New Arrival: Esteban German, if, Oakland Athletics

When I first got into autograph collecting, Esteban German was one of the Athletics biggest prospects and a personal favorite of mine. In 2001 he was the Athletics MiLB player of the year and looked like he would turn into a prototypical leadoff hitter at the big league level. But in 2002 it was discovered that he had been lying about his age–he was 11 months older than originally thought–and his prospect status took a hit. Still, he made the majors in 2002 and would go on to have a 10-season career in the big leagues, though he would only have three seasons of 200+ at-bats. He did have a decent two-good year run from 2006-2007 when he hit .292/ /.383/.413 as a utility player.