Oriole #1026- Seth Smith

Wow, look at me, once again working on the 2017 Oriole debuts, and posting almost within a month of the debut. Get your breaking news here folks. But seriously, my tentative goal is to catch up on the 2017 debuts by the end of next week and then actually post about debuts shortly after they actually occur. But who knows, I'm always playing catch up around here.

Seth Smith was one of three Orioles who made their debuts on Opening Day 2017, and took the field at the same as Welington Castillo in the top of the first inning. I used my tried and true debut tie-breaker to place Castillo (2, catcher) ahead of Smith (9, right field) based on their position numbers. Makes sense, right? Typically I only have to use the tie-breaker on Opening Day every year, with a few random, rare exceptions that pop up every handful of years during the season. Things generally aren't going well for a team if they have two position players debuting in the same game during the middle of a season. Trust me, I've been an Orioles fan a long, and suffered through the 1998-2011 incompetency with the rest of you.

Back to Smith, who came into the Orioles organization via a trade with the Mariners on January 6, that sent Yovani Gallardo back to Seattle. Regardless of how Seth performs for the Orioles, I don't think many Orioles fans will miss Yovani, who was 6-8 with a 5.42 ERA in his lone season in Baltimore. And does anyone else notice how the Orioles and Mariners seem to trade with each other almost every season? Seriously, on the Orioles 25 man roster, Adam Jones, Mark Trumbo, Chris Tillman, Wade Miley, and Smith all came to the Orioles via a trade with the Mariners. That's crazy.

As of today, Seth has appeared in 16 of the Orioles' 27 games. He missed a few games with a hamstring injury, and has generally been on the bench against left-handed starters. He's hitting .286 for the year, and his 4-4 performance yesterday against the Red Sox actually raised his average .064 points from .222 prior to the game. He's also hit 2 HR, including one in the 7th inning of a game on April 7th against the Yankees that put the Orioles ahead to stay.

Over his 11 year MLB career, Seth has played for the Rockies, A's Padres, Mariners, and now the Orioles. He will be a free agent after this season, so it's possible that his time in Baltimore will be relatively short. A story that I found interesting about Seth is how he was the backup quaterback to Eli Manning when they played at Ole Miss.

As was the case with the Welington Castillo autograph that I posted about a few weeks back, my dad got this card signed during Spring Training for me. So not only does he make all of these Old Man Cards to get signed, he gets them signed as well! I actually did get Seth to sign once while I was down there but he didn't personalize that card. So my dad hooked me up with the personalized autograph after I was back in snowy Maryland. Thanks as always old man!

Oriole #1006- Mark Trumbo

As I mentioned in yesterday's post about Joey Rickard's debut, three players made their Orioles debut on Opening Day 2016. Again, my tie-breaker system involves using the numbered fielding positions to order the debuts, and Rickard's debut in left field (7), came just ahead of Trumbo's debut in right field (9). So Joey is Oriole #1005, and Mark becomes Oriole #1006. 

Mark's Orioles debut was quite memorable, as he went 4-5 with 4 singles as well as a stolen base. He becomes just the fourth Oriole to record four hits in his Baltimore debut following Sam Horn, Ronny Paulino, and Chris Parmelee. But honestly, the stolen base might be more noteworthy for him considering he only had 20 previous steals over 690 MLB games. 

The Orioles acquired Mark (and reliever C.J. Riefenhauser) in a trade with the Mariners this past December in exchange for local Baltimore product and hometown favorite, Steve Clevenger. Even though Steve was a great guy and easy to root for, I honestly thought it was a great transaction since the Orioles were relatively deep at catcher, and thin in the outfield. Trumbo has some legitimate power as well and has hit over 30 HR twice in his six MLB seasons.

He has bounced around a bit, and was originally drafted by the Angels, before being traded to the Diamondbacks, and later the Mariners. He came in second in the 2011 AL Rookie of the Year voting behind winner Jeremy Hellickson, and was an All-Star for the Halos in 2012.

Mark signed both of these Old Man Cards for me during my Spring Training trip. I saw him sign multiple times over the course of the trip and was lucky to have gotten his autograph twice as he was mobbed by fans both times I got his autograph. I actually mentioned that I had his first Orioles card, and he specifically picked it out of the crowd and signed it for me. He took a minute to look it over and I asked him what he thought and he said it was a nice card. He asked if I made it and I was happy to give the credit to my dad for his help.

Oriole # 1005- Joey Rickard

I wrote about him last week and I'm already writing about him again, the 2016 Orioles rookie sensation, Joey Rickard.

He was the Orioles' 2015 Rule 5 pick from the Tampa Bay Rays farm system where he spent the 2015 season with the AA Montgomery Biscuits. For the O's, over 63 Spring Training at bats in 28 games, he hit a robust .397 with 6 doubles, a triple, a home run, and five stolen bases, typically batting in the lead-off spot. The Orioles love keeping their Rule 5 picks anyway but that kind of performance would have led to his making the team regardless of the situation. 

Joey was one of three Orioles making his debut for the team on Opening Day, but his was additionally special because it was his MLB debut as well. I use the 1-9 numbered fielding positions on the baseball field as a debut tie-breaker, so Joey, who started in left field (7), narrowly edged out Mark Trumbo in right field (9). and Pedro Alvarez (DH) for the first debut of the 2016 season.  I read somewhere online that according to the Elias Sports Bureau, Joey was the first player to start an Opening Day game for the Orioles in the same year as being selected as a Rule 5 pick.

Rickard wasted no time making noise in the regular season, and singled in his first at-bat, and then doubled in his second AB. Unfortunately, a cycle was not in the works, but going 2-4 with a run scored on your Opening Day MLB debut is flat-out amazing. Joey is living the dream right now.

So, you might have noticed that the only three pictures in this post are three copies on my dad's Old Man Cards. Joey was a great signer for me during my Spring Training trip, but the only issue is how few cards exist of him. As far as I can tell, outside of custom cards like my dad's, he is pictured on just three cards, all minor league issues from his time in the Rays' farm system; he is included in the 2013 Bowling Green Hot Rods, 2014 Montgomery Biscuits, and 2015 Charlotte Stone Crabs sets. And none of those cards are particularly easy to come by, so thanks as always to my dad for making these great cards!

Good luck with your career, Joey! I hope it continues as well as it started!