Pops, Mad Dog, the Cobra, and the R-O-Y

If only it could have been Teke or Omar Moreno that appeared on this card instead of Jason Bay

Don't get me wrong, I love Jason Bay, but adding someone else from the 1979 We Are Family Pirates would have been a lot better.

This eBay 1/1 or as normal people should call it 100/100 was purchased using some eBay bucks a few months ago.

The problem I always have when adding multiplayer cards I collect is who to file them under. Normally it goes into this kind of ranking
1)PC player (Cutch or Morton)
2)Hall of Fame credentials (then by Year of induction)
3)Number of MVPs or Cy Youngs
4)Number of All-Star Games
5)Pick a player, any player

So since this card doesn't feature Cutch, I filed it under Pops because he was inducted into the Hall of Fame and the other 3 players have not (although Dave Parker could arguably be considered since his stats are nearly identical to HoFer Jim Rice).

Jason Bay kicks off going green month

I couldn't have a color event without showcasing some Jason Bay cards.
In honor of St. Patrick's Day, I will be showing green parallels this month.

Here is a few of my Jason Bay green parallel cards.

The only new acquisition of Jason Bay I have gotten this year is an Uno card from 2005.  I wish Topps wasn't the only license holder of the MLB.  These oddball cards were fun to collect back in the day.  The above card was snagged for 50 cents.

The others below are cards that have green in their designs or are green parallels.

Gobble Gobble!!!!

With all the attention I have been putting towards my Andrew McCutchen PC this year, I have completely ignored adding cards to my Jason Bay PC.  This year has brought me only 2 new Jason Bay cards, but one of them was a big one containing future Hall of Famer, Miguel Cabrera.

As is customary for my blog, I started looking around for some new Turkey themed cards to show off on Thanksgiving around September. 

This Turkey Red Silk Collection of the former Pirates outfielder struck my fancy for 99 cents

I hope everyone has a Safe and Happy Thanksgiving

10 Years of Allen & Ginter Minis

Allen & Ginter is celebrating their 10th anniversary this year.  As a result there are plenty of "buybacks" floating around with the 10th anniversary logo floating around the secondary market.  I've been trying to pursue adding at least 1 mini of the framed commemorative inserts.  Many have fallen in the 99 cent range which is about all I value them at.

Here's 8 of what I have so far.

2007 Chris Duffy
2008 Jason Bay
2009 Ryan Doumit
2010 Zach Duke
2011 Jose Tabata
2012 Joel Hanrahan
2013 Garrett Jones
2014 Ralph Kiner

The Zach Duke is the A&G back while the Hanrahan and Jones are black borders.

BayDay BayDay: Gettin Miggy with it!!!!

The 2015 National has come and gone.  I still haven't made it to one yet, but hope to attend it next year.  Earlier in the year, I was trying to grab some autographs of current players who have the potential to be considered future Hall of Famers.

Two years ago, I was sent an Alex Rodriguez and David Ortiz dual autograph in exchange for my redemption Andrew McCutchen and Gerrit Cole Face of the Franchise dual autograph.  I still have that dual auto of ARod and Big Papi, but haven't received any serious offers to take it off my hands.  Earlier this year I purchased an Adrian Beltre and Felix Hernandez dual autograph because I consider both guys to be future Hall of Famers. 

Most of my collection that I show off on this site are Pirates related and clearly the Pirates haven't had any future Hall of Famers during the 20 year losing streak.  There could be a stretch argument that Aramis Ramirez could get in the Hall of Very Good, but it's doubtful he's a Hall of Famer.  McCutchen could one day land himself in the Hall if he continues his numbers for another decade. 

While Jason Bay will likely never receive the votes for a Hall of Fame berth, it is highly likely that Miguel Cabrera will be considered a 1st ballot Hall of Famer when he decides to retire.  Miggy has been suffering through injuries this year and has been placed on the DL for the 1st time in his career.  Jason Bay was one of my favorite players for the Bucs during his playing career and the chance to add a jumbo size dual autograph of Jason with Miggy numbered to 10 presented to good an opportunity to pass up. 

I submitted a best offer  on this card after contemplating a reasonable price for a few weeks and I can proudly say I am the new proud owner of this 2006 Hawaiian Trade Conference card. 

To show how large this card is I compared it to my 1991 Bobby Bonilla.

BayDay BayDay: Pink Parallel

Continuing the theme of all pink cards to raise money for Breast Cancer Awareness, I am going to show off a Jason Bay 2013 Topps Pink Parallel.  2014 brought with it some sad news that Jason Bay would retire from MLB.  This is coming off 3 terrible injury plagued seasons with the Mets and Mariners.  Prior to that though Jason was a mainstay for the Pittsburgh Pirates during the second decade of "the losing streak" and would later join the Boston Red Sox for their post season performance in 2008.

2013 Topps Pink Parallel 34/50

I grabbed this Bay parallel earlier in the year for around $7 delivered if I remember correctly.

A pair of Game Used Jerseys from two fan favorites

If you like the Pirates in the mid 2000s there was three guys you rooted for: Jason Bay, Jack Wilson, and Freddy Sanchez.  They helped offset a terrible team that just couldn't make it to .500.  There's not many Jack Wilson jersey cards out there, but there's plenty of Jason Bay and Freddy Sanchez for the Pirates faithful to collect.  I just recently picked up a pair that I never decided to pull the trigger on for the past 6 years, but I figured for $5 delivered it was worth the price.

Behold the majesty that is 2008 Upper Deck Game Jerseys.  Like all things Upper Deck, the designs are great and photography is better than all other card companies.  Featuring a great full view of PNC park in the background with an image of the player in action along with a swatch of their jersey, these just can't be compared to the boring repetitive designs that Topps is doing for their flagship relic releases.  They aren't numbered, but they don't need to be.  They're cheap relics on nice designs.  Nuff Said!!!!

Congrats Russell Martin!!!!

I only have 1 Russell Martin autograph in my collection.  Since joining the Pirates last year though, he's been one of my favorite guys to root for and I know that if he elects to hit the Free Agent market after this season, I will continue to follow his career.  He's a gamer every day.  Last night, Martin hit a double to score the tying run for his 1,000 career hit.

I got the above quad auto on ebay late last year for $19.99 and for the extremely low numbering and the fact that there is 3 other players on the card with one of my main player collections, Jason Bay I just couldn't pass it up.  This card is numbered 4/5 and marks my 21st, 22nd, and 23rd unique players to have autographs on a card with the former Pirate Rookie of the Year.

Due to the landmark moment of Russell Martin's career, I decided to cancel this week's Throwback Thursday.

Award Time!!!!

Jason Bay was the rookie of the year in 2004.  He was the first and only Pirates player to win the RoY award.

The Pirates had high hopes heading into 2014 that they could potentially have two guys competing for the Rookie of the Year in Gregory Polanco and Jameson Taillon.

In early spring training, Jameson Taillon underwent Tommy John surgery thus putting him out for the entire season.

Polanco tore up AAA pitching hitting .347 with a ridiculous .540 slugging percentage and 49 RBI over 60 games.  The Pirates waited until June 10th to call Polanco to the majors and hit the ground running with an 11 game hit streak before he went into a 20 game slump.

Last week, three Pirates players were awarded player of the week awards in the Minor Leagues.  They included Tyler Glasonw (FSL Pitcher of the Week) for his dominating performance where he struck out 11 batters in 6 innings while allowing only 2 hits and no runs.  Austin Meadows and Buddy Borden represented the West Virginia Power as SAL Player of the Week and SAL Pitcher of the Week respectively.  Meadows batted .500 for the week with 6 extra base hits and 7 RBI in 25 plate appearances.  Borden went 2-0 with only 1 earned run allowed in 13 innings while striking out 14 and allowing only 6 baserunners in 2 outings (4 hits and 2 walks).

It's hard to talk about small sample sizes in the minor leagues, but the Pirates have done a fantastic job getting quality out of their recent draft picks. For two decades, it was grim times but thanks to Neal Huntington and the scouts and the minor league development it is a much brighter future in the steel city.

National League Central Champions?

The Pirates are aggressively getting closer to competing for the NL Central Championship.

In 2005, Donruss had a contest which allowed collectors the chance to win a specially marked version of Playoff parallels.  With the Pirates finishing 33.5 games out of first there was little chance that the Bucs would compete for a playoff run in 2005.  Still there was some hope though.

Jason Bay won the 2004 Rookie of the Year award with a .282 average, .550 slugging, and 26 Home Runs.

Jack Wilson was coming off his best offensive season of his career where he collected 201 base hits with a .301 average and superb gold glove caliber defense.

Kip Wells, well.....like all the pitchers on the Pirates staff (not named 2004 Oliver Perez) didn't do so well (pardon the bad pun).

The Pirates Pitching staff was terrible in 2004 posting a 4.29 ERA and a 1.419WHIP.  It got worse in 2005 which is why the Pirates finished with a 67-95 record and made this piece of cardboard useless.

I was able to add the above card to my Jason Bay collection a few months ago for just over a $1 delivered.

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.

Here's my dilemma....

When I come across Jason Bay autographs on ebay for only 99 cents, how can I pass them up even when I have 50 unique certified autographs of the former Pirates rookie of the year winner?

Quite simply, for whatever reason...I can't.  I needed to get that 51st unique autograph of the recently retired left fielder. Is that crazy?????

Katy Perry presents The Letter H

Nothing grabs my attention better than a big set of tits in a tiny Elmo shirt.

They look like Ds but we're going to show off the letter H today

2007 By the Letter "H" Jason Bay AUTO 18/25

It's just another of those Jason Bay by the Letters autographs I've been in search for to complete PITTSBURGH.

Seeing Red: BayDay!!! BayDay!!!!

I try not to show off two Jason Bay cards in a row, but since the Bucs will be taking on the Reds today I figured I would have a Seeing Red post.  So here is July's entry for Seeing Red.

This 2005 Fleer America's Pasttime Red Parallel numbered to 150 copies ran me just over a $1 which isn't a bad price to pay for a new Jason Bay card for the collection.

Throwback Thursday: Clemente, Parker, and Bay ON ONE CARD???

I really don't have a lot to say about this card because fellow Pirates blogger, BobWalkThePlank, has already shown it on his blog back in May.  I wish I had more Clemente relics in my collection, but when this card was offered for around $40, I had to pounce on it.

The timeline of the different uniforms and cool stiching on Bay's uniform piece were the main reasons I decided to get it.  Oh and it has Clemente.  That probably had more to do with it than anything else actually.

2008 Upper Deck Premier Teams Clemente, Parker, Bay 11/50

I hope you guys are enjoying these Throwback Thursdays where I highlight Pirates players of yesteryear.  I will try to keep things interesting going forward and focus on more obscure players if possible.

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?

BayDay BayDay: Topps Chrome Heritage 2005

I'm very short on time today so its just gonna be a quick post to show off my newest Jason Bay. Its a 2005 Topps Heritage Chrome numbered out of 556.

Card Show Pickups pt1

Last weekend I mentioned that I was heading to the mall for some card show pickups.  I came away with a bunch of vintage which I will show off tomorrow and a handful of cheap under $1 cards to fill in some voids.  Up first are the cheap under $1 cards I grabbed.

 Nothing too fancy above.  Just a couple of inserts and a pair of 2014 Gypsy Queens.  Josh Bell was recently announced as an All-Star in the Florida State League (A+ ball)

These were the two cards I was most excited to see dumped in the quarter bins.  Both are numbered parallels of one of my favorite all-time ballplayers, Jason Bay.  The 2005 Donruss Classics on the right is numbered to only 100 copies.

If you're a fan of vintage cards, you're going to have to check out my lot tomorrow as I was able to grab a lot of cheap vintage including a Clemente for $2.  Whaaaaaaatttttt?????

My latest Bay: it's sparkly

It's sparkly.

It was cheap.

I needed it.

It's the emerald sparkle but not an emerald.

It's the saphire sparkle but not numbered.

WTF parallel is this thing?  IDK...but it's mine now and it cost me only $1.

I'm going to CitiField tonight to see the Pirates in New York against the Mets.  Hopefully the weather stays dry for the game.

BayDay! BayDay!: Camo Edition!

It's no secret to anyone that reads my blog that Jason Bay is one of my favorite baseball players of all time.  Even when he left Pittsburgh to play for the Red Sox, Mets, and Mariners I kept rooting for him.  Continuing the theme to celebrate Memorial Day Weekend, I'm showing off my camo edition of 2013 Topps Jason Bay.

2013 Topps Camo 8/99