The Hit Collector

Matt Hague was given the nickname, the Hit Collector during Spring Training 2012 when he collected 22 hits in 25 games including 7 homeruns.  During his Spring Training career he has a .386/.400/.659 slash line which equals a 1.059 OPS.  He's also collected 21 RBI over the course of 88 plate appearances.  If he were to keep up his Spring Training numbers over the course of an entire season he would be putting up MVP numbers.

2012 Topps Chrome Refractor 69/75

But that's why you can't trust small sample sizes.

When the Pirates traded for Gaby Sanchez in 2012, it was clear that they didn't view Hague as a consistent major leaguer.  He's decent with the glove at first, but isn't known for his defense.  In addition, he hasn't shown enough versatility to make the team as a utility corner infielder/outfielder so he's basically just a right handed bat off the bench.  The Pirates wouldn't consider carrying someone like this on their roster.  Hopefully Matt can see some playing time when the Pirates play interleague games in AL parks because his bat would make for a good DH for a few days.

I purchased the above 2012 Topps Chrome Sepia Refractor AUTO for $6 delivered.  The card looked nice enough to add to my collection for that price.

Pirates autos for less than $5 total

So I decided I needed some more Pirates autos in my collection. For $5 shipped I was able to add these two Pirates autographs.

 Jason Grilli 2012 Golden Moments Autographs
The Grill Cheese is now the closer for the Bucs after they sent Joel "The Hammer" Hanrahan to Boston.  We'll be seeing Grilli pitch in the World Baseball Classic in March for Team Italy.

Matt Hague Topps Chrome Refractor 453/499
Matt Hague made his MLB debut last year and was involved in a very bizarre walkoff when Carlos Marmol of the Cubs hit him with a pitch when bases were loaded in the bottom of the 9th. 

MLB Debut: Matt Hague

This year, I will feature a card of each Pirates prospect to make their MLB debut.  Last year there were 9 players to make their MLB debut for the Bucs (Watson, Moskos, Hughes, Locke, Thompson, Fryer, D'arnaud, Harrison, and Crotta).  I doubt that this year will have numbers comparable to that, but on the second day of the 2012 season, the Pirates awarded 2008 9th rounder Matt Hague with his first start in the majors.

Hague was expected to be a September call-up last season after hitting .309 with 12 HR in AAA Indy.  However, due to wanting to resign Derrek Lee the Pirates awarded all playing time at 1B to Lee.

Hague had  a very hot spring training batting .400 with 7HR and 14 RBI and an OPS of 1.200

I have had a chance to meet Matt a few times before he cracked the 2012 Opening Day roster and he is one of the nicest ball players I've ever met.

Lots of Autographs from Pirates vs. Phillies game

So the Pirates may have lost 7-2, but I left in the middle of the 5th inning because I had to travel back home for work.  At that time the Bucs were up 2-1 thanks to one of my favorite prospects to collect Robbie Grossman. 

Before the game started I saw Robbie out on the field warming up with the Bucs and he seemed extremely happy that someone recognized him and asked for his autograph.  He signed a baseball for me on the sweetspot and thanked me for his support. 

Also before the game started I was able to add to my sign I started in Spring Training a few weeks back.  This wooden sign is turning out great.  I added Matt Hague, Pedro Alvarez, Neil Walker, Jeff Karstens, and team president Frank Coonelly. 

I also managed to get a few other balls signed between the two game series.  Joel Hanrahan, Pedro Alvarez, and Matt Hague all contributed to my solo signature balls collection.  The Hague was a game-used ball with some small dirt marks on it.  Matt actually tossed me a ball after the 4th inning when the Bucs were coming off the field, but I gave the ball to a little kid sitting behind me. 

I got a few cards signed as well.  Cards are a pain in the ass to get signed at games in Philly because you can't get near the dugout to seek out autographs.  I rarely bring cards unless I know that the player is very fan friendly and will accept a card being thrown at them like Gambit from the X-Men.

 2012 Topps Heritage Clint Hurdle

2011 Topps Opening Day Stadium Lights Pedro Alvarez

Former Dodgers Top Prospect and current Pirate Prospect Andrew Lambo
2010 Bowman Chrome Topps 100 numbered 82/499

The absolute best thing that my girlfriend and I got signed though was this 8x10 photo below.  We attended the Monday night On Deck game and the Red Philly Phanatic was taunting Pirates slugger Garrett Jones before the game.  Jones was trying to avoid him and shuffling back and forth.  My lady took a picture of the incident and printed out the picture before the Tuesday game in hopes that Garrett would sign it.  When he saw the photo he started cracking up and said this is the best thing he ever signed.  We prepared for that and gave him his own copy to keep as he signed ours.

Here's some other pictures that she took from the game.  For those wondering how close we were, try row 1 behind the Pirates dugout.  With pictures like this, she might have a job at Topps right?

Game used hats, an auto, a bat relic, and another printing plate

There was no Pirates baseball yesterday, but there was plenty of great stories in the Minor League system.  Chase D'Arnaud and Alex Presley were both making rehab starts in high A ball Bradenton.  Unfortunately, the Bradenton Marauders just had their 9 game winning streak ended against the Twins A Ball club.  Earlier in the year Pirates left handed veteran bullpen specialist Joe Beimel and starting catcher Chris Snyder had made rehab starts in Bradenton and I won the charity auctions for their game used hats.  You can see both my winnings above.  I got both of these game used hats for about the price some people are paying for a Bryce Harper BASE Bowman card.  Yup, $20 shipped.

Even though this is a card blog, I think it's nice for me to show off some of my other Pirates memorabilia from time to time.  I don't have any high end things like a Clemente bat or Mazeroski glove, but I got some cool things that I've picked up cheap over the years that I think are fun to show.  What do you guys think?  Interested?

Also in Minor League news, Tony Sanchez (ranked #2 prospect in Pirates organization prior to 2011) had a great night for the Altoona Curve (AA) yesterday.  He went 2 for 5 at the plate with a run scored and an RBI. Tony projects as a future gold glove backstop and he proved that yesterday by gunning down Evan Bigley attempting to steal 2nd base. This is one of my favorite Tony Sanchez cards I own. It's a red ink Auto from Tristar and is numbered 5/5.  The photo of Tony looks badass and the coloring of the card resembles the Pirates team colors.  On top of that he signed the card PITTS #1PICK.

In AAA action the Indianapolis Indians beat the hell out of the Columbus Clippers 9-1.  Matt Hague, Josh Harrison, Jason Jaramillo, and Jordy Mercer all had huge games by collecting at least 2 hits a piece.  You may remember in a previous post I bought a Matt Hague auto for $4.  That's looking like a damn good buy at this point as he has 13 RBI in his last 10 games while batting .349.

HAPPY 23rd BIRTHDAY JOSE TABATA!

Jose Tabata was in the lineup making another rehab start this time as a DH.  He went 0 for 4 with a BB and was caught stealing.  Jose is still batting .333 during those 6 games and has collected 4 extra base hits and scored 5 times.  Today Jose turned 23 years old.  In his 173 games played at the Major League level, he has collected 189 Hits (46 of which were for extra bases), stolen 33 bases, and is hitting .287.  He also had 2 walk off hits this year.  It looks like the Pirates organization plans on moving Jose to RF when he returns and keeping Alex Presley in Left.  I like this idea a lot not only for the sake of preventing Jose from pulling another muscle in that spacious left field, but there's also history for him in right.  As everyone knows Roberto Clemente is the greatest Pirates right fielder of all time.  Hell, they have the Clemente wall (21 feet high) in PNC Park.  Well Jose's idol is Roberto Clemente and he has a tattoo of him on his forearm.  I think it would be great motivation for Jose to play and try to live up to what Roberto accomplished.

Pictured above is a 2011 Topps Opening Day 1/1 Yellow Printing Plate of Jose along with the 2011 Topps Heritage Bat relic.

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.