Oscar Sends Some Holiday Cheer

I'm still experimenting with some phone scanner apps to get me by until I buy a new desktop computer. So I apologize for bad cropping.  

Right before Christmas I had a nice surprise PWE from my pal Oscar.  I think he hit everyone up in a huge wave of three mass shipments.  That is a great way to spread some holiday cheer.  Nothing beats a cardboard Christmas! 

Both Harrison and Cole have a ton of trade rumors surrounding them.  As an outsider looking in it is easy to understand why.  Harrison signed a multi year deal a couple of years back.  He had a terrible year right after signing it and it looked like the deal was going to be under water.  Thankfully Harrison balanced back last year and had a nice 3 WAR season.  I'm sure the Pirates don't want to risk the possibility of him falling back again and looking to get the deal off the books. 

As a fan the Cole trade rumors are a little harder to swallow.  In order for the Pirates to be good next year they will need Cole on the hill and Cutch in the outfield.  Cole has had some extreme variance the last three years in performance.  In 2015 he was a bona fide ace, 2016 he was hurt most of the year and 2017 he was plagued by the long ball.  With only two years of control the Pirates have to weigh keeping him on the roster or cashing in for minor league assets.  My gut says he will be gone before Spring Training.

Such a great card.  While he was a good player for the Pirates he is probably more remembered being part of the deal that netted Van Slyke for the Buccos.

Smith and Smiley were both key arms in the early 90's playoff teams.

Man, do the Buccos ever need Glasnow to tap into his potential.  He was a train wreck at the MLB level last year. 

Thanks for the nice holiday surprise Oscar.  Happy Holidays my friend.

Thanks for reading.

The Best Kind of Christmas Cards

I'm in my mid 30's so just about every Christmas card I receive has pictures of all our friends families dressed up.  My wife was a good sport this year and only put our daughter on the card.  I despise coordinated pictures. She is always the star anyway, my wife and I are just space fillers.  

Maybe next year I'll make a Bob Walk the Plank oriented Christmas card. I bet my uncle would love a 1990 Bob Walk Donruss card.  Maybe if my wife decides we need to be in the picture again, I'll photoshop Bob Walk in.  Hooray great ideas!!!! 

Speaking of holiday cards my pal Angus sent a nice baseball themed one my way a couple of weeks back. It had some nice cardboard surprises inside that needed a formal thank you. 

Off Season's Greetings!

Is Kellogg's cards the king of the oddballs?  It would probably get my vote.

It was cool of Angus to throw this card my way.  I'm pretty sure it was pack pulled! Love sets that feature the college uniform.

So much awesomeness in one scan.  Teke by default wins just about every cardboard comparison, but this would be a close race.  You have the rugged good looks of the Candy Man and the always top notch Mad Dog and Cobra.

Thanks again for all the cards Angus.  I hope you are enjoying the warmth of Arizona. 

Thanks for reading!

Kin Picks me Up

I'm seeing the finish line after a long stretch of extended work hours. That alone puts me in a better mood, but the generosity of some of my cardboard buddies has really put it over the top. This most recent installment is from fellow WVU alum Kin.  He also included a nice letter which was a cool touch. 

Steve Kline played his college ball at WVU and is probably best known for his tenure in St. Louis as a left handed reliever in the early 2000's. He is more famous in our community for this great Ultra card.  I actually have a Steve Kline story.  A bunch of my friends went to a Pirates/Cardinals game in Pittsburgh while I was in college.  We jokingly yelled Let's go Mountaineers to him and he came and signed a bunch of stuff for us and chatted for a minute.  Cool guy for sure. 

Again I apologize for the odd looking scans.  With my crazy long work schedule I haven't had much time to at least attempt to fix my main home desktop computer.  Lot's of phone pics and scanning apps. 

I've never met a Jason Bay auto I want/like.   Kin knows my weakness for Canada's greatest export.

When this card first came out it was among the hottest Pirate releases of the year.  Both guys had considerable prospect pedigree so prices weren't exactly cheap.  Bell had a pretty good rookie year and looks to be a nice piece in the years to come.  Glasnow is more of an enigma.  The guy has dominated the AAA level, but has yet to show anything at the MLB level.  He is a tall guy (6"8) so according to scouts he has a hard time repeating his delivery, thus his command turns to shit.

Prime Patches is one of those sets that when you think you have everything under the sun a new card pops up.  I bet there is something like 30 variations of Bay cards in the set.  I love all of them.  I have a sickness and Kin is an enabler.  

My NFL fandom dwindles some every year.  I enjoy watching the Steelers when time permits, but I really don't care if they win or lose.  Even after the controversial call in the Patriots game on Sunday I just kind of laughed and went on with my day.  With that being said I do enjoy watching videos of fans absolutely losing their shit when stuff like this happens.  That is always worth a laugh.

Collecting wise I still enjoy receiving as many Steelers cards as I can.  I like seeing the different football sets.

A touch of gold on the "S" makes this a two color patch!

Artifacts was a fun Upper Deck set.

Morozov and Lang were both members of the Pens when I would take advantage of their student rush program.  Basically you paid $25 bucks and got the best available ticket.  Sometimes you could get lucky and get some really nice seats.  One time we had 8 people in our group thinking we would have to split up, but the Pens gave us box seats.

LOVE these autos!!!  The Lang especially as he had some crazy good years with the Pens.

Jason Kendall and Brian Giles are often my only options when looking for Pirate hits in the late 90's early 2000's. EX seemed to fancy and unattainable when it came out.  Now my cardboard friends just send them to me out of the blue.  What a world!

Here is a card right in my wheelhouse.  Just the other day I was showcasing a Sean Casey printing plate featuring him in the Pirates uniform.  I'm such a sucker for short termed Buccos.  Kenny Lofton played awesome during his half season as a Bucco.  He only has a few cards that document his stay.  This 205 relic is one of the best.

Some numbered cards of current Steelers including superstars Bell and Brown.

Nice that Kin sends me WVU cards being that he collects them himself.  I think I may be the benefactor of him narrowing his scope which I'm completely fine with.

I'm not one of those people that think the old way of doing things is better than any recent version, but with auto cards it may be true.  Early autograph sets seemed to go with the less is more mantra which you don't see much in current auto sets.  Early sets like this SP auto, Donruss and Leaf were all top notch.

Kramer played in Morgantown as a Black Bear two seasons back and Gyorko is from Morgantown and a former Mountaineer.

Also, I love the Martin Donruss Studio card.

Man that Jose Guillen card was a must have back around his debut time for the Buccos.  He would go on to have a pretty nice career, but the Pirates called him up too early.  He would be up and down several times which most believe stunted his development.  My favorite thing about Guillen was his absolute cannon of an arm.

Kin comes in strong at the end with two great Bob Walk's.  Little known fact is that Bob Walk ended Desert Storm on his own.

Thanks for the nice surprise package Kin.  I'll need to think about how I'm going to hit you back.

Thanks for reading.

Summer of 74

Rat enthusiast and freelance author Matt Prigge recently sent me a package of Pirate goodness. Here is a link to Matt's blog if you don't follow him.  He is also active on Twitter so give him a follow on there as well.  

Matt is one of those collectors I envy because of his detailed want lists.  I'm sure many of you can work out a deal.  I need to take a look and hook Matt up with some return fire here soon! More people should collect Joey Votto.  He is awesome.  

Lets dig into the contents of the bubble mailer. 

I would be more on board with these if they used a different design than the flagship cards.  Does that stop me from wanting them in my collection......nope.  Matt was a nice enough to hook me up with several.

Here is Marte letting the snow hit his hands.

Cutch is taking time to admire a homerun and the beautiful snow. He may be under dressed for the weather.

Here are three prospects in the Pirates system that I've seen in Morgantown.  Kramer's stock went up this past year.

Some people don't like these team cards, but I'm a huge fan.  This is the gold parallel version.

Joakim Soria was a trade deadline rental a couple seasons back.  Topps Update to the rescue. 

The last gold card Matt sent is former fan favorite Garrett Jones. 

Nice to get a David Freese Pirate issue. Hopefully he'll get a few more releases next year.

Some SP goodness! My favorite is the Orlando Merced.

I remember how unattainable Leaf Limited seemed when it first came out.  I'll give Jeff King and his glorious mustache the win. 

I didn't remember Sportsflics having a release in 2000. 

Last but not least is some Pirate legend cards. These guys had pretty good careers....

Thanks for sending the cards Matt.  Always nice to establish new trade partners.  I'll be sure to hit you back soon.

Thanks for reading.

JBF Sends Every Pirate Auto and Relic Ever Made

You have to keep on your toes when dealing with Wes.  When I'm warned that a package is in route I feel like I have to rearrange my collection to make room for a possible dump truck load of memorabilia.  If you ever stop by my house make sure to visit the JBF wing.  It is a sight to behold. 

This time around Wes decided to go the traditional route and hit me up with a ton of hit cards.  I've already featured the WVU and Steelers portion.  The main event is the Pirate portion.  Enjoy a crap ton of pictures. 

The Pirates traded Herrera to the Mets for Marlon Byrd.  The Mets traded him to the Reds for Jay Bruce. 

Cole Tucker's stock in the Pirate system seems to be going up again.

Triple Threads relics are always welcome.

This is exciting! Chrome autos of established players don't come cheap.  You the man Wes!

A low numbered Chrome parallel!

It is raining Chrome

I think between all my blogging friends I have the whole relic team set of the Pirates.

Lambo was in a ton of sets a few years back, but only has about 50 MLB at bats to his name.  He was in line for some playing time at one point for the Buccos, but could not stay healthy.

Simple and beautiful

Alen Hanson was once one of the Pirates top prospects, but his bat started to disappear in AAA.  He made his MLB debut despite his offensive struggles.  Eventually he was designated for assignment and claimed by the White Sox. 

Huge fan of Inception autos.

Love me some Kendall.

Low numbered Cutch!!!!!

When Hanrahan was closing for the Buccos he would walk out to Slipknot.  Devil Horns!

Told you it was a bunch of cards!  You are a madman Wes, but I love you.  Thanks for all the great cards.