34 Days to Go...

The countdown to the Pirates 2016 Season Opener is only 34 more days away. When I think of the Pirates in recent years associated with #34, there is only 1 person that comes to mind...AJ Burnett.

I just grabbed this 2014 Bowman blue for a $1 delivered

Scripture Sunday: Randy Tomlin 1991 Fleer

Its been a few days since my last post as I have been very busy with work.  I thought today was a good day to show off this TTM as I reflect on the day.

Today's 1991 Fleer TTM brings us closer to completing the 1991 Fleer TTM

Colossians 3:23
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not human masters

McCutchen Mailday #49: Pin

I am staying on pace to add nearly another 400 new Cutch cards to the PC again this year.

My latest Cutch added in 2016 is this pin from 2016 Topps. I'm still waiting for a few parallels to start rolling in.

Nothing too fancy, but another welcomed manufactured hit is always nice to add to the collection.

McCutchen Mailday #48: Cutch Autographs nearing 100 uniques

Over the years, I have added many Andrew McCutchen dual autographs to the PC.  Some of them are mind blowing and some feature guys that never made it to the majors.

For $30, I added another dual autograph of the Pirates Face of Franchise along with a former top prospect who never made it to the majors. 

6/25

Javier Herrera was once regarded a top prospect in the game and in 2005 he made it up to AAA as a 20 year old in Oakland's farm system.  Injuries appear to have prevented him from ever getting to the majors and the A's released him in 2008.  Since then he has bounced around from independent leagues to the Giants farm system and despite being a 30 year old in AA he is still trying to make it as a professional baseball player.  In just over 500 career minor league games he has a very good triple slash line of .281/.359/.461, but it looks like a lot of independent leagues are in his future as the Giants don't appear to have much more need of him than organization depth.

Set Collecting 1996 Leaf

I think I will try to put together the Pirates team set for 1996 Leaf Signatures.

The beauty of trying to put together this team set is that it should be fairly cheap as there were no big name stars for the Pirates during that time period except Jason Kendall who is actually fairly cheap anyway.

I've previously shown off the Charlie Hayes

Today's addition is Mike Kingery.  Kingery finished his career in a Pirates uniform at the age of 35, playing only one season for the black and gold.  Of the 694 games he appeared in over his 10 year career, he only started 474 of them.  Towards the end of his career he was almost exclusively used in a pinch hitting role. 

McCutchen Mailday #46 & 47: MORE STRATA???? I'm up to 12 now

Sure, as if I didn't have enough, I have added more Strata cards of Cutch to the PC.

These are some decent looking patches, but nothing too fancy.

This brings me to 12 Strata cards of Cutch now!
12!!!!!

McCutchen Mailday #45: My 1st 2016 card of Cutch AND A CONTEST

So far this year I am on pace to add nearly 400 new unique cards of Cutch again.  I have done fairly well at adding a card a day to my collection from eBay and sportlots dealers. 

Today's post features the first true 2016 card added to the PC of the former MVP.  It's a jersey relic Scouting Report, not serially numbered.

What's odd about this card though is the jersey relic used.  The Pirates don't have pinstripe uniforms and when they have worn alternate uniforms in the past for Negro League heritage games, they generally wear the Crawfords uniforms which are red and white not grey and purple. 

A few of the Starling Marte relics feature the same pinstripe so I am extremely curious what this could be from.  If anyone can correctly identify the uniform that this could be from, I will send the winner a care package prize.

Black is the New Black: Big Willy Style!!!

Bowman Black is one of my favorite autograph series of all time.  Since it's debut I have added nearly every Pirates prospect that has appeared in the series.

Jameson Taillon
Gerrit Cole
Starling Marte
Gregory Polanco
Tyler Glasnow (I have 3 of these)
Austin Meadows
Reese McGuire
Harold Ramirez
Connor Joe
Alen Hanson

Today I am adding another to the list and it's unlikely that he will see any playing time at the Major League level due to the current Pirates young outfield.  The prices on Willy Garcia cards are very cheap right now and I am starting to pick them up as I think he will be moved at the trade deadline and emerge as an everyday outfielder.

With the addition of Garcia to the Bowman Black collection, the major ones that I am missing are Cole Tucker and Kevin Newman.  A Kevin Newman recently sold for $60 which is just stupid. 

This Garcia addition was grabbed for $10.

McCutchen Mailday #44: My 1,100 unique Cutch card featuring the best players in the game!!!!

I can't believe that I own 1,100 unique cards of Cutch. 

When I started this blog 5 years ago, I barely had 100 cards of Cutch.  Since then I have added many elite cards to my PC (adding nearly 400 unique cards last year definitely helped push it to where it currently is) and I am currently on pace for another near 400 new additions this year.

This particular card isn't worth that much, but it does feature the best pitcher in the game today (Clayton Kershaw), the most raw power (Giancarlo Stanton), and the top two 5 tool talents in each league (Cutch and Trout)

I'm glad that a card like this is what represents this milestone addition to the PC.

McCutchen Mailday #43: A Jersey Relic from the Past

Another Jersey relic comes home via ebay and it was ridiculously cheap. 

This card brings me just shy of the 1,100 mark for unique Cutch cards.

McCutchen Mailday #42: Stars of Summer Dual Relic

My 42nd new Cutch card added to the PC in 2016 hails from 2014 Classics.  Oddly enough, this card is actually numbered 42.

There's a bunch of different parallels to this particular card including relics containing single bats or single jerseys or dual jersey or dual bat or a bat and jersey.  This one appears to be jersey and pants (based on material)

McCutchen Mailday #40 & 41: Two More Stratas

I seriously fell in love with Topps Strata this year especially since my favorite player, Andrew McCutchen was featured in it.

Here's my two latest Cutch cards from Strata.

Barry Bonds Rookie Rack Pack!!!!

Check out what I came across for $5.

1987 Topps was the card series that got me into collecting baseball cards.  I remember buying packs upon packs upon packs of this stuff when I was younger.

This rack pack which is still sealed with a Mike Schmidt All-Star card and Barry Bonds "rookie" card are prominently featured on the front
It's not going to command the demand it would have if this was 1992, but overall not a bad pickup for $5. I'm happy adding this to the man cave.

McCutchen Mailday #39: YouTuber Brad8671

A few days ago I received a package in the mail from youtuber Brad8671.  I have been a follower/subscriber of Brad's for over a year now and his videos (especially during football season) are extremely entertaining.  If you're on youtube, go check him out.

Brad was showing off a few of his 2015 National Treasures that he had gotten in group breaks and mentioned "no one wants these" regarding the Jackie Robinson Tribute cards.  Well, I quickly emailed Brad saying "I do I do" regarding the Andrew McCutchen he had gotten. 

A few short days, this beauty showed up giving me my 39th unique card of Cutch I have added this year.

 The back of the card discusses what game the jersey is from and how Cutch fared in the game.

Again I want to thank Brad for his incredible kindness in sending this card over to me.  I will hit you back with some Dolphins stuff soon brother...

McCutchen Mailday #35-38: Low Numbered Parallels Galore

Quick post today, but I got a bunch of new Cutches in the mail the other day

 Up first are two parallels numbered to 99 or less.  The first is a stunning 2015 Topps Tribute Emerald /99 and the second is a /75 2014 Topps Chrome.  I'm getting fairly close to completing the rainbow for the 2014 Chrome.  I know that I will never the Superfractor though.

Up next are two 10th Anniversary Allen & Ginter cards.  The first is a jersey swatch and the 2nd is the black exclusive 10th anniversary base card.