2001 Royal Rookies, Ememencio Pacheco

#27 Ememencio Pacheco

Here is another autograph from the latest package that was sent to me by Paul's Random Stuff. The one features Ememencio (not Ememencia as listed on the card) Pacheco. If this guy did not acquire the nickname of Eminem during his playing days, then his teammates just were not trying.

Pacheco was signed by the Rockies out of the Domincan and he made his professional debut in the Arizona League in 1998. He played in the Rockies system until the 2002 season when he made his way to the White Sox organization. He stayed with the Sox into 2005, reaching as high as AAA, before he wound up in the Atlantic League later that season.

Pacheco has a career minor league record of 51-40 with a 4.34 ERA. His best season came at the AA level in 2003 when he posted career bests in wins (12) and ERA (2.56). His 2.56 ERA was the only sub-3.00 ERA he had posted at any level.

For some reason, this card got a little crooked when I scanned it. Rather than rescan it, I just did a bit of cropping of the card. That is why it looks like that.

2001 Royal Rookies Futures, Mike Lockwood

#22 Mike Lockwood

Here is another Royal Rookies from the binder of Paul, of Paul's Random Stuff. This one features former A's and Red Sox farmhand, Mike Lockwood.

Mike was drafted by the A's out of Ohio State in the 23rd round of the 1999 draft. Looking at his numbers from his first two professional seasons, he looks like one of Billy Bean's prototypical Moneyball picks. In his first season, he posted an OPB of .451 in low A ball. He moved up to high A in his second season and his OBP was .463. After just 47 games of high A ball, he got bumped up to AA. There, he hit .309, but his OBP dropped to .377. But after 56 games at the AA level, he got promoted to AAA (all of this in his second season). He got into 36 games there and hit .254 with a .340 OBP.

Then after a fast ascent to AAA, he spent the next two seasons playing AA. He hit .260 and .242 there with an OBP around .330 each season. He started out in AA again in 2003, but he hit good enough to move up to AAA again. He started out the '04 season in AAA and was struggling at the plate before the A's traded him to the Red Sox. The Sox sent him down to AA for the rest of the year. In 2005, he spent the whole season on the Sox AAA team and he hit .229. That was his last season in affiliated ball.

After that, he went to the Atlantic League and played for the Somerset Patriots. He played for them for three years and finally retired after the 2008 season. It seems like Paul sends me quite a few cards from players that played for Somerset. They must either have some of the best talent in the league (ie, guys who have cards) or are some of the best signers.

Mike has a unique signature. I cannot make out a single letter in it except for an "R" and an "S"?

Also, I like how Royal Rookies airbrushed his hat and still had the integrity to leave all of the sweat stains untouched. That's a good-looking hat!

2001 Royal Rookies Futures, Brett Jodie

#21 Brett Jodie

Here are a couple of cards that were given to me by Paul, of Paul's Random Stuff. I was pretty impressed the first time he gave me the card because I had never seen a signed Royals Rookies card that wasn't inserted into a pack. I was even more impressed the second time he gave me the card for a couple of reasons. One is beacuse I had only recently heard of Royal Rookies and that is because I got a few packs of the 2000 set in a repack box. I didn't know that they came out with a 2001 set until I got the first card. The second thing that impressed me about the second card is that Paul had enough of these cards signed that he was able to give me two of them and still hold at least one in reserve. I count this set as an odd-ball set and Paul did a fine job of scrounging up these cards to get signed.

As for Brett's playing career, he made eight Major League appearances (three starts) in 2001. He made his debut with the Yankees and pitched 2 innings (this was one of his starts) and gave up 6 earned runs on three round-trippers. Jose Cruz, Jr. hit two of them and Raul Mondesi hit the third. Ten days later, the Yankees traded him to the Padres for Sterling Hitchcock. His seven other appearances all happened with San Diego and he pitched 23.1 innings with them and had a 4.63 ERA.

After that season, the Yankees picked him back up off of the waiver wire. He only pitched in eight minor league games with them, so he must have been hurt. He got released after the season and ended up in the Atlantic League for 2003 where he had a 12-5 record for the Somerset Patriots. He went to Spring Training in 2004 with the Red Sox and got released before the season started and ended up sitting out that year. He pitched one final season with Somerset in 2005 before retiring to become the team's pitching coach.

If anyone would like one of these cards, just let me know.

2000 Royal Rookies Futures

#3 Alex Requena
#5 Tony Mota
#13 Jeff Bailey
#16 Frederick Torres

Here are some cards that I had never heard of until a couple of years ago. I got all four of these cards in Wal-Mart repack boxes. I got two of them in packs and the other two were the special bonus item in the boxes. I had never heard of any of the players, so let's see what we have here.

Alex Requena was an undrafted free agent signed by the Indians. He played in the minors for nine seasons for the Indian, Dodger, and Giant organizations. He never made it above AA, though. His last season was 2007.

Tony Mota was a 17th round selection by the Doddgers that looked like he was on the fast track to the Majors. He was in AA by the end of his third year and had made it to AAA a year and a half later. He then spent three seasons at that level before bouncing around independent teams and lower level affiliated teams. His last season was 2006. The card of him appears to be an error card. It is a reverse negative.

Jeff Bailey was a second round draft pick by the Marlins in 1997. He played for the Marlins organization for five seasons before being dealt to the Expos. In his three years in the Expos organization, he made it up to AAA. After that, he signed with the Red Sox and played in their system all the way up to last season. The difference between Jeff and the rest of the guys on here is that Jeff made his Major League debut in 2007. He played for Boston over parts of the last three seasons and is a .228 career hitter. He is a free agent at this time.

The final card is of a former Rangers undrafted free agent, Frederick Torres. Torres signed in 1996 and played in the Ranger system for five seasons, spending most of his time playing for Charlotte of the Florida State League. He retired after the 2002 season. However, he came out of retirement last year and played in 42 games with the Camden Riversharks of the Atlantic League. He only hit .236 for them, so it will be interesting to see if he plays this summer.

Well, I got one card of a player that made it to the Majors. I guess that is not too bad.