Some of the Orioles' top hitting prospects get off to good starts on farm

Let's take a quick look at the Orioles' minor league teams so far. It's very early obviously, but right now none of the O's teams at Triple-A Norfolk, Double-A Bowie, Single-A Frederick or Single-A Delmarva have a winning record.

Norfolk is 2-6 and has scored just 24 runs with a 5.70 team ERA. Bowie is 1-7 with a 6.17 team ERA. Both the Keys and Shorebirds are 4-5.

However, some of the O's better hitting prospects have gotten off to good starts. At Bowie, first baseman Trey Mancini is hitting .310 with two doubles, four homers, seven RBIs and a slugging percentage of .793.

Even though he won the Eastern League batting title last year, Mancini has begun this season back at Double-A. O's officials have said there is a chance he could quickly move to Triple-A. Mancini was asked if he thought so, too.

"I think there's a chance," he said. "I just have to play well. A big thing for me is to try to not do too much. Don't worry about trying to repeat what I did last year. It's a new year. Just need to play hard every day and go with the same mindset I had most of last year. That is the important thing for me to move up."

Catcher Chance Sisco, the O's No. 3 rated prospect according to Baseball America, is batting .292 through seven games with three doubles and four RBIs. Sisco, who moved up to Bowie late last year, is batting .389 (7-for-18) during a five-game hitting streak.

At Norfolk, outfielder Dariel Alvarez is batting .355 but with just one extra-base hit (a double) through eight games. He went 3-for-4 last night. As we've seen before, Alvarez has both a low walk and low strikeouts total with three of each.

Outfielder Xavier Avery, who was among the Orioles' last cuts before opening day, is batting .250 (5-for-20) with a triple and seven strikeouts. Henry Urrutia is batting .389 (7-for-18) with an RBI.

Frederick's Cam Kneeland is batting .407 (11-for-27) to lead all O's minor leaguers with five doubles and four RBIs. The 25-year-old Kneeland was never drafted and signed by the Orioles as a free agent in November 2013 after he had played independent league ball. He played in college at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell. Last year, he hit .311 in the second-half for Delmarva.

The Keys' 19-year-old third baseman Jomar Reyes is the youngest player in the Carolina League, according to Baseball America. He is batting .281 for Frederick with two doubles, a triple, a homer and four RBIs. He is 4-for-8 versus left-handed pitchers with a respectable six walks to eight strikeouts through his first 32 at-bats at this level. He is clearly holding his own well for such a young kid.

At Delmarva, Calvert Hall product Alex Murphy is batting .371 with five doubles, a homer, nine RBIs and a slugging percentage of .600. He already has four multi-hit games. Outfielder DJ Stewart has gotten off to a .120 (3-for-25) start and shortstop Ryan Mountcastle is batting .167 (5-for-30).

The Orioles today released pitcher Todd Redmond, who was on the Norfolk roster. He went 0-2 with an ERA of 27.00 in two starts for the Tides. Last night, he gave up six runs in 1 2/3 innings against Gwinnett.