Noted here recently: Baysox name change, Crochet on trade market, O's young players work to improve

For someone who covers the minor leagues as I do it is a question to ponder: When referring to the Baysox moving forward, do I go with Chesapeake, their new name, or in some cases is Bowie still acceptable?

A case like when I refer to a player who spent time in 2024 with the Baysox. They were still Bowie then, so do I say this player hit such and such at High-A Aberdeen and this number at Double-A Bowie? Or just use Chesapeake?

There is no handbook and there are no right or wrong answers.

But in noting some recent stories in this space, I did report on the name change to the Chesapeake Baysox.

“I think when we looked at where our fans are coming from, we wanted to be inclusive of the entire Chesapeake Bay watershed,” said Brian Shallcross, in his 20^th year as Baysox general manager. “We saw people coming from the Eastern Shore, west of the Potomac. We were surprised when we dug into the stats of just how far and ranging our fanbase was. We wanted to be inclusive of all those fans without forgetting our roots.”

Shallcross noted that the club went through a two-year process to change the name and meet all Major League Baseball approvals. The Orioles were involved throughout. They don’t own this team, but it’s their farm system.

So, what changes now?

“Well, I think what changes, basically, is we want to make sure that everybody knows they are welcome in our ballpark," Shallcross said. "Anywhere within the Chesapeake - and, heck, you saw we’ve sold tickets to fans from 42 states and Maryland – but anywhere, really, in the watershed we want to be welcoming and a destination.”

Under Attain Sports, the Baysox ownership group for the last three seasons, attendance increased more than 39 percent from 2022 to 2024. Now the club hopes this renaming and rebranding can take that another step.

I originally wrote about the Baysox name change here and here.

Also noted here recently: The O’s could wind up as one of the teams involved with the Chicago White Sox in trade talks for top lefty Garrett Crochet. He has two years of team control left.

MLB Network insider Jon Heyman recently said four clubs - the Orioles, Red Sox, Dodgers and Phillies - are showing the most interest in acquiring the left-hander.

Crochet, age 25, went 6-12 with a 3.58 ERA for a 121-loss team last season. Over 146 innings he allowed 123 hits with a 1.068 WHIP with 2.0 walks per nine innings and 12.9 strikeouts. He didn’t have enough innings to qualify for league leaders but would have been first in K/9, sixth in WHIP and 10^th in opponent OPS at .642.

There is more on Crochet here.

Also noted here recently: Can O’s young talent like Jackson Holliday and Coby Mayo improve dramatically at the big league level year over year as players such as Colton Cowser and Grayson Rodriguez did?

In his first 10 major league starts during the 2023 season, Rodriguez went 2-2 with a 7.35 ERA and .956 OPS against. During that same ’23 season, over 77 plate appearances (yes, a small sample) Cowser hit .115 with an OPS of .433.

Rodriguez, as was Cowser, got sent back to the minors after those initial struggles in 2023. In July of that year he came back a different pitcher. In fact, in his last 33 games, he has gone 18-6 with a 3.35 ERA and 1.18 WHIP. He has 18 quality starts while allowing a .237 batting average and .664 OPS. His groundball rate is 45.7, and that helped him keep the ball in the park. He allowed 0.84 homers per nine since that July 2023 date. Cowser just posted a second-place finish for the American League Rookie of the Year. 

More on the O's young players is here.