Manto's takes, Mancini's homers and Gausman's split usage

Several batters with Single-A Frederick have been thriving this year. The Keys lead the Carolina League in batting average (.272), rank fourth in OBP (.331), first in slugging (.428) and fourth in runs scored.

Three Keys position players - shortstop Ryan Mountcastle and outfielders Austin Hays and Randolph Gassaway - made the Carolina League All-Star team.

Orioles minor league hitting coordinator Jeff Manto made an interesting observation of those hitters during a recent interview. He pointed out that, with fewer teams in the Carolina League, the hitters there are forced to learn to make some adjustments to how pitchers pitch them.

If you look at the Orioles' four full-season teams, Triple-A Norfolk plays in the 14-team International League with Double-A Bowie in the 12-team Eastern League and Single-A Delmarva in the 14-team South Atlantic League. The Keys play in a 10-team league.

"There is a lot of stuff that goes on behind the scenes," Manto said. "With so few teams in that league, they develop a book on you, so to speak. Now we teach those guys how to adjust. And they haven't blinked an eye. Gassaway, he knows exactly when he should start sitting on a breaking ball, and Mountcastle the same way. You can't get a breaking ball by these guys. Same thing with (Trey) Mancini (when he was on the farm). You make them aware of what these guys are doing. You can't just flip a ball and hope that they take it."

Hays, who turns 22 on July 5, was recently promoted to Double-A. In 64 games with the Keys, he hit .328/.364/.592 with 15 doubles, three triples, 16 homers and 41 RBIs. The Orioles drafted him in round three in 2016 out of Jacksonville University. One year out from that draft, he is already at Double-A, where he is 5-for-17 (.294) in his first four games and hit his first Eastern League home run on Sunday.

"This kid came in with plenty of talent," Manto said of Hays. "We haven't needed to do anything with this kid but make sure he stays on track. He has hand speed, bat speed. He has a knowledge of the strike zone. Just a really, really good hitter.

"I want him to keep swinging. I don't want him to start thinking too much. He has gotten to this point by just playing the game and not having all this outside knowledge. He knows what he needs to do and has done it perfectly. I hope he doesn't get outside influences and read any books (on hitting) or look at YouTube. Just keep playing as he is."

Earlier I published this interview with Manto talking in glowing terms about Mountcastle and his strong season.

Since Manto is an instructor that works with hitters at all levels of the O's farm, I asked him about a few other young hitters.

One was Norfolk third baseman Drew Dosch, whose bat has been trending up. He is batting .269/.332/.429 in 58 games with the Tides with 16 doubles, six homers and 28 RBIs. In 21 games in June, the seventh-round pick in 2013 is batting .288 with an OPS of .826.

"He has loosened up his swing and I think he got better as the talent around him got better," Manto said. "He is a very cerebral guy and knows what he can and cannot do. Now that he is able to pull the ball when he needs to pull it, it opens up a lot of options for him.

"When he first got here, he knew how to take care of the left side of the field (hit to the opposite field). Then we brought to his attention - get some balls to the right side - and now he is trying to put the whole package together. This Triple-A level will teach him fast."

Meanwhile, the club's top prospect, Norfolk catcher Chance Sisco, is also hitting well this month. For the season, over 58 games, the 22-year-old catcher is batting .273/.352/.390 with 15 doubles, three homers and 25 RBIs.

After batting .246 in April and .241 in May, Sisco is batting .338 with an OPS of .869 in 18 game.

"Sisco is simply amazing. His strikeouts may be a little higher than you might want, but a young player, you want him swinging. For him to go up there at a young age and hit .280 is extremely impressive. He is driving some balls in Norfolk that get caught on the warning track. He might be driving it better than his numbers," Manto said.

All stats listed are through Sunday's games.

Mancini note: Trey Mancini has now hit more home runs than any Orioles rookie before the All-Star break. He has homered in back-to-back games and hit No. 14 on Sunday.

The O's rookie leaderboard, most homers by All-Star break:
14 - Trey Mancini, 2017
13 - Curt Blefary, 1965 and Eddie Murray, 1977
12 - Jim Gentile, 1960
11 - Cal Ripken Jr., 1982 and Jay Gibbons, 2001

Blefary, Murray and Ripken won American League Rookie of the Year awards in those seasons.

The splitter: Most will probably call me crazy, but I think Kevin Gausman has pitched better his last two starts. One possible reason is increased usage of his split-finger fastball. And not just increased usage but throwing it better, especially in his last start versus Cleveland. In that game he got nine swings and misses on 26 splitters and just one of those pitches was put in play.

In a recent four-start stretch, Gausman threw his splitter seven, 17, 18 and eight percent of the time. In his past two starts, that percentage is up to 22 and 27 percent. It is his highest percentage in back-to-back starts.

Gausman's next chance to show he may indeed be making progress is tonight at Toronto. He is 1-0 with a 2.60 ERA in three starts this season against the Blue Jays.