Andrew McCutchen

Posted on October 11th, 2012 by admin

Andrew McCutchen is the starting center fielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates, while he is putting up tremendous numbers he is still flying under the radar when it comes to both fans and collectors. Due to McCutchen playing in a struggling smaller market like Pittsburgh he is not as well known as he should be. The 25 year old was recently just selected to his second All Star Game, something McCutchen should get used to if he continues to play the way he has this season. McCutchen is currently hitting .341 with 26 homers and 85 RBI’s.

Defensively Andrew McCutchen covers center field with tremendous speed and ability; he is likely to earn himself a few Golden Gloves or more. McCutchens’ .341 batting average is good enough for second in the National League, trailing only Melky Cabrera who is currently serving a 50 game suspension for testing positive for performance enhancing drugs. In all reality with McCutchens speed and power he will likely be a 30/30 guy and possibly approach 40/40. Another reason I think McCutchen is a guy collectors should be paying attention to is the fact that a small market like Pittsburgh may be unlikely to afford to pay him fair value after his current contract expires.

We saw a similar situation around 20 years ago with Barry Bonds, he was also a Pittsburgh Pirate and outgrew the small market. With Bonds’ Pittsburgh items being less abundant it is likely those items would be worth more.