Pirates Rookie Cup Lineup Analysis: Every blogger should try to do this....

2005 Topps Rookie Cup Yellow 195/299

It struck me while I was putting away my latest Jason Bay card seen above that the Pirates haven't had too many Topps Rookie Cup winners over the years despite having a top 10 draft pick for nearly two decades.  Off the top of my head, in recent memory Cutch and Walker stood out to me.  So with that being said, I went through my binders from 1987 (my first year collecting baseball cards) and decided I would show off every Pittsburgh Pirate to have the Topps Rookie Cup.  As I was going through the 12 players selected to Topps Rookie teams, I noticed that essentially every position was filled.

Here's the lineup I came up with for the position players

Jason Kendall - C (R)
Andrew McCutchen - CF (R)
Neil Walker - 3B (S)
Jason Bay - LF (R)
Craig Wilson - 1B (R)
Warren Morris - 2B (L)
Jose Guillen - RF (R)
Al Pedrique - SS (R)

Bench Bat- Carlos Garcia (R)

First, some minor details...I put Walker at 3B because he played 6 games at the position in 2010 (which qualifies in fantasy baseball) and the Pirates don't have any Rookie Cup 3B winners, but have 3 that qualified as 2B (Morris, Walker, Garcia).  I think that Walker had the best statistical season as a rookie second baseman, BUT after putting him at 3rd, it came down to the side of the plate Garcia and Morris hit.  My lineup is already loaded with right handed bats so I went with Morris over Garcia.

Jason Kendall leading off and catcher was kind of a no brainer to me.  It was a place in the lineup that he was often used and he posted a ridiculous 35 walks to 30 strikeouts during his 1996 rookie season.  He would almost certainly put the ball in play and get on base for the guys behind him.

Cutch finished his rookie season with 22 stolen bases, 54 RBI, 74 Runs, and a .286/.365/.471 line.  He often hit in the leadoff spot during his rookie season so that the Pirates could utilize his speed at the top of the lineup.  Personally I think Kendall is a better leadoff guy though.

This is where I started to experiment with the lineup a bit.  Neil Walker might not seem like a typical #3 hitter on most clubs, but during his rookie season he batted .296/.349/.462 with 66 RBI.  After the 2010 All-Star Break, Neil was one of the top 5 NL players in RBI during that span.  He hit really well with runners in scoring position during the 2010 season.  I put Walker in the 3 hole also because of his ability to switch hit.

Jason Bay is the only Pirate to ever be a unanimous decision when it came to Topps Rookie Cup players.  He is also the only rookie to ever win the Rookie of the Year (hopefully Gregory Polanco wins it this year).  He posted a 2.2 WAR during his rookie season while playing in 120 games batting a .282/.358/.550 line with 26 Home Runs, 82 RBI and  61 Runs.  Having him in the cleanup spot makes the most sense.

Craig Wilson's 2001 rookie campaign got him acknowledged as the best rookie first basemen ahead of Albert Pujols (who was listed as a 3B).  Wilson was a slugger who played multiple positions for the Bucs including Catcher, 1B, and both corner outfield positions.  In 88 games he posted an obsurd .589 slugging percentage to couple his .390 OBP.

Because of the pop that both Bay and Wilson brought, I didn't want a high strikeout guy batting behind them so I went with the left handed hitting second baseman Warren Morris instead.  Morris had a great line for a secondbaseman while batting .288 and having only 88 strikeouts in 147 games.

Jose Guillen had a cannon for an arm in right field, but could also handle the stick during his rookie season.  He hit at a below average with a high strikeout rate, but did collect 14 HR and 70 RBI enroute to his rookei season.

Al Pedrique looked like he could be a future All-Star shortstop in his rookie season in 1987, but wound up being a below average player for the rest of this career and will often be remembered as the manager that intentionally walked Barry Bonds 12 times during 3 days when Barry was sitting at 699 career HomeRuns.  His 1987 season saw him have a 1.4 WAR season which included a .301/.354/.362 line.  He did collect his only career homerun during that 1987 season.

My bench bat is Carlos Garcia, a current manager for the Pirates AA affiliation Altoona Curve.  Garcia posted a 1.4 WAR with 12 HR and 18 SB during his rookie campaign.  As a former infield coach, he is my utility player and bench bat.

For the pitching side, I was fortunate in the 27 years of collecting baseball cards that the Pirates have had a right handed and left handed starting pitcher along with a relief pitcher.

I'll start with the most recent of the bunch, Mike Gonzalez.  Gonzo's rookie season in 2004 had him as one of the best relief pitchers in baseball that season.  In 47 games and 41 innings, Gonzo posted a 9:1 strikout per walk rate.  Reread that if you need to cause that is just crazy numbers.  He struck out 55 batters while walking 6 and posted a 0.877 WHIP and 1.25 ERA.  With Oliver Perez looking like a Cy Young candidate, Jason Bay winning the Rookie of the Year, and Gonzo shutting everyone down in middle relief, it's amazing the Pirates finished so poorly with a 72-89 record.  I guess it's a good thing though because they were able to use that poor record in the 2005 draft and selected Andrew McCutchen.

Steve Cooke, the 1993 rookie LHP winner went 10-10 for the start of the Pirates two decade long losing streak.  Nothing really stands out for Cooke as his ERA, strikeouts, and walks were all average or below average, but the competion that year was very limited.

Mike Dunne, was a pitch to contact pitcher who in his 1987 rookie campaign went 13-6 to lead all qualifying pitchers with a .684 winning percentage.  He completed 5 games and pitched 163 innings despite making only 23 starts.  That means that he pitched on average almost 7 1/3 innings per start during his rookie season.

I HOPE YOU ALL ENJOYED THE ANALYSIS I PUT INTO THIS AND AM CURIOUS IF ANY OTHER TEAMS HAVE ENOUGH PLAYERS SINCE 1987 TO FIELD A TEAM AND IF SO, HOW COMPETITIVE WOULD IT BE?

One card - 6 hits

I recently saw this card on ebay and knew I had to add it to my collection.  I'm a fan of multiplayer relics unless they feature players that have nothing to do with one another.  Then I just scratch my head and say, um ok?  This card has one trait in common and that's about it....they all played for the Pittsburgh Pirates.  At no point were all these players on the same Pirates team though.  Oddly enough, none of them have anything that they did historically together either.  I went as far as to reseach if maybe they all might have lead off an inning with a homerun, nope.  So I can safely say the following statement is true and that's about it.  They all played with the Pittsburgh Pirates and are no longer a member of the organization.  Let's see whose on this 6 Bat relic hit, shall we?

Up first is Bill Madlock.  Mad Dog is a player I like to collect relics, autos, and parallels of.  He was really good with the Pirates.  Madlock came over to the Pirates in the summer of 1979 and was a key part of the offense that helped win the 1979 World Series.  Madlock would become a member of the 1981 and 1983 All-Star teams as a member of the Pirates.  Those same years he would win his 3rd and 4th batting titles.  Only Wade Boggs won more batting titles as a third basemen in his career than Bill Madlock.  Madlock's 1981 batting title made him the first player to win two batting titles with two different teams.  A lot of people remember Bill Madlock for his short temper which resulted in him getting ejected 18 times during his 15 year career. 

On the same side of the card is Kenny Lofton.  Sweet!!!!  When I was younger, I used to love watching Kenny Lofton steal bases.  I even got a chance to meet him really early in his career when he was a member of the Houston Astros.  I didn't know at the time that he would go on to swipe close to 60 bases a year during his prime as a member of the Cleveland Indians though.  Lofton joined the Pirates for the 2003 season and was past his prime and played in only 84 for the Bucs.  He put up decent numbers for a 36 year old, but would be moved to Chicago to close out the season.  During his 17 year career, Kenny Lofton played for 11 teams.  I remember there was even a commercial mocking Kenny for playing in so many different cities. 

At the bottom of the front of the card is my first "hit" featuring the surfer looking Craig Wilson.  Wilson started out as utility bench player for the Pirates in 2001.  He would finally earn the starting role in 2004 when he posted career highs in every offensive category except batting average.  Wilson was a power presence in the lineup, but would later be traded from Pittsburgh to the NY Yankees in 2006 where his career quickly collapsed.  The Atlanta Braves would sign him to a one year deal a year later, where he continued to freefall until being released by the team in 2007.  The most interesting thing about Craig Wilson is that he lead the league in hit by pitches in 2002 (as a pinch hitter too) and 2004. 

On the back are two Pirates who are still fan favorites in Pittsburgh, but who got traded when Neal Huntington took over in 2007.  They are also two of the more recent Pirates to win a major award.  Yes I'm talking about Freddy Sanchez and Jason Bay.

Freddy Sanchez came to the Pirates from the Boston Red Sox and transitioned from 3B to 2B.  In 2007 Freddy lead the league in batting average to make him the most recent Pirate to win a batting title.  Freddy would be traded in the summer of 2009 for SF Giants pitching prospect Tim Alderson.  Alderson has yet to make it out of AA and looks like he is no longer considered to be a prospect despite being taken in the 2006 first round.

Jason Bay. Everyone here should know by now that I really like Jason Bay.  He's a classy guy and a really good ball player.  Bay is now with the Mets enjoying the big time money he received and performing like every other elite free agent that signs with the Mets.  Yup, he is not the Jason Bay of old, but that's ok because I remember him when he was good and remember seeing him in 2009 as a Red Sox.

On the bottom of the card is Jose Castillo.  Jose was supposed to be the 2nd basemen of the future for the Pirates.  In 2004 he was ranked as the number 3 prospect in all of baseball by Baseball America.  2005 and 2006 saw injuries to Jose and he only had about 350 plate appearances each season.  His potential continued to impress the front office and he remained the starting 2nd basemen going into the 2007 season.  However, with the emergence of Jose Bautista at 3B and Freddy Sanchez moving to 2B, that left Jose Castillo to fight to remain on the Pirates radar and get playing time.  Castillo finished the 2007 season batting only .244 and would sign a contract with the Florida Marlins the following season after being released on December 6th. 

NOW BACK TO THE CARD!!!!

The 2005 Playoff Team Six six bat relic is numbered to 150.  This card features some good memories of the Pirates and some not so good memories of the Pirates.  Nevertheless it's a cool card for $10.  Not bad for $1.66 per bat.  After doing some research I see that there is a 4 relic card from the same series featuring many of the same players (no Castillo or Madlock).  I may have to pick that up to add to my Jason Bay collection.