Showalter talks about Avery and Hoes hitting well at Norfolk

The Orioles have two young outfield prospects at Triple-A Norfolk right now, and both of them are swinging hot bats at the moment. Xavier Avery is batting .440 over his last seven games, and L.J. Hoes is hitting .480 in that time. With the Orioles still looking for some consistent offense and down two starting outfielders right now, you have to wonder if the team would consider bringing Avery back to the major leagues. He was here for two weeks in May and, after hitting well early for the Orioles, slumped late to bat .217 in 15 games. O's manager Buck Showalter is aware that with a player that young, sometimes it could be best to just let him stay at Triple-A where his bat gets hot rather than quickly bringing him back to the majors. "There is such a fine line there between trying to leave them alone and finish off (a good season)," Showalter said of Avery. "Sometimes you are forced to cheat the process a bit. I'd like to think the taste that he got of it here was good for him in more ways than not. "I told him when he left that now that he's got a pretty good idea of what plays here and what doesn't, that he has to hold himself to a high standard. He might get away with some things there that he knows may not play at this level." Avery is 11-for-25 with a homer and four RBIs over his past seven Norfolk, games raising his average from .254 to .276. On the year there, he is batting .276 with an OPS of .806 over 56 games. "He had a big at-bat last night in the tenth inning," Showalter said. "The guy was throwing 94, 95. I'm really impressed where a lot of our young prospects are. They start out here, have a valley, and then get it going again. That's good to see." Showalter today also mentioned that Hoes has been on a hot streak too. He is 12-for-25 over seven games with a homer and five RBIs, raising his average in that short time frame from .148 to .253. "L.J. and Xavier are 22," Showalter added. "If you at look at most Triple-A rosters, there are not many teams sporting a couple of 22-year-old outfielders that are prospects at the Triple-A level. Hopefully that bodes well but everybody is real impressed."