Kyle Simon, 2012 Bowman Prospects #BP56

If you've been following the tenor of my blog for some time, you should know that I wouldn't be caught dead buying Bowman. Fortunately some Orioles arrived from Greg (a.k.a. Night Owl) to help fill my team set needs. This Kyle Simon card would be one of those. Kyle was the Birds' fourth-round draft pick last June out of the University of Arizona. He signed quickly enough to spend the summer at Aberdeen and then Delmarva, allowing 4 runs in 16.2 innings for a 2.16 ERA. So far, the 6'5" righthander has spent the 2012 season in the Frederick Keys' rotation, and he has an underwhelming 2-7 record with a 3.94 ERA. He's got 41 strikeouts and 20 walks in 61.2 innings, and a less-than-ideal 1.54 WHIP. But he won't be 22 until August, so he's got some time to figure it out.

What strikes me about this card is that Kyle appears to be wearing a cartoon bird cap. I would assume that Topps had Photoshopped his picture to reflect the team's new uniforms, as they did with the Team Set variant of their flagship cards. But if you look closely, the bird on this card is the slightly smaller logo used by the team from 1975-1988. So maybe someone knew last year that a change was in the offing, and just grabbed the nearest piece of cartoon bird headwear they could find. That's right, Topps; I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt just this once. Don't say I never did anything nice.