Archive for Jason Esposito

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 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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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 →

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Minor League Recap: May 26-June 1

Posted in Minor Leagues, Offense, Pitching, Prospects with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 4, 2014 by oriolesprovingground

Ain’t nobody got time for an in depth minor league recap this week, so let’s get right to it.

Weekly Summary

Norfolk (AAA): 3-5 (W-L), 29 RS, 33 RA

Bowie (AA): 2-5, 28 RS, 45 RA

Frederick (High-A): 4-3, 36 RS, 29 RA

The Good:

Hitters

Norfolk (AAA): OF Julio Borbon– 7/23 (H/AB), 2 3B’s, 1 HR, 2 BB’s, 4 SO’s

The speedster showed some unusual power this week, hitting 2 triples and a home run. How unusual is it to hit 2 triples in one week? I don’t know, you shouldn’t depend on me to figure everything out for you. Continue reading →

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Minor League Recap: May 5-May 11

Posted in Minor Leagues, Offense, Pitching, Prospects with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 14, 2014 by oriolesprovingground

We’re trying out a new “Transactions” feature as part of the weekly minor league recap this week. It’s basically a list of transactions involving the Norfolk, Bowie, and Frederick affiliates that occurred over the week and is located at the bottom of the recap. It’s pretty self-explanatory actually, so I probably didn’t even need to write the words in that last sentence. Anyway, I thought it might be a useful addition seeing as there are typically a lot of minor league moves in any one week. As I noted in my piece about minor league host families last year, the Orioles made over 90 transactions in about a months time in 2013. Hopefully this feature will help keep track of where everyone is playing for the moment.

Weekly Summary

Norfolk (AAA): 3-4 (W-L), 42 RS, 46 RA

Bowie (AA): 3-4, 35 RS, 46 RA

Frederick (High-A): 3-4, 18 RS, 25 RA

The Good:

Hitters

Norfolk (AAA): 2B Ivan De Jesus – 10/29 (H/AB), 2 2B’s, 1 3B, 6 BB’s, 6 SO’s

If it seems like a second baseman is winning this “award” every week, it’s basically because they are. According to their website, the Tides currently have 6 second basemen on the active roster (obviously, they’re not all playing second base on a regular basis). This week it was De Jesus’ turn to have a strong week. There were a lot of decent offensive lines for Norfolk this week (they averaged 6 runs a game), but De Jesus had the best combination of hitting, power, and patience out of the entire group. Continue reading →

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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 →

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