Trade: The Underdog Card Collector

Zach and I are becoming frequent trade partners as this week I received another envelope from Mr. Underdog. In the envelope he had a note mentioning that he was part of a group break that included the Pirates. He was nice enough to send them my way.

I think this Pie Traynor was my favorite. This card is from SP Legendary Cuts which had a ton of cool Pirate cards. 

I love Craig Wilson. He is a guy that would be much more appreciated in today's game as his high obp and ability to hit for power as pinch hitter would be sought after. This is a parallel /499.

Grabow was a good left handed reliever for the Pirates, but he'll be most remembered as part of the trade package to the Cubs that netted us the prize arm of Kevin Hart (he sucked) and a throw in named Josh Harrison. Hart only started a handful of games for the Pirates. Harrison developed into a versatile All Star.

I'm guessing the Pinnacle cards was part of the group break. Always nice to see a Jay Bell card. I'm really hoping for a certified auto. He would be perfect in the Fan Favorites set.

 Spanky LaValliere!

Tony Womack was a late 90's favorite of mine. Hated when the Buccos let him go as they had a hard time replacing him at the lead off spot. 

The Chico Lind card feels like it should say "The More you Know" instead of Futures Stars. 

Thanks for all the great cards Zach. As soon as I dig out from the Jaybarker packages I'll hook you up soon. 

Have a good weekend.

Walk and Papoy Collaboration # 2

A while back Kevin and I decided to join forces to bust some cheap wax. This is our second installment in which Kevin decided to bust some 2005 Throwback Threads and 2013 Hometown Heroes. Both are fun sets that have some heavy hitters in them. While we didn't strike gold, we did manage to pull an auto out of Hometown Heroes which broke the odds as it was a retail box.

Before I start showing some of the loot from the boxes, Kevin was his usual awesome self and loaded me up with Pirates. Check these bad boys out!

It is impossible not to love Leaf Signatures. When it comes to nice on card autos, simple is much better.

Hard to find much color in the Topps mini relics so it was nice to get a grey swatch of Tabata.

Tribute is another great autograph set (minus the disaster this year). Lots of space for nice bold autos. Glad to see the former Pirates closer doing well in Atlanta.

 Now this is awesome. Two former Bucco greats pictured with a game used bat piece of Pops.

 59 Pirates always look good because of the color scheme.

Another wow card! Beautiful on card signature out of Archives. Most consider Face the archetype of the modern closer. He doesn't have much in way of certified autos so it always nice to get one in a trade. Face has nice penmanship! Take note Wil Myers.

Purple refractor out of Heritage. Hoping Cutch gets hot on the road trip. Thankfully we've managed to be .500 without him playing much of a part.

 Another wow card! 1939 Play BAll John Rizzo.  Kevin you really outdid yourself with all this great stuff. Considering the age of this card it is in really nice condition.

 SP Signature is another great auto set.


Now to box break items.....

A sampling of Throwback Threads. The Nolan Ryan gets the award for coolest base card. Love the Astros uniform.

 Sampling of the numbered play cards insert.

 Hometown Hero Buccos. I like that the set gave Johnny Ray some love. Nice to see him in a modern set.

 Some more inserts....

 I love the nickname cards.

 This guy is pretty good. I don't have many Trouts in my collection.

That's right Kevin! Hope you are super jealous of my mega hit. USA destroys France in this round!!!!

USA USA USA

Kevin decided to throw in two Biebers including a first print. I'm honored.

I hope you recovered from the anguish of not being able to claim the David Murphy auto. Maybe you will have better luck next time.

Also, big thanks for all the extra Pirates you sent my way. That was some crazy nice stuff. I'll be sure to hook you up soon. Now it is my turn to find some boxes!

Thanks for reading!

JBF #6 (Lumber Time)

On behalf of the postal service in Morgantown I'm happy to say that I've received installments 6 and 7 from JBF and the war is over. Last week Wes promised me that # 6 would pack a punch and that # 7 would make me take out the white flag. He was right! I'll post # 7 this weekend as you will see at the end of this post it is going to take some time to prepare. 

Here is  # 6!

It is a game used bat autographed by former Pirate and longtime MLB pitcher Jeff Suppan! The scary thing is this is the second bat I've received from Wes. When I was the winner of the World Cup of Trading last year he sent me a crap load of cards and a game used bat of former Pirate catcher Jason Jaramillo.

Jeff Suppan only played 1 season for the Pirates in 2003, but it was arguably his best season of his career. During that 2003 season he was traded to the Red Sox for Freddy Sanchez and Brandon Lyon.

How cool is this bat! 

 Signed "Best of Luck Jeff Suppan"

I have several game used bats in my collection, but this might be my favorite. It is perfectly intact with the auto!

As for # 7......check this out.

The volume alone was intimidating, but what was inside blew my mind. I could post about it for two weeks, but I'm going for one super post just to show how mad Wes really is. 

Thankfully I got one more desperation shot back at Wes, but the war is lost. I will give my formal surrender this weekend. 

Thanks for reading.

Defined Roles (venting)

It is fun to be a Pirates fan these days. We have a superstar in Andrew McCutchen, quality role players and a well stocked farm system. The franchise as a whole has really embraced advanced statistics and fiscal responsibility to sustain a winner for an extended period of time. All in all I'm a happy camper.

With that being said tonight's Pirates game versus the Cubs brought up an issue that I have with the way the game is managed that is light years behind the way the Pirates run their team as a whole. Defined bullpen roles is something that just boggles my mind. Up until the 8th inning the game is based on match ups. Teams switch pitchers a ton to get the most statistically sound match up that is available. Sound strategy that for the most part works the majority of the time.

A little background first on the issue. Mark Melancon is the Pirates closer and has been lights out for two years coming into this season. After some rocky outings the first week of the season the local press was running some stories how his velocity was running about 5mph slower than normal. Melancon's bread and butter pitch is the cutter. He learned the pitch from Mariano Rivera and he has been very successful with it up until this year, but with the velocity drop a cutter becomes more of a get me over fastball.

The Pirate management came out and said the velocity drop is more of a "beginning of the year" issue and that it will work out after he gets more work. I have no problem with that, but holy shit you can't just let a guy work out his issues in the 9th inning. Long story short Melancon gave up 3 runs and faced 8 batters. It was a complete disaster that you could see coming from a mile away when the first three hitters ripped base hits.

What boggles my mind was that no one was warming up until the game had been blown. Managers don't hesitate in the 7th and 8th innings to make 5 pitching changes, but in the 9th they stick with the guy no matter what. While its always easy to play couch manager this is an issue that all teams face. With the exception of Chapman, Kimbrell and Kenley Jansen I would be playing matchups to the end.

I don't think Melancon should lose his high leverage situation role, because when he is right he is lights out. We just need to have a better feel for game situations.  Let Melancon either go on the DL or pitch in lower leverage situations. The Pirates shift every batter, have a roster constructed from moneyball concepts and play statistical matchups up until the 8th inning. For the life of me I can't figure out why the 9th inning has to be so different......especially when your "closer" is throwing 88 instead of 93-95mph with movement.

The Pirates have been mediocre at best the last few years in April, so as a whole their is no reason to panic. You just hate to throw away games by not putting out your best options. Right now Melancon is not our best option.

End of rant.

A PWE from P-town Tom

P-town Tom and I are swapping pretty regularly these days. This time around Tom decided to slip a pwe with some Pirate goodies. I felt honored since Tom is a world renown kickball player. In fact he is the best kickball player who teaches and happens to be from Illinois that I know. The Mike Trout of the rec league kickball world!

A cool auto of former Pirate third baseman Aramis Ramirez. The trade that sent Aramis to the Cubs is one of the worst in franchise history. It makes me almost sick to even think about it. The Pirates were a mess back then.

Either way I love adding autos of the former Bucco. Since the 2015 releases are light on Pirates I've been trying to go back and add guys from this era.

Jose Castillo had some hype about him when he broke through with the Pirates. A great defender at second with some pop in the bat. Unfortunately the Pirates lost patience with him and sent him on his way. I have fond memories of Jose and Jack Wilson turning some sweet double plays.

The hype machine was strong with Benson when he was drafted. Dubbed the next big arm by most publications, Benson couldn't live up to the hype. Injuries derailed a good part of his Pirate tenure and he could never take the next step. He did manage to carve out a nice long career, but become more of an innings eater. Benson never got many certified autos so it is always nice to get his signature on a Pirate card.

On a side note his wife was bat shit crazy.

I haven't purchased any Opening Day yet so this was my first taste. Nice to get Pirate cards of Liriano. Still waiting on a certified auto. Maybe this year....

Thanks for all the great cards Tom. This was truly a great surprise. It was my turn to hit you back. Now I'll have to find something extra cool to send your way!

Thanks for reading.

2 x 3 Heroes is My Hero

I actually received this package several weeks back from Jedi Jeff, but my wife stuck it with some magazines and I looked past it. Must have been caught behind a really boring looking Time Magazine. Nevertheless, it arrived safe and sound loaded with quality cards including a very rare Bucco.

This is a John Axford black printing plate from 2015 Topps. I love this card because Axford only had a few Bucco cards and this is about as rare as it gets. I don't often search for printing plates, but when I do this is the exact type of player I look for. I like having at least one rare card of all the Buccos. Thanks Jeff!

Players like Garcia are the prototype of what the Buccos look for in their outfielders. Garcia is a toolsy guy who doesn't shine in any certain area, but has no flaws in his game. Pretty much the same profiles as McCutchen, Marte and Polanco when they were in the minors.

I didn't go after any 2014 GQ because the prices stayed higher. I'm hoping for a significant price drop now that 2015 is live. I like the Grilli card the best. Nice to see him doing well in Atlanta.

 Some Heritage Buccos!

The Wandy card was one of my favorite Buccos in 2014. Great cameos from Burnett, Marte and Harrison.

 Lots of former Buccos here. Only Cumpton and Sanchez are still with the team.

 A nice sample of Bowman Pirates. Happy to see Lambo make his first roster out of spring training. Going to be hard for him to get at bats, but it beats playing in Indianapolis.

 7000 mph fastball coming.

An awesome looking Maz to end things. 

Thanks for all the great cards Jeff. That Axford plate is a beauty. I'll be on the lookout for something cool to send back to you soon. Hope you keep pulling rare Buccos!  

Thanks for reading

JBF Sends Everything (Volume 5)

As most of you know Wes and I have been going back and forth for a good while now. I've been warned that the final bombs are in transit so I figured I better clear the desk of Volume 5 in the series of 7.

This time around Wes completely shifted gears. Those that have been recipients of Wes's generosity knows that he really pays attention to detail. So when I saw this box of cards I was taken by surprise.

He sent me box full of hundreds of cards and only two were Pirates. As you scroll down you will see a ton of relics, 1/1s and vintage. The box was so much fun to go through. A Jim Palmer relic was sandwiched in between a Rickey the Dragon Steamboat card and a sexy Bench Warmer. Needless to say this box was a blast to sort through. I've scanned a bunch of cards just to give an idea of what I'm talking about, but this was only a small fraction of the total package.

Enjoy the cards.

Baseball Relics

1 of 1!

1 of 1!

Other Relics

I bet this guy could kick my ass

Vintage Hockey!

Vintage Football!

Vintage Baseball!

Sexy Cards!

So much good stuff! I felt like I purchased someones table at a card show. You really are a madman capable of anything. I know the last installments are on the way, but I got something in the works that is close to being Alabama bound.

WAR IS HELL!