2 for 1

The co-signers Stadium Club autos were a pretty big deal back in the late 90's. As far as premium cards went they were some of the most desirable. Thankfully the Pirate players were mainly paired with other lower $ value players which has helped me accumulate many of the variations over the years. 

 1997 Stadium Club Todd Hollandsworth/Jason Kendall Co'Signers Auto

These two are connected in that they both broke in the majors at the same time. Hollandsworth won the rookie of the year in 1996 while Kendall finished third. Both players would go on to have long careers with Kendall developing into an All Star catcher in the early part of his career before a devastating leg injury zapped most of his power and speed. Hollandsworth stayed in the league for a long time, but became more of a reserve outfielder type.

This card ran me $5 plus shipping on eBay.

Thanks for reading!

Arbitrary Cards

On Wednesday when I showed off my prize winnings from Brian he informed me that one of the unopened packs was in fact a Pirates hot pack. Sure enough when I examined a little closer the pack yielded some Pirate goodness.

I don't hide my love for Gerrit Cole.  He is one of my favorite Pirates. Over the last few years I've made it my mission to add as many of his cards as humanly possible. Brian was nice enough to add this numbered USA Diamond Kings cards. USA cards are a nice way around the licensing issue.

It has been fun to watch the progression of Cole. He seems to be developing into the ace the Pirates hoped for.

 Man Myth Legend!

Mike Gonzalez was the first Pirate closer that I remember using a theme song. If I recall it was the P.O.D song "Boom." Gonzalez has a pretty interesting trade history with the Bucs.

July 22nd 2003: The Pirates traded him to the Red Sox for Brandon Lyon
July 31nd 2003: The Pirates receive him back along with Freddy Sanchez from the Red Sox for Brandon Lyon and Jeff Suppan.
- If I recall this had something to do with failed physicals with Freddy Sanchez.
The Pirates would go on and trade Gonzalez to the Braves for Adam Laroche in 2007. At the time this was a pretty big get for the Pirates as Laroche was coming off a big year for the Braves.

 Hayes only played 1 season with the Bucs, but he did get a couple of cards. I love these Leaf autos.

The grand finale is the Topps 206 Brian Giles auto. Giles played for the Pirates right during the boom of relic and auto cards so he has a decent amount on the market. I really dig the framed autos! Recently I've been on a mission to add some of his cards I've missed over the years, so it is always nice to receive via the blog route.

Thanks for all the great cards Brian. I've been accumulating some great Twins stuff to keep our momentum going.  I may be sitting on an auto of a Twins Hall of Famer......

Thanks for reading. Have a nice weekend.

Plugs Winnings and Sweeps

In case you missed it, The Card Papoy is holding a contest celebrating his blogging anniversary. The winner gets free entry into one of our box breaks.

Click here to join the fun!

See how easy that was.  Now you can tell all your friends how worldly you are because you have a French friend.

Speaking of contests, I was the winner of one recently. Brian from Highly Subjective and Completely Arbitrary held a guessing contest in which I won. Yay me! This past Saturday I received a large envelope....

So many packs! I have shown restraint by not opening these yet. That rainy day will come soon though and I'll be sure the post the results

 A very creepy boxtopper.

This was still sealed nicely so I kept it as is for now. Old Pirate emblems are awesome.

Thanks for the great prize Brian. Who knew that guessing a few letters would be so lucrative.

The Pirates swept the Giants this afternoon. It is their 3rd sweep in 4 series. It just shows how important Cutch is to the Buccos. As soon as he started hitting at the beginning of May the Pirates have been winning. As expected the Cards, Cubs and Pirates are separating from the rest of the division.

2006 Topps Chrome Francisco Liriano Auto

Liriano was on the mound today and pitched a great game. He still doesn't have a certified Pirate auto so I went looking for a nice rookie auto. I believe this set me back $3. 

Cole and Liriano give the Pirates a nice righty/lefty combination. Ever since becoming a Pirate, Franky has seemed to turn the corner from his wild days. Command can still be an issue, but he has learned to scale back some and not try and strike everybody out. The three year contract that was signed at the beginning of the year seems like it will be very team friendly. 

Go join Kevin's contest

Thanks for reading.

Bunting 101 (rant time)

Hot take time!

If you watch enough baseball little things start to irritate you. I've discussed a few on here before with bullpen roles and the DH. My next one is probably more of an offshoot of the DH issue, but it still drives me bat shit crazy.

I'm not a Moneyball driven "you should never bunt" guy.  As long as the pitcher has to bat in the NL, bunting is a necessary evil. Instead of being overly wordy, I think list form will paint a good picture of when I think it is a good time to bunt.

Good times to bunt

• Pitchers 
• Crazy fast players bunting for hits (Dee Gordon, Billy Hamilton etc.)
• Beat the shift

The first bullet point is a no brainer. Until MLB gets their act together and puts the DH in the NL we will have to suffer through pitchers attempting to bunt. Watching them bunt is usually much better than watching them hit.

Dee Gordon started to figure out last year that if you put the ball on the ground good things will happen. This year he has been crazy good and through the first couple months of the season he has been one of the most valuable players in baseball. While he won't be able to keep up this pace, Gordon continues to evolve as a hitter. Billy Hamilton is probably even faster than Dee Gordon, but he cannot get on base to save his life. Hamilton tends to be pretty fly ball happy, so learning how to bunt could be a better way to utilize his one tool.

Beating the shift is probably the most debatable of any of these on the list. I'm still on the fence. Bunting is not easy to do. It takes a brave soul to step in the batter box and try to bunt high 90's heat. That might be reason enough to remove it here. I kept it here because a few players have actually started to do this with decent success. Mike Moustakas has learned to bunt and slap hit the other way which has helped him get on base at the highest rate of his career. 

Learning to bunt to beat the shift would play a huge role at the end of games. How many times have you seen the big lefty power hitter ground out into the shift late in games down by two runs. It is very frustrating. You can't hit a two run homer with no one on base. If teams want to score more runs they will have to find ways to beat the shifts. 

Overrated times to bunt 

• Any sac bunts not involving the pitcher
• high leverage situations

I hate seeing position players give up outs in the middle of game to move a runner up. I about threw my remote through the tv a couple weeks a go when Neil Walker put a sac bunt down.  He was batting cleanup. The Pirates are blessed with a good bit of team speed. Stealing is better % play. 

The high leverage situation bunt is the favorite of most managers. In theory it seems like the smart move, but statistics show that it really doesn't change win expectancy. For one, most position players are poor bunters. Just as much can go wrong with a bunt than letting someone swing away. The best case scenario is that you get the bunt down and advance the runner to second. This will usually cause the next batter to be intentionally walked. Many times this takes the bat of a good hitters hands. The way bullpens are set up you might put yourself in a scenario where you are forced to face a ground ball specialist or a bad lefty/lefty combination. 

At least in the Pirate situation they have pretty much gotten away letting any of their main position players bunt in those situations.

What is your take on your teams handling of these bunting scenarios? 

Thanks for reading. 

Rookie Recollection

I usually keep an eye out for new Buccos when a set is released. When Bowman came out I made note of the rookies and any Pirates that seemed exciting. Well, I guess I was a little to nonchalant in my research as a true gem slipped through the cracks. One day I was searching eBay and stumbled onto this.

2015 Bowman Moises Alou Rookie Recollection /50

It is nice to see a new Pirate auto! I've been souring on most of the 2015 releases as most are just rehashing the same old stuff. In terms of Pirates every set was featuring Marte and Polanco and that is about it. When this card popped up I knew I had to have it. Sure enough I secured the gold version of the auto and in Chris's last group break I received the non auto'd version. 

Alou only saw action for the Buccos in a couple of games before he was dealt as the player to be named later in the Zane Smith deal. The Pirates were looking to bolster their rotation for the playoff push and already had a loaded outfield so Alou was expendable. Moises would go on to have a great career most notably with the Expos and Cubs.

Here is the checklist. I know the Snorting Bull has already completed the auto set!

RR-BW Bernie Williams - New York Yankees
RR-CB Carlos Baerga - Cleveland Indians
RR-FT Frank Thomas - Chicago White Sox
RR-JG Juan Gonzalez - Texas Rangers
RR-JO John Olerud - Toronto Blue Jays
RR-MA Moises Alou - Pittsburgh Pirates
RR-MG Marquis Grissom - Montréal Expos

Thanks for reading!

Diamond Kings

With all the recent trades I haven't had much time to show cards I've purchased the last few weeks. This is a new mini that I've added to my collection.

2015 Diamond Kings Jameson Taillon Mini Patch /25

I rarely by jersey cards on eBay, but I will often pull the trigger on nice patches if the price is right. Normally I'm looking for some of the late 70's Pirates, but this popped up and caught my eye. It is a pretty big patch for the size of the card. Plus, I really like the new DK set. 

Taillon is always one of my regular eBay searches as his cards are very affordable. He was the 2nd overall pick in the loaded 2010 draft. Obviously the Pirates thought a lot of him as some of the notable guys picked after were Manny Machado, Matt Harvey and Chris Sale. 

After climbing the system it looked like Taillon would be making his debut at some point in 2013, but his arm gave out. Tommy John surgery caused him lose the entire 2013 season. While his rehab has reportedly been going great the Pirates are not rushing him. He may help the team in September, but 2015 is most likely the target. 

Thanks for reading. 

Friendly Fire: Cards from JBF

Before things escalated out of control with JBF and I to the point where we were swapping game used bats and autographed books, more "normal" trading occurred. That seems like so long a go.

Well, this week I received a package from JBF that was "normal" sized. Was it a trap, perhaps the others were to big to get through the front door. After a little investigating it was in fact just one "normal" sized package. The memories of cardboard war are still fresh in my mind so I may just still be a little rattled. JBF has honored the Hazel Green/Morgantown cardboard treaty of 2015.

 Vintage football is always cool. JBF has hooked me up with a bunch of old football in our swaps.

 I talk about Gorzo a lot. He was a guy I felt we gave up on too soon, but his trade to the Cubs netted us Josh Harrison.

 The Co-Signers set was full of Pirates.

 Mark Recchi is the man. One of my favorite Pens growing up.

Three nice jerseys of former WVU standout Stedman Bailey.  The middle is a parallel /75. Really hoping Stedman and Tavon Austin breakout in a big way with Nick Foles throwing to them.

 Speaking of Tavon here is his Topps Chrome version of the same jersey.

 Randle El was a great slot receiver for the Steelers for many years. Back in his college days at Indiana he was a quarterback so the Steelers would often find ways to utilize that skillset as well. In some ways he was kind of a reverse Kordell Stewart.

Some old SpX Pirates. Jason Schmidt is a good example of why the Pirates were inept for 20 years. While never consistent as a Pirate, he showed signs of being a quality major league pitcher. The Pirates lost patience and Schmidt would end up becoming a front line starter with the Giants.

 Some nice Bowman Buccos

Thanks for all the great cards JBF. I've been holding onto some cards for you so I will be able to hit you back very soon. Somehow I knew you couldn't resist sending mail to Morgantown. Now that I've been through a cardboard war I'm more prepared.

Thanks for reading.