Orioles Proving Ground

I apologize for this version of the weekly minor league update being late, but I was busy…like REALLY busy. The minor league season is coming to an end next week (which may or may not be good news), so there will only be one more installment of the weekly minor league recap after this one.

What was the big story last week? Of course it was the Manny Machado knee injury and the revelation that Machado would miss the rest of the season because of it. The injury is in the opposite knee from the one he injured last year, and isn’t considered to be as serious, as Machado is expected to be 100% ready to go by the start of spring training. The other positive aspect to this development was reported by Tim Brown of Yahoo Sports.

Upside on Machado surgery: Small abnormality found in left knee also exists in right. That will be fixed during surgery.

— Tim Brown (@TBrownYahoo) August 22, 2014

The negative aspect of this is obviously that Machado will miss the rest of the season, in a year where the Orioles look like they are running (ok, jogging) away with the AL East title. This shouldn’t impact them in their quest to make the playoffs (due to their already sizeable lead), but make no mistake that they are a weaker team without Machado. On defense, this goes without saying, but this applies offensively as well as Machado has hit extremely well after a slow start, as you can see below.

With Machado out, the team has mostly been using Chris Davis at the hot corner, with Ryan Flaherty as a defensive replacement. Expect that to continue the rest of the year with some minor leaguers’ filling in as well from time to time once the roster expands.

In other news, the Arizona Fall League rosters for 2014 have been announced, with 7 minor leaguers from the Baltimore organization being selected to play in the (generally) prospect heavy league (although that’s usually more true for hitters). The Baltimore players’ named were RHP Parker Bridwell, RHP Zach Davies, RHP Mychal Givens, LHP Ashur Tolliver, C Michael Ohlman, 3B Jason Esposito, and OF Dariel Alvarez. They’ll be playing for the Glendale Desert Dogs, beginning October 7.

Weekly Summary

Norfolk (AAA): 2-4 (W-L), 20 RS, 26 RA

Bowie (AA): 3-3, 17 RS, 23 RA

Frederick (High-A): 2-4, 20 RS, 31 RA

The Good:

Hitters

Norfolk (AAA): OF Dariel Alvarez – 9/22 (H/AB), 2 2B’s, 1 HR, 3 BB, 3 SO’s

Alvarez goes back to back in this category with an even better week than the one he previously had by adding a home run and a couple more walks while cutting down his strikeouts.

Bowie (AA): 3B Niuman Romero – 6/20, 4 2B’s, 4 BB’s, 2 SO’s

Niuman Romero keeps on doin’ what Niuman Romero does best.

Frederick (High-A): OF John Ruettiger – 10/26, 1 2B, 0 BB’s, 2 SO’s

I hate picking Ruettiger here based on a bunch of singles and no walks, but no one else really hit the ball well last week. Brenden Webb gets an honorable mention by hitting 2 home runs and a triple, but not much else.

Pitchers

Norfolk (AAA): RHP Mike Wright – 8.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 11 SO’s, 3 BB’s

Talk about finishing the season strong. We touched on how well Wright has been pitching in this space last week, and he proceeded to go out and have arguably his best outing of the year. See for yourself, via twitter!

Mike Wright 1 out away from no hitter for AAA Norfolk

— Roch Kubatko (@masnRoch) August 22, 2014

Alexi Casilla commits a throwing error on a grounder to short. Runners on 1st and 3rd. Still just one out away…

— Norfolk Tides (@NorfolkTides) August 22, 2014

Mike Wright was 1 strike away from no hitter and lost it on double — Roch Kubatko (@masnRoch) August 22, 2014

Wright’s near no-hitter was even enough to get him International League Pitcher of the Week, so he’s got that going for him…which is nice.

AAA norfolk’s Mike Wright is International League Pitcher of Week after coming within strike of no hitter

— Roch Kubatko (@masnRoch) August 25, 2014

Bowie (AA): RHP Oliver Drake – 2.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 4 SO’s, 0 BB

Drake pitched 2.1 innings of perfect baseball, throwing in 4 strikeouts to boot! Other than that, there were some pretty good pitching performances in Bowie, but no one stood out more than Drake.

Frederick (High-A): RHP Mark Blackmar – 7 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 7 SO’s, 0 BB’s, 1 HR

The staff at Frederick walked as many people as they struck out last week, so I decided to give this spot to the guy who struck out the most batters without allowing a single walk.

The Bad:

Hitters

Norfolk (AAA): 1B Christian Walker – 2/23, 1 2B, 1 BB, 12 SO’s

Walker has cooled off considerably in the last 2 weeks, after arriving in AAA just as hot as he was when he left Bowie. This past week was especially bad, as he not only didn’t get many hits (or walks), but he headed straight back to the dugout in half of his plate appearances.

Bowie (AA): OF Ronald Bermudez – 2/19, 0 BB’s, 5 SO’s

This is a bad line for a week, but it’s not the worst…

Frederick (High-A): SS Adrian Marin – 0/19, 1 BB, 7 SO’s

I’m not going to comment on this.

Pitchers

Norfolk (AAA): RHP Robert Coello – 3.1 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 1 SO, 6 BB’s, 1 HR’s

Six walks in 3.1 innings. I think I’m done here.

Bowie (AA): LHP Nick Additon – 12.1 IP, 10 H, 3 R, 9 SO’s, 6 BB’s, 1 HR

I hate to pick Additon here because from a results standpoint, he didn’t have a bad week. But from a process standpoint, it wasn’t all that pretty. He allowed 16 runners in just over 12 innings, including a home run, which I’m assuming came with only one man on base (2 at the most!). I’m also assuming he got pretty lucky last week. Also, no one else (outside of the terrible 0.2 innings pitched by Mychal Givens) pitched all that badly.

Frederick (High-A): RHP Parker Bridwell – 2 IP, 3 H, 5 R, 2 SO, 5 BB’s, 1 HR

Have I mentioned that Bridwell was selected to pitch in the Arizona Fall League?

Transactions

8/18/2014	RHP Jesse Beal (High-A) placed on 7-day DL
8/19/2014	RHP Matt Price (High-A) activated from DL
8/19/2014	C Steel Russell (High-A) activated from DL
8/19/2014	C Pedro Perez (High-A) placed on 7-day DL
8/20/2014	RHP Bobby Bundy (AA) sent to Low-A on rehab assignment
8/20/2014	LHP Tim Berry (AA) placed on 7-day DL
8/20/2014	RHP Branden Kline promoted to AA
8/21/2014	LHP Steven Brault promoted to High-A
8/22/2014	2B Jemile Weeks (AAA) activated from DL
8/22/2014	LHP Ashur Tolliver placed on 7-day DL
8/22/2014	RHP Dylan Rheault promoted to High-A
8/22/2014	RHP Jason McCracken (High-A) sent to GCL on rehab assignment
8/22/2014	RHP Gene Escat promoted to AA
8/23/2014	SS Sammie Starr (AA) activated from DL
8/24/2014	RHP Miguel Gonzalez recalled to MLB

This entry was posted on August 29, 2014 at 10:00 am and is filed under Minor Leagues, Offense, Pitching, Prospects with tags Adrian Marin, Christian Walker, Dariel Alvarez, John Ruettiger, Mark Blackmar, Mike Wright, Minor League Recap, Nick Additon, Niuman Romero, Oliver Drake, Parker Bridwell, Robert Coello, Ronald Bermudez. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.