The Team That Changed The Game

On September 1st, 1971 the Pittsburgh Pirates sent out a roster comprised entirely of non white players.  It was the first time a MLB team had a starting lineup of such ethnicity.

To celebrate that incredible time in our history I thought it would be fun to look at a Pirates All Time lineup consisting of only black and latin players.  

I will be using each of the 9 traditional positions along with a utility player, a 4th outfielder, DH, some extra bats, and a few extra arms to use in the bullpen. 

3rd Base

Bill Madlock

Madlock won two batting titles for the Pirates and was a key part of the 1979 World Series Champion team.  He can play both 2B and 3B.

Left Field

Barry Bonds

Before Barry was the *All Time Home Run King, he was hitting leadoff for the Pittsburgh Pirates and was a true power/speed athlete becoming just the second member of the 40/40 club in the history of the game.  His .380 OBP (Pirates years only) combined with the speed and power make him a perfect match for the number 2 hitter in the lineup.

Right Field

Roberto Clemente

The Pirates All Time hit leader, finished his career with exactly 3,000 hits and a .317 batting average

1st Base

Willie Stargell

The Pirates All Time Home Run Champ finished his Pirates career with 475 HR and 1,540 RBI.  Pops is a perfect fit for knocking in the guys on base ahead of him in.

DH

Bobby Bonilla

I really didn't know who to play at 3rd and who to make the team's DH.  Bonilla is still earning a paycheck from the Mets so if he's still collecting a paycheck from a MLB team, I'm putting him in the field, albeit at the DH spot. His pop is loud enough to protect Willie from the 5th spot.

Centerfield

Andrew McCutchen

Cutch has batted leadoff for every team he has played for.  He had developed into a more of the middle of the lineup threat after his first two seasons, and it certainly wouldn't hurt to put a run on the board early in the game with his 203 Pirates HRs ranking 4th all time in Pirates franchise history had I chosen to bat him leadoff, but one of his best months of his career occurred in June 2017 when he was named player of the month and batted predominately from the 6 hole, a lineup spot he has also batted for Team USA and the Phillies. 

Catcher

Manny Sanguillen

Manny was a pretty good hitter and was a part of two World Series teams with the Pirates.  Besides one season in Oakland, Sangy played his entire career with the Pirates. He made 3 All Star teams and finished his Pirates career with a .299 batting average. 

2nd Base

Josh Harrison

For an undersized player and a prospect that was a throw in from the Cubs for John Grabow, the man known as JHay was a spark plug for the success of the mid 2010s Pirates teams.  He served on two All Star teams and played a multiple of positions for the Pirates as they reached the postseason three consecutive years.

Shortstop

Rennie Stennet

There just wasn't many options for this team at Shortstop.  

Pitcher

Bob Veale

From 1964-1966, Veale struck out 755 batters.

Bench Bats

Pedro Alvarez

Pedro didn't have a very long career despite being the second overall pick in the 2008 MLB Draft.  He won a Silver Slugger in 2013 and participated in the All Star Game that same season when he won the National League Home Run title.  He hit 131 HR in Pittsburgh and become the first player in MLB history to collect an RBI in each of their first 6 postseason games.  He likely will be used as a pinch hitter on this squad of a HR is needed.

Dave Parker

The Cobra will serve as the team's 4th outfielder and has won an MVP, batting title, and possesses an absolute cannon for an arm in the outfield.  He could be a late inning defensive substitute or a clutch hitting pinch hitter.

Al Oliver

This borderline Hall of Famer is one of the most underrated hitters of the 1970s.  Oliver can play all three outfield positions and 1st Base

Tony Pena

A criminally underrated catcher in his day, Pena could serve as backup to Sanguillen.

Starling Marte

Marte has developed into a prime five tool athlete.  He is one of the best defensive outfielders in the game even in his 30s and can still swipe up to 20 bags a year while hitting .270+ and providing double digit homerun totals.  He won't walk much, but once on the bases he is a dangerous threat.

Cole Tucker

Ok, he hasn't lived up to what made him a number one draft pick, but I am a huge fan of Cole Tucker.  He is a super fan friendly player and heck...hes dating Vanessa Hudgens so let's give a reason to allow her to come to PNC Park more often.  He could play 2B, SS, 3B, and any of the outfield positions.

Pitchers

Dock Ellis

He threw a no hitter on LSD and was the pitcher on the mound for that legendary September 1st 1971 game.

Francisco Liriano

Liriano pitched the most important game in the history of PNC Park when he got the winning decision of the "Blackout Game", the 2013 Wild Card Game.  It was the first time the Pirates were in the post season for over 2 decades and the first time PNC Park hosted a postseason game.  Over his 5 year Pirates career, Liriano had a 9.4K/9 and a 3.65 ERA.  His last season with the Pirates was strictly out of the bullpen, but his previous four were as a front of the rotation starter.  He won the 2013 Comeback Player of the Year.

John Candaleria

The Candy Man has served as a long man and starting pitcher for the Pirates. 

He who shall not be named

Nicknamed, the Nightmare, this man is currently serving a four year prison sentence for crimes he committed while a member of the Pirates.  He made a couple All Star Games and was one of the best relief pitchers in the game, collecting 86 saves over 3 years as the primary closer and having an 11.8K/9 rate.  This doesn't ignore the fact that he is a terrible human being and I hope to never discuss his name on this blog again.

How do you think this team would compete versus other team's all time non white teams?

Could the Steel City take on teams like the Giants or A's, both teams very rich in black and Latino talents? 

I challenge other bloggers to celebrate the 50th anniversary of this culture changing game by creating their favorite team's lineup using only Black and Latino players.

Rediscovering The Hobby Fun

So I did a thing while still (temporarily) living with the in laws.

I dug out some of my boxes of Cutch cards that I never scanned or sorted or entered into my spreadsheet.

This is just one of the five boxes of relics, autos, printing plates, and manufactured relics boxes I have to go through.

I am certain that there will be cards in here that I forgot about and I am certain I will find cards that I scanned but never entered into my spreadsheet and vice versa. 

I found so many awesome cards just hanging out in these boxes.

My goal is to knock out one of these boxes every ten days to sort, enter into my spreadsheet, and maybe even find some gems to blog about.

One card that caught my eye was this 2015 Topps silver frame league leaders card.

The 2015 silver frame cards were limited to only 20 copies and followed the success of the 2014 Topps Gold Label framed inserts.

The fronts and backs are identical to the standard base card, but they have a very heavy and sturdy silver frame outlining the card along with a serial number marking on the front of the card.

If you were playing NL Batting Title Bingo at the begining of the season and you had Ben Revere, Jonathan Lucroy, Josh Harrison, Denard Span, and Jayson Werth you just might have won.  

It's always fun to look back at some of the stat leaders and who were the guys you wouldn't expect to be in competition for that stat leader.

Cutch finished third in the batting title race in 2014 behind teammate Josh Harrison and former teammate Justin Morneau.

I thought it would be fun to look back at that 2014 batting title race between three guys who finished the 2013 season with the Pirates.

By the rules to qualify for a batting title, a player must have 3.1 at bats per game in a 162 game season.  This equates to 502 at bats to qualify for a batting title in a standard season.

Coincidently Justin Morneau had exactly 502 at bats in the 2014 Season and played in only 135 games.  On September 26th, Justin Morneau had his 501st at bat of the season and was substituted out of the game after a 2 for 3 performance at the plate and raising his average to .319.  The 4th place Rockies chose not to play Morneau in the second to last game of the season and would use him as a pinch hitter in the 7th inning to close out the season.  He got out, but kept his batting average at .319 if you round it up from it's original .318725 mark.  This pinch hit at bat on the final game of the season gave Morneau the opportunity to clinch a batting title.  If he had walked or gotten injured before completing this pinch hit at bat, Morneau would not have qualified for the batting title and the Rockies who finished the season with a 66-96 record would have one less thing to celebrate in a pretty forgettable season.

The Pittsburgh Pirates were battling for their second straight postseason push and were within a few games reach of winning the division heading into the final week.  

The Pirates had to play their stars to continue to make the push for their best shot at the postseason.  

In the final four games of the season, Cutch went 4 for 12 with an additional 4 walks.  Had Cutch gotten 3 more hits over the course of the season while maintaining his 548 at bats, Cutch would have won the batting title with a .319343 mark.  

The last Pirates player to win a batting title was Freddy Sanchez in 2006.  

Do you remember these silver frame parallels?

Who was the last player on your favorite team to win a batting title?

Miggy, Miggy, Miggy can't you see...

500 career home runs!

Congrats Miggy!

Which active players do you think will one day join the 500 HR club?

Super Collectors Helping Out

By large I consider myself a player collector more than anything else when it comes to this hobby.  I feel like I have always been a "player collector" since taking up hobbies as an adult.

I've talked before about my collections I have had over the years from 80s toys to comics to sports cards.  

In looking back though I was always a player collector and super collector in the mindset.

The weird thing is I was never invested in the upper tier of collecting.

When I was collecting 80s toys I was focused on Voltron and Thundercats.  Neither of those toy lines had the sports player mindset, but I was obsessed with getting everything that had Voltron on it.  If it had 5 robot lions on some licensed merchandise I needed it for my collection.  Children sneakers in size 3?  Yup I was buying them.  Pencil pouches and folders for my school supplies at age 25?  Yup...I needed them.  

Voltron and Thundercats both had loyal fan bases, but they fall into the second tier of great 80s cartoons behind things like Transformers, G.I. Joe, Masters of the Universe, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Fast forward to my comic book collections.  Growing up my introduction to comic books was the 1992 X-Men cartoon and my two favorite characters were the mutant couple Gambit & Rogue.  Once I got into reading comic books I was hooked on the Flash and Daredevil.  I began buying every comic that featured those characters.

Again, great characters but definitely not top tier like Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Hulk, or Wolverine. 

In 2005 I attended a baseball game for the first time in a decade and decided I was going to root for the Pittsburgh Pirates and began following the career of that year's draft pick, Andrew McCutchen.

For a three year run, many could argue that Cutch was top tier in the league as he was basically the National League version of Mike Trout.  Unfortunately he didn't sustain that level of success for decades like some of the all time greats like Pujols, Jeter, Griffey, etc.

My Cutch collection has been my longest tenured collection in any hobby I have ever been a part of.  It has outlasted everything I ever collected and in the span of over a decade and half of collecting his cards I have made some pretty awesome online friends because of the collection.  

About a month ago I received an awesome random act of kindness from another player collector via Twitter.  

As many of you may be aware Blake Jamieson kicked off his Project 70 checklist with a Cutch card.  Well dmoose8 on Twitter received a signed black ink (not numbered) autograph from Blake and he chose to send it to me.  I've had a few interactions with him and his dad on Twitter over the years.  He collects Erik Moustakas cards to the supercollector level and his dad has a fully finished Man Cave of Steal dedicated to Rickey Henderson.

This hobby is awesome!

I love seeing these super collections and being known for my Cutch collection.

Don't be a poser! Set your milestones another night...aka Congrats Joey Votto...aka good luck tonight Miggy

I was really hoping that Miguel Cabrera would hit his 500th HR last night so I could show off some of my Andrew McCutchen and Joey Votto/Miguel Cabrera cards.

I have shown off my relic collection of Joey Votto when I discussed Players I shouldn't root for, but I do.  That post is 3 years old and I have added a very nice parallel to the card you see above to my collection.

Joey Votto hit his 2,000 career hit last night at the age of 37.  It is unlikely that he will get to 3,000 but he could be a favorite for MVP this year especially if the Reds make the playoffs.

I will save the Cutch/Miggy/Votto cards for another day, but here is an uncut sheet of Allen & Ginter minis from the Topps Vault that features Andrew McCutchen, Joey Votto, 

Max Poser set a record prior to 2010 for longest spiral of dominos to be toppled over (450 meters) and the most dominos stacked on a single domino (1,002).

With the 2,000 hits for Votto out of the way the dominos are set for more milestones of these 3 players to come to fruition tonight.

I predict Cutch will get to 1,800 career hits tonight and/or Miggy will get his 500th career homerun.

Let's see if I can predict the future again like I did back in 2017 when I declared Charlie Morton would be standing on the mound in Game 7 of the World Series for an Astros victory.

Mini Monday: Feeling blue

I have been purging a lot of my non McCutchen cards lately.  In a way it's awesome because I am selling things that don't spark a general interest in why I collect, but it also has really made me realize that I have way too many cards in my collection.

Thousands of cards exist in my collection that I just don't have a connection with anymore.  Worse of all many of them aren't worth a lot of money.  How many Evan Meek and Ian Snell cards do you have in your collection?  I have too many.

I have never sold my cards via COMC, I've only ever bought using the site.  

Have you had any luck with it? What's the process like?  

I've considered listing lots of Pirates autographs for $10 on eBay but the shipping might scare people away.

What are some suggestions you have for selling off a collection of mostly $1-$5 autos of former Pirates? I'm talking about guys that aren't active and were never big stars.  Guys like Ian Snell, Paul Maholm, Chris Duffy, Jose Tabata...

I really appreciate any help you guys can provide.

The cards I'm not worried about selling are my McCutchen PC because quite frankly, it's not going anywhere.  

The blue on this 2016 Topps Mini really pops in the background, I just have terrible lighting at the in laws house.

The blue Topps Minis were limited to only 10 copies.

Pretty cool company that Cutch put himself in when he was the first Pirate to go to the All Star game 5 consecutive years since Roberto Clemente.  If it weren't for an All Star snub in 2010, he would have represented the Pirates six straight years.  

Unfortunately Evan Meek was that year's representative.  Oh Evan Meek, you were a great middle reliever for one season.  Why did I buy so many of your cards?

Who needs Evan Meek autographs?

Excited for the future!!!!

In case you missed it, the Pirates had the number 1 draft pick this year.  Many people who cover the draft thought that Jack Leiter (Al Leiter's son) or Marcelo Mayer would go number 1 overall.  The Pirates instead chose to select Henry Davis, a college catcher. 

Davis signed quickly and underslot so the team could sign some more elite high ceiling players in the later rounds.  The Pirates were able to draft 4 of the top 35 ranked prospects in their first four rounds and they signed all of them.  It was an amazing job by new General Manager Ben Cherington and his team.

Henry Davis has quickly impressed fans by already receiving a promotion to High A ball.  

In just a few games in low A, Davis was slashing .429/.429/1.143 which is good for a 1.572 OPS and a 284wRC+

He hit 2 doubles and a home run in only 7 games.

This quickly earned him the promotion to High A and he shined in that debut too going 1 for 3 with a walk and triple.  

The Greensboro Grasshoppers, the Pirates high A affiliate is loaded with top 100 prospects. 

Quinn Prister, the Pirates number 2 prospect, and first round draft pick in 2019 threw 7 scoreless innings while striking out 10 on Friday.  He has a 2.80 ERA over his 23 minor league starts.

Nick Gonzalez, the Pirates first round draft pick in 2020, is continuing to recover from an earlier season injury but has come on hot lately going 4 for 5 yesterday. 

Liover Peguero, a shortstop acquired in the Starling Marte trade, is a top 100 prospect and the best defensive shortstop in the organization.  

Lolo Sanchez continues to swipe bags at a good rate, now sitting at the quarter century mark.

I am excited for the Pirates in the next 3 years.  

It reminds me of when the Pirates tore the whole thing down in 2008.

Gone were the days of wasted draft picks like Bryan Bullington.  Yes, the Pirates chose Bryan Bullington as the number 1 draft pick and former GM stated after the draft that they saw Bullington as someone who could be a back of the rotation starter.

You don't use the number 1 pick for that!!!!

Zack Greinke, Cole Hamels, Matt Cain, Scott Kazmir, and Prince Fielder were all first round picks that year. Uggghhh.

Other notable early selections were Joey Votto, Jon Lester, Brian McCann, Charlie Morton, Rich Hill, Curtis Granderson, and Josh Johnson.

To say the Pirates botched the 2003 draft would be an understatement.  I don't think they botched this draft in 2021.

I am excited for it!!!

I did find this old program with Bryan Bullington on the front.

And of course it had an article about Andrew McCutchen in it.  I am always looking for more magazines with Cutch in it.

Do you display your magazines or keep them in boxes?