Diamond Kings

With all the recent trades I haven't had much time to show cards I've purchased the last few weeks. This is a new mini that I've added to my collection.

2015 Diamond Kings Jameson Taillon Mini Patch /25

I rarely by jersey cards on eBay, but I will often pull the trigger on nice patches if the price is right. Normally I'm looking for some of the late 70's Pirates, but this popped up and caught my eye. It is a pretty big patch for the size of the card. Plus, I really like the new DK set. 

Taillon is always one of my regular eBay searches as his cards are very affordable. He was the 2nd overall pick in the loaded 2010 draft. Obviously the Pirates thought a lot of him as some of the notable guys picked after were Manny Machado, Matt Harvey and Chris Sale. 

After climbing the system it looked like Taillon would be making his debut at some point in 2013, but his arm gave out. Tommy John surgery caused him lose the entire 2013 season. While his rehab has reportedly been going great the Pirates are not rushing him. He may help the team in September, but 2015 is most likely the target. 

Thanks for reading. 

Friendly Fire: Cards from JBF

Before things escalated out of control with JBF and I to the point where we were swapping game used bats and autographed books, more "normal" trading occurred. That seems like so long a go.

Well, this week I received a package from JBF that was "normal" sized. Was it a trap, perhaps the others were to big to get through the front door. After a little investigating it was in fact just one "normal" sized package. The memories of cardboard war are still fresh in my mind so I may just still be a little rattled. JBF has honored the Hazel Green/Morgantown cardboard treaty of 2015.

 Vintage football is always cool. JBF has hooked me up with a bunch of old football in our swaps.

 I talk about Gorzo a lot. He was a guy I felt we gave up on too soon, but his trade to the Cubs netted us Josh Harrison.

 The Co-Signers set was full of Pirates.

 Mark Recchi is the man. One of my favorite Pens growing up.

Three nice jerseys of former WVU standout Stedman Bailey.  The middle is a parallel /75. Really hoping Stedman and Tavon Austin breakout in a big way with Nick Foles throwing to them.

 Speaking of Tavon here is his Topps Chrome version of the same jersey.

 Randle El was a great slot receiver for the Steelers for many years. Back in his college days at Indiana he was a quarterback so the Steelers would often find ways to utilize that skillset as well. In some ways he was kind of a reverse Kordell Stewart.

Some old SpX Pirates. Jason Schmidt is a good example of why the Pirates were inept for 20 years. While never consistent as a Pirate, he showed signs of being a quality major league pitcher. The Pirates lost patience and Schmidt would end up becoming a front line starter with the Giants.

 Some nice Bowman Buccos

Thanks for all the great cards JBF. I've been holding onto some cards for you so I will be able to hit you back very soon. Somehow I knew you couldn't resist sending mail to Morgantown. Now that I've been through a cardboard war I'm more prepared.

Thanks for reading.

Turn Back The Clock

The Spring is always a busy time for me at work and the nice weather means outside projects at home, so free time is hard to come by. While it is always nice to be busy, sometimes you just need a weekend to recharge the batteries. The slate as it stands now is clear for this weekend!  

My hope is to spend some much needed time with my cards to get organized and send out a few packages. I've received so much great stuff this week that I want to return the favor to keep the momentum going.

Card time!

I've shown quite a few Madlock items since I've started BWTP. He is just a fun guy to collect that doesn't hurt the wallet. Minus the high end releases pretty much all of the Mad Dog's cards are less than $10. This holds true with pretty much all the late 70's Pirates minus Pops.

2003 Topps Turn Back the Clock Bill Madlock Auto

I won this card for around $6 shipped. Nothing beats late 70's, early 80's Pirate uniforms! This card is commemorating Madlock's 4th and final batting title in 1983. The set only had 7 autos.

AR Al Rosen
BM Bill Madlock
DM Dale Murphy
HK Harmon Killebrew
JP Jim Palmer
LD Lenny Dykstra
TS Tom Seaver

These are not super rare autos as they fell around 1 in every 6 jumbo boxes, but now that the set is around 12 years old they are not popping up on eBay as much anymore. Madlock by far pops up the most. At the time I'm writing this only 4 show up on eBay with three being the Mad Dog.

If I'm recalling correctly I pulled the Dale Murphy from this set. The only reason I remember pulling that card was because it was my first ever purchase from Dave and Adams. Always amazing how looking at a card can make you remember the most random moments.

The Pirates are going for 8 in a row tonight. If this team can ever figure out how not to suck in April it would be a power house.

Have a great weekend.

Trade: Wish They Still Came With Bubble Gum

It didn't take much time for Jeff from the newer blog 'wish they still came with bubble gum' and I to get a trade together. Last week Jeff commented on one of my posts that he was holding some Buccos for me. Sure enough a few days later a bubble mailer was at more door loaded with Pirates, Steelers, Pens and even a Mountaineer.

If you are going to start trading you might as well start big. Bob Walk in all his flame throwing glory! 

Cutch got off to a slow start, but since the beginning of May he has been his old self. One more good month and he'll be right on pace with his career norms. He has actually been victim to a low babip. Once that comes up a little the counting stats will follow.

Sad to hear that Kingham needs Tommy John surgery. He was the most likely of the Pirate prospects to make an impact this year. The really unfortunate thing is that he'll miss the majority of next season as well and he was likely to play a huge part next year.

Nice mix of Bowman!

Josh Bell is the Pirate first baseman of the future. Be interesting to see what happens next year as it will be Pedro Alvarez's last arbitration year. I don't see really any scenario in which they keep Pedro so it looks like it may be Bell's job to lose two seasons from now.

 Some Topps color!

Marte as the main attraction and Marte as a backup piece. The Wandy card is one of my favorites last year as you get cameos from Josh Harrison, Burnett and Marte.

 Let's Go Mountaineers!

 Luc Robitaille is mainly remembered as a King, but he put up pretty good numbers as a Pen too.

 The Kordell Stewart is my favorite as it says wide receiver/quarterback.

Action kicking!

This is a great way to break the proverbial trading ice Jeff. Give me a little time to replenish some of my Braves. I had some crazy trading with JBF that emptied out the coffers, but I have reinforcements on the way. Looking forward to keeping this trading momentum going.

Thanks for reading

Trade: Waiting 'til Next Year

P-town Tom and I have put our foot to the pedal when it comes to swapping lately. It seems like every time I turn around I'm getting a cool pwe. Tom has found a treasure trove of Pirate autos as he has been feeding me new ones in every envelope.

Fogg only had a couple of certified autos during his playing days so this is a welcomed addition to the collection. While Fogg was not a very successful pitcher during his playing days I do have fond memories of watching him play when I was at my peak of attending games. Looking back at his numbers you have to wonder how he was able to stay in the league for so many seasons. I guess durability and the ability to eat innings pays off when you are on bad teams. 

 I talk about Benson a lot on here. Have to wonder what could have been if he stayed healthy.

Buddy Borden was drafted in the 7th round in 2013. What caught my eye about this card is how much he looks like Gerrit Cole on this card. I would be completely fine with him pitching that way too......

Ryan Doumit is an interesting what if player for the Pirates. Doumit was an offensive minded catcher who struggled staying healthy. A couple years into his career the Pirates started experimenting with him in the outfield, but scrapped the idea shortly after. Eventually he signed with the Twins, but his catching career hit a halt when defensive metrics starting becoming mainstream. Doumit would rate as one of the worst defensive catchers every year and was among the worst all time pitch framers. He recently announced his retirement after not finding work this year.

You have to wonder if Doumit was coming through the Pirates system now they would have caught onto this and made him an outfielder early on in his career. He was a switch hitter and had enormous power. His numbers could have easily projected out to 25-30 homers in a season. As a catcher he was always banged up, and of course the plate appearances are hampered by the regular days off needed to stay fresh. Hindsight is 20/20.

As far as I know Doumit only had one certified auto so his autos are not easy to come by. Great looking card.

Thanks for the great cards Tom! I'm still liking my prediction that the Central will get both wild cards. It has been fun watching the Cubs this year. Nice to see the Buccos finally hitting their stride too.

Thanks for reading.

Some Weekend Pics and a PWE From Play at the Plate

This weekend my wife and I joined her family for a getaway at a resort called Nemacolin Woodlands. While it feels like it is a million miles away it is actually less than an hour drive from my house. Lot's of stuff to keep you busy like golf and food and in trouble since they have a brand new casino.

 I actually got to play 18 holes of golf for the first time in about 5 years. When I was in banking golf was a common activity, but once I quit that job I pretty much stopped playing. If you follow the PGA Tour this course (Mystic Rock) was home to the 84 Lumber classic. It was way too nice of course for a schmuck like me to play on it, but my mother in law treated me so I did not complain.

 This is part of the main lobby area.

The family that owns the property has a pretty big art collection that is hanging throughout the property.

 In the distance is the 18th hole of the golf course.

This is part of the mini golf course. It was much more my speed.

Now for some cards.

Recently Brian from Play at the Plate offered up some cards via pwe. Since I'm never one to refuse free cards I claimed whatever Pirates Brian had available. 

I've been trying to get some more Burnett cards as a Pirate. He has been lights out this year for the Buccos. He announced at the beginning of the year that this would be his last, but the way he is going it wouldn't surprise me if he made another go at it. 

Oscar from All Trade Bait, All The Time  just talked about Rennie Stennett in his last post. He got to see an autographed baseball of hit #6 of  7 from that historic performance. Cool timing that Brian sent me this cool reissue of the card commemorating the event.

Cutch got off to a bad start this year. So much so that many were wondering he is hurt. Needless to say it was just a slump. He was named NL player of the week and is on fire. Pretty cool Walmart blue of the Pirates superstar.

Love the Pops! Dilson Herrera was traded to the Mets for Marlon Byrd for the playoff push in 2013. It was a hefty price to pay as Herrera has a high ceiling, but it helped propel the Pirates to the first playoff birth in 20 plus years.

Karstens just announced his retirement from baseball as he was having trouble coming back from arm and shoulder issues. It has been cool to see Brock Holt turn into useful piece for the Red Sox. He was part of the deal featuring Joel Hanrahan and Mark Melancon.

Thanks for the great cards Brian. Hope you are enjoying the Rangers destroying the ball the last couple of weeks. 

Thanks for reading.

Group Break: Nachos Grande

Recently Chris held another great group break. This time around he decided to go with a mix of newer products with a box of Museum Collection being the grand finale. Overall I did pretty well, especially in Gypsy Queen. Checkout the great stuff.

As usual with Chris's breaks he throws in some extras. I've mentioned before that I'm a big fan of Steve Pearce and I'm happy to see him find a home in Baltimore.

Nice to get a Cervelli Pirate card even if it is photoshopped. The highlight of all the Opening Day cards is the Parrot.

A couple of true rookies and Josh Bell. It is really looking like Bell will be with the Pirates possibly next year. He should be the first baseman of the future.

The mix of Bowman was really nice. Between this break and a couple of trades I've pretty much put this set to bed.

I love the flashback rookies. A lot of people don't remember that Alou was a Pirate. I'm actually getting ready to showoff the auto version of this card in the next week or so. Once I found out that card existed I was all in to find the auto

Another throw is was the Cooperstown Collection.  Even people that don't like Panini seem to like this set.

I'm always a little bit of a Panini apologist, but this set has seemed to bridge to gap between the haters of Panini and those who like their products. I was a big fan of the early 2000's version of this product so needless to say I'm a fan. This is going to be the next break in my collaboration with the Card Papoy.

The Gypsy Queen break was the best for me. It yielded a nice mix of base including a new Burnett featuring him in the Pirates uniform.

Cole cards are always welcomed.

My one mini was Pedro Alvarez.

My best card of the break was this framed Gerrit Cole. Always nice to get a hit, but extra bonus for being a favorite player.

Our Museum Collection box was pretty weak overall, but it did yield a numbered Pirate. High end sets often are hit or miss, and we seemed to miss pretty big on this one. I don't usually buy high end sets so it was nice buy in for a chance to hit big at a fraction of the cost.

Overall this break was pretty nice for Pirates and the hits overall had a nice balance. Figures the high end box would be one of the worst, although our GQ and Diamond Kings boxes more than made up for it. Thanks again Chris for hosting the breaks, I know these take a lot of time and work. I'll be sure to hit you up with some more Reds soon.

Thanks for reading.