This was a bad week for all of the teams and many of the players.
Each Tuesday on Camden Chat, we look back on the last week of action from the Orioles minor league affiliates, with a particular focus on the performance of players from Camden Chat’s composite top Orioles prospect list.
In last week’s update, Paul Folkemer noted that it was the first week of the season where all four affiliates had a winning record. Could the Orioles minor leaguers continue that success this week? In a word: No. The affiliates combined for three wins all week between the four of them. That’s really bad baseball. Every team is in last place or next-to-last in its division.
Triple-A Norfolk Tides
- Last week: 1-5 vs. Lehigh Valley (Phillies)
- Next week: at Louisville (Reds)
- Season record: 20-36, last place (20.5 games back) in International League East
Maybe the biggest thing going on with the Tides this week is the fact that rehab assignments for both Colton Cowser and Jordan Westburg hit this level. Each of these guys played in three games. Cowser collected six hits, including four doubles, in those three games. Westburg still batted .300 with three hits in ten at-bats.
Of the actual prospects with Norfolk, Jud Fabian batted .250 for the week with only four hits, but he made them count with two doubles and a home run. Fabian is up to an .810 OPS for the season. I don’t know why he isn’t getting a shot rather than having Cooper Hummel and Jordyn Adams bumming around. Samuel Basallo had just two hits, a double and a home run – which at least helps the slugging percentage.
Chayce McDermott was back with Norfolk after a brief big league stint. He did nothing to make anyone think he should be back any time soon, getting blasted for nine runs in just two innings. This short outing was still long enough for McDermott to give up six hits, walk six guys, and hit a batter. Terrible.
Also of interest
- OF Dylan Beavers – Returned after a short injured list stint. One hit and one stolen base over three games played.
Double-A Chesapeake Baysox
- Last week: 0-6 vs. Binghamton (Mets)
- Next week: at Akron (Guardians)
- Season record: 23-27, fifth place (10.5 games back) in Eastern League Southwest
This was a brutal week for the Baysox offense, as they combined to score just seven runs across the six games of the series. This fact sounded even worse before Sunday, as they’d scored just four runs through the first five games. The prospects of note with Chesapeake struggled slightly less than most of the rest, but there still wasn’t much good to say about either Creed Willems (four hits, no walks) and Enrique Bradfield (two hits in six games). Not much to do except hope for better next week and beyond.
On the pitching side for Chesapeake, the longshot quest of Braxton Bragg to become the #1 search engine result for his own name continued this week. Bragg struck out six guys in a 6.1 inning start where he allowed just two runs on three hits. Nice work, though hitting two guys is something to work on. He’s got a 1.24 ERA and 0.902 WHIP in 10 games between Aberdeen and Chesapeake (mostly Chesapeake) this year. I remain interested.
Also of interest
- RHP Keagan Gillies – This 27-year-old reliever tossed another two scoreless innings to lower his season ERA to 0.78. He’s struck out 27 batters in 23 innings. Get this guy to Norfolk already and see what happens.
Chesapeake season-to-date stats.
High-A Aberdeen IronBirds
- Last week: 0-6 at Brooklyn (Mets)
- Next week: vs. Hudson Valley (Yankees)
- Season record: 19-32, fifth place (17 games back) in South Atlantic League North
The IronBirds scored more runs than the Baysox did but it was still a bad week of offense for them too, contributing to this affiliate also going 0 for the whole week. No Aberdeen batter homered across this series.
My first question when I look at Aberdeen is always: How many times did Vance Honeycutt strike out? The answer is a lot: Nine times in five games. This pick is not tracking like a late first round winner for Mike Elias. Things went a bit better for the next pick after Honeycutt this week. That’s infielder Griff O’Ferrall, who had four hits, all singles, in 16 AB, but drew seven walks to really help the OBP. He also only struck out twice. Still, O’Ferrall is only hitting .216/.311/.317 so far this season, which isn’t exactly “get promoted ASAP” level.
An Aberdeen guy who did just earn the promotion to the next level is Trey Gibson, who just struck out 13 guys while walking none in a six inning start this week. That’ll do! Gibson has an ERA over 5 for the season, but the Orioles surely aren’t judging him on that. It’s the 67 strikeouts in 38.2 innings – and a K/BB rate of nearly 5 – that’s getting this 2023 undrafted free agent a chance with Double-A.
Aberdeen season-to-date stats.
Low-A Delmarva Shorebirds
- Last week: 2-4 vs. Hickory (Rangers)
- Next week: at Fredericksburg (Nationals)
- Season record: 20-31, last place (14 games back) in Carolina League North
A sad week for the affiliates when 2-4 is the best record anybody managed, but that’s where it is. Mostly it’s on the pitchers: They gave up 10+ runs in two games and 6+ in four games. Those are the four games they lost, unsurprisingly. Through the full season, the Shorebirds are scoring the fewest runs per game in the league (3.76 runs/game compared to 4.75 average) and allowing the most runs per game (5.61 runs allowed/game). That’s a bad combination.
There are a couple of hitters worth noting for positive reasons this week. The ongoing success story of Yasmil Bucce kept rolling, though in truth with only four hits in 17 AB, it wasn’t one of his batter weeks. This modest performance dropped his OPS below .900 for the season. He’s still pacing way, way ahead of the league’s average hitter. 20-year-old outfielder Raylin Ramos had six hits in 19 AB, raising his season OPS to .731. Just a little bit more power and there’s something intriguing there.
Delmarva season-to-date stats.
Bonus Florida Complex League
Reach all the way down to the rookie-level complex and we find a team that’s got a winning record: 11-9 so far this season. Three interesting guys for me:
- IF Nate George – 16th round pick out of high school last year, hitting .429/.500/.619 in 18 games
- IF Joshua Liranzo – .345/.500/.473 for the 18-year-old who signed as an international amateur two years ago. He went 6-9 with two walks in three games played over the last seven days
- OF Jordan Sanchez – 19-year-old Cuban lefty batter who is hitting .271/.410/.542 in 18 games
**
In last week’s player of the week poll, Delmarva’s Yasmil Bucce won by a 59-41 margin over his lone competitor. This is the first win of the season for Bucce, joining Samuel Basallo, Brandon Young, Vance Honeycutt, Alex Pham, and Adam Retzbach. We’ve also had Braxton Bragg as a two-time winner.
Will we get a three-time winner this week? The choice is yours! In the absence of much to celebrate from the minor league hitters, it comes down to Bragg, Trey Gibson, and Joshua Liranzo.