Autograph Evolution (Andrew McCutchen)

After a month of work mayhem that included me going in on the weekends, I finally had time to mess with my cards. Between organization and blogging it was the most love they've gotten since before Christmas. It's the little things in life!

Also as an extra bonus my wife kicked me out of the house to get some "me" time today. That usually includes me going up to Target to buy some cards. This time around I was able to get some 2015 Topps blasters. I also ate some unhealthy food and drank a beer at one of my favorite bars in town. Got to check out a documentary about the 1980 USSR Olympic hockey team. Quality alone time!

Back to blog business...

When looking through my McCutchen autos I thought it would be neat to show a progression of how his autos have changed over the years. Check this out.

 2005 Bowman Sterling Auto/Jersey

 2005 Bowman Heritage Red Auto /51

2007 Bowman Auto

In the early Cutch autos he would sign most of the name. This is probably due to the fact that he really didn't have many releases. At this time he had the three shown above plus a Topps Chrome and Aflac rookie. I'm only missing the Aflac version. It is by far his most rare and expensive release.

 2009 Upper Deck SPX Auto

The auto starts to get a little faster in 2009. You can see the first name shortened and the last name is rather sloppy. This 2009 SPX card took me a while to track down.  I don't think I actually bought it until 2011.

 2010 Allen & Ginter Auto

As Cutch made his debut in 2009 his auto demand went way up. Thus the shortened version of his auto was born. All things considered it is not a bad auto considering the length of his name and the amount of times he has to sign. Much sharper than the 2009 version.

This A&G card is one of my favorites in my collection.

 2011 Topps Marquee Auto/Jersey/Patch /70

He tends to keep his stickers and on card autos pretty close. 

 2012 Topps Museum Collection Auto /299

On card version.

2014 Donruss Series 2 Auto

This is the newest auto I have, although it was probably signed a few years back since it is a sticker. It has been a while since Andrew has singed anything on card.

Kind of neat to see how things change as a guy gets more popular. Time permitting I would like to do this with some of the other Pirates.

Thanks for reading!

Daydreaming

It's funny how some things never change.  Back when I was in college it was easy to get distracted in class. Sometimes I was just sit there thinking about where I was going to drink beer that night or do a crossword puzzle in the school newspaper. Normal college stuff.  Really hot college girls didn't help with attention span either....

Today I was sitting in training discussing pertinent issues to my job. One speaker in particular was incredibly boring. I found myself daydreaming about cards and crap I needed to do when I get home. Must be something about crappy Powerpoint presentations that can put my generation to sleep. You would figure subconsciously you would become more engaged as you get older, but sit me down in a group of 50 people listening to presenters talk about cost sharing and I'm ready to sleep or thinking of better ways I need to organize my collection.

Here is the type of stuff that keeps my intention

Right before I left for Houston I received these two Donruss Series 2 autos in the mail.  I actually stole the images off of eBay as I didn't have time to get them scanned before I left. For some reason Topps and Panini both included a ton of Andrew Lambo autos in their products this year. Even high end sets included him. Lambo really hasn't been a prospect for quite sometime. He had a chance to earn time at first base this past year, but struggled in spring training then got hurt in AAA. It's hard to imagine a situation where he finds the field for the Pirates this years as well.

Starling Marte is one my favorite Pirates. When healthy he is a 5 tool player. He had a monster second half this past season and accumulated almost 5 WAR. If Marte continues to build on the second half of the season he will be an All Star caliber outfielder. The young Pirate outfield is very exciting. 

The seller that I purchased these autos from had a ton of Series 2 autos that went off for a great price. I purchased as many as I could and will sprinkle some to my blog friends in the next few weeks. His auctions didn't get much action as they ended the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. 

Thanks for reading!