Shorebird of the Week – July 25, 2013

As part of a team which looks like it may finally break out of the offensive doldrums which have plagued its second-half effort – picking up 48 hits against a solid Savannah pitching staff which boasts the South Atlantic League’s second-best ERA – Roderick Bernadina led the charge with nine hits in 17 at-bats, raising his average 21 points from an anemic .219 entering the series to .240 afterward – a perfect 60 hits in 250 at-bats.

At the tail end of last year, a point where all three of the regular 2013 outfielders were already being penciled into the lineup by former manager Ryan Minor, Roderick was one of two (Greg Lorenzo being the other) who was hitting on a consistent basis. Unfortunately, we start the statistic rolls over with a new season and Bernadina’s .298/2/12/.765 OPS line was wiped away. And while he got off to a decent beginning to 2013, hitting .255 in April, he found himself sitting at the Mendoza line near the end of May. (Worth pointing out, though, is that Roderick was out for a couple weeks that month due to a hamstring injury.)

Something intriguing about Bernadina’s numbers is his reliance on our friendly confines. While Perdue Stadium isn’t known as a hitter’s park, Roderick hits .295 here compared to .182 on the road. Over the years it’s been the opposite for many players who come through here, and it’s noteworthy that the Savannah series was held here. So the question will be whether the hot hand prevails and builds up his road average as the Shorebirds begin a trip to Hagerstown and West Virginia tonight or if those less-familiar parks again take their toll. (Between the two parks, Roderick is 1-for-8 this season. He missed the initial trip to Hagerstown with the hamstring strain.)

Now the 20-year-old from Curacao (who turns 21 next month) still has time to develop, and there’s a baseball pedigree in his family as cousin Roger Bernadina plays for the Washington Nationals. He also has a potential for perhaps another 150 at-bats this year, and a good finish can put him in the .270 range for the season.

But this year has been a regression of sorts to the numbers Bernadina had at the lower levels of the Orioles’ system, where he hit .242 and .239 in 2010 and 2011, respectively. And given his brief experience with Frederick last season (1-for-13 in four games) it may take a strong finish and further average increase of 25 to 30 points to push him out of “organization guy” status into that of “prospect.” Then again, cousin Roger spent three seasons in the SAL with Savannah (2003-05) but quickly progressed to The Show in the period between the ages of 22 to 24 – can Roderick follow a similar trajectory? We’ll see.