McCutchen Mailday #204: Seeing Red

I've been piecing together the 2015 Topps Gallery of Greats rainbow of Cutch for about a month and quickly completed it.  It feels great (no pun intended) to be able to finally complete a rainbow of Cutch. I've started a bunch, but have always missed out on the Superfractors whenever they pop up (which is almost never). 

Behold the power of red...

And here they all are together.

On a side note, it's not an official rainbow because I am sadly missing the base still.  With so many available in the $1 range, I'm hopeful that one day soon I can add a copy of it.

Seeing Red: Checkmate!

It's been awhile since I showed off a red parallel on the PTR.
Bucs won against the Red Legs!!!!
And it was mostly because of this guy...

Starling Marte single handly saved the game in the 9th inning with his defense.
I hate the Reds

Seeing Red: Jamo Red Refractor /25

My scanner is still not working properly, so I'm forced to update via my phone and screenshots of eBay items I've won. Below is an item I won a few months ago for under $5 of a top pitching prospect, Jameson Taillon.

The goofy looking image of Jamo is the red parallel numbered 21/25

Seeing Red and Going Green: JaCoby Jones Green Ink AUTO /10

This is a first time on the PTR folks.  We got ourselves a dual color feature card.  Combining the month of Going Green and bringing back the Seeing Red feature we have a very low numbered green ink autograph of Pirates prospect, JaCoby Jones.

Jones had a breakout season in 2014 when he belted 23 HRs and batted .288 as a shortstop in A ball.  Before Bowman introduced JaCoby to the sports collecting world with his autograph, I was fortunate enough to grab this from Elite.  It's my first green ink autograph in my collection.  I will likely show off my /75 JaCoby Jones autograph from Bowman this month as well, but this card has been in my possession for nearly half a year and I thought now was a good time to showcase it.

Seeing Red: Locked in savings

I'm in Pittsburgh today attending PiratesFest and am looking forward to getting autographs from some of the Pirates Alumni (Dave Parker, Bill Virdon, Doug Drabek, Mike LaVaillere, Al Oliver, Jack Wilson, and John Smiley) and newest additions to the club (Cervelli and Holdzkom)

I was late in purchasing my autograph tickets so I am sadly missing out on a lot of the "headline" guys.  That's ok because I picked up this awesome Gypsy Queen Red Border auto of Jeff Locke for less than $7.  The low numbered (/49) parallel features the 2013 All-Star's terrible looking signature.

Seeing Red: Another penny deal of a silver slugger

It's been over a month since I showed a Seeing Red segment at the PTR and that's because of my Save Second Base charity event which raised almost $80.  Thank you to all who participated.  It was a lot of fun and helped a good cause.  I will be randomizing some cards off over the next few weeks or so to those that actively participated.

Earlier in the week I showed off a Tony Sanchez 2011 Topps Pro Debut Gold /50 that I won for a penny.  Today I'm going to show off another card that I won from the same seller for a penny also.

2011 Topps Chrome Red Parallel 11/25

For a penny, you can't really beat that price, but if you need further convincing that it was money well spent...here you go

Neil Walker won his first Silver Slugger award at 2B this year by leading all National League 2B in Homeruns (23) and On Base Percentage (.342).  

What's funny about Walker's 2014 season is that it got overlooked in Pittsburgh because their lineup had 4 players with higher wRC+ (Andrew McCutchen, Russell Martin, Starling Marte, and Josh Harrison).  That just shows how good the Pirates lineup was in 2014, if only their pitching hadn't struggled so much early in the season they could have had a good shot at winning the division.  

Tony Tuesday: 1/1 Red Refractor LAST POST BEFORE CHARITY EVENT!!!!

In my final post before I start the month long Save Second Base Charity event, I decided to show off a 1/1 Red Refractor of one of player collections, Tony Sanchez.

 The beautiful 1/1 ran me $28 delivered and helps me get closer to completing the rainbow.
The black can be seen here and the purple here

Seeing Red: Charlie Morton 2008 Bowman Chrome /5

I don't like doing more than 1 Seeing Red post a month, but I am so enraged with today's game that I needed to post a card that I am very happy to own.

Here's a card I've had in my possession for over 3 years, but never highlighted on the Treasure Room.  When it comes to my baseball card collection, I do not remember where I got every single piece of cardboard.  This card however is the exception and I got it for a hell of a deal.

2008 Bowman Chrome Red Parallel 5/5

I was attending a FMI conference (Food Market Institute) to represent my company and knew that this auction I had been watching would be ending while away in Dallas.  I took note of the time it would be ending and hoped that I didn't have a conference to attend during that time.  I was in luck as there was a 2 hour gap of "free time" between meetings.

Rather than go out to lunch with the rest of my coworkers I went to my hotel room and pulled up the ebay app on my phone and watched the time click away. 30 minutes. 29 minutes. 28 minutes.  I stared at it for almost 30 minutes without being distracted.  When it got to 1 minute, my then girlfriend tried calling me which I promptly hit the "F U" button for and continued staring at it until it went to the final seconds.  I entered my high bid again and BAM I had won a very low numbered 2008 Bowman Chrome Red Parallel of Ground Chuck numbered 5/5.  I then called back my then girlfriend only to find out that all she wanted to tell me was that it was a new episode of Smallville that night.  As if I really needed to be reminded of that as there was only a few episodes left...

The Pirates game just wrapped up and they now fall 2 games behind the Brewers for the NL Central Division.  Overall it was a very sloppy game played by the Pirates.  Charlie couldn't find the strikezone consistently.  The Pirates made the strangest play I have ever seen on the basepaths when they got into a double play on a walk to load the bases.  There was several errors that lead to runs.  Andrew McCutchen continued his recent struggles at the plate.  It was just an overall bad game that they deserved to lose.  Here's hoping they can take a four game series from the Diamondbacks in Arizona.

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.

Seeing Red: School Colors AUTO

My latest Tony Sanchez autograph is from 2009 Donruss Elite Extra Edition School Colors and is numbered 93/100.

It's my 15th unique certified autograph of the former first rounder.

Seeing Red: AJ Parallels

AJ Burnett left the Pittsburgh Pirates for greener pastures in Philadelphia.  Although the location is closer to his family, it remains obvious that the money also played into AJ's decision to join the last place Philadelphia Phillies.

2013 Prizm Red Parallel

Many Yankees fans couldn't wait to get rid of AJ after the 2011 season due to his obvious Jekyll/Hyde performances issues.  I was ecstatic to add him to the roster right before the 2012 season started for a pair of subpar prospects.  I attended the first game he pitched in a Pirates uniform and remember the crowd booing and screaming no!!!!! when he went to bat for the first time and squared around to bunt.  (He had injured his eye during spring training bunting drills).  That game was a lot of fun as they shutout the Cardinals and AJ pitched exceptionally well while Pedro delivered the only RBIs of the game.

2013 Topps Target red parallel

That game felt like things were going to start to change and that Neal Huntington's plan was finally starting to come together.  The Bucs collapsed in September and finished 3 games under .500 for the 2012 season despite strong performances from the pitching staff and breakout performances by some of the younger arms.

AJ became a fan favorite and one of the best pitchers in the NL during his time with the Bucs and I was happy to see him regain his form with the Pirates that he had before heading to the Big Apple.

All the AJ Burnett red parallels were purchased for around a $1 a piece and I'm glad that I have a full page of AJs in my binder to remind myself what a small role AJ had on the franchise during his short two year tenure with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Seeing Red: Tony Sanchez 2011 Heritage Minors

I've missed 2 straight McCutchen Mondays and for that I'm sorry to those of you that care about that sort of thing. Last Monday I got into an accident that came a foot away from likely killing me. Yesterday I spent 14 hours car shopping before I finally decided on a used Pontiac Sunfire.

Since this is a card blog though I'll show off another Tony Sanchez for the PC.  This 2011 Topps Heritage Red Tint parallel ran me just a few bucks and is numbered 308/620.

2011 Heritage Minors Red Tint 308/220

Seeing Red: A Pair of Red Parallels hits the PTR

After last night's slugfest, the Pirates were seeing blood in the water as the Shark Tank proved to be better than the Brewers relievers. They ran over the Brewers 11-2 in an energetic PNC Park.  Most of the damage came in the 8th inning when they took advantage of Wei Chung Wang (a rule 5 draft pick from the Pirates).

I recently picked a pair of cheap red parallels for my player collections.

Up first is from one of my favorite images of Jason Bay numbered 49/50.

2006 Upper Deck Red 49/50

The above card, which cost me $5 perfectly shows why Jason was my favorite player for a very long time.  The guy hustled more than anyone else on the field, which eventually lead to his injury plagued years with the Mets and a shortened career.  While with the Pirates, it wasn't uncommon for Jason to go running into the left field wall to track a fly ball down.  He played with so much passion and emotion every single night. It's a shame that his career only had him playing for one and half seasons with a good team (Boston Red Sox)

And next is the only player I truly consider myself a super collector of, Charlie Morton.

2014 Topps Target Red Parallel

This marks my 12th different Charlie Morton 2014 Topps card.  Ground Chuck is on the hill tonight as the Pirates hope to gain more ground on the 1st place Brewers after last night's laugher win 11-2.  BTW...If you haven't checked out one of my favorite Charlie Morton cards, please check out yesterday's link.  It's a 2014 Topps Clear /10 and is one of the greatest parallels that Topps has ever done.  Everyone should grab one of their favorite player now!

Seeing Red: A new feature on the PTR

With all the rainbow color parallels that companies are producing these days, I am going to start to highlight them in monthly features.  I've already introduced my followers to Black is the New Black, where I show off a black parallel of Pirates players.

Today, I'm going to introduce you all to Seeing Red.  This monthly feature will highlight some of my red parallels I have acquired over the years and more recently.  What better way to introduce this segment than by showing off a pair of Hall of Famers, Pie Traynor and Paul Waner.

These two beloved Pittsburgh athletes played the majority of their careers with the Pirates and were some of the earlier members enshrined in the HOF.

The above two cards were purchased shortly after Cooperstown came out and were had for $4 shipped.