Oriole #956- Scott Feldman

Since I wrote my last Orioles debut post about Travis Ishikawa back in late June, five more players have made their Orioles debuts, three of whom were acquired in deals leading up to the trade deadline. Let me tell you, as a long-time O's fan, it's still feels strange to be on the receiving end of these types of trades. I'm much more used to the days when the team would ship out most of it's veterans at the end of July. Over the coming days, I'm going to write about each of the new players. 

 Scott Feldman Oriole #956, Debuted July 3 against White Sox

Back on July 2nd, the Orioles traded with the Cubs to acquire Feldman, and minor league catcher Steve Clevenger, in return for the long-struggling duo of Jake Arrieta and Pedro Strop. I feel like it was a smart idea to strike a deal before the starting pitcher trade market took shape and honestly, I don't feel like the O's had to give up very much to get Feldman. While both Arrieta and Strop have plenty of potential, they certainly weren't living up to it in Baltimore. 

Jake was one of the players I watched rise through the Orioles minor league system and I had high hopes for him, but he never seemed able to stay on top of the mental part of the game at the MLB level as attested to by his 5.46 ERA in 69 games (63 starts) with the Orioles. And Strop was a nice guy who always seemed to have a smile on his face, but had become a relatively unusable member (7.25 ERA) of the 2013 'pen.

Over 5 starts thus far with the O's, Feldman has a 2-2 record and a 5.12 ERA, so I would like to see him step it up a bit, but I still feel like the move was an overall upgrade for the team. 

I'm aware that the COMC.com logo is pictured on the card above, but it is the autograph of Feldman's that is in my collection for now, I just have not had the time to scan the card since it arrived at my house. There are a few certified autographs of Feldman out there, so his autograph is a relatively easy one to add to your Orioles autograph collection. 

And I know that this is small sample size, but in my first in-person autographing attempt to have Feldman sign one of my dad's Old Man Cards this past Sunday, he completely ignored the relatively small group of fans who were trying to get his autograph. I hope to have some better luck with him on my next attempt!