Alfredo Simon Joins the Party

Alfredo Simon 2008-

I have written about Alfredo quite a bit since he was the only current member of the Orioles whose autograph that I didn't have after the addition of Koji Uehara last week. But a reader named Paul came through with this awesome addition to my collection. Now I don't have to stay up nights wondering how the hell I didn't yet have Alfredo in my collection. I'm kidding, but I do like being able to say that I now have every current Orioles players' autograph. Thanks Paul!

So I'm not really sure what's going on with this card; he's obviously wearing a Phillies uniform but the card has the Giants logo on it so it's from around the time he was traded by the Phillies to the Giants in mid-2004. Why do card companies do this? I know you want the team logo to be current, but it bothers me when you have these "2 team" types of cards. It should either be one or the other since I now have no idea how to categorize it. What I do know is that it's definitely not an Orioles card, which Alfredo does have two of, a 09 Topps Heritage and a 09 O-Pee-Chee, so I still hope to get one of those signed when I'm at spring training.

Also, his autograph is already a front-runner for my 2010 Siggy award for the least legible autograph. I guess the big swirl at the beginning is an A, and then I guess there is an S, but I'm not sure. His given name seems to be Alfredo Carlos E Cabrera Simon so he could sign some variation of that but it's impossible to tell.

Alfredo broke camp last year as the Orioles 5th starter, which lasted all of 1+ regular season starts (and a grand total of 6.1 innings) before he went down with a Tommy John injury and missed the rest of the year. Reports out of Sarasota are saying that he looks good so far this spring and he is really bringing the heat. He had also pitched in 4 games for the O's at the end of the '08 season.


Another thing that I found interesting about Alfredo is that this is his second go-round (technically) in the Birds organization. The O's drafted him in the 2006 Rule V draft from the Texas Rangers and traded him that same day to the Phillies for Adam Donachie (who had been taken in the draft from the Royals). The Phillies eventually returned Alfredo to the Rangers and the O's returned Donachie to the Phillies (who returned him to the Royals) since neither was able to crack the clubs' 25-man Opening Day rosters. But now it's 2010 and they are both together in Sarasota at the Orioles Major League Spring Training camp. Pretty cool, right?


Also, Adam was a member of the NW Arkansas Naturals, the Royals AA team, in 2008. The team plays in Springdale, Arkansas where my grandma lives and I got to see them play when I visited her last summer. It's a small baseball world.