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2019 Orioles Minor League Recap: Frederick, Bowie, and Norfolk

Posted in Minor Leagues on March 5, 2020 by oriolesprovingground

This article was originally intended to be published on Baltimore Sports and Life around October 27, 2019. It was never published due to the fact that it was originally supposed to be published a month earlier as a companion piece to Zach Spedden’s article summarizing the 2019 season for the lower levels of the Baltimore Orioles minor league system, and too much time had passed. I am publishing it here to include with the rest of my baseball writing.

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With the minor-league season in the books, Baltimore Sports and Life is recapping the teams in the Baltimore Orioles farm system.

In part one, BSL’s Zach Spedden covered the seasons of the Gulf Coast League (GCL) Orioles, Aberdeen IronBirds, and Delmarva Shorebirds. In Part 2, I will be recapping the 2019 season for the Frederick Keys, Bowie Baysox, and Norfolk Tides.

The recaps will focus mainly on the top prospects in the system, though as we get into the high minors, most of the prospects are leftover from the Duquette regime, so this article will focus on them. Overall, those players mostly had good seasons, or at worst, held their own. Continue reading →

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Some Additional (BSL Related) Housecleaning Items

Posted in Minor Leagues on February 29, 2020 by oriolesprovingground

After Camden Depot ended its long and successful run, I received a offer to start contributing to Baltimore Sports and Life. While I again was not able to write as much as I had wanted to for BSL, I was able to publish some posts and spend some time on the message boards interacting with passionate Orioles fans. Though it was short, i very much enjoyed my time at BSL contributing with other talented writers covering a wide swath of Baltimore related sports and activities. Here is the collection of articles I wrote for BSL.

Do the Orioles Really Have the Worst Farm System in the League? (3/11/2019)

Baltimore Orioles 2019 Season 40 Man Roster Primer (3/28/2019)

Orioles Affiliates (Mostly) Struggling Early in 2019 (4/19/2019)

Orioles Minor League Discussion with Zach Spedden and Nate Delong (5/4/2019)

It May Be Time to Give DJ Stewart an Extended Look in the Big Leagues (5/23/2019)

Orioles Minor League Discussion with Zach Spedden and Nate Delong: July 2019 (7/26/2019)

I also had two additional posts that never ran (for reasons mostly of my own doing), which I will be running here shortly so that I can continue to have my entire collection housed at this site.

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Observations from the New York-Penn All-Star Game

Posted in Minor Leagues, Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , , , on August 20, 2015 by oriolesprovingground

Tuesday night I travelled with a couple of friends up to Aberdeen to catch the Short-Season New York-Penn League All-Star game.  I wrote about some of my observations from the game for ESPN Sweetspot Network Orioles blog Camden Depot.  The post includes notes on the two Orioles representatives as well as a couple of other players, including a former 1st round pick of the Philadelphia Phillies.

Direct Link to Article –> Observations from the New York-Penn League All-Star Game

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Outfield Reinforcements Won’t Be Coming from the Minors

Posted in Minor Leagues, Offense with tags , , , on May 27, 2015 by oriolesprovingground

The Orioles have had a roughly average offense so far in 2015, but they are getting very little production from their corner outfielders.  Today at ESPN Sweespot Network Orioles blog Camden Depot, I take a look at what they have in their minor league outfields and why there isn’t anyone who will be able to come up and help out in the major leagues.

Direct Link to Article –> Outfield Reinforcements Won’t Be Coming from the Minors

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Minor League Recap: April 20-May 3

Posted in Minor Leagues, Offense, Pitching, Prospects with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 6, 2015 by oriolesprovingground

Last week’s Minor League Recap never got completed, so this “week’s” version will combine the last two weeks of baseball. Think of it as “two for the price of one”! Although, I don’t think that’s accurate because it’s still only one post. “Double for your money” is probably a better assessment of this installment of the recap. So not only are two weeks rolled into one post, but it’s also arriving a day later than usual because I had some podcast duties on Monday night for Camden Depot. If you’re reading this because you like the Orioles minor league baseball, then check out the podcast (it’s linked in the previous post on this website) because we talk to Camden Depot’s Joe Reisel, who is our man down at Norfolk. He sees anywhere from 30-40 games per year and has great insight on the AAA squad.

Weekly Summary

Norfolk (AAA): 5-8 (W-L), 33 Runs Scored, 40 Runs Against

Bowie (AA): 8-4, 61 RS, 37 RA

Frederick (High-A): 6-7, 49 RS, 67 RA Continue reading →

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The Camden Highball (Episode 9): Greetings from Norfolk!

Posted in Minor Leagues, Podcast with tags , , , , on May 5, 2015 by oriolesprovingground

This week’s episode of the Camden Highball (Camden Depot’s weekly podcast) comes a week and a day late, but it’s better than no podcast at all!  This week, Pat and I talk with Camden Depot’s Joe Reisel about what he’s seen in the Norfolk Tides during the first month of the minor league season.

Direct Link to Article –> The Camden Highball: Greetings from Norfolk!

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Minor League Recap: April 9-April 19

Posted in Minor Leagues, Offense, Pitching, Prospects with tags , , , , , , , , , , , on April 21, 2015 by oriolesprovingground

Minor league baseball is back, and with it is the return of the Orioles Proving Ground Minor League recap. Similar to previous years, the recaps will run weekly (for the most part) throughout the minor league season. I’ve said it before, but to reiterate, this exercise is not meant to be a scouting one, as these observations are based on the stat line for the week in question and nothing else. I’m not a scout and I don’t get to enough minor league games to draw a scouting conclusion on the players at hand. Having said that, I will occasionally add a scouting thought to some players based on what I have read or heard about a player’s major league expectations (if they exist).

Here we go.

Weekly Summary

Norfolk (AAA): 7-4 (W-L), 55 RS, 36 RA

Bowie (AA): 5-6, 42 RS, 54 RA

Frederick (High-A): 7-4, 44 RS, 43 RA Continue reading →

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Minor League Recap: August 25-September 1

Posted in Minor Leagues, Offense, Pitching, Prospects with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 5, 2014 by oriolesprovingground

The minor league season came to an end on Labor Day, and with Norfolk, Bowie, and Frederick all missing their respective postseasons, this will be the final installment of the weekly minor league recap for the 2014 season. Don’t worry, it will return next year with some old faces and some new faces, and possibly a revamped format.

With the end of the minor league season also comes the expanded rosters in the major leagues. The Orioles decided to bring up pitchers Evan Meek, Joe Saunders, and Ryan Webb, along with catcher Steve Clevenger and outfielder Quintin Berry. Additionally, the team made trades for Kelly Johnson and Alejandro De Aza. I discussed each of those moves (and more!) in a post yesterday up on Camden Depot.

Each of these affiliates played at least 9 games over the last week and a day of the season, so there’s a lot to get to.

Weekly Summary

Norfolk (AAA): 4-5 (W-L), 30 RS, 29 RA

Bowie (AA): 5-4, 46 RS, 47 RA

Frederick (High-A): 6-4, 48 RS, 37 RA Continue reading →

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Minor League Recap: August 18-August 24

Posted in Minor Leagues, Offense, Pitching, Prospects with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 29, 2014 by oriolesprovingground

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.

Continue reading →

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Minor League Recap: August 11-August 17

Posted in Minor Leagues, Offense, Pitching, Prospects with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 19, 2014 by oriolesprovingground

The Orioles are in first place by a healthy margin (the HEALTHIEST in all of baseball), but there was still a legitimate reason for fans to freak out last week.

But you can relax, because he was injured while running and it had nothing to do with his throwing arm.

This injury will shut him down for the rest of the year, and that is not a bad idea. There is only a couple of weeks left in the minor league innings anyway, and in the best case scenario (and even this would have been highly unlikely), Bundy would have been pitching out of the Baltimore bullpen late in the season. Baltimore’s bullpen is excellent, and their least effective relievers are out of options, so taking this option off the table may even be a good thing. The next step for Bundy will be to rest and pitch some innings in the Arizona Fall League in October (provided he’s physically cleared to pitch). Hopefully he’ll be 100% ready to go when spring training begins in March. Continue reading →

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