Welcome to the Blue, Jose Miguel Fernandez!

Word spread this past weekend that the Dodgers were in the midst of signing another Cuban free agent.  His name is Jose Miguel Fernandez, he bats left-handed, and has primarily been a second baseman but has been playing third this winter.  Fernandez originally tried to escape Cuba in 2014 but failed, then actually escaped in December 2015, and received MLB free agent status in April the following year.  It is a minor league deal with a bonus of $200,000; per Jesse Sanchez at MLB.com.

2016 Panini National Treasures Baseball - The Dodgers Booklet Cards

A couple of weeks ago Panini released their 2016 National Treasures Baseball card set, and I am only now able to share some pics of the Dodger cards found within it.  Go here for a complete checklist.  I am still working on gathering pics of the base cards, so I figured I start with photos of many of the Dodger booklet cards that are available.

Something of note, I've run into several cards that are not listing in the original checklist provided by Panini, so there could very well be more Dodger cards out there that we don't know about.  For instance, there is an Clayton Kershaw Stars Booklet Materials Signatures card available that is not found on their checklist.

Armory Materials Booklet

#4 Corey Seager

Blog Kiosk: 1/9/2017 - Dodgers Links - Some Odds and Ends

Check out this fantastic Sandy Koufax artwork found on the streets of Tel Aviv, Israel; pic via Jonathon Mayo on twitter.  It was part of a photo op for an upcoming documentary that follows the Israeli Baseball teams travels as they head towards the World Baseball Classic later this year.  Via Ben Fisher at the Jerusalem Post:

A group of 10 past, current, and future Major League Baseball players, including first-baseman Ike Davis and former outfielder Gabe Kapler, are in the country for a week-long tour that has seen them help to break ground at a new baseball field in Beit Shemesh, meet with MK Michael Oren, who hails from the United States, and enjoy the typical tourist sites around the country, including the Dead Sea, Masada and Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
...
“We brought [the players] here to have some kind of connection [with Israel]. That way, when the tournament actually starts in March, we’ll have people really, really excited about it,” she said.

Below are more links to check out:

• Happy Birthday, Harley Payne, George Crable, Ivan de Jesus, Ferrell Anderson & Otis Nixon!