2007 Tristar Prospects Plus, Clayton Mortensen

#7 Clayton Mortensen

Here is a card of Clayton Mortensen that I got signed at an Omaha Storm Chasers game last season. Clayton was pitching for the Chasers at the time and he was nice enough to sign two cards for me prior to the game starting.

To date, Clayton has pitched in the Majors for five seasons with four clubs- the Cardinals, A's, Rockies, and Red Sox. Originally drafted by St. Louis, he pitched in just one Major League game for them before being traded to Oakland in the Matt Holliday deal. He then pitched in seven games for the A's before being dealt to Colorado. He pitched in a career-high 58.1 innings with the Rockies in 2011 before being traded to Boston. He then lasted two seasons with the Red Sox before being traded to the Royals. He has spent the past two seasons playing AAA for the Royals.

For his Major League career thus far, Clayton is 6-11 with a 4.68 ERA. His best season came with the Red Sox in 2012 when he appeared in a career-high 26 games and posted his best ERA of 3.21 while striking out 41 in 42 innings of work.

Clayton is pictured here with the Swing of the Quad Cities. Yes, that was the actual name of the team. Usually the Quad Cities River Bandits, the team changed its name for all of three seasons before changing it back to the River Bandits in 2008.

This card would have came out looking better if Clayton hadn't signed over the dark area on the bottom of the card. But, he also signed a horizontal card that was with this one, so he must have been tilted and did not feel like coming out of it. Hence the sideways signature.