Paying Tribute

I think this is the only Aramis Ramirez card that I ever wanted and struggled to find. While his first tenure was short as a Pirate he did leave a decent amount of cardboard featuring him in the Bucco uniform. 

For whatever reason Topps decided to make an auto of him featured in the Bucco uniform in 2012.  I didn't really understand the thought process, but was happy to see the card made.  The weird thing is not many hit auction and most of the BIN prices were way more than I wanted to spend. 

2012 Topps Tribute Aramis Ramirez auto /99

Thankfully I stumbled into this card while purchasing another card. My usual practice is to see if the seller offers combined shipping and has anything else for sell.  Fortunately I found this card for $4. Not bad at all. 

Thanks for reading! 

Diamond Cuts

I'm starting to get excited.  After a mishap by Dell, my new computer should be arriving Friday or Saturday. While I've been surviving with phone scanner apps and my laptop, I miss BWTP headquarters. I've been holding back some of the bigger trade packages I've received for my big scanner.  Looking forward to catching up.

Some new cards!

I've been picking up quite a few new cards lately, but they have been mostly WVU.  I may show them off at some point, but lets show my recent Bucco purchases. 

 2005 Diamond Kings Aramis Ramirez Auto/Bat/Jersey /100

2005 Diamond Kings Aramis Ramirez Auto/Bat /100

I'm a huge sucker for Diamond Kings as many of you know.  It was a rare Pirate heavy checklist with some hidden gems.  One of the bigger names in the set was Aramis Ramirez.  I'm pumped to add these two autos to the collection. Yeah, I know they are stickers....I'm just not as caught up on that as some. 

The purchase actually included one more card, but it was 1/1!!! I'll show it in the next few days. 

Thanks for reading!

Bulk Buy

I've been relatively quiet on eBay the last 6 weeks or so.  Most of my purchases have been small additions to my WVU collection. The first month or so was by design, but lately I just haven't found much of anything that grabbed my attention.  I'll grab some of the Pirate Bowman cards eventually, but right now prices are a little steep.

My only big purchase happened right before I left for my conference in Rhode Island.  It looks fancy but the price was below $20.

All these patch cards are from 2005 Prime Patches. The first 3 are /99 and are from the number. The next two /51 and are name plate patches.  At the end is the logo patch /38.

Aramis Ramirez is a fun guy to collect because his cards are dirt cheap.  All these patch cards were from one lot and only cost around $16 plus shipping.  While I knew these weren't going to get big money I thought they would go more in the $25-$30 range because of the quality of the patches. It just reaffirmed that Ramirez is one of those that just doesn't sell well.  That is ok with me as this made a nice addition to my collection!

I know I've mentioned it a 1000 times, but his trade is one of the main reasons the Pirates were bad for so long.  By far the worst trade in the teams history.  Makes me half sick thinking about it. Maybe the Cubs can send us Kris Bryant to even things out...?

Thanks for reading.

Start and Finish

Today Aramis Ramirez announced his official retirement from MLB. While never a superstar, he was super productive after the Pirates traded him to the Cubs for some rubber bands and a wiffle ball bat. I've touched on that trade a lot, but it is best summed up as God awful. He would go on to make 3 All Star games and have a fantastic 10 year peak. While not quite Hall of Fame level he ranks in the top 20 in most of the major counting stats all time for third baseman.

I liked the trade when the Pirates managed to get Ramirez before the serious trade rumors had started. Both Josh Harrison and Jordy Mercer suffered major injuries and the Pirates had little in the way of internal options. Ramirez was well past his prime, but still had some pop and could handle the hot corner adequately until Harrison and Mercer got healthy.

The thing that I found super confusing was batting Ramirez cleanup. For a team like the Pirates who are considered very Saber inclined this seemed like an odd decision. At this point in his career Ramirez was probably the 6th or 7th best hitter in the lineup.

With that being said it was kind of cool for him to get one more chance at a championship. While it didn't work out because of Jake Arrieta, he still played a part in helping the Pirates stay afloat while the injury bug hit. I read that he wants to stay in baseball in some capacity that doesn't involve management. He specifically referenced Moises Alou's job in which he helps in player development. Maybe the Pirates will hire him.

Just as a side note he made almost 150 million in his career. If you hit homeruns in the mid 2000's you got paid.

Ramirez is represented well card wise in the Bucco uniform. He was a big prospect that debuted in the late 90's at the infancy of the auto/relic boom so plenty exist.  Here is a small sampling of some cards I own.

Thanks for reading!

Short Term Fixes, Mailings and ARam

My home computer is still down hence the quiet blogging weekend. I know the issue is the hard drive so I'm going to give it a look today and determine the degree of the fix needed. I know sometimes when you run a Dell diagnostics test it will say the hard drive failed but the fix needed is much less serious. I hope that is the case as this computer is still relatively new. Either way I should be back to operating normal schedule by mid week.

Once I'm back up and running I have over 20 envelopes to send out to my blogging friends! I utilize stamps.com and all my saved information is on my desktop so once it is fixed many of you will be getting an envelope including the contest winners. I've accumulated a lot of trade bait since my last mass mailing.

Hey, how about a card...

2005 Prime Patches Aramis Ramirez Patch /39

Injuries really threw things out of whack for the Pirates at the trade deadline. Third base actually was a strength for the Pirates as they had Josh Harrison and Jung Ho Kang. Once Harrison and Jordy Mercer got hurt the Pirates hands hand was forced. Not wanting replacement level players like Brent Morel manning the hot corner, the Pirates were quick to acquire Aramis Ramirez from the Brewers.

The silver lining in all of this has been the emergence of Kang as the everyday shortstop. Even with about 100 less at bats he has accumulated 3 WAR already which puts him around 3rd overall for shortstops.

Ramirez got off to a slow start for the Buccos, but has been coming on the last 10 games. I wasn't a fan of him batting cleanup but lately he has begun to justify the decision. It will be interesting to see how things shake out once Harrison and Mercer are activated. Ramirez has been taking grounders at first so that might help when we play left handed pitching, but we'll have a logjam facing right handed pitching.  Either way it is a nice problem to have.

I'm just thankful they've kept their head above water the last few weeks. The starting pitching as been a little suspect the last few weeks, but the offense and bullpen have picked up the slack. Check the brutal schedule since August 4th...

Cubs
Dodgers
Cardinals
Mets

Upcoming
Dbacks
Giants

So far they've won 8 of 11 games thanks to sweeps of the Dodgers and Mets. Hopefully they can continue to play well while they get healthy.

Thanks for reading!

What Goes Around Comes Around

The Pirates depth has taken a huge hit the last few weeks with the loss of Josh Harrison and Jordy Mercer. Jung Ho Kang has been great this year and was filling in just fine for Harrison.  The loss of Mercer is what started an unfortunate chain of events that caused the Pirates to be more proactive at the deadline.

As a whole the Pirates farm system is pretty deep, but if it has one flaw it is void of high end upper level infielders. Alen Hanson could have possibly been called up, but he was moved from shortstop to second last year because of defense. The Pirates were left with the likes of Brett Morel and Pedro Florimon.  The writing was on the wall.

The Pirates had options at the deadline because of the versatility of Kang. You could either explore a shortstop and move Kang back to third, or find a third baseman so Kang can stay at his natural position. I'm sure the need for more offense made it easier to explore third base options. Sure enough the Pirates acquired Aramis Ramirez yesterday.

The Brewers received minor league pitcher Yhonathan Barrios, but it was more about getting some salary relief. Barrios was going to be a Rule 5 player next year and the Pirates weren't going to protect him. Ramierez was owed almost 6 million in salary and the Pirates agreed to pick up 3 million.

While not the player he once was, he will be an obvious upgrade over the likes of Morel and Sean Rodriguez who are both replacement level players. I'm sure if he can just give league average performance at third the Pirates would be ecstatic. He should fit right in batting 5th or 6th in the lineup.

I'm hoping this is some kind of cosmic justice and that Aramis will play well down the stretch and lead us to the World Series. His trade from the Pirates was the worst in team history and one of the root causes of the 20 years of consecutive losing. Feels odd that he is ending his career with the Buccos, but I'll take it. 

Thanks for reading!

DOH!

Every franchise has trades that they wish they could take back.  Sometimes these can be so catastrophic that they have ripple effects that can be felt for years down the road.  As we approach the trade deadline you will often see articles on the worst trades in the history of baseball.  Obviously Babe Ruth usually tops these lists, but I wanted to to showcase two trades from the Pirates that should have never happened.

2002 Donruss Fan Club Auto Aramis Ramirez

In 2001 Aramis Ramirez hit 34 homeruns, 40 doubles with a batting average of .300.  It looked like they had found a young superstar in the making.  2002 came around and Ramirez hurt his ankle, but played through the injury (some reports say the Pirates made him play through it).  This zapped his production. Cubs GM Jim Hendry thought this might be a good buy low time on Ramirez and offered Jose Hernandez, Bobby Hill and a minor league pitcher.  The Pirates jumped on the deal and the rest is history.  Ramirez went on to be one of the most productive third baseman in the past 10 years and the Pirates continued their losing ways for another 12 years.  This is the consensus worst trade in franchise history.  It was a low point during the record losing streak.

2006 Topps Series 2 Jose Bautista Auto

Jose Bautista was never a great player for the Pirates.  Any Pirate fan that says they could see him developing the way he did is lying.  Bautista credits the Blue Jays hitting coach with fixing a flaw in his swing so its reasonable to say that he might have never put up the huge power numbers if he had stayed with the Pirates.  Bautista was going to lose a good bit of his playing time to newly acquired Andy Laroche at third so instead of playing Bautista as super utility guy the Pirates immediately traded him to the Blue Jays for minor league catcher Robinzon Diaz.  The rest is history.  Laroche turned out to be a bust and Bautista blossomed into one of the more feared power hitters in the game.  I'm happy for Joey Bats that he blossomed into a great player.....just wish the Pirates were smart enough to see this potential.  

Thankfully now the Pirates have changed how the front office evaluates talent and seem to have put these types of deals behind him.  I don't think I could stomach another Aramis Ramirez situation.  They are signing young talent to long term extensions and evaluating the free agent market better. 

Have a nice weekend!