I was mostly neutral on the Twins bringing back Torii
Hunter. I think he can still hit a little, and might not be as bad a fielder
some people think, but I believe the Twins would benefit more from a younger
player like Eddie Rosario playing in the outfield on a regular basis.
Ervin Santana on the hand is a signing I like. Santana is a
quality pitcher who for the next few seasons should be able to at least keep
the Twins in games early on, something the Twins have not been getting the last
few years from their starters.
The one good thing about the Hunter and Santana signings is I
will likely be able to get their autographs at Twinsfest (January 23-25, 2015).
Players I am looking to get this year are Josmil Pinto, Eduardo Nunez, Jordan
Schafer, Tommy Milone, Aaron Thompson, and A.J. Achter. All of these players
are relatively new Twins who I need for my collection of autographed Minnesota
Twins baseball cards.
I sent to the above players through the mail (TTM) this year
and got no response. In fact my 2014 success rate is only 49% which is by far
the worse year I have ever had. I did pick up first-time successes from Dan
Serafini, Bobby Keppel, Shane Bowers, Danny Goodwin, Dan Graham, Mike Stenhouse
(sent 2012), Wally Backman (sent in 2012), and Lenny Webster (private paid
signing) so my efforts were not a complete loss.
2014 also brought my longest return ever - Mark Salas 1891
days (over 5 years). In the time it took Mr. Salas to get back to me on this
one card, I had sent to and received back from him 2 others cards. I am
figuring his misplaced this first card, found it, signed it, and sent it back
to me.
I also got 2 RTS (return to senders) that were strange. One
was from former Twin Rob Bowen who the post office evidently could not deliver
to 1436 days after I sent to him. I sent a card then current Twin Jason Marquis
during his only spring training with the Twins back in 2012. 985 days after I
sent the card, it came back RTS not deliverable as address (the address was
fine). Who knows what happened there.
I have signed cards from 513 current and former Twins
players. There are 184 players I don’t have of which 107 I have contacted and
have yet to receive a return. I hope to pick a handful of these players in 2015.
Sometimes the going is slow, but there are surprise successes that make doing
this worthwhile.
