Box Break: 2 Stadium Club Blasters

One of the other perks about going to a WV Black Bears game is that the stadium resides very close to a Target and Walmart. The Walmart is pretty lackluster when it comes to cards, but the Target keeps current with the releases. It was time for some Stadium Club!

Here were the most interesting cards.

Something about those 70's A's uniforms that I love. Great shot of Mr. October. 

 This is a bad scan, but a great card. This is actually the parallel /25 of the Larry Doby card featuring Jackie Robinson. A pretty nice pull in a blaster box.

 Obama and Mr. Cub.

 Here is Moose laying out for a catch.

 Fernando Mania in full effect. This is probably in my top 5 for the set.

 Adam Jones getting the walk off pie treatment during a post game interview.

 Nothing really special about the Josh Harrison, but it was my lone Pirate base card.

I'm a huge Greinke fan. The guy takes all aspects of the game super serious and demands perfection from himself.  While I'm sure he doesn't need the motivation having Kershaw on the team helps drive you even more.  Just a cool card of a pitcher batting. Grienke is probably telling the bench he doesn't want to bunt.

I was really happy to see this card. The Triumvirates are great cards by themselves, but pulling a Pirate made it extra cool.

I guess as far as insert sets go this is an ok card. Easy to get overshadowed by the base cards and the Triumvirates.

Have to end with Cutch. I miss the dreads. 

The funny thing about these two blasters is that the /25 Larry Doby and the inserts were all pulled from the same box. You never really walk away too unhappy with TSC anyway, because the base cards are the main attraction. 

Trade: Wish They Still Came With Bubblegum (Bachelor Edition)

My wife and daughter are out of town tonight. Usually when we are separated it is because I'm out of town for work. Such an odd feeling to hear silence at home. Rarely do I get to sit in front of a computer before 9pm to do blog related activities. It is 6:30! I've also just cracked a nice beer that I had tucked away from our 4th of July party. I probably should have a nice unhealthy bachelor meal tonight. The possibilities are endless, but first cards.....

Always a pleasant surprise to get a pwe in the mail. My new trading buddy Jeff from Wish They Still Came With Bubblegum sent an envelope full of great stuff. It was a nice assortment with an emphasis on WVU.

I think the Bears will be a nice fit for Kevin White. Cutler is not the greatest quarterback, but he can throw the deep ball. That should play right into White's skillset.

Taillon has been injury proned the last two years. First Tommy John and now an abdominal issue. Without the injuries he would have made his debut at some point last year. While his prospect status has taken a hit, he is still young and has time to right the ship. Their is a reason Fangraphs called him the best high school pitching prospect since Josh Beckett.

Taillon was born in Florida, but his parents are Canadian so he is dual citizen. He was the youngest player on team Canada. I've picked up several cards from this set over the past couple of years as the Team Canada uniform made for some nice patches.

 For about a 5 year stretch I was a pretty active Steelers collector. I still pick up a card from time to time, but most of my additions these days are blog trades.

Hard to get a nice scan of the Metal Universe cards. These cards look like they are straight from the 90's. I love them! Extra bonus for some nice WVU uniform shots.

I'm worried about both Stedman Bailey and Tavon Austin. Sam Bradford was always hurt, so the Rams go and make a trade for another injury proned quarterback in Nick Foles. I cherry picked a lot of the WVU guys from Topps Platinum. Good set to find some value buys.

I was probably most excited to see the Mario Alford card. You can always count on Contenders producing cards of the lower draft picks and free agents.

Thanks a ton for the cards Jeff. I'm still waiting for one card for your contest winnings. I think you will like it!

Thanks for reading.

Trade: Sportscards From The Dollar Store

I can always count on my good friend Doug up north to supply be a bunch of awesome WVU cards. This is actually a milestone trade as this package makes number 10! Welcome to club double digits Doug!

Quincy Wilson didn't get to have much of a career in the NFL, but man is this card awesome. The silver ink makes this one really pop. Probably the only negative about these cards are the thickness.

One of WVU's bigger recruits is recent memory. Noel Devine stayed 4 years and put up big numbers. His upbringing was probably one of the hardest you will ever read about. Both parents died of AIDS.

 The rookie premiere shots were always cool.

 Jarrett Brown had a big arm, but struggled with accuracy at times. He was on the 49ers practice squad for a while but was eventually released.

The three biggest athletes in WVU history.  All three have their numbers retired. Huff and West are in the Hall of Fame.

 If I recall Doug got the Pirates as his bonus team for Chris's Archives breaks. He was nice enough to send me a bunch. Normally I'm about these breaks, but the Pirates are having kind of a down year for new cardboard. I'm digging the spring training Cole shot.

You can tell the Maz shot is at the end of his career. Packed on a few lbs at the tail end. 

Thanks for all the great cards Doug. I'll be hitting you back real soon. 

Thanks for reading. 

Gimmicks Galore

For the first time ever I went to a postponed Pirates game. I've been to quite a few rain delays, but the torrential downpours and lightning was too much to overcome. The game was called after 4 innings. Hopefully the makeup game will be at a convenient time. I did manage to snap a few pictures in between getting soaked.

Cubs fans always travel pretty well to Pittsburgh. They might be my favorite visiting fans as 100 years of losing usually keeps you pretty reserved. Pirates fans can relate to them very well since we had our own unique losing streak. 

Now for a little cardboard. 

My basketball card purchases are few and far between these days. The desire is always there, but WVU just hasn't produced any NBA talent. Devin Ebanks and Joe Alexander have a fair amount of releases, but I've been able to pick up most over the years for just a few bucks. Other than that I usually come across a few Jerry West cards I like and that is it.

That leaves higher end/obscure cards to track down.  Last year I found this odd combination on eBay.

I may be the only person in the world that chased this card because of Joe Alexander, but I love it! The set this card came from is 2008-2009 Topps Treasury.  This set was full of weird gimmicks. It had rip cards, minis and every parallel under the sun. Complete craziness, which explains why the set had a short life.

When examining the checklist further I did notice that their were Larry Bird variations of the card above. Well, a year later I found the Bird/Alexander

2008-09 Topps Treasury Larry Bird/Joe Alexander Auto /39

It had been a while since I've added a new Alexander card so I was pretty excited about this purchase. The extra bonus is that it was a neat way to justify a Larry Bird auto. I wish I could say I got this for a great price, but it still ran me about $45. That is about an average cost for one of his autos with similar numbering. I was hoping that the complete flame out of Joe Alexander's career would yield a greater discount.

One of these years I hope that Bob Huggins can develop some more NBA talent. I would love to be more of an NBA fan, but this won't happen unless I have a vested interest in a player. Until that happens I'll still be stuck searching for obscure Joe Alexander autos....

Thanks for reading.

WAR! What is it Good For?

I'm heading to the Pirates/Cubs game tonight at PNC.  This year has been a struggle for me to find time for games, but August seems to be working out. I will also be at the Dodgers game on Saturday. Needless to say this week has the makings of a good one.

I'll be brief about something that kind of pissed me off. I can't remember if I was watching the MLB network or if it was an actual game, but the discussion turned to some of the sabermetric stats. I understand some peoples reluctance to accept to new ways of thinking. Baseball is a game based on tradition and stats like rbis and wins have been around forever. I just get pissed with people disregard the new stats and say some blanket statement like the game is played on the field, not on a computer.

The funny thing is if you sort by some of the newer stats like WAR or XFip it comes up with a list of players that most reasonable baseball fans would consider the best players. The backlash is usually aimed at the defensive metrics.  Guys like Lorenzo Cain and Kevin Kiermaier get big time bumps as they are considered the best at their respective positions. Here is the top 30 position players in Fangraphs WAR.

Name	Team
Bryce Harper	Nationals
Mike Trout	Angels
Josh Donaldson	Blue Jays
Paul Goldschmidt	Diamondbacks
Jason Kipnis	Indians
Manny Machado	Orioles
Lorenzo Cain	Royals
Joey Votto	Reds
Buster Posey	Giants
A.J. Pollock	Diamondbacks
J.D. Martinez	Tigers
Yoenis Cespedes	- - -
Todd Frazier	Reds
Joe Panik	Giants
Anthony Rizzo	Cubs
Nelson Cruz	Mariners
Brian Dozier	Twins
Andrew McCutchen	Pirates
Kris Bryant	Cubs
Brandon Crawford	Giants
Mark Teixeira	Yankees
Nolan Arenado	Rockies
Kevin Kiermaier	Rays
Miguel Cabrera	Tigers
Russell Martin	Blue Jays
Jason Heyward	Cardinals
Adrian Gonzalez	Dodgers
Xander Bogaerts	Red Sox
Matt Duffy	Giants

WAR wasn't designed to be the end all of stats. Even in the glossary section of Fangraphs it states it is best used with other stats to get a gauge. How could you really argue with the top 4 this year?

Really the only surprising names on the list are Kiermaier and Matt Duffy.  Kiermaier is basically the right field version of sabermetrics darling Alex Gordon, and Duffy has flown under the radar.

Don't get me wrong, some sabermetrics guys come off as blowhards just as much as the staunch traditionalists. I just think it is time for people to accept that these stats give a much better idea of a players value than avg,rbis and homers.

I could keep ranting, but I'm short on time. What do you guys think of advanced statistics? Has your local broadcasts started using them?

Primary Pieces

Gerrit Cole was always a good value buy his first couple years in professional ball. This usually doesn't happen for the number 1 overall pick, but for whatever reason prices stayed down.  I made a point to pick up just about everything that came out minus the low numbered Bowman Chrome cards (prospectors are crazy).

This year Cole has taken a huge step forward. At the beginning of the year most "experts" agreed that if the Pirates were going to contend again, Cole would have to become an ace. Thankfully he has taken the next step and the Pirates are poised once again to make a playoff push.

With this new found success comes higher prices on eBay. You can still find some deals, but for the most part his prices have doubled since the beginning of the season. In the grand scheme of things the prices are not outrageous, but with some continued success I may have to retire collecting Cole just as I did with McCutchen.

2014 Topps Museum Collection Primary Pieces /25

This is a fancy looking card. Thankfully this one stayed below $10 and I was able to cut some shipping by finding some good trade bait cards from the same seller. I don't chase jersey and patches as much as I use to, but some still catch my eye like this one. Cole will really have to step up his game even more now that AJ Burnett may miss the rest of the season. 

Thanks for reading! 

Trade: Night Owl Cards

Always nice to get some cards from the Night Owl! We would probably swap more if it wasn't for all the great Dodger blogs out there. Only so many Dodgers cards to go around. Check out Greg's latest installment. 

 Might as well start out of with the franchise. Maybe I should start a post dread Cutch mini collection. I was a fan of the Topps design this year. Change is good!

Heard a neat story about Zach Duke the other day. Current Bucco Joe Blanton credited Duke for bringing him back to baseball. They are neighbors in the offseason in Nashville and started working out together. After some convincing by Duke, Blanton decided to give baseball one more shot. So far the results have been pretty good.

I like the Panini Cooperstown sets. The checklists are fantastic. Probably the neatest thing about Grimes is that he was one of the few guys that were allowed to continue to throw the spitball after it was banned.

 Some Topps magazine cards of Drabek and Bonilla!

 Jeff King was a personal favorite when I was growing up. I was sad when he went to Kansas City. That Score Brian Hunter is a wild card. Yay 90's!

Former Dodger James McDonald. Still not quite sure what the Dodgers were thinking when they sent McDonald and Andrew Lambo to the Pirates for Octavio Dotel.

Taillon's prospect status has taken a hit the last two years because of injuries. Tommy John surgery cost him 2014 and now and abdominal injury looks looks to have finished off his 2015. By the time next years rankings come out I'm assuming he'll be 4th or 5th in the system. 

For auto collectors Bowman Platinum and Sterling were nice ways to accumulate top prospect autos at a much cheaper price than Chrome. 

Thanks for all the great cards Greg! I'll continue to try and find some unique Dodgers for your collection. 

Thanks for reading.