Shark Week with the Shark Tank.

When Jason Grilli took over as the Pirates closer in 2013, he dubbed the Bucs bullpen : The Shark Tank.

The Pirates had one of the best bullpens in baseball that year thanks to Tony Watson, Mark Melancon, and Jason Grilli. They fed on hitters in the 7th thru 9th innings and basically shut the game down to a 6 inning game.

Three members of the 2013 Shark Tank were also members of the 2010 Eastern League Champions Altoona Curve. They were ground ball specialist Jared Hughes, setup man Tony Watson, and flame throwing southpaw Justin Wilson. Wilson was actually the MVP for the Curve's Championship run in 2010.

Last year, the Curve had a giveaway to the 1st 1,500 fans in attendance receiving a Shark Tank figurine that can be placed in your fish tank. It depicts Watson, Hughes, and Wilson riding a shark. I have wanted to add it to my collection for some time, but they very rarely pop up for sale.

Since I finally got one for my collection and it being Shark Week, this seems like the perfect week to show it off.

McCutchen Monday: It came from Japan!

My current favorite player in baseball today is Andrew McCutchen.  Quite honestly, he might be my favorite player I've ever gotten a chance to see play. I currently own almost 300 unique cards of Cutch and hope to get that number closer to 400 by the end of the year.  Amongst my cardboard collection of Cutch are many autographs, over a dozen 1/1s, and almost enough jersey material to put his jersey back together.  Back in 2011, I created Morton Mondays, but with the lack of Charlie Morton cards available, I changed it to McCutchen Mondays so each Monday I will show off one new card from my Cutch collection.

To see all my Andrew McCutchen relics, autos, printing plates, manupatches, etc ... check out this link.

If you've been following my blog for awhile, you may remember that I picked up several video game cards produced by Topps for the Japanese market.  I highlighted those cards back in February which included Jason Grilli, Garret Jones, Joel Hanrahan, and of course Andrew McCutchen.

I found a seller of these cards who has a shop on ebay and added him to my favorites.
I recently saw that he had listed several of the 2013 Topps SegaCardGen cards so naturally I had to pick them up.

2013 SegaCardGen 

Here's the 2013 SegaCardGen gaming card of Cutch.

2013 Sega CardGen back

 Above is the back of the card.

In addition to Cutch, I grabbed 5 other Bucs and a former Buc.  Below you'll see Pedro Alvarez, Jared Hughes, James McDonald, Neil Walker, AJ Burnett, and Joel Hanrahan.

I don't have any idea what the back of the cards say, but I think my favorite description is for Pedro Alvarez. I wonder if El Toro wears a cape when he disguieses himself as  Power Hitting Hot Corner Man.

Please Topps...PLEASE!!!!!

With the current Topps monopoly, it's going to be hard for fans to get what they really want in cardboard.  Back when there was competition in the industry, there were players who would appear in only one brand and not others.  Even though they didn't command a lot of demand, Upper Deck wasn't afraid to put out autographs of guys like Brian Bixler and Josh Fogg.  Donruss and Fleer would include bases or gloves as relics instead of just bats and jerseys.  It felt like I could actually find something out there if I really wanted to.

Now I'm being forced to get autographs from only the faces of the franchise and upcoming stars.  If I want a relic of Clint Barmes in a Pirates uniform, I have to win an MLB auction for $150 and get his entire jersey.  If I want an autograph of backstop Mike McKenry I have to get it in person.  Don't get me wrong I love getting Andrew McCutchen and Starling Marte autographs and relics, but a little variety sure would be nice.

So since we are all fans of multiple teams, what are your top 3 players on a current MLB roster you know you'll likely never see a certified autograph or relic of in your team of choice.  Why do you think they should make a relic or auto of the player?

Here's mine:

2012 Topps Michael McKenry Black Parallel 39/61

Michael McKenry (backup Catcher)
He's nicknamed The Fort.  He's had some very big moments in Pittsburgh since arriving in 2011.  His first career HR in the 8th inning off Carlos Marmol is my favorite memory of the 2011 season.  He also went on to catch 2 19 inning games in less than a year.  I want a unique nickname insert set with relics or autos of the players.

2013 Gypsy Queen AJ Burnett

AJ Burnett (Starting Pitcher/current Staff Ace)
I have an on card auto of AJ in a Marlins uniform.  There's multiple relics and autos of AJ out there, but since this is most likely his last season in the majors, I would love to get an AJ patch card or auto in a Bucs uniform.  He proved that he's still got plenty in the tank winning 16 games last season which was 6th best in NL. In the early part of the 2013 he's averaging a 14.3 K/9 which is a ridiculous number.  Oh and just a few days ago he carried a no hitter into the 7th inning.  It be neat to see Topps make a Tattoo insert series with autographs of the players and maybe a blurb about what a tattoo on them means.

2012 Topps Heritage Jared Hughes

Jared Hughes (relief pitcher)
He's nicknamed Mr. Hyde when he's on the mound because of how mean he looks, but he's incredibly friendly off the field.  He appeared in the second most innings as a relief pitcher amongst NL rookies last year.  He finished the season with a 1.15 WHIP and 2.85 ERA last year. Put an auto or relic of Mr. Hyde in the insert set with The Fort and I'll be  a happy camper.

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.

Black Parallels are cool

I'm making it a collecting goal this year to get a black bordered parallel of the 2012 Pirates team set.  I know this is going to sound expensive, but quite frankly I think they look amazing this year.  The photography on this year's Topps set is the best I've ever seen from Topps and the black borders look great with the Pirates uniforms.  Here's the two that I have so far.  I also have D'arnaud and Tabata coming from ebay.

Oddly enough Jared Hughes was the last card I needed for the base team set, but was the first black parallel I bought on ebay.  This one is numbered 21/61.

Pedro Alvarez numbered 60/61.  I love this photo of Pedro getting ready to send a bullet across the diamond to get the guy out at first.  Again the photography on this years set is so much better than last year.  Need proof, look at Pedro's 2011 Topps base card and you'll see what I'm talking about. 

By now it should be no secret that Andrew McCutchen is my favorite player.  I already had the 2011 Topps Tier One base card, but decided to splurge and pick up this black parallel numbered 2/50.  One more Cutch for the PC.

TEAM SET COMPLETED!

I bought a blaster today at WalMart on my way home from the hospital and as I'm flipping through I got very excited.  I completed my 2012 Pirates Series 1 Team Set of the base cards.  I still need the Maz Walk-Off, the Neil Walker auto, McCutchen relics, and darn near all the Roberto Clemente cards, but I felt relieved.  The missing card to my team set was Rookie Jared Hughes.  I had seen Jared pitch in AA in 2010 and AAA in 2011 and I knew that one day he would be make it to the majors.  Jared is a tall righty (6ft7!) that throws low to mid 90s heat.  It feels good to just enjoy opening wax now not needing to complete any Pirates team sets anymore.  Now I can start to send out some TTM with spring training so close.

The Jared Hughes wasn't the only card that made me happy while opening up the box though.  I also got this retired numbers card of one of my favorite players as a kid, Frank Thomas.  The Big Hurt was incredible early into his career.  After the Pirates started to fall apart post the free agency of Barry Bonds, Bobby Bonilla, and Doug Drabek, I started to root for the White Sox and the hot corner duo of Frank Thomas and Robin Ventura.  To this day, the ChiSox are a close 2nd in terms of my favorite team. 

Here's some of the other gems of the blaster

 all blue parallels are available for trade

all cards except the JP Arencibia and 87minis are available for trade.

If anyone is looking for base, please let me know.  I am looking to unload all my nonPirates for practically nothing.