Counting Stats?

I hate to say this, but my favorite athlete of all time is getting close to that retirement age.  Far too often we see players retire in their mid 30s.  Very few play until they're in their late 30s or early 40s.  Those that do are often legends and no doubt Hall of Famers.

Again I hate to say this, but I'm not sure there is enough on Cutch's resume to declare a no doubt Hall of Fame nod.

For every Lloyd Waner or Ralph Kiner in the Hall of Fame there are guys like Luis Gonzalez, Steve Garvey, Dale Murphy, Kenny Lofton, and Bernie Williams that never really came close to the Hall of Fame, but had really good career counting stats.

While Cutch certainly has had key moments in his career he never had that one career defining moment, that clutch postseason at bat or that spotlight on him.  Sure he's had the spotlight on him in his early part of his Pittsburgh career, but taking a franchise with 2 decades of losing records into the postseason three years in a row was basically just noticed by the fans of Pittsburgh.  I'm not sure the rest of the nation got a chance to see how special Andrew was to the franchise.  

He was one of the best hitters of the past decade, but largely goes undervalued and under appreciated by the casual fans.

Not to me though (obviously).  

Cutch was and is my favorite athlete ever.  I got back into baseball in 2005 when I attended a Pirates baseball game in Philadelphia.  It was the first time since the 1994 strike shortened season that I attended a baseball game.  

I fell back in love with the game and decided that I would start up a baseball card collection again and researched the Pirates future.  They had just drafted a teenager named Andrew McCutchen and I knew if he ever made it to the majors I would start collecting all of his cards.  I had no idea how difficult that task would become in the parallel era of collecting we are currently experiencing in the hobby.  I also had no idea how much the hobby had changed since 1994 when I gave up on collecting baseball cards.  There were so many rare low numbered cards that I never knew existed.  

I've been told that my player collection has helped inspire others to collect more heavily their favorite players and I'm honored that I have been able to do that.

Someone that inspires others can sometimes be called a luminary.

Andrew McCutchen helps inspire me.

Look closer at this 2021 Topps Luminaries autograph and you'll see why I am being inspired on a daily basis from my favorite baseball player.  

When it comes to my collection I have tried to keep pace with Cutch by having an equal amount of 1/1s to the number of Home Runs hit by Cutch.  They can be printing plates, Superfractors, color parallels (red for Big League Baseball, gold for Topps Now, etc), Logoman patches, sketch cards, etc etc etc...

This Luminaries card has a bold 243 on the front signifying that Cutch has hit 243 homeruns entering the 2021 season.

While this card isn't a 1/1 it does remind me of all the work I need to do to keep pace with Cutch.

Cutch had hit another 27 round trippers over the course of the 2021 season bringing his 270.  

Looks like I've got some serious work to do during the off season as I will need to add 18 more 1/1 cards to the PC prior to Cutch's 2022 debut as I am at 252 one of ones in the collection.

I'll show off one of my more recent 1/1 pickups tomorrow.

Do you keep track of your player collections compared to any of that player's numbers?  

Some examples could be 

Having an Ozzie Smith autograph collection equal to his Jersey number (1)

Having 355 Greg Maddux base cards equal to his career Win Total

Having 73 Barry Bonds insert cards (equal to the historic 2001 season

Having 1,271 Tino Martinez cards equal to his career RBI total 

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? 

Time for an update

One of Cutch's earliest Phillies autographs was in the product, 2019 Topps Luminaries.

Luminaries in case you are unaware is a very high end release.  Each box contains ONLY 1 card and it is serial numbered to 15 or less copies.  Boxes of 2019 Luminaries currently sell for around $400 on the secondary market.  

In addition to the "base" autographs numbered to 15 copies there were also red to 10, blue to 5, and black 1/1.  

The Luminaries brand celebrates Hit Kings, Home Run Kings, and Masters of the Mound by noting the player's current level of statistics for a given category.  

Cutch was part of the Home Run Kings due to the fact that he is one of the active leaders in the category of round trippers.  

The front of the card you will notice notes 6HR.  

The back discusses Cutch's Walk off Home Run total as 6 entering the 2019 season.  

Only Ryan Zimmerman (11) and Albert Pujols (12) had more Walk off homeruns among active players at the time of the production.

In case you missed it, Cutch blasted a walk off HR versus the Washington Nationals yesterday to steal a 6-5 victory for the Phillies.

I am sure that Topps will produce a Topps Now card for Cutch and I am sure I will buy it as well. 

EPIC!!!

I missed an opportunity to add some of the other color parallels of this rainbow to my collection recently, but have had the "base" version numbered to 15 copies for many months sitting around.

2019 Luminaries features on card autographs (for the most part) inside 1 touch mag cases and sealed with a security sticker on top.

The set focuses on Hit Kings, Home Run Kings, and Masters of the Mound.  While not known as a Home Run hitter, Cutch got the HR treatment for his entry into the set.

On the front of the card you will notice that it says 6HR.  Surely Cutch has more than 6HR in his career.  But, if you flip the card over...

you will notice it talks about Cutch's walkoff homers.

Among active players, Cutch has the third most walkoff homers trailing only Albert Pujols (12) and Ryan Zimmerman (11).

Cutch hit 5 walk off homers with the Pirates tying him for second place on the franchise all time records.  He also hit one as a member of the San Francisco Giants.

It happened 2 years ago when Cutch hit his 6th All Time Walkoff Homerun April 7th, 2018.

Back to back days of This Day In Cutchstory? 

Yup.

As I predict I will do every April 7th due to Cutch's epic day at the plate of Game 7 of the 2018 season, I will show off a card that discusses his 6 hit performance that was capped off with a walk off homerun in the 14th inning.

Here are some fascinating facts about that epic at bat:

This was Cutch's 1st SIX hit game of his career and the first time he collected FIVE hits in a game since 2010.

Cutch hit SEVEN 2 strike foul balls to stay alive in the 12 pitch at bat.

Cutch was the first player since 1969 to collect six hits and a walk off homerun in the same game.  Jim Northrup and Cutch are the only players from 1900 to do such feats.

Andrew McCutchen became the first player to hit a walk off homer in the 14th inning or later with his team losing since July 11, 2015.  The player that did that?

Andrew McCutchen versus the St. Louis Cardinals.

It was the 3rd time in 4 games of only a 7 game season that the Giants had beaten the Dodgers decided because of a homerun.


Do you remember Cutch's walkoff for the Giants?