Oriole #1018- Julio Borbon

Julio Borbon has lived on the periphery of the Orioles Major League roster for the past three seasons. He has been a guy whose name Buck Showalter has continued to randomly bring up at times when discussing players in the system that he likes, but Julio was consistently passed over when minor league outfielders were called up to Baltimore. I don't exactly know why that was, but he finally made his Orioles debut on July 20th.

Julio was originally brought into the Orioles fold during the Rule V draft way back in December 2013 when the team selected him from the Cubs organization. I don't know how a player who had played in almost 290 MLB games over parts of four seasons (mostly with the Rangers from 2009-11) was eligible for the Rule V draft but that's a post for another day.

The signed card at the top of this post was back in the early days of my dad's Old Man Cards and was made prior to spring training 2014. I wrote a post about this back then, but for whatever reason during my time spent chasing autographs that spring, Julio and Delmon Young were the hardest autographs for me to get. Luckily, on the last day of my trip, Julio did sign and personalize this card for me, so I've been ready for his O's debut for two and a half years.

The Orioles resigned Julio to a one year contract in 2015 and again in 2016, so there obviously seems to be something working between the team and him even though he continued to play solely in the minors. Interstingly, Julio was playing with the AA Bowie Baysox when he got called up to the Orioles, which means that at this point, the O's seem more likely to call up guys from AA than AAA to help in Baltimore. Hey, however they win is fine with me.

Once he made his Orioles debut, Julio played in five consecutive games for the team, and went 2-9 with a run scored. The team then outrighted him back the minors, which he apparently could have refused, but he once again opted to stay in the organization. So maybe we will see Julio in Baltimore again at some point, possibly in another 2-3 seasons.

A Return to Regular Blogging?

I don't generally pay too much attention to how often I post here; I generally try to write with some sort of regularity and will write about Orioles autographs when there is something to say. But something jumped out at me looking back at the month of April. I wrote 18 posts, which is more than I've written in any specific month going all the way back to August 2012, and it's nearly a third of the posts I wrote during the entire 2013 calendar year. There was a time last year where it really seemed to me that the blog was slowly dying.

For whatever reason, the start of the 2014 Orioles season has reinvigorated my desire to write about the Orioles and their autographs. Part of it has been the ease of writing the debut posts, which seem to pretty much write themselves, but I've also gotten into the walk-up songs again, and even looked into the player's status on Twitter. So things are really rolling along here at the GOAP. Will I keep up this pace all year? I'd have to say it's unlikely based on recent history, but at least I'm on track to post ten-ish times each month. And that ain't bad.

To celebrate my "return", here are a bunch of upgrades that I've been able to acquire recently. And it seems only appropriate to show off my dad's Old Man Cards, since they have certainly contributed to my continued passion for my collection!

I've written about all of these players in the past, so click the links on their names if you want to read about them and their histories with the O's!

Greg Aquino

Brian Bass 

Fernando Cabrera

Scott Feldman

Jake Fox

Sean Henn

Michael Morse

Omar Quintanilla

Clay Rapada

Josh Stinson

Delmon Young- big thanks goes out to my Spring Training Orioles autograph collecting buddy, Alan, for getting this one personalized for me after I flew back North

Oriole #968- Delmon Young

The second new Orioles debut on Opening Day received significantly less fanfare than the first. Nelson Cruz is a big name who signed a $8 million contract, while Oriole #968 Delmon Young, was inked to a minor league contract with a Spring Training invite to big league camp in mid-January. He chiefly made the team because Nolan Reimold once again had to head to the DL. 

While Delmon has spent a vast majority of his time in the big leagues since 2007, to date he is known more for a few nasty incidents than he is for his play on the field. Back in 2006 he was ejected from a minor league game for arguing a strike call and responded by throwing his bat at the umpire and was subsequently suspended for 50 games. Then during the 2012 season during his time with the Tigers, he was arrested in New York City for aggravated assault and was reportedly also using anti-semitic racial slurs. So, not exactly what you want to be known for, but he reportedly has changed his ways and is keeping his nose clean. I know that Buck Showalter is not the type of manager to put up with much BS, so I imagine that Delmon will be shipped out immediately if there are any problems.

As I mentioned in one of my Spring Training posts, I had some serious trouble getting Delmon's autograph in Sarasota, but lucked out and got this card signed on my last day in town. My buddy Alan was actually also able to get a copy of this card signed and personalized for me after I left town and I look forward to receiving the personalized version of this card.

Delmon had an alright opening day; he served as the DH against Jon Lester and the Red Sox. He was 0-3 with a strikeout but did drive in Nelson Cruz for the first run of the game on his 2nd inning at-bat that resulted in a double-play but did get the run across the plate. So, like Cruz, Delmon did contribute to the O's first win of the season. And that's really all we can ask of a player. Well, that, and staying out of trouble, but time will tell.

My Toughest Spring Training Autographs

I attended four Spring Training games on my trip this year (it would have been five, but one was rained out), and I spent a good chunk of each day trying to get autographs. I spent sometime before, during, and after each game trying to get signatures of the O's players and two of them seemed to elude me day in and day out. While I certainly didn't get autographs of everyone on the team, Delmon Young and Julio Borbon remained just out of my reach, at least until the last day.

*For what it's worth- I didn't see Dylan Bundy, Kevin Gausman, Tommy Hunter, Darren O'Day, Ryan Webb, Chris Davis, J.J. Hardy, or Steve Pearce sign at all, but I already have their autographs and wasn't trying as hard for them.

Between Young and Borbon, Delmon certainly has a much better chance at playing for the O's in 2014; in fact, Borbon was sent to minor league camp the day I left Florida. But depending on how everything works out this year, either of them could conceivably make an appearance in Baltimore at some point. And I always prefer to be prepared in that case.

I heard a few times before my trip that Delmon was not an easy signature to get, so I figured he would be a tough get. I know he has had a few "incidents" over the years that might back up a surly demeanor, but I know that we all can change, so didn't want to judge. I asked him a few times to sign at games, and he turned me down at least twice with standard variations of the "not now" excuse. When he finally did sign, I have to give him credit that he came down the third base line in Bradenton to sign for a handicapped fan who I happened to be standing next to at the time.

Julio Borbon was not someone who I anticipated having any trouble getting a card signed by, but he didn't seem to spend much time signing autographs. The day he signed for me, I honestly didn't see him signing for anyone else, so this could be the only autograph he signed over the four games I attended. I'm just happy that he signed it for me!

I will continue to show off my Spring Training autographs over the coming weeks, hopefully wrapping them up by Opening Day. And I need to do a final count on how many of these old man cards I got signed, because I'm guessing they were easily at least 50% of what I got signed down there.