2006 Bowman, Edgar Martinez

#FG17 Edgar Martinez

Unfortunately, this is not an autograph of that Edgar Martinez.

This is from the career minor leaguer that happened to play for the Wichita Wingnuts in 2012. As you can see from the card, he used to be a legitimate prospect, having played in the 2006 Futures Game. That aspect was short-lived as he was out of affiliated baseball after the 2008 season.

I got this card signed prior to a 'Nuts game that season. When Edgar was signing the card, one of his teammates came over to see the card of him. He told that teammate that the picture was from "his Pedro Martinez days". They both got a good chuckle out of that. A few minutes later, that teammate came back over to see if I had any extras of the card. All that I had got signed that day. I offered one of those up, but he didn't want a signed one. I told him that I would get him later on in the year and I did just that. When I finally got Edgar his card, I had him sign my boy's glove that day and the kid still thinks that Edgar and I are buddies.

In 2005, Edgar posted a 1.89 ERA over stops at high-A and AA while striking out more than a batter an inning. The following year, his ERA was 2.61 in AA while his strikeouts dipped below the one per inning mark. He was bumped up to AAA for 2007 and he responded with a 5.16 ERA and 58 strikeouts in 68 innings. His ERA dipped down to 3.89 in AAA in 2008 as the Sox toyed with the idea of making him a starter. But, his strikeouts per inning dropped even more that season and they decided to cut ties.

Edgar joined the independent ranks the following season and pitched in three different leagues over the next four years. He has spent the past two seasons pitching in Mexico. He had a really good season for Oaxaca last year, posting a 1.49 ERA in 48.1 innings of work while striking out 44 with just 11 walks.

2006 Bowman, Brandon Jones

#BC159 Brandon Jones

Here is the first of what should amount to six posts about Brandon Jones. Brandon played in the American Association for a couple of years with the Kansas City T-Bones and I was able to get this card signed before a game against the Wingnuts last season.

I put all of my autographed cards in binders, sorted by year and brand. When I first started this blog in 2008, I started with my oldest cards and worked towards the newer ones. If I got any older cards signed, I would wait until I finished posting all of the cards from the year I was working on and then go back and show the older ones before I moved on to the next year. I still post in that order. In the seven plus years of doing this, I have got up to 2006. Yikes. I finished up my 2006 cards two and a half years ago and I have just now almost caught back up to move onto the next year.

At one point, I was a diligent poster and I honestly thought that I was going to run out of autographs at some point. That was probably back in 2010 when I was posting my 2003 cards. That was only a seven year gap between the actual year and the year of the cards I was posting. Considering I started this blog in 2008 with cards from 1960 (48 year gap), it is easy to see why I thought I would run out of cards to post. But then life caught up with me with a better job, a wife, and a kid, and I am unable to post like I used to. Now, it is 2015 and I am only inching closer to posting my 2007 cards. The gap has widened and I doubt that it will ever be any closer than it is right now. That is especially true considering I have about 150 signed cards from 2007 and about 225 from 2008. But, I am just too stuck in my ways. Sure it would be nice to post some cards of current, relevant players. But this blog was never about that and I guess it never will be.

To kind of make up for that, I finally broke down and started a Twitter account. I have been showing my TTMs on there and will be showing any 'graphs I get at games during the season. I am too lazy to make two separate accounts, so you might see some personal stuff on there, like the chicken tacos I made for dinner. But, it is all in good fun. So check me out @zmills40

2005 Upper Deck Origins, Roman Colon

#185 Roman Colon

Here is the second and final card that I had to beg Roman Colon to sign for me. The first one, and the story of how I got them, can be seen here.

To date, Roman has played in parts of six Major League seasons with three teams- the Braves, Tigers, and Royals. He's amassed 187.1 innings and has a 8-10 record with 1 save and a 5.19 ERA. He got the most work in a single season with the Royals in 2009. That year, he pitched in 43 games and threw 50.1 innings, posting a 2-3 record and a 4.83 ERA.

Roman has not pitched in the big leagues since 2012. He pitched for three different AAA teams in 2013, but did not pitch last year. Yet, somehow he is on the roster for the Royals AA team in Arkansas.

This card may be from the ugliest set that came out in 2005. From what I can tell, the set recreates the Old Judge cards and one of the Play Ball sets. Both of the original sets were smaller than modern cards. Rather than making the cards the original size, Upper Deck made them standard size with massive green (and some other colors) borders. The Play Ball cards were bigger than the Old Judge, so the borders on those cards aren't as bad. But this card looks absolutely hideous.

2005 Turkey Red, Joe Randa

#196 Joe Randa

Here is the latest installment in the long line of Joe Randa autographs. I got this card signed so that I could have a card of him as a Red signed.

Joe's tenure in Cincinnati was a typical Smiling Joe Randa season. He arrived there as a free agent for the 2005 season. Through 92 games, he was hitting .289 with 13 home runs, 26 doubles, and 48 RBI. The Reds then shipped him to San Diego prior to the trade deadline for Justin Germano and Travis Chick. In 56 games with the Padres, Joe hit .256 with 17 doubles, 4 home runs, and 20 RBI.

At thirty-six years of age, Joe had a really good 2005 season. His 43 doubles and 17 home runs were career highs for him. But, more importantly, he got his only taste of the postseason that year. The Padres ended up 82-80, but it was good enough to win a weak NL West by five games. They ended up getting swept by a strong Cardinals team in the NLDS, but Joe had a good showing, going 4-11 in the three games.

Joe would go on to play just one more season after that. I'll have a card of him as a Pirate coming up later this year, I hope. Actually, at my rate, it probably will not get posted until next year sometime.

I got this card signed at Royals Fanfest two years ago.

For as fun as the Turkey Red cards were, they were not a great card for autographs. The card stock was on point, but the pictures usually turned out too dark to make them a go-to for signatures.

2005 Topps Total, Neal Cotts

#674 Neal Cotts

Here is the first of two cards that Neal Cotts signed for me outside of Kauffman Stadium at the end of the 2013 season. Neal was with the Rangers at the time and he signed them after hopping out of a cab before a Sunday day game.

This is not the first card of Neal Cotts that I have posted on here. I posted the first one in 2010 and that card can be seen here. Neal signed that card for me in 2009 while he was playing for the Iowa Cubs. When I posted that card, Neal was a member of the Pirates AAA team, but he was injured. In fact, he was messed up so bad that he missed the entire 2010 and 2011 seasons. But, he was back in 2012 and worked his way back to the Major Leagues in 2013.

He had a really good season that year. In 58 games, Neal pitched 57 innings and went 8-3 while posting a superb 1.11 ERA while striking out 65 batters. He regressed a bit last year and his ERA jumped up to 4.32 and he struck out less than a batter per inning.

The Rangers let Neal walk after the season and he is now in Spring Training with the Brewers.

I do not foresee this card ever getting signed by Shingo Takatsu.

2005 Topps Total, Lance Cormier/Randy Choate

#607 Lance Cormier/Randy Choate

Back-to-back dual signed cards? I wish is was back-to-back-to-back-to-back since these two beauties are bookended by cards missing a signature.

This card pretty much has the same story as the last one I posted. Lance Cormier signed this card for me at a Royals game in 2009 while he was with the Rays. I posted the card with just his signature four years ago and it can be seen here.

After staring at this card with just Lance's signature on it for three years, I could not take it anymore. So, I sent the card to Randy to see if I could get him to finish it for me. When Lance signed the card, he was still a teammate of Randy's and he said that their lockers where side-by-side. When one of them got this card to sign in the mail, he would go ahead and have the other sign it too. I figured that was a pretty good indication that I would get the card back, so I sent it off. I am not sure why I waited three years to do it though. I sent this card to Randy when he was with the Dodgers and he had it back to me two and a half weeks later.

Randy has been pitching in the big leagues since 2000. He has played for the Yankess, Diamondbacks, Rays, Marlins, Dodgers, and Cardinals. He is beginning his third year as a Cardinal and will be forty years old at the end of the season. He had an off year last season, but put up some good numbers in 2013. That year, he was 2-1 with a 2.31 ERA in 35.1 innings of work. Randy is a left-handed specialist.

As of the end of the 2014 season, Randy has a career record of 15-14 with 6 saves and a 3.90 ERA.

Speaking of left-handed specialists, is LOOGY still used anymore? Ten or twelve years ago, I heard that term a lot. Now it seems like I have not heard it in years. It could be because I do not have cable, though.

LOOGY stands for Left-handed One Out GuY

2005 Topps Total, John Halama/Lenny DiNardo

#599 John Halama/Lenny DiNardo

Here is a card that I originally posted on here in 2010. That was about a year after I got Lenny DiNardo to sign the card while he was with the Royals. That card sat in my binder for three years before I decided to send it to John Halama to get completed. So, in late August 2012, I sent this card to him, care of the Atlantic League's Lancaster Barnstormers, with about two weeks left in their season. I started to think the card was a goner, but it eventually made it back home in the last week of October. And, as always, I am thrilled with the results. These puppies just do not look the same with only one signature on them. Just look at yesterday's post for proof of that.

John pitched in the Majors for nine seasons with seven clubs- the Astros, Mariners, A's, Devil Rays, Red Sox, Nationals, and Orioles. He played a season or less with all of those teams except the Mariners. With them, he logged four seasons and had three straight with double digit wins, including a career high of 14 in 2000. With Seattle, John was 41-31 with a 4.46 ERA. For his entire career, he was 56-48 with a 4.65 ERA.

John last appeared in the Majors in 2006. He joined the Atlantic League in 2007 and pitched there through 2012 with a few stops in AAA and Mexico. 2012 was his last season playing ball. Why I decided to wait until two weeks before John's career ended to write to him, I cannot explain. But, I am glad that I did it and did not wait a day later.

So far, this is the only TTM attempt that I have sent out to an independent league team.