Another winning week on the top farm system in Major League Baseball! A few injuries of note, but things are trending up amongst an already stacked minor league system. The trade deadline is going to be a chaotic one...
In the meantime though,
Norfolk Tides
Tied series with Lehigh IronPigs 3-3
The Current Norfolk Four:
-Jackson Holliday: 5-25, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 6 R, 4 BB, 6 K
-Coby Mayo: 2-8, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 2 R, 1 BB, 3 K-- fractured his ribs falling into the dugout in pursuit of a foul ball and is likely to miss some time. It was a freak accident that hopefully won't have any lasting effect on this young stud
-Heston Kjerstad: 4-21, 2 HR, 9 RBI, 5 R, 3 BB, 5 K
-Connor Norby: 6-13, 0 HR, 2 RBI, 4 R, 3 BB, 2 K-- really timely and solid return from a wrist injury of his own, lighting up Lehigh Valley pitchers in his 3 appearances this weekend
-Love seeing Billy Cook build up some momentum, going 8-22 while playing in all 6 games against the IronPigs
-Frustrating situation for Terrin Vavra. He'd probably start on a few MLB teams right now, but is completely trapped in the logjam that is this farm system. Long audition though for a future gig, and a solid series here under his belt-- going 4-13 with 4 runs scored
-Shayne Fontana collected a hit in the 4 games we saw him, raising his overall batting average 24 points
-Daniel Johnson shined with some extra playing opportunities, posting a .400/2/6 line on the week
-8 hits and 4 earned runs over 5 innings; not the ideal Chayce McDermott numbers there. No walks and 8 strikeouts though, we'll take that from the righty last Tuesday night
-I've talked some shit about Jonathan Heasley in the Orioles Report, but gotta give the man credit for his week. 3 hits, 1 walk over 7 innings of work-- a start and relief appearance. The big league roster's always going to be looking for bullpen help, maybe he'll be able to work his way back
-Definite hope that Dillon Tate is on that track as well, after refusing to allow a run in any of his 3 showings. He struck out 2 and allowed just 1 baserunner
-Weird year to be a front line starter for the O's AAA team. Not sure they've ever had such an ironclad rotation, leaving Cade Povich in a bit of a purgatory for the foreseeable future. Literally any other season, he'd be up by now. He was spectacular once again Saturday, striking out 8 and giving up 2 runs (1 earned) through 6. 5-1 with a 2.08 ERA and the stuff to pass the eye test...can't wait to see his continued growth
-Shoutout Matt Krook and Wandisson Charles for multiple scoreless appearances from the pen
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| Photo: Skyler Prieto |
A lot of names starting with B incoming...
Bowie Baysox
Won series with Binghamton Rumble Ponies 5-1
-Three multi-hit efforts on the week by Dylan Beavers, finishing with 8 in 21 at bats, two of which were solo home runs
-Samuel Basallo's slowly but surely figuring out this AA pitching, going 6-24 on the series, without bringing in or scoring a run
-Collin Burns was an unpopular hitter for Binghamton pitchers to encounter, posting a .438/1/5 line in his five games
-All Frederick Bencosme does is hit, collecting one in 4 of his 5 appearances vs. the Rumble Ponies
-Jud Fabian went yard again on Thursday, his 7th of the year. His contact tool has been slowly improving as we've gone
-Trace Bright will help us transition our alliteration to the mound, where he also helped the Baysox to a win Wednesday, throwing 4.1 innings of shutout ball, allowing just 4 hits and 3 walks
-Kyle Brnovich was excellent in relief on the following night, permitting 6 base runners over 4.2 scoreless, en route to his second decision victory of 2024
-Brandon Young held Binghamton off the board Thursday, striking out 7 as Bowie outlasted a nice outing from Blade Tidwell
-That's it, we made it through the hive! Seth Johnson had his most promising start of the month to kickstart the weekend, surrendering just 1 unearned run through his 4 frames
-Carlos Tavera relieved him in that game, posting 4 scoreless innings of his own to preserve the win and improve his record to 3-0
-Alex Pham, Kyle Virbitsky and Trey McGough locked it down Saturday, combining to allow just 1 run on 4 hits and a walk, while racking up 11 K's
Aberdeen Ironbirds
Lost series with Wilmington Blue Rocks 2-4
-What's that, up in the sky?! Is it an Ironbird? A plane? No, it's just Creed Willems' 8th and 9th home runs of the season leaving the yard. It ain't even the final week of May yet and the catcher has hit the same amount of homers in A+ ball that he hit in 2023, in 44% of the games. Adley and Basallo ahead of him makes for a hard path to the bigs here in Baltimore, but Creed's working his way in the right direction surely enough here
-Matthew Etzel's consistently been Aberdeen's best hitter, which carried over into this series as well. He went 6-20 at the dish with a dinger, 4 RBI and 3 stolen bases. On top of that, he was the only reason the Ironbirds avoided being no-hit on Thursday
-4 hits in 4 games for Isaac De Leon, hopefully kickstarting a breakout from his recent slump
-5 hits and 3 stolen bases in Enrique Bradfield Jr's 5 games. Here's to hoping we continue to see that bat warm up
-ELIO! The kid posted a .278/1/3 stat line for his week, continuing to earn playing time in this stacked outfield
-Juan Nunez was lockdown in the series opener, giving up 1 earned run on 3 hits with 9 K's. He's currently 2-1 with a 2.45 ERA and 1.09 WHIP on the season
-As sharp as Nunez has been though, teammate Moises Chace may be having an even better season. Chace went 4 scoreless on Saturday, striking out 6 and allowing just 5 base runners
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| Photo: Brian Krista/ Baltimore Sun |
-Edgar Portes was excellent Sunday: 0 hits and 6 K's over 5 innings, with only 1 Blue Rock reaching base (via HBP). Truly a borderline elite staff
-Luis Sanchez and Yaqui Rivera were super reliable out of the pen, each tossing 2 scoreless frames on the week
Delmarva Shorebirds
Won series with Lynchburg Hillcats 4-2
-Aron Estrada continued his hitting ways, collecting 5 singles and 3 runs on the week
-Another strong series has Angel Tejada hitting .353 in the month of May. The first baseman posted a .376/1/2 line against the HillCats, plus 2/3 on stolen base attempts
-The contact numbers might not stand out, but we love seeing Aneudis Mordan hitting bombs like he has been, with two this week against Lynchburg! Possibly most importantly, like the aforementioned Matthew Etzel, Mordan managed sole hit for team on Thursday to avoid a no-no.
-Stiven Acevedo's bat has been slowly heating up, with a 4-13 line in his 4 showings as his batting average and on base percentage quietly creep up
-We've talked about how Luis De Leon wasn't long for a promotion-- and he officially received it yesterday. He allowed just 1 earned run in his final start for Delmarva, taking his 1-2 record and 2.25 ERA up to the Ironbirds
-Riley Cooper had a solid second start, surrendering 1 run over 5 IP, lowering his season ERA to 2.03
-Braxton Bragg, Jiorgeny Casimiri and Grabiel Salazar combined for 3 hit shutout Friday
-4 shutout innings, 3 hits, 1 walk and 4 K's. Not a bad little Sunday for Blake Money on the bump
-Randy Beriguete and Jared Beck were great in relief for the Shorebirds, throwing for 3.1 and 4 scoreless frames in the series, respectively
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@Choppinglines
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