Performance Enhanced Blog Posts

Starling Marte was busted for PED's a couple weeks into the season. His suspension has had quite the trickle down effect for the Buccos.  Coming into the season you could make the argument that Marte was the Pirates best all around player and maybe the hardest guy to replace. His suspension, plus some other key absences has put the Pirates behind the eight ball at what has turned out to be a wide open division. Who knows where the Pirates would have been having a non cheating Marte plus a sober Jung Ho Kang. That is about 8 War worth of players right there.

While I'm angry at Marte's greediness I still like to collect his cards. Maybe that is a bit hypocrytical of me, but hey....it is my collection.

Marte has a good following on eBay.  His new releases sell for good money.  The deals can be found on older releases.  It also help that some people have soured on him after the suspension. The below lot cost me about $10.

 While Prizm lacks a license you do get a nice on card auto.

This is a sepia auto parallel /75 form 2016 Triple Threads. 

The seller had several Pirate cards, but the only other one I could win was this Brock Holt Chrome rookie auto.  Holt made his major league debut as a Pirate, but was traded the following offseason to the Red Sox in the Mark Melancon deal.  The trade was odd in that Melancon and Holt were secondary pieces at the time, but turned into the centerpieces almost immediately. 

As a fan of the Pirates I'm upset that Marte knowingly cheated the system. Ultimately he has to answer to his teammates and the fans. I'm just not one of those holier than now people that shun a guy after the suspension.  Once he serves his time I will continue to root for Marte. I have better things to do than boo athletes.  

Thanks for reading. 

Allure of Rainbows

I applaud any attempt to try and complete the card rainbow.  It is a borderline crazy venture that involves a hefty dose of both time and money. For me I've only attempted it once and failed about two months into the project. Damn work travel cut into eBay watching. 

My attempt centered around the Kevin Newman and Kevin Kramer 2016 Topps Pro Debut cards. Both guys are featured in the WV Black Bears uniform. It was the first major release to show the new Morgantown WV based franchise.  I actually hit the ground running by finding the true 1/1 base Kramer card and a couple of plates of Kevin Newman. I hit a snag when I missed out an insert plate of Kevin Newman when I was in Rhode Island in September. I'm still looking for the cards, but the chance of getting all the low numbered stuff is about 0%. 

With that being said budget friendly versions of the cardboard rainbow do exist. If you limit yourself to the 3-5 card variation range and exclude the Mike Trout's of the world you can get a nice looking sample without having to break the bank for the 1/1's.  

Sometime sellers will even do the work for you. One of the eBay sellers I buy from the most is someone that is breaking up his Pirates collection. He often lists mini rainbow lots of players. Such was the case with this Brock Holt lot. 

Holt only played a short time in Pittsburgh as he was traded to the Red Sox in the Joel Hanrahan/Mark Melancon deal.  Holt wasn't a big prospect at the time, but turned himself into one of the better super utility players in baseball.

I'm a big college sports fan so I'm a sucker for Donruss Elite products. Holt is shown in his Rice Owls uniform which is a deterrent for many collectors but a selling point for me.  This is especially true if WVU is involved. Panini has done a nice job utilizing the college license for MLB releases lately.

Thanks for reading.