Oriole #978- Nick Hundley

This past Saturday, the Orioles pulled off a trade with the Padres sending lefty reliever Troy Patton to San Diego in return for catcher Nick Hundley. Troy had pitched for the O's off and on since 2010 and was a player who I enjoyed watching in the minors at AA Bowie. But this past off-season produced the second failed drug test of his career and a subsequent 25 game suspension that seemed to place him in Buck Showalter's doghouse and on the chopping block. His name had been dangled as trade bait once he came of the restricted list, and he was especially vulnerable as the O's bullpen had four lefties in it at one point earlier this season.

So the O's made the deal to acquire Hundley from the Padres, a transaction that might also speak volumes about Matt Wieters' future with the O's for the rest of the 2014 season, but hopefully I'm jumping to conclusions.

(Disclaimer- I know that I will call Nick "Todd" at various points. I already had to fix the title of this post. Todd Hundley was also a MLB catcher who played in the Majors from 1990-2003, and someone whom I was much more familiar with until this past weekend.)

Anyway, Nick was drafted in the second round of the 2005 draft by the Padres and made his MLB debut for them in 2008. He appeared in 510 games for Friars over the past seven seasons, and was mainly used as back-up/platoon catcher over that time. None of this stats particularly jump out at me, but it does solidify the O's current catching situation.

He made his Orioles debut on Memorial Day, and it looked like it would be a forgettable one, as he was 0-4 with a strikeout and also committed a nearly game-ending error over the first nine innings of the game. But luckily the Brewers couldn't capitalize on his throwing mistake, and he came to bat in the tenth inning and promptly singled in J.J. Hardy who scored the go-ahead and eventually game-winning run for the O's. So his debut went from horrible to awesome with a single swing of the bat.

I do not have Todd's Nick's autograph in my collection, and it doesn't look like he has any certified autographs out there. But luckily, a few online sites are littered with cheap autographs of his, so I should be able to add one to my collection for only a few bucks. Eventually, I would like to have a signed, personalized Old Man Card too, but we will see how things work out.

Good luck with the O's Nick!

Rest of the FanFest Autographs

Wow, look at me go. It's my 5th post of the month (my most since last August), and I'm showing off the rest of my Orioles Fanfest autographs, within three weeks of obtaining them. I'm on a freaking roll here. Maybe I'll get this blog back up to full steam one of these days. But for now, I'm pretty pleased to just be moving along at a medium pace.

FYI- This is probably the most scans that I've ever had in a single post. At times in the past, I would have split this into a few different segments, but I'd rather just knock them all out at once. So that's how I'm gonna do it.

Also, my scanner got a little weird while scanning some of the postcards, but whatever. It has a mind of it's own.

This first group of cards are joining my collection. Mainly for the orange uniforms, but I was really happy to finish off the Davis/McLouth celebration card too. McLouth signed it for me during Spring Training last year, so it got carried around for quite some time before it got signed. And, I can't seem to bring myself to tradeaway any of my Wieters' autographs.

 

 

These cards are all extras that I got signed and are available for trade. If you see something you like, let me know and maybe we can work something out!

 

These postcards are available for trade too...

I got this group signed for some other collectors, so they are already spoken for, but I wanted to show them off anyway, if for no other reason than to prove that I got them signed. Or something like that. 

Finally, Liam Hendriks get his own grouping in the "we-hardly-knew-you category". Liam was DFA'ed to make room on the roster for the exciting free agent signing of Ubaldo Jimenez. But the Blue Jays selected him off of waivers from the O's, so the likelihood of his appearing in a game for the Orioles, at least in the near future, took a major hit, so these Orioles autographs become somewhat of an unneeded item. No complaints here though as Jimenez is certainly an upgrade.

Oriole # 938- J.C. Romero

J.C. Romero, the Oriole new lefty bullpen specialist, made his orange and black debut in last night's 7-1 win against the Red Sox. He worked a scoreless eighth inning, giving up one hit, and became the 938th player to appear in a game for the O's. I don't currently have an autograph of J.C., but he was included in the 2012 Norfolk Tides team set, so I hope to have him sign that card for my collection in the near future.

J.C. has pitched in the Major Leagues since 1999 with seven different franchises, most notably the Twins and Phillies, and over those 14 seasons, he has appeared in 676 games, almost exclusively as a reliever. He was a major key to the Phillies' 2008 World Series Championship victory, even earning the win in the decisive game five to secure the series win. However, that following off-season, he was suspended for 50 games for testing positive for a performance enhancing drug, which he claimed was due to a tainted supplement.

Over the past two seasons, J.C. has bounced around between the majors & minors for seven different clubs, and the story of how he came to the Orioles is rather interesting.

Prior to the 2012 season, the Cardinals signed him to a one year contract but released him in mid-May. The Orioles quickly signed him to a minor league contract and assigned him to the AAA Norfolk Tides, and Romero had an opt-out date of July 10th if he hadn't been called up to Baltimore by that time. Well, that day came and Baltimore's bullpen was doing just fine, so the Orioles let him get away. The Indians proceeded to sign him to a deal and assigned him to their AAA club, but it was to some sort of conditional deal that allowed the Orioles to get him back if they needed him for the big league club. And that time came on Monday, when Troy Patton, the only lefty reliever the O's had used all season, injured his ankle and had to head to the D.L. So the Orioles got Romero back from the Indians, albeit in return for one of Kalina's favorite minor leaguers, Carlos Rojas.

Car-los Ro-jas! clap clap clapclapclap  Car-los Ro-jas! clap clap clapclapclap

So, it's nice to have Romero as a, possibly short-term, part of the bullpen, but it's unfortunate that it cost the Orioles a player, even if clubs consider Carlos to be an organizational type of player.

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.

Upgraded Orioles Spring Training Autographs

As I continue to work my way through the autographs I got during my Spring Training trip last week, I'm trying to figure out some logical ways to group the autographs.

Today's group features players who have already played in a game for the Orioles. And you'll notice that I continued my trend of requesting personalizations, and that everyone was very accommodating.

One of the highlights of my trip was getting Chris Davis to sign his 2012 Topps card, the first card that pictures him as an Oriole.

Since 2012 Topps came out in late January, I had to add Davis and Kyle Hudson to my need list, something that always bothers me with current players. And with Hudson now with the Rangers, I will have to get creative to add his signature to my collection.  

I was also excited to get Hardy's autograph, since I found him to be pretty tough to track down last season.

Jonesy continues to be an above average signer for a star player.

I continue to have luck with Chris Tillman, although a fellow collector mentioned that he seems to be getting harder to get to sign than in past years. 

I seem to go through feast or famine times in terms of getting Troy's signature, and I'm currently stuffed.

One of the more surprising autographs I got was from Brian Roberts, who is around the team, but not playing in games at this time. I snagged him leaving the complex on an off day, and he seemed to be in decent spirits considering all he's gone through in regards to his concussions. 

I specifically enjoy requesting personalizations from players who are also named Ryan. I like to see how their printing compares to their signature. In Adams' case, it's not very similar.

Josh Bell was kind enough to add the rare personalization & double inscription combo. 

Also, this is not a very flattering action shot, as Josh is kind of making a "derpface". 

One of the most unexpected autographs I got on my trip was of Winston Abreu, who made his major league debut with the 2006 Orioles. He was the 793rd player to appear in a game for the O's when he debuted on August 6th; unfortunately, he didn't have much success and had a 10.13 over seven games. This was my first in-person success with Winston.

I was happy to add personalized cards from a few of the Orioles coaches/instructors who were around Sarasota.

Brady has been a tough signer over the years, so it's nice to have him so accessible.

Chris Hoiles is also helping out during Spring Training as a catching instructor.

Alan Mills has returned to the Baltimore organization as he is poised to be the pitching coach for the short season A ball Aberdeen Ironbirds in 2012. 

I didn't recognize Alan at first since he literally looks the same now as he did on this early 1990s' card. It must be nice to age so gracefully.


I try to always be prepared with Orioles cards in case any one-time Birds are playing or coaching for the opposing teams. I lucked out with former O's pitcher and current Braves pitching coach, Roger McDowell, who was shagging fly balls down the right field line during Braves BP.

 Check out the R's in his signature and the personalization of my name. Now those are some similar R's!