Game used hats, an auto, a bat relic, and another printing plate

There was no Pirates baseball yesterday, but there was plenty of great stories in the Minor League system.  Chase D'Arnaud and Alex Presley were both making rehab starts in high A ball Bradenton.  Unfortunately, the Bradenton Marauders just had their 9 game winning streak ended against the Twins A Ball club.  Earlier in the year Pirates left handed veteran bullpen specialist Joe Beimel and starting catcher Chris Snyder had made rehab starts in Bradenton and I won the charity auctions for their game used hats.  You can see both my winnings above.  I got both of these game used hats for about the price some people are paying for a Bryce Harper BASE Bowman card.  Yup, $20 shipped.

Even though this is a card blog, I think it's nice for me to show off some of my other Pirates memorabilia from time to time.  I don't have any high end things like a Clemente bat or Mazeroski glove, but I got some cool things that I've picked up cheap over the years that I think are fun to show.  What do you guys think?  Interested?

Also in Minor League news, Tony Sanchez (ranked #2 prospect in Pirates organization prior to 2011) had a great night for the Altoona Curve (AA) yesterday.  He went 2 for 5 at the plate with a run scored and an RBI. Tony projects as a future gold glove backstop and he proved that yesterday by gunning down Evan Bigley attempting to steal 2nd base. This is one of my favorite Tony Sanchez cards I own. It's a red ink Auto from Tristar and is numbered 5/5.  The photo of Tony looks badass and the coloring of the card resembles the Pirates team colors.  On top of that he signed the card PITTS #1PICK.

In AAA action the Indianapolis Indians beat the hell out of the Columbus Clippers 9-1.  Matt Hague, Josh Harrison, Jason Jaramillo, and Jordy Mercer all had huge games by collecting at least 2 hits a piece.  You may remember in a previous post I bought a Matt Hague auto for $4.  That's looking like a damn good buy at this point as he has 13 RBI in his last 10 games while batting .349.

HAPPY 23rd BIRTHDAY JOSE TABATA!

Jose Tabata was in the lineup making another rehab start this time as a DH.  He went 0 for 4 with a BB and was caught stealing.  Jose is still batting .333 during those 6 games and has collected 4 extra base hits and scored 5 times.  Today Jose turned 23 years old.  In his 173 games played at the Major League level, he has collected 189 Hits (46 of which were for extra bases), stolen 33 bases, and is hitting .287.  He also had 2 walk off hits this year.  It looks like the Pirates organization plans on moving Jose to RF when he returns and keeping Alex Presley in Left.  I like this idea a lot not only for the sake of preventing Jose from pulling another muscle in that spacious left field, but there's also history for him in right.  As everyone knows Roberto Clemente is the greatest Pirates right fielder of all time.  Hell, they have the Clemente wall (21 feet high) in PNC Park.  Well Jose's idol is Roberto Clemente and he has a tattoo of him on his forearm.  I think it would be great motivation for Jose to play and try to live up to what Roberto accomplished.

Pictured above is a 2011 Topps Opening Day 1/1 Yellow Printing Plate of Jose along with the 2011 Topps Heritage Bat relic.