The Great Rookie (and Cup) Debate

Topps rookie cup/trophy cards have been around for a long time.

Over the course of that time, Topps has made a few errors.  In recent years we have seen players have a rookie cup logo in addition to a rookie card logo on the same card because Topps has chosen to release the player's rookie card after the player's actual rookie season.  We saw it happen in 2020 with Yordan Alvarez, 2021 with Alec Bohm (although the year 2020 was a strange year for distribution, player debuts, shortened seasons, etc due to the worldwide pandemic), and 2022 with Wander Franco. 

As much as people get upset (myself included) for Topps not releasing a rookie card during a player's rookie season we have seen this happen many times in the past including HOF guys like Willie Mccovey and Eddie Murray.  Their Rookie Cup cards aknowleding the tremendous performance as a rookie got placed on their cards for their true 2nd year in the big leagues, but they are considered rookies because they didn't get a rookie card when they were actually rookies.

Many of us believe that in the earlier 2010s Topps seemed better at applying the correct RC logos on players and those good enough to make the Rookie Cup award get their 2nd year card to adorn the Rookie Cup. I'm going to prove that theory wrong too.

With the Pirates deep in nearly two decades of losing seasons, Andrew McCutchen's debut in 2009 gave the fans hope of better things to come.  Cutch won the Baseball America Rookie of Year, finished in 3rd for Baseball Writers NL ROY, and was announced as a Topps Rookie Cup winner for his debut season in 2009.

Cutch got a RC logo on his 2009 Topps Update card during his rookie season. 

Cutch's performance as a rookie lead to Topps producing cards of Cutch in 2010 with the Rookie Cup/Trophy logo for Topps Flagship and Heritage releases.

Good things were definitely on the horizon for Pirates fans as it saw the team promote their top 3 positional prospects (Pedro Alvarez, Jose Tabata, and Neil Walker) in 2010. 

Both Neil and Jose received a RC in 2010 due to their early season debuts.

Pedro Alvarez was called up later in the season and didn't appear in 2010 products except Pro Debut (a prospect filled minor league set).  He did not receive a RC in 2011 like what we have seen recently with other top prospects like Wander Franco, Yordan Alvarez, Alec Bohm. However as you can see below Topps didn't put a RC logo on Pedro's 2011 Topps release.

The 2010 Topps Rookie Team can be found here.  As you can see from that list, Pirates 2B Neil Walker was named a Rookie Cup winner.

This meant that Walker would have his Topps Flagship and Topps Heritage cards feature the rookie cup.

One name missing from that list is Jose Tabata, who was good enough to receive one rookie of the year vote in 2010 for his performance.

He slashed .299/.346/.400 with 19 stolen bases in 26 attempts.  After the 2010 season, he was believed to be atop the Pirates lineup for the future for his above average speed and hitting approach. He also provided outstanding defense in left field. 

Tabata had a good rookie season in 2010, but in comparison to Jason Heyward, Mike (Giancarlo) Stanton, and Austin Jackson it just wasn't good enough to receive the cup/trophy honor for his 2011 Topps flagship cards.

However, Topps Heritage did produce a 2011 Topps Heritage card featuring the All Star Rookie trophy for Tabata.

The back mentions Tabata having the second most stolen bases on the Pirates.  Andrew McCutchen lead the club with 33 SB that season. 

This means that Topps produced 4 outfield rookie cup cards for Topps Heritage.

But oddly enough, Giancarlo Stanton was rejected the All Star Rookie Trophy for all parallels while Tabata maintained the logo.

A more recent mistake by Topps was including Ke'Bryan Hayes in the 2021 All Rookie Cup product highlighting players who have earned the distinction of Topps Rookie Teams for the past 70 years.

The problem with that is Alec Bohm was announced as the 3B for the 2020 All Rookie Topps Team, not Ke'Bryan. Again due to the odd year that 2020 was, I am willing to forgive RC mistakes on 2020 products and having them all have to be included in 2021 products, but there's no excuse for putting someone on the checklist for a set called Topps Rookie Cup for a guy that didn't get nominated by Topps as a Rookie Cup winner for the 2020 season. 

Do you pay attention to the rookie cups and rookie card logos on flagship or Heritage releases?

Do you think there should be a clear deadline for Topps to release rookie cards of players so a Rookie Cup and Rookie Card logo don't appear on the same card?

Are you aware of any Rookie Cup logos being added or subtracted in error for Flagship or Heritage products?

 

Remembering what it was like to have hope

Is there a better modern rookie class than 2011 Topps Update?  2018 Update may one day overtake it with the likes of Soto, Acuna, and Otaku but for now 2011 Topps Update has the rookie card of this generation's greatest player (Mike Trout)

In addition to Trout, let's run through some of the rookie cards that can be found in the set

Mike Trout

Paul Goldschmidt

Chris Sale

Jose Altuve

Anthony Rizzo

DJ LeMahieu

Eric Hosmer

Mike Moustakas

JD Martinez

Charlie Blackmon

Brandon Crawford

Kyle Seater

Dee Gordon

Brad Hand

Eric Thames

Cutch has his own All Star Card in the 2011 Topps Update Set, but he also has a cameo on the Jay Bruce All Star Card and the Chase d'Arnaud rookie card. 

When Chase was drafted, I thought he would become a long term fixture at shortstop for the Pirates.  

I got the opportunity to see him play a lot in the minor leagues and even got a signed bat from him during his time in AA Altoona Curve.

He came up and made his debut in 2011 in an Interleague matchup versus the Boston Red Sox.  He tripled for his first base hit.  

After several injuries and the emergence of Jordy Mercer in the shortstop position for the Pirates, Chase bounced around with a few other organizations including the Phillies, Braves, Padres, and Giants. 

I was sad to see Chase leave the Pirates organization as I always viewed his ceiling to be in the Trea Turner mold.  Chase was a burner on the base paths, had some pop in the low minors, and could play all infield and outfield positions at an above average rate.  

I picked up this Hope parallel (one of the greatest looking parallels ever made for Flagship) of Chase d'Arnaud back in March.  It cost me $17 delivered, which is a bit expensive for a guy with a triple slash line of .222/.273/.316 and a -0.7WAR but I will always remember Chase for his kindness while in the minors and for giving Pirates fans HOPE (pun intended) of a brighter future

Chase wasn't part of any of the Pirates postseason rosters, but he was fun to watch play and especially run the bases.

Chase currently has a YouTube that he updates with songs (he's a guitarist and singer) and gives some insight to behind the scenes for baseball players.

You can check out Chase's YouTube channel here.

His last game played was for the Giants in 2018 after a career that spanded 7 seasons of "taxi squadding" between the majors and minors.

The Pirates are now loaded with prospects at the SS position in addition to guys like Kevin Newman, Cole Tucker, and Hoy Jun Park at the major league level.  Who is the Pirates shortstop of the future?  I'm not sure who their shortstop is now.  

Let's take it one day at a time...

What forgotten players have you bought cards of recently?    

This Day in Cutchstory: Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there reading this!!!

Today's card is the 2011 Bowman Chrome blue parallel.

I chose this card because it features an image of Cutch wearing the blue wristbands from a Father's Day game played in 2010 against the Cleveland Indians.  

Coincidently Father's Day in 2010 was also on June 20th.  

The Pirates defeated the Cleveland Indians 5-3 at PNC Park.  Cutch scored the go ahead run in the 8th inning when he walked to lead off the inning and came around to score on a Pedro Alvarez sacrifice fly.  

At the plate, Cutch went 0 for 3 with a walk, run scored, and RBI.  

He finished the day with his triple slash line being .315/.392/.479.  It's a shame that Evan Meek was the Pirates lone representative at the 2010 All Star Game and that Cutch was snubbed from the game. 

Showing some brotherly (g)love

Today is my brother's birthday.  He is my best friend and I just wanted to take a moment to wish him a very Happy Birthday.

I am fairly certain that he got this card for me almost 10 years ago as a Christmas present as it was staged away with a bunch of vintage Pirates cards I know he got me for Christmas back in 2011 or 2012.

At the time I didn't have anywhere close to the Cutch collection I have now.  That was mostly due to the fact that Topps wasn't creating parallels of parallels in the early 2010s and they weren't having a new release every other week like the company does now. 

Whether or not he actually got me this card, there were a pair of 1/1s that he won for me from 2005 Bowman Heritage.  I wrote about them back in January 2018. 

Happy Birthday Kevin!!!

Above is a picture from almost a decade ago (July 2012) when I took him to his first trip to PNC Park (he has since gone back a few times on his own).  

He roots for all Florida teams (Jaguars, Magic, Rays/Marlins, Lightning) like I root for all Pittsburgh teams.  Neither of us are from Florida or Pittsburgh.  We are a strange pair of local oddballs. 

Missing The Target

In case you weren't already aware, Target has pulled their MLB, NFL, NBA, and Pokemon cards from shelves effective May 14th due to an altercation that occurred with trading cards.  Several young men were arrested and a hand gun was pulled (no shots fired) in a Target parking lot. OVER TRADING CARDS!!!!????

The pandemic caused a huge boom to the sports card industry and many saw the "lottery tickets" that could result in hitting key cards sold in packs as a side hustle and way to get rich quick.  It has left many retail places with empty shelves for trading cards, action figures, and other collectible markets for well over a year.

It is entirely possible that as things begin to open up and mandates become looser that normalcy returns and eventually trading cards prices stabilize, but I think the bubble is still very real for a few more years.  

Target is known to offer exclusive products over the years and we have seen demand for those products only rise over time.  

Beginning in 2011 Topps Update, Topps began offering exclusive red parallel cards in Target packs.  These red border parallel cards can fetch huge money now of the rookies.  Even some of the stars from that release from a decade ago can fetch larger dollars up to the original price of the blaster boxes they came in. 

The McCutchen 2011 Topps Update red border is a card I've coveted for nearly a decade. 

I recently picked up one of those exclusives and couldn't hit the buy-it-now fast enough. 

The red border Target exclusive from 2011 Topps Update has eluded me and I even missed out on an auction for one last year.  It's an iconic set.  It's a popular parallel exclusive to chase after.

And I bought it for $4 B-I-N

Time to cross that one off the list. 

One card I unfortunately can't cross off and fear the prices will skyrocket now due to (even) less product being available for sale is the 2021 Topps Heritage red border exclusive of Andrew McCutchen.

I regrettably missed putting in a sniper bid and lost an eBay auction and the only one that was listed on COMC.com sold VERY QUICKLY upon being listed.

I know it's a long stretch, but if anyone gets a red border Target exclusive from 2021 Topps Heritage of Cutch please let me know.  I am very interested in adding this to my collection.

Do you think 2021 Target exclusive cards will hold more value in the future with many products being pulled from shelves this year? 

Hammer Time

I'm shocked there wasn't a comment about the main image used in yesterday's post.  Congrats on being classy!  Well, as promised I am going to carry on with a string of 7 days of Irish inspired posts as we count down to St. Patrick's Day.

Today I will look at a teammate of Andrew McCutchen who had a very Irish last name.

Joel Hanrahan is today's subject.

Joel is pictured on the ticket stub above, which is a stub from Andrew McCutchen's 64th career Home Run. 

While I don't know what Joel's actual ancestry is, we do know (by way of a quick google search) that the last name Hanrahan is common for Irish descendants and comes from the word anradhan which is an old Irish word for warrior. 

Joel Hanrahan, while his career was short, was certainly a warrior.  

Joel was drafted in the 2nd round of the 2000 draft by the Los Angeles Dodgers out of Norwalk High School and began his career as a starting pitcher.  He pitched in the Dodgers farm system for 6 season before becoming a minor league free agent and signed with the Washington Nationals, where he eventually made his debut on July 28, 2007 against the New York Mets.  He pitched 6 innings, struck out 7, got a triple at the plate in his first MLB at bat, but did not factor into the winning decision of the game.  He continued to start for the rest of the season going 5-3 with a 6.00 ERA.

The next season the Nationals moved him to the bullpen and he eventually became the team's closer notching 9 saves for the worse team in baseball, Washington Nationals.  

In 2009 he was traded along with Lastings Milledge to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Nyjer Morgan and Sean Burnett.  Both the Pirates and Nationals were near the bottom of the standings in their divisions and both teams seemed to have moved on from prospects in hopes of the commonly referred to term "new team, new results" outlook.  

It was in Pittsburgh that Joel reached his potential.  Used primarily as a set up man for the Pirates in 2010, he helped lay a foundation for the Pirates newly improved bullpen approach to shorten games.  He finished second in team strikeouts in 2010 (only a few behind starter Paul Maholm) and struck out 100 batters in only 69 innings.  

The next season, Hanrahan was named the closer and would go on to save 40 games, a 1.83ERA and make his first All-Star appearance.  

In 2012 Hanrahan would make the midsummer classic again when he lead all NL relievers in saves and the Pittsburgh Pirates were winning their division at the break.  

He was traded to Boston in 2013 along with Brock Holt for Mark Melancon and a few prospects where injuries eventually ended his career. 

Nicknamed the Hammer, he finished his Pirates career 7th all time on the Pirates Saves leader board (he was 5th at the time of the trade) despite appearing in only 3.5 seasons with the Buccos. 

He currently serves as a pitching coach in the Pirates minor leagues. 

Above are the Pirates 2012 All Star Game representatives. (Hammer, Cutch, Hurdle)

The Pirates 2011 All Star Game representatives (Hammer, Cutch, and Kevin Correia)

Joel signed this ball for me at a spring training game in 2012

I always loved silver ink on black cards. 

A jumbo patch from Museum Collection

A piece of the Jolly Roger 

That image of the big goatee Hanrahan pitching reminds me of a team I had so much fun rooting for specially when he was closing out games. 

What are some famous Irish names you can think of that may be baseball related?

Do you have any other suggestions for counting down to St Patrick's Day.

The COMC Pirates Package

I recently received a package in the mail containing over 100 cards for my player collections of Andrew McCutchen, Gary Sheffield, and various Pirates players I like to collect. 

While the package arrived in 2021, I am not going to count it towards my 50 card goal because they were all purchased in 2020.  It is only because of COMCs slow shipping that forced me to receive the cards many months after requesting shipment.

Let's dive into some of the highlights of the package...

This card is extremely difficult to find.  

And I mean extremely difficult.

If you travel with me into the way back machine to 2011, the hobby wasn't as strong as it is now.  

Not only could you find retail packs at retail establishments, but many collectors were doing just that...collecting.

Topps wasn't producing factory sets with multiple parallels encouraging people to open their retail factory sets.  Granted there was 1 (yes only 1) pack inside every sealed factory set containing a handful of cards with a unique color border parallel.  

These were often red or orange.  

Trying to find one of these 10 years later of your player?  Good luck!

They are numbered to 245 copies on the back and I suspect many of them are still sealed away in factory sets.

So remember what I just said about 2011 Topps Factory red parallels?

The same is even harder for the 2010 Factory red parallels.

There is another McCutchen that has been looking for one of these for a few years.  I'm hoping to use this as trade bait to help me acquire a card of his that I have been after.

If you've followed the blog for a bit, you probably know that I love the 2015 Topps Strata set.  It is the first set that Topps produced featuring an MLB authenticated sticker on every relic used in the set.  My goal is to collect as many of these of possible.  I added 3 more of the plain grey swatches to the collection.

They will go nicely with all these patches I already had from the set

Next up is a 2016 Optic Teal parallel numbered to 50 copies.  This helps get me closer to completing this rainbow.

Speaking of 2016, here is a 2016 Diamond Kings silver Artist Proof.  It's not numbered, but rare to come across 5 years later.  I really like the design of this year's Diamond Kings release.

This 2016 Bowman Platinum would be a perfect card to show off next month for St. Patrick's Day.  The green parallel, numbered to only 99 copies, really pops in the background.

Here is a card I was surprised I didn't have.  It's a 2013 Topps Heritage Chrome Refractor.  I have the black Refractor, the base chrome, and the purple chrome, but never got the refractor...until now. It's numbered to only 564 copies and is based on the 1964 Topps design.

Ok. This one is kind of a cheating card.  It features Cutch in a Pittsburgh uniform, but is from 2018.  Cutch was traded prior to the start of the 2018 season and this technically doesn't count as a Pirates playing days card because he didn't play for them in 2018.

What do you think?  Should a 2018 card that features Cutch playing for the Pirates count as a Pirates playing days card even though his last game played was for the Bucs in 2017?

Here is the first Panini relic card I picked up that I needed.  I've shown the dual relic off of this card, but not the single relic.  It's from 2014 and is a nice designed card.

Here is one of those cards that I knew existed, but a few things prevented me from adding this to my collection over the past decade:

It is a Topps Heritage card so Master Set collectors are always looking for this.

It is a rare card (only 62 copies) from a set 10 years old.

It features the Baltimore Orioles, who in my eyes have a very loyal collecting fan base.

It features a former MVP in his early career.

It is a stamp set so there are stamp collectors who also collect things like this.

What an awesome looking card.

And to finish up its another pajama party card.  Despite no logos, this early Donruss release is a much needed Press Proof parallel.  The silver proof is numbered to only 199 copies.

That wraps up my Cutch Pirates cards from my COMC pickups from the 2nd half of 2020 (except one notable card).  I'll show off some others in the future.  They will include my Giants, Yankees, and Phillies Cutch pickups. 

The Hunt(er) For Reds This December

Quick!

What is the most famous baseball set of the past 10 years?

If you said, 2011 Topps Update you likely have been paying attention to the set that has some very expensive rookie cards like Mike Trout, Paul Goldschmidt, Jose Altuve, DJ LeMahieu, and many more.

I'm not interested in those though.  I am interested in one card in particular.

A Jay Bruce All-Star card?

As a Pirates fan, don't I hate the Reds?

Yup!!!

But this card not only has Hunter Pence, one of my favorite baseball personalities of the past decade, it also has an Andrew McCutchen cameo on the right.  

So if you thought that you're boxes of 2011 Topps Update couldn't yield anymore goodness, please take them out and look at them.  If you have any parallels of this card I am very interested.

I am looking for all parallels of this card.  Cognac, Silver Anniversary, Black, WalMart Blues, printing plates, Hope Diamonds, and most importantly Target Reds.  

Did you ever discover a card nearly a decade after it's printing that had a cameo on it of a favorite player of yours? 

I Know My Calculus

Last week I put out a challenge to see if anyone could come up with a PG13 subject and try to stump me from associating it to an Andrew McCutchen collectible in my collection.  I entered all the suggestions into random.org list randomizer and atop was calculus.

If you watched MTV in the early 2000s you may remember a fake boy band called 2ge+her which had a "hit song" Calculus.  That song tried to simplify the term Calculus by saying "I know my Calculus cause you plus me equals us".  While that could be considered a calculation, calculus is just a bit more complex than that.

Calculus is a mathematical understanding of changing values that relate to a function.  It is because of this that sabermetric stats use a form of calculus to look at different values of baseball.

Baseball cards as we know them in their current Topps format began with 1952 Topps.  

We are all familar with the design as Topps has used it many times over the decades since it's original release.

This is the black diamond parallel insert from 2011.

The back perfectly captures the original card backs and statistics shared.  Pretty simple calculations for hitting and fielding.  

Things changed in 2015 when Topps began to insert different card backs known as sabermetric backs.

The card fronts looked identical to a normal base card, but the card backs began to spotlight different statistics not normally on card backs.

These included stats like Onbase Plus Slugging, isolated power, weighted runs created, Wins Above Replacement, and percentage of walking or striking out.

These stats have become common talk among "newer" fans of the game who look at statistics beyond just batting average and Runs Batted In.

Topps took it to another step in 2020 when they released their sabermetric parallels that were serially numbered on back to 300 copies.

These statistics use the Statcast program at MLB stadiums to track a player's approach at the plate.  It looks at how many times the player barreled up a ball (regardless of outcome), % of hard hit balls (regardless of outcome), exit velocity, among some others.  These help to capture how well the player is approaching a pitch.  A barreled up line drive to an outfielder may result in an out, but a lil dabbled swinging bunt between the pitcher and third base may result in a hit.  Obviously it's betyer to get on base, but the player who hit the scorcher had the better approach at the plate.

As you can see on the card back, Cutch is still way above league average in many of these categories.  Remember he got injured early June 2019 and missed essentially 4 months of the season due to a torn ACL.

So there you go, a changing value of using integers to calculate a player's worth.  Sounds similar to calculus to me, so I guess I passed this exam.