Jake Looks Strange

So I tuned into the Nationals-Cubs game the other evening and who did I see pitching but former Oriole Jake Arrieta. It was the first time I had seen him in a Cubs uniform, and I have to admit that he looked slightly weird wearing another uniform, but that's life being an Orioles fan. I mean, I would venture a guess that at least half the teams in MLB have a former Oriole on their roster, so it's not that big of a thing. But it does give me a nice excuse to show off this awesome personalized autograph that Jake signed for me on my 2013 Spring Training trip that I had not shown here yet.

Thanks for signing Jake, and good luck in Chicago!

Oriole #960- Bud Norris

Wow, I'm finally caught up on my Orioles debut posts, for the moment at least. My posting over this summer has obviously been lacking, and at times, even calling it sporadic might have been a compliment. But the blog is still alive and kicking (or at least treading water). So your "favorite" source for everything related to Orioles autographs will continue to deliver "well-written" posts about signed pieces of cardboard for the foreseeable future! Rest easy, my friends.

Bud Norris, Oriole #960, Debuted August 1 vs. Astros

The trade that brought Bud Norris into town was definitely my favorite deal of the three that the Orioles swung prior to the trade deadline. While I think the Feldman and K-Rod trades both improved the club, this trade was the one that I think might be the difference between the team making the playoffs or just watching them on TV along with the rest of us. The trade was also an interesting one in that the Astros were playing the Orioles in Baltimore when it went down, so Bud only had to switch clubhouses at Camden Yards to join his new team.

Bud has pitched in the Majors with the Astros since 2009, and his W-L record isn't great but his ERA is very respectable, and let's face it, the 'Stros have pretty much been horrible throughout Bud's time with the team. While I wasn't thrilled to give up two local MD products and prospects in L.J. Hoes and Josh Hader, Bud isn't a free agent until 2016, so should be able to help the O's compete in coming years as well as this one.

To date, Bud has pitched in five games for the Orioles (four starts and one emergency late inning relief appearance), and has won three of his four starts while taking the hard luck loss in just the second appearance out of the 'pen in his MLB career. He has had the luxury of facing some relatively anemic offenses including the Astros, Padres, Giants, and Rockies, but I'm still a fan of his 3.91 ERA in an Orioles uniform.

Before I wrap this up, I want to pass along the story of how he earned the nickname "Bud". I heard this story earlier in the summer while he was still with the Astros but I thought it was pretty funny so it stuck in my mind. Anyway, his real name is David, but when he was a kid, he went out to dinner with his parents and some of their friends/family, and almost everyone at the table ordered a Bud(weiser) and so did he, apparently without anyone else paying attention or the waiter/waitress noticing he wasn't old enough to be drinking. So the server brought back everyone's drinks and before handing young David his beer, finally took note that he wasn't old enough to drink it. So from that day forth, he has been known as Bud. So there you go.

Good luck with the O's, Bud! You're the first Oriole that I'm aware of who is named after a beer, so regardless of how your time goes in Baltimore, you will always have that!

Oriole #959- Francisco (K-Rod) Rodriguez

Slowly, very slowly, I'm making my way through the list of players who have recently made their Orioles debuts. Up today is K-Rod.

Francisco Rodriguez, Oriole #959, Debuted July 25 against Royals

The Orioles swung a trade with the Brewers to add this four-time All-Star to their bullpen for the stretch run. The Birds traded away Nicky Delmonico, their #5 prospect, and 2011 6th round draft pick, to pry K-Rod away from the Brew Crew, so I certainly hope that he does something over the course of the last two months of the season to make the deal worthwhile for the O's. 

Things started out on the wrong foot for K-Rod and the Orioles as he gave up four home runs in his first four appearances for the team. Luckily, his five appearances since then have been free of homers, or any runs at all, and he has struck out nine while only giving up two hits.

After Jim Johnson's recent stretch of being absolutely horrible (did you know that he has blown 7 of 15 one run save chances this year?), it's entirely possible that K-Rod just might be the Orioles closer at least in the near future, if not for the remainder of the year. Since he was the Brewers closer before being traded, was 10-10 in saves this year, and has 304 career saves, I think he could do the job. Another thing to chew on is that K-Rod's 40 strikeouts on the year are just one fewer than Johnson's 41, in just over half the innings pitched. 

Good luck in Baltimore K-Rod! Oh, and it would be nice if the next time it's only me and one other person asking for your autograph, you might oblige us. It would certainly help a brotha out!

Oriole #958- Henry Urrutia

Last week, I began the process of catching up on recent Orioles debuts, but at this point, I'm almost further behind than when I began due to Bud Norris's debut. But I'm going to try to keep up with the ever-changing Orioles! Up today is Cuban rookie, Henry Urrutia.

Henry Urrutia #958, Debuted July 20 against Rangers

Henry's back-story is rather interesting as he was a star baseball player in Cuba, but I think we all know that Cubans are not allowed to leave their country to play baseball in the U.S.. So to pursue his dream of playing in the Major Leagues, he defected to Haiti in summer 2011 and the Orioles signed him to a contract. However, he ran into some issues establishing residency in Haiti and/or obtaining his visa to enter America, and was stuck in Haiti through most or all of 2012. (Disclaimer- I'm not familiar with how residency is established or the US Visa process.)

He finally obtained his visa and was able to join the Orioles at their minor league complex for Spring Training 2013. Unfortunately, he suffered some sort of injury that further delayed his progress, but he was around the team and kind enough to sign some autographs for me, on what were his only baseball cards at the time, my dad's old man cards.

Well, Henry got himself healthy quickly enough, and joined AA Bowie to start the 2013 season. Over 52 games with the Baysox, he hit .365 with 7 homers and 16 doubles before he was promoted to AAA Norfolk with much of the same success, hitting .367 over 15 games. He had shown enough to earn the promotion to Baltimore, and to date has appeared in 14 games and hit .279 over 43 at-bats. He has mainly served as the DH thus far in his Orioles career, and I believe the team would like him to work on his defense and base-running. But his bat seems to be the tool that will likely keep him at the MLB level, though he seems like more of a slap hitter than a power guy for now.

I wish Henry the best of luck with his Orioles career! He certainly surmounted many challenges to reach baseball's top level.

Oriole # 957- Jairo Asencio

As I mentioned yesterday, I'm in the process of trying to catch up on the Orioles who have debuted over the past month. Up next is Jairo Asencio, who was traded to the organization from the Brewers late in Spring Training 2013, of course after my autograph trip was already over, so I didn't have an autograph of his waiting to slide into my collection.

Jairo Asencio #957, Debuted July 12 against Blue Jays

OK, I will start with the most obvious question about this card/autograph that pictures someone named Luis Valdez. You might ask, what does this have to do with Jairo Asencio? Well, since Jairo is a relatively fringe MLB player, let me ask if you are familiar with the Fausto Carmona/Roberto Hernandez fake name/age situation? If so, then just know that the same situation occurred here. If you still don't know what I'm talking about, here is a quick rundown.

In recent years, a number of baseball players from the Caribbean Islands (specifically the Dominican Republic) have signed contracts under fake names, generally to seem younger than they actually are to increase the bonus money they receive when they signed with an MLB organization. Well, MLB teams were being duped out of money with these deceptions, and the US Government doesn't generally approve of people entering America with falsified documentation. So there has been a crackdown on this in recent years, and while it still occurs, most of the offenders are generally found out at some point along the way.

So, essentially, Luis Valdez = Jairo Asencio.

"Luis" made his MLB debut in 2009 for the Braves before MLB discovered his name discrepancy in 2010. He missed the entire 2010 season as he got his paperwork straightened out, and has pitched under his actual name since 2011 for the Braves, Indians, Cubs, and now, Orioles.

Since this is an autograph blog, my interest in all this (and presumably yours as well) centers around Luis/Jairo's autograph. Assuming that both of these signatures are authentic, it seems like regardless of the name he doesn't have much going in terms of penmanship. The Valdez card up top is on its way to my collection while this Asencio signed photo is available on ebay.

It's honestly hard to say if he is more used to signing his name as Valdez or Asencio but from my standpoint, the Valdez signature seems more fluid, though it's hard to say when this Braves photo was signed. It could have been recently after his return to being Jairo, who knows? I hope to someday soon, have my own in-person autograph of his to add some additional insight to this discussion. I'm also a bit torn about whether having an autograph of "Luis" should be considered the same as having an autograph of Jairo, but I've come to the conclusion that if he signed it, I will include it in my collection, regardless of the name listed. 

But for now, Jairo is once again pitching for AAA Norfolk, after four appearances and a 7.71 ERA over his two week stint with the Orioles. 

Oriole #956- Scott Feldman

Since I wrote my last Orioles debut post about Travis Ishikawa back in late June, five more players have made their Orioles debuts, three of whom were acquired in deals leading up to the trade deadline. Let me tell you, as a long-time O's fan, it's still feels strange to be on the receiving end of these types of trades. I'm much more used to the days when the team would ship out most of it's veterans at the end of July. Over the coming days, I'm going to write about each of the new players. 

 Scott Feldman Oriole #956, Debuted July 3 against White Sox

Back on July 2nd, the Orioles traded with the Cubs to acquire Feldman, and minor league catcher Steve Clevenger, in return for the long-struggling duo of Jake Arrieta and Pedro Strop. I feel like it was a smart idea to strike a deal before the starting pitcher trade market took shape and honestly, I don't feel like the O's had to give up very much to get Feldman. While both Arrieta and Strop have plenty of potential, they certainly weren't living up to it in Baltimore. 

Jake was one of the players I watched rise through the Orioles minor league system and I had high hopes for him, but he never seemed able to stay on top of the mental part of the game at the MLB level as attested to by his 5.46 ERA in 69 games (63 starts) with the Orioles. And Strop was a nice guy who always seemed to have a smile on his face, but had become a relatively unusable member (7.25 ERA) of the 2013 'pen.

Over 5 starts thus far with the O's, Feldman has a 2-2 record and a 5.12 ERA, so I would like to see him step it up a bit, but I still feel like the move was an overall upgrade for the team. 

I'm aware that the COMC.com logo is pictured on the card above, but it is the autograph of Feldman's that is in my collection for now, I just have not had the time to scan the card since it arrived at my house. There are a few certified autographs of Feldman out there, so his autograph is a relatively easy one to add to your Orioles autograph collection. 

And I know that this is small sample size, but in my first in-person autographing attempt to have Feldman sign one of my dad's Old Man Cards this past Sunday, he completely ignored the relatively small group of fans who were trying to get his autograph. I hope to have some better luck with him on my next attempt!

Adios L.J.

One of Kalina's favorite Orioles was traded today, as L.J. Hoes, minor league lefty Josh Hader, and a 2014 competitive balance draft pick were sent to the Houston Astros for starting pitcher Bud Norris. The Hoes for Bud jokes on Twitter right now are rampant.

L.J. only played in two games for the Orioles, but we saw him play many times in the minor leagues at both Frederick and Bowie, and it kind of felt like he had been around for a long time. Both Hoes and Hader are local guys who the Orioles drafted and developed and that makes it a little harder to see them go, but if it makes the team better this year, I'm all for it.

L.J. always seemed like a nice guy, which was the main reason that Kalina liked him, so good luck in Houston, L.J.!

Unpossible Autograph- Drungo Hazewood

After another extended absence from this blog, I'm back once again. And it's always a sad day when I hear that another former Oriole has passed away, but it's especially true when they were still relatively young as was the case with Drungo Hazewood, who passed away at just 53. 

Russell, a fellow Orioles autograph collector, and long time collecting friend of mine, sent me an email about Drungo's passing early yesterday, and it looks like Drungo passed away sometime on Sunday. (This write-up/obituary from the Sacramento Bee does a great job covering Drungo's life.)

In Orioles autograph lore, Drungo had retained the title of being one of the toughest autographs to track down for many years until Chris Potter, a local autograph signing facilitator, tracked him down for a signing late last year. I have no idea if Chris knew that Drungo was sick and fighting the effects of cancer, but it will likely remain the only large-scale signing that Drungo ever did in his lifetime. The Bee article touches on this, but it seems like Drungo just didn't know why or how so many people wanted his autograph since his MLB career lasted all of 6 games, so he didn't sign TTM and remained obscure enough to stay off the radar of many larger autograph promoters.

I've written about my experiences with tracking down his autograph a few times (here and here), as it was quite an adventure, and I feel very lucky to own two of his signed cards. Now that he has sadly passed away, and even though he participated in that single signing, I have a feeling that his autograph will remain one of the toughest to track down for future generations of Orioles autograph collectors.

RIP Drungo.

Oriole #955, Travis Ishikawa

Since I'm late to the party yet again (which has become a regretfully typical issue around here lately), I imagine that most of you that care about this sort of thing are aware of the fact that the Orioles added 1B Travis Ishikawa to their active roster last week. It was a bit of a forced issue, as he had a June 15 opt-out deal in his minor league contract, and had just been named the AAA International League Player of the Month in May for having had an amazing month at the plate. Oh, and apparently the Yankees would have signed him if the O's let him walk away. So that combination of events led to the Orioles adding him to their 25 man roste, and he made his Orioles debut on Tuesday, June 18 against the Tigers. He is officially the 955th player to appear in a game for the Orioles and the 13th player to make his Baltimore debut this season. 

Once again, the awesome combination of my dad's Old Man Cards and my Spring Training trip has come through for me, and I already have a signed, personalized Orioles card of Travis to insert directly into my collection. Travis was a good signer in Sarasota, as I saw him signing multiple times and actually ran out of his cards to be signed, which I suppose is a good problem to have.

Something tells me that Travis's stay in Birdland will likely be a short one, mainly because the Orioles have another left-handed first baseman who is having a pretty good year. But he will always be Oriole #955.

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?!?

Check Out the Contest at Autographed Cards

Hey, look at me, a second post in June. Wow, I'm really rolling now! This will be a short post, but I suppose that's still better than no post at all.

Anyway, my buddy Zach, who writes the excellent blog, Autographed Cards, is holding his annual College World Series contest. Now, if you haven't already entered, you missed the preliminary round and the chance to get some bonus points. But, not to worry, I missed out on that as well, and everyone still has a chance to win, so head on over there and give it a shot.

Zach has given away some excellent prizes over the years, such as this autographed card of (now-deceased) Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew,that I won three or four years back. 

Good luck everyone!

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!