There is a new episode of the Camden Highball up today. Pat and I talk to former Camden Depot writer Nick Faleris about next week’s MLB Rule 4 Player Draft and get his general thoughts on what he sees in the 2015 Baltimore Orioles.
Direct Link to Article –> The Camden Highball: Previewing the 2015 MLB Draft
This week on the Camden Highball, Pat and I wonder if Steve Pearce can be a super utility player and talk about Jimmy Paredes‘ hot bat. We also talk to Ryan Romano of Camden Depot and Beyond the Boxscore about the less than ideal starts of Bud Norris and Chris Tillman. This week’s episode also features music from Brad Engler.
Direct Link to Article –> The Camden Highball: “That’s Not Good”
Despite both teams sweeping their opponents in the ALDS, each series was fairly close, and if a few breaks had gone the other way, each series could have easily gone to a 4th or 5th game. But that’s not what happened. The Royals came up big twice in extra winnings to notch wins, while the Orioles had two REALLY big 8th innings in their first two games to take control of their series against the Tigers. Now we have an ALCS with two teams that are in a lot of ways, very similar to each other. The Kansas City Royals haven’t seen the World Series since 1985 and the Baltimore Orioles haven’t been since 1983. Just the fact that one of these teams (and their fans) will finally make it back there after such a long time is pretty exciting. Continue reading
The Baltimore Orioles have the AL East all wrapped up and one of the (many) things they are trying to figure out is who will be included in their postseason starting rotation. We got a sneak peak at Game 1 yesterday, although it wasn’t much of a surprise…
Tillman will start game 1 of Division series
— Roch Kubatko (@masnRoch) September 23, 2014
The current rumor is that Kevin Gausman would be left out of the playoff rotation. I think this would be a mistake, and today over at ESPN Sweetspot Network Orioles blog Camden Depot, I explain why.
Direct Link to Article –> Leaving Kevin Gausman Out of the Playoff Rotation Would Be a Mistake
After a long vacation that didn’t involve any baseball, I’m back with my first post since early June. Today at ESPN Sweetspot Network Orioles blog Camden Depot, I take a look at a very familiar topic that has seemed to pop up during the trade deadline and the offseason ever since I started writing about the team. Writing about upgrading Baltimore’s starting rotation is quickly becoming a bi-annual tradition, where the names change, but the statistics stay the same. Take a look at the article to see who I suggest they go after this time.
Direct Link to Article –> Orioles Starting Rotation (Still) Needs Improvement
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
If you’re reading this, then you already know…the minor league recap is a day late this week. Blame it on the holiday weekend, where my time was spent doing really important things that didn’t involve baseball. Don’t believe me? I didn’t even know that the Orioles traded for Nick Hundley until he made that throwing error against the Brewers in the bottom of the 9th inning on Monday night (I started watching the game only a couple of minutes before that). I’m not proud of that, but it’s the truth. In other news this week, the talents of Heath Bell were on display in Norfolk this past week. We looked at what the Orioles may expect from him last week. Obviously it’s only been a week (small sample alert), but the results in AAA have been worse than expected, as he gave up 4 earned runs in 3.2 innings, giving up 7 hits while walking 4. Yet somehow, he didn’t have the worst performance by a Norfolk pitcher.
Weekly Summary
Norfolk (AAA): 3-3 (W-L), 43 RS, 28 RA
Bowie (AA): 5-2, 44 RS, 33 RA
Frederick (High-A): 1-5, 16 RS, 25 RA
The Good:
Hitters
Norfolk (AAA): OF Quintin Berry – 8/21 (H/AB), 2 2B’s, 1 3B, 1 HR, 2 BB’s, 3 SO’s
Berry had such a good week that he was named International League Player of the Week…
Francisco Peguero has been named the IL Player of the Week. Peguero hit .458 (11-24) with three doubles and four RBI this week. #Orioles
— Norfolk Tides (@NorfolkTides) May 26, 2014
Wait, he wasn’t? I think the voters got that one wrong. Peguero had a great week and was very deserving of “my” award, but I think Berry was slightly better by hitting for slightly more power (Peguero’s extra base hits consisted of 3 doubles) and walking twice, compared to Peguero’s zero walks. So if Peguero makes fun of Berry for NOT winning the International League Player of the Week award last week (which I’m sure will happen if it hasn’t already), Berry can point to this blog post and reply with a witty comment.* Continue reading
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
The Bowie Baysox AVERAGED over 7 runs a game last week, yet only won 4 of their 7 games. How’d they do that? I’m not even mad, that’s amazing. I don’t really have anything else to add in this week’s introduction to the Minor League Recap. So let’s get right to it.
Weekly Summary
Norfolk (AAA): 2-4 (W-L), 26 RS, 30 RA
Bowie (AA): 4-3, 52 RS, 34 RA
Frederick (High-A): 3-4, 31 RS, 42 RA
The Good:
Hitters
Norfolk (AAA): 2B Cord Phelps – 6/17 (H/AB), 1 2B, 1 HR, 6 BB’s, 3 SO’s
If you remember from last week (and you should since I only posted it a half hour ago), Phelps had one of the worst weeks you could imagine. I think it’s safe to say that he rebounded very nicely, getting on base 12 times in 23 plate appearances. Continue reading
Orioles Proving Ground 