Newest Angels pick up - Cameron Maybin

The Angels traded minor leaguer Victor Alcantara for the veteran outfielder who has played in the big leagues for parts of 10 seasons - I still have a couple of certified autograph cards squirreled away from when Maybin was regarded as a top prospect with the Detroit Tigers.

However, Maybin never lived up to the hype and has only put together a modest big league career - the best case scenario for Maybin is to play in 130-140 games, while showing enough good things [with the bat, as a base runner and defender] to get some long-term contract offers somewhere else.

Autograph request through the mail received: Cameron Maybin

For the past several years, my TTM activity has really been non-existent - once in a blue moon, I can look forward to getting a SASE from a request I'd written off at least several years ago, though I don't really wait around the clock for the mail anymore like I did in the late 1990's through late 2000's.

With this request, I think sent a couple of cards, one of which was Maybin's 2005 Bowman AFLAC card - worth maybe a quarter, but a card I didn't want to lose when I thought a base card of a young prospect maybe worth something when it came from an 'oddball' set that one had to mail a redemption card for.

I got back a 2007 Bowman Draft card signed in black Sharpie - Maybin earned himself a 5-year contract with the San Diego Padres in 2012, but after a lost season this past year, he is looking for a bounce back season.