Thursday, June 10, 2010

On the signing front-III



The signing front continues with a look at the Myrtle Beach Pelicans and Greenville Drive.

Greenville was the first of the two and I wasn't looking forward to them.
Red Sox teams can be tough and with this being the only visit of the season for the Drive.
I figured that it would be busy and it was,but we caught one break.
The first night of the series was a Thursday and rain was in the forecast.
That kept the crowd down and the autographers as well,as just four of us were there.
Thank goodness for that or this might ranked as one of the worst series ever.
I was able to get a large amount finished on the first evening and very little thereafter.
Greenville does have some good signers as first round pick Rey Fuentes was super nice as was Derrik Gibson and Drake Britton as the three all rank in the top 15 Red Sox prospects.
Gibson talked about the rainstorm at the NY/Penn All Star game and Fuentes just chatted in general as he signed everything in sight.
During this series,I also was able to get the Suns Dan Rosenbaum to sign one of his Donruss elite cards.
Those were limited to 50 gold,100 red and 200 blue,but I wanted the blue card because Rosenbaum is an Xavier alum and I thought it would look nicer and it did.
The surprise on the visit was the Drive coaching staff.
Pitching coach Kevin Walker was fine,but hitting coach Luis Lopez only signed two on one night and nothing on the other three.
Manager Billy McMillon was terrific last season,but didn't sign much in this series from what I was told.
I didn't have anything,so on McMillon's signing habits I am going on hearsay...

Myrtle Beach was in Frederick and I wanted to get the Braves phenom Julio Teheran,who's ERA is around one between Rome and Myrtle Beach.
Teheran had fanned 14 Keys the evening before,so I wanted to get him signed,since it is highly likely that he would not return for the Pelicans final visit.
The line was long and and some of the non-local collectors,a bit rude,so despite Teheran being a super and willing signer,I was unable to get him before the game.
I was able to get Teheran after the game and was able to get all cards and a baseball signed.
Two other Brave pitching prospects signed as well in Randall Delgado and Brett Oberholzer,who joked about needing to shorten his signature.

Thanks to Big Don,who was able to get me a few members of the Altoona Curve,most notably Tim Alderson,while former big league fireballer Steve Dunning signed through the mail.

Next time we will finish up with some words on the Hagerstown team set and the Lakewood Blue Claws.

Photo Credit
Rosenbaum:Xavier sports information office

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