Fuji Trade

My good pal Fuji surprised me with a package last week. From the looks of it around the community he might have hit everyone.  You've been busy my friend. 

I've always liked this card. Don Slaught is just chilling and taken in all the action.  My guess is he isn't coming up to bat anytime soon. Also Desert Storm cards are awesome!

Here we have international sex symbol Mike Spanky Lavalliere. The guy just oozes athleticism.  Spanky actually still helps out the Bucco catchers during Spring Training.

This is a very catcher centric start to this post.  Ryan Doumit played for the Bucs for parts of 7 seasons. He would often flash some great offensive skills, but ultimately injury and defense kept him from reaching a higher status. Once the saber crowd started fine tuning catcher metrics it would show that Doumit was a historically bad catcher.

With all the negatives I still enjoyed Doumit. He was a funny guy that was easy to root for.  One has to wonder if the Pirates had committed to a position change if his career patch would have been different.

I have a few of these in my collection.  It looks like Freddy put on about 30lbs in this sketch. 

Pinnacle is always fun and I love collecting Pirates from the era right after the playoff years.  The Kevin Young is my favorite.

I don't think I have any of these in my collection so I was happy to see these. This is arguably Panini's best set.

Great shots all around with the Jay Bell being my favorite.

I've been begging for some more Pirate related Bonilla cards.  Please put him in Fan Favorites.

Early Cutch!

Man, Myth and Legend to finish things off.


Really appreciate you including me in your mass mailing Fuji.

Thanks for reading!

Trade: The Chronicles of Fuji

My quest to finish out my 2016 trade packages continues with a long time trade partner Fuji.  I think Fuji sent out something to just about everyone in the blogging community to close out his super trading. I was happy to be included in that mix.

 BWTP favorite Jason Bay.

 Nyjer Morgan aka Tony Plush was an interesting guy. Last I heard he was still playing in Japan. The weird thing was he never really started going crazy during interviews until he left Pittsburgh.  It reached peak weird when he was with the Brewers.

 Finest is one of my favorite sets every year. It is always a little too expensive to bust a box, but I'll look for singles like crazy on eBay.  This is a nice parallel /99.

 /100!!!!

 The Pirates dropped the ball a little bit on Womack.  I think they must have thought he was washed up, but he would go on to have some nice years with the Dbacks.

Donruss Signature Series is so nice.

 Freddy Sanchez was on the hall of fame ballot this year!  Injuries derailed the former batting champs career. At least he played a big part in a World Series with the Giants.

 I talked a good bit about Press Pass Football the other day, but much of the same could be said for basketball as well.  Every year I would scope out the WVU guys that would be in the sets and hunt them like crazy.

 The Steelers had a thing for drafting quarterbacks and turning them into receivers.

 This was a nice surprise! I don't have many nice Steeler patches just because they demand such a premium on the secondary market. Archer is a Buffalo Bill these days.

 Pretty nice bunch of cards right here! I think my favorite is either the Dave Cash or the 70 NL Batting Leaders card.

 I really need to do a Jason Kendall centric post.  The guy has some all time great cards.  For whatever reason he was captured in some of the coolest cards.

I cringe every time I see Bixler.  Unfortunately I went all in on him as a prospect and he failed miserably.

Gold edition!!!!

Thanks for all the great cards Fuji! I know you probably don't want anything in return, but sometimes I don't listen very well. :)

Thanks for reading.

Trade: The Chronicles of Fuji

I was one of the fortunate recipients of Fuji's mass mailing last week. He pretty much bombed the entire blogosphere with one last hurrah before he takes a break from trading. 

Prizm autos have gradually improved each year since its inception. Always cool to get the former Pirate closers auto as he had to fight to make it in the big leagues. Once a 1st round pick, he eventually fizzled out. Fortunately he stuck with it and got back into the majors in his mid 30's and turned himself into a late inning reliever. 

Some hockey! Filewich was a guy who tore it up in the minor leagues, but never gained any traction in the NHL. As far as I know he is out of hockey. 

Proud mullet wearer Zane Smith featured in one of the greatest auto sets of all time. 

This was the first card that caught my eye in the bubble mailer. I've been going back and trying to find some harder to find Bells. This Finest card is a great addition.

Womack was a fan favorite that the Pirates let go for nothing. This is the platinum version /99 from Ultra. Great double play shot. 

This auto has had quite a history. When Duke burst onto the scene this card skyrocketed in value. I remember seeing $50+. Duke would flame out pretty quick as a starter, but like Grilli reinvented himself as a reliever. Last offseason he signed a big multi year deal with White Sox. 

Fuji probably knows I'm a sucker for Bay. 

One thing the Steelers have been good at over the years is letting go of guys at the right time. Mike Wallace  had some big seasons for the Steelers, but they let him walk during free agency. Turned out to be a shrewd move as he hasn't come close to matching his numbers in the black and gold. 

I think this is my first Markus Wheaton card. Pretty happy to get this one! 

Mclouth was always one of my favorites as he was never a big prospect but forced the Pirates hand as he hit well at all stages of the minors. He is a guy I still regularly shop for on eBay as I'm still missing a decent amount of his parallels. I heard conflicting reports on numbering on these cards as some were signed in blue ink too. 

Gypsy Queen relics are always pretty nice. They blend into the card better than most.

Warren Morris had a decent amount of hype when the Pirates traded Esteban Loiza to the Rangers. While his career didn't pan out he has some cool cardboard out there. This Autographics is pretty sweet.

Kendall is another guy whom I'm trying to round out my collection. His Pirate career was at the earlier stages of the relic/auto boom so he is represented fairly well. 

Another Leaf on card auto!!!1

Really awesome to see this Tony Pena. I've tried several times to win this card, but it proved to be elusive. Thanks to Fuji it is now mine! Pena was a good player for the Pirates, but he is probably best remembered as the key component that netted the Pirates Andy Van Slyke.

More Kendall!!!

Thanks for all the great cards Fuji. It's always fun to go through the packages you sent out. While we may be on a break with trades, I may keep a few things set aside for you. 

Thanks for reading! 

Trade: The Chronicles of Fuji

Fuji was nice enough to include me in has latest round of mailings. This hit oriented trade package was full of some big names. 

Off to a fast start with this Mad Dog auto. This will make a nice edition to my growing Madlock collection.

 Boom! A Cobra autograph to compliment the Mad Dog. Always fun to accumulate cards of the late 70's Pirates.

Here is a set you don't see pop up much in the blogosphere. Museum Collection is one of Topps premium lines and a set that I've never messed with too much.  From the looks of it the sets are fairly small and have a handful of different parallels. The Blue Marte is /99 and the emerald Lambo is /199. What a great surprise!

 Womack was one of my favorites in the late 90's. I was so pissed when the Pirates let him go.

Justin Wilson was traded to the Yankees this offseason for Francisco Cervelli. Wilson is a lefty reliever who throws hard so he should see a good bit of late inning action with the Yankees. While it always stings to lose a homegrown guy, anytime you can turn relievers into everyday players you make the trade.

Did you know Evan Meek was an All Star. Yeah, the Pirates were really bad that year. 

A nice Chrome auto of Jason Jaramillo. When I won Jaybarker's World Cup of Trading this year my grand prize was a Jaramillo game used bat!

It was really hard to keep track of the parallels in this set.  All I know is that I have a ton of them and always seem to have one pop up that I've never seen before. Always happy to add more Freddy's to the collection.

Pirate fans had a tendency to over value our own farm system. When Bixler was shooting through the Pirates system I thought for sure he was going to be our next big thing. Obviously since most of you have never heard of Brian Bixler you know how this story ends.

 Some cool Bobby Bo's. I like how the Mets are paying him for the next 20 years.

More Womack!

This is a really neat oddball of Jim Bunning. It would be fun to find all the cards associated with this set. Today KDKA is the Pittsburgh CBS affiliate. 

Adam Hyzdu was another top tier Pirate prospect that never quite panned out. This was a constant theme in the 90's and early 2000's.

Clean shaven Walk!

Thanks for the great cards Fuji. I know work has been stressful for you lately, so I really appreciate you thinking of me. I'll start working on another package to send your way soon! 

Thanks for reading.