Brewing Up a Walker

2011 Topps Triple Threads Neil Walker Patch/Auto 1/1

A recently acquired Neil Walker card from a six year old set became topical again! The former Pirate who grew up in Pittsburgh (announcers will remind you at least 78 times during broadcast) recently was traded from the Mets to the Brewers. The Pittsburgh media overrated him a good bit, but he was/is a very good offensive second baseman when healthy. I suspect he will be a nice pickup for the Brewers who essentially just took on the remaining portion of his salary.  The Pirates are playing the Brew Crew this afternoon. 

As for the card itself this was a nice find. For anyone who collects Pirate cards, 2011 Triple Threads was a big deal.  It was one of the first high end sets to feature some of the "other guys" not named McCutchen.  It featured the likes of Walker, Jose Tabata, Pedro Alvarez and Garrett Jones. It was and still is one of my favorite sets to buy because of all the variety. 

Triple Threads is one of the rare sets that I actually like the regular jersey/patch cards better than the autos. The sticker seems to be more of an eye sore than usual on this one. Having the placement right on the torso is less than ideal.  With that being said I still highly desired the card because it adds a nice finishing touch to all the Walker's I own from this set. 

Thanks for reading! 

Scrub All Stars

Being a fan of a team that had no chance of doing well can wear on you. During the Pirates historic run of 20 plus years of being awful it created two types of fans. You had the internal optimist fan that was always thinking the team was turning the corner and the fan that just watched out of habit because the team was part of their childhood. I consider myself the optimist fan, but realistic at the same time.

Even as an optimist, the Pirates were so bad that you had to find other means to channel your support. Maybe you could root for some prospects or just use the Pirates as a cheap means to see some dominant NL players visiting PNC park. For the longest time guys like Sosa and Pujols were among the offensive leaders in the early years of PNC park.

One event that always peaked my interest in the summer was the All Star game. While being terrible for 20 years means your team had plenty of holes it doesn't mean the Buccos were completely void of talent. Jason Kendall, Brian Giles and Jason Bay all had multiple years where they were more than deserving. With that being said the Pirates had a few years where guys had to be put on the squad just because it was the rule. The likes of Ed Sprague, Mike Williams and Evan Meek come to mind.

It terms of cardboard it made perfect sense to chase All Star related Pirates. Topps has made made it a habit to produce jersey cards since the mid 2000's featuring All Star game swatches. When Triple Threads was introduced it took them to a whole new level and I was hooked.

I've shown off a few here on the blog like these....

Over the past handful of months I've been able to add a couple more that I haven't had time to showoff....

You know your team is pretty bad when you only get one representative and it happens to be a reliever. That was the case for Evan Meek. He had a decent year, but it was just a case of a reliever beating out his peripheral numbers.

Zach Duke made the All Star team with rather pedestrian numbers. Without looking I believe he was added late as Freddy Sanchez was already on the team. He would go on to fall apart the second half of that season. His career was in jeopardy because of prolonged ineffectiveness, but he has rebounded as a productive lefty reliever.

Adding both of these patches were just as rewarding as adding the bigger names. Guys like Cutch can always be found if you are willing the shell out the cash. Duke and Meek are bought up by team collectors never to be seen again because resell value is limited.

Thanks for reading.

Triple Threat

Last night I showed off all three of the McCutchen variants numbered to 9.  Tonight is more of the same with Jose Tabata.  

2011 Triple Threads Jose Tabata Jersey /9

2011 Triple Threads Jose Tabata Jersey /9

                                               2011 Triple Threads Jose Tabata Jersey /9

Tonight I took the time to look through some of my Triple Threads cards to see where I stand.  It seems that I'm only one away from 6 different triples.  I've gotten away from checking for these on eBay and COMC over the last year, but a fresh look has me revitalized to find some missing cards. The good thing is that it will be a buyers market for Tabata, Garrett Jones and Pedro Alvarez.  

I'm pumped for the Pirates game tomorrow.  Hope we can put on another good show like last year.  

Thanks for reading and Let's go Bucs!

Stance Swing Run

 2011 Triple Threads Andrew McCutchen "Stance" /9

 2011 Triple Threads Andrew McCutchen "Swing" /9

2011 Triple Threads Andrew McCutchen "Run" /9

2011 Triple Threads is one of my all time favorite sets.  It was one of the first high end releases to feature the likes of Neil Walker, Jose Tabata, Pedro Alvarez and Garrett Jones.  I have around 50 unique hits from this set mostly due to one eBay seller getting rid of his collection a few years back. I was assisted by the fact the seller ended all the auctions early in the morning.

The above McCutchen's feature all three variants in the jersey parallel that was numbered to 9.  I think the only other player in which I completed all three versions is Jose Tabata and that was numbered to 50.  I've been on a dry spell trying to find some final pieces to my collection.  Hopefully the next few months I will see some progress on filling some holes.  The nice thing is that McCutchen is the only expensive person to add.  All the other Pirates can be had for less than $5 a card.  

I'm getting excited about the wildcard game Wednesday.  Don't think I'm going like last year, but I will be watching nervously.  Should be a great game.  

Let's Go Bucs!

El Toro

2011 Triple Threads 1/1

Pedro has had the power stroke going early.  He hit a huge 3 run homer in the game against the Cubs yesterday that helped propel the Bucs to the win.  I'm hoping this will be the year he finally puts it all together and stays consistent for the whole season. 

I've mentioned it a lot before but 2011 Triple Threads is one of my favorite sets.  It was one of the first sets to feature multiple hits of the current core of the team (Cutch, Alvarez, Walker).  I probably have at least 30 hits from the set including several 1/1's.  Last year a seller sold off a ton at one time in which I was able to win most for a reasonable price.  I think it helped that the auctions went off first thing in the morning.  This card was purchased by itself a few years back.  At the time Pedro was selling cheap so I think I only spent around $30 if my memory serves me correctly.  

Hope everyone has a good weekend. Thanks for reading.