I have been a Charlie Morton super collector for about 6 years now.
I had the chance to go to PiratesFest today, but didn't want to make the trip as there was only one autograph session that struck my fancy and that one include Josh Harrison and Charlie Morton. A few minutes after the doors were opened to the public, it was announced that Charlie Morton was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies for a 34th round 23 year old who struggled in A ball last year.
I have been a huge advocate in trusting Neal Huntington's plan and none of the prior trades quite stung like this one. I lived through him trading Jason Bay, Jack Wilson, Freddy Sanchez, Jose Bautista, Joel Hanrahan, Jason Grilli, etc. All of those guys were some of my favorites.
This one stings bad though.
I don't imagine many Pirates fans are upset nearly as much as I am. Charlie wasn't the best player on the team. He finished his Pirates career with replacement level numbers. The Pirates have a trio of young pitchers in AAA that are recovering from injuries and will look to have some impact on the Pirates season next year.
Two weeks ago on Black Friday, I made a large purchase on COMC for a ton of Cutch cards I needed along with a few Kent Tekulve cards, but quite literally the biggest purchase was a 2015 5x7 Topps Red parallel numbered 8/10 that I bought for $7. A few days later I located a Topps Mini Black parallel numbered 10/10 that I snagged for $5 delivered.
The size difference between these two cards didn't matter much to their asking price. I imagine that Charlie will still get some Topps love in 2016 Topps Series 2 or Update wearing a Phillies uniform.
Today though....
It feels like a part of my collection is dead.
Let's remember Charlie's time with the Bucs with some of my better Charlie cards (all the 1/1s I have)
Ahh that's tough. Great cards though. Very nice 1/1 collection.
ReplyDeleteMorton will always be one of the figures that brought the Pirates back to relevancy.
ReplyDeleteHate it when that happens. Sorry man! Great collection though!
ReplyDeleteThe weird thing is my brother and I were just talking about the possibility of him getting traded. I just the idea of having Niese, Locke and Morton as the bottom half of the rotation was just too much of a risk for the $ involved.
ReplyDeleteWhat surprised me the most was that Morton was a nice bounceback candidate as his peripheral numbers were much better than his era. The Phillies seemed like a weird suitor for him.
The team is going to have a different look this year. Looks like some of the young guys are going to have to play key roles.