If I haven’t already selected a player as SotW, it’s pretty much automatic that when a Shorebird is named the South Atlantic League Player of the Week I follow with my honors. Such is the case with Mike Flacco – in truth, this press announcement from the Shorebirds reads a lot like what I would normally say.
Obviously one has to wonder whether his more famous brother may have influenced the Orioles (as opposed to another team) into selecting Mike out of Catonsville Community College – while he played his college ball in Maryland, Mike is a New Jersey native who was indeed picked fairly late in the draft as a 31st rounder. Yet Mike is into his second year of success at this level, having hit .324 with a .804 OPS in 29 games here last season. (Mike was also 3-for-19 in a late season 2009 cameo with the Shorebirds.)
Since he is 24 and in his third season at this level – although he’s only played 68 games with Delmarva, less than a half-season’s worth of work – perhaps we should expect this sort of overall performance and the 17-for-29 mark he had last week (it’s actually a .586 clip, as opposed to the .538 on the presser) just established Mike at his normal level after a seasonlong slump. Perhaps the one thing holding him back is a lack of power, since he’s hit just one home run (back in April) in over 240 at-bats here. However, he is just three back of his career high in doubles (15 in 2009) in less than half the at-bats he had that season, so perhaps Mike can wind up as a doubles-hitting machine like onetime Shorebirds Brian Roberts or Nick Markakis.
In an organization brimming with talented young first basemen up and down the chain, Flacco will need to keep having weeks like those for which he was honored to attract notice for himself and step out of the long shadow cast by his older brother.
