When you talk to Roberto Mercado, a new member of the Orioles front office and player development staff, his excitement to work for the club in 2022 comes through.
It's going to be a big adjustment for the 42-year-old Mercado. He was the head coach of New Britain (Conn.) High School from 2011-2021 with a record of 139-80 and dean of students at the school since 2004.
But his baseball experience also includes time spent as an assistant coach in the summer wood bat Cape Cod League, one of the...
Another outlet released a top 100 list (actually 114) on Wednesday, and this time the Orioles produced their strongest representation yet when they placed six players in the top 69 on the list released by FanGraphs.com.
Adley Rutschman was yet again rated as the top position prospect and overall No. 1 prospect in baseball, as he was earlier by Baseball America, The Athletic and ESPN. But this time right-handed pitcher Grayson Rodriguez achieved his highest ranking ever, at No. 3. He had been...
There were a few players on the Orioles farm that played at three levels last season. They got promoted twice, in other words, and that was impressive. Could we see more of that in terms of promotions coming in 2022?
"I think last year was a unique situation," O's director of player development Matt Blood said this week from Sarasota. "We didn't have as much information to go off of (with no minors games in 2020). I think this year will be a little more normal in regard to those type of...
During my series of interviews with the four full-season Orioles minor league managers, I talked with 2021 high Single-A Aberdeen manager Kyle Moore and we discussed a few of his players from last season.
Today we'll take a closer look at first baseman JD Mundy. In this recent entry, we discussed pitchers Garrett Stallings and Jake Prizina.
Among the 28 Orioles on the farm last season who had 300 or more plate appearance, Mundy was an impressive first in OPS at .926. Adley Rutschman was second...
Earlier this year, the Orioles did, in fact, hire someone who this summer will make the big jump from manager of a high school team to manager of the high Single-A Aberdeen IronBirds. That is an accurate statement. But another accurate statement is that calling him a high school coach doesn't begin to provide the full story of the baseball experiences for 42-year-old Robert Mercado.
In his new role as Aberdeen skipper, Mercado will draw often on his time, from 2014 to 2021, as an assistant...
During a lockout, we can't say it's baseball season yet. Hopefully, sooner than later. But we can say it is prospect ranking season. Multiple outlets have been coming out with player and team rankings. Today let's review what we have seen so far.
Six Orioles were in the ESPN top 100:
1 - Adley Rutschman 8 - Grayson Rodriguez 74 - Colton Cowser 94 - DL Hall 96 - Gunnar Henderson 98 - Coby Mayo
Five Orioles were in the Baseball America top 100:
1 - Rutschman 6 - Rodriguez 52 - Hall 57 -...
Ryan Mountcastle turned 25 on Friday. As he gets ready for his third big league season, let's take a look at a few ways he can take an impressive 117 career OPS+ and maybe even do a little better.
After 140 plate appearances in his 2020 debut season, Mountcastle finished eighth in the American League Rookie of the Year voting and was still rookie-eligible in 2021. And he finished sixth in the voting after last season.
Over 144 games and 586 plate appearances last season, he batted...
On the night of June 10, 2020, Major League Baseball was not yet playing regular-season games, but was set to host its First-Year Player Draft. The draft would be limited to five rounds. That night the Orioles selected University of Arkansas outfielder Heston Kjerstad with the No. 2 overall pick in the first round.
That selection created some initial confusion, frustration and angst around Birdland.
They did not select Vanderbilt's Austin Martin, as many fans had read they would in pre-draft...
When it comes to the improved farm system for the Orioles - one ranked No. 1 in organizational rankings by MLBPipeline.com and No. 4 via Baseball America - it can seem the club leaves no stone unturned.
Whether it is data and analytics and the latest technology, the move to place five coaches with each affiliate, improved nutrition and even gains in areas like mental skills, the Orioles seem to be doing right by their young talent. They want to give them every chance to succeed.
Seeing the...
Orioles minor league players don't have wait around for the end of a season to get a promotion to the next level. Players such as infielders Jordan Westburg and Gunnar Henderson and outfielder Kyle Stowers played at three levels in 2021.
Westburg and Henderson began with low Single-A Delmarva and later moved onto high Single-A Aberdeen and to Double-A Bowie. They ended the season in the playoffs with the Baysox. Stowers started with Aberdeen, later moved to Bowie and then to Triple-A Norfolk...
With the understanding that no prospect - no matter how highly rated - is too good to be true, and no prospect is can't-miss, the Orioles' Adley Rutschman does come close.
FanGraphs.com, in ranking him the No. 1 Orioles prospect (and several outlets rank him No. 1 prospect in all of baseball), said of Rutschman: "Rutschman is a complete, franchise-altering prospect, and one of the most exciting young players in the entire sport. He's a switch-hitter with a hit/power combination that would...
Orioles pitching prospect Kyle Bradish is ranked among the club's top 10 prospects on lists from Baseball America and MLBPipeline.com. He is rated No. 8 by MLBPipeline.com and No. 9 via Baseball America.
This week, FanGraphs.com topped that, ranking the right-hander No. 7 when it released its list of the O's top 45 prospects. The outlet puts a 60 grade on his fastball, which tops in the 97 mph range, and a 55 on his curveball. As I have noted numerous times in this blog, FanGraphs also noted...
It was around Thanksgiving and it was a tweet that got a lot of attention around Birdland. ESPN's Buster Olney tweeted the Orioles were "dangling" lefty John Means in trade talks. Olney cited other teams, not the Orioles, as his source.
When a credible national reporter states such, it should get our attention. He does have great sources within the game. But I as wrote in this entry, I felt it was a matter more of the Orioles doing due diligence.
I pointed out that there must be numerous...
He is a talented young minor league manager on the rise. At just 35, Buck Britton is not too far away from his playing days on the Orioles farm. But coming up in the 2022 season, he will manage at Triple-A Norfolk as a first-time skipper at the game's highest minor league level.
In their 28-year history, the Double-A Bowie Baysox have played for a league championship three times. They did that twice in two seasons under Britton. His 2019 team had a terrible 7-23 start, but still played for the...
The topic of the Orioles signing more groundball pitchers came up in the comments section of the blog yesterday. It is a topic worthy of discussion. The basic thinking states that ground balls are generally easier to turn into outs than fly balls and we have yet to see a hitter drive a grounder over the outfield fence.
It's guaranteed to keep the ball in the ballpark.
The pitcher we discussed here yesterday, O's lefty John Means, is not a groundball pitcher. His 2021 groundball rate of 32.9...
As we speculate and try and make educated guesses on which pitchers could be helped the most by the Camden Yards fences being moved back in left and left-center fields, the club's best pitcher could be among those that most benefit.
In going 6-9 with a 3.62 ERA last year, lefty John Means allowed a career-high 30 homers. Among all Orioles pitchers with any significant number of innings, he was the only one to allow more homers than walks (26). He gave up 1.60 walks per every nine innings last...
He is one of the Orioles' top 10 prospects, and after he threw 86 2/3 innings at Triple-A Norfolk last year, he is also among their most major league-ready on that list.
Right-hander Kyle Bradish, acquired by the club on Dec. 2, 2019 with three other pitchers from the Los Angeles Angels for Dylan Bundy, is likely to make his big league debut during the 2022 season. In November, he was added to the Orioles' 40-man roster.
We've been looking at various 2022 rotation candidates over the last...
When I interviewed new Orioles co-hitting coach Matt Borgschulte recently, I asked him what stats are important to him in dealing with his hitters. When it comes to a question like this one, we have to keep in mind that the teams have so many more available stats and data than the media and general public. No one is going to give away any secrets here.
But he did provide a few examples and that is where we began to discuss strikeouts and how the coaches will try to help the hitters produce...
We gained another reason to admire Orioles center fielder Cedric Mullins this week. We learned that he produced a Most Valuable Oriole season, becoming the first player in club history with 30 or more homers and steals in one year, while battling the effects of Chron's disease.
This did not keep Mullins from continuing his impressive rise from player demoted back to Double-A in 2019 to American League All-Star and All-Star game starter in 2021. He also won a Silver Slugger in November - the...
For just the third time since Baseball America started releasing top 100 prospect lists in 1990, the Orioles had five players in the initial top 100 of the year when the newest list came out on Wednesday.
We say initial top 100 because now these lists are tweaked and changed often during the year. Some outlets, including Baseball America, move players in and out as they "graduate" and lose prospect and rookie eligibility. There was once a time when outlets released one list per year and a...