Cause I'm back in black

The Pirates are wearing their road black alternate uniforms tonight and are winning 8-2 in the bottom of the 8th inning against the Brewers.  Go Bucs! 

I recently picked up two high end autos online of some of MLB's top prospects, and they both play for Pittsburgh.

The Pirates have drafted two stud pitching prospects the past two seasons with their 1st round selections.  In 2010 the Pirates drafted prep pitcher Jameson Taillon from The Woodlands High School.  Jamo is pitching very well in advanced A ball and is due to earn a promotion to AA very soon.  The 20 year old future front of the rotation right hander is continuing to throw almost a strikeout per inning while reducing his WHIP to a very good 1.07 for the 2012 season.

I received this card for free when I purchased a black Rawlings baseball signed in gold paint pen from Onyx.  I really need to clean my scanner, but I always keep forgetting until after I scan something and then get too caught up in scanning to clean it.  Maybe one day...

Anyway, this card was a promotional exclusive autograph card that Onyx was giving out based on the information I have gathered from online sources.

Taillon is currently in the top 15 of all prospects in the game no matter what source you go to.  Some have him as high as 8, others as low as 14.  Wherever he ranks, they all say the same thing.  He's a very special arm and should start to ascend quickly to the majors once "the kid gloves" are taken off him.

Next up is another top prospect in baseball (top 40 in most sources) that is in the Pirates farm system.  Starling Marte made quite a name for himself during his tear in spring training.  When I say that Marte was on a tear, I'm not even joking.  Look at these numbers with only 25 at bats.
.520 batting average
.920 slugging percentage
1.440 OPS!!!!!
3 Home Runs
2 stolen bases

Marte did not make the team because they had their starting outfield and 4th outfielder at the start of the season.  They wanted Marte to gain more experience and better pitch recognition.  He has not had many walks throughout his career, only 83 walks over 1,600 plate appearances.  He has shown tremendous improvement in this while at the AAA level this season walking every 17 at bats compared to his every 28 at bats last season in AA. 

The card I bought is from 2012 Bowman and is part of the Bowman black series.  I absolutely love the design and player selection of these cards.  It's such a shame that they are so darn expensive though.  I managed to pick this one up for just under $50.  $50 for a piece of cardboard of a guy that has never played in the majors.  Talk about a lottery ticket.

Even if Marte doesn't become a household name, I really do like the guy a lot.  He's incredibly fan friendly.  I've probably gotten his auto close to a dozen times at this point and he even gave me a cracked bat when I was watching him play for AA Altoona last year.  A class act every way you look at it.

I'm sure that we will see Starling make his MLB debut later in the year, possibly even as early as the All-Star break.