As the calendar year winds down, let's take another look back at the summer of 2020. Let's note a few things that went right during the shortened 60-game season for the Orioles.
From Rule 5 to MVO: One of the biggest things that went right was the play of right-fielder Anthony Santander. He was a Rule 5 pick from Cleveland by the club in 2016, and by 2020 was the Most Valuable Oriole, as voted by local media. That is indeed a success story. Santander's season was a big thing that went right....
Between a pandemic, limited holiday travel and the chance that some of us may not have a so-called normal Christmas in two days, there is enough disappointment and anxiety out there to fill any ballpark. Maybe a few times.
Hopefully, we all realize that we should not let baseball contribute to the long list of worries that 2020 created for many people. But there are concerns about if the season will start on time, how many games will they play, can fans attend? Plenty of questions without...
There is a lot we don't yet know about the 2021 baseball season. We have a schedule for 162 games for each big league team; we just don't know if the sport will start on time and play all 162. After the restructuring on the farm, we still don't have schedules for minor league teams or any idea when those players will be in Florida for spring training.
But whenever it all starts and however many minor league games are played during 2021, the Orioles will at some point have to set rosters for...
Former Orioles skipper Buck Showalter would sometimes refer to something or someone in baseball as being "delayed but not denied." Be patient and you'll be rewarded.
For O's bullpen righty Hunter Harvey, will major league stardom be delayed but not denied?
The guy's career has seen more delays seemingly than the Baltimore Beltway at rush hour. From 2015-2017 on the farm, he threw a total of 31 1/3 innings. Through 2018, that four-year total was 63 2/3 innings.
So many injury issues, well...
Today, I'm revisiting some recent articles that appeared in this space. We're taking another look at two players.
I enjoyed my recent interview with 27-year-old Chris Shaw for this article. He's probably facing an uphill battle to make the Orioles' opening day roster. Several players, now including him, will compete this spring for outfield corner spots, along with first base and DH.
But Shaw had quite a season on the farm in 2019. Between Double-A and Triple-A for the San Francisco Giants,...
With spring training set to start in about two months - if it does start on time - the Orioles have a host of questions without answers and issues to address.
Nothing new here. Baseball rosters are always changing and few teams have most of their key questions resolved before Christmas in any given year.
So here are a few O's questions out there where we wait on answers.
Who plays shortstop?: After the trade of José Iglesias, the Orioles have a bit of a hole in an infield in transition....
Over the years, we've seen organizations like the Orioles handle young pitchers on the farm in a similar fashion when it came to bumping up their innings totals each season as they approach the majors. But without minor league games in 2020, now the math has been altered.
A pitcher slated to throw 100 innings this summer didn't get those innings in. At least not in a minor league game. But maybe he got in half that many - perhaps even more - at an alternate site or on his own throwing to...
Right-hander Mac Sceroler has got a decent four-pitch mix and an uncle who has helped shape his career and is well known to Orioles fans. He had a strong 2019 season, but when spring training begins, the 25-year-old will be trying to make the jump from the high Single-A Florida State League to the American League.
One of the O's two Rule 5 picks, along with right-hander Tyler Wells, Sceroler was the No. 5 pick of the 18 major league-phase players taken. The Orioles selected him from the...
Ryan Mountcastle was one of the club's better hitters during the shortened 2020 season. He arrived in the majors with an Aug. 21 call-up and sure did not disappoint with his play and production after that.
Mountcastle has been moving onward and upward at a steady pace since the Orioles selected him in the First-Year Player Draft.
2015: O's select him No. 36 overall out of Hagerty (Fla.) High School.2016: He spends his entire first full year at Single-A Delmarva, batting .281/.319/.426.2017:...
If we are to presume that two slots in the 2021 Orioles rotation are pretty much set and two others are somewhat set, that still leaves at least one spot open in the starting five for next season.
The Orioles have some decisions to make before opening day next season, whenever that turns out to be. Do Keegan Akin and Dean Kremer return to the rotation where they ended last summer and join mainstays John Means and Alex Cobb? Where does this leave Jorge López? Can one or both of the Rule 5...
One of the newest Orioles is an accomplished minor league hitter with power who has gotten just 72 at-bats over two seasons in the majors. He's a former hockey player who grew up a diehard Red Sox fan living just outside of Boston. And even though he comes from the San Francisco Giants, a club across the country, he has ties to the Orioles. He can't wait to reunite with some of the club's players.
Chris Shaw, a 27-year-old, lefty-hitting outfielder and first baseman, was designated for...
When asked about possibly dealing right-handed starting pitcher Alex Cobb before or during the 2021 season, Orioles executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias made it sound like he does not expect that to happen.
"First of all, he's serving a very important role on our team stabilizing our rotation with the young guys, mentoring the young guys, and we're planning on keeping him all year and would be thrilled if he contributed and is healthy again like he was last year and...
Taking a page from the School of Roch blog, today I'm trying to answer some of your minor league questions. Some you have specifically asked and some I'm pretty sure you may be curious about.
How did you feel about Frederick losing its O's affiliation this week? In a word, sad. I worked at WFMD Radio in Frederick out of college from 1982 into 1987. That was even before the Keys' first year of 1989. I've been to many games there and have come to love the Frederick community and still have...
When the Orioles lost two players in the major league phase of Thursday's Rule 5 draft, it was a good news/bad news situation. On the one hand, for the first time since 2015 the O's lost a player in the Rule 5. And only five Major League Baseball clubs lost two or more players in this draft. On the other hand, the Orioles may have lost two players for good.
Players often get sent back to their original teams in this draft, but it's not a given, obviously. The O's never sent Richie Martin...
The Orioles added two right-handed starting pitchers today in the major league phase of the Rule 5 draft. And they added two-right handed pitchers and a catcher in the Triple-A phase of the draft.
While it cost $100,000 to make a pick in the major league phase and that player must stay on the selecting team's big league roster all year or be offered back to his former club, no such rules apply in the minor league phase. Each selection costs $24,000 there and the player is now fully part of the...
So yesterday, as it turned out, was the day.
We finally got some clarity on the Orioles minor leagues for 2021. We hope that we get to see a full season of baseball as the country recovers from the pandemic. What we do know now is the likely makeup of the O's farm moving forward.
Four teams were invited to be O's full-season affiliates. They are Triple-A Norfolk, Double-A Bowie, high Single-A Aberdeen and low Single-A Delmarva. Major League Baseball is asking the clubs to sign Professional...
The Orioles today announced invitations for their four full-season affiliates for the 2021 season. They have invited the Norfolk Tides to continue as their Triple-A affiliate and the Bowie Baysox to remain their Double-A team. They invited their previously short-season Single-A team, the Aberdeen IronBirds, to serve as their high Single-A affiliate and the Delmarva Shorebirds to remain as their low Single-A club.
O's executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias confirmed yesterday...
The Single-A Frederick Keys will not be part of the Orioles organization in the 2021 season, an industry source confirmed today. The Keys, who have been an O's affiliate since 1989, will become the sixth team in the MLB Draft League, a new summer amateur wood-bat league expected to attract draft-eligible players.
Baseball America was the first to report the news about Frederick. It appears that Frederick may still have longshot hopes to be an affiliate for some organization in 2021. The Keys...
Baseball America recently reported that baseball officials have tweaked the restructuring of the minor leagues. Previously, each organization was expected to have five domestic farm clubs - four full-season teams and one complex-based team. That is a Rookie-level club playing at their spring training complex.
But Baseball America reported that officials are now expected to allow clubs to field two complex-based clubs. This would allow organizations with two such teams to employ as many as 180...
When the Orioles traded shortstop José Iglesias to the Los Angeles Angels last week for minor league pitchers Garrett Stallings and 19-year-old Venezuelan right-hander Jean Pinto, it was clear that executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias was a fan of Stallings' work in the Southeastern Conference.
The Orioles did their homework on Stallings and his three years in the SEC. The pitcher did some homework of his own on his new team. He knew some of the four Angels minor league...