2011 Orioles Autograph Year in Review

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I'm going to do my review a bit differently this year. Here is the list of all fifty players who appeared in a game for the Orioles this year, and the number of times I either got their autograph or saw them signing at a game. I'll then give some thoughts and opinions on my observations.

(The very random selection of autographs are scans of my 2011 O's autos that hadn't yet been on the blog)

Jeremy Accardo 1
Ryan Adams 2
Robert Andino 2
Matt Angle 0
Jake Arrieta 2

 

Mitch Atkins (3 in minors)
Josh Bell 2

 

 Brad Bergesen 1
Jason Berken
Zach Britton 4 (1 additional at minor rehab)
Blake Davis
Chris Davis (1 at minor rehab)
Willie Eyre 1
Pedro Florimon (3 at minors)
Jake Fox 4

 

Mike Gonzalez 2
Kevin Gregg 1
Vladimir Guerrero 3
Jeremy Guthrie 3
JJ Hardy 3
Mark Hendrickson 0
Kyle Hudson (1 at minors)
Tommy Hunter 1
Cesar Izturis 0

 

Chris Jakubauskas 3
Jim Johnson 1
Adam Jones 3
Derrek Lee 2
Nick Markakis 0

Brian Matusz 1
Troy Patton 1

 

Zach Phillips 1
Felix Pie 0
Clay Rapada 1
Nolan Reimold 1
Jo-Jo Reyes 0
Mark Reynolds 2
Brian Roberts 1

 

Josh Rupe 1

 

Luke Scott 2 (1 at minor rehab)

 

Alfredo Simon 2
Brandon Snyder 2
Pedro Strop 2
Craig Tatum 0
Chris Tillman 3
Koji Uehara 1
Rick Vanden Hurk 0

Pedro Viola (5 at minors)
Matt Wieters 2

 

Mark Worrell 1


There are some things to keep in mind while looking at this list. For example, Izturis has been a great signer in past seasons, but was only with the team for a few weeks this year, so I had very few chances to get his autograph. The small sample size also applies for the late season call-ups, spot starters and others who only spent a few games on the roster. 

However, here are a few observations I am comfortable making after tracking all of my successes for the season.

Nick Markakis and Craig Tatum are the worst signers on the team. They both spent the entire season with the O's and I never saw either sign a single card. Of course, they theoretically could have signed at every single game I did not attend, but based on their track records, I highly doubt it. It seemed as though Jo-Jo Reyes wasn't a huge fan of signing, but I had a smaller sample size to form that opinion.

The best signers seem to be Zach Britton and Jake Fox, who were consistent signers throughout the year. Jeremy Guthrie, JJ Hardy, Chris Jakubauskas, Adam Jones, and Chris Tillman were also good signers. From what I understand from talking to other graphers, I must have been at the only three games that Vlad signed at, so I'm hesitant to call him a good signer, but I will say the future hall-of-famer signed more than I thought he would.

If any of you would like me to give additional thoughts/opinions about the signing habits of the 2011 O's, leave a comment and I'll try to answer everything by tomorrow.

Russell is Right, the Orioles are Wrong

Some of you might remember my little diatribe on Tuesday about how my all-time Orioles roster count was incorrect. Well, turns out, it WAS right before I relied on the O's and screwed everything up, so now I have to go back and re-update everything I had changed.

At one point last season, fellow O's autograph collector Russell and I confirmed that our count was correct, while the O's was off by two. For whatever reason I ignored/neglected that conversation and changed everything before talking to Russell again. And I'm paying for it now.

So to clarify from Tuesday's post, Mitch Atkins goes back to being Orioles #900. Matt Angle is 901 and Mark Worrell becomes 902. And 902 is the confirmed number of players who have worn the O's uniform.

In other Mark Worrell related news, his second outing with the O's was significantly more successful than the first and he brought his ERA down from Infinity to 27.00.

Oh, and I got his autograph, so I can put Mark on my have list now.

Funny story about that smear. It was a dry hot day and I handed Mark a perfectly functioning sharpie, but somehow Mark had accidentally got a piece of wet grass on the middle of the card and it smeared the heck out of the middle of his signature. You can see that it begins and ends well enough, but the middle is all jacked up. But I'd rather have a crappy signature than none at all and I'll try to upgrade it soon.

Orioles # 901 & 902

So, turns out, I'm an idiot, but some of you already knew that. All this time that I've been sharing Orioles' debut numbers, it seems that my count was high by two. It came to my attention during the Orioles game last night, when it was mentioned during the broadcast that Mark Worrell's (awful, just horrible) debut made him Oriole #900.

UPDATE-I was right the first time around, Angle is 901 and Worrell is 902.

Wait a minute, I thought. I already dubbed Mitch "already back in the minors" Atkins as Oriole #900 just under two weeks ago. So how could Worrell be 900? It was time to cross-check my lists. (Disclosure- Matt Angle made his Orioles Debut on Sunday, making him Oriole #899, or 901 by my old count.)

I've realized in the past that I can't rely on the Orioles website as a completely accurate source, since they occasionally list players twice while totally skipping others. But by own revised count, it seems as though Worrell is actually the 900th player to wear the O's uniform. So I went back through my site and tried to update all of my Orioles Debut posts. I think that everything should be accurate now, but I might have missed a post here or there. Anyway, I apologize for misleading you all for so long. I know that you must be torn up about it.

On to the most recent O's Debuts....

#901- Matt Angle

Matt Angle was drafted by the O's in the 7th round of the 2007 draft and has been one of the best outfield prospects in the system since then. He also has been consistently ranked as one of the fastest players in the O's farm system.

 

Compared to many players who have risen through the O's Minor League system over recent years, I don't have many autographs of Matt. He only played just over a season at hi-A Frederick and AA Bowie, the two closest affiliates to me, and had spent most of the last two seasons with AAA Norfolk, which is about a five hour drive from my house, so I don't make it there much. I have a few more than these three, but not many.

 

Matt has stolen 162 bases over his four plus seasons in the O's system so I hope his speed translates to the relatively slow big league club. He has played 502 of his 505 Minor League games in center field, but has much better defensive instincts than Felix Pie, Nolan Reimold or Luke Scott, so I wouldn't be surprised to see him get a chance in left field. He should at least be the O's defensive replacement and/or pinch runner.

Here are some pictures from his debut on Sunday. He led off and started in left field, not a bad way to make a debut. He went 0-3 with a walk in the game and cleanly fielded everything that came his way.

Warming up before the game

 

Starting in left field

 

First at-bat

What's that? You want to hear about Oriole #902, Mark Worrell? Well, I don't have an autograph of him and his Orioles' debut is one that he likely doesn't want to remember, and neither do I. You see the results here, if you must.

Here's all I have to say about Mark...

He was AAA Norfolk's only International League All-Star this year.

He made his MLB Debut in 2008 with the Cardinals, and homered in his first at-bat.

His funky side-arm delivery is pretty sweet, if only it can produce better results.