Featured autograph - Odrisamer Despaigne

Despaigne wasn't ever going to be a star, but the Cuban righthander had a promising rookie season in 2014 with the San Diego Padres - after leaving the Padres, Despaigne has hung onto professional baseball as a journeyman and had an ugly 8-game stint with the Angels this past year.

In 18 2/3 innings pitched, Despaigne allowed 17 earned runs, walked 11 hitters and was battered around for 30 hits - he elected to be a free agent and will probably be pitching in Mexico, Japan or Korea sooner than never.

Whatever he does with the rest of his pro career, he'll always be an Angel to me and was nice enough to sign back in the day - at the very least, the autograph of his I already had on some sort of Padres game day scorecard, can be listed as part of my all-time Angels autograph collection.

The 30-Day Baseball Card Challenge - Day 21

A card of a rookie you thought you were "investing" in.

2007 Bowman Heritage Jesus Flores #231 - I spent at least a couple of hundred dollars on a handful of autographed prospect cards [between 2006-2008] of players [Jason Heyward, Cameron Maybin, Matt LaPorta, Justin Upton, Josh Vitters] who didn't quite make the impact I'd hoped, but maybe Flores was a guy between that time period who was actually in the big leagues.

I was hoarding assorted low-end cards [maybe a handful of Bowman paper cards, a Bowman Chrome parallel and a certified autograph] - hoping Flores would turn out to be some sort of star.

After being a Rule 5 pick of the Washington Nationals from the New York Mets, I think I read somewhere in a rookie report from Baseball America - that Flores was having a solid rookie season and it really looked like like the Nationals had something in the 22-year old.

Maybe Flores' profile didn't actually scream 'hobby star' in the first place, so I don't know what I was looking for - but after the fact, various injuries really sapped his potential to be a frontline catcher.

Featured autograph - Ryan Jackson

The journeyman infielder had played a little bit with the Angels AAA team the past couple of years and appeared in 22 games with the big league team in 2015 - primarily a second baseman, Jackson didn't do much as he was hitless in 9 at-bats with a walk and 5 strikeouts.

Jason Grilli

I thought Grilli was a journeyman who was out of baseball years ago - but he's actually pitched with the Pittsburgh Pirates for parts of the last four seasons until being traded to the Angels.

An All-Star last year, he struck out out 164 batters in 108.2 innings combined in 2012 and 2013 - hopefully he still has some juice in his right arm to help the Angels in the later innings whether as a set-up man or a guy that can close out some games.

Joe Martinez

He's a journeyman ballplayer, though it doesn't look like he is doing too bad for himself on the personal end - I got him to sign a few times when he played in the Arizona Fall League back in 2009 and may have seen him hanging out at an AFL game in 2012, so I brought his two cards I had to the AFL last year just to see if I could scope him out.

I didn't see him, but just as I'm only putting away the two cards [just yesterday], sorting a little bit for the upcoming baseball season - I read that he's been signed by the Angels, according this transactions list posted on Baseball America.

Martinez could be this year's Billy Buckner [who did get a few appearances with the Angels last year] or he may strictly AAA fodder [who might not be in the organization for long] - however his signing gives me some hope I could get my 2009 Topps Allen and Ginter set card signed in-person.

Featured autograph - Kevin Millwood

I was hoping the veteran starting pitcher would be back for his 17th season in the Major Leagues, but it looks like he has decided to retire for now - I was aware of Millwood's status as a rising star in the early 2000's and hoped to get his autograph before he blew up and became a full fledged star.

However, despite some early MLB success, Millwood was never able to emerge as a dominant starting pitcher - he was more of a No. 3 starter at his best and a No. 4 starter as he bounced around several teams during the latter part of his career.

As an autograph signer, Millwood was dependable about signing a couple of cards at a time when approached in-person - even though the novelty of him being more than a serviceable journeyman had faded over the years.