Another Look at Oriole #1000 Candidates

NORFOLK TIDES ROSTER

Pitchers (click column headers to sort)

#	Name	Pos	Bat	Thw	Ht	Wt	DOB	Status	MLB 40-man
36	Pedro Beato	P	R	R	6' 6"	230	10-27-1986	Active	No
25	Michael Bowden	P	R	R	6' 3"	215	09-09-1986	Active	No
38	Cesar Cabral	P	L	L	6' 3"	250	02-11-1989	Active	No
15	Zach Davies	P	R	R	6' 0"	150	02-07-1993	Active	No
	Dane De La Rosa	P	R	R	6' 7"	245	02-01-1983	7-day DL	No
59	Oliver Drake	P	R	R	6' 4"	215	01-13-1987	Active	Yes
37	Eddie Gamboa	P	R	R	6' 1"	215	12-21-1984	Active	Yes
40	Steve Johnson	P	R	R	6' 1"	220	08-31-1987	Active	No
43	Chris Jones	P	L	L	6' 2"	205	09-19-1988	Active	No
46	Pat McCoy	P	L	L	6' 3"	220	08-03-1988	Active	No
66	T.J. McFarland	P	L	L	6' 3"	219	06-08-1989	Active	Yes
30	Hector Daniel Rodriguez	P	L	L	5' 11"	195	12-11-1984	7-day DL	No
33	Chaz Roe	P	R	R	6' 5"	190	10-09-1986	Active	No
34	Tyler Wilson	P	R	R	6' 2"	185	09-25-1989	Active	Yes
28	Mike Wright	P	R	R	6' 6"	215	01-03-1990	Active	Yes

52	Zach Booker	C	R	R	6' 0"	220	04-24-1985	7-day DL	No
45	Steve Clevenger	C	L	R	5' 10"	210	04-05-1986	Active	Yes
24	Audry Perez	C	R	R	5' 10"	220	12-23-1988	Active	No

13	Michael Almanzar	3B	R	R	6' 3"	190	12-02-1990	Active	No
11	Paul Janish	SS	R	R	6' 2"	200	10-12-1982	Active	No
2	Rey Navarro	SS	S	R	5' 10"	185	12-22-1989	7-day DL	Yes
12	Jayson Nix	2B	R	R	5' 11"	195	08-26-1982	Active	No
41	Chris Parmelee	IF	L	L	6' 1"	220	02-24-1988	Active	No
1	Garabez Rosa	SS	R	R	6' 2"	166	10-12-1989	Active	No
22	Christian Walker	1B	R	R	6' 0"	220	03-28-1991	Active	Yes

10	Dariel Alvarez	RF	R	R	6' 2"	180	11-07-1988	Active	No
5	Julio Borbon	CF	L	L	6' 0"	195	02-20-1986	Active	No
14	Nolan Reimold	RF	R	R	6' 4"	205	10-12-1983	Active	No
51	Henry Urrutia	LF	L	R	6' 3"	200	02-13-1987	Active	Yes

There's the current 2015 roster of the Orioles' AAA affiliate Norfolk Tides. It's a relatively safe assumption to make that these are the most likely candidates to make the jump up to the big league team in the near future, thus being the most likely to be Oriole #1000. Obviously, the Orioles could always make a trade and that special debut could be a player that isn't currently in the organization, and/or the O's have occasionally called up a player directly from the AA Bowie Baysox since they are located closer to Baltimore and certainly have some talent on their roster as well. 

I wrote about the highlighted players on Tuesday, so I won't rehash what I wrote about them. Today's post will focus on the remaining 18 members of the Tides, and their chances to be Oriole #1000. 

I would put this group of Dariel Alvarez, Paul Janish, Jayson Nix, & Chris Parmelee among the most likely of the remaining 18 Tides to play for the Orioles this year. Alvarez is a solid prospect who will almost positively be an Oriole at some point, when is really the only quesiton. The other three guys are MLB veterans who play solid defense and were some of the last spring training cuts so they seem to be just a DL move away from Baltimore. 

My second tier of possible candidates for Oriole #1000 includes Julio Borbon, Michael Bowden, Zach Davies, Pat McCoy, Audry Perez, Chaz Roe, & Garabez Rosa. I feel like anyone from this group could make it to Baltimore or none of them could. Probably the most likely is Davies, another prospect, who was rewarded with a few late March Spring Training road starts. Borbon, Roe, & Rosa played a good bit for the O's during Spring Training which could bode well for them. Bowden was signed near the end of spring training, and have over 100 MLB games under his belt, and the team picked up McCoy off of waivers from the Tigers last year, so the O's obviously see something in both of them. And Perez is a catcher, and let's be honest, you never know when you'll need a catcher. 

My "who knows" group includes two guys who were out of the Orioles system but were resigned over the winter, Michael Almanzar and Pedro Beato. I'm also including Cesar Cabral and Dane De La Rosa in this group since they've had some MLB experience. 

And finally the three remaining players I will put in my "I just don't see it" category. Zach Booker is a bullpen catcher and is on the roster pretty much only to warm up pitchers, Chris Jones has been in the Orioles organization since 2013 and hasn't been mentioned in any call-up scenarios I've ever heard, and Hector Daniel Rodriguez seems to be a career Mexican League/AAA guy.  

So there's my two cents on the Tides roster and how likely each player is to make it to Baltimore. What do you think? Do you care? I'm pretty sure that I might be the only one out here who is even aware of the pending milestone, well until I started writing about it and sharing it at least. 

Who will be Oriole #1000?

After the five Orioles debuts to start the 2015 season, the team is now on the cusp of having the 1000th player in team history make their debut for the club. With 991 players having currently appeared in a game as an Oriole, it's almost a guarantee that the 1000th Oriole will debut this year. In recent years, there have generally been somewhere around 20-25 new players appear in a game for the team each year, so nine more debuts would be just the 14th new player in 2015, so I would say that it's a lock that #1000 happens this year.

While it's certainly possible that Oriole #1000 will be a player that the team brings in from another organization, I'm going to examine some of the players in the farm system right now that could make their debut as that unique number.

Some of the most likely candidates are those players who are on the Orioles 40 man roster but haven't yet played in a game for the O's.

This group includes pitchers Tim Berry, Oliver Drake, Eddie Gamboa, Tyler Wilson, and Mike Wright, and infielder Rey Navarro.

Of this group, Berry and Gamboa have both spent a couple days on the 25 man roster, but did not appear in a game during their short stints with the team. (Gamboa's was just up this week when Wesley Wright went down with an injury, and Berry was up a few days last summer.) Buck also seemed very impressed with Wilson's work during Spring Training, and he gave him a few late spring road starts.

While those six are likely to play for the O's at some point over this summer, all together they still leave us short of #1000. While looking at the 29 players on AAA Norfolk's roster, Steve Johnson, T.J. McFarland, Steve Clevenger, Christian Walker, Nolan Reimold, and Henry Urrutia have already spent some time with the Orioles, so it won't be any of them. And all of the 40 man roster players listed at the top of this post are on the Tides roster except for Tim Berry, who is with AA Bowie right now. I will look at the remaining 18 Tides and examine their chances to be Oriole #1000 in my next post.

Once again, thanks so much to my dad for obtaining a lot of these autographs for me on his Spring Training trip!

Orioles # 989, 990, & 991- Ryan Lavarnway, Jason Garcia, & Wesley Wright

Last night's Orioles game brought about three Orioles debuts, which is quite rare outside of Opening Day. But since it was just the third game of the season, the three debuts are so strange as it would be later in the season. 

Ryan Lavarnway was the starting catcher in the game, and became Oriole #989 when he appeared behind the plate in the bottom of the first inning. He went 1-2 with a double and a walk in the game. 

Rule V pick Jason Garcia made his Orioles and MLB debut when he came out of the bullpen in the seventh inning. He walked one and only threw 8 of his 20 pitches for strikes, but it seems like some of that likely had to do with his big league debut jitters. Quite understandable. 

Wesley Wright also debuted out of the bullpen, and threw just a single pitch to get an out in the bottom of the eighth inning. Now that's an efficient debut!

As always, thanks to my dad for getting these autographs on his Spring Training trip. It's pretty awesome to have these cards to plug right into my collection.

Oriole # 988- Everth Cabrera

Game #2 of the 2015 season brought about another Orioles player debut, as well as another game in the win column. This time around, Everth Cabrera appeared in his first game in the orange and black and became the 988th Orioles player in team history.

While Everth's debut wasn't nearly as flashy or remarkable as Travis Snider's debut on Opening Day, he had a decent day in Tampa, going 1-4 at the plate as the starting shortstop. (Snider went 1-1 in this game and walked 3 times, and also scored a run and drove another one in, leaving his two game average at .800 and on base percentage at .875.)

Everth figures to appear all over the field in 2015, as the Orioles used him at a number of different positions during spring training, including shortstop, second base, and center-field.

Thanks again to my dad for his helping with Everth's autograph!

Oriole #987- Travis Snider

Thanks to my dad's Old Man Cards, his trip to spring training, and the time he spent getting autographs, I have signed Orioles cards of the five new players on the 25 man Opening Day Roster. 

Only one of those five made their Orioles debut yesterday, and what a debut it was, Travis Snider, have yourself a day! (Everth Cabrera, Jason Garcia, Ryan Lavarnway, & Wesley Wright's Orioles debuts are pending, and will all likely occur in the next few days. Be on the lookout for up to five posts here, in a week! I know, I know, I'll believe it when I see it too.)

Travis Snider had one of the best Orioles debuts in recent memory as he went 3-4 with two doubles and two RBI, threw out a runner at the plate and made a great diving catch in left field. (Nick who?!? Just kidding, I miss Markakis like we all do, but if Snider keeps this up, he will certainly be an upgrade.) He did get thrown out easily try to stretch his only single into a double, but after the way he contributed overall, I'm not worried about that blip today.

The Orioles easily beat the Rays 6-2, behind a strong start from Chris Tillman and overall solid defensive play, and run support wasn't an issue as Stevie P, Ale Alejandro, and Flash all homered. What a great start to the 2015 season, now let's win another 99 or so games.

Because Snider was impressed by my dad's card making ability, he kindly signed all three OMCs at one game for him. So these two can be had in a trade if you are interested.

As always, thanks Old Man, and let's go O's!

Long Overdue Autographs from Orioles Fanfest

Since I will start with the Orioles debut posts with Opening Day on Monday, I figured that I should write a post about my long overdue Fanfest autographs.

Over two months ago, I was able to make it to Orioles Fanfest for a few quick hours. Prior to my son's birth this was pretty much an all day event for my entire family, at times to my wife's chagrin. But this year, she stayed home with the little guy while my parents and I went to the Baltimore Convention Center. Not surprisingly, I was able to add a few autographs to my collection.

My main focus at the yearly Fanfest event is to get some autographs of the new players in the organization. Due to the O's offseason inactivity in 2014-15, there weren't any new players in the house that day.

Luckily, there were still a few autographs that I needed, headlined by Alejandro De Aza, who I was never able to get to sign for me during his time with the team in the latter half of the 2014 season. 

Fortunately, Christian Walker was signing at the same station, and with my dad's OMC card being his first Orioles card, I was able to scratch his name off of my list in one fell swoop.

Also signing at the same station, and I'm sure the main draw of the three for most of the fans was the Orioles very popular manager, Buck Showalter. Since I already had a Buck autograph in my collection, I decided to have him personalize this card to my son Jack.

Finally, my dad stuck with the Jack theme and had JJ Hardy sign and personalize this card on his spring training trip. Even though it isn't from Fanfest, it seemed appropriate to include it here. Something tells me that these aren't the last two "Jack" autographs that we will get in 2015, assuming we have time to snag some autographs before games!

Happy (almost) Opening Day!

Possible 2015 Orioles Debuts- Pitchers

In today's post, I'm going to highlight the pitchers who could potentially be making their Orioles debuts in 2015, once again starting with those who I feel like are most likely to pitch in Baltimore through the least likely.

Logan has two major plus signs in his favor to making the club out of Spring Training; he is a rule V pick who has to be offered back to the Mets if he doesn't make the team, and he has pitched very well this spring. My gut says he is on the Orioles 25 man roster next Monday.

Wesley Wright is a LOOGY (lefty one out guy) who the Orioles signed as a free agent this past off-season for $1.7 million. As I wrote about Everth Cabrera, the O's aren't the type of team to spend $2 million on a pitcher to send them to AAA. So even if Wright doesn't make the team on Opening Day, I would expect to see him in Baltimore at some point. His making the team might be related to Brian Matusz's possibly being traded.

Like Verrett, Garcia is another Rule V pick, so I know that the Orioles would love to keep him in the organization, but he has a few factors working against him. He's been injured for part of the spring, and he has never pitched above single A, whereas Verrett has had success at AAA. Garcia supposedly has the more electric arm of the two, but I don't see how the O's could keep two Rule V pitchers.

Roe, De La Rosa, and Drake have all been sent to the minor league camp already, so are extreme long shots to make the team. Roe was sent out most recently, and could become a bullpen piece at some point this summer. De La Rosa was injured for much of the Spring but has had some Major League success in the past so I don't know what to make of his chances. And the Orioles re-signed Drake to a major league deal this past winter after he had pitched at every level of the team's farm system over the past seven seasons, so there is obviously something they like about him.

As always, a big thanks to my dad for getting all of these autographs on his Spring Training trip, and making all of these awesome OMCs to boot!