Thanks for Being a Loser, Greg Maddux...

Did the title of this post, get your attention?

I sure hope so, because had it not been for Greg Maddux losing a meaningless game to the Cincinnati Reds on September 28th, 2004 the Reds could have had a better draft position than the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 2005 draft.  That Reds victory over the Cubs ensured that no matter what, the Pirates would be drafting ahead of the Reds even with a three game set to close out the 2004 season looming.

Of course it is well documented that the 2005 draft class was a great draft class with names like Justin Upton, Troy Tulowitzki, Ryan Zimmerman, Andrew McCutchen, Jay Bruce, Ryan Braun, Alex Gordon, and the list goes on and on.

The Pirates had the 11th overall pick which they used on Andrew McCutchen and that pick transformed the entire organization.

The Reds used the following pick, 12th overall, on Jay Bruce.  Bruce was a highly touted prospect of his own and even cracked the top 5 overall prior to his call up.  An article was written on Blog Red Machine about Nick Senzel and the Reds prospect system since Jay Bruce made his debut.

Here are my cards of Cutch with Jay Bruce

 This dual on card autograph of Cutch and Bruce was released in 2012 Museum and is numbered to only 15 copies.

I also have a triple sticker autograph of Cutch, Bruce, and Troy Tulowitzki.

It is numbered 3 of 3 and was uncirculated.

Congrats Boston Red Sox!

With the SaveSecondBase event I was running all month I completely forgot to congratulate the Boston Red Sox on winning the World Series.

Yesterday I watched some of the parade before going to a matinee showing of the new Halloween movie.

I really didn't care who won the World Series.  I was hoping the Rockies would advance further, but once they were eliminated I had two American League teams I would quietly root for thanks to the former Pirates in the organization.  Had Houston advanced I would no doubt be cheering them on for Gerrit Cole and Charlie Morton.  Alex Bregman is quickly becoming one of my favorite players to,watch also.  For Boston it was all about cheering on Steve Pearce who was just an,absolute class act baseball player while with the Pirates through the minors and his brief stint in the majors.

I can't say enough good things about Steve Pearce.

And neither can Cutch who got a lot of heat from Yankees fans for cheering on his former teammate.

Cutch put the haters comments aside with the above Twitter post though.

I don't have a lot of cards featuring Cutch with current members of the Boston Red Sox.  The only cards I have feature Cutch on Just Minors sticker autographs with Pearce and Price.

These two dual autos of Cutch with the 2018 World Series MVP are numbered to 10 and 25 copies.

I also have a triple autograph with David Price and Jason Hayward.  It is also numbered to only 10 copies.

I do have some other cards of Cutch featuring former Red Sox

Jacoby Ellsbury

Shane Victorino

Carl Crawford

Tomorrow I will recap all the pink cards I showed off and give a sneak peak at next year's month long event.

Remembering The 2005 Draft

With the MLB Draft happening today I thought I would look back at the year my favorite player, Andrew McCutchen, was drafted by the Bucs.  The 2005 MLB draft is considered by many to be one of the greatest drafts in recent memory.  Of the first 50 overall picks, 10 of them went on to become an All-Star.  Only two of those ten were selected to only one All-Star Game (Ricky Romero and Jacoby Ellsbury).  Ryan Braun leads the class with 6 All-Star appearances while Andrew McCutchen and Troy Tulowitzki have 5 Midsummer Classic appearances.  Justin Upton has four and Jay Bruce and Alex Gordon have three selections.  The Nationals first ever draft selection, Ryan Zimmerman, has made two All-Star selections.

The First Round Selections have two MVP winners (Ryan Braun 2011 and Andrew McCutchen 2013), an ALCS MVP winner (Matt Garza 2008), and a handful of World Series Champions.

Matt Garza is the only player from this class to throw a No Hitter, having thrown the Tampa Bay Rays first ever NoNo.

The 2005 Class Was Stacked!!!!
I have been wanting to get as many 2005 draftee cards with Cutch as possible.

I have been eyeing up this card for a long time.  This particular card has three of the most notable draftees.  Andrew McCutchen and Jay Bruce had a dual signed Topps card, but this is my first auto with Troy Tulowitzki.

Tulo is a 5 time All-Star, 2 time Gold Glover (turned an unassisted triple play), 2 time Silver Slugger, and currently holds the MLB record for a career .985 fielding percentage at Shortstop.  Had it not been for injuries, Tulo was on a clear path to the Hall of Fame.  He finished in the top 10 MVP voting 3 times in his career and has the second most WAR of the draft class just a tick behind Ryan Braun and just a tick ahead of Cutch.

Jay Bruce was selected with the pick right after Cutch and has appeared in 3 All-Star Games and won 2 Silver Slugger awards.  He finished in the top 10 MVP voting twice.

Custom 1/1 Team USA

I have no artistic bones in my body. 
This leads me to sometimes overpay for things I consider are innovative and artistic.

Such was this case with this triple custom card featuring autographs of Adam Jomes, Christian Yelich, and Andrew McCutchen. 

I have a few Adam Jones autographs as he is a great role model and a very consistent ball player.  I have almost 150 certified autographs of Cutch, but didn't have an autograph of Christian Yelich.

One of my dream cards would be to have a booklet containing all the autographs of the 2017 WBC Championship Team USA.  Autographs of Cutch, Buster Posey, Nolan Arenado, Christian Yelich, Giancarlo Stanton, Adam Jones, Eric Hosmer, Paul Goldschmidt, Alex Bregman, Ian Kinsler, Chris Archer, Andrew Miller, Brandon Crawford, Marcus Stroman, and the list goes on and on would be incredible for the collection.

The concept for this card was greater than the execution and had it not been so cheap after eBay bucks I wouldn't have even thought about it. 

From a distance it looks cool.  Up close....not so much.

Triple autos for under $20

Last Friday I showed off all 125 certified autographs of Cutch in my collection.  That doesn't include my in person autographs I have from Spring Training and PiratesFest events I have attended.

2 cards I showed, but never spotlighted in my collection were a pair of Just Minors triple autos.

With the Arizona Fall League rosters announced today, it's important to remember that no prospect is a sure thing.

I had just snagged these triple autos /3 for less than $20 each a few weeks before that post.

Michael Bourn is the second most accomplished player on this card.  He enjoyed success when he was traded from the Phillies to the Astros.  With Houston, Bourn lead the National League in stolen bases from 2009-2011 and won two Gold Gloves (2009 and 2010).  He would later be traded to Atlanta during the 2011 season.  The following year he would become an All-Star for the second time in his career.  He would become a free agent and sign with Cleveland for the 2012 season.  Things recently have fallen apart as the speedster with elite defense hasn't played in the majors this year.  Through 2016, Bourn amassed 23.4 WAR over 11 seasons.

Chris Nelson has posted a -2.4 over 5 years with the Rockies, Yankees, Padres, and Angels. He hasn't appeared in the majors since 2014.

Drew Stubbs is the second most accomplished player on this card.  He has had a career WAR of 8.4 over his 9 year career with the Reds, Rockies, Rangers, Braves, Orioles, and Giants.  He has hit 92 homeruns and swiped 161 bags.  His best year occurred in 2014 with the Rockies when he batted .289 with 15 HR and 20SB.  He was viewed as a future 5 tool athlete while a prospect, but never could hit for enough average to stick in the lineup everyday.

Brian Dopirak never appeared in the majors and has been out of playing professional baseball since 2012.  Prior to 2005 he was the #21 best prospect according to Baseball America.  Over 10 minor league seasons, Dopirak hit 162 homeruns while slashing.279/.334/.482.  Those look like really good numbers, but Dopirak was a first baseman playing in the minors for teams that had Derrek Lee and Lyle Overbay/Edwin Encarnacion/Kevin Millar at the major league level.

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.