A closer look at a couple of minor league hitters

Both players advanced to Double-A Bowie last season and both produced a final OPS of .800 or better. They both showed some nice pop during their time on the field, which was limited by injury for one of these players.

When I spoke recently with the new Orioles co-hitting coach Ryan Fuller for this entry and also this one, we talked further about minor league first baseman Andrew Daschbach and shortstop Joey Ortiz. Ortiz had labrum surgery on his non-throwing left shoulder in July, but did take part in the fall instructional league.

Daschbach played in 75 games at high Single-A Aberdeen and 30 games with Bowie, batting a combined .253/.357/.449/.806 with 19 doubles, two triples, 16 homers and 51 RBIs with 60 runs scored. He hit eight homers with an .802 OPS in Aberdeen and eight in many fewer games with an .816 OPS after moving up to the Baysox. He got promoted on Aug. 17.

Among players with 300 or more plate appearances on the O's farm in 2021, he rated seventh in OPS and ninth in slugging. His wRC+ of 120 matched Gunnar Henderson, the club's No. 4 prospect by both Baseball America and MLBPipeline.com.

The Orioles selected Daschbach in round 11 (No. 318 overall) out of Stanford in the 2019 draft. Daschbach played in 57 games at Stanford as a junior, batting .300/.396/.626 with 17 homers and 45 RBIs. The product of Atherton, Calif., hit 17 homers with 63 RBIs in 2018 for Stanford and that summer added five homers in 40 games in the wood-bat Cape Cod League.

"He is a really exciting player," Fuller said of the 24-year-old Daschbach. "He has some of the most damage-ability of any guy in our org. He can hang right up there with Adley (Rutschman) and (Kyle) Stowers, so that's very exciting. He also played an unbelievable first base for us down the stretch. Some really great plays down the stretch to get us into the playoffs.

"Offensively, he has the thump. He does a pretty good job of controlling the zone. Just adding in a little bit more contact, cutting down on a little bit of the whiffs since he has the ability to do a lot of damage. We just need to make sure that when we pull the trigger, we're making contact. Because when he does make contact on pitches in the zone, it's very loud. If he can up that contact-ability just a touch while maintaining that damage, he's going to be a really special corner guy for us in the outfield and at first base especially."

Among those players with 300 or more plate appearances on the farm, Daschbach posted a respectable 9.9 walk rate, but his strikeout rate of 34.0 was first among the group. Cutting down on the Ks has been a focus of his offseason.

"He's actually working with our lower-level coordinator, Anthony Villa, out in California this offseason," Fuller told me. "They hit multiple times a week. They have a play call sheet very much like an offensive coordinator would have in football, reading the plays. So Dash goes to his drills sheet and looks through and does X, Y, Z. Here's what we're going to do today and then a ton of exposure to different shapes and speeds using Anthony's arm and also using the machine to really dial in. Like, here's the path I need on a slider down and away. Here is the path I need on a fastball up and in. So really be able to cover the zone and make solid contact is one of the things he's really working on this offseason with Anthony."

Ortiz was off to a pretty good start in '21 before he went on the Bowie injured list in late June and was later moved to Bowie's 60-day injured list.

Drafted in round four (No. 108) overall out of New Mexico State in 2019, the right-handed hitter is also a plus defender and is rated as the club's No. 20 prospect by MLBPipeline.com. He gets 55 grades for fielding and arm strength, and many believe he can and will stay at shortstop as he moves up. Throw another name into the hat for future O's shortstop in Baltimore.

Ortiz began last season with Aberdeen, and after just 19 games, was moved up to Bowie and played in 16 more before the injury. In the 35 games, he hit .265/.353/.449/.802. He produced an OPS of .816 with the IronBirds and .780 for the Baysox. His walk rate was 10.3 and his K rate 20.5.

He was named the Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year ahead of the 2019 draft as a New Mexico State junior and was one of five finalists for the Brooks Wallace Award, which goes to the nation's top shortstop.

"I'm very bullish on Joey," said Fuller. "He made huge strides from 2019 when I first saw him. Totally revamped his body, made a lot of swing changes and we saw it this year at the Double-A level. He was becoming a power threat, too. And probably one of our best defensive shortstops, and if we can get him to be an offensive threat too, I'm very, very excited about the possibility of what he is going to be able to do once he gets back to 100 percent."

So what changes did Ortiz make?

"Body, he just lifted, ate like crazy and really dedicated himself to the weight room," Fuller said. "And we saw this guy who was a little bit skinny and really didn't have big exit velocity capabilities really come back at that instructs in the fall of 2020 into this man. You could absolutely tell he did a lot of work.

"With his swing, he had a very steep attack angle, so kind of chopping down at the ball that led to a high groundball rate in his first full year. Since then, it's just working up through the ball to match the incoming pitch plane and we saw it. He's really driving the ball on a line trajectory, which is the goal for us. Trading more ground balls for more line drives was a key and he did a great job in training that all offseason. And he would turn up the machine and let's get nasty curveballs and hit them on a line and cut down that groundball rate. When he comes back, he's working on the right things, his body is going to be in great shape and I'm really excited for what he is going to be able to do."

In an upcoming entry, I will get some of Fuller's thoughts on outfielder Zach Watson, who was the only player on the O's farm last season with 20 or more homers and steals.