Who will be Oriole #1000?

After the five Orioles debuts to start the 2015 season, the team is now on the cusp of having the 1000th player in team history make their debut for the club. With 991 players having currently appeared in a game as an Oriole, it's almost a guarantee that the 1000th Oriole will debut this year. In recent years, there have generally been somewhere around 20-25 new players appear in a game for the team each year, so nine more debuts would be just the 14th new player in 2015, so I would say that it's a lock that #1000 happens this year.

While it's certainly possible that Oriole #1000 will be a player that the team brings in from another organization, I'm going to examine some of the players in the farm system right now that could make their debut as that unique number.

Some of the most likely candidates are those players who are on the Orioles 40 man roster but haven't yet played in a game for the O's.

This group includes pitchers Tim Berry, Oliver Drake, Eddie Gamboa, Tyler Wilson, and Mike Wright, and infielder Rey Navarro.

Of this group, Berry and Gamboa have both spent a couple days on the 25 man roster, but did not appear in a game during their short stints with the team. (Gamboa's was just up this week when Wesley Wright went down with an injury, and Berry was up a few days last summer.) Buck also seemed very impressed with Wilson's work during Spring Training, and he gave him a few late spring road starts.

While those six are likely to play for the O's at some point over this summer, all together they still leave us short of #1000. While looking at the 29 players on AAA Norfolk's roster, Steve Johnson, T.J. McFarland, Steve Clevenger, Christian Walker, Nolan Reimold, and Henry Urrutia have already spent some time with the Orioles, so it won't be any of them. And all of the 40 man roster players listed at the top of this post are on the Tides roster except for Tim Berry, who is with AA Bowie right now. I will look at the remaining 18 Tides and examine their chances to be Oriole #1000 in my next post.

Once again, thanks so much to my dad for obtaining a lot of these autographs for me on his Spring Training trip!

Orioles # 989, 990, & 991- Ryan Lavarnway, Jason Garcia, & Wesley Wright

Last night's Orioles game brought about three Orioles debuts, which is quite rare outside of Opening Day. But since it was just the third game of the season, the three debuts are so strange as it would be later in the season. 

Ryan Lavarnway was the starting catcher in the game, and became Oriole #989 when he appeared behind the plate in the bottom of the first inning. He went 1-2 with a double and a walk in the game. 

Rule V pick Jason Garcia made his Orioles and MLB debut when he came out of the bullpen in the seventh inning. He walked one and only threw 8 of his 20 pitches for strikes, but it seems like some of that likely had to do with his big league debut jitters. Quite understandable. 

Wesley Wright also debuted out of the bullpen, and threw just a single pitch to get an out in the bottom of the eighth inning. Now that's an efficient debut!

As always, thanks to my dad for getting these autographs on his Spring Training trip. It's pretty awesome to have these cards to plug right into my collection.

Oriole # 988- Everth Cabrera

Game #2 of the 2015 season brought about another Orioles player debut, as well as another game in the win column. This time around, Everth Cabrera appeared in his first game in the orange and black and became the 988th Orioles player in team history.

While Everth's debut wasn't nearly as flashy or remarkable as Travis Snider's debut on Opening Day, he had a decent day in Tampa, going 1-4 at the plate as the starting shortstop. (Snider went 1-1 in this game and walked 3 times, and also scored a run and drove another one in, leaving his two game average at .800 and on base percentage at .875.)

Everth figures to appear all over the field in 2015, as the Orioles used him at a number of different positions during spring training, including shortstop, second base, and center-field.

Thanks again to my dad for his helping with Everth's autograph!

Oriole #987- Travis Snider

Thanks to my dad's Old Man Cards, his trip to spring training, and the time he spent getting autographs, I have signed Orioles cards of the five new players on the 25 man Opening Day Roster. 

Only one of those five made their Orioles debut yesterday, and what a debut it was, Travis Snider, have yourself a day! (Everth Cabrera, Jason Garcia, Ryan Lavarnway, & Wesley Wright's Orioles debuts are pending, and will all likely occur in the next few days. Be on the lookout for up to five posts here, in a week! I know, I know, I'll believe it when I see it too.)

Travis Snider had one of the best Orioles debuts in recent memory as he went 3-4 with two doubles and two RBI, threw out a runner at the plate and made a great diving catch in left field. (Nick who?!? Just kidding, I miss Markakis like we all do, but if Snider keeps this up, he will certainly be an upgrade.) He did get thrown out easily try to stretch his only single into a double, but after the way he contributed overall, I'm not worried about that blip today.

The Orioles easily beat the Rays 6-2, behind a strong start from Chris Tillman and overall solid defensive play, and run support wasn't an issue as Stevie P, Ale Alejandro, and Flash all homered. What a great start to the 2015 season, now let's win another 99 or so games.

Because Snider was impressed by my dad's card making ability, he kindly signed all three OMCs at one game for him. So these two can be had in a trade if you are interested.

As always, thanks Old Man, and let's go O's!

Long Overdue Autographs from Orioles Fanfest

Since I will start with the Orioles debut posts with Opening Day on Monday, I figured that I should write a post about my long overdue Fanfest autographs.

Over two months ago, I was able to make it to Orioles Fanfest for a few quick hours. Prior to my son's birth this was pretty much an all day event for my entire family, at times to my wife's chagrin. But this year, she stayed home with the little guy while my parents and I went to the Baltimore Convention Center. Not surprisingly, I was able to add a few autographs to my collection.

My main focus at the yearly Fanfest event is to get some autographs of the new players in the organization. Due to the O's offseason inactivity in 2014-15, there weren't any new players in the house that day.

Luckily, there were still a few autographs that I needed, headlined by Alejandro De Aza, who I was never able to get to sign for me during his time with the team in the latter half of the 2014 season. 

Fortunately, Christian Walker was signing at the same station, and with my dad's OMC card being his first Orioles card, I was able to scratch his name off of my list in one fell swoop.

Also signing at the same station, and I'm sure the main draw of the three for most of the fans was the Orioles very popular manager, Buck Showalter. Since I already had a Buck autograph in my collection, I decided to have him personalize this card to my son Jack.

Finally, my dad stuck with the Jack theme and had JJ Hardy sign and personalize this card on his spring training trip. Even though it isn't from Fanfest, it seemed appropriate to include it here. Something tells me that these aren't the last two "Jack" autographs that we will get in 2015, assuming we have time to snag some autographs before games!

Happy (almost) Opening Day!

Possible 2015 Orioles Debuts- Pitchers

In today's post, I'm going to highlight the pitchers who could potentially be making their Orioles debuts in 2015, once again starting with those who I feel like are most likely to pitch in Baltimore through the least likely.

Logan has two major plus signs in his favor to making the club out of Spring Training; he is a rule V pick who has to be offered back to the Mets if he doesn't make the team, and he has pitched very well this spring. My gut says he is on the Orioles 25 man roster next Monday.

Wesley Wright is a LOOGY (lefty one out guy) who the Orioles signed as a free agent this past off-season for $1.7 million. As I wrote about Everth Cabrera, the O's aren't the type of team to spend $2 million on a pitcher to send them to AAA. So even if Wright doesn't make the team on Opening Day, I would expect to see him in Baltimore at some point. His making the team might be related to Brian Matusz's possibly being traded.

Like Verrett, Garcia is another Rule V pick, so I know that the Orioles would love to keep him in the organization, but he has a few factors working against him. He's been injured for part of the spring, and he has never pitched above single A, whereas Verrett has had success at AAA. Garcia supposedly has the more electric arm of the two, but I don't see how the O's could keep two Rule V pitchers.

Roe, De La Rosa, and Drake have all been sent to the minor league camp already, so are extreme long shots to make the team. Roe was sent out most recently, and could become a bullpen piece at some point this summer. De La Rosa was injured for much of the Spring but has had some Major League success in the past so I don't know what to make of his chances. And the Orioles re-signed Drake to a major league deal this past winter after he had pitched at every level of the team's farm system over the past seven seasons, so there is obviously something they like about him.

As always, a big thanks to my dad for getting all of these autographs on his Spring Training trip, and making all of these awesome OMCs to boot!

Possible 2015 Orioles- Positions Players

Today's post is going to focus on the autographs my dad got on his Spring Training trip of the new position players in the Orioles organization who will likely/possibly be playing in Baltimore at some point during the 2015 season. I'm listing them from most likely to least likely to make the team out of Spring Training.

After Travis Snider, Everth Cabrera might be the second most likely new Oriole to start the 2015 season. He can play everywhere and has some legit speed. Also the O's don't pay players $2.4 million to play in Norfolk. He's had a few minor hiccups during his time in Sarasota following a few major life-choice blunders during his time with the Padres over the past few years, but I am very confident that he will play in Baltimore at some point in the near future. 

Dariel Alvarez, who obviously took some time out of his baseball schedule to sign quite a few autographs, at least for my dad, has made quite the mark in Sarasota. He seems to have the strongest throwing arm in camp and can certainly hit. Buck has mentioned his issues with the English language, confirmed by my dad while trying to get Dariel to personalize one of these cards, as well as some showmanship issues with him, but I can fairly well guarantee that he will make at least an appearance in Baltimore this summer.

I'm not really sure how this trio of infielders, Paul Janish, Jayson Nix, & Chris Parmelee fit into the mix. A lot has been made of improving the defense at AAA Norfolk and I have a feeling that these guys will be playing there to start the year at least. A lot has been written about the quality of Janish's defense at short, Nix has had a good spring at the plate, and Parmelee sounds like a smooth operator with the glove at first. All of them or none could really appear in games for the O's. 

Matt Tuiasosopo (who has to have one of the most fun names to say in baseball) and Rey Navarro have both already been sent to the minor league camp and are long shots to make it to Baltimore. It seems like there might be more utility infield flexibility or openings than in the outfield, so who knows is Tuia ever plays in Baltimore. Either way I'm prepared!

The one player that I'm confident who will not play in Baltimore, at least in 2015, is Alex Hassan, who the Orioles lost on a waiver claim to the Athletics when they had to make room on the roster for Everth Cabrera. But if he ever makes his way on to the team, I have a signed and personalized Orioles card ready to slide into the collection!

Potential 2015 Orioles- Catchers: Ryan Lavarnway, J.P. Arencibia, & Brian Ward

Having some new autographs to write about really has reinvigorated my interest in writing and talking about autographs. Thanks again for the autograph fuel old man! The approach of baseball's regular season certainly doesn't hurt either, it's almost time for another playoff push, O's fans!

Since I'm focusing on players who could be making their Orioles debuts this season, today I'm going to examine the catchers. With Matt Wieters starting the season on the disabled list, there will be an opening for at least one additional catcher on the roster.

It seems like Caleb Joseph will be the starter while Wieters is out, and the backup catcher slot is one of the tightest contests going on in Sarasota.

My money is on Ryan Lavarnway being the backup on Opening Day. Buck puts some major emphasis on catching defense and I think Lavarnway is pulling away from the pack.

The guy likely trailing Lavarnway seems to be J.P. Arencibia, which again seems to boil down to a defense thing. 

I sent this card with my dad on his trip because it shows Arencibia attempting to tag out Nolan Reimold at home plate when they were members of opposing teams. Pretty cool that they are both in Orioles camp this year.

Two other guys are on the fringes of the competition, "The Pride of Pigtown" Steve Clevenger who can absolutely hit at the Major League level but has allowed 9 steals this spring. 

And career minor leaguer, Brian Ward, who seems to be the best defensive option of the group but is also the least experienced. You can't rule anything out, but since he was sent to the minor league camp a few weeks ago, he would seem to be the longest of the long shots.