O's Acquire Valencia, Mahoney Designated

Today, in a bit of a head-scratching move, the Orioles acquired third baseman Danny Valencia from the Red Sox in a cash transaction. To make room for Valencia on the 40-man roster, the Orioles had to designate first baseman, Joe Mahoney for assignment.

Now, I'm not particularly a believer that Mahoney was going to be an everyday Major League starter at first base, but with the impending decision on the future of Mark Reynolds with the O's also coming this week (and it's sounding like the two sides might not work out a deal), it's possible that the team won't have a legitimate first baseman on their team by the weekend. I know that Chris Davis, Wilson Betemit, and (it sounds like) Valencia can all play first base, but at least in regards to Davis & Betemit, I can say with some certainty that the team would prefer to not have them play there.

So with the impending possibility that the O's are cutting ties with their 2012 starting first baseman, they have released the only other true 1B on the roster, and added another guy who can man the hot corner. Is anyone else confused by the move?

Ultimately though, I know the team probably has feelers out on corresponding moves, or maybe they do intend to bring back Mark Reynolds, which would really limit this to a discussion about possible bench players for the 2013 campaign. After last season, it's hard to not trust what's going on with the team right now.

Congratulations, Zach Clark!

Somewhat buried in yesterday's long-expected announcement by the Orioles about their exercising relief pitcher Luis Ayala's 2013 option while declining that of Mark Reynolds*, was the news that the Orioles were selecting the contract of long-time minor league pitcher, Zach Clark.

*Reynolds remains under team control since he is still arbitration eligible unless they decline to offer him arbitration. 

Zach was signed by the Orioles as an undrafted free agent out of nearby UMBC way back in 2006. He has slowly, yet consistently, worked his way through the O's farm system, and has appeared at every single minor league level, from the rookie Gulf Coast League all the way through the AAA International League. He has pitched most of the past five seasons for the AA Bowie Baysox, but was dominant in eight appearances with AAA Norfolk at the end of the 2012 season, and that was probably what made the O's decision to add him to their 40 man roster to protect him from the upcoming Rule 5 draft. The Orioles currently have 36 players on their 40 man, but also still have some players listed on the DL, so I would imagine they will make a few more moves prior to the early December Rule 5 selection process.

The O's also have an affinity for featuring local guys on the team and Zach grew up in nearby Wilmington, Delaware. So combined with his going to college in Baltimore County and his time in the Birds' farm system, he has now spent most of a decade in and around Baltimore.

Since Zach has spent so much time with Bowie, I would venture a guess and say that I probably have twice as many of his signed cards that are shown in this post. He has always been good about signing and I definitely have run out of his unsigned cards more than once.

Good luck Zach! I hope to see you pitching in Baltimore next season!

Minor League Rehab Successes

Over the past two weeks, multiple members of the Orioles have been rehabbing with some nearby minor league affiliates. And knowing that this is one of my best chances to get autographs from these guys, you know I ventured out to try my luck. And I didn't come away disappointed. 

The AA Bowie Baysox had three Orioles players on their roster two weeks ago, so I hit up a few games. 

At the first game I attended, I was lucky enough to get B-Rob's autograph. He has been a tough autograph to get in recent years, so counted myself lucky to get him. 

I got the other two O's rehabbers at the second Baysox game I attended,  

and was very happy to upgrade my Mark Reynolds autograph to this personalized card, 

and to get Endy Chavez to sign his 2012 Orioles team set card.

Former Oriole Cesar Devarez is a coach for the Baysox, and while I've gotten his autograph a handful of times over the years, I never asked for a personalization until now.

Terry Crowley is some sort of minor league instructor for the O's this season and he also makes occasional appearances at the minor league games. This time around I lucked out and upgraded my autograph of his as well. When I asked him to personalize "To Ryan" he asked if that was me or my son (I don't have any kids, if you care), and I fessed up and said it was me and that I was a collector. Hey, I know that not too many adults are out there still getting autographs, but there ain't no shame in my game.

Way to Go O's

Baltimore is in full spoiler celebratory mode as the O's continue to win series over American League playoff contenders. They've now won three in a row against the Rays, Angels, and Red Sox who are all vying for the A.L. Wild Card spot. Out of those three teams, I would be fine with anyone making it except for the Sawx. And their team seems to feel the same way as they're playing to a 5-16 record so far in some crucial September games.

My original intent was to show an autographed Red Sox card of a player who had also played for the O's, but I try to avoid having signed Yankees or Red Sox cards taint my collection whenever possible, and don't have any to share. Then my thought was to share a card of Mark Reynolds, who homered twice last night to help power the O's to a win. But you've already seen all my autographs of him too.

So I settled on sharing autographs of the four Orioles pitchers who appeared in the game last night and held the Red Sox in check.

Tommy Hunter started last night's game and gave up all four of the Red Sox runs over 6.2 innings. Overall, it was a solid performance against a potentially explosive offense.

Tommy signed and personalized this card for me prior to Sunday's Orioles-Angels game. His autograph is awesome and this is probably the longest signature + inscription combination I've ever received from a player inside a stadium. Nice work Tommy!

 

Clay Rapada came on in relief of Hunter, who appeared to tweak a leg/groin muscle in the 7th inning but was nearing 100 pitches and likely would have been pulled following the inning anyway. The timing might have been fortuitous though since Rapada is almost certain to get lefties out and he mowed down Adrian Gonzalez and David Ortiz on only 10 pitches. It was good enough to earn Rapada his second win of the season since the O's took the lead in the top of the eighth.

 

Next up was Willie Eyre who needed only three pitches to get two outs to close out the eighth inning and earned a hold for the effort. Now that's what I call being efficient with your pitches!

Willie also signed this card for me prior to Sunday's game. For some reason, I forgot to ask him to personalize it for me, but it's still my first in-person autograph of his, so it will be inserted into the collection. 

 

Jim Johnson, whose current closer status is the worst kept secret in Birdland, came on in the ninth inning to mow the Sawx down in order on only nine pitches. 

And there you have it, the O's first four game series win in Boston since 2003. I always enjoy when we can get rid of silly losing streaks like that; the Birds seem to have some sort of "haven't beaten team X over a certain number of games/series for many years" record against most opponents and they all irk me. 

To recap, three Orioles relievers pitched 2.1 innings of no-hit baseball to close out the game and only needed a combined 22 pitches to get 7 outs. BOOM! That's some effective relief pitching!

I couldn't close out this post without noting how it appears that the Tides stole/borrowed their picture of Rapada for his 2011 Tides team set card. 

 

This is the picture the O's used for Clay's inclusion in the 2011 team postcard set. It appears to have been taken a split second before the picture on the Tides card. The Tides card has the Orioles logos shopped out, but you can tell that it's from the same sequence of pictures. 

I doubt that anyone else cares about something like that, but I don't remember an Orioles minor league team ever doing that before and figured I would share.

Oriole Debuts #888-893, 895-96 UPDATED

Over the first eight games of the Orioles' 2011 season, eight new O's have made their debuts in the black and orange. Luckily, I have autographs of all eight, so I don't need to add anyone to my need list.

Here's a quick rundown of my autographs of the eight newest Orioles.

#888- Derrek Lee

 

I've had this card for about 18 years. D-Lee was included in the the 2011 Topps Heritage set in an O's uniform so I need an upgrade.

#889- Mark Reynolds (this really could have been Reynolds or JJ Hardy since they both debuted in the field in the bottom of the first inning of the O's first game in 2011, but I chose Reynolds as 889 because he plays third base, position #5, and Hardy is a SS, position #6. Essentially, I don't think anyone is going to fight with me on this, because I'm likely the only one counting.)

Reynolds' card was in the O's 2011 Topps team set; a very similar card is in the 2011 Topps Opening Day set, and he is also pictured as an Oriole in the 2011 Topps Heritage set. I'm pretty jacked to already have his Orioles card signed though. 

#890- JJ Hardy

I got this card signed at Fanfest, but JJ was also included in the 2011 Topps Heritage set as an O, so I'm in need of another upgrade.  

#891- Vladdy Guerrero

This is another card that's been in my collection since the mid '90s since Vlad was a member of the AA Harrisburg Senators. Although I'm sure he will, Vlad doesn't yet have any cards that picture him as an Oriole, so this stays in the collection for the time being.

#892- Jeremy Accardo

 

Since he's a middle reliever, this might be the closest thing to an Orioles card that Accardo will ever get, so I'm happy to have it in my collection. I also like to have a card, so I'm keeping this too. 

#893- Kevin Gregg

 

Kevin has an O's card in the '11 Topps team set, so I'm looking for an upgrade from this postcard. 

#895- Josh Rupe

Rupe and Jakubauskas signed for me at the same time and Jak thought this picture of Rupe was pretty hilarious. Honestly, if this picture was all I had to go by, I don't think I'd recognize him.

#896- Chris Jakubauskas

Jak made his rather unsuccessful O's debut last night. He was one of the autographs that I got at Spring Training so he passes go, collects $200, and jumps right to my have list.

Orioles Fan Fest Recap

Three days later, I'm finally getting around to writing about my 2011 Orioles Fan Fest experience. At least three other Orioles bloggers have already wrote about it, so I really hope that you weren't waiting for my account of it.

Overall, I had a good time but it seemed like there was a little less to do than in past seasons. I spent most of my day in autograph lines, which is exactly where I wanted to be, so I was happy. And I got everything signed that I had hoped to get, so it was a nice little day. Not many people seemed to have a problem paying the $15 per autograph station since you knew you were guaranteed an autograph of whomever you wanted. It's obviously not as good as free, but it's better than wanting a Matt Wieters autograph and ending up with Robert Andino instead (sorry Dino!).

 

Speaking of Wieters, the highlight of my day was getting his SI cover signed. I carried this issue around in my gameday backpack during the entire 2010 season but didn't see Matt sign at a single O's game. It feels nice to finally have this autographed, and I hope to get it framed sometime soon.

Also signing at Wieter's station were Craig Tatum and Dick Hall. I got Tatum's autograph for Austin and Hall's autograph for Zach of Autographed Cards.

 

Lucky for me, the guy behind me in line didn't want Tatum's autograph, so he got my card signed for me. 

Next up was Zach Britton, Kevin Gregg, Jake Arrieta and Boog Powell. The Arrieta autograph was for Aaron, who collects Orioles Crown autographs and any other O's autographs he can get. The Boog autograph was for Paul, who just won the Earl Weaver autograph contest. The Gregg and Britton autographs were for me.

 

 

I was able to snag a signed O's postcard of Gregg as well as getting my card signed. I have to say that, out of uniform, Kevin looked more like a large banker than a baseball player.

 

Even though I had prepped my card, Gregg's autograph didn't "stick" well. It wasn't the only problem I had with the Orioles provided sharpies. I think next year I will have to bring my own. 

 

 

Zach was promoted to AAA Norfolk before the 2010 Baysox team set came out, so I was happy to finally get this card signed. 

While I was at the Britton-Gregg-Arrieta-Powell autograph station, my dad was nice enough to help me out by going to the Jeremy Accardo-Jason Berken-Willie Randolph-Jim Palmer station. 

The Accardo & Randolph cards are joining my collection, while my dad got Palmer to sign one of the spots in his 1983 O's program and a Berken card that was also for Austin.

My dad was also able to snag an extra signed postcard of Berken & Palmer. Note to Jason- I know that you're pretty accommodating with fans' autograph requests and all, but look at your signature compared to Palmer, who I think has signed a few more items than you over the years. Let's work on our penmanship a little bit.

My last autograph station was for JJ Hardy, Brad Bergesen, Mark Reynolds & Dick Hall. Hall was late showing up and I was one of the first people in line for this one, so I missed him this time around. Luckily, I didn't need him for anyone.

 

 

 

It was my first time getting Hardy's and Reynolds' autographs and they both seemed like decent guys. I especially like Hardy's autograph, even though it looks like it's either missing the JJ or H. I can see one or the other in there but not both.

Bergesen's autograph was for Ryan, the blogger behind "O" No!!! Another Orioles Blog, who I had the pleasure of catching up with for a few minutes. He seemed to have had a good time as well, and has been posting about his Fan Fest experiences for the past few days. He was nice enough to bring me a box of cards with some of my set needs as well as some obscure Orioles cards. Ryan- your thank you box should be on it's way by early next week. 

 

 

Last up, the Aberdeen Ironbirds, the short season A affiliate of the O's, were giving away a signed 8x10 of your choice if you could name every Oriole pictured on their autographed 8x10s. I conveniently didn't tell them that the Orioles, and their autographs, were kind of my thing, so Kalina ended up with this nice Chris Hoiles autograph.

 

All-in-all I had a great time and added a bunch of nice new autographs to my collection. I was happy to help a few fellow bloggers fill some autograph holes in their collections too. Thanks need to go out to my parents and Kalina for tagging along and doing some waiting around as I scurried around the convention center. Now I can't wait for the season to start!

Orioles Fanfest, Thank You Justin & Set Needs- Updated Twice

Orioles Fanfest autograph vouchers went on sale this past Saturday morning at 10am. Since it used to be free, I'm not happy that you now have to pay $15 to get an autograph at each station, but it's nice to know that you are guaranteed to get an autograph of who you want. It was definitely a crapshoot in past seasons. Only 250 vouchers were available for each station, so I thought they would sell out fast. Luckily, I got vouchers for the four stations that I wanted, and surprisingly, there are still vouchers available for 13 of the 15 stations as of this afternoon. So much for them going fast.

My goal was to get an autograph of all the new Orioles who will be in attendance and to finally get my Matt Wieters SI signed. Assuming that everyone who is scheduled to be there actually shows up, I should achieve my goal. Matt Wieters, Kevin Gregg, Jeremy Accardo, Mark Reynolds, JJ Hardy, and Willie Randolph are among the signers who I should be able to add to my collection. For whatever reason, Derrek Lee isn't scheduled to attend, but at least I already have his autograph.

Since each station has 3-4 players/alumni scheduled to sign, I will be passing by a few players who I don't need for my collection. If anyone out there is interested, I can get you an autograph of any of the following players:
Jake Arrieta- Aaron
Troy Patton- Paul
Boog Powell- Paul
Jason Berken- Austin
Brad Bergesen- Ryan
Dick Hall (x2)- Zach- 1
Craig Tatum- Austin

Updated again with spots filled - Still have 1 Hall spot left

I just request that the item your item be small (card/postcard/3x5), that you include a SASE, and that you get it to me by January 29th.


Justin, of Justin's World  fame, deserves a major THANK YOU for sending me a huge package of 2009 Topps cards, and some cards for Kalina and my player collections. Thanks to him, I'm now only 12 cards away from finishing the set. Very cool stuff! If you've never seen his site, Justin collects Cubs, Colts & Grizzlies cards. Just watch out for that Grumpy Blogger!


Also thanks to Justin, I got up the motivation to update my set needs page. It's always linked at the top of the left-hand sidebar, or you can just click the link there. I pretty much have collected Topps' base & Updates sets as well as Topps Heritage over the past few years.  There are a few sets that I am very close to completing, like 08 Topps (1 card left!), so if anyone can help me out, I woudl really appreciate it!

The O's Trade for Mark Reynolds

I called it last week. Here's proof. I know that I wasn't the first person to bring it up, but I'm still pretty proud of myself since I'm normally wrong on these things. Anyone have a Reynolds autograph that they want to trade? The one up top isn't mine as you can see by the checkoutmycards.com watermark.

 

To get Reynolds, the O's had to give up David Hernandez and Kam Mickolio.  Hernandez has a legit arm and could possibly be a closer for the D'backs while Mickolio wasn't good at much besides being exceptionally tall (he's 6'9") and having awkward mechanics.

I give this trade 3.5 out of 5 O's.  The O's needed to do something. The fans were getting restless.
OOOC