Dilferules's 1988-present Oakland A's autograph thread

[Dilferules]

Ramon Castro - Not the catcher drafted by the Astros who later played for the Marlins and Mets, an infielder who played an entire 9 major league games for the 2004 A's. An annoying one to search for since he has very little out there and the catcher Castro has a lot of signatures floating around. He has one A's card in 2004 Ultra so an upgrade is possible, but that card is even kind of tough to find unsigned so I'm not getting my hopes up.

Now at 676/693.

 

[Dilferules]

Two in today:

Ryan Buchter - Relieved 118 games for the A's 2018-19. He has a 2017 Topps card with the Padres and a 2019 Topps Total A's card but I've never been able to locate either of those signed, so here's a ballpoint minor league card.

Tim Kubinski - Another one where I just gave up and accepted a 3x5 card. He does have a 1999 Fleer Update A's card so maybe someday. He was a reliever that pitched in 25 MLB games, all with the A's 1997-99.

Up to 678/693, only 15 to go!

 

[Therion]

View attachment 331517Ramon Castro - Not the catcher drafted by the Astros who later played for the Marlins and Mets, an infielder who played an entire 9 major league games for the 2004 A's. An annoying one to search for since he has very little out there and the catcher Castro has a lot of signatures floating around. He has one A's card in 2004 Ultra so an upgrade is possible, but that card is even kind of tough to find unsigned so I'm not getting my hopes up.

Now at 676/693.

It's funny to see someone with tons of signed cards for one team being super tough for another. I bet this happens a lot.

 

[Dilferules]

It's opening day for the A's and three new players have already debuted midway through the game but let me get my updated season-beginning needs list out of the way before getting into all of the new guys tonight or tomorrow. I'll keep this updated as the season goes on and new players debut that I don't already have autographs of.

Tanner Anderson, 2019
Larry Arndt, 1989
Christian Bethancourt, 2022
Jonah Bride, 2022
Ryan Castellani, 2022
Bobby Cramer, 2010
Tyler Cyr, 2022
Matt Davidson, 2022
Jordan Diaz, 2022
Mike Fyhrie, 2001
Dermis Garcia, 2022
Justin Grimm, 2022
Gary Haught, 1997
Drew Jackson, 2022
Dany Jimenez, 2022
Doug Johns, 1995
Marcus Jones, 2000
Jared Koenig, 2022
Shea Langeliers, 2022
Jacob Lemoine, 2022
Arnold Leon, 2015
Zach Logue, 2022
Christian Lopes, 2022
Josh Lucas, 2018
David MacKinnon, 2022
Ron Mahay, 1999
Parker Markel, 2022
Adrian Martinez, 2022
Hideki Matsui, 2011
Mickey McDonald, 2022
David McKay, 2022
Joel Payamps, 2022
Steve Phoenix, 1994
Austin Pruitt, 2022
Norge Ruiz, 2022
Dick Scott, 1989
JP Sears, 2022
Jeff Shaver, 1988
Kevin Smith, 2022
Kirby Snead, 2022
Cal Stevenson, 2022
Domingo Tapia, 2022
Cody Thomas, 2022
Ken Waldichuk, 2022
Collin Wiles, 2022
Ron Witmeyer, 1991

718/730 as of 9/20/2022.

 

[Dilferules]

Alright game number one is in the books with the first of many losses for the 2022 A's. Five players made their A's debuts:

OF Cristian Pache
OF/1B Billy McKinney
3B Kevin Smith
Reliever Jacob Lemoine
Reliever Kirby Snead

I have autographs already for these two below plus Smith and Lemoine incoming.

Billy McKinney - What luck, he was originally drafted by the A's back in 2013 before being shipped out in the 2014 Samardzija/Hammel trade with the Cubs. So I already had a few autographs, no extra money spent!

Cristian Pache - I did have to pay up for this one. Hopefully he will do better than he did last year with the Braves.

So now I'm at 680/698.

 

[RNCoyote]

Look up the other name that been used on cards: Jake Lemoine. I got him for my personal collection when he was pitching in Frisco

 

[mrmopar]

McKinney was borrowed briefly by the Dodgers. No signed Dodger cards were or will ever be made I suspect, but maybe he made it onto a regular card that could be signed. i don't collect newer unsigned cards much anymore, so I don't have a clue if he appeared on one or not. I have that same one you showed to fill a hole.

 

[MrMet2.0]

McKinney was borrowed briefly by the Dodgers. No signed Dodger cards were or will ever be made I suspect, but maybe he made it onto a regular card that could be signed. i don't collect newer unsigned cards much anymore, so I don't have a clue if he appeared on one or not. I have that same one you showed to fill a hole.

Same with the Mets, but check out his 2021 Donruss baseball auto with the Brewers, his blue no logo uniform could pass for the Mets or Dodgers, at least it will loosely pass for mine when I pick up a copy…doesn’t even say Brewers on the front


Sent from my iPhone using Freedom Card Board mobile app

 

[Dilferules]

Look up the other name that been used on cards: Jake Lemoine. I got him for my personal collection when he was pitching in Frisco

Yeah I think my incoming card is an Elite auto under the name Jake.

McKinney was borrowed briefly by the Dodgers. No signed Dodger cards were or will ever be made I suspect, but maybe he made it onto a regular card that could be signed. i don't collect newer unsigned cards much anymore, so I don't have a clue if he appeared on one or not. I have that same one you showed to fill a hole.

Same with the Mets, but check out his 2021 Donruss baseball auto with the Brewers, his blue no logo uniform could pass for the Mets or Dodgers, at least it will loosely pass for mine when I pick up a copy…doesn’t even say Brewers on the front


Sent from my iPhone using Freedom Card Board mobile app

Sounds like Billy is the next Octavio Dotel or Edwin Jackson, playing for practically every team.

Another loss today for the A's with two more debuts, both relief pitchers:

Dany Jimenez
Zach Jackson

I haven't had any luck finding Jimenez yet but I do have this:

Zach Jackson - One of the many new relievers the A's will trot out this year. This was his MLB debut, seems like he gets a lot of K's in the minors but his ERA is pretty up and down. Maybe he'll work out, he did throw a scoreless inning today.

Now at 681/700.

 

[Dilferules]

Got a few in today:

Ron Mahay - Pitched 11 games for the A's 1999-2000 including the only 3 starts out of the 514 games he pitched in the majors. It'd be nice to have something better than a dual player card but he's kind of a tough sig.

Jacob/Jake Lemoine - Made his MLB debut on opening day, pitching 1 inning and giving up a run.

Kevin Smith - Not the director, but he's hit like the director in the first 3 games of the season going 0 for 11 with 0 walks and 6 strikeouts. He was picked up in the Matt Chapman trade.

That improves me to 684/700.

 

[Dilferules]

Alright the final two new guys on the opening day roster debuted in the last couple of days, reliever Justin Grimm and starter Adam Oller. I do not have anything of Grimm yet.

Adam Oller - Absolutely torched for 5 earned runs (including 2 homers) in 1 and 1/3 innings in his first MLB start today. Hopefully he can improve on that.

That puts me at 685/702. I've got some incoming and would like to get my needs below ten before trying for some upgrades. If they would just stop calling up obscure relievers with no certified autos!

 

[Dilferules]

Got this one in today, I "gave up" and bought some autos that I considered imperfect for some reason or another just to get them off my wantlist.

Josh Lucas - Pitched 8 games, including 1 start, for the 2018 A's. He had some minor league team set cards but nothing from the MLB, so this A's 8x10 will do. I just hate getting 8x10s because they are a storage conundrum. I don't really have a set box/binder to store these in so they just go wherever. Also this was another one of those annoying eBay searches where there's multiple people with the same name, as there is an actor named Josh Lucas. Now that I have this, no need to think about the baseball player or the actor ever again.

At 686/702. If the A's shuffle their MLB team enough maybe I can get to 700 autographs this year.

 

[Dilferules]

Got these two below in today. Also the A's added 4 new players to the roster right before their road trip to Toronto because 3 or 4 of their players are [redacted] that didn't [redacted]. One made it into today's game, Christian Bethancourt. The other three have not played in a game yet so they don't officially go on the list. Three of the four players (including Bethancourt) have Bowman Chrome autos, and they're all incoming.

Doug Johns - Not reliever Doug Jones (who also played for the A's!), Johns was a pitching prospect that didn't pan out. He pitched 51 games, 32 of them starts, for the 1995-96 A's with a 5.63 ERA. He has some MLB A's cards and I don't especially like pitcher cards that show them hitting, so this card has two strikes against it, but there's not much available for Doug so I sucked it up and bought it. Hopefully I can upgrade to an A's card someday.

Ron Witmeyer - Full MLB career was 11 games for the 1991 A's, going 1 for 19. I'd rather not have a ballpoint signature but there's not a lot out there so I settled for this one. At least it's an A's card.

With the addition of these two plus one more I don't have, I'm now at 688/703.

 

[Therion]

Got this one in today, I "gave up" and bought some autos that I considered imperfect for some reason or another just to get them off my wantlist.

View attachment 332104Josh Lucas - Pitched 8 games, including 1 start, for the 2018 A's. He had some minor league team set cards but nothing from the MLB, so this A's 8x10 will do. I just hate getting 8x10s because they are a storage conundrum. I don't really have a set box/binder to store these in so they just go wherever. Also this was another one of those annoying eBay searches where there's multiple people with the same name, as there is an actor named Josh Lucas. Now that I have this, no need to think about the baseball player or the actor ever again.

At 686/702. If the A's shuffle their MLB team enough maybe I can get to 700 autographs this year.

Have you considered making custom cards? My customs are very hard to differentiate from an actual baseball card and they are dead simple to make. I've even had players ask how they didn't know someone made a card of them in that uniform lol

 

[Dilferules]

Have you considered making custom cards? My customs are very hard to differentiate from an actual baseball card and they are dead simple to make. I've even had players ask how they didn't know someone made a card of them in that uniform lol

That'd be a good route to take for guys with no A's cards that sign TTM or for a small fee. I only have a black and white laser printer but I should look into various ways of doing that online and having them sent to me. Thanks for the idea, it would be nice to have standard-sized stuff as opposed to 8x10 photos, 4x6 photos, and 3x5 cards.

 

[Dilferules]

Two more in today but also two new debuts: utility man Drew Jackson and reliever Ryan Castellani. I have autos incoming for both.

Tanner Anderson - Started 5 games for the 2019 A's with a 6.04 ERA. Tough to find anything for him so I had to settle for a 3x5 card.

Arnold Leon - Pitched 19 games for the 2015 A's...he was better than Tanner Anderson. He has an A's card, a dual-player RC in 2015 Topps Update, but I've never seen it signed.

Gets me to 690/705 for now. There is one more previously called up guy who hasn't debuted yet that I can't find any autographs of, so that will set me back once he plays, but on the bright side the A's called up ANOTHER 3 guys today, two of which I already have autos of and one that I've got one incoming for. At this rate I'll be to 700 autographs pretty soon.

 

[Dilferules]

Got in all three guys that debuted over the weekend, plus prospect Nick Allen was in the starting lineup tonight and I already have several autos of him. Oh plus one upgrade.

Nick Allen - Got his first MLB start tonight, at second base. One of the A's better prospects.

Christian Bethancourt - He's received quite a bit of playing time over the last 5 days.

Ryan Castellani - Has pitched 2/3 of an inning and given up 2 hits.

Drew Jackson - 0 for 3 so far.

Vance Law - This is an upgrade from an Expos card in my signed 1988 Topps set.

At 694/706 now.

 

[Dilferules]

Four more debuts since the last update: pitchers Zach Logue and Sam Selman, outfielder Mickey McDonald, and utility guy Christian Lopes. I can't find anything for Logue and McDonald, and there's the downside of the McDonald searches turning up a bunch of Mickey Mouse McDonald's toys. I got Mickey Mouse IP at Disney World already. I do have a Lopes incoming, he had a lot of Team USA and draft stuff from over a decade ago. So for now it's one out of four:

Sam Selman - Pitched 2 and 2/3 scoreless innings, striking out 5, and was promptly sent down when another lefty returned from the injured list.

The one addition and three extra needs gets me to 695/710 currently.

 

[RNCoyote]

I got Mickey McDonald on a personal photo I took of him in the minors. Even its on a major release at least you got something on Nick Nasty. He didn't sign anything at all last year when he was with the AA club for a half season.

 

[Dilferules]

I didn't know that Nick was so stingy with signing, good thing he has several pack-issued autos. If McDonald was a willing signer something should pop up for him sooner or later.

Two in today, one very easy and one very difficult.

Christian Lopes - Made his MLB debut with the 2022 A's, and yes that's a 2010 Bowman Chrome USA card. He was drafted in 2011 and finally made it to the majors in his 12th year as a pro. He actually has a couple of cards in a 2008-09 Team USA set as well, so I wonder if he will be the last MLB player to debut that had a card in the '00s.

Jeff Shaver - Pitcher made it to the majors for a single inning in 1988. It was a scoreless, hitless inning but he plunked poor Ron Washington. He has several minor league team set cards but this was the first autograph I have seen of him so I had to grab it immediately.

Gets me up to 697/710 but nothing incoming at the moment.