Notes on Adrian Marin, World Series odds, Statcast numbers and more (Almanzar note)

Taking some time today to check on a hot hitter in the Arizona Fall League, along with a few other notes:

Swinging a hot bat: Once ranked as the Orioles' No. 10 prospect, shortstop Adrian Marin's stock has fallen a bit after he hit .232 and .238 the last two years at Single-A Frederick. But the 21-year-old Marin is on quite a roll right now for Peoria in the Arizona Fall League. After batting .222 over his first seven games there, Marin has now put together four consecutive multi-hit games in the AFL, going 9-for-18 with three doubles and six runs scored. He has played second base, short and third base for Peoria, batting mostly leadoff. He's now batting .333 overall in 11 games.

Marin was the Orioles' third-round pick in 2012 out of Gulliver Prep in Miami. In 2015 for Frederick, he batted .238 with four homers, 41 RBIs a .286 OBP and a slugging average of .344. Marin had an OPS of .612 in 2014 and it was .630 last year at Frederick. He didn't improve his offensive stats much during a second straight year with Frederick, but he was also an everyday shortstop in the Carolina League at 21.

He was ranked as the O's No. 10 prospect after the 2012 season, No. 12 after 2013 and the No. 21 prospect after the 2014 season by Baseball America. He could potentially fall out of the top 30 when the new rankings come out. But for the last few days, he has certainly put up some nice stats out in Arizona.

Checking the odds: When the online sportsbook Bovada put out its odds for teams to win the 2016 World Series, the Orioles were listed at 40-1 with 18 teams listed ahead of them. The Cubs were the 11-1 favorite with the Royals, Nationals, Dodgers, Mets, Cardinals and Blue Jays at 12-1.

Here are some O's odds to win it all over the last few years:

* End of 2010 World Series (75-1), March 2011 (75-1)
* End of 2011 World Series (75-1), March 2012 (150-1)
* End of 2012 World Series (35-1), March 2013 (30-1)
* End of 2013 World Series (25-1), March 2014 (33-1)
* End of 2014 World Series (20-1), March 2015 (33-1).

Just for fun, here are some over-unders heading into the 2015 season:

* Adam Jones - 27.5 homers (he hit 27).
* Manny Machado - 17.5 homers (he hit 35).
* Steve Pearce - 19.5 homers (he hit 15).
* Chris Tillman - 11.5 wins (he won 11).
* Wei-Yin Chen - 11.5 wins (he won 11).

New man in charge: Ripken Baseball has named John Bramlette as its executive vice president of amateur baseball. Bramlette will be responsible for the management and growth of youth baseball programing, including player development and tournaments at The Ripken Experience complexes in Maryland, South Carolina and Tennessee. He will also oversee the annual Cal Ripken World Series, the culminating tournament of the elite baseball talent in the Babe Ruth League'Â’s 12u Cal Ripken Division hosted at The Ripken Experience in Aberdeen.

Statcast video: I can remember being at spring training in March when Jones was kidding with Miguel Gonzalez and telling him how hard he could throw if he ever got to pitch. Well, now we know Jones can throw at least 92 mph. Because he did throw that hard this year when throwing a runner out at the plate.

We learned that from Statcast stats. Click on the video below to see some plays from the 2015 Orioles season and the Statcast numbers that go with them.

The highlights include a Jonathan Schoop homer off Kansas City's Johnny Cueto on Aug. 26 at Kauffman Stadium. The exit speed was 110 mph and the distance was listed as 484.5 feet - the third-longest homer measured by Statcast technology this year.

Almanzar note: The Orioles have re-signed third baseman Michael Almanzar to a minor league contract. Last year at Triple-A Norfolk, he hit .225 with 26 doubles, four homers and 50 RBIs in 138 games.