Old Grilled Cheese

Little bit later of a post today as I was watching the Pirates finally remember how to beat the Cardinals. It looks like the Pirates bats are waking up after a 2 week slumber.

2014 Allen & Ginter Jason Grilli mini 1/1

If I recall a fellow blogger (maybe Greg of Plaschke, Thy Sweater is Argyle) tipped me off about this one. It was so long a go (sometime last year) I don't remember what I paid, but I'm guessing it was a good deal for me to pull the trigger. 

As a Pirate fan it is not a good practice to get to attached to bullpen arms. Neil Huntington has done a good job of cycling guys through over the years getting maximum value once their contract is approaching the end. Because of short tenures, the Pirate pen is not represented very well in terms of high end cardboard. Grilli and Joel Hanrahan are the only two to have multiple releases over the last handful of years.

A former first round bust, Grilli was close to being out of baseball before revitalizing his career with the Bucs. He proved to be a key component on the 2013 Buccos. While not one of my favorite Pirates I still try to add a card here and there when the opportunity presents itself. 

Thanks for reading!

One of my Collecting Flaws

I've been collecting all my life.  Like with most things, if you do something long enough bad habits show up at some point.  Case in point.  I buy most of my singles on eBay.  I'm one of the unfortunate souls that doesn't have a local card shop so this is the easiest way to obtain cards I want.  For the most part I do a decent job in monitoring how I spend my money to make sure I'm getting a good deal. Lately my own unwritten rules have been biting me in the butt.

2013 Topps Update Triple Jersey McCutchen/Alvarez/Grilli /25

Not a bad looking card. I liked it so much this is my second copy.  See I bought this same card way back last winter.  I pulled the trigger at that point because the triple jerseys are a tough find.  No regrets, the card has a good home in my collection.

A few weeks back another issue of the card makes it way on eBay.  I bid on it like an idiot because the price is low and it my mind I'm getting a good deal. Sometimes the thrill of a good price gives you tunnel vision.  Of course I win the card and now have two copies.  Sure I could justify it as a player collection and a team collection piece, but I don't catalog like that.  I should be slapped in the back of my head for spending money on a card that I already own.

Thankfully now that I have a lot of established trade partners cards can be passed along for something I do need. I just need to realize what I'm doing before I bid. There was an episode of South Park where Cartman was pumped up that Walmart had a three pack of DVDs containing only the movie Time Cop for $18.  He was pumped that it was such a great price.  That was me this time.....

Anybody have similar stories?

My First 2014 Allen and Ginter Card

2014 Allen & Ginter Jason Grilli Mini 1/1

Excuse the poor picture as I had to use my phone.  Big thanks goes out to Greg from Plaschke Thy Sweater is Argyle as he is the one who brought this auction to my attention.  Grilli cards have never been that expensive, but are now even more affordable after he was dealt to the Angles.  This 1/1 was purchased last week for around $15.  Good price for a 1/1!

1/1 Letter Patch

Jason Grilli 2014 Topps Series 1 Letter Patch 1/1

Normally my wife and I travel a good bit in the summer, but as most of you know my surgery has put a halt to any plans of leaving town.  My days are spent in a recliner watching baseball with lots of Internet exploring mixed in between. Not a bad set up for sure, but cabin fever starts to hit pretty hard after the first week. Now it has been two weeks and I'm sure I'm driving my wife nuts.  I'm sure she is happy to leave for work every morning so she doesn't have to listen to me threaten to drive off somewhere to get out of the house.  In my mind I'm still my active 31 year old self, but in reality my leg begs to differ.  

With my new found free time I've spent a good bit of it on eBay.  For the most part I've been striking out trying to add Pirates except for adding the Grilli card above.  I've seen several letter patches for McCutchen, but this is the first one that I've noticed of Grilli.  Thankfully I won the auction and was able to add my first 1/1 of the former Pirate closer.  

Grilli was traded to the Angels not long after I added this card for Ernesto Frieri.  You don't often see two struggling closers get traded straight up for each other, but I suppose both GM's thought  a change of scenery would be beneficial for both to regain value.  The benefit for the Pirates is that Frieri is only 28 years old and has several years of team control left while Grilli is 37 years old and in the last year of his contract. The Pirates have had luck with turning around struggling bullpen arms in the past (Joel Hanrahan, Mark Melancon) so hopefully history can repeat itself again with Frieri.  

My hope is that I can venture down a few stairs to get to my cards this weekend.  If so, it is my intention to send out a bunch of cards in the mail.  While I was unable to add many cards to my collection lately on eBay I've had better luck adding trade bait for some of my blogger friends!  

Thanks for reading!

Call to the Bullpen

Being a small market team means you have to be thrifty in certain areas.  One area in which Pirates GM Neil Huntington has excelled in both controlling costs and getting value is the constuction of the bullpen.  Much of the teams success last year was their ability to close out tight games.  The Pirates have made great use of advanced metrics to see value in guys that fell out of favor with other teams.  Ignoring stats like ERA and focusing on k rates and xfip has found them many diamonds in the rough.

At some point I will touch base on all these guys (Wilson, Watson and Melancon) because they all have had very interesting paths to the big leagues and the Pirates, but none more than Jason Grilli.  Once a former first round pick, Grilli became the quintessential journeyman.  He balanced around the league as a journeyman bullpen piece.  After a subpar 2009 season Grilli found himself out of the major leagues in 2010.  In 2011 Grilli was pitching for the Phillies AAA squad and was released in the summer.  The very next day the Pirates signed Grilli and the rest is history.

Grilli embraced his second chance with the Bucs.  After finishing strong in 2011 Grilli would setup closer Joel Hanrahan in 2012.  He was unhittable most of the season.  Grilli mastered a wipeout slider and was among the league leaders in k's per 9 innings at over 13. 

With a season and half of success behind him Grilli became a free agent and was a sought after target.  Thankfully he felt obligated to give back to the city of Pittsburgh and signed a 2 year 6.75 million deal.  He said he felt comfortable in Pittsburgh and was thankful for his second chance.

2012 proved not to be a fluke as Grilli put together another stellar year in 2013 as the primary closer.  He was a key part in the Buccos ending the two decades worth of losing and misery.  He earned his first All Star appearance and became a fan favorite as the Pirates made the playoffs for the first time in over 20 years. 

The card above is from the 2013 Topps Update set.  It is numbered out of /25.  I was a huge fan of last years Update set as it had many All Star themed cards of Pirates. 

A Work in Progress

Hello Blog World,

My name is Matt and I'm a diehard Pittsburgh Pirates and West Virginia Mountaineers fan.  I've been collecting cards my whole life and have accumulated thousands of game used and autographed memorabilia.  My goal in blog world is to meet other card lovers and establish trade partners.  I'm working on scanning my collection to sportscardalbums.com to have a visual guide to what I have in my collection.  Feel free to drop me a line as I love to talk cards and sports in general.  Let me know what you like to collect and I can start picking up stuff.  I have a few friends who collect so I might be able to find something you like or need.

The card above was picked up on Ebay before the holidays and is numbered to /25.  It is from 2013 Topps Update.   The set had lots of Pirates in it including many All Star variations.  I'm currently looking for the Jason Grilli jumbo patch and jumbo patch auto.  Each is numbered out of /6.