Trade Post: Phungo, It's where the fun goes...

I recently made a trade with Paul of the blog Phungo, a Phillies card blog.

 

Paul had posted his thoughts on a rack pack of 2014 Allen & Ginter he bought back in August and had pulled an Andrew McCutchen mini.  I instantly jumped on calling dibs on it.

In addition to the A&G mini, Paul sent a package with his usual Phungo cards he produced himself.  Some of my all time favorites were included.

He also included a bunch of new cards I didn't already have in my Pirates collection including the well worn, but brand new to me 1993 Fleer Atlantic Collector's Edition Andy Van Slyke.  All 10 cards pictured above are new to my collection except for the Cutch which I have one signed in person.  The 75 mini of Al Oliver and Bowman Heritage Aramis Ramirez are probably my runner up favorites to the playing card of Barry Bonds.  I just love those unique oddball items featuring players from the 80s and 90s.  I wish they would do stuff like that again.

He also included this unique 2007 Upper Deck NL Central Pennant Chasers insert of Freddy Sanchez.  The Bucs actually had a shot at winning the NL Central Pennant in 2007 despite having a losing record.

Paul thank you so much for the awesome cards.  Your package should be arriving next week.  I went to a card show last weekend and got some extra stuff for you.

I made a trade with Crack and I'm sending out an SOS!

I recently made a trade with Collector's Crack in exchange for some extra 2012 Heritage I had.  Mark helped narrow my 2012 Heritage Pirates Team Set needs to a few cards listed below
2012 Heritage Needs
151 Pirates Team Card
259 Neil Walker
477 Derrek Lee
492 Joel Hanrahan
any of the hits (Clemente, McCutchen, Stargell, or any of the real one autographs)

Here's the cards that Mark sent me

 some Heritage needs and a bronze Maholm T206

some minis and a Bowman Chrome Brock Holt along with some vintage stickers

The real highlight of the trade was this little oddball item of Andy Van Slyke.  I love getting oddball cards of Van Slyke, but this is my first noncard oddball of the 5x gold glover.  It's a Sports Viewer keychain from 1991.  I wish I could figure out how to take a better picture of the image through the view finder, but this is the best I can come up with.

Thanks so much for the trade Mark.  I'm looking forward to another future trade and finally having the Pirates kick the Brewers ass this year now that Prince is gone.

2012 Collecting Goals pt1

I recently won this card on ebay for .99 with $2 shipping.  Not a bad price for an autograph manufactured letter card.  Daniel McCutchen or "No Relation" as he's known to Pirates fans is a very reliable bullpen swingman that can do it all on the mound.  He can come in and get that needed groundball double play.  He can throw mid 90s heat past a batter to get a much needed strikeout.  He can pitch multiple innings in relief and even make a spot start if needed.  Daniel McCutchen was the "losing" pitcher for that blown call Jerry Meals made in July of last year that started the Pirates collapse from first place.  In relief he threw 92 pitches before the most recognized blown call of 2011.  I really like D Cutch a lot and he helps make the Xavier Nady trade to the Yankees one of the most lopsided trades the Pirates have had in recent years. 

Anyway, I'm going to try and spell out McCutchen.  I found the c and C cheap on COMC and recently won another auction for the U on ebay.  That could put me at McCUTC in a little over a week.  I still need the H, E, N.  Because I don't want them to look odd when fully assembled it has to be the numbered out of 106.  None of the blue, green, etc. limited refractors.  Just the base only.

Also, I'm trying to assemble the black bordered /61 Pirates cards this year.  I've never attempted to put together a parallel team set like this before and be completely committed to it.  Last year I bought a few of the 2011 Heritage blank back 1/1s off Topps site, but some of them are now in permanent collections so I have no shot at obtaining that team set.  This seems a bit more realistic.  Not to mention that the black borders this year really look great on the Pirates cards.

Here's what I have so far.
-D'arnaud
-Alvarez
-McDonald
-Hughes
-McKenry

I picked up Kevin Correia off ebay for $7 (hasn't arrived yet) and I assure you I will never pay more than $1 for a Kevin Correia card again in my lifetime had it not been for trying to complete this set. 

I'm still looking to add Neil Walker, Jeff Karstens, and Jose Tabata.

My 2012 Topps Wants

I want your 2012 Pirates.  Even if I have duplicates or triples, I don't care. Base, parallels, inserts, hits.  Send them my way.
Here's what I have so far.

I'm missing base cards of James McDonald (have the gold) and Jared Hughes (rookie)

I need all the gold parallels except JMac and need all the inserts, but like I said I will gladly accept doubles of the Pirates base to try and get autographed.

MASSIVE RELIC/AUTO UPDATE!

I have been busy trying to update everything to my Picasa webpage to show all my Pirate treasures, but lack of a fast quality scanner and lack of time has disabled that goal.  Here's some older ebay winnings from earlier in the year that didn't get posted until now.

First up a Paul Maholm silk card

a Freddy Sanchez 2006 Topps Update All Star Game Jersey

 Brian Giles Prime Patches SHOE JERSEY HAT

Chase D'arnaud Tristar AUTO

a dual relic of Willie Stargell & Dave Parker

2 game used bat relics & an auto of Al Oliver

an Oliver Perez AUTO

 Dave Parker Topps Archives BAT

an Andy Van Slyke jersey relic

A Maury Wills Jersey relic 44/350

a Pedro Alvarez manupatch and triple signature of the Vanderbilt stars (Mike Minor, Pedro Alvarez, Ryan Flaherty)

a Ross Ohlendorf UD Signature Stars AUTO

2 Zach Duke jersey patches

and a Joel Hanrahan 2010 Peak Performance AUTO


I currently have several trades in the works so expect updates on that soon.  Also my birthday is approaching so I will probably treat myself to some cards to celebrate.

I will add all my Dave Parker, Willie Stargell, Bill Mazeroski, Bill Madlock, and Jason Bay cards soon.  I promise.

On a completely different note, my favorite pitcher Charlie Morton is on the mound again tonight so LET'S GO BUCS!

Trade with Too Many Grandersons

Dennis at Too Many Grandersons was looking to unload some Pirates.  Who am I to turn down some Bucs' cards?  Here's some of the highlights of the box I received.

Pirates love gold and I love gold numbered parallels.  Steve Pearce makes the funniest faces

Also in the group of cards he sent me was a bunch of cards I needed for my player PCs.  I got a Ryan Doumit 2008 Bowman Gold I needed for my Doumit PC, 3 Jason Bays I needed for my Bay PC, and 2 nice Barry Bonds cards for my Bonds Pirates PC.  I'm also happy to see a Roberto Clemente and strangely enough Oliver Perez in this box.

Dennis also included about a dozen Brian Giles cards and close to 30 Jason Kendall cards.  Above are some of my favorites from the lot.  I really like the 2 Brian Giles celebration cards.  Brian Giles was a powerhouse when he was with Pittsburgh.  I also decided to show off an Aramis Ramirez minor league card and a Topps Chrome Mike Gonzalez rookie card.

Now this is the centerpiece of the lot.  These are all numbered cards that Dennis put together that he said he wouldn't miss anything of.  The Victor Black auto is numbered to 50.  He's currently in A ball pitching in relief for the Bradenton Marauders.  The highlight for me of all these cards is the Chase D'arnaud refractor.  I've talked about Chase in the past and how he is my favorite of the Pirates positional prospects.  I was very excited to see that card in the pile.  I'm thinking I might add Chase to my players I collect. 

Thank you SOOOOOOOOOOO much for the awesome cards Dennis.  I hope you enjoy the cards I sent you too. 

Chase-ing Rehab Updates

Last night, the Indianapolis Indians defeated the Toledo Mud Hens 9-8 thanks to a Matt Hague grand slam in the 2nd inning. A lot of the Pirates players have been making minor league rehab starts at this time including Jose Tabata.  Jose was a top ranked prospect for the Pirates heading into the 2010 season and he didn't disappoint fans by batting nearly .300 all season long.  He also swiped 19 bags in only 102 games.  This year he started out on fire before having injury after injury.  Tabata started in left field last night and went 1 for 1 with 2 walks and a run scored. 

Chase D'arnaud has also begun his minor league rehab assignment by playing in Bradenton (single A).  Chase struggled a bit while at the major league level hitting only.225 in 25 games.  As I said in a post earlier last week, Chase is my favorite of the positional prospects the Pirates have.  He's a smart base runner and can make some dynamic plays on defense.  Chase is the future SS for the Pirates.

Thinking about getting Chase back in the lineup along with Jose Tabata and Alex Presley got me thinking about the team's recent 10 game losing streak.  When the Pirates were winning series after series in June and July they were running the bases hard constantly trying to move up an extra 90 feet.  The team's strikeout total per 9 was a lot lower too. The Pirates won games because they were fast.  It was fun and exciting and I am hoping to see Chase, Tabata, Presley, and Cutch all on the basepaths together by the end of the season.  I can't take much more of these strikeout, lead footed players anymore.

By the way Chase went 0 for 3 tonight, but did steal second when he reached 1st on a fielder's choice.  He got the ball in play each at bat.  Oh and that Robbie Grossman guy scored another run when he hit his 9th HR of the year.

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.