McCutchen Mailday #226: Feeling Blue (not really)

I've been buying a lot of Christmas presents between last night and this morning. My wallet and bank account have taken a pounding.

So why not show off something I got for myself?  My Cutch additions will be slowing down over the next few weeks as I begin to prepare for Christmas. I still have close to a dozen left that I've purchased this year, but haven't gotten around to show off yet.

McCutchen Mailday #69, 70, & 71: A Trio of Museums

When I had made arrangements to purchase a few high end 2015 Topps Museum cards from a seller, he generously included these 3 parallels of Cutch's 2015 Topps Museum base card.

Museum has the best base cards year after year.  These new additions in the Quest for 100 bring me nearly three quarters complete as of typing this (April 29th).  Adding another 30 cards by December shouldn't be an issue at all.

Starting on Sunday I will be showing off some key items in my collection that I have recently acquired.  One of them will be a 1/1 bat barrel.

Feeling Blue: El Toro Chrome

Since the beginning of the month I've shown off a few of my recent ebay deals from the same seller.  This was the most expensive of the bunch coming in at $1.27.

2011 Topps Chrome Blue Parallel 90/99.  

El Toro had a down season this past year after posting over 30 HR in 2012 and 2013.

Due to his defensive errors and injuries, the Pirates removed him from their every day lineup as a third baseman and started playing him at first base.  It was my vision a few years ago that Alvarez would one day transition across the diamond due to his size and inability to stick at third.  He has made a lot of really good picks at 3B and I could see him being above average defensively at first.

I liked Ike Davis, but I guess the front office sees Pedro as being the key guy at 1B for the Bucs in 2015.

Earlier in the week it was revealed that the Pirates traded Ike Davis to the Oakland A's for a bonus signing pool in the international draft.  This gives the Pirates nearly an additional $300,000 to spend on Latin American ballplayers.

Don't think that's much?  Here's some guys the Pirates have signed in recent years for under that mark
Starling Marte 2007 $85,000 (gold glove finalist 2 years in a row, 11.7 WAR in only 2 seasons)

Gregory Polanco 2009 $150,000 (one of baseball's future 5 tool talents)

Dilson Herrera 2010 $220,000 (youngest player on Mets roster last season, used as key trade piece to acquire Marlon Byrd for 2013 Post Season)

Willy Garcia 2010 $280,000 (you'll be seeing a lot of his cardboard on here soon)

Gift Ngoepe 2008 $15,000 (1st South African baseball player signed)

Alen Hanson 2009 $90,000 (considered by many to be a top 75 prospect entering 2014)

Feeling Blue: Jason Bay 2005 Donruss Greats Blue Parallel /50

I keep adding more and more monthly color phrases to combat all the many different colored parallels that card manufacturers have produced over the years.  I've had a monthly feature of Seeing Red and Black is the New Black for a few months now.  Here's my latest entry to the rainbow highlight, Feeling Blue.  Each month I will show off a blue parallel similar to what I do with Red and Black.  I'm open to ideas for the following colors: Green, Camo, Yellow, Gold, Silver, etc.  I already have something planned for pink so no need for that.

2005 Donruss Greats Blue Parallel 16/50

Anyway, with the first installment of Feeling Blue, I figured it would be best to show off one of my all-time favorite players and one of the first Pirates players I started to collect in bulk.  None other than Jason Bay of course.  If you were a Pirates fan during the stretch, there was no player easier to root for than Jason Bay.  That's not to say there wasn't talent during the 1993-2012 seasons because there actually was a lot of it (Jason Kendall, Brian Giles, Freddy Sanchez, a very young Aramis Ramirez, Jack Wilson, even the injury plague seasons of Andy Van Slyke's career, and of course promising pitchers like Kris Benson, Jason Schmidt, and Oliver Perez)  The problem was that most of them weren't consistent enough to gain a lot of fan appreciation and the ones that were consistent often had off field issues (Giles, Kendall).

Jason Bay was just what you envision the best baseball player on a team to be like.  He would help carry an offense, all out hustle on every ball hit to him in the outfield, steal bases when it was needed, and greet the fans with a smile and an autograph at the bus stop.  He was my favorite player, simply put.

When he was traded in 2008 to Boston, I knew it was happening.  It was obvious that the new General Manager Neal Huntington (who I think is one of the best GMs in the game to operate with the small payroll he has and still be competitive) would blow up the team and start from scratch from the ground up.  Yesterday marked the trade deadline and the Pirates were silent.  They didn't acquire any big names to get them into the post season.  They are relying on a team that is already the 5th best team in the NL prior to yesterday.  With the current team they have, they were only a half game away from a Wild Card berth.

The team might have struggled early in the season, but they have since added guys like Gregory Polanco, Jeff Locke, and Vance Worley to the 25 man roster and in doing so has caused the team to be one of the NL's hottest teams since May.  I think their bench is a big need and can't wait to see both Brent Morel and Michael Martinez go.  I'd personally rather see Chase D'arnaud up there hacking at the ball when we need a right handed pinch hitter in the 7th inning than either of those two clowns.  At least D'arnaud can play a good shortstop and is a speed demon on the basepaths so he can pinch run too.

I wasn't looking for the Pirates to add Price or Lester, but I was hoping they could add another weapon in the bullpen.  Then again if Nick Kingham continues to exceed expectations he may be called up in September and used strictly in relief similar to what the Rays did with David Price in 2008 and  Adam Wainwright did for the Cardinals in 2006.  By the way both those teams went on to the World Series those years.