Mailday! ...And I Finally Joined TCDB

One of my oldest trade partners, Gavin at Baseball Card Breakdown came through with a sweet PWE this week. I dug way back in the blog archives and discovered that Gavin and I first traded in November of 2013. Almost seven years of trading sports cards - that's a hell of a run and I'm pretty grateful for that.

I sent Gavin a stack of random stuff - a handful of players on his PC and an extra Joe Musgrove autograph that I had. There were even some basketball cards thrown in. In return, Gavin sent me back some great Buccos cards.

(L) Jordy Mercer - 2018 Topps Big League Gold Parallel

(M) Ralph Kiner - 2001 Fleer Greats of the Game

(R) Ralph Kiner - 2004 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites

I've never purchased any Topps Big League packs, but many of these cards have made their way to me through trade. I'm cool with that. The first card I pulled out of the PWE was the Jordy Mercer BL card. Even better, a gold parallel, which of course looks awesome on Pirates cards. This marks my third Jordy Mercer gold parallel.

(L) Jameson Taillon - 2016 Bowman's Best Blue Rookie Refractor #/250 RC

(R) Tyler Glasnow - 2013 Bowman Platinum Prospects Green Refractor #/399

Bowman's best is another product I haven't purchased any boxes or packs of, but have acquired a lot of cards individually. The cards are clean and they've had some great checklists for Pirates. This Taillon rookie is really nice. My favorite part of the card is the gold "P" logo in the background. The Glasnow prospect card is a great addition as well. I don't look for it any more, but I opened a ton of Bowman Platinum back in the day. 

The big prize of the PWE comes in the form of my first Cole Tucker autograph. The Pirates first round draft pick in 2014 is (or was?) likely to be their starting shortstop this year. His autographs have been a little too pricey for me. At only 23 years old, I suppose he's still considered a high-ceiling prospect. I was really excited to get my hands on this trough trade. Big thanks, Gavin!

(Clockwise)

James Conner - 2016 Donruss Rated Rookie

Austin Meadows - 2018 Topps Update

Tyler Glasnow - 2017 Topps

PNC Park - 2019 Topps

In other news, I finally joined the TCDB a few weeks ago. Not only did I join, but I'm proud to say that I have finished cataloguing my entire collection of 4,730 cards. Compared to most collectors on the site, I realize that less than 5,000 cards is an incredibly small number. I live in an apartment. I also move a lot for my job, and frankly I just hate having a ton of cards eating up storage space.

The bigger story here is that I catalogued every last one of those cards one-by-one, card by card. Boy did it take a while. That's the real reason I think it took me so long to sign up - I found the prospect of manually uploading thousands of sports cards to be a bit daunting. Furthermore, I organize my cards by team - not by set - so it really made things interesting. Eventually I figured out a system and was able to get several hundred cards uploaded each time I sat down. 

This was all possible because of quarantine. Without the extra time, I don't know if I would have undertaken the project. Cataloguing cards has become a fun and productive use of my time to fill the random gaps during the day - between work calls and such. 

I received my first trade proposal last week. A collector from Florida requested four cards that I had, and he asked me to check out his trade list. I found the four cards above and the deal was quickly accepted. The PWE was in my mailbox just a few days later. I'm really excited to continue on, hopefully turning lots of random base cards into Pirates cards that I want. That's the whole idea, right? 

Collecting the Departed

Pittsburgh Pirates fans seem to be an ultra-critical fanbase. Frankly, sometimes I find it to be exhausting. The fanbase is a generally whiny group, readily armed with countless criticisms of the front office and particularly the ownership group.

This doesn’t come without merit. The Pirates haven’t been to a World Series since 1979. That’s a forty year drought, with no end in sight. It doesn’t help that the 70’s were a Golden Era for Pittsburgh Sports where the Pirates won two World Series, the Steelers won four Super Bowls, and the Penguins began to appear in the playoffs after joining the NHL in 1967. The bar was set very high.

So I get it. I understand the frustration. Winning cures all, and aside from some success in the early 90’s (thanks Barry Bonds) and a magical streak from 2013-2016, there hasn’t been much winning. A lack of winning will create a surplus of criticism from the fans. That criticism comes in many shapes and sizes. In the Pirates case, there are two main themes: It’s all the owner’s fault; and we can’t hold on to any of our most talented players, particularly younger players.

I'll spare you feelings on ownership. As for the latter – “not keeping good young players” – it often feels real. The recent examples include Gerrit Cole, Tyler Glasnow and Austin Meadows. Throw in Starling Marte. Going back a decade, see: Nate McClouth. The exception was Andrew McCutchen, who famously took a hometown discount to remain in Pittsburgh.  

From where I’m sitting, it seems to me that Pirates fans often get trapped in the bubble that surrounds Western Pennsylvania. What Pirates fans perceive to be “Pirates problems” or even “small market challenges” happen to be baseball challenges. The free agency system is broken. Players are under team control until their mid-late 20’s when they’ll peak physically and command big contracts - contracts which their current team can rarely afford. It often makes more sense for a team to sell these young assets while they still have a value and get something in return. Otherwise, they walk for nothing. Mookie Betts, anyone?

Bottom line: Yes, the Pirates do lose a lot of their good young players. So do most other teams. 

But that’s not going to stop me from collecting them!

2018 Topps Chrome Austin Meadows Rookie Auto Refractor #/499

2019 All-Star Austin Meadows, a guy I’ve been following pretty closely since he was drafted #9 overall out of high school in 2013. 2013 was the year when the Pirates began to rise to relevance again. They also seemed to have a roster that could enjoy some sustained success, so Pirates fans started to pay more attention to the draft. Upon being drafted he was immediately labeled as the heir apparent to Andrew McCutchen, seeing as his projected arrival in the majors would correspond with the expiration of McCutchen’s contract. Five years later this actually proved to be true, and the timing lined up… until he was shipped to Tampa in the Chris Archer deal.

2017 Bowman Chrome Tyler Glasnow Rookie Refractor #/499

Speaking of being shipped to Tampa in the Chris Archer deal... Tyler Glasnow was the other big league piece sent south. He was one of the most exciting pitching prospects up through 2016 when he finally broke into the bigs. His big league career got off to an extremely rocky start – his career with the Pirates is *just* 5.79. He seems to have figured it out in Tampa - Glasnow finished the 2019 season with a 6–1 record and a 1.78 ERA in ​60 2⁄3 innings.

I picked up the gold parallel of this and showed it off earlier this month. I may continue to seek these out and see if I can put together a small collection of parallels.

2013 Topps Chrome Gerrit Cole Rookie Blue Refractor #/199

My love for 2013 Topps Chrome Blue Refractors strikes again. I already own this card as part of the complete set, but when I saw it pop up on eBay for very reasonable cost I couldn’t help but jump on it. I'm still hoping the best for Gerrit but I'll never be able to root for the Yankees. I hope he goes nine innings with 15 K's every game but loses 1-0.

2019 Topps Update Chris Archer Independence Day Parallel #/76

On an entirely unrelated note, here's a really badass card that was sent my way by Matt at Diamond Jesters. I sent him a small stack of Red Sox a month ago in return for a Bryan Reynolds parallel, and I guess he still felt like he owed me something. I really love this card and it showed up out of nowhere for a total surprise - so even better. We all love surprised in this hobby, don't we? Thanks a million, Matt.

Pirates PC Adds, and Two New Trades

Yep, the World Series is going on and I'm just over here talking about Pittsburgh Pirates cards. No Juan Soto cards to show off here, sorry. Just lots of mediocre Pirates.

Lots of new stuff to debut, lets get to it!

Jose Osuna is a guy who's been buried pretty deep in the Pirates system for quite some time. Not for a lack of talent or skill, but more so because of outfield depth in AAA. Osuna for three years, Osuna has been one of the last guys cut from the big league roster in Spring Training, and one of the first guys called up once injuries strike. He has some real pop in his bat, and considering that he's "average athleticism" for a major leaguer, he's pretty versatile defensively - able to plug in at 1B, 3B, and both outfield spots.

In 2019, Osuna enjoyed a new career high in ABs with 261. Seeing him play more often inspired me to check out some of his Rookie cards. He may never be an everyday player, but I love this dude.

Oh! And I got a new scanner, so enjoy some awesome pictures that really pop.

2017 Topps Update Gold Parallel #/2017

2012 Bowman Chrome Prospects Refractor #/500

2017 Topps Heritage High Number Chrome Variations Refractor #/568

Next up, I grabbed a pair of 2014 Bowman Chrome Bubble Refractors #/99:

Our old buddies Cutch and Cole. I'll admit it, I have a strange fondness for these cards. They're super unique looking, and look really great in the scans when they get some light bouncing off them. These additions will join Fransisco Liriano as I build a Pirates team set.

Next up, two awesome cards that I received in a PWE swap with Matt at Sport Card Collectors. I was able to knock some 90's football cards off of his wantlist, and he was generous enough to send back a card that I've had my eye on.

Matt threw in a few other cards, this being one of them: Chris Archer 2019 Topps Heritage Chrome Refractor.

But here's the real prize:

2019 Bowman Sterling Travis Swaggerty Sparkle Parallel #/99.

What a beauty! Swaggerty was the Pirates first round pick in this year's draft. This is not only my first auto of his, but my first Swaggerty card. I couldn't be more pumped. This card is so sweet. One last plug for my new scanner... it certainly made this refractor jump out. Thanks for the trade, Matt!

I also completed my first trade with Trevor of Bump and Run Football Card Blog. Trevor took part in an Optic group break and ended up with the Pirates, so he had a nice stack to send my way:

 

Aside from the Optic stuff, I also hand-picked two cards off of his trade list:

2017 Topps Update Jose Osuna

2018 Topps Heritage Austin Meadows RC

You probably know this guy by now. Sadly, I didn’t really collect much of Meadows when he was in the Pirates system. He was a little too blue of a blue chip prospect and the price tags on his cards were too high. I can’t imagine they’re about to go down any time soon, so it’s great to pick this up through trade. Thanks for the cards, Trevor!

Lastly I’ll showcase a random eBay pickup from last week:

2019 Donruss "The Rookies" Benny Snell Auto #/299

How sweet is this refractor? 

I haven’t blogged about this yet – it’s a conversation for another day – but over the past three years I’ve become a big University of Kentucky football fan. My fandom hasn’t spilled into collecting yet bu maybe this will open the floodgates. When the Steelers drafted Benny Snell in the fourth round this year I was ecstatic. I had enjoyed watching this guy will Kentucky to several wins over the past two years, so it was a dream-come-true to have him join my NFL team.

Thanks for reading!