Oriole #906- Willie Eyre

There have been five Orioles debuts since August 3rd, when Jo-Jo Reyes became the 905th player to wear the orange and black in a game. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about them, I've just been preoccupied with request week and the overall sad state of the current team.

 

Willie Eyre became Oriole #906 when he pitched in the August 12th loss against the Tigers. To date, he has pitched in 10 games with the O's, and is 1-1 with a 4.15 ERA and a 2/1 strikeout to walk ratio; all of his appearances have come as a middle reliever. Honestly those numbers don't sound amazing but he has been a stabilizing force out of the pen over the past month.

Willie was drafted by the Twins in 1999 and steadily rose through their farm system before making his MLB debut with the club in early 2006. He became a free agent following that season and spent the next four years in the Rangers' organization, pitching in the Majors for them in 2007 & '09. Prior to the 2011 campaign, he signed with the A's but was never called up to their big league team and exercised his opt-out clause on July 31. Four days later he signed with the Orioles and spent a week with the AAA Norfolk Tides before getting called back to The Show.

Two other interesting things about Willie...

His full name is William Mays Eyre, so it seems like he was predestined to become a baseball player, although I'm guessing his parents envisioned him as a hittter.

His brother Scott pitched in 617 Major League games over 13 seasons from 1997-2009 for the White Sox, Blue Jays, Giants, Cubs and Phillies.

I traded for this autograph on SCN and still hope to get an in-person autograph from Willie before the end of the season, but the clocking is ticking. His autograph is interesting and kind of has a high and low lasso type of thing going on.