My First Auto From The ColeTrain trade

Gerrit Cole has been absolutely ridiculous this year for the Houston Astros.  He along with former Pirates teammate Charlie Morton are creating one of the best rotations in baseball with Verlander, Keuchel, and McCullers.  When the rumors were circulating that Cole might be on the block I wanted to see the Pirates get a good haul back for the 2011 number one overall pick.  After all, the Bucs had to lose 100 games in 2010 to get the right to draft the former UCLA star.

So far the pieces acquired from the Astros have been performing well, albeit none at an elite level like Cole is.

Colin Moran is batting .278 with two homeruns and 15 RBI with an OPS nearing .800.

Michael Feliz, who took over Cole's number 45, has struck out 19 batters in 14 innings while posting an ERA of 3.21 in 16 appearances out of the bullpen.

Jason Martin, a twenty two year old outfielder, has been hitting the hell out of the ball in AA Altoona.  He currently has an OPS of .899 with 2 HR and 4 triples in 22 games.  He could be an interesting prospect to keep your eyes on as he continues to develop.

Joe Musgrove, who was used as a starter and long man in the Astros bullpen last year, will begin his rehab starts today.  I am really looking forward to seeing what he can do as I think he will be a valuable piece to the Pirates retooling of the roster over next few seasons.

Even though he has yet to make his Pirates debut, Panini put him in their Diamond Kings release as a member of the Pittsburgh baseball club.  This blue foil autograph ran me $5.20 for my winning bid.  Not a bad price to pay for a card numbered to only 25 copies.

As always, I love the look and design of Diamond Kings.

Starling Marte Kanji

This is just an awesome looking card.

I have been wanting one of these Asia Exclusive Kanji cards.

Another Ke'Bryan Update

A few more Ke'bryan Hayes cards for the PC

McCutchen Mailday #68: Buyback Auto

Getting Andrew McCutchen 2005 Bowman cards is high on my list this year as I would like to get a page's worth of the Pirates All-Star center fielder's rookie card.

Recently a Buyback from 2006 Originals popped up for Cutch's 2005 Bowman card numbered /561. I quickly did the Buy It Now option and added it to my collection. I feel like I have been saying it forever, but I am almost at 100 unique verified autographs of Cutch.

Green Supreme Coffee

I just missed getting this card in time for my March failed Go Green Month.

With Opening Day tomorrow, many Pirates fans are hoping that former Top Prospect Gregory Polanco can take a big step forward and have a breakout season this year.

I will be in Pittsburgh rooting on the Bucs as they take on the rival Cardinals.

Let's Go Bucs!!!!

Hello Newman

I finally got around to adding a Kevin Newman autograph to my collection. I'm not as sold on Newman as Keith Law is, but for $3 delivered, I thought it was time to add an autograph to my collection of the 2015 1st Round Pick.

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 #33: All-Star Jumbo Patch Autograph /6

I might have the best personal collection of Andrew McCutchen cards available on the internet, but that's not going to slow me down from adding more cards that pop up.

My recent addition is another big hit (similar to the past few Cutch additions in 2016). 

Numbered to only 6 copies and featuring a jumbo All-Star Workout Jersey patch from "L" in National, this 2015 Update All-Star  Jumbo Patch Autograph has a sticker auto of Cutch.

This All-Star game will be memorable for me because it's the year that Cutch hit a HomeRun.

McCutchen Mailday #29: Ginter Booklet Part Deux

Last December, I showed off a gorgeous 2015 Allen & Ginter autograph and prime patch booklet numbered to 10.  Another one recently hit eBay so I picked that up as well. 

The previous booklet (shown below) I had numbered 4/10 appeared to be the "P" on the Pirates front alternate black uniforms. 

This appears to be the top part of the "P" from the same uniform.

Another awesome addition to the Cutch PC as I have continued to grow it to record levels the past few years. 

Ke'Bryan Hayes Purple Craze

When Ke'Bryan Hayes was drafted by the Pirates I immediately started to grab a bunch of his Team USA cards.  I couldn't wait until Bowman Draft became available so I could start to buy up as many color parallels as possible.

The problem with that though was that all the high end lower numbered parallels were selling for crazy amounts of money.  The Superfractor for over $1.5K?  Are you kidding me????

Don't get me wrong, I think Ke'Bryan will be a very good player in the majors.  He'll probably be similar skill set to Josh Harrison, but slower on the base paths.  He can play solid defense and hit for average, but hasn't shown his power yet. 

If I'm going to pay over a $100 for an autograph of a Pirates player, it's going to be someone established like Cutch or Cole.  End of story.

So Ke'Bryan, but all I can afford from you now in terms of color Bowman is purple.

Chasing the Rainbow: John Holdzkom Edition

2014 was a memorable season for the Pirates as they set out to prove that their double decade long losing streak being broken in 2013 wasn't a fluke.  There was a breakout campaign by Josh Harrison as he came close to winning the batting title.  Andrew McCutchen had another monster year as he contended for MVP discussion again. 

One of the truly amazing stories though was career minor leaguer turned independent ball gamer to urban legend reliever, John Holdzkom. 

While watching him in his brief stint in the Pirates minor league system I grew a fascination to make Chuck Norris like jokes about how legendary he could become. 
Striking out 3 batters on 3 pitches. 
Batters don't swing the bats against Holdzkom in fear of embarrassing themselves

He instantly became one of my favorite pitchers on the mound.

When Topps announced that he would have an autograph in Series 1, I instantly knew that I had to add that to my collection.  When he was announced as one of the signers for Chrome, I kept my eyes open for any lower numbered cards, but never saw the Superfractor pop up for sale.  I wasn't going to overpay for the other parallels and patiently waited.  Waited longer.  And finally a lot of 5 became available for $20.

Behold the start of my John Holdzkom 2015 Topps Chrome Rainbow.

 Refractor (463/499) Blue (137/150)
Purple 206/250) Green (80/99)

Base

Purple Rain!!!!

I purchased a pair of PC additions to the Ke'Bryan Hayes collection by grabbing these purple parallels from 2014 Leaf Perfect Game numbered 2/10 and 8/10 respectively.

The pair cost me $35 shipped.

I still haven't added any of the Bowman Chrome draft autos yet as they're still over priced in my mind.

A few more Ke'Bryan sticker autos

Here's a few more Ke'Bryan Hayes sticker autographs I grabbed about a few months ago.

Not too shabby for about $20 for the lot. Bowman draft just came out and I will be seeking to add the rainbow to my collection.

McCutchen Mailday #240: The Big One!!!!!

Here's a booklet that I was trying to get since I saw 2015 Allen & Ginter get released.  I lost two previous versions of this booklet.  One of them had a huge patch of the Jolly Roger sleeve which I was very upset about being sniped on.  The other, was less impressive than this one. 

This marks my 91st unique Andrew McCutchen autograph to be added to my PC. 
It's also getting me into double digits for booklets of Cutch.

I love that this jumbo patch likely features the "P" for the Pirates alternate black jersey.  It's a massive 3 color patch.

When I set out to acquire 100 new Cutch cards this year, I never imagined being able to add the quality and quantity to my PC that I've been able to.

This Reese is Neat

Just a cool Reese McGuire diecut autograph I picked up for a $15 spot.

Football Sunday: Markus Wheaton Auto

We are in the 11th month of the year already so here's my only certified autograph of #11.

The Steelers loss to the Bengals today and suffered another devastating injury that will affect their season success when Le'Veon Bell left with a gruesome knee injury.

Football Sunday: LT Auto

Terrible signature

Good Athlete

You got a (Bob) Friend in me

Recently snagged this on card autograph of World Series Champion, Bob Friend

Couldn't beat it for the price of $5

Football Sunday: Troy Time!

Topps Museum is consistently one of my favorite releases each year for on card autographs for the Pirates.  When I heard that Topps was going to be doing a football release last year, I looked at the checklist and saw that one of my all time favorite Steelers had a framed autograph.

This marks my first Troy Polamalu card autograph. It is beautifully placed inside a silver frame and has a great on card silver autograph.

Not seeing Troy play this year is still kind of strange, but with each passing week its getting a little easier.

Ke'Bryan: do your laundry!

I've been adding Ke'Bryan Hayes cards here and there in between adding to my Cutch PC.

This beaut ran me $20 and is numbered 3/5.  Not a bad price to pay for a guy I think will be a future everyday third baseman.  I have a few more nice Ke'bryan cards coming in soon.