A Look Back to The Future

Turn on those flex compacitors and travel with me at a fast speed of 88mph cause we are going Back To The Future.

I've mentioned Back To The Future a few times on this blog before. Here. Here. Here.

Let's look back at what the future of the Pirates had to offer.

The Pirates transitioned out of their former management group in 2007 and hired Neal Huntington to be their General Manager for a rebuild in 2008.

The Pirates hadn't had a winning record since 1992, the last year they would make the playoffs too.

The team was focusing on drafting and developing their own players.

Their four previous draft picks prior to Huntington taking over were

(2004) Neil Walker, a switch hitting local product High School catcher in 2004.  He would later be turned into a utility player before settling in as a Silver Slugger second baseman.  He played in the majors with the Pirates from 2009 until 2015.  He was traded prior to the start of the 2016 season for Jon Norse.

(2005) Andrew McCutchen, a toolsy quick handed outfielder from high school in 2005.  He became the face of the franchise of the resurgent years for the Pirates.  He made 5 All-Star teams, won an MVP, won a Gold Glove award, 4 Silver Sluggers, and was the 2015 Roberto Clemente Award recipient for his charitable contributions and work with the community.  He will forever be an All-time Pirates great despite playing with the team for only 2009-2017.

(2006) Brad Lincoln, arguably one of the top college pitchers in the 2006 draft.  He made his debut with the team in 2010 after having multiple injuries in the minor leagues.  He started 22 games for the Pirates from 2010 to 2012 when he was eventually converted to a reliever.  Lincoln thrived in the bullpen for the Pirates that season, appearing as a late inning guy with a K/9 over 10 and an ERA under 2.25.  He was traded to Toronto for Travis Snider.  Pirates fans will forever be upset that Lincoln was selected in front of former Cy Young Winners Clayton Kershaw, Tim Lincecum, and Max Scherzer.

(2007) Daniel Moskos, a lefty college arm that the team thought could impact immediately at the professional levels in 2007.  This is arguably one of the most controversial picks in the history of the franchise because Matt Wieters, one of the most coveted catchers in recent memory, was available.

Just Minors is known to have produced A LOT of pairings of autograph subjects for minor league prospects.

This is just one of a dozen printing plates I have of Andrew McCutchen from a Just Minors product.  This pairing features Cutch, Jose Tabata, and Brad Lincoln.

COMC Pickups

I got a package last month containing about 40 cards from my latest COMC pickups.  Among them were half a dozen pink cards that I will show off for my SaveSecondBase event in October along with nearly two dozen Roberto Clemente cards and a smattering of other PC needs.  I won't show everything below, but here is a sample of my pickups.

First up the Cutch cards

The Triple Threads were a trio of needs I hadn't yet acquired.  The star of the show for me is the diecut Pinnacle.  These although relatively inexpensive are incredibly difficult to find. I have only seen a handful since release in 2013 appear on COMC or eBay.  The Gold Optic is numbered to 10. The blue diecut I featured a few weeks back.

Now the non Cutch cards

Everyone probably knows I also PC Charlie Morton because of his birthplace being the same as mine.   I picked up 3 2018 Topps Fire parallels along with an All-Star Game relic numbered to 50.

I also like to collect Pirates Topps Heritage cards.  So I grabbed a black refractor rookie cup of Jose Tabata, a real one authentic Vern Law auto, and a pair of Heritage buybacks (1962 team photo and a 1968 Matty Alou)

And now for some of the Clemente cards, of which I have shown some off already on Chasing 3000.

I don't care if you're ugly, you're beautiful to me

Ever since Cutch's down year last year, people have been unloading his Just Minors autographs for pennies on the dollar.

And I am snatching them up like women after a clearance sale of LulaRoe (if any of you have significant others that buy LulaRoe you know exactly what I am talking about).

You may recall I grabbed a dual TriStar autograph of Cutch and Jason Heyward for under $8.  The auto had a Just Minors autograph on one side.

I've gotten some others as you may recall from my Biogenesis post.

This one may be my greatest coup though.

An uncirculated triple autograph of former top prospects Brad Lincoln and Jose Tabata.  This "beauty" is numbered to only 5 copies.  It ran me $20 shipped.

While it doesn't hold the same prestige as some of my other Just Minors combo autographs (Hamels, Price, Miller, Gonzalez) it has a lot of fond memories of rooting for the Pirates during the 2010 and 2011 seasons.

The Pirates under new GM Neal Huntington were pushing for a youth movement.  Fan favorites Freddy Sanchez, Jason Bay, Jack Wilson, and Tom Gorzelanny were all shipped out in 2009.  The Pirates had just called up Clutch in June 2009 and were hoping to see Jose Tabata, Brad Lincoln, and Pedro Alvarez graduate to the majors in 2010.  They all did.

Jose Tabata and Brad Lincoln both debuted together, the day after rookie phenom pitcher Stephen Strasburg mowed down 14 Pirates hitters in his 7 inning debut.

Tabata singled in his first at bat and looked like he would be the leadoff hitter of the future for the Pirates.  They quickly signed him to a long term deal, which has not worked out for the team.

Lincoln had ups and downs, but really came into his own as a relief pitcher.  He looked like he could one day be a future closer, but at the 2012 Trade Deadline he was traded for former Blue Jays top prospect, Travis Snider.  Lincoln fell apart with Toronto and would try to catch on with the struggling Phillies.

Like Tabata, Lincoln hasn't appeared in the majors since 2015.

P > E

Back when I got my first job I had to wear a full length apron with the symbols and letters "P > E".  It stood for Performance is greater than Expectation.  It was drilled into our heads that if you expect to do great things you will.  It was also said that if you expect to fail, you will fail.

During Cutch's sophomore year, Bowman released an insert set called Bowman Expectations.  It paired prospects with rising stars.  Former 1st Round Draft Pick Tony Sanchez was paired with then rising catcher star Brian McCann.  There was also a card that paired Jose Tabata with Andrew McCutchen.

Cutch got the front

And Tabata got the back

Let's look at how their careers turned out.

Andrew McCutchen was a former 1st round draft pick out of high school. By his 21st birthday he was one of the game's top prospects in all baseball (12th overall).  Since his MLB debut at the age of 22 he has posted a WAR of 37.6 (one of the top 10 in MLB since debut).  He has won an MVP, Gold Glove Award, Roberto Clemente Award, 5 All-Star Appearances, 4 Silver Sluggers, and became the face of a franchise.  Cutch will have a team option at the end of this year and could join the over crowded Free Agent class of 2018.

Jose Tabata was a highly regarded prospect in the Yankees System (2nd overall) and by his 20th birthday was a Top 100 prospect in baseball.  He made his MLB debut at age 21 and in only 5 MLB seasons has amassed a WAR of only 1.8.  Never developing the power that was EXPECTING to come as he matured he has only 17 career HRs.  Used primarily as a pinch hitter and platoon player by his age 24 season, Tabata is now earning $5M in the Blue Jays minor league system and won't become a Free Agent until 2019.


Based on the P>E model I would say that Cutch performed greater than expectations while Tabata has failed to meet his expectations.