Month-End TTM Roundup: 05/06 - 06/01

Received On: 05/06/2019

Starting off this post on a high note with a return from former Ranger Dan Girardi!
Girardi (no relation to former Yankees manager Joe Girardi, I checked), was originally signed by the New York Rangers as a non-drafted free agent after going undrafted in the 2003 NHL Player Draft. Girardi managed to latch onto a minor league-ish two way deal with the Rangers in a tryout. Eventually he was promoted to their AHL affiliate the Hartford Wolfpack and then was up in the big leagues for the Rangers by the 2006-07 season. From there he never looked back as he was immediately signed to an extension (several of them). He then went on a seven year run where he played 80+ games a season (this omits the 2012-13 season that was cut short due to the lockout). That said by the 2016-17 season injuries and mileage were taking their toll on the defenseman. His 2016-17 season is probably when everything really collapsed as he suffered a very bad start and never recovered. Eventually the Rangers bought out his contract and he signed a two year deal with the Tampa Bay Lightning (Rangers south). Whether or not the 35 year old defenseman gets another gig somewhere (Alain Vigneault is with the Philadelphia Flyers now so maybe...?) remains to be seen, but he's nonetheless carved out an impressive career for someone who teams didn't even think was worth drafting.

Received On: 05/06/2019

Next up is a return from former Yankees prospect, Dr. Luke Wilcox.
Dr. Luke Wilcox was originally drafted by the New York Yankees in the third round of the 1995 MLB Player Draft. Fresh out of college, he destroyed the NYPL in his first taste of pro-ball in 1995. He continued to develop at high-A and double-A before being taken by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays with 66th pick in the 1997 MLB Expansion Draft. I'm not 100% sure what happened after that, but somehow during that Rays stint he was "loaned" to the Seattle Mariners. He was eventually released by the Rays in early 2000 and rejoined the Yankees before the 2000 season. He actually had a big league callup in 2000 but never got to play in a game and was sent down after three days. His last season was in 2001 where he finished his career as a member of the Florida Marlins organization. Since retiring he went back to college (Michigan State University) to go into sports medicine. He then became an orthopedic surgery specialist. So yeah, I didn't call him Dr. Wilcox for nothing. As of 2019 he's got 16 years worth of experience and still works in the field, working at various places including his alma matter, MSU. So congrats to him on finding a good post-baseball career.

Received On: 05/09/2019

Here's a return from Nashvile Predator, Filip Forsberg.
Forsberg is a left wing forward who hails from Sweden (he was born in the Czech Republic though). After/during a very successful tenure with the Leksands IF in the Swedish Hockey League, Forsberg was originally drafted by the Washington Capitals in the first round (11th overall) of the 2012 NHL Player Draft. He continued developing in the Swedish Hockey League and was traded to the Nashville Predators during the season. Following the completion of the Swedish Hockey League season, he made his way stateside where he made his NHL debut and played in five games for the Predators. The following season he spent most of the time getting more adjusted to North American hockey by playing in the minors/AHL. But from the 2014-15 season onwards he'd be a staple for the Preds for years to come. Although he's missed some time due to injuries in the past few seasons, he has turned into a heck of a star for the Preds and he's a big reason why they're perennial playoff contenders. Forsberg, Ryan Johansen and Viktor Arvidsson is as good a first line as they come. Throw in elite defenseman on the blue line like PK Subban and Roman Josi and woof, Nashville's got themselves a team! And Capitals fans are still pissed off about trading away Forsberg, at least they won a Cup though.

Received On: 05/09/2019

Next up is a return from current San Francisco Giant prospect, Andrew Moore.
Moore was originally drafted by the Seattle Mariners in the Competitive Balance Round B (between the second and third round) of the 2015 MLB Player Draft. Drafted out of Oregon State, he was seen as a polished low-ceiling, high floor type of pitching prospect thanks to his solid pitching arsenal consisting of a fastball, curveball and changeup. He actually did make it to the big leagues with the Mariners in 2017. He went seven innings strong in his first MLB start/appearance and won against the Detroit Tigers. Despite that he'd end up getting yo-yo'd up and down between triple-A and the majors for that year. In 2018 he never appeared for the Mariners at all as he was traded to the Tampa Bay Rays in the trade that sent Alex Colome and Denard Span to Seattle. Moore spent his 2018 season with the triple-A Durham Bulls, but his season was largely cut short due to injuries. Moore started 2019 with the Bulls again, but was recently traded to the Giants after the Rays DFA'd him. Now he's trying to regain form after an injury riddled 2018 as a member of the double-A Richmond Flying Squrriels. I hope he does regain it and make it back to the big leagues soon.
Sidenote, this 2015 Stripes & Stars set just keeps on giving. Thanks Tom.

Received On: 05/10/2019

Here's my first return from a request sent to a MLB team in the regular season, courtesy of former Yankee Hanser Alberto.
Alberto was originally signed as a non-drafted international free agent by the Texas Rangers out of the Dominican Republic in 2009. Alberto's time with the Rangers was linear but halfway through he became more of an afterthought living in the shadow of other infield prospects like Elvis Andrus, Jurickson Profar and Joey Gallo. He did make his MLB debut with the Rangers in 2015 and was even on the team's postseason roster when they played in the ALDS against the Toronto Blue Jays. After that he made sporadic appearances in 2016 and 2018 as well, but for the most part he was viewed as a depth piece down in the minors. Eventually his tenure with the Rangers came to a close as he was picked up by the Yankees off of waivers last November (this was after the news about Didi Gregorius needing Tommy John Surgery and being out for the first half of the 2019 season came out). But then the Yankees DFA'd him to make room on the roster for Zachk Britton. He was initially claimed by the Baltimore Orioles before being DFA'd to make room for Josh Osich, then was claimed by the San Francisco Giants. Alberto was on waivers again thanks to the Giants and went back to the Orioles, where he opened 2019 Spring Training and eventually the 2019 season with. Woof, what a journey!
Anyway Alberto was seen as a nice depth piece for the Rangers and the other clubs that passed him around last winter because he's a solid infielder who can man multiple positions. His versatility is why the rebuilding Orioles opened the season with him and has given him the most consistent playing time he's ever had as a pro. The outlook on him appears to be that of a bench guy, but hopefully he can make a nice career for himself by being on the O's during their rebuild.

Received On: 05/13/2019

Next up is my first NFL return of the year, courtesy of Tyler Conklin.
Conklin was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings in the fifth round of the 2018 NFL Player Draft out of Central Michigan University. The tight end made his NFL debut in the season's opener and recorded his first NFL reception against the San Francisco 49ers. All told he caught five passes in his rookie season for 77 yards and he's heading into the 2019 season looking to capitalize on a (as of the time this post was written) weak tight end core in Minnesota and improve his performance. Good luck Tyler.

Received On: 05/14/2019

Here's a return from Astros great, Clint Barmes.
Barmes was originally drafted by the Colorado Rockies in the 10th round of the 2000 MLB Player Draft. Barmes spent a few seasons in the Rockies' minor league system before he finally made it to the big leagues in 2003. In 2003 and 2004 he spent most of his time in the minors before he finally got a chance to get more playing time in 2005 at the big league level. All told he played in 81 games for the Rockies in 2005 as a rookie and had a pretty nice rookie season before he suffered a freak collarbone injury. Barmes did eventually return to action by the end of the season however, and he managed to win the starting shortstop job for most/all of 2006. Unfortunately coming into the 2007 season there was this up-and-coming shortstop named Troy Tulowitzki, who ended up usurping Barmes in the depth chart. Barmes eventually shifted over to second after Kazuo Matsui got injured. I'm not entirely sure how true it was early on in Barmes' career, but by the latter-half of the 2000's Barmes was more of a glove first middle infielder with some pop, and was eventually traded to the Houston Astros in the 2010-11 MLB offseason. He spent one season withe Astros before leaving as a free agent and signing a two year deal with the Pittsburgh Pirates. At the time I remember Brian Kenny of MLB Network saying it was a smart deal based on how good Barmes' glove was. Barmes must've left a really good impression because he got a standing ovation when he returned to PNC Park as a San Diego Padre. After his Pirates tenure ended he bounced around by going to the Padres and Kansas City Royals before retiring in 2016. Nowadays he does some coaching in the world of high school baseball, and occasionally makes some guest speaker appearances. Also apparently he's the nephew of former big leaguer, the late Bruce "Squeaky" Barmes. I legitimately did not know that.

Received On: 05/17/2019

Next up is a return from the TTM community's very own Pat Neshek.
Neshek's a pretty notable name if you've ever tried going into the world of TTM's and looked for guys with a near 100% chance of returning your request. Neshek himself is a pretty notable baseball card collector, being one of the few players who actively collects cards even after turning pro. For those reasons, he's a fan favorite among a lot of card collectors and kids who got their first ever autograph through the mail.
As a player Neshek was originally drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the sixth round of the 2002 MLB Player Draft. He eventually made his MLB debut with the Twins in 2007 and was a fixture in their bullpen up until May of 2008 when he went down with Tommy John surgery. Recovering from TJS knocked out all of his 2009 season as well. He spent the 2011 season with the Twins before going to the Padres on waivers before the 2011 season. After that he signed with the Baltimore Orioles but he spent his time with the O's in triple-A trying to regain his old form. He did and the Oakland Athletics took notice by trading for him and immediately put him in their bullpen. Neshek stayed with the A's until near the end of the 2013 season. In 2014 he signed with the St. Louis Cardinals and did well enough to earn his first All Star Game appearance. Then he went to the Houston Astros for the 2015 and 2016 seasons. He was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies before the 2017 season started, he made his second All Star team in 2017 BTW. Then he got traded to the Colorado Rockies to help their bullpen in the second half of 2017. He then signed a two year deal with the Phillies and is currently still with the Phillies in the second year of his newest contract. So yeah, Neshek's been to a lot of places. I can only guess how extensive his IP autograph collection must be.
Sidenote, this was my second TTM return from a request sent to a big league club/stadium.

Received On: 05/18/2019

Woof, my third return from a request sent to an MLB team and an MLB ballpark, courtesy of Reyes Moronta.
Moronta was signed by the San Francisco Giants as a non-drafted international free agent back in 2010. According to Brooks Baseball, the Dominican righty is armed with a four seam fastball, a slider and a changeup. His fastball-slider combo are his key pitches as he only throw the changeup a good 1% of the time (even then it might've just been a slider that was classified as a changeup). Moronta's rise up the Giants ladder was abrupt to say the least. He made it to high-A in 2016 before scuffling up double-A and triple-A in a hurry in 2017 before making his MLB debut in 2017 too. He only appeared in seven games that year, but in 2018 he was in the big leagues for good, spending the entire year on the 25-man roster. Moronta gave the Giants 65 quality innings in what was a bad 2018 for them (even year bullshit amirite?!). Here in 2019 Moronta's been a bit up-and-down, but as of now he's still one of the better relievers on the Giants and by default one of the few good players they have left. All eyes will be on whether or not Madison Bumgarner gets moved, but there's probably going to be a ton of focus on whether or not the Giants would be willing to sell Moronta too since every MLB team needs relief help.

Received On: 05/20/2019

Next up is a return from tops Cubs prospect Miguel Amaya.
Amaya was signed out of Panama by the Chicago Cubs as a non-drafted international free agent in 2015. Amaya is a young up-and-coming catcher who's been aggressively pushed by the Cubs as he just turned 20 this past March but already made it to single-A and even made a Futures Game appearance as a teenager in 2018. As of now Amaya is one of the top five prospect eligible catchers in the minors and he's providing a big jolt to the Cubs' farmsystem ranks after it got severely weakened following their 2016 World Series run. The Cubs have Willson Contreras under control until 2023 so how they figure to put the two backstops together remains to be seen, but I'm sure the Cubs will cross that bridge when they come to it. Right now, it's just seeing if Amaya can continue to develop at high-A and continue to do so next year in double-A and triple-A. I think he's gonna be a good one. But then again I'm biased towards elite catching prospects on big market teams.

Received On: 05/22/2019

Here's a return from long-time White Sox 1B, Paul Konerko.
Konerko was originally drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the first round of the 1994 MLB Player Draft. Though he was an elite catching prospect out of high school, he was converted into an infielder after he turned pro. After a successful climb up the Dodgers org ladder (he won the Dodgers Minor League Player of the Year Award twice), he made his MLB debut in 1997. He spent some of the 1998 season with the Dodgers before being traded to the Cincinnati Reds for Jeff Shaw. Oof. The Reds then traded him before the 1999 season to the Chicago White Sox for Mike Cameron. Oof. With the White Sox Konerko flourished and the rest was history. He became the face of the White Sox franchise, he became a six-time All Star, he won a World Series ring with the team in 2005, he was named captain of the team, and he had his jersey number 14 retired in 2015. He was everything and more for the White Sox.

Received On: 05/24/2019

Next up is a return from Dodgers righty Jaime Schultz.
Schultz was originally drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays in the 14th round of the 2013 MLB Player Draft. Schultz's climb up the Rays org ladder was slow but steady as he made it from short season-Hudson Valley to triple-A Durham in a matter of four seasons. He was a fringe top 30 prospect in the Rays org for most of those years and looked poised to really make his MLB debut in 2017 but unfortunately injuries took away most of his 2017 season. It also reduced his role dramatically as up until then he had been tested as a starter thanks to his fastball-slider-curveball combo. He came back as a reliever, but did make his MLB debut with the Rays in 2018. Unfortunately his performance dipped. Eventually he was DFA'd by the Rays and then traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Caleb Sampen. Schultz has had three big league innings with the Dodgers this year (all in relief), but he's been sent down to the minors since April. The Dodgers bullpen is in shambles and could use a nice shot in the arm, hopefully Schultz (and Craig Kimbrel) can offer that.

Received On: 05/25/2019

Here's a return from Rays lefty, Blake Snell.
Snell was drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays in the first round of the 2011 MLB Player Draft. A Mariners fan growing up, Snell is armed with a fastball, curveball and changeup. Snell's climb up the Rays ladder was also slow and steady. He even earned a Rays Minor League Pitcher of the Year Award once. Snell eventually made his MLB debut in 2016. In the early going his career didn't quite get off on the right foot, though it evened out to a good season that gave hope to him taking a step forward in 2017. Unfortunately that didn't happen right away as his 2017 season started on a bad note (bad enough for him to be sent down to triple-A). But after his callup afterwards, he showed that he had improved and ended the season on a high note. Then 2018 happened and he enjoyed the best season of his career (so far). Earning AL Cy Young honors in the process.

Received On: 06/01/2019

My last return this past month or so came from Marlins prospect, James Nelson.
Nelson was drafted by the Miami Marlins in the 15th round of the 2016 MLB Player Draft. Nelson is a third baseman with a strong arm and lots of potential (especially for a 15th rounder). Nelson won Marlins Minor League Player of the Year honors in 2017 and though his 2018 season was hampered by injuries and mixed results, he's looking to show that 2017 wasn't a fluke and that he will be Miami's long term answer in the infield/third. Best of luck to him.
Also, this is technically his first Bowman card but for some reason the logo isn't present.

And those were my returns this past month. Big thanks to Mr. Girardi, (Dr.) Wilcox, Forsberg, Moore, Alberto, Conklin, Barnes, Neshek, Moronta, Amaya, Konerko, Schultz, Snell and Nelson for the awesome autographs.

As always thank you (the readers) for stopping by :). Take care.

2019 TTM Count: 51

Sources:
*https://www.hockey-reference.com/players/g/girarda01.html
*https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=wilcox001chr
*https://wmubroncos.com/news/2012/2/24/205385845.aspx
*http://sportsmed.msu.edu/pages/Wilcox.html
*https://www.healthcare4ppl.com/physician/michigan/east-lansing/christopher-luke-wilcox-1497963425.html
*https://www.hockey-reference.com/players/f/forsbfi01.html
*http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?player_id=621058#/career/R/pitching/2019/ALL
*https://www.mlb.com/news/mariners-rookie-andrew-moore-wins-mlb-debut-c238207330
*https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/a/alberha01.shtml
*https://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/bs-sp-orioles-hanser-alberto-whitesox-20190430-story.html
*https://www.vikings.com/team/players-roster/tyler-conklin/
*https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/barmecl01.shtml
*http://www.espn.com/mlb/news/story?id=2081549
*http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/7264758/clint-barmes-agrees-two-year-deal-pittsburgh-pirates
*https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/n/neshepa01.shtml
*https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/moronre01.shtml
*http://www.brooksbaseball.net/tabs.php?player=606625&p_hand=-1&ppos=-1&cn=200&compType=none&risp=0&1b=0&2b=0&3b=0&rType=perc&gFilt=&time=month&minmax=ci&var=usage&s_type=2&endDate=01/01/2020&startDate=01/01/2018
*http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?player_id=665804#/career/R/hitting/2019/ALL
*http://m.mlb.com/prospects/2019/?list=chc
*https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/k/konerpa01.shtml
*http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?player_id=621289#/career/R/pitching/2019/ALL
*https://www.truebluela.com/2019/1/8/18174207/dodgers-acquire-jaime-schultz-from-rays
*http://www.brooksbaseball.net/landing.php?player=621289
*http://www.brooksbaseball.net/landing.php?player=605483
*http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?player_id=663445#/career/R/hitting/2019/ALL
*http://m.mlb.com/prospects/2019/?list=mia