Oriole # 1030- Stefan Crichton

Wow, so this is almost like a real blog again, if only for one week. I've finally had the proper time and motivation to write about all of these new O's, and am blazing through all the 2017 debuts.

Up today, is yet another relief pitcher, by the name of Stefan Crichton (it's pronounced ste-FON CRY-ton for those of you who might care about that sort of thing).

The Orioles drafted Stefan in the 23rd round of the 2013 out of TCU, and he has spent the ensuing parts of five seasons by making stops at every level of the Orioles minor league system. He was always solid but not spectacular, and didn't appear on any top prospect lists. The Orioles obviously liked him enough to keep promoting him through the farm system and he was included in the players the Orioles sent to play in the Arizona Fall League in 2016.

However, he wasn't on the map enough to earn an invite to the big league camp for Spring Training 2017 which made his rise to the majors even more interesting. Buck Showalter has a penchant for bringing over a handful of guys from minor league camp for every Orioles spring game, and Crichton was frequently one of those players. He ended up pitching in eight games, and only allowed four hits over eight innings of work while striking out seven and earning four saves. Take what you will about the typical minor leaguer versus minor leaguer end of spring games, but he clearly put himself on the radar. 

Stefan was recalled to the Orioles on April 16th for the first time this season when Zach Britton was placed on the DL, also unfortunely for the first of now two trips there thus far, and made his MLB and Orioles debut that same day. Regrettably, his spring success has not carried over to the regular season, and he has allowed at least one earned run over each of his three appearances for the Orioles to this point, and his ERA sits at 10.80 over 3.1 innings pitched. 

He is one of the handful of players riding the Baltimore-Norfolk carousel, and has already had two separate stints with the O's and three distinct spells spent with the Tides. Who know what the rest of the season will bring, but here's to hoping that Stefan can redirect his successes in Florida to Baltimore.

Crichton was honestly so far off of my radar that I didn't even ask my dad to make Old Man Cards of his until after Spring Training. Stefan kindly signed these for me at the same game that I had success with Wade Miley and Alec Asher, so I was very happy to knock off three guys I was hoping to have sign for me in a single day. 

Oriole # 1022- Michael Bourn

As I anxiously await my trip to Sarasota for Orioles Spring Training, I figure that it's about time to wrap up the 2016 debuts before the 2017 season officially starts. I will attempt to do a better job with keeping these posts timely during the upcoming season, since they are essentially about the only posts I keep up with at all these days. I think that I'm beyond apologizing for lengthy delays between posts at this point, it just is what it is, but I don't want the blog to completely die off at least.

My parents have already been enjoying the Florida weather for a few weeks now and I'm extremely jealous happy that they have are getting to watch baseball as I continue to sit around in Maryland. But since my dad enjoys getting autographs almost as much as I do, it does come with the nice benefit of his already graphing some of the players that I might need for 2017. As well as tracking down one player that I still needed from 2016, Michael Bourn.

Michael was traded to the Orioles from the Diamondbacks on August 31, 2016, made his Orioles debut on September 2, and went on the appear in 24 games for the O's over the last month of the season. He will be best remembered for starting a relay throw on September 16th against the Rays. In the top of the ninth inning, he fielded a line drive down the left field line and started a 7-5-2 relay to throw out the tying run at the plate, locking down the win and preserving Zach Britton's perfect season.

I failed in a few attempts at getting his autograph last season, and once he was included as an Oriole in the 2017 Topps set (and late the '17 Heritage set), I had to add him to my need list. As the off-season lingered without his signing with a team, I was concerned that his time in baseball might be over and I would not get a chance to have him sign one of his Orioles cards. Fortuitously, he re-signed with the Orioles on February 20th and my dad wasted no time in getting him to sign and personalize this card for my collection.

Thanks for your help yet again Old Man! I'm looking forward to joining you in Florida!

A New Closer in Birdland?

It looks that way after last night's 2-1 victory. Zach Britton came in for the ninth inning and set the Royals down in order on three ground balls. It was the first 1-2-3 save for the O's this year, as former(?) closer Tommy Hunter was never able to pull off the trick.

Zach has an insane ground ball to fly ball ratio of something like 4 to 1, which will help in Camden Yards too. No official announcment has been made by Buck Showalter, but I think his actions speak more loudly than words in this scenario. 

Good luck Zach! Let's Go O's!

Back to Spring Training- Major Leaguers

Since I've made it through all of the posts detailing the players who have already debuted for the Orioles thus far in 2014, and there are no other debuts on the horizon, I'm moving back to showing off the autographs I got on my Spring Training trip.

These next few posts will likely be picture dumps, but let's face it, I know that most of us prefer to look at pictures rather than read a bunch of words. As is the case with some men's magazines, most of you are here to look at pictures, not read. You've just chosen to look at signed baseball cards instead of women. But who am I to judge? I'm the one putting the pictures here.

Today's focus is on the autographs I got on my trip that are all of players currently on the Orioles roster. Over the next few days, I will cover minor leaguers, coaches, and the other miscellaneous autographs.

You will probably notice a number of signed cards that show players wearing orange uniforms. If you are new to my site, I collect signed orange uniform cards in addition to my main collection.

I was very happy to get Zach to sign this mini. They aren't so fun to carry around with a bunch of regular sized cards. I definitely dropped this bad boy more than once while trying to get other autographs.

 I've had some pretty bad luck with Wei-Yin over the years, so was surprised that he signed.

On the other hand, Steve Clevenger might be the best signing, coolest player the O's have had in a while. Pigtown is well represented by this guy.

I'm including Machado here because he would be on the team if he wasn't hurt. This was one of the first autographs I got at my first game, so I got off to a good start. I actually saw him sign one other time but he got absolutely swarmed.

My streak of only getting Nick's autograph at Fanfest and/or Spring Training continues.

It wasn't long ago that I had no signed Bud Norris Orioles cards. Now I'm up to three. I'd much rather have too many than not enough.

I was fairly surprised that Schoop made the O's Opening Day roster, and it mainly was related to Machado's injury but he also beat out at least Jemile Weeks for the backup infielder spot on the roster.

Jonathan has always seemed like a good guy, and he is very easy to root for; I hope that this is a start to a long Orioles career for him!

Thanks Kirk!

I recently swung a trade with Kirk, who writes the Orioles autograph-centric Eutaw Street Cardboard blog, and added a few new orange uniform autographs to my collection.

Ahh, the glory of the orange uniform!

Thanks for the trade Kirk.

Contest Winnings

About two months ago, I finished in second place in Zach's 2nd Annual College World Series contest. He sent out the winnings probably five weeks ago and I finally got around to scanning them over the weekend.

The guy who won the contest got the first pick and then we bounced back and forth to select our winnings from his prize pool.

 

I was very happy to add another HOF auto to my collection

This is a pretty sweet collector's coin commemorating the CWS' first year at TD Ameritrade Park

Zach somehow came across a pack of Japanese cards that I was very excited to rip. 

I don't recognize any of these guys but it's still cool to open up a foreign pack of cards.

 

 

 

Next up was a lot of Royals player post cards; the Maury Wills auto was my next pick

Zach was nice enough to throw in a few extra cards of Zach Britton and an autograph of current Royal, Johnny Giavotella.

 As you can see, Zach is very generous with his prizes, so make sure you check out his blog, Autographed Cards, so that you don't miss out on his next contest.

And I'm Back

I'm sure that everyone missed me (and their almost daily Orioles autograph fix).

To celebrate my return, here's a Zach Britton autograph I got during his recent minor league demotion.

He was very cool and even personalized for me. Thanks Zach

A Bunch of Orioles Postcards

There are quite a few signed Orioles postcards residing in my autograph collection. While I certainly prefer autographed cards over postcards, sometimes a postcard is my best or only option. If you are a regular reader of my blog, you've probably seen a number of different Orioles postcards that were displayed over the years, but these should all be new to you.

Autographed postcards are in my collection for a number of different reasons...


For some players, it will be the only issue ever released that pictures them in an Orioles uniform.

As was the case with short-term catcher Greg Myers

 

And will likely be the case with Rapada & VandenHurk, though they still have a chance to get an O's card

Some other postcards are (hopefully) temporary placeholders until I can upgrade to signed Orioles cards...

 

  

That's Lenny Webster up top, Jason Grimsley, and Erv Palica on the bottom

Palica passed away in 1982, so his signing days are over, but he did have a few O's cards produced during his life, and I'm still hoping that one of them might turn up some day.

Webster & Grimsley are still around, although Jason seems to have crawled under a rock somewhere since he was revealed to be the informant for the Mitchell Report. I actually just added this Grimsley postcard to my collection this week, so it might take quite some time to find an actual signed Orioles card. 

Every now and then, a player will include their own "postcard" when they return my TTM request. 

 

Tom Dukes was nice enough to do just that when he returned my request last year. It's really just a picture, as opposed to a postcard, but it's in the same ballpark.

A few other postcards have stayed in my collection because they are of my (or Kalina's) favorite players.

 

 

As is the case with Wieters & Arrieta. 

And then there are the extra postcards that I sometimes add at team-sponsored signings. These three are up for trade if anyone is interested...

 

  

 

Auto(matic) Auto(graph) Sunday

Like I said yesterday, I typically find that Sunday's are the best day to get Orioles' autographs, at least in my experience. So Kalina coined the term, Auto Auto Sunday, and I liked it, and I'm using it for the title of this post.

Here are the autographs I got at the game on Sunday; some of these correspond with the pictures from yesterday.

I'll start with the autographs you are probably expecting to see...

Now I have both the action and posed versions of Zach's 2011 Orioles postcards signed. 

Jaku has one of the less exciting cards from the OPC set. The picture looks like it was taken in deep space. But at least we know he's a ROOKIE.

 

This is the second time I've gotten this card signed, but since it's Gonzo's only Orioles card that uses a picture of him that wasn't photoshopped, maybe somebody else needs a copy.

 

 This is my umpteenth Ryan Adams autograph, but first since he's actually been an Oriole.

OK, that's it for what you might have expected to see. Here's the rest...

For you fellow 'graphers out there, whenever you set out to get signatures at a game or event, do you have a top priority in mind? I almost always do and my top two for Sunday were Clay Rapada and Jeremy Accardo, since I had never got their autographs in person.

 

 

 

 Problem Solved.

I got Rapada almost immediately as I walked in (he had been throwing with Jaku) and added Accardo not long afterwards. Rapada's autograph looks almost nothing like the pre-printed version on his card, though in all fairness, I didn't expect him to sign "Clayton Anthony Rapada". 

And while it's hard to read his name in the signature, I'm a fan of Accardo's stylized autograph, especially the first (two?) J's.

This was the first time I've seen Buck sign since Spring Training and I was thrilled to finally get this epic card signed. If you don't know, Buck seems very professional and business-like, so I can only imagine the conversation that took place to get him to pose like this near that giant cactus.
 

Wayne Kirby always seems like a personable guy, and he is normally joking around with the fans.

Finally, I more or less ran into Boog Powell out on Eutaw Street near his BBQ stand, and he kindly signed my Crown card. He's around for most Orioles home games, but I've got his autograph enough times over the years that I generally don't make the trek out to centerfield to see if he's around.

So I got 10 autographs in under 2 hours inside the stadium. Pretty solid day considering my average is generally more like 1 or 2.

Sunday Pictures

As you may know if you've been following my blog over the years, I feel like Sunday's are the best day for Orioles autographs. If you get in early enough, you have the best access to players with the least amount of competition for autographs. And the relievers, who are generally the toughest guys to come across, typically warm up down the line, so you at least have a chance to get their autographs. Most evening games, the relievers shag fly balls during BP, disappear into the clubhouse and then go directly to the bullpen through a "secret" passage.

Tomorrow, I'll post the autographs I got but  for now, here are some pictures that I took yesterday.

Immediately when I got down on the field, there was Chris Jakubauskas, throwing with Clay Rapada. Jaku is one of my favorite guys on the club since he always seems to enjoy interacting with the fans. I called him over to sign, and then about 10 kids got him to sign as well, so he jokingly said to me "See what you started?"

Zach Britton was also warming up and came over to sign after he was done. 

If you were wondering what Zach looks like from the other side, wonder no more.

Mike Gonzalez was the next guy to come over, and I think he literally signed for everyone down the line

 

 

Although he continues to struggle on the mound, Gonzo continues to be a good signer 

 

 

Ryan Adams was signing at the end of the dugout, so I moved down there to get him

 

 

This was the first time I saw Adams signing in Baltimore; which was nice to see because he didn't seem to enjoy it at times in the minors. 
 

 

Luke Scott came out to talk with some what-I'm-guessing-are veterans. LUUUKE is a big military supporter, and it looked like he had the camo Scott shirts made himself.

Nick Markakis even made a brief appearance.