McCutchen Mailday #93-95: Another Test Proof and a Dominator

Here's some more Donruss cards I have added in 2016 in case you haven't seen enough already.

The test proof from the 1982 Retro design is the highlight of the bunch which also includes an Elite Dominator /999 and the non numbered pink parallel as seen below

For those keeping track at home, my Andrew McCutchen collection is now my main focus of my entire collecting goals. 

McCutchen Mailday #143: 2015 Topps Chrome Pink Parallel

Last year, I did a huge Save the Boobies contest where I ran all Pink parallels for the month of October. Every comment left raised $$$ for Susan G Komen foundation.  I don't think I am going to be doing that again this year unless there is a lot of positive reaction to it.  Would you guys like to see that?

My Quest for 100 hasn't yielded many pink parallels this year, but this Topps Chrome is especially nice.  I was able to snag it for under $3 delivered.

Morton on the Mound: Pink Mini

Last year I showed the regular release Topps Series 1 pink parallel during the Save Second Base month long Charity event.

I was lucky enough to snag this mini for a cool $5.

Would you guys want to see another event like that?

McCutchen Mailday #40 & 41: a pair of minis

I got very far behind in my posting and by the time this gets posted I will have likely added another dozen McCutchen cards to my collection in my Quest for 100 new Andrew McCutchen cards added to the PC.  At the rate I am currently on pace, I will have added 100 new Cutch cards to the collection by the MidSummer Classic.

My recent pair of ebay winnings came in on the same day and feature 2 mini colored parallels.

Up first from 2013 Gypsy Queen is a Sepia mini numbered 43/50.  It was won for less than $3.

I bought 10 tobacco sized pages last year and have already filled 2 pages of them with just Cutch tobacco minis.

Next up is a colored parallel that should be very familiar to anyone who has read my blog because I supported the entire month of October with nothing but pink parallels.  This 2014 Topps mini is numbered to only 25 copies and ran me $14 delivered.

Another Russell Martin Rainbow

I've shown off my 2013 Topps Chrome Russell Martin rainbow I was chasing in the past.  Earlier this year, I also showed off my 2014 Topps Mini Black printing plate of RussMart.  I'm going to attempt to put as much of this rainbow together as possible and since a seller had 2 of the colored parallels I needed I decided to grab both the pink and black parallels for $25 combined shipping.

You may recall that I showed the 2014 Topps Pink parallel of the base card back in October's Save the Boobies month.  That pink parallel was numbered to 50.  The mini featured above is numbered to 25.

Above are the backs of the cards and their low print run numbers.

Leftover from the Save the Boobies event

Back in October I ran a month long event of all Pink Parallels I called Save Second Base.  The event raised nearly $100 donated to Breast Cancer Awareness.  One card that I planned to highlight during the event, but never showed off was a 2012 Leaf Draft /25 Pink Parallel autograph of Barrett Barnes.

Barnes was a 1st round Comp pick the Pirates received for the Twins signing free agent Ryan Doumit.  His pro career has been marred with injuries season after season.  In terms of depth, he's a nice player to have in the minors, but I don't think he will be making his MLB debut anytime soon for the Bucs considering he plays Centerfield and there are currently 3 true centerfielders on the active 25 man roster for the Pirates (Polanco, Cutch, Marte).

In 3 professional seasons, he's only managed to play in 101 games.  When he is on the field, he has good stats .271/.371/.425 with 12 HR and 24 Stolen Bases.  Getting Barnes to stay healthy will be the challenge and could decide if he can become a major league ballplayer or be a player hidden in the minors for years.

I mentioned earlier this month that I may consider doing  a "Go Green" event for St Patty's Day where I highlight only Green or Emerald cards for the month.  Would you all be interested in an all green event for March?

It started with Russ, it's ending with Russ

I hope this isn't an omen of things to come by me stating the above headline in case Russell Martin leaves for free agency, but I thought it would be a good idea to bookend my Save Second Base by spotlighting the catcher who threw out a lot of potentials stealers of second base over the last two years.  It's almost inevitable that Russ will leave for another team via free agency, most likely the Dodgers.

2014 Topps Pink Parallel 9/50

During his very brief time in Pittsburgh, I legit had a man crush on him and his giant beard.  Now I know why Greg at Plaschke, Thy Sweater is Argyle collects him so much.  He's an easy guy to root for and a heck of a baseball player.

Last year, the Martin 2013 Topps Chrome featured him tagging out a player at the plate and I have been rainbow collecting it since.  I'm thinking about rainbowing this one too.  It's just a great looking play at the plate.

Since today is Halloween, I thought it be good to show off some boob worthy Halloween costumes.

Jason Heyward Auto

We're getting close to the end of my Save Second Base event. Keep the comments coming. This card concludes my 2014 reverse box which I was able to finish for $85 under cost.

As has been customary all month I will finish out with what we're trying to save. Kate Upton should model them off nicely again.

Jordy Mercer year in review

Way way way back in June, I showed off my Jordy Mercer 2013 Topps camo parallel.  As expected, Jordy Mercer due to his offensive upside grabbed the starting shortstop position from Clint Barmes in 2014 and although it took him a little longer than expected to get going, he provided enough offense to beat his previous career highs in nearly every offensive category.  Many felt that Mercer didn't have the range or agility to stick at shortstop, but he made several plays in the field during the year that rivaled those of other NL shortstops.  On top of that he finished the year in the top 5 for fielding percentage among NL shortstops.

2013 Topps Pink Parallel 15/50 

During the months of June, July, and August Jordy's bat reached his true upside belting 7 homeruns and hitting .289 with 31 RBI often times hitting in the number 8 spot in the lineup and getting very few pitches to hit due to hitting in front of the pitcher.

The above pink parallel of Jordy ran me $6 delivered.  Mercer appears to be the Pirates opening day shortstop when the season opens for 2015, but switch hitting shortstop prospect Alen Hanson could potentially be up mid season if Mercer scuffle

2 for 1 Tuesdays

Earlier in the month, I showed off a pair of pink Gregory Polanco cards and now I'm going to do the same for Tyler Glasnow.

I already showed off a Rize auto of Glasnow, but the price on these things were soooo cheap that I had to pick them up while I could.  These were bought for around $12 long before he debuted on a Bowman Chrome card and before this season when he continued to dominate and became MiLB pitcher of the year.

I figured an image of Paulina Gretzky (blonde) and her model friend would help the 2 for Tuesdays

Morton Monday: Bringing pink back!!!!

With the lack of Andrew McCutchen pink parallels in my collection, I had to bring back an old frined to help close out the final Monday on Pink Parallel Breast Cancer Awareness Save the Boobies Month.  Here's a card that I have had since Series 1 was released earlier this year.

Charlie had a great season despite his Win-Loss record and multiple stints on the DL.  He set personal bests for hits/9 (8.2), K/9 (7.2), and WHIP (1.27).  He still holds a career record of 36-61 over 7 seasons so he's not going to be getting any HOF votes when he retires, but he's still a very good mid rotation guy with very little run support since reinventing himself in 2011.  One thing that Charlie continues to do is hit too many batters by pitching too close inside.  For 2103 and 2014 he lead the National League in hit batsmen.

Below is my 2014 rainbow of Morton cards (excluding the minis) which I am saving all for future posts.

First up the numbered parallels

Then the base and retail exclusives

And finally some boobage cause this is Save Second Base month after all.

Since Charlie Morton is such a powerful part of my collection, I thought a sexy female cosplaying Power Girl was appropriate.

Football Sunday: Troy Polamalu dons the Pink

It's Sunday and that means....FOOTBALL!!!!

Since this will be my final Save Second Base Football post, I figured I should show off one of my favorite NFL players ever, Troy Polamalu.

I bought this pink parallel off COMC a long time ago for only around $1.50 if I remember correctly.  It's numbered to 399 unlike the baseball pink refractors.
And now to show off women with his hair and of course...boobs

G.I. Jones makes a pink appearance

I can't say too much for Garrett Jones that hasn't already been said on this blog.  He's a great guy with a lot of homerun power in his swing, but he strikes out too many times and doesn't play a very rangeful first baseman.  The Pirates cut ways with Jones after 2013 and he signed a 2 year deal with the Miami Marlins.  He provided the numbers that many Pirates came to expect from him, an average around .250, 50+RBI, and mid teen homerun totals.

Oh well...I grabbed this card of the former Pirate for $4 delivered.

And since his nickname is G.I. Jones, here's some G.I. related boobs to make this post better
a hot girl dressed as Lady Jaye from G.I. Joe

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...

Didi save the DDs

Didi Gregorius was the key piece of a three team trade that sent Shin Soo Choo to the Reds and Trevor Bauer and Drew Stubbs to the Indians.  In two seasons with the Diamondbacks, Didi has managed to bat .241 with three stolen bases and hit 13 homeruns.  It's not exactly the numbers that Arizona wanted when they traded for the scrappy shortstop.  His defensive skills are still very much above average though and he is still fairly young (24 years old) so he may become a better player as he continues to develop.

Remember back when I talked about doing another reverse box of Tribute like I did last year.

Well I decided to go ahead and fulfill the reverse box.  I already showed off the Grilli and Marte autos.  This makes #3 for my reverse box settling in at $4.60 delivered.  That leaves me with $118 to add another auto and 12 basecards.  I won't show off the base cards as I literally just got nothing but base cards for $1 each.  However, stay tuned next week for my final reveal to complete the box.  I'll give you a hint.  It's pink!!!

From Yesterday's MVP to this year's MVP

Yesterday I featured a 2014 Andrew McCutchen Topps Series 2 Pink Parallel that highlighted Cutch's 2013 MVP season.  Cutch had another outstanding offensive season and could very well win his second MVP award in as many years.  However, this year a player emerged from what seamed like nowhere to become an All-Star and possibly get some MVP votes.  I purchased the card you see below for $10.  Normally I wouldn't spend that much for a JHey card, but did you not see the season he had????

Josh Harrison missed winning the batting title by just a few hits.  He played a variety of positions throughout the year (2B, SS, 3B, LF, RF) and still managed to post a .984 fielding percentage.  In early May it looked like the Pirates magical 2013 season was just a fluke as the Pirates quickly fell to almost 10 games under .500.

ENTER JOSH HARRISON!!!!

Harrison proved to be the spark plug the Pirates needed as they faced countless injuries and player problems.  When Starling Marte went down, Harrison was there.  When Walker went down, Harrison was there.  When Alvarez couldn't throw to 1B without giving the fans a souvenir, Harrison was there.  The 5ft8 Ohio native ended the season with an All-Star appearance, NL Player of the Month (August 2014), second in batting average, (.315), 9th in slugging (.490), 7th in doubles (38), and most impressive was that he had a .679 Offensive Win Percentage.  For those that don't know what offensive win % measures, it's if a team fielded 9 of that player to bat in a lineup, how he would do.  There's a lot more well known guys ahead of him on the list and that's it.

Thank you JHey AllDay for making the 2014 season so much fun to watch!!!! Let's do it again next year.  It's a shame you couldn't get the batting title.

McCutchen Monday: The Greatest 2014 McCutchen Topps Card IN PINK!!!!

We are approaching the end of week 3 of Save Second Base here at the Treasure Room.  For the second week in a row, I am showing off an Andrew McCutchen as McCutchen Mondays are back in full effect after only a 1 week delay.  This card ran me a little more than I would like to admit for a pink parallel ($30), but....

I FRICKING LOVE THIS CARD!!!!

Ok, ok...It's just a pink parallel from a 2014 Topps base set.  What's so special about that?  Well you see not only is it numbered to 50, but it features a great action photo of Cutch and do you see that little inscription under his name (2013 NL MVP)?  It's been a looooooong time for Pirates fans to be rewarded with a player of Cutch's magnitude and boy does it feel great to have the reigning MVP locked up under contract through 2018.  I love this card so much I'm going to rainbow hunt it.

Speaking of rainbows...

It's time for random tits!!!

thanks Ke$ha for giving us something to stare at besides your fake tooth and rainbow hair.

And because I'm not sure why it pinpoints Cutch's struggles against the Phillies last year, here's some Phillies boobs

Scripture Saturday: Corinthians 10:31

Today's post is twice as good as any other post I have ever done.  It continues the month long trend of pink parallels to raise awareness and financial charitable funding for Breast Cancer awareness, but it also features a Bible verse on the auto.  I am in search of cards that show bible scriptures on the signature.  Today's card features a bat relic and an autograph by former Cardinals prospect James Ramsey.  James signed the card with the Corinthians 10:31 scripture.  Let's first take a look at that scripture.

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

This is a great scripture.  Our life is so short and we all get caught up in the small time challenges and selfish ways in our days.  We should all give thanks to our God and praise him on a daily basis for all that he has given us.

Now for the card and the player depicted on the piece of cardboard.

2014 Bowman Inception Auto/Relic James Ramsey 27/50

James Ramsey was a former prospect of the St. Louis Cardinals.Ramsey was traded at the July 31st trade deadline for Justin Masterson.  Masterson was having a rough year for the Indians but was still striking out nearly a batter per inning.

Ramsey batted .284 with an OPS of .844 in AAA for the Indians. He will likely attempt to make his MLB debut next year.

Alen Hanson Bowman Inception Auto and Jersey

2014 Bowman Inception Alen Hanson AUTO/RELIC 9/50

Alen Hanson entered the season regarded as one of the best shortstop prospects in baseball. Somewhere between the start of the season and finishing the 2014 season with 33 errors (most at shortstop) he was taken off many top 100 prospect lists. He two former minor league team mates, Gregory Polanco and Dilson Herrera have already made their MLB debuts.

There's still a lot to like about Hanson's gameplay offensively. I got to see him with the Curve this year and his bat speed is incredible. If he can hit .280 and steal 20+ bags a year batting in the leadoff or two hole for the Pirates their lineup looks frightening to NL pitchers.

BTW...I am disappointed in you all for not leaving a single comment on yesterday's post. Where's your sense of charity folks?

2 for the price of 1...

You guys are in for a treat with today's pink post as I continue the all pink Save Second Base Breast Cancer Awareness month event. I normally try to stay away from unlicensed autographs of prospects especially if they have sticker autographs and aren't actually searially numbered.

However....

If I can get an autographed copy and an unautographed copy of one of the game's future stars for only $17 delivered after using some eBay bucks well...
I'm willing to change my mind.

Both cards above were purchased as a lot nearly 6 months before Polanco made his MLB debut.

Time for random boobs