The Cole Train Keeps Chugging Along

Last night, Gerrit Cole made history when he struck out Shin Soo Choo for his 300 punchout of the year.  That makes him the 18th pitcher in MLB history to accomplish the feat.

I have about 50 autographs of Gerrit Cole and probably an equal amount of relics.

Below (in no particular order) I will show my 18 favorite Gerrit Cole autographs or relic cards.

Here are some of my favorites with Cutch

 

And here are some of my favorites with just Cole

And here are some others

Honorable Mention:
This 1/1 featuring a Josh Harrison Postseason patch

New Teammate Pairings

Andrew McCutchen has been the leadoff hitter since arriving in Philadelphia. Batting behind him is a two time All-Star and the 2016 National League hits leader, Jean Segura.  Segura has bounced around since making his MLB debut in 2012 with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.  He was a key part of the Zack Greinke trade where he went to Milwaukee and flourished as a table setter for a retooling Brewers lineup. 

He was then traded to the Diamondbacks for Aaron Hill and Chase Anderson prior to the 2016 season.  In Arizona he became a hit machine and lead the National League in hits that year.  

Following the 2016 season Segura and Mitch Haniger were traded for Ketel Marte and Taijuan Walker.  

After two seasons and another All-Star appearance, Segura was again traded for a prospect package...this time to Philadelphia.

Above is my only card I have of Cutch with his new teammate, Jean Segura, listed.  It is a 1967 Punch out Box Topper found in 2016 Heritage.

 Today is the last day to post for my contest, so if you want to get a last minute entry in before tomorrow's  before sure to leave a comment here.

Thanks For The Memories

With Fall Out Boy playing in the background it is with deep regret that I must pass on the news that Gerrit Cole has been traded to the defending World Series Champions, Houston Astros.

Gerrit signified an important time for Pirates fans.  They weren't going to shy away from taking the best talent available in the amateur draft.  They were going to be committed to their plan and building around a young core to bring the Pirates back to the post season.  They were going to finally get an ace level pitcher.

Cole debuted in 2013 after two years in the minors.  He was part of the team that broke the 20 year losing streak.  He was handed the ball in Game 5 of the ALDS that same year and the 2015 Wild Card Game.  He was meant to be the pitcher we could rely on when it mattered most.

Ultimately the Pirates were unable to advance far into the post season in 2013, 2014, and 2015 despite having the league's 2nd best record during those 3 years. (CURSE YOU CARDINALS!!!!)

I've shown off a bunch of Cutch and Cole cards before.
Now I'm going to rank them.

This was a no brainer as it ranks as one of my favorite cards I own.  A dual patch, dual auto numbered to only 5?  Yeah, not much can top that.

Ok, there are two things wrong with this card.
Cutch should have had the logo patch and I wish we had gotten Pedro Alvarez, Josh Harrison, or Starling Marte instead of Jung Ho Kang.
It is a 1/1 though

The reason for liking this card is simple.  It's one of only two dual autographs produced with Cutch and Cole.  I had won a redemption for this card and when it was time to redeem it, Topps said that the card was no longer available.  Instead they sent me a dual David Ortiz/Alex Rodriguez as compensation.  I eventually found one on eBay and bought it.  Only 25 of these were produced.

There's no patches on this card, but AJ Burnett was one of my favorites.  A lot of fans disliked him because of his attitude, but that rockstar carefree IDGAF STFD attitude is why I liked him so much.  It was AJ's first and only All-star game.  Only 25 copies exist.

Similar to the card above, I really like the design of the 2015 All-Star stitches relic cards from Update.  Another card with only 25 copies.

Here is another 1/1 from Triple Threads.   This one features a 2014 Post Season patch on the JHay swatch and a Jolly Roger sleeve patch for Cole.

The first unlicensed card appears and it is for no other reason than Panini makes some classy looking cards for their National Treasures release.  Like many others on this list it's numbered to only 25 copies.  Unlike many others it is jersey numbered for Cutch.

I got a bunch of various patch cards to choose from but this one with the Ralph Kiner (4) tribute patch from the 2014 season for Cole is one of the better patches I have of Cole.

Gotta Steel this one and post it for the 3rd time on the blog. The placement of the Alvarez patch looks awesome.

It's another booklet. YAY!
it's boring swatches BOO!
It's numbered to 5 YAY!
Cole isn't pictured in a black jersey BOO!

Polanco Jolly Roger swatch gets this card to fall in the Honorable Mention column.



I wish Gerrit the best of luck in Houston and I hope for a team that once called themselves the Colt .45s that they come up with some great marketing for Cole 45.

Cole in a Stocking?

Gerrit Cole, who grew up a Yankees fan, is rumored to be heading to New York.

For the past few weeks there have been lots of rumors going around about the former #1 overall pick being traded to the Yankees.  It seems that the Pirates are still trying to get top prospect Gleyber Torres in exchange for two years of the hard throwing righty.

I'm torn about the potential trade.

The team is significantly different than the 97 win 2015 club as the following players are no longer with the Pirates: Pedro Alvarez, Neil Walker, AJ Burnett, Francisco Liriano, Tony Watson, and Mark Melancon.

So far only the Melancon trade has yielded a positive impact to the future of the club as Felipe Rivero is a nasty arm out of the pen.

I don't have much confidence in the team "winning" a trade with the Yankees.

I would rather see Cole pitch every 5th day for the next two years even knowing that the Pirates have ZERO chance to extend him. I saw him make his MLB debut which I will never forget.

Here are some of my Cutch and Cole relic combo cards.

Gerrit has always been one of my favorites and I would hate to see him traded.

I remember meeting him in AAA and was able to get his attention when the Indianapolis Indians were playing the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs (Phillies AAA affiliate).  He signed maybe about a half dozen balls before the game.

When he turned to sign for me and I tossed the ball to him I asked if he could sign it on the sweet spot.  It never hurts to ask, right?

Cole laughed and said I don't think my agent would like that.

He tossed it back up to me.

I knew then that the Pirates had ZERO chance of signing him past his six years with the Bucs.

That's why I absolutely don't want to see him traded.  He is the Pirates best pitcher since the days of Doug Drabek.  He's consistent and has true top of rotation stuff.

I want Cole to stay with the Pirates for the next two years.

Don't give the Yankees another present this holiday season!

A Range of Emotions

Yesterday was a test for my Pirates fandom.  Starling Marte, star outfielder for the Pirates, was suspended 80 games for using a performance enhancing drug known as Nandrolone.  At first I was upset, thinking that Starling was innocent and somehow something must have been slipped in a protein shake or something and he didn't know about it.

In terms of the Pirates season, I wasn't too worried because Adam Frazier has been hitting great lately and needs a place in the everyday lineup.  When Marte got hurt in 2014, Josh Harrison came out of nowhere to become an All Star and help get the Pirates back to the postseason.  Maybe Frazier can do the same thing this year.

My feelings towards Starling and his innocence changed when I realized that the substance he took is an injection drug.  That doesn't happen accidentally.

I wish nothing bad to happen to Starling's career, but am hoping that this gets the front office to recognize the importance of Andrew McCutchen and the role he played to get this franchise to become a respectable baseball team again.

It seems like because of a sub par season, the marketing of the Pirates changed from being Cutch's team to being Starling as the franchise face.  Even the Topps Team Sets sold at PNC Park had Starling as the cover this year.

If the Pirates struggle during Marte's absence we could see a fire sale at the trade deadline with several players only having a few years left of control (Cutch, Cole, Jaso, Harrison, Watson, Hudson, Bastardo to name a few).  The next 80 games will certainly be interesting.

Here are my Cutch cards with Starling Marte.  Last year I decided to purge a few of my high end Marte cards to solely focus on Cutch.  I still have almost 200 unique cards of Starling, but his recent actions make me wish I had gotten rid of more to pick up more Cutch cards.

This card arrived yesterday just a few hours after the news broke.  It's my only 2017 relic of Marte and Cutch together as I missed out on a handful of the Quad Relics from Heritage featuring Cutch, Marte, Polanco, and Stargell.

The Cutch relic is from a 10-0 victory over the Marlins on 5/30/16 in which he batted 1 for 5 and scored a run.

The Marte relic is from an 8-7 Pirates victory over the Angels on 6/4/16. Marte raked at the plate going 3 for 4 with a single, double, triple, and his 18th Stolen Base of the year. He also scored 2 Runs in the game.

This is another fairly recent pickup and features two guys who will likely miss half the season (or more) in Marte and Kang.  The card features awesome patches for everyone except Jung Ho.

My very first relic featuring RunPMC together is an unlicensed Panini card

I included a scan of the back because it actually has a writeup

A pair of Triple Threads "Guarding the Alleys" featuring Polanco, Marte, and Cutch

I wish this card had better jersey pieces like the 2017 versions had.

And finally some more standard Museum cards with boring jersey swatches except the Alvarez patch

This one provides us with a nice Cutch patch and ....Gregory Polanco's pants?

Before Topps started to put the authentication stickers on items regularly (Strata, Tribute to name a few) these cards that featured authentication stickers were highly sought after cause it proved they were game used.
The above Gregory Polanco swatch is from his Pittsburgh Crawfords pants worn on June 28th which was a 5-3 Loss to the Royal Giants (NY Mets) as part of a Negro League Heritage game.  Polanco went 0-5 with 2 strikeouts