Oriole #956- Scott Feldman

Since I wrote my last Orioles debut post about Travis Ishikawa back in late June, five more players have made their Orioles debuts, three of whom were acquired in deals leading up to the trade deadline. Let me tell you, as a long-time O's fan, it's still feels strange to be on the receiving end of these types of trades. I'm much more used to the days when the team would ship out most of it's veterans at the end of July. Over the coming days, I'm going to write about each of the new players. 

 Scott Feldman Oriole #956, Debuted July 3 against White Sox

Back on July 2nd, the Orioles traded with the Cubs to acquire Feldman, and minor league catcher Steve Clevenger, in return for the long-struggling duo of Jake Arrieta and Pedro Strop. I feel like it was a smart idea to strike a deal before the starting pitcher trade market took shape and honestly, I don't feel like the O's had to give up very much to get Feldman. While both Arrieta and Strop have plenty of potential, they certainly weren't living up to it in Baltimore. 

Jake was one of the players I watched rise through the Orioles minor league system and I had high hopes for him, but he never seemed able to stay on top of the mental part of the game at the MLB level as attested to by his 5.46 ERA in 69 games (63 starts) with the Orioles. And Strop was a nice guy who always seemed to have a smile on his face, but had become a relatively unusable member (7.25 ERA) of the 2013 'pen.

Over 5 starts thus far with the O's, Feldman has a 2-2 record and a 5.12 ERA, so I would like to see him step it up a bit, but I still feel like the move was an overall upgrade for the team. 

I'm aware that the COMC.com logo is pictured on the card above, but it is the autograph of Feldman's that is in my collection for now, I just have not had the time to scan the card since it arrived at my house. There are a few certified autographs of Feldman out there, so his autograph is a relatively easy one to add to your Orioles autograph collection. 

And I know that this is small sample size, but in my first in-person autographing attempt to have Feldman sign one of my dad's Old Man Cards this past Sunday, he completely ignored the relatively small group of fans who were trying to get his autograph. I hope to have some better luck with him on my next attempt!

Orioles Fanfest Success

This past Saturday, I continued my tradition of attending the annual Orioles Fanfest with my wife and parents. Amongst all of the craziness involved in moving, it was a nice reprieve from the stress of constantly packing and unpacking boxes. I'm sure that most of you know what I'm talking about! And before I get any further into this post, I have to thank my parents and Kalina for allowing me to drag them around the event all day as well as helping me to stand in lines to get through the stations faster. I really appreciate your help!

While I know that some people had issues purchasing the specific autograph tickets they had wanted, I lucked out, and was able to buy the three sessions I was interested in, with a little help from my wonderful wife. 

I purchased the 2 pm session at station 2 with Mike Bordick, Jason Hammel, and Nate McLouth, which allowed me to upgrade my Bordick to a personalized signature,

get my dad's home-made McLouth Orioles card signed, which is, to date, the only card that pictures him in an Orioles uniform, 

as well as sign his orange uniform 2012 Norfolk Tides card, 

and to get Jason Hammel to sign his first official Orioles card, which came out in the 2012 Topps Update set  after the season ended. Getting some of the new Orioles to sign their cards from that set is going to be a recurring theme here. 

Hammel, who was seated next to Bordick commented that he didn't think Bordick couldn't jump as high as he is pictured as doing on the card at the top to which Bordick replied that the picture had been taken fifteen years ago and there's no way that he could do that anymore. 

My next two stations were both at 3:20, so I obviously had to have some help from my parents to be able to be in two places at once. 

Since one of my 3:20 stations was again at #2, where I had just been, I started there. This station was going to allow me to knock out Luis Ayala & Pedro Strop on their 12 Topps Update cards, and to hopefully have Jim Palmer personalize a card to me. But shortly before the signing was supposed to start, an Orioles employee pulled Ayala's name plaque from the table and replaced it with Ryan Flaherty. WTF? There goes my paid shot at Ayala, who another fan later told me apparently never showed up for the event at all for some unknown reason.

Things started off well with Pedro Strop who was kind enough to work past a bit of a language barrier to personalize my card, 

and I was just able to get in my quick personalization request to Palmer in between stories he was telling to the people ahead of and behind me in line, 

and while it was nice to get Flaherty to personalize a card to me, especially since we share the same first name and I always enjoy seeing how other Ryan's sign our name, it still didn't quite make up for Ayala's unexplained absence. It would have been nice for the line to at least get some sort of explanation as to why he wasn't there.

Tangent- I used some new, slightly wider 'medium' sized Staedtler markers during Fanfest. I used the 'fine' version last season, and while the results were good, I prefer the slightly larger lines. I found a pretty good website (Artstuff.net) to buy them from online since I have had trouble finding them in person. This Flaherty card was the only one that showed any signs of bubbling.

Last up was station #1, also at 3:20, which included Kevin Gausman, Manny Machado, Ryan Minor, and Darren O'Day. Apparently the 250 tickets available for this session sold out in minutes, and I have a feeling that I might have been the only person to go after this one chiefly for O'Day. But it also allowed me to get a few upgrades, so there were multiple benefits for me in this one. Too bad the handlers at this station were enforcing a strict one signature per player limit. 

Gausman, the Orioles #1 draft pick in 2012, led off the station, and he seems like a pretty down-to-earth kid considering the amount of success and fame he's experienced in his young life. I was happy to get him to personalize his first official Orioles card, so I am covered when he inevitably makes his O's debut in the near future. 

I also was able to snag one of his postcards, which I really like as it shows his excitement during his Camden Yards introduction last year. 

Next up was Machado, who signed and personalized this great looking orange uniform/cartoon bird cap combo card.

 I was also able to grab a postcard showing Manny manning the hot corner at Camden Yards.

Ryan Minor filled the alumni role at this table and while he has signed cards for me in the past and has always been very accommodating about it, I always neglected to request a personalization. And same thing as with Flaherty, it's interesting to see another Ryan write my name. I will say that Minor's printed and signed R's look much different while Flaherty's were more similar.

Last up was the player who was the reason I had targeted this specific station, Darren O'Day, who was making his sole signing appearance of the day. He seemed either a bit distracted or annoyed but was still nice enough to add my name to his signature, and allowed me to knock out one more '12 Topps Update card.

All in all, the day was a great success, and I even got a few extra cards signed. The four below are all up for trade if anyone is interested.

2012 Orioles Postcard Autographs

As is typical, many of the new Orioles' players have team issued postcards produced of them in an Orioles uniform before they receive any cardboard love from Topps. The only notable exception this year is Endy Chavez, who made his way into 2012 Topps Heritage as an Oriole before I saw one of his postcards.

Anyway, here are some of the Orioles postcards that I have obtained so far, either in-person or purchased online.

I'll start with my favorite autograph, Wei-Yin Chen. It's my favorite for two reasons: 1) it was a gift from Kalina, & 2) I'm still not used to the Kanji (I think that's right) signature. It's very cool.

I'm pretty sure that Chen will have his fair share of Orioles cards released in the coming years, but it's nice to have his autograph on an O's postcard for now.

These two are my only in-person postcard successes thus far. I'm surprised to see that both of these guys seem to be solid signers thus far. Many times with veterans, that is not the case. Johnson obviously was nice enough to personalize while Betemit cited the language/alphabet barrier when he opted to not inscribe the autograph to me. 

Since Betemit is signed for two years, I'm betting that he gets an Orioles card or two, but Johnson will need to start hitting soon to stick around long enough to be included in a set as an Oriole. For my collecting purposes, the worst thing is when a player receives an Orioles card after they've left town. 

Hammel has been lights out so far this season, and has been a very nice addition to the club. He will certainly get some cards as an Oriole.

Since Flaherty is a Rule V guy and probably the 25th man on the roster, I doubt that he will be included in any sets as an O. The only factor that might help his inclusion is his rookie status, because we all know that Topps loves rookies!

These four have been claimed by Kalina and include some of her current favorite Orioles, with the notable exception of Nick Markakis.

Here's another Hammel, Strop (with his crazy cockeyed hat), Patton, the team's only lefty reliever, and O'Day who has been excellent so far. And as someone who enjoys wacky pitching motions, I hope to see a lot more of O'Day this season.

And here's the Paulino that I featured yesterday, Endy's second "card" as an Oriole, and another Johnson and Betemit.

Oh, and heres' one more Flaherty.

Obviously there are some duplicates here, as well as a few players whom I don't currently need for the collection, so some of these will be up for trade once I get my act together.

Off-season Upgrades

When I attended Orioles FanFest in late January, I was able to add/upgrade a bunch of my autographs to these Orioles team-produced player postcards. But there were a few guys I missed out on: and now things are once again right with the world, as I was able to add the two players I missed out on to my collection.

Oriole #907 Zach Phillips and #908 Pedro Strop

After Fanfest, I also discovered that postcards had been created for hitting coach, Jim Presley, and pitching coach, Rick Adair, so I was forced to swing another trade to add them to the fold. 

The fact that Presley never had a postcard produced last season always confused me, since first base coach Wayne Kirby, and third base/bench coaches John Russell and Willie Randolph were all featured on postcards. Adair had started the season as the bullpen coach, a staff member who is rarely included, before moving to the pitching coach position vacated mid-season by Mark Connor. 

At this point, I'm happy to have my collection fairly updated with all the 2011 players/coaches before the scramble begins to add all the new 2012 additions to my collection. 

2012 FanFest Pictures

My family and I all took a bunch of pictures at Fanfest. Not too surprisingly, mine were mostly of the players at the autograph stations. Sorry that some of the pictures are blurry but my dad's camera was having problems getting it's focus on.


If only we had a kid with us, we could've gotten free autographs at the kids only station of (l to r) Zach Phillips, Chris Davis, Ryan Flaherty, and Pedro Strop. I'm still trying to add signed O's postcards of Phillips and Strop to my collection, so maybe I should have seen if I card borrow a kid from someone else; anyone have one I could rent for next year?

Here is a picture from yet another station that I didn't have a ticket for. While waiting in line for the 3:20 signing to begin, (l to r) Chris Tillman, Chris Hoiles, and Matt Wieters were still signing for fans from the previous group.

And for my last picture of players whose autographs I didn't get, here are Rick Krivda (l), and Zach Britton leaving the station prior to my next group signing.

Now HERE are some players whose station I went through; (l to r) Jai Miller, Taylor Teagarden, Troy Patton, and JJ Hardy.

A few minutes before the above picture was taken, I got to see Miller and Patton introducing themselves to one another. It was a unique thing to see since frequently teammates know each other prior to being in public. And it's because of this that I know Jai's name is pronounced "Jay", not "Jeye" as I had thought.

And here is some proof that I actually went through the line. First up is me and Miller...

and Teagarden...

and Patton...

Here is my dad helping me out with Brady.

And Kalina with Matt Wieters (lucky Kalina!)

 I tried to get a picture of Kalina and Matt Antonelli but only one of them was looking. Guess which one?

Lastly are a few pictures from the previous station I went through. Below are Oliver Drake (l) and Dana Eveland.

And HOFer Jim Palmer. It's pretty cool that he still attends FanFest, but he didn't seem overly personable this year.

Tomorrow will be my last FanFest post, as I still have a few trades and purchases to show off.

Oriole #908- Pedro Strop

The 908th player to wear the Orioles' uniform in a game is pitcher Pedro Strop, who (pretty much) came to the Orioles from the Rangers in an end of August trade deadline deal for the much maligned Michael Gonzalez. I say pretty much because the Rangers had placed Pedro on waivers and the Orioles somehow were able to choose him as the player to be named later (PTBNL) in the Gonzo transaction. Normally, when the Orioles make one of these late season trades, the PTBNL transforms into cash coming to the O's, so I was pleasantly surprised to hear we would receive an actual player for once.

Pedro was originally signed by the Rockies as an international free agent in 2002 to play shortstop. After he didn't have much success at the plate, they eventually converted him to a pitcher in 2006 before releasing him after the 2008 season. The Rangers then signed him and he has spent parts of the past three seasons pitching for Texas in the Majors.

So far, Pedro has been nothing but dominant since being traded to the O's and has pitched in eight games without giving up a run since his September 3rd debut. Over 7.2 innings pitched, he has only given up two hits, walked two, struck out nine, and has maintained a tidy .5222 WHIP. Those numbers will be almost impossible to keep up over time, but it's a great start nonetheless.

Pedro's only major card release to this point in his career was 2010 Upper Deck. I didn't have any cards of his so had to buy this card online and it's a little bit of a busier design than I generally would choose but it was my favorite of his cards. I can't really tell what's going on with his signature, but I like the squiggle inside the larger loop.

Keep up the great work Pedro!