Reflecting on Sharknado

I've mentioned Sharknado a few times on this blog in it's brief history.  It combines my love of sharks (Hey it's Shark Week on Discovery Channel!!!) and those bad animal feature films.  

The first film series debuted in 2013 and starred former 90210 heart throb Ian Ziering (born in Newark, NJ in 1964).  Ziering plays Fin Shepard, a former surfer who is the world's best hope to stop these tornadoes that spew out hundreds of sharks.  Shepard uses a chainsaw as his main weapon to combat this natural disaster.

Because it's Shark Week (one of my favorite weeks of the year) and Discovery Channel recently showed an episode starring Ian Ziering (and Tara Reid) debunking some of the stories discussed in all the Sharknado movies, I thought it would be fun to discuss my Cutch collection and Sharknado.

I wonder if there's a baseball card of Andrew McCutchen that references both 1964 and 2013?

Behold 2013 Topps Heritage!

The 2013 Topps Heritage Set uses the same design as 2014 Topps.  Andrew McCutchen's base card is 438, the same as a checklist in the original 1964 set.  Talk about a huge missed opportunity.

Above are the 9 cards I have of Cutch from 2013 Topps Heritage.

1st Row:Base, Base League Leaders, Chrome

2nd Row:Action Variant, Red Retail, Black Retail

3rd Row: Purple Hot Box Chrome, Black Refractor Chrome, Venezuelan black back action photo variant

I still need two of the chrome parallels

 Gold Refractor /5 and Chrome Refractor /564

A gold Refractor was listed last fall, but was pulled before the auction ended.  It was being sold by a seller in Japan.  I tried to reach out to the seller, but got no response.  Here's hope I can land one of the other 4 sometime.

Have you watched any of the Sharknado movies?

Shark Week and All-Star Fest

This has been a fun start to the week in terms of TV viewing.

First up has been all the Colorado MLB All Star Game events and the MLB Draft.  I am excited for the future of the Pirates and really enjoyed the All Star Game Home Run Derby last night.  I am looking forward to see the Pirates having a player start the All Star Game tonight.  Adam Frazier will start the game at 2B and Bryan Reynolds will start the game in Centerfield becoming the first Pirates player(s) to start the game since Andrew McCutchen started the 2015 All Star Game in Cincinnati.

Current Cutch teammate, JT Realmuto, will begin the game as the starting catcher.

Before JT was a teammate of Cutch 

and before Cutch was leaping over JT when they were opponents

JT was a member of the Miami Marlins

I have built a small stash of cards in my next COMC shipment.  I'm holding off on shipping until we have moved into our new permanent residence.   

You can see some of the cards I have purchased below.  I will show off the full mini PC I have created once they all arrive (whenever I decide to ship of course) 

2017 Topps Stadium Club - [Base] - Sepia #71 - J.T. Realmuto

 
2020 Topps Gold Label - Gold Label Framed Autographs #GLA-JRE - J.T. Realmuto

2020 Topps - Significant Statistics #SS-23 - J.T. Realmuto

2018 Topps Stadium Club - [Base] #287 - J.T. Realmuto

2019 Panini Donruss Optic - [Base] - Pink Velocity Prizm #105 - J.T. Realmuto /199

I have also been enjoying Shark Week on Discovery Channel this week and am on the hunt for a JT Realmuto minor league card of his time in Jupiter when he was a member of the Hammerheads.

Picture above is for reference only.

Will you be watching the All Star Game tonight? Anything you're looking forward to? Pregame predictions?

Have you or will you be watching any of Shark Week?

With the 1st Overall Pick...

The MLB Draft was last night and the Pirates went in a direction I probably wouldn't have gone if I was the General Manager, but I am not the GM so I guess it's not right for me to question someone else trying to make their mark on something I have no control over.

The Pirates drafted college backstop Henry Davis who has been compared to other #1 overall catchers drafted in Joe Mauer and Adley Ruschmann.  

If Henry Davis can turn into a Russel Martin or Yadier Molina leader type behind the plate with above average offense, I will be very happy with this pick.  I think Jack Leiter will become a future Cy Young winner one day, but that's just my prediction. 

The Pirates have had the number one overall pick 4 previous times having drafted 3rd Baseman Jeff King and college pitchers Kris Benson, Bryan Bullington, and Gerrit Cole.  

Cole is the only one of that group to become an All Star in Pittsburgh when he was selected to the 2015 All Star Game along with Andrew McCutchen, Mark Melancon, and AJ Burnett.

I have shown off some of my Gerrit Cole and Andrew McCutchen pairings in the past, many as recent as last month.

With the draft it is important to plant a seed for a future and recognize what is currently in the system and what will be coming in the future.

The franchise has a major lack of depth at the catcher position in the minors.  The Pirates have only one catcher in their top 30 prospects, Endy Rodriguez, and he profiles to not be able to stick at the position long term.  Rodriguez came to the Pirates as part of the 3 team trade that saw Joe Musgrove go to San Diego and Joey Lucchesi go to the Mets.

The Pirates talent pipeline is loaded with middle infield prospects (4 of top 15 prospects) and that isn't even taking into account their current MLB roster which features All Star Adam Frazier and former first round draft picks Cole Tucker and Kevin Newman.  The team is also very rich in the right handed pitcher department in the minors with seven of their top 12 prospects being right handed starters.

The Pirates saw success in the majors from 2013 to 2015 when the core of their team featured multiple 1st Round draft picks (Neil Walker-2B, Pedro Alvarez-3B, Andrew McCutchen-CF, Gerrit Cole-SP) and homegrown Latin America signings (Starling Marte-LF and Gregory Polanco-RF) all around the diamond.  

By drafting catcher Henry Davis to go with middle infield and starting pitcher franchise strengths, the Pirates are building towards the future with a high contact rate and pitching in mind.  

The Pirates are clearly in a rebuild right now.  They have a few pieces in place for the future already with Ke'Bryan Hayes, Kevin Newman, and Brian Reynolds still under team control through roughly 2026 the next great Pirates teams could feature yesterday's first overall pick, Henry Davis, being the signal caller.

Did you watch any of the MLB Draft?

Are you happy with your team's selection?

The Shadow Knows...

We all have those movies we loved when we were younger, but when you look at them as an adult they don't really stand the test of time. 

For every Goonies, Karate Kid, and Back to the Future I enjoyed watching, there is also a Bio-dome, 3 Ninjas, and Time Cop on my list.  

Another movie I really enjoyed a lot when I was younger was Dick Tracy.  I loved the star power in that film and the bright and bold colors.  

Sadly much like Karate Kid being the timeless classic and 3 Ninjas not, I can group together some pulp hero movies in the early 90s I was obsessed with.  

Well for every Dick Tracy, there exists a movie like The Shadow. 

Starring Alec Baldwin and based on the pulp comic series The Shadow, this film features less than good CGI effects and Baldwin's over the top acting.

One of the key lines and premise of the Shadow is 

"Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?"

The Shadow Knows

Below you will find my cards of Cutch that feature him with shadows

2009 Topps Red Hot Rookie Redemption (Rookie Card)

2009 Topps Update Base, Black, Gold

(Rookie Card) pictured as a collage

2010 Topps Turkey Red

2012 Bowman Orange

2020 Topps Series 2 SSP photo variant

2021 Topps Series 2 

Do you remember watching The Shadow film?

Do you have a favorite movie that followed the pulp comic craze of the early 90s (Rocketeer, Dick Tracy, The Shadow, The Phantom, etc)?

Are there any unique images you see on the shadows on these cards, much like a "Rorschach test" involving shadows?

Who are the Magnificent Seven Members?

So I recently got in an Andrew McCutchen 2021 Stadium Club Members Only card which has an estimated print run of 30 copies.

The design this year follows expectations for what you'd expect from Stadium Club.  Full bleed photos ✔

Players name in small print ✔

Team name or city in smaller print ✔

The back follows the model that we have come to expect from Stadium Club as well.

It gives a brief look at the player (birth date, bats/throws, height/weight, and how they became a member of the team)

It also has the standard "counting stats" for both the most recent year and career stats.

What I found most interesting was the writeup on the back.  

With a HR on Sept 26, 2020 Cutch joined only 7 other National League players IN THE HISTORY OF THE GAME to have double digit homerun totals in each year since they debuted.  The list of players to play in the National League to begin their careers and be thought of as power hitters is an impressive bunch.  

Hall of Famers like Hank Aaron, Billy Williams, Willie Mays, Mike Schmidt, Andre Dawson, Chipper Jones, Willie Stargell all came to mind first.

I immediately wanted to know who the other 7 players were.

It would have to be someone to play a long time in the National League and they would have to begin their career in the NL.

Let's start with the NL East

Braves

The Braves have had a lot of power hitters over their cross country travels from Boston to Milwaukee to Atlanta.  

The most notable of course is the former HR King

Hank Aaron ✔

Hammerin' Hank began his career with 21 straight seasons in the National League hitting 10+ HR in a season

Aaron's long time protection at the plate was Eddie Matthew's who clubbed 493 homers for the Braves to begin his career over 15 seasons.

Eddie Matthews ✔

So here we are on the first team and already have 2 of the 7 established just by thinking of Braves All Time Greats.

Speaking of All Time Greats, how about Dale Murphy?  Well he unfortunately fell short in collecting 12 seasons to begin his career with 10+HR as he came up as a catcher and smacked only 2 homers in 37 games as a backstop.

Many people forget that before Chipper Jones was the runner up for Rookie of Year in 1995 he made his debut in 1993 before an ACL tear ruined his next 2 seasons.

Andruw Jones, who broke into the majors as a 19 year old only played in less than a quarter season which didn't lend him to enough at bats to start his career with 10+ HR per season.

Marlins

The Marlins aren't known for keeping their players for 12+ years, but they certainly have had some notable power sluggers play in their franchise history.  Gary Sheffield and Giancarlo Stanton both stand out and both failed to 1)even play 12 consecutive seasons for a National League team to start their career and 2)collect 10+HR in each season to begin their career

Mets

Darry Strawberry and David Wright only had 9 seasons of 10+HR to begin their careers before substance abuse and injuries derailed their careers.

Mike Piazza, another famous Mets slugger, debuted in 1992 with only 1 HR in 21 games.  He would win Rookie of Year award the following season as a member of the Dodgers.

Phillies

Michael Jack Schmidt, Ryan Howard, Dick Allen all went on to have impressive power numbers over their careers, but none of them hit 10+HR in their debut season.

Nationals

Ryan Zimmerman was the Nationals first draft pick, but didn't hit his first homerun until his second season.  He rattled off 8 consecutive seasons beginning in his sophmore season. 

Bryce Harper, another famous player for the Nationals and current teammate of Cutch, has only played for 10 seasons thus far.

So off the top of my head for the NL East I have

Hank Aaron ✔

Eddie Matthews ✔

Moving to the current NL Central teams

Brewers

The Brewers used to be an American League team so I am only looking at the NL versions of the franchise.  There were 2 guys that hit a lot of HR for the team in the mid 2000s.  Prince Fielder I knew left for an American League team (Tigers) following his free agency so I'd not have to waste time researching him.  The other guy came up around the same time as Prince and won Rookie of Year and MVP votes his first season, Ryan Braun.  I knew Braun got caught up in the Biogenesis scandal, but wasn't sure if he collected enough HR in 2013 before being suspended the remainder of the season.  He didn't.  Braun hit only 9 HR before serving a suspension for the rest of the year.  That left him with only a stretch of 6 straight seasons to start a career of 10+HR.

Cubs

Billy Williams played in only 30 games over his first two seasons collecting only 2 HR

Ernie Banks collected only 2HR in his 10 game "cup of coffee" stint in 1953.

Ron Santo got close in his debut season by clubbing 9 HRs and would continue 10+HR the rest of his career, but it was his 95 game debut season that prevented him from double digit homers.

Don't forget that before Ryne Sandberg became a "lifelong" Cub, he was actually a member of the Phillies and got only 6 plate appearances in the 1981 season.  It would be difficult to get 10HR in 6 at bats. 

Reds

The Reds were a powerhouse in the 70s and were known as the Big Red Machine.

Tony Perez and Johnny Bench didn't become regulars until their fourth and second seasons respectively.

Frank Robinson collected 11 National League seasons of 10+HR, but they weren't in consecutive years as Frank had gone from the Reds to the American League's Orioles before rejoining the National League with the Dodgers.

The more recent Reds teams like Joey Votto and Jay Bruce also failed to collect 12 straight seasons of 10 or more homeruns.

Cardinals

Can you believe that Albert Pujols spent nearly the same amount of time in LA as he did in St. Louis?  The 3 time MVP did hit 445 career homeruns in the Arch City, but that was only over 11 seasons, not 12.

Johnny Mize spent 3 years of his prime serving the military, but was still able to collect 12 straight seasons playing in the NL from his MLB debut of 10+HR.

Mize ✔

Stan Musial hit a lot of homeruns, but not in his first season.

Jack Clark was the big bopper of the "Whitey ball era", but his career didn't start off with 12 National League seasons of 10+ HR.

Matt Holliday began his MLB career in Colorado and collected a surprising 11 straight seasons of 10+ HR before an All Star campaign in 2015 cut him short for the rest of the season and ending his streak.

Pirates

Willie Stargell, the franchise leader in HR didnt get his 1st homer until his second season after a 10 game debut season

Dave Parker, much like Stargell didn't get started in the power department until his sophomore season.

Ralph Kiner who was one of the premier power hitters in the late 40s and won SEVEN STRAIGHT Homerun titles, unfortunately retired after only 10 seasons in the league.

We know that Andrew McCutchen made the list and stayed in the National League after his trade from the Pirates to the Giants, but what about another guy who left the Steel City to the bay?

The Home Run King * makes the list too.

Barry Bonds ✔

Ok so off the top of my head I have only 4 of the 7 

Hank Aaron

Eddie Matthews

Barry Bonds

Johnny Mize

Who are the other 3?  They must be known for their time in the NL West.

Let's take a look at the NL West

Diamondbacks

Paul Goldschmidt, Luis Gonzalez, and Justin Upton are all guys that are most often thought of as the pop in Arizona's playoff teams, but all of them didn't begin their careers with 10+HR from their debut seasons.

Dodgers

As discussed Piazza didnt collect 10+HR in his debut season.  Eric Karros who won the Rookie of Year the Year after Piazza suffered the "cup of coffee" problem too.

Steve Garvey didn't get 10 on the board until his 5th season.

What about some other guys to collect a lot of homeruns over their Dodgers career?  Were any of these incredible athletes able to hit 10 or more HR to begin their career in the National League?

Duke Snider 👎

Matt Kemp 👎

Jackie Robinson 👎

Ron Cey 👎

Gil Hodges 👎

No no no! 

Padres

When I think of power hitters in San Diego, there are only a few names that come to mind: Ken Caminiti (who I know struggled early in his career), Adrian Gonzalez (who made his debut as a Ranger), Gary Sheffield (who debuted in the American League as a Brewer, Dave Winfield (who I know didn't play in the NL long enough to qualify), and Willie McCovey who is more well known for his time in San Francisco.

A quick search proves that McCovey did in fact begin his career with enough HR in 12+ consecutive National League seasons to qualify.

Giants

We already know of two names

Willie McCovey ✔

Barry Bonds ✔

Willie Mays began his career with 20HR then connected for only 4 in 1952 before serving the military the following year. 

Will Clark began his career with 8 seasons in San Francisco before heading to an American League team, thus ending the streak.

Orlando Cepeda began his career with a hot streak, but ultimately in 1965 only played in 33 games, collecting only 1 HR ending his 7 year stretch.

Rockies

Todd Helton and Troy Tulowitzki are the first guys to come to mind.  Helton didn't get more than 5 HR until his second season and only had 10 consecutive years.  Troy didn't play 12 years in the National League, much to my surprise.

So that makes 5 of the 7 and we went through all of the current National League teams, but have their been National League teams in the past that are no longer associated with a current franchise of the same name?

The forgotten NL Teams

Following up from the Rockies, Larry Walker also was unable to collect 10+HR to begin his career in a NL uniform as a member of the Expos.

Andre Dawson didn't collect his first HR until his second season following his debut.

Astros

Before multiple seasons of tanking and trash banging, the Astros had a few power hitters in their franchise. Jeff Bagwell is the only one to make the list of 12 seasons of 10 or more homeruns to begin their career in the National League.  Lance Berkman, Hunter Pence, and Ken Caminiti all fell short.

So here is the list I came up with

Barry Bonds

Hank Aaron

Eddie Matthews

Johnny Mize

Jeff Bagwell

Willie McCovey

That is only 6 players and according to the back of this Stadium Club card there are 7 players to begin their careers in the National League and have 10+ HR in a season for 12 consecutive years.  All six of them would go on to have several more seasons of 10+ HR in their careers and with the exception of a * all are Hall of Famers and All Time Greats.

I began looking at the leaderboards of All Time HR leaders, clicking on ANYONE that may have began their career in the National League.  It wasn't until the player that is 164th All Time that I came across a name I never heard of, Del Ennis.

Del Ennis began his career playing for his hometown Philadelphia Phillies in 1946.  As a 21 year old rookie, Ennis connected for 17HR while batting .313.  He made the All Star team and finished the season with an OPS+ of 144, meaning he was better than 44% of the league.  He played for the Phillies for 11 seasons collecting 259 round trippers. In the 1957 season, Ennis joined the St. Louis Cardinals and hit 24 balls out of the park, marking 12 straight consecutive seasons.  In 1958, Ennis would fail to hit double digit homers for the first time in his career and would retire following the 1959 season.  

Ennis failed to reach 13 seasons of 10+HR in the National League to begin a career.

With Cutch already having collected 15 HR in this half season, he has kept pace with the afformentioned Hall of Famers* as he now has 13 seasons of double digit homers.

All Star/Not An All Star?

If there ever were a need for a game show on MLB Network, the idea of just showing stats and letting people determine if they're an All Star or not would be a fun way to help enrage some fans.

Everyone has their favorite players, I get it.  And the most popular teams usually have the most amount of all stars.  I get that also.  

But every year there are players left off the All Star team that are such obvious snubs, it's ridiculous.

The most obvious this year is Max Scherzer.

Max has been battled by little to no run support on the season leading to a 7-4 record, but it's not for a lack of Max's efforts.  He has a 2.10ERA and has allowed only 59 hits over 94.1 innings.  In those 94.1 innings, Max has struck out 127 batters and has limited opponents to less than 1 base runner per inning (0.85WHIP).  He is easily still a top 5 pitcher in the National League as proven by these stats.

On a controversial note is a player who hasn't put up All Star level numbers, but is going to make the National League All Star Team for the first time in his Dodgers career.

Let's look at his triple slash line .246/.356/.453 good for an OPS of .809.  He has 11 HR, 7SB, 32RBI, and 50R while being one of the league's leaders with 43 BB.  

The player above is Mookie Betts, playing in his age 28 season and having made his 5th All Star Team.

Now let's look at the 34 year old Andrew McCutchen who also plays a corner outfield spot.

.233/.351/.448 good for a .799 OPS

He has 15HR, 6SB, 48RBI and 46R and is in third place with 46BB.  

Now I'm not saying that Betts is a bad player, but Cutch's numbers are right there nearly identical to a player that many casual fans feel is a top 5 player in the game.  

In case you missed it both Andrew McCutchen and Mookie Betts lent their voices to a Disney Channel cartoon called Puppy Dog Pals.  You can read the article here.

Mookie voiced the character Markus Bestie, the best player in the league.

Cutch voiced the cool card playing dog Wakaford P Cutchamuch (or Cutch for short)

I haven't had the chance to watch the episode, but I would love to get a custom card made featuring signatures of Betts and Cutch in the future. 

I really wish Cutch would make another All Star Team.  

I want some more Triple Threads patches limited to 9 copies in the collection.

Who do you think are the biggest All Star snubs this year? 

It's Clobberin' Time

One of my favorite Marvel catchphrases was by The Fantastic Four's Thing when he used to say "It's Clobberin Time".

Being said by a giant orange rock guy, you could tell you would be in for some pain.

The Phillies put up a crooked number against the Chicago Cubs yesterday in their attempts to get back in the division race.  They currently sit 4.5 games out of first with the Mets, Braves, and Nationals all playing for the division title.  

The Phillies offense hasn't been the problem for the past few years, it's been historically one of the worse bullpens ever assembled that has kept Philadelphia from making the postseason.  With a majors worse 20 blown saves on the 82 game season thus far, getting to the 9th inning while preserving a lead has been a VERY difficult task for the Phillies.  Hopefully the management team can put together some trades to translate into some more team wins and get the Phillies into the postseason this year.  

When healthy the offense can straight up mash the baseball.

Topps Now released a card earlier this season that celebrated the Phillies 7 HRs in one game which tied a franchise record.

Andrew McCutchen, Rhys Hoskins, and Matt Joyce were all pictured on the front of the card.

The back featured a writeup about the team's 17-3 victory over the Reds and how Cutch hit two homers along with Odubel Herrera.

Do you think the Phillies front office will make a big splash at the deadline to improve the bullpen and will the Phillies make the Postseason this year?