Oriole #1002- Junior Lake

What was it that I just wrote in my last post about how when one player makes their Orioles debut, it seems that a few more are bound to follow? Well, that pattern is certainly holding true right now as Junior Lake was the third player to make their O's debut within a six day span. And he is also the third consecutive player to debut whose autograph is not in my collection, so that's just great. Thankfully, as was the case with Gerardo Parra, there are plenty of certified autographs available of Junior's out there, so it won't be hard to add his autograph to my collection at some point.

Credit: Getty Images

Junior was just traded to the Orioles from the Cubs at the trade deadline on July 31st in return for Tommy Hunter. At the time the move was made, I figured the O's were just looking for some salary relief for Hunter and viewed Lake as a controllable asset for the future, since he can't become a free agent until 2020. He has appeared in 193 games for the Cubs over the past three seasons, and hit .241 with 16 homers over his time on the north-side of Chicago. I remember that he sparked a baseball "fight" with the Marlins earlier this year after he hit a home run and enjoyed it a little bit too much.

So far, over two games with the Orioles, he is 1-8 with a double, but made a nice defensive play in left field that was captured in the above picture.

Time will tell what Lake's role will be in the organization, but it's hard to argue right now that just about anyone isn't an upgrade over Travis Snider, who was designated for assignment to make way for Junior.

Oriole # 988- Everth Cabrera

Game #2 of the 2015 season brought about another Orioles player debut, as well as another game in the win column. This time around, Everth Cabrera appeared in his first game in the orange and black and became the 988th Orioles player in team history.

While Everth's debut wasn't nearly as flashy or remarkable as Travis Snider's debut on Opening Day, he had a decent day in Tampa, going 1-4 at the plate as the starting shortstop. (Snider went 1-1 in this game and walked 3 times, and also scored a run and drove another one in, leaving his two game average at .800 and on base percentage at .875.)

Everth figures to appear all over the field in 2015, as the Orioles used him at a number of different positions during spring training, including shortstop, second base, and center-field.

Thanks again to my dad for his helping with Everth's autograph!

Oriole #987- Travis Snider

Thanks to my dad's Old Man Cards, his trip to spring training, and the time he spent getting autographs, I have signed Orioles cards of the five new players on the 25 man Opening Day Roster. 

Only one of those five made their Orioles debut yesterday, and what a debut it was, Travis Snider, have yourself a day! (Everth Cabrera, Jason Garcia, Ryan Lavarnway, & Wesley Wright's Orioles debuts are pending, and will all likely occur in the next few days. Be on the lookout for up to five posts here, in a week! I know, I know, I'll believe it when I see it too.)

Travis Snider had one of the best Orioles debuts in recent memory as he went 3-4 with two doubles and two RBI, threw out a runner at the plate and made a great diving catch in left field. (Nick who?!? Just kidding, I miss Markakis like we all do, but if Snider keeps this up, he will certainly be an upgrade.) He did get thrown out easily try to stretch his only single into a double, but after the way he contributed overall, I'm not worried about that blip today.

The Orioles easily beat the Rays 6-2, behind a strong start from Chris Tillman and overall solid defensive play, and run support wasn't an issue as Stevie P, Ale Alejandro, and Flash all homered. What a great start to the 2015 season, now let's win another 99 or so games.

Because Snider was impressed by my dad's card making ability, he kindly signed all three OMCs at one game for him. So these two can be had in a trade if you are interested.

As always, thanks Old Man, and let's go O's!

I'm Back? Spring Training & Travis Snider

Oh, hi there, fellow Orioles autograph collectors. Wow, where did the time go? I have no idea where the past four months went, but I certainly did not plan to go without posting for so long. 

Obviously, I'm not nearly as active with this blog as I used to be, thanks in large part to my amazing, now six-month old little boy. He is my world now, and my autograph collection has taken a much deserved backseat. But I don't intend to let my collection, or this site, completely fall by the wayside. Especially with the baseball season rapidly approaching, I hope to at the very least cover the new Orioles debuts, with additional posts on other past Orioles from time to time. 

While I was not able to make my (typically) annual trip to Spring Training, my parents spent an entire month in Sarasota, and my dad had some amazing autograph successes with the team. I believe that he got an autograph of nearly every player in the Orioles camp, besides Darren O'Day, who sounds like he was being a real piece of work. He's never been an easy autograph to get, but sounds like he stepped up his ignoring-the-fans shtick. 

Not only did my dad spend a good chunk of his trip watching the Orioles practices and games, but he even used some of his free time to continue to produce his Old Man Cards of players new to the Orioles organization. While I know he had a great time making the cards and getting the autographs, at the end of the day he gave them all to me to add to the collection. He's a really great guy, and while I know that he had fun with the whole thing, it's really nice that he used his vacation time to help out me and my collection. Thanks old man!

I will be showing off his autographs over the next few weeks leading up to Opening Day, with a focus on the new players who will likely break camp with the Orioles. 

Starting out today is one of the last players that my dad got to sign for him on the trip, Travis Snider. It sounds like my dad only saw Travis sign one time and that was these three cards for him. 

I would say that Travis is likely the best "lock" to make the Orioles Opening Day roster out of all the new players in camp. Wesley Wright is likely 1b in this category, and Everth Cabrera is pretty likely to be in Baltimore as well, but Travis is the one I'm most confident will break camp with the O's. 

This card is heading for my collection as soon as Travis appears in a game. Personalized, inscribed, awesomeness. 

It sounds like Travis was so impressed by my dad's efforts with the OMCs that he took the time to sign all three at once. So these two are available for trade if anyone is interested. My scanner decided to cut the borders off the card above, as well as many of the others I scanned (super), but what can you do?

Thanks again to my dad for all the time and effort he spent making the cards and getting the autographs, but knowing him, he had a blast with all of it. And I'm sure the combination of the Florida weather and the Orioles were a pretty perfect combination for him!