TTM Success - Trevor Bauer

He's controversial. However, when I saw a private signing pop up with Trevor Bauer, I jumped on the chance to add him to my autograph album. I picked out a 2011 Bowman Chrome to send out... and he missed the card during the signing. I got my card back unsigned, but the promoter sent me two replacement autographs. One was the above 2013 Bowman and the other was the below 2021 Topps.

I would have been fine with just one card, but the promoter went above and beyond to keep me happy.

Bauer (b. 1991) played in the majors from 2012 to 2021 for the Diamondbacks, Indians, Reds and Dodgers. He had a record of 83-69 with 1,416 strike outs and a 3.79 ERA. He won the NL Cy Young Award in 2020. A polarizing figure even before the allegations levied against him, he probably will never pitch in the majors again.

I mailed to the signing on February 11 and got the cards back on March 9, for a 26-day TAT. The promoter also offered me a refund, which I declined. The extra auto was more than enough. 

TTM Success - Jordan Weems

This TTM success from Jordan Weems took almost a year to come in, but when it did, it added another 2021 Topps to the autograph album. 

The card looks great signed. I have a tough time sorting through 2021 Topps because the font is way too small, but I make do. I still am happy when I can get one out of the box and into the album. 

Weems (b. 1992) played in the majors from 2020 to 2025 for the A's, Diamondbacks, Nationals and Astros. He has a record of 6-5 with 161 strike outs and a 5.51 ERA.

I mailed to Weems on March 12, 2025, and got the card back on February 13, 2026, for a 338-day TAT.

May 9, 2026, Graphing of Express at Bulls

We were looking forward to Round Rock coming through Durham since the schedule was announced toward the end of the season last year. The graphing was pretty good, but it didn't live up to the hype we had built up. This was mainly because there weren't as many former Wood Ducks as we had hoped. The ones that were there didn't really recognize us, so that was a bit of a bummer.

I got a couple Hickory team set cards signed. This team set was from 2022, so i had been holding onto the Marc Church and Trevor Hauver cards for a while. 

I was the only one of the graohers there on Saturday who got Ryan Brasier. I got him by the bullpen once the game ended. He wouldn't stop for the rest of us outside.

I chipped away at my stack of Nick Prattos that I had pulled a while back. I was glad to pull a bunch of Mason Thompson cards; the 2016 Bowman Draft came from one of the boxes I got in Richmond this winter. I was also surprised that Aaron Zavala signed more than one per. He always was a strict one per back in the day. I was able to get everything I had left of him done, finally.

The Durham team set is already out. That feels really early in the season. I chipped away at sets for Gerard and I. The set looks nice, but was a disorganized mess. I soebt a coupke innings alphabetizing and organizing it into my book.

I got a bunch of the team set taken care of. I'll have to keep working on them through the next couple of times in Durham.

In all, Jesse and I got the following autographs: Dairon Blanco x 3, Ryan Brasier x 2, Jonah Bride x 1, Diego Castillo x 1, Cam Cauley x 2, Marc Church x 1, Trevor Hauver x 4, Michael Helman x 1, Jose Herrera x 1, Richie Martin x 1, Nick Pratto x 9, Trey Supak x 2, Emiliano Teodo x 1, Mason Thompson x 7, Aaron Zavala x 5, Cam Booser x 2, Cooper Bowman x 2, Homer Bush Jr x 5, Carlos Colmenarez x 5, Alex Cook x 2, Luis Guerrero x 2, KC Hunt x 2, Ty Johnson x 2, Dominic Keegan x 1, Cooper Kinney x 4, German Melendez x 2, Brian Reith x 2, Chrystal Rowe x 2, Blake Sabol x 3 and Logan Workman x 2 (79 total autographs).

Gerard With Some Worcester 50s

There were several guys I missed when I saw Worcester this last season, so Gerard took some of the cards I missed and got them done for me.  I'm really glad he did, because it got a lot of stuff done that otherwise would have gone into the Box Of Shame. 

He got these cards signed for me: Pedro Castellanos, Jose De Leon, Hobie Harris, Kyle Hart, Nathan Hickey, Jovan Moran, Ryan Vilade and Tom Windle.  I'm pretty sure I just missed Hickey completely when I searched for guys on Worcester, because I had a ton of his Pro Debut cards but didn't take any with me when I went up to Durham for the game.  Oof.  Thankfully, Gerard helped get my blue foil parallel signed.

I ended up with a few more Tyler McDonough cards from Prizm Draft, so it was nice to get them out of the box.  I also got a few 2019 Topps Nick Burdi cards out of there.  If I remember right, he gave Burdi some of the cards.  That or he gave some of the extras to some kids.  I really don't remember. 

I need to do better in getting these 50/50 posts in, but I end up with such a backlog of TTM posts, it gets tough.  I'm powering through the end of the year, and my goal is to wrap up at least all of the 50/50 posts I have left. We'll see how that goes.  Thanks for getting these done, Gerard!

Another TTM Success From Brandon Kintzler

A third TTM success came in from Brandon Kintzler back in July.  I had the above 2019 Topps gold parallel that I wanted to get signed. I was.glad to get this card into the autograph album. 

I also sent this 2021 Topps that Kintzler signed.  The problem was, I didnt check my past successes until today and saw that he had already signed a 2021 Topps for me.  Oh well, now there are two in the autograph album. 

I mailed to Kintzler on September 4, 2024, and got the cards back on July 17, 2025, for a 316-day TAT. 

April 12-13, 2025, Graphing of Stripers at Tides

This past weekend a couple weeks of torturing myself with card searching and prep culminated into graphing two more AAA teams across two days.  It didn't help that work has been busy and I haven't had a lot of time to go through boxes.  I had Chris and Jesse here at the house searching boxes on Friday to get me ready to go to Norfolk for games Saturday and Sunday.

Chris had to work, so it was my buddy Jesse and I hitting the hotel Friday night.  Since Norfolk's game on Friday had been rained out, we weren't in a hurry to make the two-hour drive up there.  We found the guys we could find, hit the road and got into the hotel around 10pm.  I powdered the cards and loaded the books so we would be ready to do arrival Saturday morning.  The weather sucked; it was chilly and windy all day out there, but Jesse had a sweater and I remembered to bring a hoodie.

We graphed outside with a Norfolk grapher named Jeff.  We hit the Tides side on arrival with a couple tries at some Gwinnett guys, hit Gwinnett inside pregame and their side again outside on departure.

We were really hoping to get Alex Verdugo, who we got outside on arrival when we saw the second Gwinnett team bus come in.  Jesse Chavez signed for us outside on arrival, which was really cool.  I got denied by Sandy Leon (Hola Sandy) on arrival but he signed everything we had on departure.

James McCann was really nice as well.  He was one of the last players out on departure, but it was worth getting him on my Orioles card.  

Luke Williams was a bit tougher, but he did sign for us.  We missed several people like Luke Waddell, Jake Marisnick and Hurston Waldrep.

I had some nice Jesse Chavez cards, but missed one that was stuck behind other stuff in my slider box.  It was also good to finally get Chuck LeBlanc on my Frisco team set card.

There were a bunch of Tides guys that I needed on this trip.  We got really lucky to get Samuel Basallo and Coby Mayo at the same time outside.  The 2025 Topps insert if Mayo turned out great.  The Basallo I got done was from 2024 Bowman Draft.  Jesse helped me get a 2024 Bowman Chrome.

My 2024 Pro Debut Chrome gold refractor of Jud Fabian turned out awesome.  It was also great to get all of the Vimael Machin cards I had pulled for the Independent League last year done.  He is continuing to hit like crazy.  I hope he gets called up to the big leagues again.

One of the toughest cards that eluded me for a while was Triton, the secondary mascot of the Tides.  I finally got that one done for the 2024 team set.

Finally, Terrin Vavra's exclusive deal expired.  So, I was able to get several of his cards signed. His Topps Now card had a lot of miles on it.  This card traveled with me to the Orioles Caravan a couple years ago as a "just in case", then on to Norfolk last year as I tried to get some ink on it.  The card is finally signed an can now reside in the binder.

Jesse and I had a great time, catching 3 games as opposed to the two we originally had thought we would when we planned the trip.  The Tides went 1-2 while we were there but we got to see homers by Fabian and Mayo.

In all, we got the following autographs: Jordyn Adams x 2, Samuel Basallo x 2, Dylan Beavers x 4, Jud Fabian x 2, Coby Mayo x 2, Vimael Machin x 4, Corbin Martin x 12, Terrin Vavra x 4, Thaddeus Ward x 2, Triton x 1, Eddy Alvarez x 1, Matthew Batten x 1, Jesse Chavez x 5, Garrett Cooper x 1, Jose Devers x 2, Chuck Leblanc x 1, Sandy Leon x 9, James McCann x 2, Enoli Paredes x 2, Alex Verdugo x 2, Jordan Weems x 5, Luke Williams x 4, Livan Soto x 6, Carlos Tavera x 1, Luis Vazquez x 1 and Chandler Seagle x 6 (84 total autographs).

TTM Success - Trey Mancini

A private signing with former Oriole, Trey Mancini popped up that I jumped on.  I wanted to finish the above 2017 Topps Heritage rookie card that I had already gotten signed by Donnie Hart at Orioles Fan Fest years ago.  I had hoped to get the card signed sooner, but at least it's done.

I found the 2017 Topps Chrome refractor in my Orioles box and decided to add it to the submission.  I sent the two cards off, then found the green ice foil parallel from 2021 Topps.  I reached out to the signing promoter and he allowed ke to add the foil card to the submission.  So, this was kind of a dual TTM.  Not that it matters.

Mancini (b. 1992) is attempting a comeback for the 2025 season after opting out of his minor league deal with the Marlins this past Spring Training.  He has played in the majors from 2016 to 2019 and 2021 to 2023 for the Orioles, Astros and Cubs.  He missed the 2020 season while battling stage 3 colon cancer.  He had 801 hits, 129 home runs and a .263 batting average.  

I mailed the first two to the signing on August 12; the foil card on August 30.  I got all three cards back on October 7 for 38 and 56-day TATs.  I paid a fee of $20/card.

A Little Help From Jessie

My friend Jessie went to High Point recently and got a couple cards signed for me. I finally added a new 2021 Topps to the autograph album. 

Jessie got this 2021 Topps Colin Moran signed for me and it turned out nicely. He also got a 2011 Bowman Chrome signed by Taylor Guerreri. 

Thanks for getting me these autographs, Jessie. 

TTM Success - Alex Avila

When looking at recent signings on SCN, I was surprised to see Alex Avila was signing.  I found two of his cards pretty quickly and dropped them in the mail.  The above 2019 Topps turned out nicely.

I also got a 2021 Topps signed, which looks great.

Avila (b. 1987) played in the majors from 2009 to 2021 for the Tigers, White Sox, Cubs, Twins and Nationals.  He had 714 hits, 105 home runs and a .233 batting average. He was an All Star in 2011 when he finished 12th in the AL MVP race and took home a Silver Slugger Award.

I mailed to Avila on January 12 and got the cards back on January 26, for a 14-day TAT. 

TTM Success - Ty Buttrey

Here is a TTM success that I got back the other day of a more recent player.  2021 Topps has been a bit of a tougher set to get signed cards of (as opposed to 2020 or 2022).  Part of it is that the design itself does not lend to quick pass-throughs in that box.  I have found that the font is super hard to read, so I find myself skipping the 21s a lot of the time.  Pro Debut is hard for me to see, as well.  I guess I'm just getting old.  Anyway, I was glad to see that Ty Buttrey was signing and that he was in the 2021 set.

Buttrey (b. 1993) played in the majors from 2018 to 2020 for the Angels.  He had a record of 8-11 with 122 strike outs and a 4.30 ERA.

I mailed to Buttrey on January 12 and got the card back on January 24, for a 12-day TAT. 

TTM Success - Jared Oliva

Here are a few nice cards that I got signed TTM recently by Jared Oliva.  The above 2021 Panini Mosaic green parallel turned out pretty cool.  I ended up with a lot of Mosaic, so it was good to be able to get one of them signed.

I also got a 2021 Panini Chronicles and a 2021 Topps signed.  The Chronicles scanned as if it had a purple hue to it, but the cards is silver foil.

Oliva (b. 1995) played in the majors in 2020 and 2021 for the Pirates.  He had 10 hits, no home runs and a .179 batting average. 

I mailed to Oliva on August 8 and got the cards back on September 12, for a 35-day TAT. 

September 13, 2023, Graphing of Redbirds at Tides

The next stop on my birthday week trip was up in Norfolk to try to get denied by Jackson Holliday again.  My friend, Jordan, accompanied me on the trip.  We did arrival in Norfolk, and did really well. I finally got this 2019 Bowman Chrome atomic refractor of Daz Cameron signed.  It turned out great.

For the longest time on arrival, the Tides one perred me to death.  Mike Baumann broke that streak, though, and signed everything i had.  I finally got all of the team set cards if his that i had done.

I picked up a team set inside during the game, so I got some of those signed post game outside.

The biggest names i was able to get were Coby Mayo and Connor Norby.  Norby signed everything I had, which was great.

Austin Voth also signed everything I had.  He was super nice and seemed genuinely happy that Jordan and I were out there talking with him.  Tyler Wells was also really nice.

I had brought this one 2019 Topps Orioles team card with me and got Wells to sign that, also.

This shimmer parallel from 2022 Topps that I got signed by Bruce Zimmermann was a pickup from the National, and it turned out great. Jordan pointed out that Zimmermann played at Mount Olive College, so we talked to Zimmermann about that, briefly.

Most of our trip was concentrated on Norfolk, but our seats were by the Memphis Redbirds dugout.  I knew the Norfolk side would be a mess, so I brought a little bit of stuff for Memphis.  We also got to see Thomas Saggese, who used to be a Wood Duck.  He was nice enough to pose for a picture and asked about Chris.  He remembered us.

Of course, we didn't see Jackson Holliday on arrival.  Post game, outside, he went to the other side of the barricade, skipping Jordan and I (along with the other folks on our side), so, of course, I missed him again.

In all, I got the following autographs: Mike Baumann x 7, Anthony Bemboom x 1, Buck Britton x 1, Daz Cameron x 3, Lewin Diaz x 2, Kyle Dowdy x 1, Maverick Handley x 3, Josh Lester x 1, Chayce McDermott x 3, Coby Mayo x 2, Connor Norby x 6, Kyle Stowers x 1, Austin Voth x 8, Ryan Watson x 1, Tyler Wells x 4, Bruce Zimmermann x 1, Cesar Prieto x 1, Mike Siani x 1 and Juan Yepez x 2 (49 total autographs). 

Another TTM Success From Randy Dobnak

Randy Dobnak is a pretty prolific TTM signer, so I sent to him again this season during Spring Training.  The above 2020 Topps Fire was the card that pushed me to sending again.  This is a wild set, and looks cool in my album. 

I also got a 2021 Topps, 2022 Topps and a 2021 Topps Heritage signed.  All of the cards turned out great.

I mailed to Dobnak on February 24 via Twibs camp and got the cards back on March 31, for a 35-day TAT.

Another TTM Success From Nick Solak

Nick Solak is a pretty dependable TTM signer, so when I found these cards, I figured it was time to send to him again.  I got the above 2020 Topps Chrome signed, which turned out great.

I also got a 2021 Topps, a Topps Chrome insert and a Bowmans Best signed.  They all look great.

Solar (b. 1995) has played in the majors since 2019 for the Rangers, Braves and Tigers.  He has 218 hits, 21 home runs and a .252 batting average.

I mailed to Solak on February 13 via Reds camp and got the cards back on March 25, for a 40-day TAT. 

TTM Success - Hanser Alberto

Another TTM success came in from Spring Training back in March when I got this signed 2021 Topps back from former Oriole, Hanser Alberto.  I really liked Alberto when he was an Oriole, but they let him go since they had better, cheaper, younger options that they could plug into the lineup. 

Alberto (b. 1992) played in the majors from 2015 to 2016 and 2018 to 2023 for the Rangers, Orioles, Royals, Dodgers and White Sox.  He has 378 hits, 22 home runs and a .269 batting average.

I mailed to Alberto via White Sox Spring Training on February 23 and got the card back on March 21, for a 26-day TAT.

Another TTM Success From Brandon Kintzler

Here are a couple cards that I got into the album when I sent a second TTM request to Brandon Kintzler.  The above 2011 Bowman complements the 2011 Bowman Chrome that I sent to him with the first request.

I also liked this 2021 Topps.  Im still lagging behind on getting many 2021s signed, as opposed to other Topps series from surrounding years.

I mailed to Kintzler on January 18, 2022, and got the cards back on March 7, 2023, for a 413-day TAT.

Christmas Gift From Drake

My friend, Drake, sent me a nice stack of autographs for Christmas this year.  One of the cards was the above 2020 Bowman Chrome blue refractor of Randy Florentino.  This card is numbered 144/150.  He was a former Wood Duck who is now in the Orioles system, which is cool.

Drake sent this really cool Topps Now card signed by Randy Arozarena, which will be awesome in my album.  I love Topps Now cards, and rarely have an opportunity to get them signed.

Here is an assortment that Drake sent; a lot of these are from when Drake has graphed in the past.  He mostly sees Illinois-area teams and Florida State League teams when he is on vacation.

Drake helped me add some 2022 Stars & Stripes cards and also some different Topps base cards to my album.  I don't have many 2021 Topps cards at all in the album, and the above Adam Plutko helps that cause.  The truth is, 2021 Topps is hard for me to go through quickly with the tiny font on the front of the card; they are very hard to read at a glance.

Finally, here is a 2017 Topps Roman Quinn.  This is the only landscape oriented card, so it got scanned by itself.  I had been trying to get Quinn a few times, but now I at least have this card in the album.

Thank you so much for the cards, Drake!