A Few Quick Pictures...

...of some of the Norfolk Tides players from Tuesday's game. Some of these guys ended up in Baltimore this weekend and helped the team win the Toronto series.




Tides vs. Braves

Tides vs. Braves: 8/21/12

L.J. Hoes

The Norfolk Tides completely handled the Gwinnett Braves today in Lawrenceville, GA 8-0. Since I felt an acute case of baseball fever coming on this morning, I called out sick and went to the 10:35 AM start.

The Oriole highlights came early as former Dodger farmhand RF Jamie Hoffman launched a 3-run homer that just barely cleared the left field wall and Braves LF Jose Constanza's leap to give the Tides the 3-0 lead. CF L.J. Hoes' bases loaded single drove in two more in the 4th to give Norfolk the 5-0 lead and the game was pretty much over.

SP Dana Eveland gave up only 3 hits and struck out 5 over 7 innings and the Braves mounted no real threat at all. Braves' pitching issued 9 walks and walked in the other 3 Tide runs. Again, not the most exciting game to watch.

On to the individual performances, led by Hoes. He went 1-5 with a walk and reached on a fielder's choice that should have been a hit. He scorched a ball toward right field in the 6th inning but Braves 1B Ernesto Meija reached up and got his glove on it but it was hit too hard for him to hold. Hoffman was on 1st and had to hold up for a beat ot make sure Meija didn't catch the ball. If Hoffman would not have been on base, that would have been a hit for the speedy Hoes. Hoes had good at bats, worked the count and looked poised beyond his 22 years at the plate. He is hitting .369 in August and has maintained good walk rates throughout his minor league career.

RP Brian Matusz pitched the 8th inning. He gave up no runs but was unimpressive while walking one batter and striking out none. His fastball was missing up out of the zone and his breaking stuff was missing low and outside a lot. He got out of the inning with a couple of sharply hit ground balls that his fielders turned into outs but it was not hard to imagine major league hitter turning those mistakes into hits. He got himself into bad pitcher's counts on three of the four batters he faced. He may need more work.

2B Ryan Adams looks like I've seen him before. At the plate, he looked relaxed, worked the count and put the ball into play with authority. A great looking hitter and he is hitting .300 with 5 XBHs in August. In the field, he is not smooth and he made an error in the 7th.

I've never fully understood the enthusiasm for 1B Joe Mahoney. His walk rates are poor, his hit tool is OK and the value is wrapped up in his power as he slugged over .500 over the 2010-2011 in just over 200 games split between Frederick and Bowie. But that power has disappeared in Norfolk this season (.387 SLG in 120 games) and had trouble making solid contact today and could not manage a walk on a day when the G-Braves staff was giving them out freely. He'll be 26 next year and I guess the power could return. But if it doesn't, he's not going to have much value as a prospect.

3B Brandon Waring has hit 20 or more homers in every season he has played professionally. He walked twice today but his walk rates are just decent. His power is really, really impressive. Fun to watch but hard to imagine how he can help the major league club in the future.

Around the Oriole Blog-O-Sphere: Future Watch Edition

Baltimore Sports Report has a video interview with Orioles 2B prospect LJ Hoes.

Camden Crazies looks at the merits of Jake Fox and concludes that he would be a significant upgrade from Garrett Atkins. I agree.

Dean Hybl of BaseballReflections.com ponders if Brad Bergesen could be the next Jim Palmer. Not likely but Dean does remind us of the circuitous route many players take to success.

Weaver's Tantrum takes a look at the company the 2010 Orioles are keeping: the 1988 Orioles and the 1962 Mets.

Roar from 34 wonders if the "Baltimore" on the front of the road jerseys has been replaced with another term. (All you jerks who whined and bitched about getting "Baltimore" back on the jerseys can stick it. It hasn't mattered one iota in how the team is perceived. I'm looking at you WNST.)

Oriole Insider reports that the team has contacted Buck Showalter regarding their managerial vacancy.

Eutaw Street Hooligans call for a reality check among O's fans and they are correct...just not sure a guy who blogs about this team can take their advice.

A bit of Spring Training News:

Circuit Judge Bob Bennett ruled Wednesday that construction can continue at Ed Smith Stadium, dealing the first courtroom defeat to two citizens groups trying to stop a taxpayer-financed renovation of the ballpark....



"Outstanding," Orioles attorney Alan Rifkin whispered in court as the judge ruled.

Can we add this to the Oriole win column?

Checking In With the Farm Clubs - Low Minors

Delmarva Shorebirds

Garabez Rosa - SS

When I saw Rosa back in April, he looked legit in the field with good range and a big arm. Just 20, he looked good with the glove but kind of limited with the bat and slow of foot on the basepaths. Scouts liked his bat and thought he would come around.

And that's why scouts get paid to watch baseball. Rosa has been on a tear since I saw him in mid-April and has posted a season line of .294/.329/.429 line thus far. He doesn't walk (only 5 all year) but has gap power with 17 doubles in just 46 games. Of course, while his range looks good, he does have 19 errors too. I asked Shorebirds announcer Bret Lasky about him and he said he'll look great for a week or two and then have a stretch where he makes 4 errors in 5 games.

Justin Dalles - C

Justin Dalles is my latest minor league catcher crush. Dalles was a 6th round draft pick in 2009 and looked great to me during the two games I saw him play back in April. He posted a .278/.366/.472 line in 10 games (including hitting the longest homer I've ever seen live) but got laid out during a collision at the plate, not once but twice (was only back three games before getting hit again) and hasn't played since May 6th.

Here's an interview that Delmarva Shorebirds announcer Bret Lasky conducted with Dalles during his first stint on the DL.

Stephen Bumbry - CF

Bumbry is hitting well (.272/.360/.395) but not with a lot of power. Bumbry plays a good center field and shows good on base skills. He's fast, easily able to bunt for hits but is not so good on the bases as he is only 6 for 12 on stolen base attempts.

Tyler Kolodny - 3B

Imagine Kevin Millar with more power. His overall line is impressive (.260/.358/.552) even if his batting average is not. He has a decent walk rate (10%) and has slugged 10 homers in just 41 games. He has some things to work on but has a good approach and just turned 22 in March. They probably need to find space for him in Frederick by mid-season.

edit: Evidently, Kolodny has been sent to extended Spring Training due to disciplinary reasons.

Matt Hobgood - SP

Hobgood has been wild. Great stuff but wild. 25 walks in 52.1 innings, 13 wild pitches and 5 hit batsmen against his 32 strikeouts. He has induced groundballs at a 52% rate, he's only given up three home runs and does boast a FIP of 4.60 (vs his ERA of 4.64). When he gets the ball over the plate, good things happen. But he's really going to have to work on that control if he wants to have success at any level.

Ryan Berry - SP

On the other hand, Ryan Berry has been mowing the SAL down all season. With 43 K's vs just 11 walks in 49 innings. The 2009 9th round pick out of Rice has been a bit inconsistent but the overall ERA of 3.50 (3.67 FIP) is promising.

He's now in Frederick.

Frederick Keys

LJ Hoes

While at the Orioles Minor League Spring Training Camp in Sarasota back in March, I made this observation about Xavier Avery vs. LJ Hoes during batting practice:

Avery took BP and looked how you thought he would; light-hitting, shooting flares and sharp grounders to all fields. Hoes was a different story. The ball jumped off his bat and he was showing good gap power. It was only BP but Hoes is only 20. You might want to look for increased power from him this season.

So far, that has been correct. After posting ISO's of .082 and .058 for each of the last two seasons, Hoes has an ISO of .105 for Frederick with 8 doubles, a triple and a homer in 35 games. He's not Albert Pujols or anything but is a nice development. Adding the fact that he has walked more than he has struck out (24 to 17), his .290/.413/.395 line looks like a good step forward. He's got to be the best middle infield prospect in the system.

Xavier Avery - CF

Of course, I didn't see Avery's power surge coming. Since 2007, he's gone from an ISO of .057 to .078 to .095 this season. Again, he's not exactly a slugger but it's a good development to go with his speed and defense in center. He has a slash line of .280/.338/.375 through 49 games.

Billy Rowell - 3B

I was glad that the organization decided to leave Rowell in Frederick to start 2010. Promoting someone to AA after the year Rowell had in 2009 felt like they were just giving up on him. So far, Rowell has responded well by hitting .248/.364/.372 so far. Yes, it's his third season at Frederick and he's been a little lucky with his BABIP but he's still only 21. You've already got money invested in him and he could be a late bloomer like Jayson Werth was. It's better to promote a guy when he's ready and Rowell just wasn't ready to make the leap to AA yet. Maybe they can salvage some value out of him yet, even if he won't ever be the star they envisioned when they drafted him.

Ronnie Welty - OF

Frederick's version of Tyler Kolodny, Welty has good power (ISO over .200 so far) and good strike zone control (.369 OBP for his minor league career). He's OPSing .834 for the season and he already has 9 home runs vs the 10 he hit all last season.

Nathan Nery - SP

Could this be a lefty version of Brad Bergesen? 25-year-old Nery is getting groundballs at a 57% rate and walking less than 2 per 9 innings. A 3.86 ERA makes him arguably the best starter in Frederick.

Brandon Cooney - RP

Cooney's physique makes Hobgood look slim. But he throws hard and the Keys closer is dominating the Carolina League with a 0.55 ERA and 19 Ks in 16 innings pitched. Look for a mid-season promotion to Bowie.



Jose Duran - RP

Duran was a a Rule 5 selection in the AAA phase this year. Duran is an imposing figure and has been nearly as dominant as Cooney. With a 0.94 ERA and 26 Ks in 29 innings pitched, Duran could find himself in Bowie's bullpen before season's end as well.