Personalized Upgrades

As many of you probably know by this point, my preference is to have the Orioles autographs in my collection personalized to me. I feel as though it adds a personal touch to each autograph, knowing that it was specifically signed for me. It also alleviates some player's concerns that I might try to flip their autograph for a profit, which is not what I do.

I obtain my personalized autographs in a variety of ways, including at Orioles games...

where I was able to get Jason Hammel and Robert Andino to kindly personalize for me,

Orioles Alumni signings...

where I knocked out Dave Ford, Kiko Garcia, Glenn Gulliver, and Jeffrey Hammonds in one shot at a recent signing,

and at minor league games...

where sometimes the instructors like Butch Davis, and players like Rhyne Hughes, are in the O's farm system,

while other times the former O's are members of other team's farm systems, like Scott Erickson and Steve Luebber, who are both pitching coaches in the Hi-A Carolina league.

I have to say thanks to my dad for helping me upgrade the Scott Erickson autograph at a recent Frederick Keys game that we attended together.

Recent Upgrades & Additions (Grimsley, Hall, & Hughes)

Over the past few weeks, I've been able to knock a few players off of my need list and upgrade another autograph in my collection.

I was thrilled to have finally knocked this card off of my list since this is Grimsley's lone Orioles card and this is the only signed copy that I've come across in my years of collecting. His spot in my collection had been held by a signed Phillies card and an Orioles autographed postcard, both of which are now available via trade. Jason has been staying under the radar in recent years since it was revealed that he was one of the major informants for MLB's steroids investigation. 

Finally, I have a Bill Hall autograph in my collection! I haven't made it to many games lately so my graphing has scaled back and I don't believe that I have seen Bill play in a game during his two short stints with the O's. Considering the number of certified autographs this guy has, it took me quite some time to add one to my colleciton, but I personally think that this Stroke of Genius sets is one of the nicer looking certified sets in recent years. Not only is the autograph on card, but I feel like the design really works too.

Rhyne Hughes surprised me when he was added to the AA Bowie Baysox' roster about a month ago. I had no idea that he was still in the organizaiton and I generally keep a pretty good eye on the team's minor league transactions. The last I had heard he was a minor league free agent, but he obviously re-signed at some point. 

The Baysox had a meet the team event on Father's Day and I went with my family. Rhyne kindly signed and personalized my card, although I am a little bummed that my staedtler bubbled a little bit on his last name. These 2010 Bowman cards are about the only brand/variety that I've had this issue with; the staedtler even generally sticks on chrome cards!

And I know that I've mentioned this before, but I really like having players who are also named Ryan (or Rhyne in this case) personalize to me to see how similarly they write my name. Here you can see that the capital R is fairly similar, but slightly different in his signature. 

Oriole #878- Rhyne Hughes

Rhyne Hughes made his Orioles, and MLB, debut on April 24, 2010, and was the last player to debut before I started to specifically write posts about each new player to appear for the O's. (Oriole #879 Frank Mata debuted almost a month later and became the subject of my first O's debut post)

I've written about Rhyne a few other times, including this feature highlighting him as minor leaguer on the O's 40 man roster back in February 2010, but didn't have a signed Orioles card of his until recently.

These offerings from Bowman and Topps are likely the only two O's cards he will be featured on since his time in the organization is likely over. I really waffled about which card to keep in my collection: the picture on the Topps card is far superior while the autograph on the Bowman cards stands out much better. I ended up going with the Topps card since the image is pretty unique and Hughes had more room to stretch out his signature.

Good luck with your future, wherever that may be, Rhyne!

Wal-Mart Mojo

Putting those two words together just sounds wrong but I bought a hanging jumbo pack while out shopping last night and definitely picked the right pack.

 

To be completely honest, Kalina pulled this card. But how cool is it?

I was probably happier with these three O's cards, especially the Hughes since it's his first Orioles card. 

This is an example of my black and orange sickness.

We also pulled a bunch of inserts.  

By my calculations, that's at least nine awesome cards from a $5 36 card pack. This might have been one of my favorite packs ever.

You Say Goodbye, I Say Hello

On Tuesday, the Orioles announced that righty reliever Jim Hoey was added to their 40 man roster, presumably to protect him from the Rule V draft. Jim pitched for the O's in parts of the 2006-07 seasons and has been fighting his way through various injuries since then. I would certainly expect that there will be more additions and subtractions to the O's 40 man over the coming weeks and my guess is that Matt Albers, Armando Gabino, Chorye Spoone, Pedro Viola, Pedro Florimon and Rhyne Hughes are the most likely to be removed, but time will tell. 

The O's also allowed a number of players to become Minor League free agents, including...

 Mike Hinckley

 Chris George

 Joel Guzman

 Scott Moore

and Dennis Sarfate.

Hinckley, George, and Guzman were all signed as Minor League free agents before the 2010 season and never made it to Baltimore.  

Moore and Sarfate both played for the Orioles at times over the past three seasons.  

None of these moves surprised me besides letting Sarfate go. The O's have a pretty deep bullpen and he didn't crack the 2010 Major League roster but he saved 20 games and had a 2.73 ERA for the AAA Tides. 

Orioles Autograph Year in Review- The Small Sample Good Signers

Rolling on with my review of the O's signing habits, today I'm covering the players who seemed to sign pretty frequently at the games I attended, but they weren't with the team long enough for me to decide whether they always signed a lot, or I just got lucky. 

 

Rhyne played in 14 games with the Orioles from late April through mid-May and spent the rest of the season with AAA Norfolk. He was only with the O's for a handful of games, but I saw him signing at both games I attended during his time in the Bigs. I dropped the ball and didn't have anything for him to sign those times, but I did get his autograph in Spring Training and was able to trade for this O's postcard recently. His first Orioles card was included in the just released 2010 Topps Update set, so I now need to get that signed for the collection.

Armando started the season in AA with the Baysox, was promoted to AAA Norfolk after about a week in Bowie, and eventually worked his way up to Baltimore towards the end of the season to become Oriole #883. I got his autograph in Spring Training, Bowie, and again in Baltimore, so I really consider him to be a good signer, but with only 5 games as an Oriole under his belt, he's here in the small sample category. 

 

Oriole #885 Brandon Snyder is someone whose autographs I've been able to steadily add to my collection over the past three seasons during his time in Frederick, Bowie, and now Baltimore. B-Snyde appeared in 10 games with the O's after getting called up in September and I recall seeing him sign at least twice over his time in Birdland. I'm at the point where I don't have many unsigned cards of his so, assuming he's back in Baltimore next year, I would guess he will be listed in the good or best signer category. 

 

Rick, Oriole #884 for those of you keeping track, was a fairly valuable swing-man for the O's after being acqured from the Marlins for Will Ohman at the trade deadline. He was a regular Sunday signer and seems like a decent guy to boot, so I'm rooting for him to make the team next season. 

Signs of Life-Courtesy of Rhyne HUUUUUGHES

I know that I briefly turned my attention away from the current state of the Orioles; I continued to watch and/or follow the games, but I had taken a break from writing about the mostly-depressing goings on. But suddenly, I have something positive to talk about, and his name is Rhyne Hughes!

He was called up prior to Saturday's game and played 1B both Saturday and Sunday. Oh, and he has only gone 4-9 with a double, 1 run scored and 2 RBI. Not a bad way to make his Major League debut if you ask me. And since Garrett Atkins wasn't exactly tearing it up at the plate, is it possible that Hughes is the full-time first baseman? I say that anything can happen considering how the season has gone so far!

Now, if you have been following this blog over the past few months, this is far from the first time you have heard Rhyne's name. I did a post dedicated to him in February when I was profiling all of the Minor League Members of the Orioles 40-man roster. At that point, I did not have his autograph, but was lucky enough to catch up with him in Spring Training, so you might have seen the card at the top of the post then. Rhyne announced his arrival to the organization in the O's first Spring Training game on March 4th, when he went deep twice against the Rays.

Rhyne had been feasting on AAA pitching so far this year (he was hitting .353, with 3 HRs, 11 RBI and an 1.088 OPS before getting called up) so his success at the plate isn't much of a surprise. But it is nice to see a player succeed immediately during his first action at the Major League level. The main negative about him is that he strikes out about 25% of his ABs, but if he can hit the other 75% of the time, I won't have anything bad to say about him.

Let's Go O's!

Spring Training Successes: Minor League Members of the 40 Man Roster

Following up on the series of preview blogs I wrote about these players a few weeks back, here are all of the autographs I got from the Minor League guys on the O's 40 man.


Rhyne Hughes signed at both games I went to but I missed him on the first day. This is my first autograph from him, and I wanted to get at least 2 but I won't complain. I didn't immediately recognize him when we walked by on the first day and I think he looks quite different in person than he does on his cards.


These cards looks like they were designed to be signed. There's too much open space when they aren't autographed but once the signature is added it looks great. The Hughes card above is also from the Tristar Projections set but his wasn't cut off at the waist for some reason.

Brandon signed a trio of cards for me, but this is the most unique. As you can see, it's from the '07 Hawaii Winter Baseball set and that was the only year I bought one of these sets. It featured 5 or 6 other Orioles Minor Leaguers, including my boy, Matt Wieters, but I didn't buy the set for him or Snyder. I bought it because it includes the only card produced of Ryohei Tanaka, a RP who was on the Baysox in '09. I have not yet gotten Ryohei's autograph but this shows you how far I will go to obtain a card of a random Minor League player to get their autograph on a card.

This is a cool action shot for a Minor League team set. The Baysox did a nice job on their cards last season. The orange border is cool as well.


And why stop now? Here is the third Snyder card I got signed from the equally cool 2006 Ironbirds set.


Chorye kind of missed the card with his C when he was signing it. I think that he was trying to avoid the black jersey but I would've preferred that he kept his autograph totally on the card. Oh well. At least it's an Orioles card.


Since I seem to only have good things to say about the Minor League sets in today's post, I won't stop now. I like the rolling blue wave at the bottom of the Tides '09 set. The orange jersey and blue border clash a little bit but I like it anyway. Also, Troy has always seemed like a nice guy and a good signer to boot.

The Amazing Orioles Spring Training Start

The Orioles thoroughly dominated the Rays yesterday in their Spring Training home opener, which was also their first home game at Ed Smith Stadium. The game was on the radio in Baltimore and I am lucky enough to work at a job where I can listen to games during the work day, so I randomly hooted and hollered as my coworkers looked at me wondering if I was having a seizure. The O's top position prospect Josh Bell, went deep twice, as did Rhyne Hughes, both in their first game with the big league club. Nick Markakis and Scott Moore also went deep and the O's rolled over the Rays in a 12-2 victory.

I know that it's just Spring Training and that these games don't count and won't be remembered at the end of the season, but it was a great way to start things out. Even in Spring Training, the Orioles don't often look this good, and it got me even more excited for my trip to Florida next week.

Let's Go O's!!

Minor League Members of the O's 40 Man Roster-Rhyne Hughes

As you can see, this card is not autographed, which is the reason why I have waited to profile Rhyne until last in my posts about the Minor League members of the O's 40 man roster. I do not own an autograph of Mr. Hughes. He was at the Orioles FanFest but wasn't a priority for me since he hasn't (yet) played for the Birds and wasn't signing with anyone else who I was specifically targeting.

Rhyne came to the Orioles as the PTBNL (player-to-be-named-later) in the Gregg Zaun trade with the Rays last August. The Rays originally selected him in the 8th round of the 2004 draft and he played with five of their Minor League affiliates up through AAA Durham in his 4.5 years with the organization. After the trade to the O's, he played with the Norfolk Tides for the remainder of the season and appeared in 20 games. The first baseman is known mostly for his bat and has decent power but his defense and plate discipline have been questionable at times.

I'm not really sure how Hughes fits into the Orioles plans, but I figure that he is behind Brandon Snyder in the 1B prospect spot and trails Ty Wigginton and Michael Aubrey for the backup 1B spot. I hope that he has a good spring and expect that he will begin the year at Norfolk.