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

Orioles Minor Moves

So far this off-season, the Orioles have signed a handful of minor league free agents and had a few of their former minor leaguers sign with other teams. I use BaseballAmerica's amazing minor league free agent tracker to keep up on all the O's transactions. Here's a quick rundown of those moves so far. I'll start with the players that the O's have signed and/or re-signed.

They inked outfielder Scott Beerer to a deal on November 13. Scott has an interesting back story; he pitched in the Rockies farm system from 2000-06 before walking away from the game in 2007-08 and then returned to the Rox system as an outfielder in 2009. He split the 2011 season between AA and AAA and hit .372 over 41 games in the first AAA action of his career.

On November 22, they signed right-handed relief pitcher Miguel Socolovich, who has spent the past four seasons in the White Sox farm system and also split the 2011 season between AA and AAA.

That same day, the team also signed shortstop Steve Tolleson. He played in the Twins farm system from 2005-09 and has spent the past two seasons in the Padres and A's systems. He played 25 games for the A's in 2010 and hit .286 with 1 homer and 4 RBI over 49 at-bats.

The O's re-signed right-handed starter Brandon Erbe on December 5th. He is a local kid and was the team's third round draft pick in 2005. Prior to the 2010 season, the O's placed Erbe on the 40 man roster to protect him for the Rule 5 draft, but he proceeded to go 0-10 at AAA Norfolk in 2010 and has faced multiple injuries as well so his stock has majorly dropped. He was removed from the 40-man late in 2011 but I hope Brandon can get his career back on track in 2012.

Now for the subtractions from the team...

Jake Fox signed with the Pirates

 Chris Jakubauskas signed with the Diamondbacks (and I finally learned how to spell his name)

Felix Pie signed with the Indians

Steve Lerud signed with the Phillies

Chorye Spoone (another local guy) signed with the Red Sox

I'm not sure who all is interested in hearing about these updates but I will probably write another update or two about the O's minor league transactions throughout this off-season.

Makin' Moves

While the Orioles are still trying to decide who their next General Manager/President of Baseball Operations will be, it hasn't stopped them from making a few small moves.

Here's what we know so far...

Bench Third Base Coach Willie Randolph will not be back next year. I don't really know why, but heard something about Willie wanting to be a manager again.

As suspected, both Vladimir Guerrero and Cesar Izturis declared free agency. I don't suspect that either will be back with the club in 2012 but their veteran leadership will be missed. I've heard rumblings that Izturis could become a coach or instructor for the team if he decides to hang up his spikes. And I'll miss having Vlad around since he's always been one of my favorite players, but realistically, he didn't make the 2011 Orioles much better than the 2010 squad.

Jeremy Accardo, Chris Jakubauskas, and Jake Fox were all outrighted to triple A, but all elected to test the free agent waters instead. Of the three, "Jak" is the only one who I think might come back into the fold, possibly signing another minor league deal with the O's, just as he did prior to last season.

And the Astros claimed Craig Tatum off of waivers which almost caused me to tear up. In actuality, I won't miss the extremely un-fan-friendly "Tater" at all. He was one of the toughest autographs on the team and never seemed like a very nice person.


I don't expect the O's to make any more moves before they hire their new GM/VP Baseball Ops, and I hope they make a decision soon. Many teams are already swinging trades, extending their own players, and/or making waiver claims, but I don't expect the Orioles to do any of those things without a new top dog in place. If they wait much longer to make a decision, they could fall even further behind to eight ball in the battle to rediscover relevance in 2012.

Request Week- Jake Fox

Request Week continues to roll along with another suggestion from Justin, AKA piratesfan731.This time around he wants to hear about Jake Fox.

I've actually posted about Jake a few times in the past. Specifically, I wrote these three posts within a single week back in June 2010 when Jake was traded to the Orioles. I guess I was going through a "Jake Fox phase" to write about the new back-up catcher three times in one week. Most recently, I displayed a card that Jake signed for me last Spring Training shortly after he got through mowing down Grapefruit League pitching by hitting 10 homers in March.

Jake signed this Orioles postcard for me during the first week of the season. It's his only Orioles issue to date. 

Mainly due to his offensive outburst, Jake won the backup catcher job and broke camp with the O's. Unfortunately, he couldn't carry over his spring success and isn't known for calling a great game, so he was designated for assignment on June 1. He cleared waivers and spent a few months with AAA Norfolk before being called up to the O's on August 23. At this point, I see him as the emergency catcher and a bat with some pop off of the bench. Here's to hoping that Jake can rediscover some of that Spring Training magic!

Continuing with My Spring Training Successes

Wow, what a start to the 2011 Orioles season. The home opener was a bunch of fun and the O's are only the 4th team ever to start a season 4-0 while allowing no more than 1 run per game. Crazy! 

Before I get too wrapped up in the regular season, I want to finish showing off my autographs from Spring Training. 

 

I was happy to get Nolan's Tides orange uniform card signed. Since poor Nolan got demoted to Norfolk yet again, it looks like a road trip is in the books for this summer.

  

Jim Presley is the O's new hitting coach. Here he is pretending to hit off a tee for a craptastic Fleer card. I chose this card to get signed because it's so awesomely bad. 

The next two guys have a chance to appear in a game for the O's at some point this season.

 

While Ballard has a pretty cool and stylized autograph (I especially like the k)...

Jakubauskas relegates his last name to a flying bird shaped squiggle. But I guess I might too with a last name that long.

 

I've been lucky to get Tillman's autograph a few times over the years, but this card looks really nice with the signature and I might have to stash it in the collection.

 

 

I got Adams & Snyder's autographs at Friday's game (actually all of these are from that game) which is good because they were both sent to Minor League camp on Saturday morning. 

This is Snyder's first card showing him playing in a game for the O's and it's probably ticketed for the collection too. 

 

I got this card signed for a fellow SCN member. From what I remember, Guts signs all his non-Orioles cards this way. Pretty cool. I would actually like if he signed his O's cards like this too. 

 

Fox tore up Grapefruit League pitching by smashing ten round-trippers. It's good to see that he still had some time for the fans too. 

 

Josh was nice enough to sign next to the dugout after the game. 

Friday was definitely the better of my two autograph days in Sarasota. I'll wrap everything up tomorrow. 

Spring Training Excitement

I've been reading all of the news about Orioles Spring Training and I'm really jacked up. Apparently Mark Reynolds was crushing the ball during BP today, I just hope that power translates to Camden Yards.

Since our wedding is in a few months, Kalina and I weren't going to Spring Training this year, but the anticipation for some first hand Orioles action was too much and we booked our flights yesterday. Since her family lives near Sarasota, we have a free place to spend our nights, so it's hard not to just get on the plane and go.

I tried to find some cards that showed some palm trees and/or some sort of Spring Training scene, and I came up with a pretty solid list that appear to show Orioles players from over the years preparing for the season in Florida. I'm going to show the cards two or three at a time in some sort of order that ties them together. Today's them is current members of the O's with the ST background.

All of those ads in the background definitely make me think about Spring Training. I can't wait to see what Ed Smith Stadium looks like after all of the renovations that have been done since last year!

 

It sounds like Jake Fox reported to Sarasota along with the catchers, but brought like nine gloves with him since he can play all over the field. However, he's mainly known for his bat, and it looks like he is taking a pretty comfortable trot around the bases during his time with the Cubbies.

Woo Spring Training!

Orioles Autograph Year in Review- The Good Signers

We are down to the second to last category in my review of the 2010 O's signing habits. Today's group are the players who I could typically count on to sign over the course of the season.

 

I was pleasantly surprised by how often Miggy seemed to sign this year. I got his autograph at least four times, and while his signature isn't much more than a stylized MT, he signed a lot more often than I anticipated from a veteran star player.  

 

I had an idea that Mike was going to be a good signer since I got his autograph during the '09 season when the Braves were in Baltimore; I actually saw him signing at two games of that three game series.  Mike signed for me four or five times this year and seemed pretty good to the fans.  Now if he had just been able to avoid his horrendous start to the season, the fans probably would have been better to him. 

 

After being acquired from the A's on June 22nd in the infamous Wolf-Fox animal surname trade, Jake seemed to be a frequent signer and a really nice guy too.  I got his autograph twice, but was unable to get his Orioles postcard signed since it was issued pretty late in the season.  If he's still with the team next year, I have very little doubt that he will sign it at some point. 

Alberto didn't spend too many games with the Orioles this season, but he was one of the most reliable Sunday signers on the team. He probably signed for 200+ fans at each of the two Sunday games I attended during his time in Baltimore. Last year, I ranked Alberto as a small sample good signer, so it seems like he's fairly consistent.

 

Jonesy continues to sign a good bit for a young star.  His signature ain't pretty and his attitude isn't always the best, but I can't say anything bad about him from an autograph standpoint.  Last year, I put him in the kinda good signing category, so it's nice to see him signing even more this year.    

Orioles Game Autographs

I'm proud to report that the Orioles most recent prospect call-ups are both good signers.

Awesome orange uni Jake autograph.

I was worried that Bell might be the type to stop signing once he hit Baltimore, but that's not the case, yet anyway. This picture was taken prior to all of the tattoos on his arms. And I just found that he has 2 Orioles cards in the 2010 Bowman set, including a solo card in the Topps 100 set, similar to the Arrieta card above, so I need to get him to sign one of those soon.

I showed off my picture with US Soccer Head Coach Bob Bradley last week. Here's the card he signed too.

A sweet Scott Moore orange uni autograph-I'm a fan of how most of the O's Minor League affiliates rock the orange uniforms.

John Shelby doesn't sign too often, but he always seems like a really nice guy when he does.


I've been pleasantly surprised with Miggy's signing habits this season. I wasn't getting autographs when he was in town last time, but he signs more than most superstar/star players.

Jake Fox is another new Orioles player who seems to be a great signer. I temporarily ran out of his cards, so had him sign this team card. I re-upped and now have a couple cards for him to sign if I can get him again.


This Jeff Datz auto turned out better than the one I got a few weeks ago. The J on that previous autograph was very faded. Stupid sharpie.



Cesar Izturis is signing more this season than he did last year. Good for you Cesar! The 08 Topps was signed for Moe, who will be getting another package at the end of this season.

The Week Of Jake Fox

Unless Jake does something crazy over the next few days, I promise that this will be my last post about the Orioles new super-utility player for now. In his three games with the O's so far, he has appeared as a catcher, left fielder and DH. Now that's versatility! He got his first hit in an Orioles uniform last night too. Oh, and the Orioles crushed the Marlins, totaling 11 runs and 17 hits. It felt great to be on the right side of a lop-sided victory.


I was lucky enough to get Jake's autograph before last night's game, and I apologize for this crappy cell phone picture, but it's all that I had time to do before work. I will try to get an actual scan done tonight so you don't have to keep looking at this blurry thing.

Anyway, Jake seemed like a great guy and signed for a bunch of people. I met up with fellow O's collector Aaron at the game and we were both able to get him. I thought it was interesting that Jake has a pretty serious southern drawl for someone who is from Indiana.

From what I have heard, Jake has a much-needed happy-go-lucky attitude in the clubhouse and from what I've seen, he seems to be a free swinger at the plate. I guess that can be good if you can hit the ball out o the ballpark, but not so much if you strike out all the time. What's it gonna be Jake? I vote for the HR option.

Oriole #881- or Jake Fox Takes Me Backwards

Well that didn't take long, now did it? Only hours after the Jake Fox trade was officially announced, he made his Orioles debut as a pinch hitter, and nearly launched the ball out of the Yard. This trade is a good reminder that players and teams normally know about these transactions hours, if not days, before the news trickles down to us fans.

I know that I am reusing the same card/autograph of Jake that I used yesterday, but there is a good reason for that. I forgot to mention yesterday that this scan was lifted from ebay, and is unfortunately is not mine. So now the title of this post might make more sense, as Jake's debut decreased the percentage of autographs in my Orioles collection. The good news is that I heard from a few fans that Jake signed before last night's game, so I hope to add him when I make it to the game on Thursday.

Trading a Wolf for a Fox

According to reports from the Baltimore Sun, the Orioles traded AAA pitcher Ross Wolf to the Oakland A's for Jake Fox, who had been designated for assignment by the A's just over a week ago. I had the chance to briefly talk to Ross this spring training and he seemed like a great guy. He's never appeared in the Major Leagues, but has had a solid year for the Tides and I would guess that he will make his MLB debut for the A's sometime this year. I hope that he has a good future in Oakland.

Jake Fox has appeared in big league games for the Cubs in '07 & '09 and the A's this season. He showed some decent pop in '09 when he hit 11 HR in 82 games, but was struggling at the plate this year. My guess is that his arrival in Baltimore spells the end of Garrett Atkins' miserable stay in Birdland. Fox has some versatility as he can play both corner outfield and infield positions, DH, and catch. It will be nice to have a super utility player who can also catch in emergencies and I have to say that it's not too surprising to see MacPhail bring another former Cubbie into the organization.

Jake has cards in the '09 & '10 Topps Heritage, '10 UD & '09 Topps Updates sets. I'm hoping that I have at least one of those cards around the house for him to sign. According to SCN, he signs at a 53% return rate, but many of those were early in his career while he was still in the minors, so I hope to get him at the ballpark sometime soon.

I would guess that this is the first of many trades that the Orioles will be making over the next month or so, but only time will tell.