McCutchen Monday: 2013 Toppy Turkey Red

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.

To see all my Andrew McCutchen relics, autos, printing plates, manupatches, etc ... check out this link.

I've been trying to add more unique cards of Cutch to my collection over the past couple months rather than just going after relics and autos.  2013 Turkey Red came out what feels like forever ago and because of that I was able to grab this elusive card for $1.50 from Sportlots.  It wasn't uncommon when the set first came out for this card to be in the $8 range.  Um...no thanks.  Patience paid off as I was able to add this to my ongoing collection of Cutch cards.

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS....DO YOU THINK THAT CUTCH IS THE FRONTRUNNER FOR 2013 NL MVP?  He truly is a 5 tool talent that plays a premium position with gold glove defense on a team that hadn't had a winning record for 20 years.  He's leading all NL position players in WAR, so I think he has a legit shot at it.  Then again, one would have thought Matt Kemp was MVP in 2011.

Football Sunday: He's Back!!!

The Pittsburgh Steelers are currently 0-1 after an embarassing home opener to the season against the Titans last week.  The offense didn't show up and Big Ben got sacked several times during the game.

The Steelers running game was almost absent so they brought back Jonathan Dwyer who was cut on the final day before rosters had to be set.  In an interview, Dwyer said he's glad to be back.  Personally I am too as I think he could be the better of the other options the Steelers currently have.

2010 Rookies and Stars AUTO/JSY 68/100

For $4 I grabbed this sticker auto and jersey relic of the running back numbered to 100.  Hopefully Dwyer can help get this offense going against Cincinatti on nationally televised Monday Night Football.

Got my first Pink!

It's been awhile since I've shown off a Ryan Doumit card.  As a matter of fact, it's been over a year.

Well, I decided to put an end to the lack of Doumit on my blog and add a pink, yes PINK Ryan Doumit 2013 Topps Mini.

2013 Topps Mini Pink Ryan Doumit 3/25

Numbered 3/25 this little (pun intended) beauty ran me just $5 shipped because I combined it with another auction.

2013 Topps Mini Pink Ryan Doumit 3/25

Ryan has put up pretty typical numberes that we've seen over his career.  A little bit of pop and a whole lot of defensive miscues.  He currently has cost the twins 36 runs defensively and last year had the 3rd highest amount of errors for a left fielder despite only playing 16 games there.  All that being said, he has 29 HR and a .261 batting average in just under 2 seasons in the Twin City.

Russell Martin Bat Nameplate 1/1

Calling this card anything less than SICK!!!! would be an unjustice.  I know of at least one blogger that would love to add this card to his collection, but this card ain't going anywhere.  Sorry guys!

2013 Topps Museum Russell Martin Bat Nameplate 1/1

While I paid more for it than I would have liked, I can't help but admire this museum quality (pun intended) piece of cardboard.  This marks my 2nd Pirate bat nameplate.  My first, of Andrew McCutchen, can be seen here.

I thought it would be nice to show off the back too...

Yup...This is staying in my collection for some time.

On another note, the seller included several other Pirates cards in the auction including 2 Gypsy Queen black mini parallels (Neil Walker and AJ Burnett) and even included a new Andrew McCutchen for my collection.
All the cards can be seen below.

The black minis numbered to 199 (Walker and Burnett) and 2013 Panini Father's Day Studio are all new additions to the Treasure Room.  SWEEEEETTT!!!!

The Best Flea Market Find Ever!!!!!!

Anyone that has ever attended a flea market knows that there's always treasure to be unearthed.  Here at the Treasure Room, I'm always looking for Vintage Topps to complete my Pirates team sets.

As I was walking through the aisles, I came across a table that had a long box labeled "Old Baseball Cards". Most of the cards inside were mid 80s Topps and Donruss.  There was an occasional card from 1975 Topps thrown in for good measure here and there.  As I continued to flip through the cards, none of which were in penny sleeves or toploaders, I discovered several more vintage cards from the 60s including this below gem.

To not tip off the seller, I grabbed a handful of other random cards and stacked this in the middle as his box was labeled 10 cards for $5.

For those of you unaware, that's a 1965 Roberto (or as Topps called him Bob) Clemente.  It's the real deal. Not a reprint. Not an Archive.  A legit Roberto Clemente 1965 Topps for .50!!!!  Getting this card so cheap is the reason why I don't feel bad showing off tomorrow's overpriced card.

Jose Tabata MLB Logoman 2010 Bowman Platinum

It's been over a year since I showed off a Jose Tabata card on my blog.  After signing a very team friendly contract extension, Jose has been average at best.  Looking at the stat WAR (Wins Above Replacement), Jose put up a 0.8 WAR in his debut season (2010) during 102 games.  Since that year, Jose has put up 0.8 WAR over the course of 3 seasons and 286 games.  Once prized as a key player the Pirates hoped build around, Jose is now mostly a pinch runner and platoon partner in right field.

Even though he's just average, I still root for the guy harder than most other Pittsburgh fans.

To paraphrase the most interesting man on earth..."I don't always look for Jose Tabata cards, but when I do...I prefer logoman patches."

2010 Bowman Platinum AUTO MLB PATCH 9/199

I don't have Tabata cards saved as a search on ebay, but after putting up a 3 for 4 performance with 2 RBI earlier in the month, I decided to see what all was available of the former top prospect.  When I discovered this card for $20 shipped, I decided to pull the trigger.  I like cards wtih logo patches or laundry tags.  This fits that nicely.

My other 2013 Pinnacle cards

Yesterday I showed off my 2013 Andrew McCutchen Pinnacle cards and wanted to show off the rest of the Pirates featured in the set.

The rest of the Pirates team set includes rookie flame thrower Gerrit Cole, speedy Starling Marte, the power hitting 3B Pedro Alvarez, and 2 electric back end of bullpen arms Bryan Morris and Justin Wilson.  I also grabbed the museum collection card of Morris along with a few of the cards I featured in the McCutchen article for only $10.