Black Friday McCutchen Auto

Since it's Friday and it's been just a few days since I showed off an Andrew McCutchen card, how about if I show you another Andrew McCutchen autograph?

The seller didn't even list auto in the description.  I swear sometimes collecting for your hobby can become a full time job.  But if you want to get steals, you have to do your homework.  This 2012 Black Friday Cracked Ice autograph was picked up a few months ago for around $8 if I remember correctly.

I know it was under $10.  The print run on the cracked ice NON AUTO is /25.  From a few sources I have seen these are /5, but they aren't numbered.

No matter what the print run, this brings me close to 60 certified autographs of Cutch now.

Draft Day Dual AUTOs: 2007 Just Minors DUAL AUTO

The MLB Draft is tonight and that means the Pirates will be adding to one of the top farm systems in the league.  There's hope that the Pirates add another future ace with one of their two 1st round picks this year, but the Pirates could select a positional player at the #9 overall spot.  Many early mock drafts have the Pirates selecting high school catcher Reese McGuire.  The Pirates were awarded the 9th overall pick in this year's draft when they were unable to sign Mark Appel, who was selected 8th overall last year.

2007 Just Minors Gold DUAL AUTO Bill Rowell and Andrew McCutchen 3/10

Hopefully, whoever the Pirates pick has a better career than Bill Rowell who was selected by the Baltimore Orioles with the 9th overall selection in the 2006 draft.  The above card is my most recent pickup of Cutch Just Minors dual autos (already have Cole Hamels, Jason Heyward, Daniel Moskos, Gio Gonzalez, and Lorenzo Cain)  It ran me $20 shipped which is a fair price to pay for a Cutch auto numbered to 10 copies.  Rowell, who many people probably are unfamiliar with, was released by the Baltimore Orioles last year after spending over 6 years in the organization and not having advanced past AA ball.  In a last ditch effort to resurrect his career he was converted to a pitcher, but that didn't work either.

There's not much of a good track record of 9th overall selections becoming All-Stars.  The last player to be selected as a 9th overall selection and signed with the team that selected him was Barry Zito in 1999.  Aaron Crow was selected as the 9th overall selection by the Washington Nationals in the 2008 draft, but he didn't sign.  He was selected the following year by the Kansas City Royals (12th overall) and became an All-Star reliever for the 2011 season.

Trading Post: Screaming Line Drive

I recently made a trade with Daddyoho of the blog Screaming Line Drive.  For a couple Phillies jersey relics and a few Flyers, I managed to get 3 nice Pittsburgh additions to the Treasure Room.

2003 SP Legendary Cuts Historical Impressions 175/200

Up first is the card that started the trade, a 2003 SP Legendary Cuts Historical Impressions Honus Wagner numbered 175/200.  It's a nice looking manucard made to resemble Honus' autograph.

On the back of the card is an interesting fact about how Honus ranked in the top 10 in the entire league in average, RBI, hits, runs, OBP, slugging, extra-base hits, and total bases over the course of a 11 straight seasons.  It also shows his career totals for his Hall of Fame career.

Once we started talking, we added more cards to the mix.

2002 SP Authentix Jersey Jason Kendall 

Included is this 2002 SP Authentix Jersey of Jason Kendall.  It such a shame that he suffered such a major injury during his prime cause he could have been one of the best contact hitting catchers in MLB history.  As it stands he finished his career with 2,195 hits and a .288 batting average.  That puts him 4th all time on the catcher's hit list.  4TH ALL TIME!!! Ahead of Mike Piazza, Johnny Bench, Yogi Berra, and Gary Carter.  Do you think that Jason Kendall will ever be recognized as a HOF player?  Probably not.  Mainly because of his off field problems with his ex wife.  And that's a damn shame because it would have been nice to see a Pirate I rooted for get his plaque in Cooperstown wearing the Black n Gold.

2012 Black Friday Sidney Crosby

The final card of the trade was a Sidney Crosby 2012 Black Friday base card.  I'm sure that since he's a Flyers fan, he was more than happy to throw this in since, well.....Flyers don't like Sidney and Sidney doesn't like them.  Why? He just don't like them.

Tribute to Joey Bats' Bats

I recently came across this card while searching for some more Joey Bats cards in a Pirates uniform.  No one really saw Jose Bautista becoming what he is today, but many scouts knew the power potential was real.  Truth be told, I wouldn't be surprised to see Pedro Alvarez (the Pirates current 3rd baseman) becoming a late bloomer and just start wailing on the ball in a couple years.

2013 Tribute Transitions 66/99 Dual Bat Relic

After purchasing this card I decided to create a reverse box of Topps Tribute.  This beauty cost me only $10.64 of the $250 a box would cost.

McCutchen Monday & Draft Week

My current favorite player in baseball today is Andrew McCutchen.  Quite honestly, he might be my favorite player I've ever gotten a chance to see play. I currently own almost 300 unique cards of Cutch and hope to get that number closer to 400 by the end of the year.  Amongst my cardboard collection of Cutch are many autographs, over a dozen 1/1s, and almost enough jersey material to put his jersey back together.  Back in 2011, I created Morton Mondays, but with the lack of Charlie Morton cards available, I changed it to McCutchen Mondays so each Monday I will show off one new card from my Cutch collection.

Since the MLB Draft is this week, I figured I would show off one of my latest additions to my Andrew McCutchen PC which grows every single week.  For the hits like autos, relics, manupatches click here.

Cutch was selected in the 1st round of the loaded talented 2005 draft.  He was selected 11th overall after other high schoolers Justin Upton and Cameron Maybin.  Other players selected after Cutch include Jay Bruce, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Clay Bucholz.  I think the Pirates got that pick right.

For this year's 2013 Bowman release, Bowman is releasing reprint refractors of some of baseball's best 1st Bowman rookie cards.  Included in the subset is Andrew McCutchen.

This is a reprint of his 2005 Bowman.  It cost me only $2.02 shipped.

Here's a look at the stats on the back showing off what a stud player Cutch was in high school.  Look at his Slugging Percentage!!!!  His batting average was .709 so could you imagine what his OBP was? Combine that with his slugging percentage and you're talking about an OPS OVER 2.500 easily.

Another completed nameplate

I just completed another nameplate of one of my favorite players.  This one took much much longer than I thought it would considering it's only 3 letters.  Jason Bay had a heck of a game yesterday, going yard twice. I wouldn't be surprised to Jason get traded midseason to a contending team looking for a right handed bat with pop.  He currently has 8 homeruns in limited every day opportunities.

I would still like to spell out PIRATES using Bay's cards from the 2007 SP By The Letter Signatures.  At least I now have BAY completed.  I'm not sure why the B is numbered to only 25 where as the A and Y are numbered to 50.  I see nothing different on the front or back of the cards to differentiat a parallel.

FINALLY!!!! Another Treasure for the Treausre Room

Everyone has those inexpensive cards that they seek.  It could be the last few base cards needed to complete a set or a jersey relic of a AA prospect that will probably never see the majors but you went to school with them.  For me, my treasure hunting quests begin with Bill Madlock sticker autos.

I've been after a Bill Madlock auto where he signed his nickname "Maddog" for a long time.  Madlock is one of those players where I love to collect his cards for the cheap.  I didn't get a chance to see much of his career since I was born in the early 80s but I do have the 79 World Series on DVD and gotta say, the dude could flat out hit.  He wasn't your power hitting hot corner infielder you see today.  He was more in the mold of other 3B from the 70s and 80s.  Guys like Wade Boggs and George Brett.  Yeah, they had some pop, but they were consistently in the discussion for batting titles.  Speaking of which, Mad Dog won 4 of in his 15 year injury shortened career.

2006 Fleer Greats of the Game AUTO

This sticker auto from 2006 Fleer Greats of the Game was aquired for a winning bid of $1.81. Not a bad price to pay if you ask me.

Now to find some more Bill Madlock relics and autos.