Trade Value

Every year during the All Star break Dave Cameron from Fangraphs releases his annual trade value list. The basic concept is which players would bring the most return if they were made available by their current club. # 1 is pretty obvious as he has been there pretty much since he debuted.

It is hard to argue most of the choices since you can pretty much interchange the honorable mentions with numbers 35-50.

Here are the honorable mentions.

The Pirates are represented nicely by having Cutch, Cole and Marte all crack the top 25. I recommend reading the write ups on each player as it really helps hit home why the guy deserves to be on the list. This is especially true for some of the more questionable guys like Jose Quintana and Yan Gomes.

Here is a link to the overview which will guide you to each write up. One thing that you will take away is that Mike Trout is good at baseball.

Notable Nicknames are Complete

At least once a year I get smitten with a certain card or set. When I first saw that three Pirates (Polanco, Parker and Cole) were going to be featured in the National Treasures Notable Nicknames set I knew that I was going to chase them. I've featured the Polanco and Parker before, but I thought it would be fun showing all three together.

The Polanco was a redemption which really helped keep the price manageable. Once the card went live the price jumped up some so I was happy I acted early. Polanco is an active signer so I had no worries of the redemption going dormant.

I actually have two copies of this card if someone would like to trade.

Parker has had a ton of auto releases over the years which makes chasing his cards extremely affordable. He is probably my favorite of the 1970's Pirates to collect. This card was a little more expensive (~$20) than normal Parker's but I felt considering the set and the nickname inscription that is was a reasonable deal. 

Finding the Gerrit Cole proved to be much more difficult than I expected. The card is numbered to 25, but rarity really wasn't the issue. In my head I figured that around $40 would do the trick. Once the cards hit they were routinely going for $50-60.  That was just too far away from my comfort zone. I continued bidding on every one that hit eBay, but they consistently stayed around that price. In the end I probably put a bid on half the total print run. 

The plot thickened even more when Cole got off to a crazy good start this year. I was worried that I might get priced out of ever picking this card up. Fortunately my patience paid off as I was able to secure a copy a couple weeks back right at the $40 mark. 

I'm hoping the Pirates will be represented again if National Treasures decides to do the Notable Nicknames again. Lots of good options, but these are just begging to be issued....

Bill Mad Dog Madlock

John Candy Man Candelaria

Thanks for reading!

Famous Kevin's

Kevin from The Card Papoy is my all time favorite French baseball card blogger. At last check he is still holding the # 1 ranking. Congrats Kevin! 

In all seriousness I love trading with Kevin. He has made quite a name for himself as being a thoughtful and consistent trader even though he has an ocean to deal with. We are well into double digits swapping and have a pretty successful box busting venture. In honor of the latest results of our box busting and the great extra cards sent my way I figured it was safe to include Kevin among other famous Kevin's. 

 Kevin McCallister.

 Kevin Spacey

 Kevin Bacon

 Kevin Costner

Kevin Malone from the Office.

I hope you are honored to be on the list of such accomplished Kevin's.

Now on to the cards.....

For our box break Kevin chose 2009 UD Signature Stars. Overall I thought this box was one of our most balanced. Kevin got the NL minus the Buccos and I got the AL minus the Jays. You can see Kevin's write up here.

The base cards are nothing special. Couple of the more notable out of my box were Mr. Jeter and Bay featured as a Red Sox.

 You can also pull USA cards. Nick Castellanos was the most notable.

My hits were actually pretty solid. Like many boxes that Kevin and I open the autograph list is all over the place. We were lucky enough to get this Perkins auto and Kevin did even better with a Kolten Wong USA auto.

 An even bigger name for my second hit. Machado is developing into a beast.

As usual, Kevin also threw in some awesome Buccos for good measure.

 I was kind of pissed that Bruce Bochy didn't throw Burnett into the game considering he was a first time All Star and he is retiring at the end of the year.

 CUTCH! Nice relic from an awesome set.

I haven't hid the fact that I love Leaf Trinity. It is the perfect set to chase big name prospects without having to spend crazy amounts of money. Some of the personalized script is a little cheesy, but I like the fact they give so much room for on card autos.

 Trae Arbet is a shortstop that looks to actually stay a shortstop. His bat will be the determinant if he ever wants to see the upper minor leagues.

 This is a beauty that is /50!

Alen Hanson is pretty close to major league ready. I'm guessing he may be a September call up this year. Interesting to see how he'll be in the fold next year as Neil Walker's defense continues to regress at a fast pace.

 Harrison cards are always welcomed in trades. His stuff is hard to come by. In terms of higher end parallels and autos he just doesn't have that many yet. So in turn you get higher secondary market prices. This cards is from Archives and is out of /199.

Last but not least we have 1/9th of a completed Bieber puzzle.  Guess I need to swap with Kevin a bunch more to complete it.

You cease to amaze me Kevin. Thanks for all the great cards. I'm stocking up as we speak with some Jays to send back for our next break. What should I choose next.....maybe Stadium Club!

Thanks for reading!

Baseball Cards Come to Life (Hockey Edition)

When it comes to my sports fandom the Pirates and WVU will always have top billing, but the Penguins don't lag too far behind. I've been fortunate enough to witness a consistent winner in Pittsburgh for a good portion of my life. The Penguins have won 3 Stanley Cups and have been blessed with some of the most dynamic players in league history.

Before starting the blog I never made much of an attempt to collect Penguins. While the desire was always there, I knew it would be to the detriment of my baseball and college collecting. Thankfully now that I'm trading with people who collect all spectrum's of cardboard I've been able to put together a small collection of Pens.

Recently Bo from the awesome Baseball Cards Come to Life sent me an email saying he had accumulated a nice stack of Pens that he wanted to send my way. Not long after I had a bubble mailer full of hockey goodness.

Jagr is second in just about every offensive category in team history behind Mario Lemieux. The crazy thing is he is still going strong. His departure from Pittsburgh was a little on the rough side, but I hope once he hangs his skates up that the Pens and Jagr can come to terms.

 Naslund started out as a Pen, but made his name in Vancouver.

 MOOSE! Hedberg mania was strong in Pittsburgh in the early 2000's.

 This card didn't scan well, but it is a checklist featuring Lemieux.

The glue of the early 90's cup teams.

The early 90's Pens were loaded with talent. Kevin Stevens maybe was the the 5 or 6 best player on the team.

 Hall of Famer Paul Coffey.

I loved Barrasso as a kid. The guy was borderline insane, but a great goaltender. Marc Andre Fleury is finally passing him on many of the career stats, but Barrasso still has one more cup.

This was just a small sample of the cards sent by Bo. He really loaded me down with some great stuff. Thanks again Bo! I'll be sure to hit you back soon. I'm reloading trade bait as we speak.

Thanks for reading.

Trade: The Angels, In Order

How about those Pirates! What once looked like an insurmountable lead in the division has been whittled down to 2 1/2 games. Let's hope they can continue to put pressure on the Cardinals. 

Now that we are at the All Star break it should allow me some time to get some cardboard in order. My mailbox has been bombed recently by great trade packages. One of these packages was courtesy of my buddy Tom who runs The Angels, In Order.

Hague was never a big prospect with the Pirates, but his bat started to draw some attention in 2011. During spring training in 2012 he hit so well that he made the opening day roster. As usual with most young hitters he was exposed at the major league level and never gained any traction. The Blue Jays picked up Hague in 2014 and as far as I can tell he is still playing for their AAA team.

I've always liked Hague's odd signature.

Although not really fair to Moskos, he will always be remembered for the poor front office decisions made by the previous regime running the Pirates. Moskos was seen as a reliever by most scouts and would be an easy sign. The consensus obvious pick by the Pirates would have been Matt Wieters, but he was going to cost a premium.

This did not end well for the Pirates as Moskos would only pitch 25 innings for the big league team before getting dfa'd.  His numbers weren't all that bad, but the stuff just didn't project well in the bullpen. A flyball pitcher that doesn't strike anybody out is a lethal combination.

It is always fun to receive cards like this as it does jog a lot of memories. In some ways Daniel Moskos was indirectly involved for getting the Pirates turned around. Not long after a new regime took over and new practices were put in place to make sure the Pirates take the best players available.

Diamond Kings has been my favorite Panini release this year. I was a huge fan of the early 2000's Diamond King sets so this was a very exciting release for me.

 Some shiny 2015 Prizm.

One of the few Reggie Sanders Pirate cards. He absolutely tore the cover off the ball in his short stay with the Bucs.

I love me some Jason Bay! The co-signers set was full of great Pirate cards.

Thanks so much for the cards Tom.  I'll be sure to hit you back soon with some Angels.

Thanks for reading.

Excessive Celebration

I was in DC this weekend visiting friends so I didn't get to see what was probably the best Pirates game in the last couple of years. Coming back in the 8th, 10th and 14th it was arguably the most exciting game since the Wildcard victory against the Reds. 

On the call was Greg Brown and Steve Blass. Brown is known for losing his mind on games like this so the call was fitting. He is the ultimate homer and borderline cheesy sometimes, but I felt it was a pretty good call. The poor guy became a full time announcer right at the beginning of the Pirates historic losing streak so he gets a free pass for as long as he wants. As usual Steve Blass doesn't add much substance as he can only spit out "Oh my God" the first 30 seconds. 

I thought the National broadcast from Fox was a better call, but the local Pirates announcers made for a better video. 

Either way it was a fun game.

Hart Foundation

These guys were awesome!

I think Corey Hart's look would fit right into the Hart Foundation. He has the beard and all the cool tattoos. Plus he is huge.

2015 Topps Series 2 Corey Hart Silver Frame /20

The Pirates took a gamble in the offseason that Corey Hart could fill the roll of the right handed part of a first base platoon. It hasn't went well. I really didn't mind the signing to begin with because the Pirates were paying the minimum and if Hart could play at a fraction of the level he did in Milwaukee it would have been worth it. It could be possible with more at bats that Hart could still hit the ball out of the park, but he has been relegated to pinch hitter because Hart's defense is terrible. My guess is Hart will most likely be dfa'd at the trade deadline. 

The card itself is awesome. I've been adding most of the roll players over the last few weeks.  The Hart was by far the cheapest of any silver frame I've seen. Without looking it was around $4.50 shipped!

 I still think this Corey Hart might be the most famous! 

Thanks for reading!