Card of the Week - 8/20/14

Often times in baseball, a team's season can hinge on a single player.  If that player is playing well, then they are in contention.  If that player gets hurt, then they may fall out of contention.  That appears to be the tale of the season for the favorite team one of the mlbshowdowncards.blogspot.com team members.  That team member is @BucNforTheCard, and his team is the Pittsburgh Pirates (if you couldn't tell, just check his Twitter page).  The player in question for those Pirates is...

...Andrew McCutchen.  At this point in the season, he is looking to have an even better card in 2014.  Both his OBP and SLG numbers are up this year, and he has a chance at being one of the two On-Base 11 cards for the set as well.  But for the Bucs to make the playoffs again this year, he may have to do even more.  In his recent absence on the DL, the Pirates went 5-9, dropping them to 9 games out of first and 2.5 games out of the second wild card spot..  That's not to say that it can't be done, but they have their work cut out for them.  With over a month left in the season, anything can happen.  But if it is going to, McCutchen is going to need to keep up the pace that he is on, and hope the team can follow suit.