Minor League honors coming on Friday

The Orioles will announce their minor league player and pitcher of the year award winners this Friday and the players will be introduced to the crowd that night when the O's host the Yankees. Barring an upset, it appears that Joe Mahoney is the top candidate for the Brooks Robinson player award and Zach Britton for the Jim Palmer pitcher honor. The 23-year-old Mahoney, a sixth-round pick in 2007, hit .307-18-78 this year with 30 doubles between Frederick and Bowie. After his promotion to the Baysox on July 9, he batted .453-6-14 in his first 14 Double-A games. Others like Joel Guzman, Ryan Adams, L.J. Hoes, Ronnie Welty, Xavier Avery and Tyler Henson had very good seasons, but Mahoney seems the likely winner of the award that went to Brandon Waring last year. The 22-year-old Britton, a third-round pick in 2006, went 10-7, 2.70 between Bowie and Norfolk. He went 7-3, 2.48 for the Baysox and 3-4, 2.98 for the Tides. He pitched 153 1/3 innings on the year. Brian Matusz won the Palmer award last year. Britton, by the way, is not expected to pitch at all in winter ball this year while Mahoney will play in Venezuela. O's minor league wins leaders: 11 - Chris Tillman 10 - Zach Britton, Rick Zagone 9 - Kenny Moreland O's minor league strikeouts leaders: 128 - Steve Johnson 124 - Zach Britton 109 - Nate Moreau 107 - Kenny Moreland 106 - Ryan Berry