Cutch and His Amazing Phriends

I am so excited for the new Spider-Man movie coming out next month.  Because I used to collect comic books and the original art used to produce them, I have started buying singles from those mid 90s Fleer (Metal, Flair, Masterpieces) cards of characters I grew up loving.  Daredevil, Gambit, Iron Man, Venom, Wolverine, and Ghost Rider were some of my favorites.

Over the years Spider-Man has become one of my favorites too, but it is mostly because of his villains.  I have gravitated towards liking Spider-Man in my adulthood because of the villains he faces off against and has to overcome all having rivalry with both Peter Parker and Spider-Man.  That to me is a fascinating story and one that I am really enjoying more than just the visuals of a guy with his head on fire (Ghost Rider) or a dude who essentially throws playing cards like they're bombs (Gambit).

I am learning to enjoy the characterization of these fictional characters more than ever before and the characters that Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, John Romita, John Romita Jr, Todd McFarlane, Jack Kirby, etc all created are becoming fascinating to me.

I bring this up because of the Pirates and Reds rivalry that is getting a bit out of hand this year and has been ongoing since the 70s.  When Cutch was in his prime 2012 to 2015, the Reds were also very good.  I hated the back and forth bean balls between the teams and it is shocking that no one got greatly injured because of them. 

Since those 2015 years both teams had been on the downward slope and the rivalry started to die off as the teams were rebuilding and restocking farm systems. 

The Pirates traded away Andrew McCutchen, Gerrit Cole, Charlie Morton, and Neil Walker and they let Pedro Alvarez go via wavers and AJ Burnett retired.

Meanwhile Brandon Phillips, Todd Frazier, Aroldis Chapman, Jay Bruce, Homer Bailey, and Devin Mesorroco have all changed teams.

Along the way, my favorite player has had to team up with some of these guys that once were heated rivals.

Let's take a look at some former Reds and what they are up to in the past week.

AROLDIS CHAPMAN
The guy who used to own the record for fastest pitch thrown (against Andrew McCutchen no less) was a key part of the rivalry between the Pirates and Reds between 2012-2015.  He became a teammate of Cutch last year when Cutch was traded from the Giants to the Yankees late August 2018.  He leads all American League closers in strikeouts and after early concerns about him in that role, trails only Shane Green for the American League in saves. 

I got a bunch of Yankees autographs I will be showing this year. A BUNCH!!!

JAY BRUCE
News just broke today that the Phillies are set to acquire Jay Bruce from the Mariners.  Details of the prospects heading to Seattle or the amount of the Phillies absorbing the nearly $20+ million left on the contract remain unknown.  This is probably a sign that they are planning on moving on from Odubel Herrera after his recent Atlantic City arrest for domestic violence.

I just showed off a pair of Jay Bruce autos a little over a week ago.  It was called "Thanks For Being A Loser, Greg Maddux".  It looks like these two former back to back 2005 draft picks will now be teammates for the Phillies.

TODD FRAZIER

I love pancakes.

Who doesn't?

Evidently Todd Frazier is some kind of weirdo that thinks the edges of pancakes aren't any good.

What? Why?

The story broke a few days ago.

Does anyone know if he signs TTM?
I would love to send this out to him with the hopes of one day getting Cutch to sign it at a Phillies game.  The two were teammates for the 2015 National League All-Star Game.

This post was brought to you by the awesome soundtrack of Venom.

Sometimes it's ok to shake hands and celebrate with an old enemy.