Mariners Tribute (sort of)

The Seattle Mariners made history yesterday when they made the extension for Felix Hernandez official thus becoming the highest paid pitcher in MLB history.

This isn't a Mariners blog though...

BUT I'm going to take a look at former Mariner Edgar Martinez and current Mariner Jason Bay as they appeared together on this 2009 SP Generations Memorabilia card together.  This card marks the 26th different player to appear on a relic or auto card with Jason Bay that I own.  My goal is to get up to 38 unique players by the end of 2013.  Why 38 you ask? It was his number during his playing days in Pittsburgh.

Here's a list of the others that I have memorabilia cards with Jason Bay 
*if bold it means I also have an autograph of them with Bay too

Albert Pujols
Alex Rios
Alfonso Soriano
Andruw Jones
Bill Madlock
Bobby Crosby
Carlos Lee
Craig Wilson
David Wright
Freddy Sanchez
Gary Carter
Jacoby Ellsbury
Jose Castillo 
Justin Morneau 
Ken Griffey Jr.
Kenny Lofton
Mario Lemieux 
Manny Ramirez
Matt Holiday
Nick Markakis
Ralph Kiner

And here is a list of the players that I have autograph cards with Jason Bay

Bill Mazeroski
Casey Kotchman
Dale Murphy
Dave Parker


It's unknown what position Jason Bay will be playing for the Mariners whether it's in the outfield or DH, but one thing is for sure he probably won't be able to put up Edgar Martinez numbers.  Martinez is viewed as the greatest DH of all time.  Never the less though, I'll be pulling for Jason to have a bounce back season this year and stay injury free.

For those of you that are interested in seeing my Jason Bay "hits" collection I set up a link here for easy access.

Busta move...with my first Buster Posey auto

Buster Posey may become one of the most decorated catchers of all time if his career continues to go the way it's started.  In only 2 full seasons in the majors he has a Rookie of the Year, MVP, and 2 World Series titles.  Not bad at all.

I was fortunate to pick this card up back in early 2012 and realized that I never scanned it in.  It features autographs of Buster Posey and Pirates catching prospect Tony Sanchez.  The 2009 Donruss Elite Passing the Torch dual auto was had for $20 and is currently my only autograph of Buster Posey. 

Pitchers and Catchers reported to spring training this week.  Here's hoping that this will be the year that Tony gets the call to the big leagues for his debut. 

Ain't no foolin, this card is 5 Toolin'

You always hear scouts talk about the tools that each player has, how they are 2 way players or 5 tool talents. What exactly is a 5 tool player in the eyes of scouts?

"A 5 tool player is one that has great speed, can hit for average, hit for power, a great throwing arm and is excellent defensively."

This 2012 Topps Triple Threads highlights 3 of MLB's best 5 tool athletes.  Mike Trout, Andrew McCutchen, and recently traded Justin Upton.  The card is numbered 23/27 and features jersey relics of the young superstars.

We've all seen Triple Threads cards before so I won't focus too much on the card.  Instead I want to examine each of these players tools and if they truly are 5 toolin'.  I will take a look at each of their 2012 statistics. 

Besides Assists, it's really hard to judge sabremetrically how strong a player's arm is.  Sure you can look at runs saved, but that also includes their range factor so believe me when I say that all 3 of these athletes possess a strong throwing arm, but that is probably their worse of their 5 tools.

First we'll start with last year's rookie phenom.
MIKE TROUT
great speed: 49 SB and only 5 CS.  CHECK
hit for average: .326 (2nd place in AL) won a Silver Slugger CHECK
hit for power: 30 HR or 1HR per 18.6AB CHECK
excellent defensively: saved 20 runs and put up a 2.1defensive WAR CHECK

ANDREW McCUTCHEN

great speed: 20 (lowest of his career) CHECK

hit for average: .327 (2nd place in NL) won a Silver Slugger CHECK

hit for power 31 HR .553slugging percentage CHECK

excellent defensively: .997 fielding percentage won a Gold Glove CHECK

JUSTIN UPTON

great speed: 18 with 8 caught stealing BETTER THAN LEAGUE AVERAGE

hit for average: .280 (won a Silver Slugger in 2011) CHECK

hit for power: 17 (31 in 2011) slugging .430 AVERAGE FOR POSITION

excellent defensively: saved 2 runs and put up a -0.4 dWAR NOT BETTER THAN AVERAGE

So it looks like the card features the players in the right order for guys that are 5 toolin' 

Mike Trout (if he can continue his success) will be the most tooled player in the game.

Andrew McCutchen, although he has lost some of his presence on the basepaths since 2010 is still a threat to steal, but has gained becoming a bigger threat at the plate with the bat.

Justin Upton had a monster 2011 season and will be pushed in Atlanta to put up better numbers now that he 

is playing alongside 2 other 5 tool outfielders his brother BJ Upton and Jason Heyward.

McCutchen 2013: Got Heeeeem

Excluding 1/1s my goal is to get every single Andrew McCutchen card produced in 2013.  This includes those rare parallel cards and the like. 



Here's what I have so far.

2013 Topps (SP) #122

2013 Topps Cut to the Chase #CTC21
2013 Topps (base) #122
2013 Topps Mini #TM34

2013 Topps Batting Leaders #189
2013 Topps Batting Leaders #189 (WalMart blue)

2013 Topps Chasing History Relic (grey jersey) #CHR-AM

If anyone can help me out with the parallels that would be greatly appreciated.
I need the pink, blue, red, gold, black, camo, emerald parallels of cards 122 and 189. 

Maz Tri Fecta Complete

My local mall was having a card show today and I managed to add a card I've been after for a long time.  That card is none other than a 1957 Topps Bill Mazeroski rookie card. 

Maz is an 8 time Gold Glove winner and the all time leader in double plays at 2nd Base.  Maz was voted into the Hall of Fame in 2001 by the Veterans committee after receiving no higher than 42% in his first 15 years of eligibility.  Maz is most often remembered for hitting one of the most famous homeruns in World Series history when he hit a walk-off home run in the 1960 series against the power hitting New York Yankess in Game 7.  Maz received a statue to immortalize that moment outside PNC Park in 2010 when the Pirates unveiled a statue in his honor.  I was fortunate enough to attend that game it was unveiled.  (Not surprisingly the Pirates lost that game as they did 104 other games that season.)

Anyway, I was able to pick up this card for a mere $30.  Sure it's not a Gem 10, but it is in really nice shape and could have easily sold closer to $70-$80.   Fortunately I have bought hundreds of dollars of cards from this guy before and he always puts his latest batch of Bucs cards aside for me and cuts me a deal.  I'm super pumped to add this plundering to the treasure room.

The rookie now completes a trifecta of Maz cards for me.



Here's some other Maz cards that I previously never spotlighted on the PTR.

This 2004 Ultimate Collection Ultimate Ensemble Signatures card numbered 19/25 features 2 HOF players (Maz & Kiner) along with 2 players who looked like they were on pace to have HOF careers during their first 6 years in the league (Parker & Bay).  This is one of my favorite AUTO cards I own as it has such a great amount of history displaying Pirates of yesteryear on it. 

Kiner represents the 40s-50s Pirates
Maz represents the 50s-60s Pirates
Parker represents the 70s-early 80s Pirates
Bay represents the 00s Pirates.
If only Andy Van Slyke was on this card to represent the late 80s-90s Bucs, this card would be perfect.

Also not previously posted is a 2005 Sweet Spot Classic Authentic Game Used Jersey relic of Maz.that I picked up for $4 shipped (purchased with another item for free shipping). 


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I also picked up this Jason Bay Bazooka Blasts bat relic at the card show for $3.  It's a new addition to the PTR of my favorite Canadian Bucco.  I really hope that Jason can turn his career back around in Seattle after a disastrous 3 years in NY.  I might pick him up as my final draft pick in fantasy baseball this year just as a deep sleeper.  Someone has to produce runs in Seattle, right?

New Additions to the PTR

Yesterday I showed off some new trade bait including some Japanese import gaming cards featuring MLB's finest.  I also managed to pick up a few of my favorite Pirates from that set including Joel Hanrahan, Garrett Jones, and the PTR's favorite Bucco Andrew McCutchen.

I also found a few of the 2009 World Baseball Classic (WBC) gaming cards of Pirates too including Hanrahan (Team USA), current Pirates closer Jason Grilli (team Italy), and Pirates swingman Chris Leroux (team Canada). 

My recent Ebay purchases include a Ralph Kiner autograph for $10.  I've been on a Ralph Kiner kick lately and will be adding to this part of my collection a lot more this year.  I really want to focus more on my HOF Pirates collection this year so expect to see more Stargell, Clemente, Maz, Kiner, Honus Wagner, and the Waner brothers added to my collection this year. 

I realized that I had never posted this prior to my "fallout" from the blogging community.  It's a tri jersey featuring Jason Bay, Albert Pujols, and Ken Griffey Jr. that I won for $8.50

2 future HOFers and a Jason Bay.  It's numbered 49/50 so yup, I'll take it.
I have several more cards that I still need to add to this site that were purchased from many months ago.  Most of them are Jason Bay related.  I'll try to do a few massive updates over the next couple weeks.

Trade Bait and First Impressions of 2013 Topps

I was at my local Wally World cause I was in the mood for a $5 foot long at Subway.  While there I decided to pick up a blaster of 2013 Topps.
I like the design of this year's set a lot.  I also like the inserts a lot more than of years past.
Everything below is for trade except the emerald Pence.

So there's some cool parallels and inserts available if anyone is interested. The Trout blue parallel is a pretty neat grab for a Wal Mart blaster.  I wish that my rookie patch card was someone besides Derek Jeter.  I'm really hoping to get the Clemente in my collection this year.

I didn't get anything too exciting in Pirate players, but am pleased  that I was able to get a few Bucs including the Batting Average leaders blue parallel featuring Cutch and the Calling Card insert of Willie "Pops" Stargell.

In addition to the 2013 Topps cards I have for trade, I also picked up a bunch of Japanese import cards.
I bought all these through my LCS which he said were from overseas. I'll highlight the Pirates ones I got tomorrow.

Kemp and Kershaw are on hold for Greg at Plaschke if he doesn't already have them.

These are really unique cards and are meant for a Trading Card Game similar to what Topps Attax was.

I showed the back of the Kemp (base) and Ruiz (WCB "insert") to show the size comparison between the two.  The WCB cards are more like the 1975 Topps minis found in Lineage.  
Let me know if anyone is interested.

On another note...I know that I probably owe some cards still. If that is the case, shoot me an email and let me know what I owe you.