Makin' Moves

While the Orioles are still trying to decide who their next General Manager/President of Baseball Operations will be, it hasn't stopped them from making a few small moves.

Here's what we know so far...

Bench Third Base Coach Willie Randolph will not be back next year. I don't really know why, but heard something about Willie wanting to be a manager again.

As suspected, both Vladimir Guerrero and Cesar Izturis declared free agency. I don't suspect that either will be back with the club in 2012 but their veteran leadership will be missed. I've heard rumblings that Izturis could become a coach or instructor for the team if he decides to hang up his spikes. And I'll miss having Vlad around since he's always been one of my favorite players, but realistically, he didn't make the 2011 Orioles much better than the 2010 squad.

Jeremy Accardo, Chris Jakubauskas, and Jake Fox were all outrighted to triple A, but all elected to test the free agent waters instead. Of the three, "Jak" is the only one who I think might come back into the fold, possibly signing another minor league deal with the O's, just as he did prior to last season.

And the Astros claimed Craig Tatum off of waivers which almost caused me to tear up. In actuality, I won't miss the extremely un-fan-friendly "Tater" at all. He was one of the toughest autographs on the team and never seemed like a very nice person.


I don't expect the O's to make any more moves before they hire their new GM/VP Baseball Ops, and I hope they make a decision soon. Many teams are already swinging trades, extending their own players, and/or making waiver claims, but I don't expect the Orioles to do any of those things without a new top dog in place. If they wait much longer to make a decision, they could fall even further behind to eight ball in the battle to rediscover relevance in 2012.

Orioles Autograph Year in Review- The Best Signers

This will wrap up my review of the 2010 O's signing habits, which I started just about two weeks ago. Last year I included 8 players in this best signers group; this year it's down to 7, but it's still about 15% of the players who played for the O's this year which isn't bad. 

Luke is once again the player who signed the most over the course of the season. I'm pretty much at the point where I try to let other fans get his autograph since I've got his signature so many times. He always seems like a nice guy and talks to the fans while he's signing. I listed Luke in this category last season too, but he really deserves his own category. 


The following three relief pitchers signed almost every Sunday during the season (Sunday's are the day pitchers can warm up on the field since there's no batting practice).

Albers has been inconsistent on the mound over his time in Baltimore, but he's typically been a good signer at least.

I put Hendrickson in the good signers category last year, but this year he took his signing to the next level.

Ohman was sent to the Marlins at the trade deadline, but he signed very frequently before being sent to Miami. I think he signed every card I had of him before the trade, so I was fine with it.

I've heard that some other people had trouble getting Cesar's autograph this year, but not me. He was always the first player to come back to the dugout after B.P. and would normally sign early on. Cesar really upped his signing game this season; I listed him in the kinda-good category last year.      

 

Dino only spent the last month of the season in Baltimore, but he signed enough over that time to get listed here. He was in this category last year too, making him the second back-to-back best signer.  

 

Bergy was the rare Orioles starting pitcher who signed regularly this season. He would sign on some Sundays and in between his starts too.  

I hope that everyone enjoyed the review and I will now get back to my regular blogging schedule, whatever that might be. 

Orioles Game Autographs

I'm proud to report that the Orioles most recent prospect call-ups are both good signers.

Awesome orange uni Jake autograph.

I was worried that Bell might be the type to stop signing once he hit Baltimore, but that's not the case, yet anyway. This picture was taken prior to all of the tattoos on his arms. And I just found that he has 2 Orioles cards in the 2010 Bowman set, including a solo card in the Topps 100 set, similar to the Arrieta card above, so I need to get him to sign one of those soon.

I showed off my picture with US Soccer Head Coach Bob Bradley last week. Here's the card he signed too.

A sweet Scott Moore orange uni autograph-I'm a fan of how most of the O's Minor League affiliates rock the orange uniforms.

John Shelby doesn't sign too often, but he always seems like a really nice guy when he does.


I've been pleasantly surprised with Miggy's signing habits this season. I wasn't getting autographs when he was in town last time, but he signs more than most superstar/star players.

Jake Fox is another new Orioles player who seems to be a great signer. I temporarily ran out of his cards, so had him sign this team card. I re-upped and now have a couple cards for him to sign if I can get him again.


This Jeff Datz auto turned out better than the one I got a few weeks ago. The J on that previous autograph was very faded. Stupid sharpie.



Cesar Izturis is signing more this season than he did last year. Good for you Cesar! The 08 Topps was signed for Moe, who will be getting another package at the end of this season.

Some Recent Orioles Autographs

Since I've been behind with almost all my collecting related activities for this entire baseball season, I haven't been able to scan or show off my current Orioles autographs as I've been getting them at games. So I am going to dump them all into this one post. Sounds like a plan to me. So here we go!




My new thing is trying to get these O's postcards signed, specifically by players who don't have any Orioles cards, like Ohman and Castillo (who has been sent to AAA Norfolk since he signed this for me). Berken's only Orioles card is from the 2010 Topps When They Were Young insert set, so I only give that card half credit as an O's card since the picture of him as a kid dominates the card.

And speaking of guys who are no longer with/on the team...

I intended to have this card scanned for my "Goodbye Dave" post. That obviously didn't happen, but here it is now. I wonder what Dave is up to these days?

Tillman is currently biding his time with the Tides. I was happy to get him to sign this card for my orange uniform collection.

Jeff Datz, the O's bench coach, signed for me for the first time all season. I don't think he's a tough signer, but he is just always in the dugout. I have a few more copies of this card, which is his one and only MLB card, and hope to get another signed since this J turned out very dry.

I got my first in-person C-Pat autograph too. I've seen him sign one or two other times but was in the wrong place to get him then.

Ty signed for me for only the third time since he's been with the O's. He's a tough autograph to get most of the time, and in retrospect, I don't really know what I chose this card to get him to sign. It's pretty blah. Oh well.




It's possible that any of these three guys are sent to Norfolk (or released in Albers' case) to make room for the starting pitcher needed for this Saturday's game. Garrett Atkins would be the most logical guy to get rid of in my opinion, but what do I know?

Luke was the man once again. I know that this is an 08 Heritage short print, and that I probably should have just kept it with my set and all, but look at all that orange! It needed to be signed. And now it's going with my orange uniform autograph collection. I know he's not wearing an orange uni, but it's orange enough for me. It's my collection so I get to make the rules.

Both Cesar and Julio Lugo signed at the same spot the day I got this card autographed. Since this is my 5th Cesar and I still need Lugo on my Orioles postcard, I would gladly have switched up which autograph I got, but that's not how it works. I hope to get Julio sometime soon though.

Guthrie continues to be a good signer. Again not sure why I chose this boring card to get signed, but I did. Can't do anything about it now.



I continue to get lucky with Jonesy. I've heard others say that they've had trouble getting him to sign but I seem to get him 4-5 times a season. I like how he looped his #10 in with his signature on the top card. Oh, and Kalina, I put Jones at the bottom of the post just for you. Let's just say that Kalina doesn't appreciate his "attitude", "hustle" or constant focus on chewing gum/blowing bubbles.

Autographs from Orioles-Rays series

As I continue to play catch up, here are some more autographs I got at the O's-Rays series in mid-April.

Cesar is one Oriole who has been playing pretty well and I feel he should bat lead-off until someone else can step it up.


Berky has been pitching pretty well too, but for some reason Trembley doesn't bring him in very much. This card was really made to be signed, wasn't it? Look at all that empty space.

Mark Hendrickson has done alright too but I feel like he lets too many inherited runners score.

Our sometime closer JJ, now he hasn't been very good. Can someone please find the 2008 version of him and bring him back to Baltimore? Please?


The Rays were pretty good about signing. I saw Longoria sign for a few people and I could've gotten Carlos Pena's autograph again if I had remembered to put another one of his cards in my Rays team set after he signed for me in Spring Training. I really feel like I should do better with those things by now.

2009 breakout star, Ben Zobrist signed. I've gotten his autograph before so if anyone is interested (ahem Troll) just let me know.

I figured that a good use of my team card would be to get the Rays' President/GM, Andrew Friedman to sign. And this was before I knew that Carlos Pena was going to sign; that would've been a better use of this card but eh. Oh well.

Orioles Autograph Year in Review: The Kinda Good Signers

These players all signed for me multiple times over the course of the season. They seemed to sign willingly, at least at times so they get bonus points for that.


I love this card. These Ginters really make the black sharpie pop. This is one of 3 Jonesy autos I got this season so he signs pretty well for a budding star. At least one of the times he signed, he came over on his own accord so that was really cool. He does seem to sign better on the road than at home as I got 2 of my 3 autographs in DC & Toronto.



Hail Cesar! This was the second Orioles card I got Cesar to sign but it looks really nice. He signed it on the white jersey so the signature really stands out. All in all I think I saw him sign six or seven times over the season. He was always the first player in the dugout so he normally had a few extra minutes to sign. I dropped the ball at least once when I forgot to put Cesar's card back in my team set when Zach from the excellent Autographed Cards blog was visiting Camden Yards. I think I ended up with 3 or 4 of his autographs so I'm not complaining.



Guts is a pretty good signer but he won't hesitate to mess with fans that continuously call his name even after he tells them that he will come over. He was especially bad with doing that in Toronto but he did eventually come over to sign for the fans. I'm pretty sure I got his autograph twice this season but I saw him sign a few other times but was too slow to get him.


Michael Aubrey spent most of the season at Norfolk before being called up in September and pretty much becoming the everyday first baseman. He contributed to the walkoff win at the last game of the season and is a pretty slick fielder. Not a bad signer either.

Recent Auto's at O's Games

Here are some cards that I have been able to get signed at recent O's games. My current definition of recent is within the past month or so. So, yes, that means that I am about a month behind on everything I am trying to do. Oh well, baseball season is almost over and then I can finally catch up on things. Sorry to anyone that I owe packages to, they will be on their way soon enough.

And I start off my post by lying to you. I got this Bruce Chen autograph when he was in town with the Royals in late July. So I'm like 6 weeks behind on showcasing this card. Wow, that's pretty bad.

But I do have a funny story about this autograph; if you read my previous post about Bruce, it really seems like he is a very nice guy. And at this O's-Royals game, he once again came through for the fans by being the only Royal to sign for the fans after BP. He signed everything for everyone, and used my sharpie for most of the signing but I didn't care as he was, like I said, the only player signing. He signed a couple of dollar bills for some guy and then the usher told him that he didn't think that was legal so I doubt Bruce will do that again.



This is now my favorite autograph of our slick-fielding shortstop. I like these O-Pee-Chee cards for autos.



Melmo came through again. And seeing as I got this signed shortly after my trip to Toronto; I got Mora's signature twice in one week and not another time for the rest of the season. At least to this point. It seems as though he is a streaky signer.



Bergy was around for his t-shirt giveaway game in mid-August. Not only did he sign this card for me but I was also able to get my t-shirt signed. Sweet!



I do not like that Moeller is featured in a Yankees uni on this card. I try to avoid getting Yankees or Red Sox cards signed whenever humanly possibly but I didn't have any other cards of his. But since I got my 09 Tides set for my birthday, this situation has been rectified.





That's it on Orioles autographs but I found out last weekend that the Indians are a very good signing team. I just missed out on Grady Sizemore twice but I did get a few decent autos.


Travis Hafner, although he's not the player he was a few years ago, is still a cool autograph to get at a game. He signed for a ton of fans too.


Aaron Laffey was talking to some friends/family in the stands and was signing while doing so. Interesting note about his autograph- he signed Laffey first, and then added the A. I've never seen a player sign backwards like that before.


Chris Perez signed for me for the second time this season. The first time was a Nationals-Cardinals game in DC when Perez was still playing for St. Louie.


Wyatt Toregas, a rookie catcher signed this team card for me. I think he was trying to leave some room for others to sign the card. That, or he has a tiny signature.


Finally, Eric Wedge. I like the way his signature looks; it's all over the place.