Yesterday the Pirates traded Starling Marte to the Arizona Diamondbacks. That means that there is only one player left from the 2015 Pittsburgh Pirates who had the 2nd best record in the majors and finished with a 98-64 record.
That lone player is Gregory Polanco. I wouldn't be too shocked if hegets traded midseason as well as the Pirates appear to be in full rebuild mode now under their new management team.
I am going to show my favorite 6 cards of #6, Starling Marte.
Up first is my only Logoman of Marte. It is the Logoman to his 2011 Futures Game jersey.
Next up, one of my favorite Cutch pairings. This Gypsy Queen captures the gold glove caliber outfield pairings of Marte and Cutch in their primes.
It's Heritage Red Ink. Do you really need more explanation?
The only knock on this card is the sticker autograph. An on card auto would have been much nicer.
Speaking of on card auographs, I sought out every silver ink Pirates auto I could get my hands on from 2011 to 2015. This pre debut prospect of Marte is a great looking design.
This card I have shown off a lot in the past month. It's very low numbered and features some of my favorite Pirates outfielders of All-Time.
The 2019 All-Star Futures Game is happening today. The future of the MLB will be showcased for the fans of today to see who is coming up through the minors.
Andrew McCutchen appeared in the 2008 All-Star Game at Yankees Stadium.
A year later he would be called up to the majors and in a few seasons he would become the face of the franchise, be an MVP, gold glove winner, Roberto Clemente award winner, 4 silver sluggers, and make 5 All-Star appearances.
These are all the Futures Game related cards of Cutch I have.
The 1/1 Futures Game Logoman autograph has catapulted into one of my top 10 favorite cards. Topps Sterling was a beautiful product when it was first released despite the sticker autographs.
2008 Bowman Draft featured a bunch of different parallels to chase.
In terms of paper, I have the base, gold, and blue parallels. The red 1/1 has eluded me.
The Chrome parallels are the nicer of the bunch. Above are the X-Tractor, Blue, Base, and Refractor.
The Red is a stunning parallel which is numbered to 5 copies.
The Gold Parallel is equally stunning and is numbered to 50 copies.
Above you can see the "scouting report" of a young McCutchen.
I also have a 1/1 magenta printing plate from the paper release.
This commemorative "pin" manurelic was inserted in packs of 2016 Topps.
Is anyone going to watch the game?
Here are Cutch's 2 plate appearances at the Futures Game in Yankee Stadium including a just missed homerun shot.
There was a three week period where I didn't purchase anything cardboard related. That was followed by a few days of some of the most expensive cards I have ever purchased.
This 1/1 from 2009 Topps Unique leads the charge of being one of those expensive purchases. The logoman from Cutch's Futures Game jersey along with one of his earlier, full signatures make this card move into a Top 10 of my collection.
The only drawback I have towards the card is the sticker auto, but there aren't that many on card autographs of Cutch out there to be honest. A few recent releases from Panini and a few Heritage releases to go along with one year of Tier 1 and Museum are about all you will find of the former NL MVP.
