Trying Something Different: Orioles 1035-1040

Clearly this is a site that's on it's last legs. It was never my intent to neglect my beloved Orioles autographs so completely, yet here we are. And things are exacerbated heavily by the fact that the Orioles have had 52(!) players appear in a game for them so far(!) this year. I do not have the time nor energy to write that many posts about the Orioles during this season in which they currently havea 38-90(!) record.

There have been seven Oriole debuts so far in August, and only one of those players (Cedric Mullins) was even in the farm system more than a month ago. I legitimately had only heard of one of the other six players (Jonathan Villar) before they made their way to the Orioles, but I guess that is just part of a rebuild. Young, relatively no-name players abound. None of whom I currently have autographs of, and thus I continue to fall further behind the Orioles autograph eight ball.

As far as I can tell, I currently have autographs of 1065 of the 1071 players to suit up for the O's, and the six I need have all come to the system as parts of the assorted trades made around the deadline. Hopefully, I can add their autographs to my collection before they all disappear into the ether at the end of the season.

Before I can move forward, I'm taking a step back in an attempt to catch up to the current debuts. The players in this post all debuted between June and August of 2017. I don't have a ton to say about most of these guys, so this should move relatively quickly.

 Oriole # 1035- Ruben Tejada, debut 6/7/17

Ruben Tejada was purchased from the Yankees in early June as the Orioles needed help in the middle of the infield. He became their regular shortstop for about a month and a half before being replaced by Tim Beckham, who we will talk about soon enough. 

My biggest memory of Ruben is that fact that he refused to sign for me at multiple games, including a time or two where I had him one on one. Luckily, I ran into him during 2018 Spring Training at the minor league complex where players are forced to walk right past the fans. He was relatively accommodating at that point and I was happy to get this to slide into the collection. 

Oriole #1036- Edwin Jackson, debut 6/7/17

Edwin Jackson will likely end his career having played for the largest number of MLB teams of anyone in history. He is currently having a successful season with the Oakland A's, who are the 13th team he has played for, which tied him with former pitcher Octavio Dotel for the all-time record. Edwin is still only 34, so I don't see any way that he doesn't pitch for at least one more MLB franchise, even if it's as a stunt near the end of a non-competitive season. 

Anyway, there's not much to say about the three relief appearances that Edwin made for the 2017 Orioles. They covered a grand total of five innings over the course of four days, and that was that. I'm hoping to one day replace this autograph with an Old Man Card, but this is what I have for now. 

Oriole #1037- Jimmy Yacabonis, debut 6/11/17

Jimmy "the 26th man" Yacabonis, seems to be the guy the Orioles call up as the extra man for every double-header this year. He is a former reliever being converted into a starter and typically pitches a few innings as a fill-in starter for one of the games of the DH. He made his MLB debut with the O's last year and appeared in 14 games as a reliever. As far as I can tell, the Orioles see him as a fringe type MLB swing-man who could still settle into a more defined role in the future. 

 Oriole #1038- David Washington, debut 6/14/17

David Washington is definitely one of those guys that very few people will ever remember having played for the Orioles. The career minor leaguer signed with the Orioles before the 2017 season and eventually appeared in three games for the O's in mid-June. He went 0-6 with five strikeouts before getting sent back to Norfolk. Honestly, I will remember him most for running into him the BWI airport after he was sent down and he was genuinely surprised to be recognized. Seemed like a nice guy though, for what it's worth. 

Oriole #1039- Johnny Giavotella, debut 7/6/17

Johnny Giavotella might have been in the running for most forgotten 2017 Oriole if not for the aforementioned David Washington. Also, Johnny had a bit more of a name for himself as he had played parts of six MLB seasons with the Royals and Angels before his brief stint in Baltimore. 

Johnny spent most of the month of July with the Orioles, but mostly played as a late inning pinch hitter or defensive replacement. All told, he had one hit in ten at-bats over seven games. Nothing to see here. 

Oriole #1040- Tim Beckham, debut 8/2/17

Finally, a player that I have a little bit more to write about; Tim Beckham. The Orioles traded for him from the Rays at the July 31 trade deadline in exchange for a minor league pitcher. Ah, the halcyon days of the Orioles being competitive. Doesn't it feel like so much more than a year ago at this point?

Tim was on fire over his first month in Baltimore, he had 15 multi-hit games in August, while only going hitless twice. He raised his season batting average forty points and the former first-round draft pick seemed to reignite his once promising career.

Unfortunately, he hit nearly as many home runs for the Orioles last August (6) as he has over the 2018 season (9). He missed almost two months of the season in May and June due to injuries, but in addition to some offensive short-comings this year, his defense has been rather suspect. I'm seriously wondering if the Orioles will bring him back next year or try to find a cheaper more reliable middle-infielder at this point.

He has been pretty rough on the autograph front as well, and I thankfully got this card signed at last year's Oriole Fanfest.


So, I finally got around to another post. It's tough to talk about some of these guys without the disappointing creep of the 2018 season sliding into my writing, but I will continue to work my way through the 2017 and 2018 debuts, even if it's just to remember some very random guys who played for the team.

Thanks as always to my Old Man for his great custom cards that allow me to add Orioles autographs to my collection, even from players who are a blip on the radar in the history of the franchise!

Oriole #1024- Trey Mancini

While playing catch-up organizationally and blog-wise, it's amazing to me just how quickly my collection got out of hand. I've done my best to periodically organize and scan cards over the past year, but yet, I'm playing a game of what do I have and where is anything. The scans of my Trey Mancini autographs are a nice microcosm of my issues. I scanned all of the cards in this post around the times that I actually got the autographs, but then never labeled them. So I got to blindly click around my scanned cards for a five year period to track these down. But that's enough about me.

I'm not entirely sure how or why it happened, but I skipped past Trey's Orioles/MLB debut in late September of 2016 when writing my posts at the time. I would speculate that it was a combination of his unexpectedly late end of season call-up, well after the beginning of September when you expect to see guys come up from the minors, and my aforementioned disorganized autograph scans.

After being selected by the Orioles in the 8th round of the 2013 draft out of Notre Dame, Trey steadily rose through the Orioles minor league system, and played at every level from the short season Aberdeen Ironbirds all the way up through the AAA Norfolk Tides. Due in part to his continued ascension, he wasn't included in all of the minor league team sets so he didn't have as many cards as many of his fellow minor leaguers. Neither was he considered a can't miss prospect so Topps skipped him over with their minor league offerings. This led to a smaller number of cards for me to attempt to get signed, which only added to my issues with this post.

As you can see at this point in this post, in addition to help from my dad with his 2016 Mancini Old Man Cards, I discovered more than enough Trey Mancini autographs throughout my disorganized card boxes and scans. Trey was always a nice guy and willing signer throughout his minor league years, so I never had an issue with him signing, just with my having anything for him to sign.

After playing in five games with the Orioles at the tail-end of the 2016 season, and hitting three homers over fourteen at-bats during that time, Trey began the 2017 season as the Orioles everyday left-fielder. As a career first-baseman, he didn't miss a beat during the conversion to the outfield during Spring Training in 2017 and came in third in the American League Rookie of the Year race behind Aaron Judge and Andrew Benintendi. Not bad for a guy who was never considered a top prospect!

Oriole # 1033- Gabriel Ynoa

This post will officially catch me up on posts about the 2017 Orioles debuts (not including the two players whose autographs I still need and will wait to post about until I get their autographs).

Gabriel Ynoa has just a single Orioles appearance under his belt, but it was an impressive one to say the least. He made his debut on Friday May 5th at Camden Yards in a game agianst the White Sox. He entered the game out of the bullpen in the first inning after starter Wade Miley was knocked out of the game by getting hit on consecutive comebackers on the mound. Oddly enough, something similar happened to Miley in a Spring Training start earlier this year.

After Miley got the first two outs in the game, Ynoa entered the game and was outstanding. He pitched six innings, allowing just six hits while striking out five to earn the win in his debut with the O's.

The Orioles purchased Gabriel's contract from the Mets on February 10th, and was the second pitcher the O's got from the Mets this past offseason in return for cash or a player to be named later. (Logan Verrett came into the organization pretty much the same way back on November 30, 2016.) The Mets at least thought that they had a surplus of pitching and the Orioles will always gladly acquire optionable pitchers in return for very little as they did with these two transactions.

Ynoa made his MLB debut with the Mets in 2016 and pitched in ten games, including three starts, and was 1-0 with a 6.38 ERA.

As you can see, I had some good success with getting Ynoa to sign for me during my trip to Spring Training. He was one of the more approachable players and gladly signed each time I asked. He seemed to appreciate that I attempted to speak some of my very little Spanish with him while he was signing.

Unfortunately, Gabriel landed on the ten day DL with a right hamstring strain following his sole apperance for the O's, but he is almost ready to come back and help the team. He is yet another member of the 2017 Baltimore-Norfolk relief pitcher shuttle, but if he can pitch like he did in his debut than he certainly can help the team win a few games this year. Good luck Gabriel!

Oriole #1032- Richard Bleier

Unbelievably, I'm almost caught up on Orioles debuts. And I've been enjoying writing about the O's enough that I might consider also doing some posts about the autographs that I've been getting at minor league games, and/or doing posts on past Orioles autographs that I've never really written about. Time will tell, but I'm legitimately happy to almost be up-to-date with the 2017 players.

Richard Bleier made his Orioles debut on May 3rd against the Red Sox. It was an odd debut due to the fact that it came in the second inning after that day's starter, Kevin Gausman, had been ejected by an overzealous umpire who was caught up in the Orioles-Red Sox feud of 2017. Gausman was ejected for hitting a Sawx player in the hip with a 70 some mile an hour curveball, while the Sawx starter from the night before, Chris Sale, hadn't been ejected for throwing almost 100 mph behind Manny Machado. But I digress...

Bleier pitched four innings in that game and only allowed one earned run and five hits. He kept the Orioles in the game for the most part after the strange ejection, so that's about all you can ask for in that situation. He made his second Orioles appearance in Sunday's game against the Royals, once again in relief of Gausman, and allowed two runs over two innings and took the loss. In last night's game against the Tigers, he earned his first MLB win as he successfully navigated the last 1.2 innings of the 13 inning drawn out, back-and-forth affair. He was the last available member of the Orioles 'pen, but he held strong to earn the W. So far, over three games pitched, his ERA sits at 3.52 and he is yet another member of the Orioles-Tides relief pitchers roster carousel.

Between my dad and I, we managed to get five autographs of Bleier's over our time in Sarasota, including the personalized Old Man Card which is heading for my collection. He seemed like a pretty down-to-earth guy, but that's more typically true of players like him who have to scratch and claw their way to the Majors.

The Rangers drafted him in the 6th round of the 2008 draft, and he pitched parts of nine minor league seasons before making his debut with the Yankees in 2016 as a 29 year-old rookie. Now that's some perseverance! He had success in New York, and had a 1.96 ERA over 23 games before he was traded to the Orioles on February 21, 2017 for a player to be named later or cash.

Good luck in Baltimore Richard!

Oriole # 1030- Stefan Crichton

Wow, so this is almost like a real blog again, if only for one week. I've finally had the proper time and motivation to write about all of these new O's, and am blazing through all the 2017 debuts.

Up today, is yet another relief pitcher, by the name of Stefan Crichton (it's pronounced ste-FON CRY-ton for those of you who might care about that sort of thing).

The Orioles drafted Stefan in the 23rd round of the 2013 out of TCU, and he has spent the ensuing parts of five seasons by making stops at every level of the Orioles minor league system. He was always solid but not spectacular, and didn't appear on any top prospect lists. The Orioles obviously liked him enough to keep promoting him through the farm system and he was included in the players the Orioles sent to play in the Arizona Fall League in 2016.

However, he wasn't on the map enough to earn an invite to the big league camp for Spring Training 2017 which made his rise to the majors even more interesting. Buck Showalter has a penchant for bringing over a handful of guys from minor league camp for every Orioles spring game, and Crichton was frequently one of those players. He ended up pitching in eight games, and only allowed four hits over eight innings of work while striking out seven and earning four saves. Take what you will about the typical minor leaguer versus minor leaguer end of spring games, but he clearly put himself on the radar. 

Stefan was recalled to the Orioles on April 16th for the first time this season when Zach Britton was placed on the DL, also unfortunely for the first of now two trips there thus far, and made his MLB and Orioles debut that same day. Regrettably, his spring success has not carried over to the regular season, and he has allowed at least one earned run over each of his three appearances for the Orioles to this point, and his ERA sits at 10.80 over 3.1 innings pitched. 

He is one of the handful of players riding the Baltimore-Norfolk carousel, and has already had two separate stints with the O's and three distinct spells spent with the Tides. Who know what the rest of the season will bring, but here's to hoping that Stefan can redirect his successes in Florida to Baltimore.

Crichton was honestly so far off of my radar that I didn't even ask my dad to make Old Man Cards of his until after Spring Training. Stefan kindly signed these for me at the same game that I had success with Wade Miley and Alec Asher, so I was very happy to knock off three guys I was hoping to have sign for me in a single day. 

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 # 1019- Logan Ondrusek

Whew, a lot of these late season additions to the Orioles roster have given me a run for my money in my attempts to add their autographs to my collection. Which has caused me to fall behind on my debut posts as well. But don't worry, I'm still here, just busy trying to catch up with all the new guys around town.

Logan Ondrusek's signing came completely out of left field, or I suppose more accurately, Japan, where he had been pitching for the past two seasons after spending parts of his first five seasons pitching for the Reds. In a very unexpected and Dan Duquetteish transaction, the Orioles signed him to a Major League deal on July 29th and designated Chaz Roe for assignment. This was right at the trade deadline as other teams were making bigger and better moves, so I think most of the Orioles fan base was beyond puzzled by this addition to the roster.

Logan made his Orioles debut the day after being added to the roster and proceeded to pitch in seven games for the Orioles over two stints with the team. Over 6.1 IP, he allowed 9 hits, 7 earned runs which worked out to a 9.95 ERA. Needless to say, things didn't go well. He was designated for assignment on August 26th and ultimately passed through waivers and ended the season at AA Bowie.

Shortly after Logan was added to the team, I was able to trade for this signed Reds card of his through a friend on SportsCollectors.Net. So it served as a nice placeholder in my collection. However, my dad quickly churned out some Old Man Cards of Ondrusek, and it was preference to save this post until I got them signed. And that's where my attempts to get these cards signed get interesting. 

During his first stint with the Orioles, from July 30-August 11, the team only had three weekday home games which I was unable to attend. Luckily, he got optioned to the AA Bowie Baysox, which is the closest affiliate to me, so I planned to go to a game there on Friday August 19th, but something came up and I couldn't make it. So I decided to go the following Saturday, 8/29. But by that point, the Orioles had recalled him from Bowie and designated him for assignment, so he was in DFA limbo when I attended that game. The Baysox final home game of 2016 was Thursday 9/1 and the day before that it was announced that he had cleared waivers and would head back to Bowie. I went to the game with my family and we waited for Logan who was one of the last players out of the clubhouse with only about five minutes to go before first pitch. Luckily, he was a nice guy and came over to sign for us as you can tell by the cards in this post. And that's my drawn out story about how Logan's signed and personalized Old Man Cards came to my collection. I hope you enjoyed it!

Oriole #1021- Parker Bridwell

I know that I'm skipping a few debuts at this point, but July/August is always a hard time of the season to keep up with autographs on the team as players are traded or acquired from other organizations and I don't have their autographs waiting to add to my collection. So I'm going to move ahead with a debut I was prepared for; that of the Orioles 9th round draft pick in the 2010 draft, Parker Bridwell.

Parker was drafted out of Hereford High School in Texas, and apparently could have been the quarterback at Texas Tech if he had chosen to go that route, so it seems like he was an all-around gifted athlete in high school. He worked his way through every level of the Orioles minor league system over the past seven years, at times seeming like a sure-fire Major Leaguer following up with other stretches where it seemed like he would never make it to the show. 

He has consistently been ranked as one of the Orioles highest prospects, owing at least in part to their shallow farm system, and was added to the 40-man roster prior to the 2016 season to protect him from the Rule 5 draft. Parker was also invited to the big league camp for the first time in 2016 so all the signs seemed to be pointing in the right direction for him. However, during the season, he battled some injuries and was also moved to the bullpen, where it seems like the team thinks his MLB future might be, so it took most of the season before he finally got the call to the O's. He made his MLB debut on Sunday August 21st against the Astros, and pitched two innings in relative mop up duty to help out the overtaxed Orioles bullpen. He gave up two hits, including a HR, and struck out two Astros batters.

I have a number of Parker's signed minor league cards from over the years, although he pitched in Aberdeen and Delmarva, two places that I didn't often get to during the years that I made it to the most minor league games. It feels nice to once again have been prepared for the debut of a new Oriole!

Parker has always seemed like a decent guy so I hope that he has finally found his way to the Orioles permanently. Good luck to him!

Oriole #1017- Donnie Hart

For the time being, I'm still waiting for an autograph of Oriole #1015, but more debuts keep happening, so I'm moving forward to write about the more recent debuts. Hopefully, I will have something to show for 1015 in the near future.

As the Orioles search for a match-up type bullpen lefty continues, Donnie Hart has become the most recent player to attempt to fill that role for the Birds. His contract was selected from AA Bowie on July 15th, and he made his Orioles and MLB debut two days later in a game against the Rays in Tampa. He went on to pitch in three straight games, and has yet to allow a run. So far at the MLB level, he has pitched 2.2 innings, and allowed 2 hits, 2 walks, and struck out 1. That 1.50 WHIP isn't great, but the 0.00 ERA will probably keep him in Baltimore for the near future.

Donnie was drafted by the Orioles in the 27th round of the 2013 draft out of Texas State University. Over four seasons in the O's minor league system he has pitched for the Ironbirds, Shorebirds, Keys, and Baysox. He appeared in 117 games, all out of the bullpen, and had a 11-6 record with a 2.27 ERA. He also appeared in the Arizona Fall League following the 2015 season, which means the Orioles considered him to be some sort of prospect. And following Jayson Aquino, he became the second straight player to debut with the Orioles directly from AA. Although Hart wasn't already on the 40 man roster, which makes this move more surprising, but I guess it says something about how the O's perceive the lefty bullpen pitchers at AAA right now.

The two autographs above are the only autographs I have of Donnie, and luck was once again on my side as I got both of these cards signed at the same Bowie meet the team day that Jayson Aquino signed for me. So the meet the team day really came through for me! Since Hart wasn't on the O's 40 man, and I had no idea that he was on their radar, we hadn't made an Old Man Orioles Card of him at that point. My dad just made Donnie's first Orioles cards and hopefully we can get them signed sometime soon.

In the meantime, good luck in Baltimore Donnie!

Oriole #1014- Odrisamer Despaigne

(I am temporarily skipping a post about Oriole #1013 as I traded for an autograph of his, so for the time being, I'm writing about #1014. Check back soon (hopefully) for a post about #1013.)

The Orioles recalled Odrisamer Despaigne from AAA Norfolk on Tuesday as Vance Worley went on the disabled list, and he made his Orioles debut in last night's loss against the Red Sox. The loss had nothing to do with his effort however, he pitched 2.2 innings of scoreless relief, although he did give up three hits and 2 walks, so he needed some help from his defense to get through the outing. It seems like he will slide into Worley's role as the long-man/spot starter/whatever in the bullpen. 

You might recognize these autographs from one of my Spring Training posts about my 2016 trip back in March. At the time I wrote about how accommodating Odrisamer was any time he was asked to sign, and he easily had signed everything I brought for him very quickly. As I seem to write in just about every other post, thanks to my dad's Old Man Cards, I already have a signed Orioles card of Odrisamer to slide directly into my collection. That makes things easy for me!

The Orioles acquired Odrisamer in a trade with the Padres this past February in exchange for minor league pitcher, Jean Cosme. Over parts of two seasons in San Diego, he had a 9-16 record with a 4.74 ERA over 50 games, including 34 starts.

Just to clear something up, according to Baseball-reference.com, his name is pronounced OH-drees-ah-meer DES-pawn-yay and might be one of the most challenging names to type and pronounce in Orioles history. Although I can't speak to the specific background of his name, he was born in Cuba and defected from the Cuban National Team during a tournament in Europe in 2013.

It will be interesting to see what the future brings with the Orioles and Odrisamer as the team needs a roster spot for Yovani Gallardo this weekend, but as long as he holds onto his 0.00 ERA, he might stick around for a while!

Oriole #1012- Francisco Pena

Last night's Orioles game featured two players making their debuts for the team. It's pretty rare for multiple debuts to occur in the same game other than at the beginning of the season in April or around the beginning of September, once the call-ups occur due to the expanded roster. One of the debuts, I was prepared for, while the other caught me relatively off-guard. In large part thanks to my dad, I was fully ready for Francisco Pena's Orioles debut. Not only did my dad produce his ubiquitous Old Man Cards, but he actually got three of these signed at Spring Training before I even arrived in Sarasota!

It seems like the Orioles generally pay a large amount of attention to the catching depth throughout the organization, so it's no surprise to see them sign a few extra catchers during the offseason. The O's purchased Francisco's contract from the Royals on December 2nd, and added him to their 40 man roster. He had played in nine games for Kansas City during the 2014 &'15 seasons, and was mostly known for his skills as a defensive catcher, which is something highly valued by the O's. 

The Orioles recalled Francisco from AAA Norfolk this past Tuesday after Caleb Joseph suffered a "testicular injury" (retching sounds) during Monday's game. He made his Orioles debut yesterday against the Red Sox and didn't disappoint. He kept Ubaldo's head screwed on tightly for the first five innings, quite and accomplishment given his recent performance on the mound, and went 2-4 with a HR, 2 runs scored, and 2 RBI. It was his first MLB home run, so it was a nice night all around for him. Not to mention that he caught the only runner attempting a steal against him to top it all off.

Baseball runs in Francisco's veins, as his dad is long-time MLB catcher Tony Pena, who played 18 seasons in the majors from 1980-97, mostly with the Pirates and Red Sox. In a cool twist to this story, his dad is currently the first base coach for the Yankees, who arrived in town last night ahead of their three game series with the Orioles this weekend, so father and son will likely take the same field at some point this weekend.

Good luck Francisco, keep up the great work as an Oriole! Although I don't expect you to hit a homer every game!

Oriole # 1009- Vance Worley

After the initial rush of four Orioles debuts over the first two games of the season, it took a few more games for the last two new guys on the roster to make their debut on the field. Vance Worley and Hyun Soo Kim both debuted simultaneously in the field this past Sunday, April 10th, in the Orioles fifth game of the season. So I had to go back to my positional tie-breaker system to determine that Worley being the pitcher (position 1) slotted ahead of Kim who started in left field (7), so that officially locked Vance in as the 1009th player in Orioles history.

(Sorry for the crappy scans of these two cards, but my scanner started playing hardball with me)

The Vanimal (his nickname since his college days for his hardcore workouts) was the only one of the six new Orioles to debut in 2016 who was a member of the team and attended Orioles Fanfest back in December. So, thanks to my dad's Old Man Orioles custom cards, I had been prepared for his Orioles debut for about five months by the time it actually came around. I wasn't actually sure that he was going to break camp with the team, as it came down to the final day of Spring Training before it was officially announced that he heading to Baltimore. 

Interestingly enough, he started the season as the team's fifth starter, but it's possible that Tyler Wilson will move into that role in the future, but only time will tell. Vance hadn't pitched in something like ten days before making his start, so it would make sense if he was a little bit rusty. He pitched reasonably well, and gave up just two earned runs over 4.2 innings, while he struck out five Rays. If he had been able to get one more out, he would have been in line for the win, but the wheels had started to come off. All told, it was a solid performance for his debut, especially after the long layover. 

In addition to getting Vance's autograph at Fanfest, he was one of the better signers I came across during my Spring Training trip too. I came across him with just one other fan nearby and he signed these cards for me, as well as the OMC at the top of the post. Prior to Vance's signing for us, the other autograph seeker saw my Twins card and mentioned that Vance likely wouldn't sign it. I had never heard anything about this, so I put the Twins card on the bottom, and figured it didn't hurt to ask.

Which leads to one of my funnier autograph stories in recent memory. Before signing the card, he thoroughly crossed out both the Twins lettering and logo. I wasn't sure he was going to still sign the card, but he did. And I didn't get the whole story behind this, but suffice it to say that he clearly doesn't have good memories about his time in Minnesota.

Thanks for signing for me Vance and welcome to the club!

Oriole #1007- Pedro Alvarez

As I've mentioned while writing my last two debut posts highlighting Joey Rickard and Mark Trumbo, any time there are multiple debuts in the same game, I use fielding position numbers (1-9) as a tiebreaker. And although Pedro also made his Orioles debut on Opening Day, he served as the designated hitter in that game, so is the last of the three players to have officially made his debut in the O's first game of 2016. 

Pedro didn't officially sign with the Orioles until the day after I came back home from Sarasota, but I actually saw him at the Orioles complex on the last day of my trip; presumably he was there to take his physical. So that makes sense given that the Orioles physical/signing process generally seems to take something like 2-3 days to complete. They are certainly known for their "thorough" process, just ask Grant Balfour or Yovani Gallardo.

Thankfully, I've made a connection with a few fellow Orioles autograph collectors in Sarasota, and Alan was kind enough to help me out with Pedro (and Hyun Soo Kim), neither of whom signed for me on my trip (more about Kim in his post that will be up in a few days). Some of you might remember Alan for his winning a contest and being included in the Topps Heritage Minors set a couple years back. I've heard that Pedro isn't the best signer, so I was extremely happy that Alan was able to not only get my Old Man Card signed, but also personalized for me!

Pedro was the Pirates first round draft pick in the 2008 draft (the Orioles selected Brian Matusz two picks later), and he had a bit of an up and down career during his six seasons in Pittsburgh. He struggled defensively at third and later first base, and while he did make the 2013 All-Star team and hit 131 homeruns, including 30+ two times, he also struck out 813 times and struggled to hit for average.

Between being a Scott Boras client, and some salary demands, it was not too surprising to see that he was still unsigned in early March. After the Orioles deal for Dexter Fowler fell apart, they turned their attention to Pedro and signed him to a one year $5.75 million deal.

He has struggled a bit for the Orioles so far, and has just one hit over fifteen at-bats in five games. He has walked three times and only struck our four times, so it could be worse. But I'm hoping that his power potential shows up sometime soon.

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!

Orioles Spring Training Phenom- Joey Rickard

The Orioles selected Joey Rickard from the Tampa Bay Rays during the Rule V draft during the Winter Meetings this past December. Most of you probably already know that the O's have a propensity for making picks in that supplemental draft, and that they do their best to keep the players they drafted. In recent years, the team has added Ryan Flaherty, T.J. McFarland, and Jason Garcia to the organization via the Rule V draft.

Joey has made the Orioles decision to keep him even easier, as he has dominated Grapefruit League pitching to the tune of a .385 batting average in addition to five stolen bases. He has also frequently batted out of the lead off spot, and is a relatively prototypical lead off hitter, which is a role that the Orioles struggled to fill in recent seasons. In fact, Rickard has had such a great Spring that the Orioles are apparently even discussing letting Hyun-Soo Kim out of his contract to return to Korea.

We will see you in Baltimore a week from today Joey! Congrats on making the club!

Oriole #999- Mychal Givens

Wow, I hope that none of you read my post from last week speculating about who the one thousandth Oriole might be, seeing as how I listed ten potential candidates to make their Orioles debut, and not a single one of them was Oriole #999 Mychal Givens. Partially, this is because I chose to focus on the potential debuts of players at the AAA level to somewhat limit the pool of candidates (outside of Bowie Baysox pitcher Tim Berry, who was on the 40 man roster). Additionally, Givens hadn't been invited to the Orioles big league Spring Training, generally an indicator at the time about a player's general standing in the organization. HOWEVER, Givens is a name that Buck Showalter has mentioned multiple times this year in assorted interviews and once Buck has an eye on you, it generally means positive things about your future.

Givens has a pretty interesting history in the O's farm system, as he was drafted in the 2nd round of the 2009 draft, and the Orioles decided to have him play shortstop. Apparently, coming out of high school, many other teams like his arm better as a pitcher and thought he had a brighter future on the mound than at short, but the O's thought otherwise.

After three relatively unremarkable seasons in the field and at the plate, the Orioles finally conceded that Givens might do better as a pitcher and moved him to the mound in 2013. Success didn't come right away, but apparently once someone changed his mechanics to throw from a three quarters arm slot, his velocity and results improved.

This past Saturday, the Orioles selected Mychal's contract from AA Bowie and added him to the 25 & 40 man rosters. After watching three games from the bullpen, he got to make his Orioles & MLB debut in last night's game against the Red Sox in Boston. He needed only 11 pitches (8 of which were strikes) to retire the "heart" of the Sawx batting order, including two ground-outs and a four pitch strike out of Mike Napoli.

Mychal was optioned back to AA Bowie prior to today's game to make space of the roster for Miguel Gonzalez, but he sure showed some promise in his debut. Especially since he is now on the 40 man roster, I wouldn't be surprised to see him back in Baltimore sometime soon.

And for the record, I'm pretty sure that I have a personalized autograph of his Bowman Orioles card at the top of this post. I'm pretty sure he signed and personalized both a copy of that card and the Shorebirds card for me at the same time, but all of my stuff is pretty unorganized these days. Regardless, congrats on your debut Mychal!