The Orioles public relations staff sent out a package of extensive season-ending notes on the club and its players recently. Let’s take a look at a few of those notes today. Miguel Castro: His 73 1/3 innings as a reliever ranked as the 10th-most in the American League. He posted a 0.89 ERA when pitching on three or more days of rest. Castro is durable ... read more
Can a player with a career batting average of .192 coming into the 2019 season hit over .300? Can he do that if he was waived four times between the 2018 and 2019 seasons? If that player is Hanser Alberto, he can. Alberto stunned a lot of people this year when he became the first Oriole to hit .300 or better since 2008. His making ... read more
The look of affiliated Minor League Baseball could be in for major changes beginning in 2021. Baseball America’s J.J. Cooper reported Friday that 42 teams could be eliminated, reducing the number of minor league clubs to 120 starting in 2021. This is a proposal from Major League Baseball in current negotiations with Minor League Baseball (MiLB) as part of a remodeled agreement from the one ... read more
There was just one position this year where the Orioles used only two players for the entire 2019 season, and that position was shortstop. Rule 5 pick Richie Martin made 90 starts at short and Jonathan Villar made 72. For Martin, that was the third-most shortstop starts by a rookie in Orioles history behind Cal Ripken Jr. with 91 in 1982 and Ron Hansen with ... read more
Things can change fast in a year in baseball. Outfielder Cedric Mullins won the Brooks Robinson Award as the Orioles’ 2018 Minor League Player of the Year. Adam Jones moved over to right field that August so that Mullins could take over in center for the parent club. But in 2019 Mullins lasted just 22 games as the O’s starter in center, was sent down ... read more
Today let’s take a look at five young Orioles position players. Then give us your take on how much promise and potential they hold for future Orioles teams. Rate these five - listed here alphabetically - on future potential and upside: Hanser Alberto, Austin Hays, Rio Ruiz, Anthony Santander, Dwight Smith Jr. Alberto hit .305 in 139 games and finished eighth in the American League ... read more
Captain Obvious checked in to remind me that the Orioles will need to pitch better in 2020. He said that O’s fans have seen 223 losses and a lot of poor pitching over the last two years. The Orioles were last in the American League in ERA, bullpen ERA, homers allowed, first-strike percentage, homers-per-fly-ball ratio and rotation OPS in 2019, to point out a few ... read more
He still has the mid-90s fastball that can touch higher. He can still feature an at times devastating slider and solid changeup. He was still tough on right-handed batters this season and had a very strong stretch of games late in the year. But the season didn’t end well for O’s reliever Mychal Givens. And in 2019, he posted career worsts in ERA, homers, homer ... read more
