To trade Castellanos or not? That is the BIG question...

The Tigers are apparently talking trade with a number of teams...the Cubs ( Garza Barney, Dempster), the Diamondbacks (Upton), the Mariners (Vargas), and apparently Greinke from the Brewers...the big question is whether Nick Castellanos is tradeable...I realize that you have to give up something to get something with quality in return....the only guy I would say possibly is Upton who would be worthy and even there I have some reservations...I would not put him in the same category as Cabrera when we traded Cameron Maybin and Andrew Miller along with some other minor leaguers...Upton could be close to Cabrera's caliber in a year or two but then so could Castellanos who is moving to the OF apparently.....What say ye, baseball and Tiger fans...do the Tigers trade him?

Been way too long!!!!

My apologies for not posting for quite awhile...with my teaching, coaching, and working on my masters program, and trying to stay involved with my 6 children's activities, I had to put this blog on the backburner for a time.

Some musings then since my last blog:
   #1 I like the Topps 2012 set...I can't say I love it like last year's set but to me its been a nice set to work on....I did like the World Series Pin cards..I got the Lincecum 2010 card and its very sharp

   #2  My Tigers, picked to run away from the others in the AL Central, are struggling a bit out of the gate...the pitching has been fairly solid....am hoping that the hitting starts warming up as the weather does as well.  My Verlander has been lights out other than one bad ninth inning against Tampa earlier in the year....here's one of my favorite Verlander cards from last years Topps Tier 1 set.

    #3 My Wolverines had their spring game and what I saw there as well as the early returns on the recruiting trail, it appears Meeeeeeeeeechigan football is back!  The day can't come fast enough for them to tighten the laces and get on the gridiron against Alabama in September.  The scary thing is that although the Wolverines may better talent wise this year, they may not duplicate their record due to the tough schedule, especially on the road.  Here's a couple of recent ebay pickups to whet the Wolverine fans' appetite for the fall to come.

these are former gameday book covers throughout the years...there are about 55 of these different replica covers in the set

Happy New Year everyone!!!

Hope everyone has a great NewYear's Day!....I know this weekend is going to be filled with lots of football and time with family and friends....here's some recent ebay purchases that finished out my buying for 2011.

Last time Michigan was in the Sugar Bowl?

The year was 1984 where the 8th ranked Wolverines played the 3rd ranked Auburn Tigers...Auburn won 9-7 on 3 Al de Greco field goals in the 2nd half....Steve Smith scored the game's only touchdown in the first half....

Here's hoping this year's game is a little more exciting with Virginia Tech ....my prediction is a 31-20 win for the Wolverines and Brady Hoke goes 11-2 and a top 10 finish in his first year at the helm of the Wolverines.

The rest of the BCS predictions:

Clemson wins big over West Virginia  37-17

Oregon over Wisconsin 38-21

Oklahoma State over Stanford 45-38 in what may be the most entertaining BCS game this year

And LSU wins the rematch over Alabama 21-17 to finish one of the greatest years a college football team has ever had.

Feel free to post your BCS predictions below...am very interested in hearing what my fellow bloggers think about the BCS matchups.

Here's a couple of players from Michigan's last Sugar Bowl team from my TK Legacy UM set....

Topps Tier 1 box break...a Christmas present to myself

I had to run some errands yesterday and stopped by a local card shop to browse and pick up some card supplies....they had a some specials going on, one which involved Topps Tier 1 boxes...they had 1 left and after looking around and not seeing anything that caught my eye, I decided to try it....knowing there would be two autos and 1 relic in the 7 card pack(box) helped me decide to go for it and give myself a Christmas present.

Here's what my $70 got me for Christmas:

First the base cards numbered to 799:

got two Hall of Famers and a nice player in McCutchen...would have liked a Tiger or two but happy with these...I really like the design on these thick stock cards which all the cards are made on.

Next are the two autos:

Can't complain too much with these on card autos which I  am happy to see ( no stickers!!)  ....Craig is one of the Cardinals top prospects....the Heyward auto is numbered to 99...pretty happy here....seen a lot of duds on ebay last night checking out who all signed.




Next is a parallel card which I was very very  happy with:

only the 1 of 1's are a better parallel pull than the purple ones....#4 out of 25

And we have now our relic pull.....

This was a nice way to finish out the pack (box) I'd say....all in all, I'm pretty happy with what I pulled....I think I would like to check out some of the Tigers in this set and see if I can add to my Tiger collection.

Beat Ohio! Beat Ohio! Beat Ohio!

When Michigan plays that team from the south (Ohio as Coach Hoke calls), in some ways it brings a little sadness in that a whole season has just gone by and, other than the bowl game to come, there will be no more Saturdays watching Meeeeechigan football with friends but also with my dad who turned 68 this year.   As each season ends, I wonder more and more if there will be another season to watch my beloved Wolverine football at my dad's house with him who brought me to my first UM game back in the mid 70's watching Gordie Bell and Rob Lytle run through Big Ten defenses to bring Michigan to victory.  My first game at the Big House watching the team from Ohio was when Art Schlichter was beaten up by the Wolverines in 1978, I believe.

This year Brady Hoke has a chance to do the unthinkable by beating Ohio and finishing 10-2 in his first year as coach of the Meeeechigan Wolverines.  I had predicted 8-4 but had hopes Denard would have a season that would carry them farther than that.  Who would have thought that the play of the defense coached by Mattison would really be the reason for a chance for a 10-2 season and a shot at a BCS bowl after last year's debacle?  Hats off to the defense and their coaches for one of the most amazing turn-arounds a team has ever had, going from the 100's in most defensive categories in D1 football to being in the top 20 with basically the same guys sprinkled with a few freshmen.  

Something tells me that the defense and offense will be ready on Saturday Nov. 25 to finish off a truly unbelievable season and end the losing streak against Ohio.  31-17 in favor of the Meeeeeechigan Wolverines.

Here's a card of the guy who had one of the most unbelievable games in UM-Ohio history back in 1995 to knock the #2 Buckys from the national championship game, the last UM-Ohio game I attended.  Mr. Touissant, now it is your turn!!

Congratulations Brady Hoke!!

It was not a barn-burner, but it was a very satisfactory win today over the Broncos of Western Michigan...with Notre Dame getting beat ( looking past the Bulls, were we Irish?), and some other close calls by some rated teams ( Auburn, USC and others)...UM fans have to be happy with a lot of things today.

#1 The defense....it is a work in progress but already appears to be head and shoulders above last years disarray....it certainly has Mattison's fingerprints all over it with its blitzes and 4 man front....they struggles some but certainly got the game turned around  with their two TDs...Thank you Mr. Herron!! first two time TD defensive player in the same game....will be great to see this defense develop over the year....still very young but there is talent there and is coming in next year as well.

#2 The offense...Mr. Koger is going to have a big year at TE.....great catch in first half....nice duo back with Toussaint and Shaw....saw some power in OL in short yardage plays....also a work in progress but it appears Al Borges is developing a game plan to keep Denard healthy but still use his playmaking skills at times as well....will certainly score a lot of points this year.


Bring on the Irish!!!

Here's a guy who you had to watch every time he touched the ball back in the late '70's/early '80's....who can forget the Indiana game...last catch for about 50 yards on the last play....he was simply electric with the ball.