Monster Card Monday: 2004 Scott Rolen

Fittingly enough, I’m featuring Scott Rolen today. Rolen, of course, was chosen to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame later this year. If you haven’t been to the HOF museum in Cooperstown, it’s worth a visit, by the way. I’ve been five times including my honeymoon (yes, I appreciate my wife).

William Abraham assisted with the card this week. It’s Rolen’s card from his 2004 season arguably his best offensive season. With the Cardinals, he batted .314 while driving home 124 runs on 34 homers.

With 72 walks, Rolen’s OBP cracked the .400 barrier at .409. He just missed the .600 mark at .598.

Rolen’s 2004 card is a bit unusual when it came to power numbers. He received 1-0-0-6, that is he received a first column 6 at 22 along with his first column 1 at 66. I count seventeen ones in the second column along with four twos. So if you hit the 11 or 33 instead of the 66, you would still have a good chance to hit one out.

In addition, Rolen had a 44-7 and a 15-10 for hit numbers. Only two eights to go along with his two nines.

This card has four 14s plus a 42 to help Scotty get on base if extra bases weren’t in store for Scott Rolen.

Rolen was Fast and a 3B-5. Somebody can correct me if I’m wrong but I believe Rolen was one of the few 3B-6 thirdbasemen one year as well.

Finally, no 24s for 2004 Scott Rolen. He received a 41-28 based on eight GIDP.

Bit o’ Trivia on Rolen

When researching Rolen for this, I noticed something. In his entire seventeen year career, he didn’t lead his league in any offensive category. I’m not making any statement about his selection to the Hall of Fame. On the face of it, his selection seemed reasonable enough to me. It’s just an observation.

I mean, even Mark Grudzielanek led his league in doubles once.

A lot of Rolen’s strength was in his defense as evidenced by this card as so many others. He is a modern rarity in his devotion to his position. Of the 2023 games he played in the field, all of them were at third base.