Gausman makes Baseball America list, plus other notes

The Orioles minor leagues did not exactly do very well when Baseball America released its "best tools" survey for every professional level. The publication ranks players in categories like best power prospect, best baserunner, best pitching prospect and best defender at each position in each league. The only Oriole to get mentioned was pitcher Kevin Gausman, who was rated to have the best changeup and best control in the Double-A Eastern League. Gausman is now with Triple-A Norfolk. No other O's prospects got selected. Keep in mind that they rank just one best prospect in each league in each category. Bud Norris makes his second Orioles start tonight after giving up two runs over six innings in a win over his former Houston team. In that outing, left-handed batters went 3-for-13 against him and right-handed hitters went 1-for-8. Norris has allowed three earned runs or fewer in 17 of his 22 starts on the year with 14 quality starts, including 13 over his last 17 outings. So how are the two players traded for Norris doing so far? L.J. Hoes is 5-for-19 (.263) in his first six games for Houston with a double and two RBIs. He had his first multi-hit game as an Astro last night, going 2-for-3 and scoring both runs in Houston's 2-0 win over Boston. Left-handed pitcher Josh Hader made a strong debut in the Houston organization last night. He went six innings, allowing no runs on just one hit for the Quad Cities River Bandits of the Single-A Midwest League. Hader went 3-6 with a 2.65 ERA in 17 starts for Single-A Delmarva before last week's trade. Manny Machado is third in the American League with 71 hits on the road. Adam Jones' 67 hits on the road are tied for sixth in the AL. Chris Davis' 36 extra-base hits on the road lead the majors, while Jones' 27 are tied for sixth and Machado's 25 are tied for 13th. In losing eight of the last 12 games, the Orioles have scored just 42 total runs (3.5 per game) with a batting average of .231. They are batting .211 with runners in scoring position in that time. Nick Markakis enters the San Diego series with no extra-base hits over his last 15 games, no homers his last 35 games and just two RBIs over his last 26 games.