more Neil Walker cards than you can shake a stick at

The Pittsburgh Kid, Neil Walker rooted for the Pirates his entire life.  He grew up a Pirates fan and now gets to go to Spring Training every February learning how to play 2nd base from the all time leader in double plays at 2nd base, HOFer, and Pirate legend Bill Mazeroski.  Not too bad for a guy drafted as a switch hitting catcher out of high school.

There's rumors going around that there may be a Neil Walker extension similar to what the Bucs did with Cutch prior to last season. 

The Pirates collapse last season coincided with Neil's time spent on the DL.  While he will probably never be recognized as one of the best 2B in the game, there is one thing that Neil does well and that is hit with runners on base. 

From the stats below pick who you want on your team in clutch situations with a 2B coming up to bat

Runners on base            .324   .264   .316
Runners in Scoring Pos  .294   .237   .268
Bases Loaded               .484   .267   .208
Scoring Position 2 Out  .262   .222    .207

It should be clear that the guy you want up is the first guys stats.
Let's reveal who the participants are.
Neil Walker (1)
Ian Kinsler (2)
Robinson Cano (3)

So in offensive categories when there are runners on base, the most clutch hitter is Neil Walker of the Pittsburgh Pirates.  (stats provided by ESPN and baseball-reference.com)

I bet all you non Pirates fans didn't realize what a huge asset Neil was to the team.

Anyway, this is a card blog and so here's some cards of the Pittsburgh Kid that I recently picked up.

This marks my first jersey relic of Neil.  I hate that Topps is still using that same photo from when Neil came up in 2010 and participated in Team Mustache week during his first week there.  That is the only time that Neil had a mustache and yet for many of his 2010 and 2011 cards he has that dumb stache going on.

This here is a card I needed since 2012 Heritage came out.  I still need another to put in my heritage binder, but this one is currently in with the rest of my Neil Walker cards. 

Bowman gold, Bowman Chrome rookie, and a Topps Town card all picked up as part of a 20 card of Neil for $10.  I needed 19 of them.  The others are shown below.

Here's an update to my Neil Walker collection
2013

2012
2012 Allen & Ginter #286
2012 Bowman #24
2012 Bowman Gold #24
2012 Gypsy Queen #112
2012 Heritage #259
2012 Sticker Album #242
2012 Topps #25
2012 Topps Cognac #25
2012 Topps Team Issue Set #PIT4

2011
2011 Allen & Ginter Code #63
2011 Allen & Ginter #63
2011 Allen & Ginter Hometown Heroes #HH81
2011 ATTAX
2011 Bowman #56
2011 Bowman Gold #56
2011 Chrome #63
2011 Heritage #353
2011 Heritage Chrome #C130 (parallel 0122/1962)
2011 Lineage #111
2011 Sticker Album #228
2011 Topps Opening Day #12
2011 Topps Cognac #24
2011 Topps Cognac #245

2011 Topps Diamond #24
2011 Topps Diamond  #245
2011 Topps #24
2011 Topps #245
2011 Topps Town #TTU-27
2011 Topps Team Issue Set #PIT6

2010
2010 Allen & Ginter #117
2010 Allen & Ginter mini #117 (Allen & Ginter back)
2010 Allen & Ginter #117 (black border)
2010 Allen & Ginter #117
2010 Bowman #BDP83
2010 Bowman Chrome #BDP83
2010 Bowman #BDP83 BLUE (parallel 084/399)
2010 Bowman Platinum #83
2010 Bowman Platinum #83 (parallel 170/999)
2010 Bowman Sterling #24
2010 Finest #126 (162/299)

2006
2006 Bowman Future's Game Chrome #FG5
2006 Bowman Future's Game #FG5
2006 Topps Updates & Highlights #UH105

2004
2004 Bowman Heritage #214
2004 Fleer Draft Edition AUTO (048/299)