Oriole #757- Keith Reed

Keith was one of the Orioles seven (7!) first round draft picks in 1999 draft and as the 23rd overall pick was the team's fourth selection in the round. The sad part is that only three of those seven players even made it to the Majors, highlighted by Brian Roberts, who was the O's 7th selection, overall the 50th pick in the round.

Reed was unable to live up to those early expectations and appeared in just six games for the Orioles. He made his debut on May 11, 2005 and played in his final MLB game only one week later on May 18th. He started just one of those games and was mainly used as a pinch-runner and late inning defensive replacement. His MLB stat line will forever be one hit in five at-bats.

Keith was out of the Orioles system after the 2006 season and spent his last two years playing in the independent Atlantic League.

We hardly knew you, Keith, and I hope that you're finding success off of the playing field.

Quick Update

I have kept myself busy the past two nights by going to both the Bowie Baysox home opener on Thursday and the Frederick Keys home opener last night. And, oh, how I missed the ease of obtaining Minor Leaguers' autographs! Half of them are actually excited to sign, which is a nice contrast from the pulling of teeth that is the quest to obtain Major Leaguers' signatures.





A third of the O's top 30 prospects are in Frederick and a few are in Bowie so I was able to get a ton of autographs from guys that will hopefully be in the majors at some point. Two guys on the Baysox team, Jim Hoey and Jeff Fiorentino, have already played for the O's and the Hoey was new to me so that was cool.


It was also great getting to meet Brian Matusz (pronounced Matis, the O's 2008 #1 draft pick) in Frederick; he seems like a great guy and said that he was excited to finally be at a home game. Seems like a good guy, now I need to see him pitch!



And Kalina would be mad if I didn't mention that Jake Arrieta was a nice guy and signed some cards for us in Bowie. He is pitching Monday so we are looking forward to finally getting to see him pitch in person!



And I need to thank Paul at Paul's Random Stuff for sending me 4 signed cards; 2 Keith Reeds, a Ryan Minor and a Steve Trachsel. The Trachs was another card for me to check off my list so thanks a million Paul!