McCutchen Mailday #26 & 27: Cutch 22 and His Amazing Friends

Anyone remember the cartoon, Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends which starred Spider-Man teaming up with Iceman and Firestar while at college?  It was a fun cartoon in which they had a tripped out apartment and fought villains of the week.  I don't own any of the episodes on dvd, but I remember having the episode where they fought Magneto on VHS. 

I bring this up because as my Andrew McCutchen grows (almost daily) I come across cards that feature Cutch with past and present stars.  My absolute favorite combination to pair with Cutch includes cards with Hall of Famers.

Every baseball fan knows of Roberto Clemente.  He's one of the greatest rightfielders of all time.  He's a Pirates legend.  He's the superstar that opened the door for latin players in America.  He's also one of the most tragic stories in sports.  I love grabbing Clemente cards.  If Clemente is on the card with Cutch, I feel I owe it to myself to grab it.

One player who many fans put high hopes and expectations on who never lived up to the hype was Pedro Alvarez.  Pedro was cut from the Pirates future plans when they chose not to go to arbitration with him.  He's a one tool player (power) with terrible defense and poor plate discipline.  He doesn't get enough credit for his base running ability for being a big guy.  What I mean by that is that he will never likely have double digit steals, but was very good at knowing when to try and take the extra base. 

McCutchen Mailday #225: Steel Patch!!!!

This one made me happy when I finally added it the first time.

It makes me happier to add a rarer version.  The patches for Alvarez and Cole are super nice!  Cutch has just a bit of yellow and black patch on his plain gray swatch.

I've slowed down buying cards for myself as the year wraps up, but I would say that I accomplished quite a bit considering that I only want to add 100 new Cutch cards to the PC this year.

McCutchen Mailday #191 - 198: Some Massive New Additions to the Cutch PC

Here's a lot of some huge MOJO PC pickups. 

In my quest to add 100 new Cutch cards to the PC this year, I have become the go to guy for a person liquidating their collections.  This All-Star patch card from 2012 Triple Threads is fricking sick!!!!

In this lot is a group of jersey relics, triple threads relics, a rookie variant, a nice gold parallel, and this amazing manu relic from Gypsy Queen. 

How nice are these new additions?  If Harper becomes an MVP this year, it will feature the 3 most recent position players to win MVPs.  Braun 2012, Cutch 2013, Harper 2015?

I've been wanting to add a copy of this "Steel" since I saw it released in 2014, but never could acquire one cheap enough for my liking.

 Check out the tiny bit of yellow stitching on the grey swatch

My first die cut relic

Just your standard gold parallel from Topps Tribute.  This card looks beautiful in person. I'm going to build the rainbow of this card.

Another Cutch rookie parallel that I didn't have in my collection. This is the mahogany wood parallel from 2005 Bowman Heritage.

The Pittsburgh Version of Noah's Ark

When I saw this card pop up for sale, I HAD TO HAVE IT!!!!

It features Gerrit "The Cole Train", Pedro "El Toro" Alvarez, and Mark "The Shark" Melancon with 2 nice patches from their throwback Sunday alternate uniforms along with the Jolly Roger sleeve patch.

Cole and Alvarez have had a lot of jersey relics hit Topps products over the past few years, but even though Mark Melancon has been a 2x All-Star and is currently leading the league in saves he has been absent from high end releases.

It's because of the Shark that I had to add this card to my PC.

The Pirates are going to be in the most important game of the season tonight, a win or go home for baseball's team with the second best record. 

Let's hope to Raise the Jolly Roger after tonight!!!!!

McCutchen Mailday #110: A Trio of All-Stars

Jason Grilli and Pedro Alvarez were once some of my favorite Pirates.
I still like both as professional athletes, but seeing how many games Pedro's defense has nearly cost the team is wearing thin with me as a fan.

I have already completed my quest for 100 new Cutch cards, but I don't intend to stop adding more cards of Cutch as the year winds down.

Traded!!!!????

 There was a lot of discussion about Johnny Cueto being on the trade block before the season and shortly after the season started.  One of my collecting goals for 2015 was to add a certified autograph of every Pirate who appeared in the 2013 Wild Card Blackout Game.  It would have been an unjustice to us the fans not to go after the guy who got PNC Park so amped for Buctober by chanting "Cue-To Cue-to Cue-to".  That game was the most memorable game in my life.  Pure awesomeness!

The above auto ran me $15 for the new Royals ace.

Another guy who was on the trade block was Pedro Alvarez. Pedro shows signs of absolute domination being able to crush the ball into the Alleghany River at will. He also shows month long levels of frustration of excess strikeouts and weak groundballs to the 2B. The Pirates are clearly willing to upgrade their 1B, but the obvious options available aren't all that inspiring. Maybe a huge salary risk like Prince Fielder could lead the Bucs to a Championship.

The above Pedro Alvarez 2014 Power Gold Foil ran me less than $5  delivered for the /75 card. These were prizes for unlocked codes from last year's Power Players cards.

Triple Threads 2 Box Reverse Challenge featuring a Zoo

I've been putting together 2 reverse boxes of Topps Triple Threads for the price of 1 over the past several months and just got my second triple relic in.  It features 3 thirdbasemen that have all recently been all-stars.

Among them is possible future Hall of Famer Adrian Beltre, current Pirates slugger Pedro Alvarez, and recent Boston acquired 3B Pablo Sandoval.  If only Beltre had a cool Animal Nickname like El Toro or The Panda this card would be really awesome especially if it spelled out "The Zoo" instead of Hot Corner.

This recent addition cost me $8 delivered and brings my reverse 2 for 1 box challenge to $91 and need only a handful of base/parallel cards, 1 Auto/Jumbo Relic, and 1 Triple Relic/Auto.  I recently grabbed a triple relic/auto for a fair price so I think that I will be able to successfully build 2 boxes for the price of 1 easily.

Mega Autograph Lot!!!!

I've been purchasing bulk lots on ebay for the past few months and have been very happy with my results.  For $36 I added 5 autographs and a plethora of parallels from 2014 Bowman Chrome Prospects.
 I've been adding Nick Kingham autographs to my collection for the past year, but recently due to his success have been seeking out JaCoby Jones autographs as well.  However the 4 players featured above fail in comparison to the amount of time I have been adding this guy to my collection.

Over the next few months you will be seeing A LOT of Willy Garcia cards pop up on the Treasure Room. Why????  Well....I think he's going to be a special talent at the major league level.

In addition to the 5 autographs I also received 4 refractors of Andrew McCutchen, Pedro Alvarez, Trae Arbet, and JaCoby Jones.  I included the back scans because there is a lot of cool information on the backs and the base and refractors look so similiar.

Want more?  How about a blue refractor (/250) and Gold Refractor (/50) for both Pedro Alvarez and Starling Marte.

Feeling blue that you didn't go after this lot?  Well this Harold Ramirez Blue Refractor will make you regret it even more...

Is that Purple Rain playing on your ipod?  Weird, here's a purple refractor of Fransisco Liriano

I think you're starting to feel green with envy as I was able to grab Green Refractors (/75) of JaCoby Jones and Nick Kingham...and yet you

Still want more????  Ok....do you like bubbles?
I grabbed this bubble refractor of prospect Ryan Hafner also in the lot

Individually this lot would have cost me up to $80 and I happened to get it for about half that price.  Pretty good deal if you ask me.

Stadium Club!!!

I have always loved Stadium Club.  It was one of my favorite sets for years when I was younger.

This year's set is no different.  I know I am behind on posting these and many others already have highlighted them.  I just wanted to show off their great photography

$15 Lil Man, put those team sets in my hand...

I've been on a roll adding some great ebay deals for $15 lately.  My latest acquisition is a bunch of Pirates 2014 team sets for $15 delivered.  For a winning bid of $11 I received complete or near complete team sets of 2014 Topps, 2014 Donruss, 2014 Topps Opening Day, 2014 Finest, 2014 Topps Heritage, 2014 Gypsy Queen, 2014 Bowman, 2014 Archives, 2014 Bowman Platinum and a few inserts as well.

Included were 3 really nice inserts or parallels of young outfield prospect Gregory Polanco

Also included were 4 different brands of cards using the same image of Pedro Alvarez.

Of course there were some Hall of Famers in there too with Clemente, Stargell, and Kiner all being represented.

Gerrit Cole made several appearances in the 102 card lot.
The white border Gypsy Queen is especially nice

A Nice Tyler Glasnow Purple Bowman Platinum was included

Along with a bunch of the Pirates top prospects (both hitting and pitching)

And of course it wouldn't be a Pirates lot if this guy didn't show up half a dozen times or more

Along with soooooo many others

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)

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

As is the customary holiday tradition on Thanksgiving, I show off cards with Turkey in them.  Wether its a Butterball promotional card or a Topps Turkey Red, if it says Turkey, it gets highlighted on Thanksgiving.

These 3 cards will be the focus this year.  I've had them since the set was released much much earlier in the season.  I don't remember what I paid for them, but I think I got all 3 for around $8 delivered.

If Pedro Alvarez was in his black alternate uniform, this set would look a lot better.  The Gerrit Cole is probably one of the best images used in the set.  He just looks so intimidating.

Happy Turkey Day folks!  I'm looking forward to the 4 Fs on this day: family, friends, food, and football.

Reverse Boxin' TTT

No today's post isn't some new sport featured on ESPN, it's another step closer to doing a reverse box of 2014 Topps Triple Threads.  Last year I started with a reverse box of 2013 Topps Tribute and continued that to this year with a 2014 Topps Tribute which I completed in October with 2 pink parallels (Didi Gregorious and Jason Heyward).

Earlier in the week I stated that I would reverse box a 2014 Topps Triple Threads starting with my Jason Grilli Jumbo Patch Autograph numbered to 10.  That card ran me $15 so if you're keeping track that left me $135 to go after the remaining 13 cards.  Not bad odds for completing a reverse box.

Well as I was browsing ebay I came across a seller who had several Pirates base cards, 2 Pedro Alvarez parallels, and an Andrew Lambo triple relic autograph numbered to 50.  What the heck...why not go for this large lot to help knock off some of the cards.  It ended up costing me $26 delivered but brings me to need only 2 base cards, 2 parallels, and 2 more hits with over $100 to spare.  Needless to say though I will likely take away a Pedro Alvarez base as I hopefully will not pull any doubles in a box that contains only 14 cards.

Here's the lot

2014 Triple Threads 8/50 AUTO/RELIC

Despite seeming like Lambo has been in the minors trying to break through for that breakout season at the major league level, Lambo is still just 25 years old.  I have high expectations for Lambo and think that he could be a better defender and contact hitter than Pedro Alvarez at 1B, plus he can play a corner outfield position.  I think that he will most certainly make the team next year and will likely win the starting 1B role midseason similiar to how Josh Harrison won the 3B role when Alvarez struggled.  Does this mean that I am giving up on Alvarez in the organization?  No actually.  I think Alvarez will return to 3B and Harrison will become a super utility guy again.

The other base cards in the lot were 2 Alvarez, 1 Cole, and 1 McCutchen.  As I said above I think I will most certainly replace one of the Alvarez base with either Polanco or Clemente.

2014 Triple Threads Gold 96/99 and Amethyst 236/325

As for the parallels I added the 2 Pedro Alvarez parallels because they were part of the lot.  Again though, expect one of these to not count towards the reverse box because even though it's a different parallel (amethyst and gold) I would like to get different players parallels too.

El Toro strikes (out) again!

Pedro Alvarez has been one of the NL leaders in strikeouts for most of his professional career.  He's also been one of the NL Leaders in errors committed as a 3B since his debut.  Last year, despite appearing in only 99 games at 3B he managed to commit 25 errors.  He has a cannon for an arm, but has no control of routine ground balls.  His power swing is what will keep him in the lineup, but it looks like he will likely move to 1B next season and Josh Harrison will take over the duties of 3B.

I grabbed this 2013 Pink Parallel midseason when Alvarez was really struggling and it cost me less than $7 delivered.

Since Pedro Alvarez' nickname is El Toro (The Bull), let's see some Red Bull girls...

I dream of the Post Season....

The 2013 season was a magical season for the Buccos.  2014 looked like it would be an absolute disaster in the beginning of the year with the terrible start of the season, losing a few top prospects to injury, and the lack of proven depth in AAA.  As September comes closer to an end, the Pirates are still in a chase for Post Season play.

Pedro Alvarez 2013 Post Season Relic Patch 72/100

Earlier in the year, Topps produced a series of jersey relics called Post Season Relics.  The Pirates were represented by NL MVP Andrew McCutchen and Pedro Alvarez.  Alvarez became the first player in baseball history to collect an RBI in each of his first 6 postseason games.  Unfortunately he wasn't able to knock in the tying run in Game 5 when he struck out on an Adam Wainwright breaking ball.

It was just announced today that El Toro will likely be out for the rest of the season. Its unclear what his future with the Pirates is and with the emergence of Josh Harrison this year, the decline of Alvarez at 3B, and having a variety of cheaper options at 1B (Davis, Sanchez, Lambo, Bell) he could be non tendered.

One of my ongoing goals that started in 2013 was to acquire jersey relics of my favorite Bucs with a piece of the Jolly Roger sleeve patch.  This is my first Pedro Alvarez logoman relic.  You can see my others by clicking on the name below
Tony Sanchez Bradenton Marauders Jumbo Patch
Jason Bay
Joel Hanrahan
Neil Walker
Starling Marte
Andrew McCutchen
Andrew McCutchen, Freddy Sanchez, and Jose Tabata

Going into the Archive files

2014 Archives was released a few months ago and I normally let the market die down a little before I go buy the singles or team sets.  Because of the different designs used for Archives, I sort the team set in my player collection binder instead.  I find it much easier to find my 2014 Archives of the 1989 design Gerrit Cole sorted with all my other Coles than trying to remember what design was used for what year.  Besides, I only have binders for team sets of Flagship Topps, Allen & Ginter, Topps Heritage, and Flagship Upper Deck.  Everything else gets sorted by player alphabetically.  If the player is a fan favorite or active player it goes in the binder.  If not, it gets organized alphabetically in a long box.

Enough about my crazy organization though.

Here's the players for 2014 Archives.

First up the inserts.  Ok.  I'm going to be very frank about this....I love this year's Pirates insert selections.  First up is a deckle edge of Andy Van Slyke, a guy that I have been building a PC of since 1987.  Having an insert of one of my favorite long retired players is awesome!!!! Next up is a fired up Jason Grilli All-Star card.  As much as Grilli struggled this year, I still love the guy.  And finally is Cutch.  Nuff said!

 Of the designs used in this year's Archives, the 1986 design is my favorite.  Pedro Alvarez is the only nonSP to be featured using the 86 design.

 The 1980 design is another favorite of mine for one reason...it was Rickey Henderson's rookie card.  I had a Henderson rookie card as a kid and lost it on the school bus when I brought it in for show and tell.  At the time it was going for around $100 according to Beckett and Tuff Stuff (remember that magazine?)  Recently I was able to grab a decent copy of one for $10 at my local card show in the mall.  Andyway, Marte and Clemente share the 1980 design which is great because I see Marte as having a similar style of play to Clemente, but with many less career hits.

I can't begin to tell you how many boxes, rack packs, wax packs, etc of 1989 Topps I opened as a kid.  Way too many.  Stargell and Cole represent the design I like the least.

 The 1973 might be one of my least favorite designs from the 70s and the player selection for this design is poor.  Grilli is gone, Lambo was still in the minors until a few days ago, and Kiner has passed away.