Oriole #1002- Junior Lake

What was it that I just wrote in my last post about how when one player makes their Orioles debut, it seems that a few more are bound to follow? Well, that pattern is certainly holding true right now as Junior Lake was the third player to make their O's debut within a six day span. And he is also the third consecutive player to debut whose autograph is not in my collection, so that's just great. Thankfully, as was the case with Gerardo Parra, there are plenty of certified autographs available of Junior's out there, so it won't be hard to add his autograph to my collection at some point.

Credit: Getty Images

Junior was just traded to the Orioles from the Cubs at the trade deadline on July 31st in return for Tommy Hunter. At the time the move was made, I figured the O's were just looking for some salary relief for Hunter and viewed Lake as a controllable asset for the future, since he can't become a free agent until 2020. He has appeared in 193 games for the Cubs over the past three seasons, and hit .241 with 16 homers over his time on the north-side of Chicago. I remember that he sparked a baseball "fight" with the Marlins earlier this year after he hit a home run and enjoyed it a little bit too much.

So far, over two games with the Orioles, he is 1-8 with a double, but made a nice defensive play in left field that was captured in the above picture.

Time will tell what Lake's role will be in the organization, but it's hard to argue right now that just about anyone isn't an upgrade over Travis Snider, who was designated for assignment to make way for Junior.

Preston Guilmet

A week or so ago I wrote about Preston's Orioles debut, and showed a picture of an autographed card of his that I found online. Well today, I have my Guilmet autograph in-hand.

It seems like an appropriate time to show it off here since Preston was just recalled from AAA Norfolk to take the place of the injured Tommy Hunter.

One day soon I hope to have an Orioles Old Man signed card to replace this one, but for now, this guy is heading to my collection.

A New Closer in Birdland?

It looks that way after last night's 2-1 victory. Zach Britton came in for the ninth inning and set the Royals down in order on three ground balls. It was the first 1-2-3 save for the O's this year, as former(?) closer Tommy Hunter was never able to pull off the trick.

Zach has an insane ground ball to fly ball ratio of something like 4 to 1, which will help in Camden Yards too. No official announcment has been made by Buck Showalter, but I think his actions speak more loudly than words in this scenario. 

Good luck Zach! Let's Go O's!

2013 Topps Heritage Orioles

As I promised yesterday, here is a breakdown of the Orioles included on the 2013 Topps Heritage Checklist. And my comments on each inclusion, whether you want my opinion or not.

Nick Markakis- pretty standard, has probably represented the O's in almost every Topps set in the past 7 years, except '13 Series 1
Jason Hammel- only his third O's card, but also third consecutive Topps appearance ('12 update, '13 series 1) to decrease my excitement
Manny Machado/Dylan Bundy RC- both have multiple O's cards but first combo card would like great if both sign it
J.J. Hardy- pretty much another one you expect to see, but like Markakis was also left out of '13 Series 1
Jim Johnson- if he pitches like he did last year and remains the closer, he should be in most sets for the forseeable future
Buck Showalter- absolutely deserved, but likely included because the 1964 set this series is modeled off of included managers
Nolan Reimold- a bit of a surprise as he didn't play in any games last season after April 30th, this would be logical spot for McLouth card
Tommy Hunter- similar situation to Hammel, this is his third nearly consecutive (he was in '12 Series 2 instead of Update) Topps card
Luis Ayala- see Hammel & Hunter; dear Topps, this was a nice spot to give O'Day/Strop their 2nd O's card instead of giving Ayala his 3rd

By this point in the set, I was rather pissed about how the set was taking shape. A few guys with not many Orioles cards, but nothing earth-shaking nor first-timers.

Miguel Gonzalez- Until this guy! Finally, a deserving player being given his first O's card. And his MILB cards are few and far between too
Chris Tillman- deserves the inclusion after finding himself last year, but one of many of his O's cards
Joe Saunders- and here is the dagger, an official Orioles card of a guy who left town; it's always a chore to get cards signed once they leave
Adam Jones SP- Kind of surprising to see Jonesy as a short print, but I have plenty of his cards, so it's all good
Wei-Yin Chen SP- same with Chen, but I don't have quite as many of his cards, might need to track this one down

In addition to these base cards, two other Orioles insert cards caught my attention: a Clubhouse Collection relic card featuring Chris Davis (possibly commemorating his day on the pitching mound in Boston), and a Chris Tillman error short print, that likely will feature some sort of photo variation.

So there you have it, my official take on the Orioles included in the 2013 Topps Heritage set. Here's what I said after my review of 2013 Topps Series 1 "However, I was expecting to see Nate McLouth and Miguel Gonzalez featured for the first time as Orioles, especially after last year's playoff run. And it's strange that both Nick Markakis and J.J. Hardy were passed over, but you can't include everyone in every set. But, if it was up to me, I would have included Markakis, Hardy, McLouth, Gonzalez, and probably Wei-Yin Chen, Ryan Flaherty, and Wilson Betemit over the combination of Reynolds, Arrieta, Hoes, Andino, Matusz, Ayala, and Chavez." So it appears that I nailed the inclusion of Markakis, Hardy, Gonzalez, and Chen, as well as the players who possibly shouldn't have been included, minus Ayala. But when is Nate McLouth going to get some Orioles card love? Topps generally loves taking advantage of the former star comes back to make a postseason impact story, and I'm shocked that McLouth didn't make the cut in either of the 2013 sets. 

And mainly because I don't want to write back to back image-less posts, here is an autographed 1964 Topps Orioles card of Bob Saverine, to show the basic template for the 2013 set. Bob played in six MLB seasons between 1959-67, including 170 games over parts of four years spent with the O's. He holds the American League record for having gone 0-12 in a 1966 doubleheader during his time in Baltimore, and definitely seems to have made it to the big leagues more for his defensive prowess than his skills with the bat.

Some Recent Upgrades

Between doing some in-person graphing at games and picking up some signed cards via consignment, I've been able to upgrade a number of autographs in my collection recently, mainly of the current players on the team. 

I was able to get a few players to sign their first Orioles cards, including

Wei-Yin Chen,

 Wilson Betemit,

and Tommy Hunter.

I also "upgraded" a few of the autographs in my collection to include personalizations from the players.

Thanks to JJ,

Ryan Flaherty,

Darren O'Day, 

and Steve Johnson for personalizing their autographs.

Also, I just noticed that Steve's picture on his Bowman Dodgers card was taken at Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen, MD, home of the Orioles' short season Aberdeen Ironbirds. The only connection I can make is related to Steve being from the Baltimore area, but that still doesn't really place him at the stadium. Oh well.

I was able to finally get an "in-person" signature of DeMarlo Hale via consignment. He has handily ignored me each time I've called out to him this season.

Miguel Socolovich signed this team card for me. I only had one single minor league card of his prior to the season, which he signed for me during spring training, and couldn't pass up the opportunity at an autograph, so this works for now. At least until I receive my 2012 Norfolk Tides team sets.

Finally, Al Bumbry made an appearance at a AA Bowie Baysox game a few weeks back to celebrate his bobblehead night  (pictures coming at some point), and he was signing for everyone.

I gladly scooped up an orange uni autograph and his York Revolution coaches card.

The Orioles Are 3-0! 2012 Debuts So Far...

And I'm back; the trip went a little longer than expected and then I got swept up in the excitement of Opening Day, so I was away longer than I had planned. But now I'm back and don't plan on going anywhere for awhile.

Somehow the Orioles are 3-0 and swept the Twins out of town. I was lucky to attend Opening Day on Friday and game #2 on Saturday, but couldn't make it to Jason Hammel's near no-hitter yesterday. All told the O's outscored the Twins 15-5 in the series and the O's three starting pitchers, Jake Arrieta, Tommy Hunter, and Hammel, allowed only one earned run over 22 innings pitched. Nick Markakis hit a homer run in each of the first two games and Matt Wieters, JJ Hardy, and Adam Jones all went deep as well. Freakin' Ronny Paulino went 4-4 in his Orioles debut on Sunday. Who knew? Maybe this team will be alright. Or maybe the Twins are pitiful.

On to the debuts...of which there were eight over the first three games.

There were two debuts on Opening Day, which is a relatively small number for the first game of the season.


Wilson Betemit was the first Orioles debut of the season and will forever be Oriole #911. He went 1-3 as the Opening Day designated hitter.

Matt Lindstrom gave up two hits but no runs in the eighth inning and is now Oriole #912.

Game #2 on Saturday had four debuts. 

Nick Johnson started the game at first base, but went 0-4 at the plate. He is Oriole #913. 

The previously mentioned Ronny Paulino was the designated hitter on Saturday and scored two runs along with his four hits, including a double. It was an impressive start. Unfortunately, I don't yet have Ronny's autograph and he turned down a request when I had him 1 on 1 earlier on Saturday. Luckily, he has a number of certified autographs out there, and backup catchers don't normally get too much cardboard love. So I might go ahead and buy one of his autographs out there. I hate adding guys to my need list, which is now populated solely by Ronny. He is Oriole #914.

Luis Ayala, Oriole #915, came to pitch a clean ninth inning in the O's 8-2 victory. While he did have a six run lead, I wouldn't expect him to be the mop-up guy out of the bullpen, I think he just needed the work. My guess for the current mop-up guy is the one who began last season as the team's closer, but rarely had a clean outing.

Ryan Flaherty also made his Orioles, and MLB, debut in the ninth inning of Saturday's game. He came in as a defensive replacement for Mark Reynolds, who had fouled a ball off of his calf muscle earlier in the game. Reynolds also made a a few suspect plays in the field and recorded his first error of the season earlier in the game. Flaherty made a slick play in the top of the ninth that I'm not convinced Reynolds would have made if he was still in there. Flaherty is Oriole #916.

Sunday's game saw two more Baltimore debuts. 

Jason Hammel was the starting pitcher and tossed a gem in his first Oriole outing. He didn't allow his first hit until the top of the eighth inning and went on to allow just two hits and one run over 8. Pretty great for a third starter. Jason is Oriole #917. 

Endy Chavez started in left field and went 1-4 at the plate. He is the 918th player to appear in a game for the O's. Unfortunately, he has already been pictured as an Oriole in the 2012 Topps Heritage set, as well as the Topps Orioles team set, so I already need an upgrade for my collection.

 At this point, Wei Yin Chen and Darren O'Day are the only two players on the 25 man roster to have not made their Orioles debut yet, but I know Chen is scheduled to start on Tuesday and I would imagine we see O'Day matched up against a member of the Yankees over the next three nights.

Good luck to all of the 2012 Orioles, keep up your winning ways!

The Orioles are 1-0!

Tommy Hunter confirms they are the best team in baseball by striking a pose for the cameraman. 

Hey, you can't argue with a perfect record!

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun

The Orioles' first televised game is on MASN tonight at 7pm. Brian Matusz is taking the mound, and here's to hoping that he regains his 2011 form!

Let's Go O's!

My 2012 FanFest Autographs

So I spent about four hours at Orioles FanFest at the Baltimore Convention Center on Saturday and was able to get autographs from almost everyone I wanted, thanks to some major help from Kalina and my parents. I think that everyone in my group had a pretty good time, I know that I sure did! Thanks for your help guys!

Since I added so many autographs to the collection, this will be an information short and scan heavy post.

Probably the coolest autograph that we got all day was this Markakis struck foul ball that my dad snagged at a game late last season.

And he also got Kakes to sign this orange uniform card for me!

I also added signed items of many of the new Orioles to my collection. Since I like to have signed cards as well as postcards of the players, I got both whenever possible. 

A few other players had their first Orioles postcards available...

My dad was able to get a few cards personalized to me...

I was able to add a few more autographs of my favorite Oriole...

And I was able to add some trade stock too... the following are all available for trade (minus the Patton minor league card which was obtained for a fellow collector)

 

   

I will share some stories, trade items, and pictures tomorrow.