I got a Matt Purke AUTO

Going into the 2011 draft, I wanted the Pirates to select Matt Purke number 1 overall.  That was before his injuries and arm concerns.  When Purke was still available in the 3rd round, I was thinking that he could be a steal in that round.  The Pirates passed on him and he eventually was drafted and signed by the Washington Nationals.  

Instead of Purke, the Pirates selected 1B/OF Alex Dickerson in the 3rd round out of Indiana.  Dickerson can hit for legitimate power and is a hitting machine.  In his first taste of professional ball at State College last year, he hit .313 with an OPS of .886.  He will need to cut down on his strikeouts, but could be fast tracked through the system due to a lack of depth at 1B.

MLB.COM has Pirates all over the top 10 lists

In most people's eyes, the Pittsburgh Pirates have had a simple strategy over the past 19 years.  Lose a bunch of games. Draft someone. Bring them up slowly, then trade them to cut salary and get a marginal prospect in return.  While most of the above is true, the Pirates ship is sailing a new direction since Neal Huntington took over in September 2007.  Understanding that the Pirates had one of the worse MLB teams and a very poor farm system, Neal has begun to build and put together pieces through the draft and international signings.  Although, we have not seen many of these young draft picks hit the majors yet, last year we did see a few breakout performances from players that Neal traded for. 

In the Nate McLouth trade to Atlanta, the Pirates received Charlie Morton and Jeff Locke.  Both players had huge improvements on their development as Charlie lead the NL in groundball outs with his devastating mid90s sinker.  Meanwhile Jeff Locke made his MLB debut as a September callup after starting the season in AA.  Although Jeff has yet to earn his first major league win, he did manage to get his feet wet and I suspect he will be back in the majors come the summer.

In the Damaso Marte and Xavier Nady trade to the Yankees, we saw breakout performances from both Jeff Karstens and Daniel McCutchen in 2011 as they solidified themselves as some of the most durable arms on the Pirates pitching staff.  Jose Tabata, also aquired from NY in that deal, signed a long term contract that could keep him in Pittsburgh through the 2019 season.

The 2 month rental of Octavio Dotel yielded us James McDonald and Andrew Lambo from the Dodgers in 2010.  JMac was a solid number 4-5 starter and saw career highs in nearly every category in 2011 and he also had a bases clearing double offensively.  Lambo struggled on his promotion to AAA, but still shows nice potential to be a good 4th outfielder/1B bench power bat.

Neal Huntington draft picks Chase D'arnaud and Pedro Alvarez saw time on the major league roster, while other 2008 draft picks were named all-stars in the minors (Jarek Cunningham, Jordy Mercer, Matt Hague, Robbie Grossman, and Matt Curry) 

With the Pirates flirting with a division championship through the July trade deadline, the Pirates even acquired Derrek Lee and Ryan Ludwick to try and improve the offense.  Unfortunately, the team became infected with many injuries to some of their top talents and finished with another losing season and 4th in the division. 

The biggest shocker to the prospect field came when the Pirates were able to sign high school 5 tool switch hitting outfielder Josh Bell away from college with a $5 million dollar signing bonus.  Josh had sent out a letter to all MLB stating that no sum of money would sign him away from his college commitment and was expected to be a top 10 talent in the draft.  Neal Huntington must have had elephant sized balls or some insider information when the Pirates drafted Josh with the first pick on the 2nd day.  As with most draftees, he waited until the last day to sign and has yet to make his professional debut.  I expect Josh Bell will be with the Pirates in 3 years or less because he is that good based on scouting reports I've seen.

There's hope coming in the form of the Pirates own homegrown prospects. 
MLB.com recently revealed their top 10 at each position and the Pirates have a top 10 talent in the outfield, 1st base, and 2 pitchers.  It's been a long time since the Pirates have seen this much homegrown success make these type of lists. 

Here's the rundown
Starling Marte ranks number 7 of all outfield prospects in baseball
Jameson Taillon and Gerrit Cole are numbers 3 and 6 respectively for top RHP prospects.
Alex Dickerson ranks as the 9th best 1B prospect in baseball.

It feels good to have top talent coming from the draft that can be added to the major league roster by as early as 2012.  I guess this is what Tampa Bay Rays fans have been feeling since 2008.  Let's Go Bucs!

Here's some of my unposted cards featuring the Pirates top 10 Prospects

Jameson Taillon 2009 Upper Deck USA Jersey Relic

Alex Dickerson 2010 Topps USA Baseball AUTO 3 JERSEY RELIC 191/219

Starling Marte 2011 Bowman AUTO

Gerrit Cole 2011 Elite Extra Edition Best Compared to Stephen Strasburg insert 18/499

Pulled a hit from 2011 Bowman Draft Picks

Last night, while at Wal-Mart I was shopping and on a whim decided to pick up a blaster of 2011 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects.  The blaster contained 7 packs for $19.99.  I normally don't like to buy blasters unless they're reduced.  However, on an impulse I picked it up along with a few other things I went shopping for.

I don't have time to go through every single card or break it down by the pack, but here's some of the highlights.  First up is the gold bordered cards inserted 1 per pack. 

Next are the refractors.  None are numbered.

 An Alex Dickerson Bowman Chrome for the PC

 2 Pirates rookie cards.  I expect both Tony Watson and Alex Presley to be key players for the Pirates this coming season

 and finally a hit.....

Jurickson Profar All-Star Futures Game jersey card.  Jurickson has the makings of being a solid MLB player for the future.  I just wonder if he will ever get the chance since Elvis Andrus is such a key player for that lethal Texas offense.

If anyone wants any of the cards above, just let me know.

As an additional note, the Penguins ended their 6 game losing streak.  Congratulations to Evgeni Malkin for making the All-Star team.  Here's a 2011 Pinnacle City Limits gold jersey card I won a few months ago that hadn't been posted yet.  This card is numbered 468/499.

When you get knocked down, get your ass back on eBay

6 straight losses! 1 game under .500 and 6.5 games out of first place. YUCK!

I thought last night's game would go much better for the Bucs.  Charlie Morton was sensational on the mound and the right guys were up at the plate when there were key run scoring opportunities. Unfortunately none of them could get the job done and the Bucs lost to the Cubbies 1-0 thanks to a solo HR by Starlin Castro off Chris Resop in the top of the 8th.  Another tough loss for the Buccos.  When Ryan Doumit came up to pinch hit, I felt like he was going to have a walk off HR, but reality had to settle in as he struck out in the 9th to end the game.  I've always liked Dewey, but he's always getting injured.  If he could stay healthy for a full season, he could be a top catcher in the NL.

I have recently added Ryan Doumit to players I collect so sell or trade me your Doumits.  Here's my only relics I have of Ryan.  I have some base cards, but need a whole lot more.

TRADE ME YOUR DOUMITS!!!!

Anyway, after the game ended last night I decided to get on eBay and try to win some CHEAP auctions of future Pirates stars.  I gave myself a $20 budget and 20 hours to try and get some autos, relics, parallels, etc.  BTW, my $20 budget does not include s/h.  This is what I came up with, starting with the 2011 Draft Class.

Up first is an Alex Dickerson 2010 Topps Chrome USA Auto that I won for $5.75.  Alex was a 3rd Round pick of the Pirates in the 2011 Draft and signed for slot money early.  He's currently in low A ball playing 1B/OF for the State College Spikes.  He's off to a very good start despite a small sample size of only 16 games.  His slash line is .287/.358/.467 and he has 1HR, 1 3B, and 6 2B of his 17 total hits.  Even his K:BB ratio (7:5) is looking good so far.  Alex was ranked one of the top 50 prospects in the draft prior to draft day.

Up next is one of the future aces of the Pirates. It would be very hard for Gerrit to turn down all that #1 overall pick money, so I'm assuming he's going to sign.  Gerrit's stuff is simply electric and he's built for 200+ innings.  There is no pitcher in the draft that projects better than Gerrit does and that's why the Bucs selected him number 1 overall.  This 2010 Bowman Sterling USA jersey card of Gerrit Cole was purchased for a whopping $1.26. 

From the 2008 draft class and my favorite of the Pirates prospects to watch play is Chase D'arnaud.  I got a chance to watch Chase play a couple games when he was with AA Altoona last year and saw him play one game this year while in AAA.  I knew he was going to be in the majors before the end of this season.  The guy flat out plays hard.  He may have struggled with MLB pitching and made a few mental errors in his time with the Pirates last month, but there's no doubt in my mind he's the shortstop of the future for the team.  This 2011 Topps Pro Debut Double A All Stars card of Chase was won for $1.00 (with free shipping) I realize I may have over paid for a base card, but the free shipping of a player I really enjoy for a buck was too tough to resist.

That brought my total to $8.01 so I wasn't even half way through before I came across this 2011 Bowman Chrome Matt Hague Autograph which I snagged up for $3.99.  Matt wasn't considered a top prospect in the organization until this year and probably still isn't.  The reality is that the Pirates just don't have a lot of quality depth at the 1B position in the immediate future.  Personally I think Matt Curry may be the answer, but that's probably another two years away.  Matt Hague was drafted by the Pirates in the 9th round of the 2008 draft and is currently playing for the AAA Indianapolis Indians.  He's got 9 HR on the year and is batting a solid .314.  He has been consistently near .300 for his minor league career so if he were to bat .275 or so in the majors that would be a great improvement on what the Pirates have sent out in the past.

I'd say with $8 still left to spend, I've already got a good collection of cards for the budget, but you're probably thinking, where's the representation of the 2009 and 2010 draft classes though?  Without further ado I present to you a blue parallel from the 2010 Topps Pro Debut of Brock Holt which I won for $1.50.  I'm not a huge fan of parallel cards as I often forget which versions I have when collecting, but the blue border on this card goes really nice with the State College Spikes uniform.  Brock was selected in the 9th round of 2009 out of Rice University.  He's currently in AA Altoona hitting .277 with 15SB. He can play 2B and SS and could be a good utility player in the Pirates future.  This card is numbered 35/259.

After winning the Holt with a Best Offer almost instantly, I tried my hand at Pirates #1 prospect going into the 2011 season, Jameson Taillon.  Jamo has pitched much better then his numbers indicate for the 2011 season.  There has been a few games in West Virginia where his defense has taken bad routes to fly balls which has lead to earned runs that should have been caught.  As proven in the Adrian Gonzalez trade this past offseason, numbers are practically meaningless to minor league development.  So although the numbers may not represent it early in his career, there's little doubt that in a few years Jameson will be leading the Pirates rotation with Gerrit Cole.  This 2011 Bowman Platinum XFractor was won for $2.00. Jameson is the type of player that I will probably collect when a good opportunity presents itself, but I won't ever consider myself a super collector of his because of the high price tags often attached to his cards.

With just a minute left on the auction I saw this 2011 Bowman Platinum Jameson Taillon AUTO with only 1 bid. I took a stab at it and won it for $6.99.




That brought me to $22.49, which was over my budget.

I still had a bid on this Robbie Grossman 2009 Bowman Sterling AUTO which I won for $1.75.  Robbie was drafted in the 6th round of the 2008 draft out of Cypress Texas High School.  He projects to be a very athletic center fielder with some pop.  He's currently playing for the Bradenton Marauders where he has scored 102 runs in only 107 games.  He made a commitment prior to the season that he was going to score at least 100 runs and be more aggressive on the base paths.  I'd say that philosophy has worked so far.  He's batting .287 with an OBP of .427.  He's struck out 85 times but has 94 walks.  He's also got 23 SB on the year so far.



Well, I went over budget by $4.24 but let's recap what I bought: 4 autos, 1 jersey relic, 1 numbered parallel, and 1 base insert.  Not a bad haul.  Factor in $7.75 s&h and I'd say I did fairly respectable.  I hope you all enjoyed this little budget planning experiment and hopefully learned a little about the Pirates prospects.  Next time I will hit the budget and use S/H as part of the budget.  Taillon autos are just too good to pass up for $7.