Delmarva at Asheville: May 7th and 8th

As the big club struggles, it is difficult to maintain your passion for baseball. 13 losing seasons, going on 14 is tough to take. Especially as offseason decisions continue to, predictably, blow up in the front office's face.

But if you need your baseball batteries recharged, leave it to minor league baseball to get it done. Not AAA ball. Too many retreads and broken dreams. If your head is in the wrong place, it can be even more depressing. 

But AA or lower? It's fantastic.

I drove up to Asheville, NC this weekend to watch the Delmarva Shorebirds take on the Asheville Tourists. Ideally, I was going up to catch young phenom Manny Machado. But he hurt his knee and was not going to be playing. 

But that didn't matter for many reasons.

First there was the setting. The games were played in McCormick Field, an old field that has been in use since 1924 (it was renovated as recently at 1991). It's a gorgeous little park and it's just cozy.

Second, there was actual winning baseball being played as the Shorebirds won on both Saturday and Sunday.

Third, it's great to watch a bunch of guys who are still having a ton of fun playing ball. You can really see it. And it makes you smile

Some observations on a few of the players

SS/3B Jonathan Schoop

Big kid and won't turn 20 until October. Looks smooth and natural at short where he is filling in for the injured Manny Machado. Big arm in the field and effortless power at the plate. More on Schoop over here.

2B Mychal Givens

Givens has a batting line of .152/.235/.171 on the season so I was expecting to see some brutal at bats from him this weekend. But I didn't. He has a good approach at the plate, worked the count and seemed to have a good eye. He only went 1 for 6 but squared up the ball and hit it hard on a regular basis and walked three times over the two games. He has a lot to work on but if he puts is together with the bat, that approach will take him up the organizational ladder pretty fast. 

His speed was just OK, not a blazer. 

In the field, he was was very smooth at second, especially turning the double play.

LF Ty Kelley

The more I see of Ty Kelley, the more I like him. Of course, I like him better at second base where he played last season but the influx of infield prospects has pushed him to left field. He did show off some good range in the outfield but has an arm like a wet noodle.

Looks good at the plate though, slapping singles to the opposite field and showing some gap power when he pulled it. Only one double to show for it this season but he hit 30 doubles for Delmarva last season. He's hitting .329/.383/.342 and will turn 23 in July. It's probably time to see what he can do in Frederick.

C Justin Dalles

My latest minor league catcher crush, Dalles is back in Delmarva after suffering through injuries in 2010, most brought about by two nasty collisions at the plate. Perhaps that's still in his head as he took a step up from the plate, away from the baseline, to field a throw from the cutoff man during a play at home.

But Dalles looks in complete control behind the plate. I can't put my finger on it but there are guys who look like they know exactly what they're doing when they call the game and Dalles is one of them. He's OPSing .768 with 3 homers. Just one walk though. He needs to get his walk rates back closer to last year and the 22-year old will probably end up in Frederick by season's end.

LF Kipp Schutz 

Schutz is 23...too old for low A but his bat has come out of nowhere in his full seaosn league debut. Schutz's last two season in Bluefield and Aberdeen have been kind of "blah" and now he's one of the offensive stars of the Sally League.

He has very good pull power. He jumped on a first pitch fastball, turned on it and just hit a rainbow shot over the 36 ft wall in right field. But he swings a lot. He draws some wlaks but seems to get by in many at bats by fouling off pitches and waiting for one to hit. You have to think that will be tougher to do as he moved up the line. Still, a guy who's hitting .368/.424/.561 is pretty fun to watch.

LHP Jacob Pettit

I didn't think there was much to watch on the pitching front in Delmarva season but I was lucky enough to get to watch two of the guys I was interested in seeing. Jacob Pettit was one of them.

Pettit seemed to get stronger as the game went on.  His fastball was sitting at 87-89 mph (these are stadium gun speeds) during the first inning but was sitting at 90-91 by his last inning while toughing 93. But his offspeed stuff was what was getting the swings and misses. He has good control, always staying around the plate and gets a fair share of groundballs. If he was a righty, this would not be that impressive. As a lefty, he's kind of interesting. On the season, he has a 2.89 ERA with 28 Ks, 9 BBs and 2 homers. (37.1 IP)

He's not very athletic fielding his position but does have a pretty good move to first base.

RHP Ryan Palsha

20-year old Palsha had a fastball that sat at 92-94 and he was getting plenty of swing-and-misses from it. He is striking out opposing batters at a 10.0 K/9 rate. Like a lot of the Shorebird relievers, he also walks a ton of guys too (8.2 BB/9). 

RHP Scott Copeland

Copeland is out of the University of Southern Mississippi and looks the part of a power pitcher. He is big and he throws hard, sitting in the mid-90's the day I saw him. However, he also had no idea where it was going and when the batters caught up to the fastball, they were able to hit it a long way. 5.8 K/9 and 5.0 BB/9. Not thick enough for a 22-year old in low-A.

C Michael Ohlman

I've been trying to get to a game where Ohlman was actually playing for two seasons now. Ohlman was an overslot signing taken in the 11th round in 2009. He scuffled at the plate last year and I was curious to see how he was adapting in year two of professional ball.

You know all those things I wrote about Dalles looking completely in control behind the plate? I saw very little of that in Ohlman. He made two throwing errors, he dropped a ball that Schoop fired into the plate that should have been a sure out and he looked downright uncomfortable catching Scott Copeland. The only way I can describe it is that he looked like a guy who wans't used to catching the caliber of stuff that Copeland had. But Copeland was wild and he probably just wasn't comfortable because he didn't know where the ball was going. All in all, Ohlman did not look good behind the plate.

At the plate was a different matter. After hitting .208/.302/.293 between Bluefield and Delamrva last season, Ohlman was having a much better season at the plate before his start on Sunday. He looked completely in control and confident with his bat. He worked counts and didn't make an out all day. He had two singles, a double and a grand slam hit over the centerfield wall. He ran the bases well, had good speed and looks way more athletic than you would expect from a catcher. Ohlman is hitting .310/.388/.510 over 20 games and looks to finally be fulfilling the promise he had when the O's drafted him out of high school. He doesn't turn 21 until after the season. He needs work on his defense but it's a nice bat.

Guest Post on MASNSports.com: Orioles Have More Than One Great Shortstop Prospect

Guest post on MASN where I give some observations on Delmarva SS/3B Jonathan Schoop from the past weekend.

Baby Birds Roundup - 4/25/2011

Delmarva Shorebirds

The story in the Oriole farm system so far has been the wonderful debut of 2010 top pick SS Manny Machado. He has posted a .286/.386/.414 line for the Shorebirds with 4 doubles and 2 triples. The only thing he hasn't flashed too much of is his home run power but the gap power is already there.

Not to be outdone, fellow teenage shortstop prosepct Jonathan Schoop (he has slid over to play third base for now) is hitting .338/.419/.538 with 7 extra base hits (including 2 homers). The Shorebirds start a 9-game home stand today. You might want to get out there before Schoop and/or Machado end up in Frederick.

Speaking of promotions, that is just what happened to CF Trent Mummey according to his Twitter account. The 2010 4th Round pick out of Auburn has hit .291/.377/.509 for Delmarva and is getting a shot in Frederick after just 14 games.

Anybody have Kipp Shutz on their radar before this season? Schutz, a 26th round pick in 2006 in hitting an eye-popping .386/.453/.649. It's probably a fluke. Probably. But interesting.


Frederick Keys

1B Tyler Townsend has been very, very good when he's been healthy. And so far, he's been healthy while hitting .286/.340/.510 with 2 homers and 5 doubles.

OF Tyler Kolodny has been a low average, high power guy thus far but somehow, he's hitting .317/.417/.488 and even has a couple stolen bases. His 4-to-1 K/BB ratio does not bode well but he is one of those guys I like...a very deep sleeper.

RHP Bobby Bundy is striking out the Carolina League with a 15-to-1 K/BB ratio and a 2.77 ERA. He's one to watch.

2010 3rd round pick Dan Klein is relieving for the keys and repoertedly being stretched out to start. Klein has a 1.64 ERA and a 15-to-2 K/BB ratio.


Bowie Baysox

There's not much to like in Bowie right now. OF Robbie Widlansky is hitting .315/.351/.481 with 6 doubles and a homer. Outside of him and Jeff Fiorentino (who doesn't count) nobody is hitting.

C Caleb Joseph is off to a decent start as he tries to re-establish his prospect status hitting .270/.391/.378.

27-year old RHP Zach Clark is the only bright spot on the pitching staff right now with a 3.07 ERA and showing crazy control.


Norfolk Tides

1B Brandon Snyder is off to a good start in Norfolk with a .279/.333/.525 line including a team leading 4 home runs. Early signs of Snyder delivering on his 1st round promise? Keep and eye on him.

2B Ryan Adams has struggled a bit in his AAA debut hitting .258/.313/.306 but his approach looks good and I imagine he will hit eventually.

This just in: Josh Bell is not walking. He has 23 Ks versus 2 BB.

LHP Troy Patton has only been in two games but has a 1.80 ERA. The staff beyond him is a complete disaster.

Q&A with Shorebirds Broadcaster Brett Lasky

Delmarva Shorebirds Director of Broadcasting Bret Lasky was kind enough to answer a few questions about some of the Baby Birds. Obviously, nobody saw more of the Shorebirds last season than Lasky so I was curious to hear his perspective on some of the players coming through the Oriole farm system.


Dempsey's Army: Who was the most impressive position player you watched last year?

Brett Lasky: Amongst the guys that we’re in Delmarva for the whole season, I’d have to say Ty Kelly. He’s a switch hitter with deceptive power. His splits weren’t great last year but I think they will improve with experience. He was also the best defensive infielder that the Shorebirds had. I was impressed with Trent Mummey when he came to Delmarva late in the year. His statistics weren’t gaudy but you could tell when you watched him take batting practice that the ball just flies off his bat. Obviously, he also has good speed.

DA: The most impressive Shorebirds pitcher from 2010?

BL: Tough one here, but I’ll say Bobby Bundy. He’s competitive, young and really determined. He was outstanding in the second half of the season. He tossed a nine-inning complete game against the Hickory Crawdads – it was the first nine-inning complete game by a Shorebirds pitcher in a couple years. Bundy has a really good head on his shoulders and he is a tireless worker. One of the hardest working pitchers I’ve seen.

DA: Jonathan Schoop, Manny Machado and Mychal Givens: where are all these middle infielders going to play?

BL: I don’t think anyone but Ryan Minor and the Orioles brass know the answer to this one. What I will say is that Ryan does a great job of making sure everyone gets his repetitions. I was here when they began to convert L.J. Hoes to a second baseman. The roving instructors and the staff really do a nice job of teaching – especially when guys are unfamiliar with certain positions.

DA: Assuming his health is fine, is Matt Hobgood expected to come back to Delmarva to start the year?

BL: I know the off season injury set him back a little, so I’m not sure. Matt showed some good stuff at times last season. I vividly remember a nasty breaking ball he throw against the Lakewood BlueClaws at First Energy Park. It had some serious movement. I’m definitely interested to see how the Orioles decide to progress Matt.

DA: Outside of Manny Machado, who is the player you are looking forward to seeing play in Delmarva this season?

BL: Mychal Givens – I only had the chance to watch Mychal play a handful of games before the injury last season in Greensboro so I’m eager to see him play on a consistent basis. I talked to him a couple times around the cages and he was very mature for his age. Obviously he has a cannon for an arm and I’m looking forward to seeing what his bat will produce.

DA: Inexplicably, I am a big Justin Dalles fan. What's the word on his health this offseason?

BL: I’m a huge Dalles fan as well. I haven’t had a chance to talk to Dalles this off season. Last year was a tough year for Dalles because of all the setbacks. Hopefully, he stays healthy and has an outstanding year. One thing that I will say about Dalles is that he is a really good clubhouse guy – he got along with all of his teammates.

DA: 3B Tyler Kolodny. Great control of the zone, great power. Any word on a possible position change for him? Will he come back to Delmarva after finishing the season in NY-Penn League?

BL: No word yet on Tyler Kolodny. Raw power, hard working kid. Two things that come to my mind when I hear his name. He was always first to the clubhouse and last to leave two years ago here in Delmarva. If he were to be assigned here, I would be very interested to see what Kolodny is like as a 23-year old. Think about this – he led the Shorebirds in home runs last year with 10 and he only played 41 games.

DA: C Michael Ohlman came into the system with a fair amount of hype. At 19, was he just overmatched facing Sally league competition last season?

BL: He had his growing pains, no doubt. However, you could definitely see the potential. I remember a game last year against Lakewood when Ohlman smacked a couple doubles into the gaps and deep up against the wall. Another guy that would be an interesting watch because he has been here before.

DA: Most impressive non-Shorebird player you saw in the Sally last season?

BL: I’ll give you a couple. Everybody ranted and raved about Phillies prospect Jonathan Singleton. He’s got all the god given talents and he’s smooth at the plate and in the field. He’s definitely up there. Two guys that hurt the Shorebirds last year that not as many people talked about were Justin Bloxom and Destin Hood of the Hagerstown Suns. In 16 games against the Shorebirds, Bloxom batted .412 with 12 RBIs. Hood hit .337 with 10 RBIs against the Shorebirds.

DA: Delmarva is going to be hosting the Sally League All-Star Game this year. Are you going to get to call the game?

BL: Yeah, I’ll be on the call on our flagship radio station 960 The Sports Animal. I’m really looking forward to it. I was in Myrtle Beach back in 2008 when they hosted the California v. Carolina All-Star Game and I remember all the excitement that surrounded that game. Pablo Sandoval, now of the San Francisco Giants, won the home run derby. I’m wondering who will be the first to the majors from the 2011 SAL All-Star Game.


The Shorebirds kick off their season on April 7th at Perdue Stadium in Salisbury. Hey, you can meet Chris Hoiles too! Lots of interesting talent at Delmarva this season, get out there and check them out.