Filling Some Holes

There have already been twelve players who have made their Orioles debuts so far this year, and I did not have autographs of six of those guys; each of whom knocked me further and further away from the 100% of total signatures from the Orioles all-time roster I had achieved in the off-season. And that made me mad(ish). So I took action and knocked off certified signatures from four of the six I needed. (As far as I can tell, there are no certified Josh Stinson autographs out there, and I have yet to acquire one of Alex Burnett.) 

While I have custom Old Man Cards ready to be signed of all four of these guys, I figured that I would rather go ahead and knock them off my list for now, since my autograph time has been drastically reduced, at least to this point in the season. Hopefully these four will end up on my trade list one day, but if not, at least I'm covered. Oh, and they were all to be had on the cheap, which works out perfectly for me!

Chris Snyder #948

Freddy Garcia #949

Yamaico Navarro #951

Danny Valencia #953

 I have trades and/or consignments out for Stinson and Burnett, so hopefully I can knock them off my need list in the near future to get back to my cherished 100%. Now if only the Orioles would cooperate and slow it down with the debuts already. How is a collector to keep up?!?

Orioles #951-954, Navarro, Jurrjens, Valencia, & Gausman

Hello there. You remember me? I'm the guy who used to blog almost daily about Orioles autographs. Nowadays, it's like a once a month thing, but hopefully I will get better. I won't promise to get back to my nearly daily posting level, but I can do better than once a month. And man, 2013 is taking my collection backwards so far.

Luckily, I had autographs of two of this group of four new O's, but I'm still slowly slipping away from the 100% of Orioles autographs that I achieved in the offseason. I have a few things in motion to add a couple other of these guys to my collection too, so hopefully I can keep 100% within striking distance.


Yamaico Navarro #951, Debuted May 17 against Rays

Yamaico had been recalled to the team earlier in the year to fill a roster spot for a day but did not appear in a game until he was brought back to the team for a second time in mid-May. At the time of his debut, he took over the everyday 2B duties from Ryan Flaherty, who was sent to AAA to straighten some things out. He was the second baseman for a majority of the team's games between his debut and May 28th. He hit .286 over eight games, which isn't spectacular but was impressive when stacked up to the O's other 2B this season, but his defense was spotty, and he was sent back to AAA to make room for Flaherty's return to the club.

Jair Jurrjens #952, Debuted May 18 against Rays

Jurrjens was one of the Orioles bigger off-season signings, but some lingering injury issues changed his deal from a major league to a minor league contract and he began the season at AAA Norfolk. He had a mid-June opt-out date in his contract, but as I understand it, since he was called up, albeit briefly, that opt-out is no longer in play.

He was called up to start against the Rays on Saturday, May 18th, and he pitched five innings, gave up six hits, four earned runs, and struck out five. He did not get a decision in the game, but I don't think that Buck Showalter liked how Jurrjens let the Rays claw their way back into the game after the O's gave him a four run lead in the first inning. Thus far, that was Jair's only action for the O's, although I fairly well expect to see him again at some point this summer.

Jair kindly signed and personalized my card for me on my Spring Training trip, and from what I saw, it seems like he is a good signer. He has quite an interesting signature, that I would describe as somewhat looking like a dollar sign.

Danny Valencia #953, Debuted May 19 against Rays

Danny marked the Orioles third debut in their three game series against the Rays. Thankfully, they won't sustain that rate, otherwise, I'd be chasing 162 new autographs each year, and I think that would drive me away from this crazy collection.

Valencia has been one of the more pleasant surprises so far this season for the O's, and has hit 3 home runs through just 9 games, appearing solely as a DH or pinch-hitter.

Kevin Gausman, Oriole #954, Debuted May 23 @ Toronto

Gausman made his highly anticipated MLB debut against the Blue Jays, and I don't think it was a coincidence that his first two career starts were both on the road to somewhat lower the excitement level that the hometown fans would have brought to the Yard. He has had some ups and downs over his first three starts, and currently has an 0-2 record with a 7.20 ERA, but his most recent start, and first at home, against the high-octane Tigers offense was his most successful thus far, and he gave up just one earned run over six strong innings. He even earned a few nods of approval during at-bats from the reigning A.L. MVP and Triple Crown winner, Miguel Cabrera. And that's got to say something.

Kevin will likely stay in the starting rotation if he can continue to show improvement, and many people think that he could be the Orioles best starter by the end of the season.


So at least I had autographs of two out of these four new Orioles, but it still leaves two more names to add to my need list. And I would say that out of all the players who were with the O's during Spring Training, Navarro and Valencia were two of maybe four or five (out of 50ish) players whose autographs I did not get at all. And it figures that both of them would make the big league club, and early in the season at that.

Hopefully, it won't be another month until my next post, but time will tell!

Oriole #945- Chris Dickerson

Well, the O's most recent roster move certainly took me by surprise. As I mentioned in my post from the other day, I had infielder Yamaico Navarro pegged as the next player to be called up to the O's to make his Baltimore debut. He had three things going for him as he was already on the 40 man roster, had been on the 25-man roster for a day between B-Rob's injury and Chris Tillman's activation from the DL, and was also the taxi squad player who traveled with the team to Boston on Sunday in case Nolan Reimold needed to be sent to the DL.

But then, almost literally, out of left field, the Orioles called up OF Chris Dickerson to take the roster spot of relief pitcher, Luis Ayala, who was traded to the Braves on Wednesday. It makes sense that the O's wanted to go back to a four man bench, but I still don't entirely understand adding another outfield-only player to essentially take the spot of 2B Brian Roberts. Before Dickerson was called up, the O's already had four outfielders on the roster (Jones, Markakis, Reimold, & McLouth), in addition to at least three other players who can play the outfield as needed (Davis, Flaherty, & Pearce). Don't get me wrong, I think that Dickerson pretty much immediately becomes at least the fourth best OF on the team; fielding wise, I'd say that he's in the ballpark of Jones, Markakis, & McLouth. And from what I understand, his speed is a commodity as well.

Chris made his Orioles debut in the 9th inning of Wednesday's game against the Red Sox, coming into the game as a pinch-runner for Nolan Reimold, who is typically quite fast himself, but was recently battling some hamstring issues. Dickerson ended up scoring a run on Manny Machado's decisive three run HR to give the Orioles the lead, and ultimately, the win.

Chris signed a few cards for me on my Spring Training trip, and this personalized old man card will immediately jump into my collection. I happened to be the only guy around when Chris was signing and he seemed like a nice guy. I attended a ST game the day before he signed for me and he had made a long run to catch a ball near the outfield wall. It looked like a nice play and I brought it up to him. He quickly responded with "Oh, you mean the one I lost for a minute?" I guess that maybe it was more of a lucky than a good catch, but it still looked like he made a nice play from the stands!

He made his first Orioles start Thursday night in right field, and I imagine that he will generally know become the 4th OF on the team, with Reimold shifting to the DH role. But who really knows? I was way off on my last attempt at predicting what this team will do. As long as they keep on winning!

Who Will be the Next New Oriole?

As the baseball season approaches, my "baseball nerd" mind begins it's yearly process of trying to figure out some Orioles-centric questions that likely only matter to me and a handful of others. Or maybe just me, it's honestly hard to say. But since it matters to me and this is my blog, you know that I'm gonna write about it.

In Monday's post, I wrote about (and reminded myself) that prospect L.J. Hoes was the final new Oriole to make his debut last season; he became the 942nd player to appear in a game in Orioles history when he debuted on September 25 in Baltimore against the Blue Jays. Hoes grew up in Maryland, had been with the team for nearly a month before his debut, and has a fun last name, so the fans were rather excited for his debut.

Anyhow, my wheels have begun to spin in regards to whom might be the first new player to appear in a game for the Orioles in 2013. It's a difficult, nearly impossible, thing to predict over a month before Opening Day, but I'm going to look at a few candidates today, and possibly make a prediction.

To make things easier for myself, I'm going to break the possible candidates into a few possible categories, in descending order of the likelihood that Oriole #943 will come from that group.

First off, let's look at the players currently on the 40-man roster who have never appeared in a game for the Orioles. Since a roster move wouldn't have to be made for them to break camp with the O's, it's most likely that the newest O will be amongst these guys: LHP Mike Belfiore, IF Russ Canzler, IF Alexi Casilla, RHP Zach Clark, LHP T.J. McFarland, IF Yamaico Navarro, RHP Todd Redmond, IF Jonathan Schoop, IF Danny Valencia, and LHP Tsuyoshi Wada all fit the bill here.

Again, it's nearly impossible to eliminate anyone at this point, but Wada is the easiest cut as he is still recovering from Tommy John surgery that was performed last May and his MLB ready date is expected to be somewhere in late May, so it's highly unlikely the he could become the first new Oriole of the season.

The next three easiest cuts for me are Navarro, Redmond, and Schoop. I just rank too many of the other similar players ahead of Navarro and Redmond, so they have an extremely uphill battle to break camp with the O's, but an excellent March could obviously change that. And Schoop is the O's #3 prospect,  still just 21 years old. He spent 2012 at AA Bowie, and is spending part of Spring Training with the team from the Netherlands to play in the World Baseball Classic, so I just don't see anyway he comes north with the team.

The group that I have an extremely hard time of creating some separation with includes three pitchers; Belfiore, Clark, and McFarland. The one advantage that McFarland holds over the other two is that he is a Rule 5 draft pick and would have to be offered back to the Indians if the Orioles don't keep him on their 25 man roster all season. Which is extremely unlikely, although they did it with Ryan Flaherty last year. But the other two guys have pitched better than McFarland through the first week of games, so that doesn't establish much. Both Belfiore and Clark were added to the 40-man over the winter, and none of the three have any MLB experience to date.

Zach Clark has been in the Orioles farm system for a number of years, and has steadily moved through the ranks, but put himself firmly on the team's radar after a 2012 late season promotion to AAA Norfolk where he went 5-2 with a 1.75 ERA over seven starts. Like Hoes, he is another (relatively) local guy from Wilmington, DE who went to college in Baltimore at UMBC. I like Zach' chances because Buck Showalter keeps calling him a "baseball player" which is a very high compliment in Buck's vernacular.

Mike Belfiore was acquired from the Diamondbacks last season in return for one-time prospect, Josh Bell. The O's added him to the roster prior to the Rule 5 draft to protect him from other teams, so that tells you that they obviously think that he possibly has something to offer the team. And he has pitched well so far this spring in a few appearances.


So as far as the 40-man roster guys go, that leaves us with three infielders, Russ Canzler, Alexi Casilla, and Danny Valencia, and in my opinion, Oriole #943 is likely going to be one of these three. Although it could also be that not a one of them ever plays for Baltimore. Currently, all of them are playing multiple positions during Spring Training to prove their value to their new organization and they will also have to hit at least a little bit too to prove that they belong. On top of that, they are competing with a glut of non-roster invitees to fill very similar roles and if any of those non-roster guys outplays this trio, they could easily swipe their spot on the 40-man without much of a hassle.

My gut says that probably two of these three guys break camp with the O's, and that Casilla is the most likely to become Oriole 943, mainly due to his glove skills, and that he would specifically be providing depth at 2B behind the recently oft-injured Brian Roberts.


In addition to all of these players, any of the non-roster invitees could stand out and break camp with the big league squad. This group includes pitchers Zach Braddock, Kevin Gausman, Mark Hendrickson, Jair Jurrjens, Daniel McCutchen, Eduardo Rodriguez, Adam Russell, Daniel Schlereth, and Mike Wright, catchers Allen de san Miguel, Jose Gil, Luis Martinez, and Chris Robinson, infielders Travis Ishikawa, Steve Pearce, and Niuman Romero, and outfielders Chris Dickerson, Lew Ford, Conor Jackson, Jason Pridie, and Trayvon Robinson.

My short list of those guys who are more likely than the others to make it to Baltimore in April are Jurrjens, Ishikawa, Pearce, Dickerson, Jackson, and/or Trayvon, although guessing about something like this on March 1st is like pulling names out of a hat. If I had to narrow my list down to just two of this group, I would take Jurrjens and Ishikawa.

And on top of all of those options for the next Oriole debut remains the distinct possibility that the O's swing a trade between now and Opening Day. Baltimore's surplus a of starting pitching is well documented, and the team really could use another power bat. If they make a trade like that, that type of player would likely be someone who would be in the Opening Day lineup. So absolutely everything that I've just written could go out the window.

Finally, to wrap things up if anyone has actually made it to the finale of this novel-length post, as of today, my guess for the next player to make his Orioles debut will be utility infielder Alexi Casilla. But I will likely revisit this topic again closer to Opening Day, when the overall picture might be a bit more clear.