Trade: The Lost Collector Delivers Operation Shutdown

Today has been a good organization day here at Bob Walk the Plank headquarters. I was able to get 18 bubble mailers ready for shipment with another 4 just waiting for the final cards. Some of this stuff I had been sitting on for over a month, but Hurricane JBF hit me hard and took some time to dig out. Now I'm back to my normal flow, so mailboxes beware!

In the middle of last week I received a nice envelope of cards from my pal AJ, The Lost Collector. Always nice to receive some mail your weren't expecting.

This card can conjure up a lot of memories for Pirate fans. Derek Bell played for the Pirates in 2001 and had a terrible season. Coming into Spring Training 2002 he assumed he still had the starting job. Pirate management said his outfield slot was open competition which lead to one of the greatest sound bites in Pirate history...

Nobody told me I was in competition. If there is competition, somebody better let me know. If there is competition, they better eliminate me out of the race and go ahead and do what they're going to do with me. I ain't never hit in spring training and I never will. If it ain't settled with me out there, then they can trade me. I ain't going out there to hurt myself in spring training battling for a job. If it is [a competition], then I'm going into 'Operation Shutdown.' Tell them exactly what I said. I haven't competed for a job since 1991."

The Pirates would end up paying Bell 4.5mil not to play for them. He actually retired to a yacht in which local media dubbed him an actual Pirate.  He steals money and lives on a boat!

It has been a long time since I've seen an SI Kids card in person. My brother and I would fight over these back when we were young. 

Thanks for all the great cards AJ. I'll be sure to hit you up soon!

Thanks for reading.

Walk and Papoy Collaboration # 3

Kevin and I are moving right along with our box breaks. These have been working out nicely as it paces our back and forth trades to about once a month which seems to be working well. This time around it was my choice so I went off the grid a little by choosing 2006 Turkey Red Baseball. Steel City was running a good special plus I get the extra bonus of getting extremely quick delivery as I'm only about 75 miles from their distribution center. If I time it right and order first thing in the morning it can be at my door the next day.

The box as a whole was kind of a roller coaster ride of emotion. The biggest disappointment was that we were shorted a relic as the box promises 2 and only delivered 1. Our saving grace was that the black parallels run about 1 and 20 packs, but we managed getting 2. One of those black parallels was a big score for Kevin as he got the best player you could pull.

The box also yields one "cabinet card" which is a boxtopper version of the base set. Kevin also got this card and it was a good name as well. If you are sensing a theme, you would be right. Mr. Papoy was the runaway winner of this box. I'm happy as long as one of us does well.

Here is a small sample of my take.

The Pirate take was actually pretty good. My favorite card was the Sean Casey red. He had a short tenure with the Pirates so it was nice to get a parallel card featuring him in the black and gold. He was always a fan favorite being that he was from the Pittsburgh area.

This was my rarest pull that I got to keep. It was a black parallel of Sean Marshall. 

 Another sampling of reds....The fall about 1 a pack

 Here are the white borders. I believe these fell about 1 and 4 packs.

I like the Piazza Padres cards. 

Kevin will be able to show off a little more with his post once he receives his cards. This was fun to open as the break offers a little bit of everything. You have the color parallels, sps, relics and the chance for some huge autos. This might be a good option for us in a future break if the price stays manageable.

One thing I did notice when I was writing this is that the SP's are team variations such as normal Griffey shown as a Red while the SP is as a Mariner. Take note when you get your cards Kevin....I did not check for these.

Thanks for reading.

Autograph Evolution (Neil Walker)

This is the second time I've shown how autographs progress over the years. The first installment was Andrew McCutchen which changed quite a bit. Neil doesn't sign near as much as Cutch so the auto stayed a little more consistent. 

The first three autos were signed in the 2004-05 time frame. Not a bad signature as you can make out most of the letters.  Piazza is all over the place. If you are wondering about the combo on the triple auto, Walker was drafted as a catcher in the first round of 2004.

This is where the auto starts to get a little faster and sloppier. The rest of these autos were signed around 2012. You went from being able to make out most of Neil to only getting a the "N" and something resembling an "i". The Walker aspect gets longer than the earlier versions, but you can't make out near as much. Pretty much only the "W" and and "L" are legible. Neil was more established by this time and probably had a lot more autograph obligations.

Neil stayed pretty consistent on the higher end releases. Most are sticker autos so they were most likely signed at the same time.

I'm hoping Neil gets some new autos as he really hasn't had much since 2012. While his signature did get quicker I don't consider it terrible.  On the scale of Wil Myers to the perfect auto I would put Neil somewhere in the middle.

Have a nice weekend.

Walking on Eggshells

I've been taken out of my normal routine this week as my daughter has decided that she doesn't need to sleep anymore. It is quite the production to get her to sleep and once it happens you do everything you can to keep her asleep. This means complete silence of everything within earshot of her bedroom. Thankfully this doesn't effect much of the house, but it does indirectly mess with card blogging. My office is very close to her room, so I try not to use the card scanner while she is sleeping.

Right now I'm sitting on the latest Card Papoy/BWTP card break and a cool trade package from the Lost Collector. Those will be completed during the day hours this weekend unless my daughter reverts to her good sleeping ways.

Until scan day comes I did manage to get one taken care of when I got home from work today.

2006 Topps Triple Threads Triple Auto/Relic Zach Duke/Santana/McCarthy /18

I've been on a mission lately trying to find some rarer releases that I never got around to buying. This card is interesting in a lot of ways because it covers all types of players. Duke wasn't much of a prospect after getting drafted in the 20th round by the Pirates, but he hit the ground running. Dominating every stop in the minors he got the call in 2005 to make his debut. He would go on to have a great rookie campaign and the future was looking bright. Long story short the league caught up with him and he was unable to adjust. After his Pirate tenure was over he balanced around some as a AAAA player for a few organizations until catching on with the Brewers last year. Turns out his stuff plays well out of the bullpen and turned himself into a reliever that can get both righty and lefties out. That good season allowed him to sign a lucrative free agent deal with the White Sox.

I bet the Astros would like a take back with Johan Santana. He was left unprotected and the Twins got him in the Rule 5 draft. Ouch! After a little bit of a rocky start as a reliever the Twins sent him to the minors to develop a changeup. That was a good decision. He would go on to be one of the more dominant pitchers in the mid 2000's winning a couple of Cy Young's. 

McCarthy was a guy who dominated the minor leagues, but could never stay healthy in the major leagues. It took a while for him to get some traction in his career but finally turned himself into a productive major league with the A's. I still have the memory of him getting hit by a line drive playing for Arizona. That was one of the more scary ones I've ever seen. He even suffered a seizure as a result. 

Thanks for reading.  

Yellow Plates

This is the first year where I haven't bought any Opening Day in a long time. I've accepted the fact that it will always mirror the Series 1 release, so I don't think that was the reason. The blue parallels were a little disappointing in that they didn't number them and the overall look doesn't stray far from the base card. Whatever the case I really haven't been interested in too much in 2015 releases besides Series 1 and Donruss (hears collective groan from the blogosphere). It was weird being at Target and not buying a blaster the other day. FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY!

With that being said I still try to cherry pick any Pirates that catch my eye for the right price. As I've said before I don't generally chase printing plates unless they are of more obscure players, but exceptions can be made, especially for Gregory Polanco.

2015 Topps Opening Day Gregory Polanco Yellow Printing Plate

I seem to be a magnet for his cards which is not a bad thing. It is no big secret I'm a huge fan and was happy that he has gotten off to a decent start. The Pirates as a whole have been terrible offensively with the exception of Polanco and Neil Walker. Good pitching and some timely 2 out hitting has kept them above the .500 mark. I'm not big on making huge changes because of April numbers, but it wouldn't surprise me if Polanco slides up to the leadoff spot this year. I'm not convinced that Josh Harrison can keep a high enough obp to warrant leading off.

Thanks for reading!

The DH Debate

Every once in a while I'll post something like this just to change things up a little. Usually these kind of things stem from conversations I have with my friends and my brother. We like to debate this type of stuff.

In years past I would have made this argument regarding the NL style of play.

As a baseball purist I like the idea of the pitcher batting and all the strategy that goes along with it. The NL game has more of a chess match mentality because the manager has to be more aware of game situations by thinking several innings ahead. It forces difficult decisions that can effect the outcome of the game. Do you let "ace" pitcher bat in the top of the seventh down 2 to 1 with two outs and a couple of runners on? Nerdy baseball me likes this kind of stuff. 

While I still love this part of the game I've begun to change my thought on it. While this is not really about Adam Wainwright tearing his Achilles tendon (I had this post started a couple weeks back) it seems like a perfect time to give my two cents.

Scoring in baseball is hard these days. Pitching staffs are full of guys throwing in the upper 90's, and left handed specialist to neutralize left handed power. Defensively teams are shifting more and more every year. I get to see this first hand as the Pirates shift more than just about any team in baseball. Now with pace of play being an issue batters have to stay in the batters box. While hard to quantify most believe this gives the pitcher even more of an advantage as the batter doesn't have time to really think about pitch sequencing, past experience and game situations. The deck is stacked against the hitter.

Having inter league play all year screws up stuff big time for the NL too. The rosters in the National League are constructed differently. More times than not the NL team has to roster players based on position flexibility. As most NL fans know this is usually not the best hitter. Sometimes you can get lucky and have a guy that has minor league options to send down in order to bring up a more seasoned hitter, but most of the time this is not the case. Their is a reason the AL dominates the NL every year in inter league play. It is just easier for an Al team to adapt to NL game than the other way around.

Also, just watching the pitcher bat is painful. Off the top of my head I can only think of a few that are actual threats with the bat. Guys like Bumgarner, Leake and Kershaw can hold their own, but other than that it is painful to watch. Even getting down a bunt has become a chore.

With all that being said I think it is time to go to universal rules. I would much rather see guys like Jose Abreu and David Ortiz bat than this...

I will always enjoy the NL game more, but if baseball keeps making new rules that benefit the pitchers something needs to be done to counteract it.

Anybody have any good ideas? I would like to be swayed back towards the NL style....

Trade: Off Hiatus Baseball Cards

Tony is one of my longest tenured trading partners. Not long after I got going with my blog we started exchanging and haven't looked back. It is always fun to see a package in the mail from Tony just because of the wide variety he sends. This time around the package was much larger than normal. Tony gave me a Ralph Kiner hint, but I would have never guessed this......

A very nice 8 X 10 of Pirate Hall of Famer Ralph Kiner! Tony told me that he got this from the guy that runs his local card show, and that he likes the fact that he promotes his show so much on his blog. He passed this Kiner along to Tony with the hope of him finding a good Pirates home. I'm very happy it was sent my way. While the Kiner was cool enough by itself, the card show promoter passed one more gem to Tony.

One of my favorite cards of Manny Sanguillen that is autographed! This is exactly how I picture Manny in my mind with that big smile. Another great surprise. It is my hope that Manny will get a certified auto one of these days. Seems like a good candidate for a Fan Favorite auto.

Last, but not least is this ultra shiny McCutchen Bowman is Back inserts from Bowman Chrome. Hopefully Cutch will get going with the bat. Thankfully the team is winning despite his lack of production.

Thanks for the wonderful surprise Tony. I hope you are preparing yourself for the JBF onslaught. If you need pointers, don't look at me. He is the unstoppable force.

I have a huge stack of Brewers that I will be sending out this week!

Thanks for reading!