Waiting for a Contest Update

So, heading into yesterday's games, it certainly seemed like more than one team would have been eliminated from the playoffs by this point, but the Rays remain the only team sent home through today. The Tigers-Yankees series will end tonight, while both N.L. series will wrap up tomorrow.

Honestly, as someone who doesn't have a team in the playoffs (I'm rooting for the Cardinals in the N.L. and preferred the Rays in the A.L.) having three of the four series go all five games in pretty exciting. I'm pretty much always up for some additional baseball.

Once all the Divisional Series match-ups are decided, I will post a contest update at some point over the weekend. My only observation to this point is that FanOfReds is in trouble since he picked the Rays to win the World Series.


And now for something completely different...

I was recently able to upgrade the Adam Eaton autograph in my collection to this 2009 Allen & Ginter card, his one and only Orioles card that was released in a set that debuted after the Orioles had cut him loose.

Adam was a decent enough signer when he was with the O's and he signed this Padres card for me in person before a game, but I was never able to catch up with him after his time with the O's. He doesn't seem to sign TTM requests, so I was stuck until someone offered up the A&G on SCN.

It bothers me how many upgraded autographs I need from Orioles who played over the past ten years or so; I have some sort of autograph of all of them, but so many guys have Orioles cards released after their time in Baltimore that it almost always throws a wrench in my collection. C'est la vie.

Orioles Autograph Year in Review: Inconclusive players

So I've been thinking about how I should go about my project regarding the '09 Orioles players signing habits. I am going to start by addressing the players who played less than 20 games for the O's and who I didn't get a good feel for their signing habits. So this post will mainly focus on bench players, injured types, and players who weren't cut out to wear the orange and black.

I will start with a few guys who played in less than 10 games for the O's due to injury or poor play.



Alfredo's 09 season lasted all of 2 starts. Well, that's not even very accurate. His season lasted 1 bad start and a second start in which he was pulled in the second inning due to injury. I think it was a shoulder injury that he was initially to have been able to rehab from, but that never happened.

His season ended (and the starting rotation began to fall apart) on April 14. I have seen that some people have had success with him signing TTM with items sent to the Orioles offices. He is one of only 2 players on the '09 roster that I don't have an autograph of, but this is the card I want signed.


I got this card signed at the last game of the season. I tried to call Chris over to sign at a few other games but he never seemed too excited about signing. In a way, he seemed shocked that anyone knew who he was when I called out his name. He only appeared in 4 games in the mop-up role, so he didn't factor into the season very much.

Chris did manage to rack up some decent strike out numbers during his appearances and was the bullpen rookie backpack bearer for the last month of the season.




I got these card's signed by Bob at the Tides game I went to earlier this season. He seemed pretty good at signing there but I don't believe I saw him sign once in Baltimore.

Bob's time with the Orioles organization is likely over. He has appeared in 15 games over the past two seasons and has a 16.46 ERA. He has NOT allowed a run in only 5 of those games, and four of them were last season. Not good.



Adam signed this card for me after shagging fly balls during O's batting practice.
Most of you are probably aware that his time in Baltimore didn't go that well (2-5 record, 8.56 ERA) but he seemed like a decent signer. The O's released him on May 22 and the Rockies picked him up on June 6, and eventually released him on September 9.

After he was released by the Orioles, Allen & Ginter released a card of him in an O's uniform that I really want to get signed.




Radhames only appeared in 2 games for the O's this season and I don't recall seeing him sign during his brief stint with the Birds. I was able to get him to sign in Norfolk and Bowie this season, but he did seem to have a "big-league" attitude while with the Baysox. By that I mean he seemed like he was a little above signing for the Bowie fans.



I didn't really enjoy Freel's time with the Orioles. I wasn't a big fan of his attitude or his view of what his playing time should be. Apparently neither did the Cubs, Royals or Rangers who all designated him for assignment during the '09 season after his time with the O's.

A friend (shout out to Meghan!) got this signed for me at FanFest. I don't think he signed much outside of that time.

Thank you Paul and goodbye Eaton...

Paul of Paul's Random Stuff is awesome and got my Ryan Bukvich card signed recently at a Newark Bears game. It's this type of kind, random acts that makes me so happy to interact and trade with all of you fellow bloggers. It is a long shot that I will be able to see the Bears play in York this summer so Paul made my life easier (and if Paul's scouting reports are accurate, Bukvich probably will be signed by an affiliated club by the time the team comes to York).

Bukvich pitched (rather ineffectively) in 4 games for the O's during the '08 season, posting a 6.75 ERA allowing 9 hits, 2 HRs and 6 BBs in 5.1 innings. He doesn't have a card in an O's uniform so this is the closest thing I have to an Orioles card.

Thanks again Paul!

Also, Adam Eaton was released by the Orioles tonight and was replaced on the 25 man roster by Matt Albers, who is on his third stint with the O's this season.

Goodbye, Adam

Welcome back, Matt!

Somehow these slipped through the cracks

I had a great autograph day at last Wednesday's Orioles-Rays game and somehow failed to write about it. Better late than never right?

I was able to scratch off two current O's from my list. Adam Eaton was a really nice guy, contrary to what Phillies phans might say, and Robert Andino signed for a bunch of people over the dugout. Unfortunately, neither of these guys have an Orioles card yet but I can't complain.





I was also able to grab an auto from the only former Oriole currently on Tampa's 25 man roster. Lance Cormier was a nice guy who came right over to sign for me; he kind of seemed pleased that somebody was calling out his name as opposed to Upton, Crawford, Longoria, etc. Most middle-relievers are happy to be recognized and are the best signers at games.



Ben Zobrist & Grant Balfour also signed for a bunch of fans. They both seemed like nice guys. And Kalina is a big Balfour fan for reasons I won't mention here; let's just say that they have a cool connection.




Finally, here are two returned TTM requests that I got back in the past week. I think it's interesting how similar these two guys look. Similar hairstyles, both righties; they could almost be the same person! Holdsworth's signature also looks very similar to his on the card and it was nice of him to include a different inscription than I am used to. He told me to "Dream Big"; Thanks Fred!

Boring post about Oranganization

Sorry that I really don't have much to include in this post. I wish that I had some exciting new information about autographs or the O's but I don't. I am heading to the O's game tonight so that should be fun and could possibly yield some autographs.

I have been trying to organize all of my unsigned Orioles cards alphabetically to prepare to send out a wave of TTM requests since I haven't sent any out for about two weeks. This has been much more time-consuming than I originally anticipated so that has contributed to my infrequent posting. Also, I was sick.

If anyone has any unsigned Orioles common cards, the more obscure players are specifically what I need, and would like to trade them or send them to me, it would be greatly appreciated.

It was great to see the O's take the series from the White Sox, finishing off with a dominating 8-2 win, which was thankfully controlled by Adam Eaton. Phillies phans eat your heart out, I guess he's better when he is getting paid less than $8 million per.

And as a tease, I have a few Orioles Alumni autographs from yesterday along with one card that I bought online and hope to post pictures later.

Have a nice weekend and I hope to see you at the Yard!