Hobby Love?

First I want to invite everyone to follow me on Twitter and Instagram if you arent already.  I used to try and post my pickups here almost on a daily basis, but I am using other social media sites to do the "show & tell" type posts and using my blog for more thought provoking posts.  

I will continue to post here as often as possible, but for the most part have been posting daily on IG and Twitter (@CollectingCutch) fairly regularly for new pickups and the "show and tell" type posts.

Thank you all for the loyalty of this blog over the years.

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I was having a conversation with a friend of mine about baseball good versus hobby good versus role model good.

He grew up a diehard Mets fan because of the 1986 team.  I understand that.  The young brash mentality of that team has been well chronicled and many members of that team went on to have roles in film, cartoons, and tv.  That 1986 team had many different types of characters on it and many fans of that team would tell you that one of Strawberry, Gooden, Carter, Hernandez, Dykstra, McDowell, Franco, Mookie were one of their favorite players ever. 

Doc Gooden while nearly unhittable for his first few years in the league was never under serious consideration for the Hall of Fame.  Yet, as proof by the Project 2020 and Project 70 items, Doc is still loved around the hobby and outsiders of the hobby still enjoy his game and cardboard.  Granted Doc Gooden had his issues with substance problems and he may have ruined his chances at baseball immortality in the Hall of Fame due to the character clause, but there is another Doc who had very similar numbers over his career and was a 1st Ballot HOF member and is revered among players and analysts of the game as one of the best ever.

View the Doc comparisons here.

Gooden won only 9 games less and had an ERA difference of 0.13 over his career. Gooden did have slightly more CG and more SHO and more strikeouts while pitching a similar amount of innings.  Gooden gave up fewer hits, but many more walks.  The comparisons of the two Docs is really really close from the traditional stats perspective.  

Halladay doesn't get much hobby love, but got immortalized in the Hall of Fame while Gooden still gets fans collecting his cards despite being dropped from the ballot after only one year.  

We have recently seen the same thing happen with Tim Lincecum, who fell off the ballot after one year, but is still very heavily collected by Giants fans. 

Another curious case are more guys from the 80s like Dale Murphy, Don Mattingly, Darryl Strawberry, Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco, and Will Clark. Many of these guys fell off the ballot well before the 10-15 year period they were allowed.

In general the 80s are very under represented in the HOF, yet some of these guys have the most loyal fan base collectors in the hobby.  There are entire Facebook groups dedicated to collecting these players. 

Of course guys like Bonds and Clemens have the accolades to be in the HOF, but the steroid issues kept them out by the writers ballots.

Let's look at Darryl Strawberry.  He was an 8 time All Star, but finished his career with only 1,401 career hits and a .259 batting average. Eric Davis another 80s star had slightly more hits, more SB, higher average, but less HR than Strawberry and gets very little hobby love from what I have seen.  Yet their style of play on the field was similar and they played in the same era.  

Then you can take a player like Steve Finley who blew them both away in terms of traditional stats and he gets no hobby love in modern sets besides maybe 1 brand making him an autograph subject a year.  For a guy with over 300 career HR, over 300 career SB, and over 2,500 career hits his prices are dirt cheap. 

Why is it some players are so well loved in the hobby and others are neglected?  

Is it really because the 1986 Mets were that much loved over the 1990 Reds or 2001 Diamondbacks?

Why do Mark McGwire, Will Clark, and Don Mattingly get all the hobby love from collectors of the 90s, but first basemen like Mark Grace, John Olerud, and Tino Martinez (besides AJ of Lost Collector) of the 90s not get the same love?

As McCutchen is entering the twilight of his career with likely just a few years left before he retires, I am wondering if he will be one of those guys that gets heavily collected still post career or will he be one of those guys that gets no hobby love and few people collect his cards from what once looked like a promising Hall of Fame career.  

Here is a fairly recent pickup for my collection that features a few guys that get above average hobby love (Mike Trout, Aaron Judge, Kris Bryant, Andrew McCutchen).  

How many of them will get immortalized in the Hall of Fame?  Only time will tell...

And here is a card that features a guy that despite winning 2 MVPs before 30, I feel is undervalued in the hobby.

Bryce Harper will likely be a Hall of Famer when he retires despite not being an All Star since 2018.  His rookie card prices compared to prospects is still very undervalued.  Rhys will likely be one of those guys that is a fan favorite, but doesn't get much hobby love.  Alec Bohm may have redeemed himself a little after yesterday's comments.  The book is still very open on him, but he will need to start performing if the Philly Phaithful are to ever demand more his card prices. 

Feel free to leave your comments below and let me know if you follow any supercollectors of guys who likely will not be in the Hall of Fame (any Social Media accounts welcomed as I have started to post on Instagram and Twitter more frequently)

The Ultimate Lineup Using only Andrew McCutchen cards

After looking at some of the reactions to my recent Dynasty post, I thought it might be fun to do a similar "make a team" style post.  This time however, my team can only consist of players from cards I own that also feature Andrew McCutchen.

Let's start with my bench players:

Tris Speaker and Mike Trout

Reggie Jackson

Miggy Cabrera

Now that I have your attention by claiming 2 of the best centerfielder of all time and one of the best modern day right handed hitters are on my bench, it's time to round out with the best of the rest I have to put on the bench

Javy Baez

Nolan Arenado

Now for the lineup

Rickey Henderson (LF)

Honus Wagner (SS)

Roberto Clemente (RF)

Willie Mays (CF)

Mike Schmidt (3B)

Willie Stargell (1B)

Ken Griffey Jr. (DH)

Jackie Robinson (2B)

Buster Posey (C)

Clayton Kershaw (SP)

Relief Pitchers/Rotation Starters

Jason Grilli

David Price

Andrew Miller

Gerrit Cole

A.J. Burnett

Cole Hamels

So there's my team featuring players to appear on a card with Cutch. I would love to see if any of you can pick a single player in your collection and field a better team using cards of only players pictured on cards with one of your favorite players. If you do a bat around style post, please leave a comment below and share your team. 

1,178 Home Runs!!!!

I have been so extremely busy preparing for our closing date of moving into our new house.  

It has been an absolute roller coaster of emotions.  From the fun moments of looking at houses to putting in offers and the anticipating of knowing if the offer would be accepted to all other things this process has been extremely stressful and taxing mentally and physically.  Hopefully we will have everything finalized early in December and I can show off the new Cutch Cave early next year.

About 2 months ago I showed off a box of relics that I never logged or showed off.  I haven't had much time to go through all my boxes still as I prepare for the move, but did come across this nice card from 2015 Topps Museum.

What a beauty of a card!

The Cutch and Josh Donaldson patches are really nice!  I love the tiny sliver of silver from the Stanton patch too.

It's unfortunate that the Trout relic is just a boring grey jersey relic.  

Fun fact, this card has 1,178 career Home Runs between the 4 players featured on it.

Giancarlo Stanton leads the pack with 347 career homers.  He hit 35 last year leading the four featured players in 2021.  He won the NL MVP in 2017 and finished second in 2014.

Mike Trout has the second most career round trippers, but hit only 8 last year due to injuries.  He has 9 seasons of top 5 MVP votes.  He has played only 9 full seasons in the majors, winning the award three times.  He is this generation's greatest ball player.

Cutch has 270 career homers and hit the second most in the 2021 season among the four with 27. He has finished in the top 5 MVP votes in 4 consecutive seasons (2012-2015), winning it in 2013.

Josh Donaldson has 251 home runs and hit 26 in 2021.  He was the AL MVP for the 2015 season and has finished in the top 5 three times. 

Overall these are extremely impressive numbers for the four players featured on the card.  

How many of these guys do you think will be immortalized in the Hall of Fame one day? 

Researching the 5-8-7

Topps Luminaries has a very fun high end autograph product.  For those that are unfamilar with the product, it features on card autographs of some of the best hit, home run, and strikeout players of their respective eras.  There are of course low numbered parallels to chase (red, blue, black) and all feature a numerical stat about the player.  

Cutch had a card with the bold number 587 on the front.

This card represents the number of extra base hits that Cutch hit between 2010-2020.  

It's pretty impressive that Cutch accumulated 587 extra base hits in the 2010s.  He has hit 676 extra base hits in his career through September 10th, 2021.  42 of them have come in the 2021 season and 47 were in his 2009 rookie season.

I was honestly having a hard time figuring out who is ahead of him for extra base hits in the 2010s.

Some of the first names that came to mind were some of the big boppers like Stanton, Trout, and Harper that debuted in the early 2010s. And of course the future Hall of Fame veterans like Pujols, Beltre, Votto, and Cabrera came to mind.  It's likely that the younger guys to debut 2016 or later like Judge, Vlad Jr, Alonso wouldn't make the list so I didn't bother looking at them.

Let's look at their numbers from 2010 to 2020 since the 587 total doesn't include the 2021 season.

No doubt future Hall of Famers

Albert Pujols 580 (shocked that Pujols 2010 to 2020 numbers are less than Cutch)

Mike Trout 610

Miguel Cabrera 613

Adrian Beltre 527

Likely Hall of Famers

David Ortiz 382

Joey Votto 593

I also decided to look at the stars who had an incredible decade between 2010 to 2020 but were confirmed to be involved in some PED scandals. 

Confirmed PED Users

Robinson Cano 635

Nelson Cruz 650

Ryan Braun 583

Let's look at some HR season leaders of the 2010s along with other stars of the 2010s.

Nolan Arenado 523

Bryce Harper 489

Paul Goldschmidt 574

Jose Bautista 521

Matt Holliday 411

Giancarlo Stanton 569

Justin Upton 566

Freddie Freeman 605

Carlos Beltran 401

Anthony Rizzo 515

Evan Longoria 585

Adrian Gonzalez 469

Jay Bruce 583

Edwin Encarnacion 606

It took me forever to figure out Edwin.  

Edwin for the win

I would say that Cutch is in pretty good company and this further supports that he was one of the best hitters of the 2010s.

Knowing the answers already what players would you have thought would be the top 10 extra base hit leaders of the 2010s?  Are you shocked by any of these guys? 

Josh Trout > Mike Trout

Mike Trout may be a generational baseball player, but Josh Trout is a generational sketch artist.

Let me set the stage

Behold the box it was shipped in

I carefully removed the outside band holding the package card inside.

Above is the very unique box that acts as a perfect compliment to the card itself.  I love the rookie cup design stating it is a Topps Artist and officially licensed.

Inside was a very nice hand written note on one of Josh's business cards.  It just so happens to feature that other Trout guy too.

Once I removed the business card I had this beautifully drawn absolutely stunning card of the Keystone State Legend that is Andrew McCutchen.

Thank you Josh!

Beating The Odds: Contest Winnings From PTown Tom

Tom of the blog Waiting Til Next Year held his annual Card of the Year contest AND I CAME IN LAST PLACE!!!

SWEEEEEEET!!!!

That earned me a blaster of 2019 Topps.

Tom included a nice note to say thank you for participating in his contest.

Blasters of Series 1 are a yearly tradition for me, but I haven't grabbed any 2019 Topps yet mainly because I went batsh*t crazy buying cards in December.

I really like the design of this year and from what I have seen the color parallels this year look really great.

My first 2019 Topps card is

A fantastic image using a throwback uniform of an American League team I can easily root for.

My first Pirates card of 2019 is a rookie card of Nick Burdi.  Burdi was selected in the 2018 Rule 5 draft by the Phillies then trad3d to the Pirates during the Winter Meetings.  He spent most of the year recovering from Tommy John surgery.  He will need to spend the entire year with the Pirates or they will lose him to waivers.  He will likely pitch out the pen this year.  If he fails the Pirates just resigned old friendly face Francisco Liriano to a minor league deal with incentives.

I could tell that there was something thick in the blaster pack.  I beat the odds by pulling a 1:44 relic of future Hall of Famer, Albert Pujols.

I love the look of these 1984 relics.  This would be a fun set to put together.

I got a few insert cards too.  Among them were a pair of Gleyber Torres highlight cards, an Eric Hosmer 1984 card, and a Mike Trout/Hank Aaron Greatness Returns card.

I got one parallel, an Alex Colome "150" parallel.

Here are a few of my other favorites from the pack.

The photography is great this year.  Lots of cards were shot on Tatoine.

Francisco Cervelli!!!!

I love the team cards this year. Great stadium shots!!!

Future Hall of Famers, A Look Back From the Future

Back in 2013, CBS wrote a story about several players under the age of 26 and their likelihood of achieving baseball immortality in Cooperstown.

The link can be found HERE.

Many appear to still be borderline candidates, but it is crazy to look back at how much has changed in only 5 years.

Names like Mike Trout and Clayton Kershaw will have done enough once they meet the 10 year minimum to be first ballot consideration.

According to them names like Jason Heyward and Starlin Castro were already on the right path.

As Adrian Beltre recently proved though, you may not appreciate how great a player was until their career is over.

Maybe Justin Upton, Andrew McCutchen, and Matt Kemp will go on to play until theyre 40 and 10 years from now we will look back and realize "these guys were always pretty good."

But is "pretty good" over 20 years worthy enough to get you in the Hall of Fame?

Adrian Beltre may prove that longevity and consistency is more important than having 10 great years and that is basically it. 

Only 17 3rd Baseman have been enshrined in Cooperstown for the Hall of Fame.  And yet here we sit on the week of Beltre announcing his retirement and it seems almost unanimously that most talk radio shows, sports writers, and the like think he will make it to the Hall of Fame.  At any point though was he the best 3rd baseman in the game?  Would you rather have had Beltre or a guy named Wright, Rodriguez, Rolen, Machado, Donaldson manning the hot corner if you starting a franchise?  Most wouldn't say Beltre is my guess. 

I am in no way saying Beltre doesn't belong in the Hall. I am merely pointing out that we should recognize greatness as it is happening and not after it is gone.

Good luck to Mr. Beltre on his post baseball career.  You were fun to watch.