Archive for Dariel Alvarez

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

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

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

Minor League Recap: July 21-July 27

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

The Norfolk Tides are the talk of baseball!

Ok, they aren’t really, but the exclamation points make you think they are. Actually, going 15-3 over an 18 game stretch is pretty impressive, and that hot streak has now brought them up to 8 games below .500, 7.5 games behind the division leading Durham Bulls. Wait, 8 games BELOW .500? After going 15-3 over their last 18 games? Yeah, they’re not a good team. Considering they’re 10 games out of the wild card as well, I’d hold off on printing those playoff tickets.

In “you can stop panicking” news, Dylan Bundy threw 6 scoreless innings last week to bring his ERA at Frederick DOWN to 6.11. He gave up 3 hits and walked to in his outing, but he only struck out one batter (if that actually made you panic more, then…sorry). Continue reading

Minor League Recap: April 28-May 4

Posted in Minor Leagues, Offense, Pitching, Prospects with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 6, 2014 by oriolesprovingground

It was a “.500” kind of week for Baltimore’s affiliates, as each of the teams detailed in this weekly installment won as much as they lost, with Bowie and Frederick even scoring the exact number of runs that they gave up. Frederick barely got any games in as they had to deal with a ton of rain and a couple of postponements/cancellations in the beginning of the week. Additionally, Norfolk used 16 different pitchers during the week, so no one really got a lot of innings. Feel free to use any of these fun facts as an ice breaker in the coming week.

Weekly Summary

Norfolk (AAA): 3-3 (W-L), 36 RS, 33 RA

Bowie (AA): 3-3, 22 RS, 22 RA

Frederick (High-A): 2-2, 18 RS, 18 RA

The Good:

Hitters

Norfolk (AAA): 1B Brett Wallace– 8/23 (H/AB), 2 2B’s, 2 HR’s, 2 BB’s, 9 SO’s

The former top prospect has really been struggling at the plate this season, so it’s nice to see him put together a very productive week. The 9 strikeouts are still a little bothersome, but at least some of the power is starting to show up. Even though Wallace used to be a top prospect (the key phrase being “used to be”), fans shouldn’t expect much out of him, as he’s transitioned from prospect status to “organizational depth”. Continue reading

Minor League Recap: August 26-Spetember 2

Posted in Minor Leagues, Offense, Pitching, Prospects with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 5, 2013 by oriolesprovingground

Welcome to the second and final installment of the Minor League Recap for the 2013 season, coming to you a day later than normal to include the final game, which was played on September 2.  None of these teams advanced to their respective league’s playoffs, so their seasons are no over.  Maybe next week I’ll attempt to do a full season minor league recap for Norfolk, Bowie, and Frederick, but then again, maybe I won’t.  As always, the following is based on performance only, and is not to be considered a list of prospects.

Weekly Summary

Norfolk (AAA): 6-3 (W-L), 34 RS, 27 RA

Bowie (AA): 4-5, 51 RS, 33 RA

Frederick (High-A): 4-5, 40 RS, 52 RA Continue reading