From the Collection: JD Martin, sp, Cleveland Indians

This is one of my Top 50 favorite autographs in my collection–I wrote the J.D. Martin a bunch over the years, and for whatever reason it was not until late in his career I was finally able to snag one TTM.

JD Martin was the Indians 2001 first round pick, selected 35th overall. He was one of three highly-touted prospects the Indians took in the first round that year, the other two being Dan Denham and Alan Horne. From 2002-2007, Martin was consistently ranked as one of the Indians Top 30 prospects, and in 2002 was considering one of the Top 100 prospects in all of baseball. He never made it to the big leagues in Cleveland; he left the organization as a free agent following the 2008 season and signed with Washington. Martin would make it to the majors in both 2009 and 2010 with the Nationals, though was not able to find any consistency. He added the knuckleball to his arsenal in 2016, and as of 2019 was still bouncing around in the minors.

While Martin never really lived up to the expectations that come with a first round pick, he had a very interesting and successful career in professional baseball.