finish the 1998 season. The 8 starts he made, over 42 innings, represented his longest stint in the major leagues. The numbers were no longer promising...
2-4, 6.00 ERA, 45 hits, 13 walks and 24 strikeouts in 42 innings pitched.
Since this was before the internet was what it is today, I had to follow Barber's career via newspapers and box scores. The only time I ever got to see Brian Barber pitch was a game against the Chicago White Sox on April 9, 1999. It was a televised game from Chicago, on WGN. I watched the game from the comfort of my old Kenyon apartment. Barber threw 5 decent innings, giving up 6 hits and 3 runs, off 6 hits and 1 walk. Only 1 strikeout, but he was the winning pitcher.
This was his last win at the major league level.
After a second start against Chicago (that went the opposite of awesome), Barber was sent to AAA Omaha. he pitched pretty well there, going 9-5 with a 4.56 ERA, in 120 1/3. He gave up a reasonable 128 hits in those frames, but notably only 29 walks, the lowest rate of his career. Only 75 strikeouts as well...
Kansas brought him back to pitch 5 games in relief in July, 1999. He faired pretty well, but was still having control issues. The Royals gave him a start in Texas against the Rangers on August 1st, 1999, and it was a disaster... 7 hits, 3 walks, 7 runs in 2 innings.
That was the final appearance in his major league career.
Barber left Kansas City after the 1999 season. Signing with the Cleveland Indians for 2000, but never pitching for them.
His 2000 season was spent with the independent league Long Island (NY) Ducks. Barber pitched to a 10-8 won-loss record, with an ERA of 4.50. He tossed 136 innings, giving up 131 hits, 52 walks, while striking out 88.
2000 was the final year of Brian Barber's playing career. He retired after the season, due to arm injuries, at age 27. Several writings point the finger at the St. Louis Cardinals organization of the early 1990's for rushing him. Baseball Reference cited that in 1994, Barber was the youngest player in AAA by nearly 2 years.
Not sure why, but I always rooted for him to make it... Of the 1991 draft class, he was the pitcher I cheered on. (Especially after Brien Taylor lost everything due to injury...) He made zero appearances against either the Minnesota Twins or Montreal Expos. So he made zero consequence to either of my favorite teams successes -or lack thereof- during his major league career.
After retiring, Brian Barber became an amateur scout for the New York Yankees, and has been promoted to the position of East Coast Regional Cross-Checker. (Basically, he reviews the scouts and coaches evaluations of amateur players.) Several current and former New York Yankees signings can be traced to Barber. Including Dellin Betances, Tyler Wade and J.R. Murphy.
Brian Barber is one of four former graduates of Dr. Phillips High School to play in the major leagues. (Johnny Damon, Danny Miceli and A.J. Pierzynski are the others.) In 2001, Barber was inducted into the Dr. Phillips Athletic Hall of Fame. His number (5) was retired in 2005.
Without doing the research to see how many other are out there, I have 35+ Brian Barber cards. Probably more if I look at boxed complete sets I'm forgetting...
But that's where the fun came in...
If I didn't agree that the Atlanta Braves made a mistake in taking Chipper Jones instead of Todd VanPoppel, in the 1990 Draft, I wouldn't have learned such a valuable lesson from it...
However, THIS GUY is a can't miss pitching prospect! You can tell by his shirt!
During his senior year at Dr. Phillips High School in Orlando, Florida, Brian Barber set a team record of 11-0 (with 8 complete games) that still stands today. He was named State, Regional and National Gatorade Player of the Year in 1991. To this day, he is still the only player to ever be awarded all three.
Horrible shirt aside, Barber was drafted by St. Louis in the first round (22nd overall). This was a bonus draft pick that came from the New York Mets, as compensation for signing free agent OF Vince Coleman.
As a result of their last place finish in 1990, and a mass shedding of veteran contracts, the Cardinals had 5 of the first 39 picks in the draft. Barber was their third pick of the first round, following Dmitri Young (4th overall) and Allen Watson (21st overall). All three were going to be superstars!
After signing, Barber was assigned to Rookie League, pitching for the Johnson City Cardinals. From the picture on the card, it looks like their bullpen is located in the park behind my parent's house...
Looking at his numbers, for an 18 year old without a dominant fastball, they were encouraging, but some flags were raised. The walks were troubling, but his pitches were avoiding bats. Barber's hits per 9 and home runs per 9 ratios were very good.
After the 1991 season, Baseball America ranked Barber as the #9 prospect in a fairly stacked Cardinals organization.
Barber reported to St. Louis Cardinals Spring Training in 1992. During his first appearance in a major league game, Barber struck Jose Canseco out, shortly after turning 19.
It's customary for the major league team to invite top draft picks to training camp to have the top coaches work with them in preparation for their upcoming minor league seasons. What Barber did over the full 1992 season would tell a great deal what kind of prospect he would end up being.
When spring training ended, Barber was assigned to the St. Petersburg Cardinals. In 19 starts, he pitched to a record of 5-5, with a 3.26 ERA. In 113.1 innings, Barber gave up 46 walks. An improvement over his Rookie League numbers, he gave up only 99 hits and maintained his excellent home runs per 9 ratio.
Mid-1992, Barber was promoted to high A, in Springfield, Illinois. Control issues seemed to come back, but the hits were still down, and the strikeouts were coming up. While it wasn't a dominant performance, 1992 showed there was a lot to like about his future.
For the season, split between low A St. Petersburg and high A Springfield, his record was: 8-9, 3.40 ERA, 164 IP, 138 H, 70 BB, 158 K. Another factor to consider in those numbers was his age. Barber was an average of 3 years younger than his peers in the league.
That offseason, a publication that I cannot remember the name of, made the comparison of Brian Barber's potential, to that of future Hall of Famer, Greg Maddux. Through 1992, I watched Maddux pitch a lot on WGN, for the Cubs. He was moving on to the Braves, so I could continue to watch his games, now on TBS... I liked watching Maddux throw a complete game in 85 pitches, allowing 1 run on 6 hits, 1 walk, with 8 strikeouts. As much as I hated the Atlanta Braves, Maddux threw enough of those games in the 1990's to send him to Cooperstown...
If Brian Barber could turn into anything close to what Maddux was, that's one hell of a career!
Barber began the 1993 season at AA, with the Arkansas Travelers in the Texas League. Going 9-8, with a 4.02 ERA in 143 1/3 innings. His numbers for AA ball were down from single A, as he allowed 154 hits and 56 walks, and striking out 126, during his age 20 season. Now 4 years younger than his peers in AA...
To finish out the 1993 season, Barber made a one game appearance in AAA, for the Louisville Cardinals. It wasn't pretty... He took the loss, giving up 4 hits, 4 walks and 3 runs in 5 2/3 innings. He did have 5 strikeouts... And he was only 20...
His status as a Cardinals top prospect skyrocketed. Baseball America ranked Barber as the #30 prospect in baseball after the 1993 season.
Even I was optimistic at the time, and almost impatient.
Yeah! Shouldn't Barber be in the majors for 1994? He's ready! (No, he's not...)
St. Louis exercised restraint and didn't name Barber as their 1994 Opening Day starting pitcher. Instead, he attended Spring Training, pitched well, then was assigned back to AA Arkansas. Which was a good move in that he was still only 21. It would be wise to finally allow him to dominate a level before moving up...
Which he almost did for only six games to start the season... His numbers with the 1994 Arkansas Travelers: 1-3, 3.25 ERA, 31 hits and 16 walks allowed in 36 innings, with 54 strikeouts. The walks are still a problem, but those strikeout numbers jump out at you...
The return to AAA Louisville was another mixed bag. A 4-7 record, posting a 5.38 ERA in 85.1 innings pitched. 79 hits, 46 walks, but 95 strikeouts... Worse, the beginning of some minor arm troubles started to surface...
Barber had not yet been promoted to the 40-man roster in 1994, so he was allowed to keep playing minor league games during the players strike. Coming into the 1995 season, after the strike was settled, Barber was still considered a top prospect. Card companies took notice, and Barber had a card in multiple sets, featuring him as a St. Louis Cardinal.
I have never liked graded cards, but way back when that craze first started, I picked up a PSA graded Brian Barber 1995 Bowman's Best Refractor. I figured it was his "best" card, and a graded copy made sense. I don't remember what I paid for it, but this card, in all of it's sealed-up ecasement, was displayed prominently on my desk at Kenyon for many years. It's a good thing it was encased because it got spilled on multiple times...
And I really don't like this card... I think the design is very hard to look at...
St. Louis promoted Brian Barber to the Major Leagues anyways...
He spent the rest of the 1995 season in the majors. With 4 starts and 5 relief appearances.
Barber pitched well against the Colorado Rockies. In two appearances, spanning 8 2/3 innings, he allowed only 7 hits, 2 walks and struck out 7, while giving up three runs in an August 1995 start at Coors Field in Denver. I would have been in favor of the Rockies trading for him...
His final 1995 season statistics for the St. Louis Cardinals: 2-1, 5.22 ERA, 29 1/3 innings, 31 hits, 16 walks, 27 strikeouts. Not awful, not great... Barber definitely had youth on his side, and that potential led to even more Brian Barber cards in 1996 sets.
1996 did not go as planned. He was called back to St. Louis to make an April 14 start against the Phillies in St. Louis. Barber lasted only 3 innings, gave up 5 runs on 4 hits and 6 walks. After the game, he went on the disabled list. Arm troubles led to a large chunk of the season being missed.
Barber did return from injury to pitch in 11 games for AAA Louisville, but went 0-6 with a 5.62 ERA. That ERA was deceptively below average, as it was built from giving up 49 hits and 26 walks in 49 2/3 innings. Even more troubling, while the walk rate was steady, Barber's strikeout rate was down by a lot... Only 33 strikeouts for a rate of 6 per 9.
This 1996 Pinnacle card always bothered me. Barber is shown here pitching for the St. Petersburg Cardinals. Which he hadn't done since 1992... Seriously Pinnacle, he pitched in 9 games for the major league team, plus spring training, during the whole year leading up to this set's release! You couldn't find a current Cardinals picture?
Brian Barber never returned to the majors with St. Louis.
Still a prospect according to 1996 Topps... I've always liked this card for the contrasting four faces on it... For some odd reason, these four remind me of a comedy troupe...
Fun fact... With the exception of a sacrifice bunt for the 1999 Royals, Barber went 1 for 8 (a single) as a major league batter, with 1 walk and 2 strikeouts. His first (and only) major league hit came in his debut game, against the Padres Glenn Dishman.
At the end of the 1997 season, Barber was released by the St. Louis Cardinals. In December, he signed with the Kansas City Royals for the 1998 season.
There were no cards made featuring Brian Barber with the Kansas City Royals. I found two old mug shots online, so they will have to suffice. (Thanks ESPN and Baseball Reference, you saved my story!)
Barber turned in a good season for the AAA Omaha Royals in 1998. In 22 starts, he went 8-4 with a 3.75 ERA, over 136 2/3 innings. Decent numbers as he allowed only 114 hits, but still walked 53. the strikeouts were down too, with only 100. It was apparent that Barber was evening out around this level. Comparisons to Maddux would likely never work out the way whatever magazine that was predicted...
Still, Kansas City rewarded his stay in Omaha with a promotion to the Royals starting rotation to finish the 1998 season. The 8 starts he made, over 42 innings, represented his longest stint in the major leagues. The numbers were no longer promising...
2-4, 6.00 ERA, 45 hits, 13 walks and 24 strikeouts in 42 innings pitched.
Barber did re-sign with Kansas City for 1999.
Since this was before the internet was what it is today, I had to follow Barber's career via newspapers and box scores. The only time I ever got to see Brian Barber pitch was a game against the Chicago White Sox on April 9, 1999. It was a televised game from Chicago, on WGN. I watched the game from the comfort of my old Kenyon apartment. Barber threw 5 decent innings, giving up 6 hits and 3 runs, off 6 hits and 1 walk. Only 1 strikeout, but he was the winning pitcher.
This was his last win at the major league level.
After a second start against Chicago (that went the opposite of awesome), Barber was sent to AAA Omaha. he pitched pretty well there, going 9-5 with a 4.56 ERA, in 120 1/3. He gave up a reasonable 128 hits in those frames, but notably only 29 walks, the lowest rate of his career. Only 75 strikeouts as well...
Kansas brought him back to pitch 5 games in relief in July, 1999. He faired pretty well, but was still having control issues. The Royals gave him a start in Texas against the Rangers on August 1st, 1999, and it was a disaster... 7 hits, 3 walks, 7 runs in 2 innings.
That was the final appearance in his major league career.
Barber left Kansas City after the 1999 season. Signing with the Cleveland Indians for 2000, but never pitching for them.
His 2000 season was spent with the independent league Long Island (NY) Ducks. Barber pitched to a 10-8 won-loss record, with an ERA of 4.50. He tossed 136 innings, giving up 131 hits, 52 walks, while striking out 88.
2000 was the final year of Brian Barber's playing career. He retired after the season, due to arm injuries, at age 27. Several writings point the finger at the St. Louis Cardinals organization of the early 1990's for rushing him. Baseball Reference cited that in 1994, Barber was the youngest player in AAA by nearly 2 years.
Not sure why, but I always rooted for him to make it... Of the 1991 draft class, he was the pitcher I cheered on. (Especially after Brien Taylor lost everything due to injury...) He made zero appearances against either the Minnesota Twins or Montreal Expos. So he made zero consequence to either of my favorite teams successes -or lack thereof- during his major league career.
After retiring, Brian Barber became an amateur scout for the New York Yankees, and has been promoted to the position of East Coast Regional Cross-Checker. (Basically, he reviews the scouts and coaches evaluations of amateur players.) Several current and former New York Yankees signings can be traced to Barber. Including Dellin Betances, Tyler Wade and J.R. Murphy.
Brian Barber is one of four former graduates of Dr. Phillips High School to play in the major leagues. (Johnny Damon, Danny Miceli and A.J. Pierzynski are the others.) In 2001, Barber was inducted into the Dr. Phillips Athletic Hall of Fame. His number (5) was retired in 2005.
Without doing the research to see how many other are out there, I have 35+ Brian Barber cards. Probably more if I look at boxed complete sets I'm forgetting...
This post made me look up how many Brian Barber cards I have; I remembered just the Olin Mills cards. Turns out I have 3, a couple of them where he's actually pitching. I had no idea his career lasted that long (I was out of loop for much of '90s). That just shows how memorable those studio cards are no matter how awful.
ReplyDeleteWhenever prospecting, I always mumble the words of some Baseball Prospectus writer (I forget which one) who said, "TINSTAAPP": There Is No Such Thing As A Pitching Prospect
ReplyDeleteThen I come back to my senses and go back to trying to figure out what Brewers I haven't put on my want lists yet.