Oriole #1012- Francisco Pena

Last night's Orioles game featured two players making their debuts for the team. It's pretty rare for multiple debuts to occur in the same game other than at the beginning of the season in April or around the beginning of September, once the call-ups occur due to the expanded roster. One of the debuts, I was prepared for, while the other caught me relatively off-guard. In large part thanks to my dad, I was fully ready for Francisco Pena's Orioles debut. Not only did my dad produce his ubiquitous Old Man Cards, but he actually got three of these signed at Spring Training before I even arrived in Sarasota!

It seems like the Orioles generally pay a large amount of attention to the catching depth throughout the organization, so it's no surprise to see them sign a few extra catchers during the offseason. The O's purchased Francisco's contract from the Royals on December 2nd, and added him to their 40 man roster. He had played in nine games for Kansas City during the 2014 &'15 seasons, and was mostly known for his skills as a defensive catcher, which is something highly valued by the O's. 

The Orioles recalled Francisco from AAA Norfolk this past Tuesday after Caleb Joseph suffered a "testicular injury" (retching sounds) during Monday's game. He made his Orioles debut yesterday against the Red Sox and didn't disappoint. He kept Ubaldo's head screwed on tightly for the first five innings, quite and accomplishment given his recent performance on the mound, and went 2-4 with a HR, 2 runs scored, and 2 RBI. It was his first MLB home run, so it was a nice night all around for him. Not to mention that he caught the only runner attempting a steal against him to top it all off.

Baseball runs in Francisco's veins, as his dad is long-time MLB catcher Tony Pena, who played 18 seasons in the majors from 1980-97, mostly with the Pirates and Red Sox. In a cool twist to this story, his dad is currently the first base coach for the Yankees, who arrived in town last night ahead of their three game series with the Orioles this weekend, so father and son will likely take the same field at some point this weekend.

Good luck Francisco, keep up the great work as an Oriole! Although I don't expect you to hit a homer every game!

Spring Training Autos Heading For the Collection

As I mentioned the other day, I don't really have a game plan for exactly how I'm going to post about the autographs I got on my Spring Training trip, but rather, I'm going to scan them as I have time and post what I've scanned. 

Today's post is featuring some personalized autographs that are heading straight for my collection.

Yovani was signed about a week before our trip, and it was a quick turnaround to get his Old Man Cards made, but my dad pulled it off and I was thrilled to get these signed. I only saw Yovani sign one time on the trip, and thankfully he was nice enough to sign and personalize his first Orioles card for me. The card will head directly to the collection once he makes his O's debut. 

Tyler Wilson was finally featured on his first Orioles card when 2015 Topps Update came out last year. He only made his MLB debut last season, but he was a 10th round pick by the Orioles in the 2011 draft and had slowly and steadily been working his way to Baltimore since then. I always find it interesting how certain players/prospects are heavily represented as minor leaguers in Bowman and other representative sets, whereas a guy like Tyler hadn't been featured on a single mass release card since being drafted. At least the minor league team sets are out there to give him some cardboard representation! Also, I need to give Tyler a shout out for seeming like a really great guy, who shows it at least in part by a willingness to sign for fans with a great attitude. 

Ubaldo is another player who seems like a really nice guy. And it never hurts when he shows it by stopping most days to sign for the fans! I even heard that after a bad spring start, he STILL stopped to sign  for people; most pitchers would never do that!

Parker Bridwell is a good example of the opposite of Tyler Wilson's situation I was talking about up there. Parker was 9th round pick in 2010 who has been featured in at least these two Bowman sets, as well as no fewer than three Topps & Heritage Minor League sets and has yet to even make his O's debut. The big differences between the two players is that Bridwell has been considered the better prospect over the years. But I find it interesting that he was drafted one round higher one year earlier than Wilson but is still working on making it to Baltimore.

At some point last season, the Orioles brought Ramon Martinez into the fold as some sort of special assignment coach/instructor. I had never seen him around until this Spring Training, but my dad made sure we were prepared with an OMC for him to sign!

Dale Thayer signed a minor league contract with the O's about a week before our trip and was another one of the guys who needed a quick turnaround for this OMC, but once again, my old man pulled it off! Dale was a pretty consistent signer in Sarasota, and even though I'm pretty sure he will start the season in Norfolk, I wouldn't be surprised to see him make an appearance in Baltimore during the season.

Oriole #970- Ubaldo Jimenez

During Wednesday's Orioles game, three players made their Orioles debuts simultaneously as all were on the field in the top of the first inning. This is something that happens almost every season, typically in the first game of the season, but not generally as much afterwards. Since no one else likely pays attention to this kind of thing, I have created a tie-breaker system to determine how to order these simultaneous debuts using the 1-9 position numbers assigned to each position on the baseball field, going from pitcher (1), to right field (9). 

So obviously, that made the night's starting pitcher, Ubaldo Jimenez, the next Orioles debut, and locks him in as Oriole #970. 

During Spring Training, the O's signed Ubaldo to the largest free agent contract (4 years, $50 million) they have ever given to a free agent pitcher. So needless to say, the team has some high expectations for him.

He has pitched in the Majors since last in the 2006 season and has played for the Rockies and Indians. He had an 82-75 record with an ERA just under 4.00 and has had some ups and downs in his career. In 2010 for the the Rockies, he made the All-Star team and finished third in Cy Young voting. Last season, he was one of the best pitchers in the game after the All-Star break. But once he was traded to the Indians, he posted an era over 5 over his first season and a half in the American League.

It is a bit of a mixed bag as far as his career has gone, but we can hope that the last half of no season was no fluke. In his first start for the O's, Ubaldo pitched six innings, gave up five hits, including two homers, three walks, and four earned runs while striking out six. Not exactly what you want from your $50 million man, but he still has plenty of time to turn things around. I wish him the best of luck, and I have a feeling the O's will need him to succeed to have a chance at the playoffs this season.

I was quite surprised at how good of a signed Ubaldo was during my Spring Training trip. Sadly enough, I just don't expect MLB veterans to be good signers at this point, and it was a pleasant surprise to see him signing as often as he did. He signed no fewer than three times that I saw, and possibly more. I can certainly say that I like that about him! Now if he can just succeed on the mound, things will be perfect!

I always love to get cards signed that depict the player signing autographs, so this OMC creation is perfect, and it even shows him in an orange uniform to boot!

Heading for the Colleciton

A vast majority of the autographs that I got during my Spring Training Trip were of players who have yet to have played for the Orioles. In fact, quite a few of them might never appear in a game for the Orioles, but since you can never predict that sort of thing in early March, I always try to get their signed Orioles cards so that I can just slide it into my collection if/when they make their Orioles debut. A preventative strike, if you will.

Today, I'm going to show off a few autographs that I got on my trip that I am quite confident are heading straight for my collection, for a few various reasons.

I'll start out with the personalized upgrades of players who have already appeared in a game with the O's, so they will be directly slotted into my collection.

I'll start with Bud Norris, whose autograph I got on this Orioles card for the first time at FanFest thanks to Aaron. And now I have it personalized too!

I always get excited when the O's bring in former players to help out at camp. Todd Frohwirth has been a scout for the organization for a few years but is based on the west coast so rarely appears at games in Baltimore. He was in Sarasota to help current side-armed reliever Darren O'Day on his "mechanics" or whatever those wacky sidewinders call their pitching motion. 

Jack Cust was also back in camp with the Birds, after they signed him to a minor league contract. He seemed like a really nice guy when I ran into him at the team's minor league camp.

Next up are the two players who the O's signed this off-season that I am quite confident will end up playing some games in Baltimore, Ubaldo Jimenez and Nelson Cruz.

Finally, I was able to add/upgrade some autographs for my coaches collection. 

Bobby Dickerson and Einar Diaz were both on the coaching roster last year and I was able to get their personalized signatures. 

While Dom Chiti and Dave Wallace are both new in town but were nice enough to sign and personalize their cards as well.

 

 As always, thanks to my dad for producing these awesome old man cards.I don't know how many people comment about them and pass along their complements but you do a really great job on them! Thanks old man!