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Date sent: 3/6/09
Date returned: 5/8/09
I started sending TTM autograph requests about three months ago. About a month after I started, in March, I started sending requests to veterans and prospects at their Spring Training sites. I think I sent just over twenty requests and I only got one return. That was from Matt Wieters of the Baltimore Orioles.
This return that came today really shocked me. It's from Neftali Feliz of the Texas Rangers. I sent this request back in March to Surpise, AZ, the Spring Training site of the Rangers. The request that I received today came from Oklahoma City, OK, the home of Feliz's current team, the Oklahoma City RedHawks. He must have taken his Spring Training requests with him when he left.
Feliz is ranked as the #10 prospect in all of baseball by Baseball America. He's off to a slow start in 2009 but remains a tremendous talent. Here is his player page on milb.com.
Date sent: 4/11/09
Date returned: 4/22/09
I'm really happy about this return from Grant Green of the USC Trojans. Green is listed as the #2 pick in Baseball America's 2009 MLB mock draft, just behind Stephen Strasburg. I think I'm mostly surprised at how quick the card was returned from such a high profile prospect.
Grant Green is Junior third baseman with the Trojans. He's batting .372 this season in his first 137 at-bats.
Here's a story Baseball America wrote about Green over the summer when he was playing in the Cape Cod League: http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/college/summer-scene/summer-stock/2008/266640.html
Date sent: 3/28/09
Date returned: 4/18/09This is my second TTM return from a high schooler with a card in the 2008 Upper Deck USA set. I had previously posted about my Matt Davidson return.
This return is from Austin Maddox. He's a senior at Eagle's View Academy in Jacksonville, FL. Here is what Baseball America had to say about him in their draft preview: "Tremendous arm behind the plate, but throws can be erratic. Rare amateur player allowed to call his own game."Maddox signed two cards for me. I sent two cards to each high schooler. I requested that they sign one and keep one for themselves.
Date sent: 3/28/09
Date returned: 4/16/09
I had a crazy idea a few weeks ago while looking at some 2009 mock MLB draft boards. I knew that a lot of the players listed had cards in the 2008 Upper Deck USA set. The problem is that many of these players are still in high school. Could I possibly send a TTM request to a high school player? Was this breaking some sort of TTM code of conduct? I really wasn't sure so I decided to send a few off to see what would happen.
My request that I sent to Matt Davidson of Yucaipa High School in Yucaipa, CA arrived in my mail today. For each request I sent, I included two cards. I asked each player that they sign one card and keep one for themself. Matt Davidson did just that.
Here is what Baseball America says about him in their Top 50 Draft Prospects article today: "Some of the best raw power in this year's high school crop."
In the end, I'm glad that I sent this and the other requests. Any doubts I had about whether it was right or wrong to send a request to a high school player were curbed when I saw that they have already been paid to sign cards for Upper Deck.
What do you think? Has anyone else out there sent a request to a high school player? If not, would you?
Date sent: 3/6/09
