Jeff Robinson, 1992 Score #186

Looking at Jeff Robinson's right arm, contorted with his palm facing outward, the muscles in his forearm strained and taut, I'm thinking again about just how abnormal the act of pitching a baseball is. As if to underscore this point, the text on the card back mentions a circulatory problem in his fingers that interrupted his sophomore season, back in 1988 with Detroit. That year, he was 13-6 with a 2.98 ERA (128 ERA+) and six complete games, but his 24th and final outing of the season came on August 23. He didn't come close to matching those numbers again, and battled an assortment of maladies over the next two seasons, most notably a stress fracture in his right forearm in 1990. After passing through three organizations in 1992 (Texas, Pittsburgh, and back to Detroit), he was out of baseball by age 31. Sadly, he passed away in October 2014 after suffering from undisclosed health issues.

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Jeff Robinson, 1991 Leaf #464

Here we see Jeff Robinson throwing his famous "razz-ball", which was just an ordinary fastball. However, as he delivered the pitch, Robinson would stick out his tongue and blow a raspberry at the unsuspecting batter. It was...less than effective.

Jeff Robinson, 1991 Upper Deck #796

I'd like to give the devil his due and thank Upper Deck for including Jeff Robinson's middle initial on this card. As someone who meticulously catalogs every card in his collection in an obnoxiously large Excel file, I'm always annoyed when I have to tab over to Baseball Reference to find middle names to distinguish between the righthanded Jeff Robinsons of the junk wax era. Yes, that's a very particular first-world problem, but with Upper Deck's help, maybe I'll finally remember that it was Jeffrey Mark Robinson who pitched for the Tigers and Orioles. Meanwhile, Jeffrey Daniel Robinson toiled for the Giants, Pirates, and three other teams. I don't have this problem with the Greg Harrises, you know.

Jeff Robinson, 1991 Bowman #90

Whenever there's talk about the worst trades the Orioles have ever made, everyone focuses on the deal that sent Pete Harnisch, Curt Schilling, and Steve Finley to Houston for brittle first baseman Glenn Davis. But during that same offseason, the O's made another deal that was downright inexplicable. In January of 1991, they sent popular catcher Mickey Tettleton to the Tigers for the man you see above, righthander Jeff Robinson.

After kickstarting his career with 26 home runs, a Silver Slugger Award, and an All-Star selection in 1989, the Froot-Loops-loving backstop had slumped to .223 with 15 home runs and 51 RBI in 1990. This downturn in production, coupled with the imminent arrival of young Chris Hoiles, must have made Tettleton expendable in the eyes of Birds' brass. But they hadn't really thought things through. He was never a high-average hitter, but he was an on-base machine, taking walks by the ton. Despite the 35-point dip in batting average between his two seasons in Baltimore, Mickey's on-base percentage actually climbed from .369 to .376. Besides, even if the team was looking to create an opening at catcher, they could have given him time at first base and designated hitter, like the Tigers would do.

If Tettleton had an off-year in 1990, Jeff Robinson had a disaster of a year. He lucked his way into a winning record (10-9), but his ERA was an absurd 5.96. He walked more batters than he struck out, threw 16 wild pitches, and gave up 23 home runs. He had won 13 games and ranked sixth in the league in ERA in 1988, but that season was three years past at the time of the trade. What was GM Roland Hemond thinking? What was he expecting?

Hemond almost certainly didn't get what he expected out of Robinson, unless he actually wanted a 4-9 record, a 5.18 ERA, and 1.62 base runners allowed per inning pitched. Given that the O's released the pitcher less than a year after acquiring him, I'd say that Roland was a bit disappointed.

But what of Mickey Tettleton? He would play five full seasons with the Tigers and Rangers after the trade, walking at least 95 times each season and surpassing 30 home runs in all but the strike season on 1994. He won two more Silver Sluggers and played in another All-Star Game.

Talk about your buyer's remorse...or seller's remorse, for that matter.