Goodbye Dave

I don't think that you were the main or only problem plaguing my favorite team, but you were the easiest piece to change. Thanks for being a great autograph signer, especially over the course of the 2009 season. I think the stress was building up this season and it probably led to his avoiding the fans at times, but I got him to sign his 2010 Heritage card before last Thursday's game, which turned out to be the last home game he would manage. I haven't scanned that card yet but will add it to this post tonight if I can find the time.

Simon Says-Who's the Orioles Clawser?

Since these two guys have each earned their first career save in the past two Orioles games (two game winning streak baby!!!), does that mean that either of them are the closer right now? My guess is that Dave Trembley sticks with Alfredo Simon and his 97mph heater for now.

Still Recovering from O's Opening Day

And no, I don't mean that in the way that some of you might be thinking. Although this year's Opening Day was on a Friday afternoon, the scene in Baltimore following the game was much more subdued than in most recent years. Which leads me to where I am going with this post.

It's very possible that Mike "the Cobra/Gonzo" Gonzalez has became the most quickly disliked Oriole that I can remember. He again blew the lead and the save at Friday's home opener for the 2nd time in 3 appearances for the O's, and his only save was a white-knuckle affair in which he loaded the bases before finishing off the Rays. He was jeered throughout his sloppy Friday outing and was universally showered with boos after Dave Trembley pulled him from the game after he gave up one hit, one walk, and two earned runs while giving up the lead to the Jays. I don't know where things go from here but Trembley claims that the Cobra is "still the closer." Let's just hope that the closer can lower his 18.00 ERA in his next outing and get a save that doesn't leave Orioles fans in need of a trip to their local emergency rooms for chest pains.

Who the Henn is pitching tonight?

Sean Henn made his O's debut last night, which makes him the 871st different player to hit the field for the Orioles. He came to the O's organization earlier in the day yesterday in a trade from the Twin for a PTBNL.

He is being used as a situational lefty out of the bullpen, and essentially auditioning for that open spot on next year's team. He made his Orioles debut in the bottom of the 8th inning and started out his Orioles career well, by striking out J.D. Drew on 4 pitches. He then gave up back-to-back bloop singles to Kevin Youkilis and David Ortiz and was replaced in the game by Cla "the Claw" Meredith. Meh. Coulda been better, or worse. Welcome to Dave Trembley's relief pitching carousel.

Sean has played for the Yankees, Padres, Twins and now the Orioles since 2005 and his career numbers are on par to Chris Lambert's.
In 55 Major League games, Henn is 2-9 with a 7.47 ERA and 1.979 WHIP.


All of the pictures and cards that I could find of him featured him in a Yankees uniform so I don't feel like including them in my blog. There is plenty of coverage elsewhere about that team.

Autographs from 6-23 Aberdeen Ironbirds game

Here are the autographs I got at the Ironbirds game 2 weeks ago. If you missed my post on the trip, you can read about it here.

As the I-Birds are the short season A club in the O's farm system, I'm not familiar with many of the players there. So I also don't have many cards or much information about most of the players. I was fortunate to go to a game that had two guys, Blake Davis & Brandon Erbe, rehabbing from AAA Norfolk. I saw them both play at AA Bowie last year and saw Erbe at Bowie again earlier this season. Erbe was hiding out at this game and I didn't see him anywhere. However, I was lucky enough to get Blake's autograph after the trainer had stretched him out.

Blake was having a nice spring training this year for the O's when he unfortunately broke his foot. It was really bad timing since he had the inside track to break camp with the O's as their backup SS, partially due to the fact that he didn't have much competition. After he went down, the O's made the Hayden Penn for Robert Andino trade that has worked out pretty well for the Birds.
I got to ask Blake how his foot felt and he said it was fine but he hadn't ran in such a long time that his hamstrings were getting very tight during games. The Ironbirds trainer spent 5-10 minutes trying to get Blake properly stretched but must have done a good job as Blake is now back with Norfolk and hopefully back on track to make it to Baltimore sometime soon. He is a good guy so I am rooting for him to make it!

Cesar Devarez 1995-96

Cesar is the field coach for the Ironbirds and he signed for me by the dugout. He was the O's backup catcher for 16 games over the course of the '95-96 seasons. I found out on the Ironbirds coaches page that he played in the Minor Leagues for 15 years. Way to keep at your dream, Cesar!


Gary Kendall is the I-Birds manager and seemed to be the best autograph signing manager I have seen. I theorize that is because he was never a big time player, as Dave Trembley is also a great signer and also never played in the big leagues.


I saw Mick Mattaliano in Hi-A Frederick towards the end of last season and he was the closer at Lo-A Delmarva for most of 2008 so I don't know exactly why he was in Aberdeen in 2009. It seems like he is moving down the prospect ladder. But this is a cool looking card; he must be a submarine style pitcher, but I have never seen him in action so am not sure.


Tom Edwards was drafted out of Rutgers (that's a reference for you, Mark) in the 28th round of the 2008 draft. He's playing his second season at Aberdeen.


After starting the '07 season with the GCL Orioles, Jake has been playing for the Ironbirds for about 2 seasons now. He was drafted by the O's in the 45th round of the 2007 draft, so he might have reached his ceiling. I hope Jake proves me wrong!

Tuesday O's autos

I went to Tuesday's O's-Mets game in the hopes of getting the two current Mets players who are former Orioles. Anyone know who they are? They aren't very big names, more backup types. They both are Hispanic. Any guesses yet?

They are Omir Santos and Fernando Tatis, and I was hoping that they would sign a card for me, but had no luck. In fact, I only saw Brian Schneider & Livan Hernandez sign for a handful of people while the rest of the Mets avoided the throng of their fans at OPACY.

Especially in the case of Santos, I have two of his 08 Tides cards, one of which I sent to the Mets AAA affiliate the week he was called up so that card is in limbo, while the other is still in my possession. But I am now reluctant to send that one out since I would prefer to avoid buying another complete 08 set just for him. And that is my thought and concern that goes into obtaining a backup catcher's autograph. Hey, it's a collection not an obsession, right?

Well anyway, on the Orioles side of the field I had much better luck. I saw George Sherrill, (2 games signing in a row!?! attaboy Brim Reaper!!) Rich Hill, and Brad Bergesen signing but narrowly missed out on them. I did have better luck with Dave Trembley,

This one's available for trade if you still need him

Dennis Sarfate,


and Ty Wigginton!!!

This was my first time getting Ty to sign and he was the last member of the '09 Opening Day lineup that I did not yet have an autograph of.

Ty commented that Topps was nice enough to misspell his last name on this card. I hadn't even noticed even though this card has been with my set all season. But that is pretty funny, it would be even funnier if he signed his card "Wiggington".

Current O's autograph list added, Luis Hernandez TTM & pics from Tuesday's game

Since this is something I should have done a while ago, you will notice that I now have a link to my Orioles autographed cards on the upper left hand side of my blog. It shows all the Orioles players I currently have autographs from and which team's card is signed; if that column is blank, that means I have an O's card signed. If I don't have an Orioles card signed of a specific player or you have any autographs on my want list that could help me out, please let me know. I am always ready and willing to trade and hope to list all of my autographs for trade (mainly from late 80's through mid 90's) on the site soon.


Also, when I was on my way home from work yesterday, I was thinking that a returned TTM request waiting for me in my mailbox would be a nice way to end a crazy day. I hadn't got one back for almost two weeks but Luis Hernandez came through for me. I sent the request to his attention with the Omaha Royals and he signed in about 2 weeks for me! Thank you Luis! Although you weren't on the Orioles for very long, I appreciate the nice autograph.


And here are some pictures that Kalina and I took at the O's/Angels game on Tuesday night. I had an 0h-fer night with autographs but got some cool pictures in another close loss by the O's.

Here is Torii Hunter posing with a kid's Flat Stanley (I had never heard of him either but Torii seemed like a really nice guy)

Cool pre-game presentation of Lou's 2008 Eastern League(AA) Triple Crown award LOOOOOUUU!

And yes, Dave Trembley, this is pretty much how I felt about that BS balk call too
We should ask Jamie Walker what he thought about it...