Thursday, January 30, 2014
Annnnnnd... We're Done.
With this sketch of a horrified Duke Welker holding a severed hand and the comedy stylings of happy Charlie Morton, we're done with all 49 players of the 2013 Pirates. Next, some coaches and mascots, if I go ahead and try to get to 54 for the poker deck.
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Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Now Batting, for...
We've got our top bats off the bench here in Travis Snider and Josh Harrison. J-Hey is probably my favorite Pirate. There were some great shots of him but I didn't think I could do them justice. Not sure I did with this, either. He's much better looking than that. All the good photos of Snider were of him being angry after striking out.
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Monday, January 27, 2014
Aged and Stolmy
I tell you, fatigue is starting to set in. I'm getting tired of my stupid scanner, my stubby pencil, and really tired of that freaking Pirate logo with the eye-patch. I'm glad the team is getting rid of it. Oddly, I still get plenty of pleasure out of drawing the P. I love the lettering on the Pirates uniforms. Here's AJ Burnett. I wanted a pose where he's waving goodbye, tipping his hat, etc. Also, he's not a handsome guy. Not sure I captured that. Plus, young Stolmy Pimentel.
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Sunday, January 26, 2014
Tabata Thousand? Not my best pun
Starting into the single digits remaining, we knock out a couple outfielders that at one point we thought would be regulars: Jose Tabata and Alex Presley. Tabata seems destined to be a good fourth outfielder and Presley as well, but now with the Twins.
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Saturday, January 25, 2014
Black as Cole
Couple young guns: Gerrit Cole and Vic Black. One we'll keep to anchor the rotation of the future, the other we traded for Byrd and Buck. He'll possibly be closing for the Mets next year.
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Friday, January 24, 2014
Earth and Sky, with Buck and Byrd
Two guys who came over at the trade deadline. Marlon Byrd made an immediate impact and became a crowd favorite. John Buck not so much but the guy looks like Peter Freuchen, which is pretty awesome. I was really happy with both of these... starting to get some more character into the drawings. I guess it's easiest when guys are sitting around rather than in action.
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Wednesday, January 22, 2014
F4rnsy and Wandy
A couple guys I tended to grab for my teams over the years. Kyle Farnsworth, aka Prof_F4rnsw0rth whose jersey I had made up, and Wandy Rodriguez. I really should have been smarter about this whole project and not used my big fat hardcover sketchbook which is almost impossible to press down enough to not get that dang left shadow near the binding out if the drawing goes too close to it. Oh well.
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Monday, January 20, 2014
JMs
There are a million hilarious images out there of Jordy Mercer. He seems like a free spirit which makes me like him even more as a player. I wish the drawing had come out better. I like the second, of Justin Morneau, though, a lot. He also had always been one of my favorite players though he didn't do so hot with the Bucs. I was listening to The Sophtware Slump while drawing him and I think some of the melancholy came through.
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Sunday, January 19, 2014
Two Young Righties
Tonight, Brandon Cumpton and Bryan Morris. Around the same age. Morris was drafted 4 years earlier as Cumpton went to college. Cumpton was picked by the Pirates in the 6th round. Morris by the Dodgers in the 26th round. One is on the track to be a solid major league starter. The other is hoping to have a decent career as a middle reliever. At least Morris can say he was once traded for Manny Ramirez.
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Saturday, January 18, 2014
Sketches of Broken Dreams
In the end, the story of Garrett Jones, improbably Pirate hero came to crash in 2013. At one point in the year it seemed like every single time there was a close game, Jones came up in a key situation and struck out or weakly grounded to short. I think the expectations of him were too much, coming up as an older rookie in his peak physical years. At least he got to finish the year on the team but I'm sure it burned him up a bit to see Byrd and Morneau out there instead of him. Felix Pie has been disappointing his entire career and with the Pirates it started the same way. A couple good games had people thinking he might be the answer. He never is, though.
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Friday, January 17, 2014
Who?
Honestly, I don't remember either Ryan Reid's or Chris Leroux's contributions in 2013. Neither pitched more than a handful of innings. But in researching them, I learned that Reid is from Portland, ME. So... that's cool.
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Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Slave Hates Neil Walker
It never ceases to amuse me that the Pirates depend so much on Neil Walker to be a superstar, who is indeed a good player, but not really a superstar. This goes hand in hand with when I drafted him into our rookie leagues so long ago and Slave insisted that he would never be a starter, much less an impact player. Whenever there is any kind of Neil Walker promotion, I make sure to get one of them to send to Slave. Also included catcher-of-the-future Tony Sanchez who wound up being one of the most frustrating and labor-intensive drawings I've done. I don't hate it as much as the Fred Flintstone-esqe John McDonald, though.
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Saturday, January 11, 2014
Philthy Grilled Cheese Time
Young Phil Irwin toweling off after his only appearance in 2013, one out short of qualifying for a win plus Jessica's favorite Jason Grilli.
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Friday, January 10, 2014
Swingman
One of my favorite Buccoes, great role-player (not the d20 kind, but well, maybe I guess), Jeanmar Gomez.
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Thursday, January 09, 2014
Something Old, Something New
Here's young Jeff Locke and old Jose Contreras figuring out what to do against their opponents.
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Tuesday, January 07, 2014
Pirates Necklace
This lovely portrait of Kris Johnson, below Vin Mazzaro, is from that magical moment I remember blogging with a lot of capital letters when he struck out to end the game in extra innings against the Diamondbacks. Probably my most frustrated moment of the year. I realize now he was at the time wearing one of those "Pirates necklaces" that my sister had so sweetly asked Jessica if I already owned and I told Jessica to take whatever steps were necessary to prevent my sister from obtaining one for me.
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Monday, January 06, 2014
Let's hear it for the Ooooo's
Pedro and Lambo
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Sunday, January 05, 2014
Fun-A-Day 2014
As part of Fun-A-Day Pittsburgh 2014, I'm back on the train to try to sketch all of the 2013 Buccoes. Here for your pleasure are John McDonald (closing his eyes on an inside fastball - so that's how he does it!), Tony Watson, and Jared Hughes.
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