Who Will Play Third For the O's in 2011?

Since it seems as though Josh Bell still needs some seasoning in the Minors and the Orioles don't have any other great candidates in-house right now, I'm interested to see who the Orioles will bring in to play third base in 2011 and possibly beyond. They could re-sign Ty Wigginton, but I kind of hope that they don't, at least not to be the everyday starter. I don't have anything against Ty, but the fan base needs a swift kick in the pants, not a love tap on the behind. It's a sad thing, but less people care about the O's each year in Baltimore. I think it's ridiculous to give up on the team, but some might call me a "superfan".

Let's see if you can guess who I think the Orioles are going to end up with...

Mark was a backup catcher in the Majors for 13 seasons from 1986-98 and spent two stints with the Orioles in 1992-93 & again in '96. He only appeared in 57 games over his three seasons with the O's, all but one as acatcher, and he never played third base over his 474 Big League games.

He is currently a manager in the Phillies' farm system and was promoted to the AA Reading Phillies following the 2010 season, so I might try to get his autograph in person at a Baysox game this season.

 

I wrote about Bob last summer and don't have much to add to that, but I will say that he never played third base over the 140 games covering six seasons that he spent in the Majors.

You have any idea where I'm going with this yet?

Mark appeared in 314 games in the Majors over his eight season career, but every single appearance came on the mound. He spent the 1988-89 seasons in Baltimore and had a dismal 3-12 record for the Birds, including an abysmal 1-8 campaign in '88. 

 

I picked up this autograph at the National in August and to avoid repeating myself, you can read what I wrote here. Harold played in 1374 Major League games but never appeared at the hot corner.  

So what the hell am I getting at here? Has anyone figured it out?  

Well, I think the O's will end up trading with the Diamondbacks to obtain Mark Reynolds. See what I did here? A Mark, then a Reynolds, then a Mark, then another Reynolds. That's about as witty as things get around these parts.

The rest of the new TTMs

Here are the other TTMs that have been returned to me in the past 2 weeks:

Funny thing is that I received a Mark Corey card from Pol while I was waiting for this to come back to me. I just wrote about Mark last week.

Jim Marshall 1958

Jim played for the O's at the beginning of his career during the first half of 1958. He later was the manager of the Cubs from 1974-76 and the A's in 1979. He is mainly known for being the first ever Mets 1B when the team debuted in 1962 and for being part of the first interleague (non-waiver) trade in baseball history when the Cubs shipped him to the Red Sox in 1959. He is now a scout for the Diamondbacks.

Ron Moeller 1956, 58

When I first saw this card, I said to myself "Ron looks really young." While I was doing my research on Ron, I discovered that he was only 17 when he debuted for the Orioles in 1956, so I would think this picture was taken then. And I also theorize that has to be the youngest Orioles debut ever, but I don't know how or where I could check that. It's amazing to think that guys played in the majors in their teens at one point. I think Justin Upton did that recently but Chris Tillman is currently the youngest O's prospect close to the Bigs and he is 21 years old.

Something I found really interesting is that Ron had exactly a 4.15 ERA in each of his two seasons with the O's. He pitched in four games in both 1956 and 1958 allowing four ERs in 8.2 IP in '56 and gave up 2 ER in 4.1 IP in '58. Weird, right?

Ron was drafted away from the Orioles by the Angels in the 1960 expansion draft.

Bob Oliver 1974

Bob played in 9 games for the O's towards the end of his career. Darren Oliver, currently a reliever for the LA Angels, is Bob's son and interestingly, they were both teammates of Nolan Ryan; Bob with the California Angels from 1972-74 and Darren with the Rangers in 1993. The Angels traded Bob to the O's for cash in 1974 and the Orioles sent Mickey Scott to the Angels to complete the trade.

Mickey Scott 1972-73

Speaking of Mickey, here he is. Mr. Scott was born in Weimar, Germany and I believe that he is the only Orioles player to have been born in Germany, and possibly in all of Europe.

Tom Patton 1957

Tom caught one game for the O's and went 0-2 at the plate; but he did well behind it. He had 6 total chances, and recorded 4 put-outs and 2 assists, also helping turn a double-play. Tom also seems like a really nice guy and added this note along with the autographed card he sent me. Thanks Tom!

Bob "Bullet" Reynolds 1972-75

Bob earned the nickname "Bullet" for regularly throwing over 100 MPH. He played for the O's for the majority of his Major League career and earned all of his 14 wins while pitching for the Birds. He was traded to the O's from the Brewers prior to the '72 season for Curt Motton and was shipped to Tigers for Fred Holdsworth early in the '75 campaign.

Billy Smith 1977-79

Billy was to have been Bobby Grich's heir to be the starting second baseman at the beginning of the '77 season but never performed well enough to hold down the job, eventually losing it to Rich Dauer.