Where the O's top 30 prospects will begin the minor league season

With Minor League Baseball opening a new season tonight, here is a look at where Orioles prospects on the MLBPipeline.com top 30 are beginning the new season.

Triple-A Norfolk leads the way with a roster currently holding eight top 30 prospects, while Double-A Bowie, high Single-A Aberdeen and low Single-A Delmarva have five each.

Norfolk: (9) Yusniel Diaz, (10) Keegan Akin, (11) Zac Lowther, (15) Ryan McKenna, (19) Jahmai Jones, (20) Alexander Wells, (23) Rylan Bannon, (24) Tyler Nevin.

Bowie: (1) Adley Rutschman, (4) DL Hall, (12) Terrin Vavra, (14) Kyle Bradish, (18) Kevin Smith.

Aberdeen: (2) Grayson Rodriguez, (13) Adam Hall, (25) Kyle Stowers, (28) Drew Rom, (29) Garrett Stallings.

Delmarva: (5) Gunnar Henderson, (6) Jordan Westburg, (16) Hudson Haskin, (26) Anthony Servideo, (30) Darell Hernaiz.

Last Friday, I published the break-camp rosters for each club here.

From announcements and other information, here is the latest we have on pitching rotations with tonight's starter listed first and others listed in order that we have confirmed.

Norfolk: Conner Greene, Josh Rogers, Spenser Watkins, Keegan Akin.

Bowie: DL Hall, Kyle Bradish, Kevin Smith, Ofelky Peralta, Brenan Hanifee.

Aberdeen: Grayson Rodriguez, Garrett Stallings, Kyle Brnovich.

Delmarva: Zach Peek, Jake Lyons, Brandon Young, Shane Davis, Noah Denoyer.

Rodriguez tonight is making his high Single-A debut. Also, Bowie will have some piggyback situations and three others will get starter-type innings and they are Gray Fenter, Cameron Bishop and Cody Sedlock.

If you missed the big feature story published here this morning on Hall in advance of his Double-A debut, click here.

Orioles director of player development Matt Blood updated reporters on pitcher Mike Baumann and a few others on the farm earlier today. Read that story right here.

All series are six-game series on the farm this year, so the opponents the O's clubs are playing tonight they will see each day through Sunday. It seems very likely that Hall and Rodriguez will make their second starts in the sixth and final games of these opening series.

Tonight, Norfolk plays at Jacksonville at 7:05 p.m. to open its 52nd season at the Triple-A level. After a 12-game road trip to open the year, the Tides will begin the home portion of their schedule on May 18 versus Jacksonville. The 2021 season is Norfolk's 13th as the top affiliate of the Orioles. It has been 610 days since Norfolk played its last game on Sept. 2, 2019 against Charlotte.

Norfolk's opening night roster includes 10 players on Baltimore's 40-man roster: Akin, Jay Flaa, Lowther, Wells, Bannon, Jones, Richie Martin, Nevin, Diaz and McKenna.

Bowie tonight plays at Altoona at 6 p.m. and its Bowie's first game in 599 days. The last time the Baysox were in action, it was in Game 4 of the 2019 Eastern League Championship Series. The Trenton Thunder defeated the Baysox 5-2 in what would turn out to be the Thunder's last game before realignment. Trenton is now in the MLB Draft League, as is the former O's affiliate in Frederick.

It has been 606 days since the Delmarva Shorebirds played their last game. The most recent Shorebirds game was the final game of the Northern Division Championship series against the Hickory Crawdads on Sept. 6, 2019, a 2-0, 10-inning loss.

When we see tonight's lineups posted, we'll publish them here.

Norfolk

CF Stevie Wilkerson
SS Richie Martin
2B Jahmai Jones
RF Yusniel Diaz
3B Rylan Bannon
C Brett Cumberland
1B Tyler Nevin
DH Chris Shaw
LF Seth Mejias-Brean

Bowie

2B Terrin Vavra
C Adley Rutschman
1B J.C. Escarra
DH Chris Hudgins
RF Robert Neustrom
SS Cadyn Grenier
LF Zach Jarrett
3B Patrick Dorrian
CF Jaylen Ferguson

Aberdeen

SS - Adam Hall
3B - Toby Welk
RF - Kyle Stowers
2B - Joseph Ortiz
DH - Johnny Rizer
1B - Andrew Daschbach
CF - Zach Watson
C - Maverick Handley
LF - Shayne Fontana

Delmarva

CF Hudson Haskin
DH Anthony Servideo
SS Gunnar Henderson
3B Jordan Westburg
LF Dylan Harris
RF Doran Turchin
1B J.D. Mundy
C Jordan Cannon
2B Darell Hernaiz