Baseball Bulletin... January 12, 2018

The NFL Divisional playoff round is this weekend, and that means were about a month from all baseball teams pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training.

As always on the Baseball Bulletin, here's a few things I've come across recently on ye olde Internet.


😘 Today is National Kiss a Redhead Day.

When it comes to baseball and red heads we've had Rusty Staub, Boog Powell, Clint Frazier, Matt Murton, and, of course, the one and only Red Schoendinst.

⚾️ As the top two free agents, Bryce Harper, and Manny Macahado continue to look to break the bank, a few other players have come to terms to play baseball.


🐯⚾️🖋 My Detroit Tigers signed a trio of pitchers to contracts today, reports Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press.

😊 One of the three pitchers to sign with my Tigers was my favorite Motown hurler, Matt Boyd.

💙⚾️ As Matthew was signing his contract, I got an email from Topps that my card of Boyd from last week's Topps Living Set is on the way!

🐯 The signing of the three Tigers lefty's come one day after Detroit inked righty reliever Shane Greene to a $4 million dollar deal.

🐯 The Tigers also avoided arbitration when they signed Nicholas Castellanos to a contract for the 2019 season that will pay the slugging outfielder $9.95 million dollars.

⚾️🖋 in other baseball news, the Los Angeles Dodgers have acquired catcher  Russell Martin for a pair of minor leaguers.

Martin started his career with the Dodgers, and I remember him playing for the Jacksonville Suns, the Double-A affiliate of Los Angeles at the time.

🖋 My favorite big league catcher, J.T. Realmuto, another former JAX Suns player,
 has avoided arbitration with the Marlins, along with 4 other members of the Fish.

🖋 One of my favorite ballplayers is Michigan native D J LeMahieu, has signed a 2 year, $24 million dollar contract with the New York Yankees.

LeMahieu, who played college baseball at LSU, a 3- time Gold Glove Award winning 2nd Baseman while with the Colorado Rockies, and won the National League batting championship in 2016.

A few of my favorite players have ended up playing for the Bronx Bombers over the years, and I always shrug when I hear the news


🗽 From 1970s slugger Steve Kemp, 1990 A.L. Home Run and RBI champ Cecil Fielder, too Gold Glove catcher Pudge Rodriguez all were ex-Tigers who eventually played for the Yankees...and you can also add slugger Giancarlo Stanton, especially since he's my Princesses favorite ballplayer.


 ⚾️🃏📰 In baseball card news, I'll be headed to a local card show Saturday.

I always enjoy this card show, and I hope that I'll be able to pick up a few Matt Boyd, J.T. Realmuto, or Daniel Megden cards to my collection.

👀 Today I wrote a post on finding out that Mengden shares a Happy Baseball Birthday! with me.


🎯 There's been some crazy stuff going on in the card market lately, and our friend Dub lays it all out for you in his latest post.


🏅 The blog Collective Mind has handed out their 2018 Collective Awards.


🎁 William over at Foul Bunt added a pretty big TTM autograph card to his collection.


As I stated at the start it's another weekend of playoff games in the NFL, and, for what it's worth, I've got the Colts over the Chiefs, the Rams over the Cowboys (my Princess won't like this pick), the Patriots over the Chargers, and the Saints over the Eagles.



☹ It's been a tough couple of days for me, as I had to say goodbye to my best buddy for the past 11 years, Desmond Howard Sharp.

My Daddy Bubbs, named after the 1991 Heisman Trophy Award winner from Michigan, was the sweetest little man you'll ever meet, and I miss him very much.

It's not the first time we've said goodbye to our pets, but this one hurts the most, and I'm not certain I'll ever get over losing my most handsome boy.



💛💙 Thanks for taking the time to read this blog post.


Until next time, PLAY BALL!