Orioles (Affilate) Bobblehead of the Week- Bowie Baysox Mystery Bobblehead

Recently, the Bowie Baysox (AA affiliate of the Orioles) had a pretty awesome bobblehead giveaway. They decided to hand out 500 random bobbleheads from their past bobblehead giveaways from over the previous five or six years. Essentially, it was a cleaning out your closet type of thing, but it gave their fans another opportunity to pick up a bobblehead they missed the first time around.

I've pretty much picked up all of their player bobbles from the past 3-4 seasons, and I don't care much about non player bobbles, but they advertised that some older bobbleheads would also be handed out, so I made the trip to Bowie, hoping for the best.

To avoid people specifically targeting any specific bobbleheads, the staff had placed all the giveaways in bags, but luckily they were of the translucent plastic variety, so you got an idea of who you might be getting. I snagged an unfamiliar shaped box and hoped for the best.

I realized pretty quickly that I selected a bobblehead that would be new to me as I didn't have any that they gave away in 2007 since that was before I got back into Minor League Baseball.

My box had pictures of three possible bobbleheads. In order of who I hoped was in my box, there was...

 Nick Markakis (can't go wrong with one of the better O's from recent years)

 Erik Bedard, who was briefly an Orioles Ace

  

And Chris Ray, who was a good closer for some time, but was the least exciting of the trio

Without further ado, my bobblehead was....

 Chris Ray, of course

I'm still happy to add a new affiliate bobblehead to my collection, but it was a mild letdown considering my other options.

The bobble actually looks reasonably like Chris; here's the best comparison I can offer.

 

 You can at least see the resemblance.

Here's a few other shots of the bobblehead, in Dodgerbobble style.

Chris sure is happy to have a bobblehead, isn't he?

From the right...

And the left...

 And this one's for the laaadies. As if any women read my blog.

Last week I promised to announce the winner of the Adam Jones bobblehead today, but I'm gonna do it tomorrow. That gives everyone one more day to comment and enter. Good luck to you all!

Goodbye Chris Ray, Hello Kevin Millwood

I know that I'm like two days late with this post but I wanted to scan a few new autographs that I got from Chris at the O's last homestand of the season. And yes, I realize those games were over two months ago, but that's pretty much how far behind I am with my scanning.

I most recently wrote about Chris in one of my "Autograph Year in Review" posts and I labeled him as a "good signer". That was second place in my classification scheme so Chris was someone I could count on to sign frequently throughout the season.

But he's not and Oriole anymore. As I'm sure that you have all heard by now, Chris was traded to the Rangers on Wednesday for Kevin Millwood. I really like the trade for the Orioles. Chris could bring the heat but didn't seem to have his head on straight the past few seasons and was wildly inconsistent.

Millwood immediately becomes the team's #1 starter. He is 155-121 over his 13 year MLB career, leading his league in ERA & WHIP once, games started twice, and averaged 208 Innings Pitched. I'm not expecting a Cy Young type performance from Kevin but he is definitely an upgrade over pretty much anyone on the current staff. He is regarded as a good staff leader and teacher so he also fills that role that has been vacant recently.

I also read today in the Sun that Brian Matusz looked up to Millwood while growing up. So that's another positive about this trade.


This is my favorite Chris Ray autograph and by positing it, I say farewell to #37.
Good luck in Texas, just not against the Orioles!

Orioles Autograph Year in Review: The Good Signers

I noticed all of these players sign frequently throughout their time with the O's.


George was consistently a good signer over his time with the O's. I know that I have mentioned that the relief pitchers all stay in the dugout and then walk out to the bullpen together prior to games but the closer typically does his own thing. So if he's a cool guy like George, you have a good shot at an autograph.

I know one loyal reader who will be excited to see George in a post. We just pulled his Dodgers card from the 09 Topps U&H set and it was kind of bittersweet. We miss you George!



The Cla was another reliever who seemed to sign pretty well. He was only on the O's for half of the season but I got his autograph at least twice. Cla was fairly reliable out of the 'pen and I hope he's on the team again next season. You can never have enough submarine style pitchers. That's according to my theory on maximizing the number of submarining players on the team. I tried to convert Melmo to try throwing submarine style on plays at third but he wanted no part of that. (Kidding)



Berky was a great signer. I was at his MLB debut game and he was actually signing before he warmed up. That's amazing! I had never even seen a starter do that in the minors, let alone at the Major League level. He seems like a nice guy, but I hope that he has more success on the mound going forward.



This was the first Orioles card that I got of Hendrickson, so I was pumped when he signed it for me. He signed a little more frequently when he was a starter as opposed to a reliever but he was pretty good about it either way. I should try to find a basketball card for him to sign if he's on the team again next year.



Another one of Kalina's favorite players was a good signer when he wasn't hurt. I just read that he is pitching in the Mexican Winter League to get some more innings since he was out for such a long time this season. But every time I found another Sarfate card, it would be signed soon enough.



I hope that Chris can revert to his 2005-07 form soon. A 7.27 ERA in 40+ games isn't pretty. But at least he's a good signer! He went down the entire right field line at the last Sunday game of the year and honestly must have signed around 500-700 autographs. Nice work Chris.

A win on a Sunday?!

It was a great day for a baseball game...very hot, but a beautiful day nonetheless. And the Orioles won on a Sunday. And for those of us who suffered through last season's months long Sunday loss streak, it is definitely a good thing! It was a great come from behind win, too. B-Rob, Jonesy, and the bullpen saved Brad Bergesen from his first career loss. B-Rob hit his second HR of the series and went 4-5. Roch Kubatko reports that the O's are 5-1 this season when Roberts starts the game with a base hit. Not too shabby!

To top off the nice W was the fact that it was a great day for autographs. Sundays are the best day to get most of the pitchers, especially the bullpen guys as most days they shag some fly balls in the outfield and then head out to the bullpen. But on Sundays, they throw around on the field since there's no BP. A majority of the O's pitchers signed for me today.

Here are the cards I got:

Kalina actually got Mark, who was also the first completely new-to-me player auto I got today

The above statement isn't 100% true since I didn't have Rich Hill's auto, but since he has yet to play for the O's I can't really count him toward my goal yet. I also dropped the ball on this one as I thought he was on the DL so didn't have his card. O well!

I already had JJ and C-Ray autos but I got them on Ebay so these are the first cards I got them to sign in person

This is the second time I got Sarfate to sign but the first time I got Dennis to sign a card of his own. He signed for me in Tampa last season (see below for proof) but it was a team card that I also had Rocky Cherry, Fernando Cabrera and Lance Cormier sign, so I don't know how to catalog or use it.

Here is the card I got signed today, ending months of turmoil and sleepless nights caused by not having his card last year...

Luke Scott signed again for me for the 2nd time in as many games

I was also very close to getting B-Rob's auto, but I was ok with that since he signed for 50 other people. I was even closer to getting Cesar Izturis, which wasn't as cool since he literally signed for 3 people and I was probably the next person he would have signed for. Step it up Cesar, maybe if you signed a little more your fielding would improve!