Oriole # 758- Jeff Fiorentino

Jeff's name has come up in a few posts over the years but I've never gone into too much detail about him, so I'll do that today. Not like there is a ton of things to write about him, but I'll cover the basics. 

Jeff made his Orioles debut on May 12, 2005, and was very oddly called up to the Big Leagues from hi-A Frederick, having never even played at the AA level before appearing in the Majors. I think this says more about the lack of OF depth the O's had back then than anything else, since he wasn't exactly setting the Carolina League on fire. 

To date, he has had two stints with the Orioles, the first in 2005-06 and the second in 2009 (not to mention a third time in the organization in early 2011), but I wouldn't be surprised if he plays for the team again since he always seems to boomerang back to Baltimore. 

Since 2008, here is the list of his transactions from Baseball-Reference.com:

And that doesn't even list 2010, which he spent as a member of the Hiroshima Toyo Carp in Japan. 

So who knows where Jeff will end up next, but good luck to him wherever that may be. And we will probably see you back in Baltimore some day. 

Paul Adds to My Collection

Recently, I pulled off another trade with blog reader, Paul. And by recently, I mean about three weeks ago. Yep, it took me that long to get the cards scanned and posted. So without any further delay...

Eli Marrero played in only 22 games for the Orioles at the end of the 2005 season, but did manage to hit 3 HR over that time. He played 10 total seasons in the Majors, 7 of those with the Cardinals, and nearly had his career (and life) derailed by thyroid cancer in 2000. Luckily, he was able to win his battle with cancer and it didn't even cause him to miss a full season of games. I also found out that Eli is the uncle of current Nationals prospect, Chris Marrero.

Eli's 2005 Topps Update card shows him in an O's uniform and I sent that card to him in a TTM request back at the beginning of 2009. I don't think it's coming back at this point. I still hope to get his Orioles card signed at some point, but will have to wait for a private signing since he is only a 36% TTM signer.

Steve Reed pitched for the Orioles in 2005, the final year of his 14 season career in the Majors. He is a submarine-style pitcher, which is a major plus for me, however his 6.61 ERA over 30 games for the O's made it tough for me to like him too much.

Steve also has a card that shows him in an Orioles uniform, a 2005 Topps Total card that also features Aaron Rakers. I have a better chance of getting that signed TTM since Steve signs requests at a 85% success rate.

Chris Widger doesn't have any Orioles cards, likely due to the fact that he only appeared in 9 games for the Birds at the end of the 2006 season, so this card is now a permanent resident of my collection. I really like it too; the blue sharpie works great with the Expos colors on his uniform and on the card. Chris signed this at the perfect spot too, anywhere else the blue sharpie would've disappeared into the blue on the card.

Paul's trade also included orange uniform autographs of Nolan Reimold and Jeff Fiorentino, as well as Orioles player postcard autographs of Scott McGregor and Nate Snell. Somehow I failed to scan all of those, but figured it was about time to post this trade. Thanks again Paul!

Orioles Autograph Year in Review: Players with Undetermined Signing Habits

I wasn't able to get a good read on how often these players' signed. They all seemed to be decent but either weren't around long enough to determine their signing frequency or I never figured out their habits.



Jefffy was a September call-up who signed for me once at Oriole Park. He started out the season with the Baysox, which is where I got this card signed. He was promoted to Norfolk after a few weeks in Bowie, so it was nice to see him in Baltimore again this season. What do I mean again, you say? Well, for some reason, he was called up to the O's from class A Frederick in 2005; he also appeared in a few games for the '06 Birds.



I got these Kam cards signed on my Norfolk trip. They were the only cards I had of him at the time. I have since added a '09 Tides card of his that I have yet to get signed. I know that I saw Kam sign at least twice at Camden Yards. I took a picture for proof on one of those occasions.

Gee Thanks Kam!

Nolan was a great signer while he was with the Baysox in 2008. He started out signing pretty often around the time of his Orioles call-up in mid to late May but he seemed to tail off a little towards the end of the season. I got these two cards signed on my Toronto trip.

On a side note, I was pretty psyched to pull my first Orioles' Reimold card from a pack of 2009 Topps Updates & Highlights the other day. I can't wait to get that signed!



Matt bounced back and forth between Norfolk and Baltimore this season. A friend got me his autograph at Fanfest and then I got this card signed at a game at some point during the season. I think I saw him sign a few other times but I only had the two cards of him so I just passed him by. I got an O-Pee-Chee card of his at the end of the season that I hope to get signed next year.

Quick Update

I have kept myself busy the past two nights by going to both the Bowie Baysox home opener on Thursday and the Frederick Keys home opener last night. And, oh, how I missed the ease of obtaining Minor Leaguers' autographs! Half of them are actually excited to sign, which is a nice contrast from the pulling of teeth that is the quest to obtain Major Leaguers' signatures.





A third of the O's top 30 prospects are in Frederick and a few are in Bowie so I was able to get a ton of autographs from guys that will hopefully be in the majors at some point. Two guys on the Baysox team, Jim Hoey and Jeff Fiorentino, have already played for the O's and the Hoey was new to me so that was cool.


It was also great getting to meet Brian Matusz (pronounced Matis, the O's 2008 #1 draft pick) in Frederick; he seems like a great guy and said that he was excited to finally be at a home game. Seems like a good guy, now I need to see him pitch!



And Kalina would be mad if I didn't mention that Jake Arrieta was a nice guy and signed some cards for us in Bowie. He is pitching Monday so we are looking forward to finally getting to see him pitch in person!



And I need to thank Paul at Paul's Random Stuff for sending me 4 signed cards; 2 Keith Reeds, a Ryan Minor and a Steve Trachsel. The Trachs was another card for me to check off my list so thanks a million Paul!