The Orioles’ 2023 first-round pick and others are headed to Bowie, while several of the Birds’ 2024 draftees will start their pro careers at Delmarva.
Here on Camden Chat, in addition to our daily minor league coverage, we’ll be stepping back every Tuesday morning to look at the bigger picture across a whole week of results and how the team’s prospects are faring so far. Most of the focus will be on players from Camden Chat’s composite top O’s prospects list from the preseason, with mentions of some standout efforts from players who could be ranked on a future list.
Triple-A Norfolk Tides
- Past week: 3-3 vs. Durham Bulls (Rays)
- Coming week: at Gwinnett Stripers (18-21 second half, Braves)
- Second half record: 19-20, fifth place (7.5 GB) in International League East
Remember when the Tides were the most fearsome offense in all of minor league baseball? Those days are long gone, thanks to the promotions of Jackson Holliday and Coby Mayo, the trades of Kyle Stowers, Connor Norby, and Billy Cook, and the unfortunate concussion suffered by Heston Kjerstad (boo, Yankees). Even veteran first baseman Garrett Cooper, who was rocking a 1.007 OPS in 15 games for the Tides, has been on the injured list since July 24.
What remains is a nearly unrecognizable mix of organizational players and newly signed veteran castoffs. Of the latter group, third baseman J.D. Davis played four games after signing a minor league deal Aug. 7. He hit two home runs but was otherwise 0-for-11. Longtime MLB infielder Jean Segura, signed two days later, made his Norfolk debut Aug. 10 and was 1-for-5 with a double. As for the younger guys, first baseman TT Bowens was just 1-for-16 in his first week at Triple-A after being promoted from Bowie. The Tides scored only 21 runs in the six-game series, and didn’t score more than four in a game until Sunday’s finale.
Of the six Tides starters this week, two delivered quality starts. Right-hander Justin Armbruester (#20 prospect) gave up three runs, two earned, in six innings. Such effective outings have been few and far between for him, as evidenced by his 7.25 season ERA. And Brandon Young gave up two runs in six innings, walking three. The 25-year-old righty, signed as an undrafted free agent in 2020, has a 3.71 ERA in 13 games at Triple-A, and Mike Elias specifically mentioned Young as being “on the radar screen” for a possible call-up later in the year.
Brandon Young’s day is over, and he finishes with his second quality start of the year with Norfolk
6.0 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 4 SO#DefendtheHarbor pic.twitter.com/qmh0QE9Nvz
— Norfolk Tides (@NorfolkTides) August 8, 2024
Cade Povich (#9) threw his second straight seven-inning start, giving up four runs and walking three. In a tough break, fellow top pitching prospect Chayce McDermott (#10) landed on the injured list with a shoulder injury (right scapula stress reaction) and it’s unclear if he’ll return this year.
Double-A Bowie Baysox
- Past week: 5-1 vs. Harrisburg Senators (Nationals)
- Coming week: at Altoona Curve (16-23 second half, Pirates)
- Second half record: 18-21, third place (8.0 GB) in Eastern League Southwest
The Baysox had a great week, not only nearly sweeping the Senators, but also adding three newcomers to the lineup who will make the team exponentially faster. On Sunday the Orioles promoted last year’s first-round pick, Enrique Bradfield Jr. (#6 prospect), from High-A Aberdeen to Bowie, along with infielder Tavian Josenberger and outfielder Reed Trimble, as first reported by MASN’s Steve Melewski.
Bowie’s offense was doing fine even before the newbies’ arrivals, as the Baysox scored 42 runs in the series, including a 17-run explosion on Friday Fireworks Night. Leading the charge was the Orioles’ #2 prospect, Samuel Basallo, who collected 10 hits in 22 at-bats for a cool .455 batting average. He didn’t homer but did have three doubles. Basallo is now batting .287/.349/.468 in 94 games.
Jud Fabian (#14) was impressive as well, reaching base 13 times and swatting his 17th home run, and Dylan Beavers (#8) homered as part of a five-hit week, snapping an 0-for-13 drought. Fellow outfielder Donta’ Williams was 7-for-14, but unfortunately it was his final week with the Baysox, as the Orioles released him yesterday. Williams, a fourth-round pick in 2021, has batted .217/.351/.328 in 275 games over four minor league seasons.
None of Bowie’s 17 pitchers worked more than five innings this week. The best showings came from Alex Pham (#24) and unranked Peter Van Loon, who each had a scoreless, five-inning start. Van Loon has made six appearances for the Baysox this year, and if you toss out his one rough outing (six runs on July 31), he has a 0.44 ERA. Meanwhile, Pham has lowered his season ERA, which once stood at 7.78, to 4.94.
Right-hander Patrick Reilly, acquired from the Pirates at the trade deadline for Billy Cook, worked four innings and gave up two unearned runs in his second appearance in the O’s organization. The 22-year-old will be reunited with Bradfield, his former teammate at Vanderbilt.
High-A Aberdeen IronBirds
- Past week: 3-3 at Hickory Crawdads (Rangers)
- Coming week: vs. Greenville Drive (24-18 second half, Red Sox)
- Second half record: 22-20, third place (1.0 GB) in South Atlantic League North
The IronBirds are the Orioles affiliate that’s closest to a postseason berth as of now, sitting a game behind first-place Greesnboro (and a half game behind Hudson Valley), but their playoff chances took a hit with the losses of the aforementioned three contributors to Double-A. Bradfield and Josenberger were the top two basestealers in the South Atlantic League with 59 and 45, respectively.
Bradfield added another four steals to his tally this week despite going just 3-for-19. He batted .267/.345/.363 with three homers in 81 games at Aberdeen. Despite the ability to get on base, he didn’t do a lot of damage on balls in play, so he might have some initial struggles at the next level when pitchers challenge him more often. Josenberger, meanwhile, finished his High-A career with a .230/.344/.405 line. He hit nine dingers, including two this week. The 22-year-old was a third round pick in 2023.
Then there’s Trimble, the #65 overall pick in 2021, who the following year peaked as the Orioles’ #24 prospect on MLB Pipeline before injuries ravaged his career. Trimble played a total of just 49 games from 2022-23 and missed the entire month of May this season, but is batting .255/.363/.466 with five homers in 49 games for Aberdeen and is a perfect 23-for-23 in stolen base attempts. Like Josenberger, he homered twice in his final week with the IronBirds.
Elsewhere, Aron Estrada, who’d been Low-A Delmarva’s best hitter before getting bumped to Aberdeen, went 4-for-19 in his first week at High-A. Another recently promoted minor leaguer, seven-foot lefty Jared Beck, threw a perfect inning in his first taste at his new level. I keep hoping this gigantic human being will turn into a real prospect, even if the odds are against him. The most interesting IronBirds pitcher, righty Michael Forret, struggled with his control this week, walking three and hitting a batter, but limited Hickory to one run in four innings.
Low-A Delmarva Shorebirds
- Past week: 2-4 at Salem Red Sox
- Coming week: vs. Carolina Mudcats (23-18 second half, Brewers)
- Second half record: 17-25, last place (9.0 GB) in Carolina League North
Scoring was hard to come by in this series, for both teams. Shorebirds hitters averaged three runs per game but their pitchers allowed only 2.7. Catcher Aneudis Mordán and outfielder Stiven Acevedo tied for the team lead with six hits each, including three doubles for Mordán and a dinger for Acevedo.
Mordán (batting .220/.324/.390 with 13 homers) is one of four players who is now moving up to High-A Aberdeen, along with outfielders Thomas Sosa (.244/.328/.369) and Jake Cunningham (.208/.311/.312) and infielder Leandro Arias (.213/.313/.291). Arias, an international signing from the Dominican in 2022, rated as the Orioles’ #25 prospect before the season, but his performance this year won’t help him climb the rankings.
Help is on the way for the Shorebirds. Per Melewski, five position players from this year’s draft class are set to join the club this week, including three of their top four selections: infielder Griff O’Ferrall, catcher Ethan Anderson, and outfielder Austin Overn. No word yet on an assignment for first round pick Vance Honeycutt.
The Shorebirds divvied out their pitching assignments this week so that each of their 17 hurlers made exactly one appearance. That group combined to give up only nine earned runs, more than half of which were surrendered by one guy (Jacob Cravey). Both Braxton Bragg and Blake Money threw five innings without allowing an earned run. Venezuelan righty Yeiber Cartaya, in his second appearance at Low-A, struck out seven in four scoreless frames.
Five hurlers made their Low-A debuts, including undrafted free agent righties Joe Glassey, Kenny Leiner, and Trent Turzenski, who combined for 3.2 scoreless innings. And Keeler Morfe, an intriguing 18-year-old righty from Venezuela, pitched three shutout frames and struck out seven in his debut. Morfe was promoted straight from the Dominican Summer League, where he’d been dominant, posting a 0.82 ERA with 38 strikeouts in 22 innings.
**
Last week’s poll was our closest margin of the season, with Povich defeating Bowie’s Frederick Bencosme by just six votes (112 to 106). Never think that your vote doesn’t matter! Povich became our third two-time winner, joining Kjerstad and the since-traded Cook. One-time winners include McDermott, Fabian, Beavers, Kyle Brnovich, Basallo, Estrada, Mayo, and the also-traded Norby and Matthew Etzel.
There weren’t many exceptional performances this week, so it’ll come down to a head-to-head matchup between two Baysox hitters. Who’s your pick?