RBI (215) George Springer...

Everyone's looking at the upswing the Astro's are on and a big part of it is from the big bat of George Springer. He's taking the game by storm with his power and helping the typically struggling Astro's stay loose and swing free. With top prospects looking like they're going to start paying off the Astro's are finally at the cusp of not being perennial sellers and may start being buyers in a few seasons.

I've already gotten him on a baseball so I made sure to join in the fray after it came out and got this George Springer autographed Sports Illustrated done. It's a nice cover shot in the vintage Astro's uniform and I was really happy to get it signed with a reasonable Springer autograph. With a ball and SI signed now I don't have anything else for Springer unless I decide to knock out a photograph so it'll be nice to refocus on getting my 2014 Heritage set done when the Astros are in town.

RBI (128) Not Since Babe Ruth...

Has there been a player like this, though not for the reason why you think. I was able to get outfielder and former pitcher Rick Ankiel to sign for me. While Ankiel's stats may not jump off the page in either of those roles he has carved out an interesting role in baseball history.

Ankiel was drafted by St. Louis Cardinals in the 2nd round of the 1997 MLB draft as a pitcher having been one of the top high school pitching prospects in the country. He flew through the minors debuting in 1999 for the club and sticking around full time in the 2000 season when he came second in the Rookie of the Year voting to Rafael Furcal. However during the 2000 NLDS during his start of Game 1 of the series Ankiel had a mysterious breakdown in his ability to throw strikes. He was not only plagued by a lost command of the strike zone but he threw an astonishing number of wild pitches that had no chance of being caught. In 2001 the Cardinals gave him another shot as a pitcher in the MLB but to the same result so they began to shuttle him around the minors hoping he would recover from his struggles. He took another attempt at things in 2004 with a few brief relief appearances but the strike zone continued to evade him.

Ankiel wasn't able to recover his abilities as a consistent pitcher and instead opted to switch to the outfield full time since he had a strong bat. He was called back up by the Cardinals in 2007 after years of redeveloping him as an outfielder and he carved himself a role as an outfielder with a cannon of an arm and some boom in his bat. Here's where he made history to match Babe Ruth. Not since the bambino has a pitcher won at least 10 games while also hitting at least 50 career home runs as a position player. He may not be that high on the all-time Wins or Home Runs list, but where he ranks on both of those lists in the MLB is pretty historic and awesome to me.

Considering the latest player to seriously split time between being a position player and a full starting pitcher was top prospect Casey Kelly (who was forced by his club to eventually decide on one or the other while still in the low minors) I doubt there will be anyone to match Ankiel and Ruth for quite some time if ever again. That makes his autograph one that should be appreciated a lot more than I think it is and definitely an interesting note within my collection.

RBI (44) A TTM champ who came off the bench...

And he was definitely a much appreciated guy to have on that bench. Slugging catcher-first baseman-designated hitter Cliff Johnson had a very solid career that was highlighted by his home run hitting powers and a dash of infamy.

Drafted by the Houston Astros in the 5th round of the 1966 draft, Johnson wouldn't make his debut until 1972 and became a regular contributer in 1974. Once he finally broke into the regular roster Johnson made the most of it and stayed in the Majors for 15 seasons. Despite playing for seven different teams, Johnson made the most of his time with the Yankees winning World Series Championships in 1977 and 1978. His tenure with the Yankees came to an end when he famously got in a locker room fight with future Hall of Famer Goose Gossage in the showers after Goose began to tease him. The jokes became nasty and eventually turned to blows with Johnson breaking Gossage's thumb resulting in the Boss shipping him out to finish the 1979 season with Cleveland.

Johnson retired with a .258 career average, 699 RBI, and 196 Home Runs. What's most impressive of those homers, is that 20 of them were pinch hit, good enough for the MLB record until Matt Stairs broke the mark in 2010.

Cliff Johnson signed this 1977 Topps card I got from the Topps Diamond Anniversary. He autographed the card after 55 days to the card sent to his home address.