While this is his third tour of duty with the Shorebirds, this is the first time Mychal Givens may be showing flashes of the potential which made the Orioles spend a second-round pick on him back in 2009. Until now, the Tampa-born high school phenom hadn’t made a successful splash at this level, putting together a .222 average in 7 games here in 2010 (his initial season), a putrid .195/0/15/.488 OPS here last year before being demoted to Aberdeen at mid-season, and until recently just a .183 mark in his first 34 games this year.

Suddenly, though, everything seems to be going right for the young Givens, who just turned 22 earlier this month. An 8-for-13 tear through Hagerstown and Lakewood has put Givens well on the right side of the Mendoza line, bumping his batting average up to a more respectable .230 mark. Considering he put up a .279/1/30/.698 OPS line in a league-leading 74 games after his Aberdeen demotion last season and followed it up with a gaudy .352/5/18/.934 OPS with the Perth Heat of the Australian Baseball League over the winter, this breakout may have been long overdue.

Still there’s a long way to go for Mychal, who has the weight of being a high draft choice on his shoulders. On the other hand, he’s probably a little ahead of the level where he would be had he played college ball – his misfortune is being part of an Orioles draft headed by fellow high schooler Matt Hobgood, a pitcher now on the shelf after shoulder surgery this year. When compared to subsequent drafts which featured high school players Manny Machado and Dylan Bundy as first-round picks, his 2009 draft class looks like a total bust.

Yet Givens can only control what he does, and while he’s likely behind guys like Machado and Jonathan Schoop on the Orioles radar screen there’s always the possibility that this recent hot streak is a harbinger of better play to come. Another year at Delmarva isn’t going to hold Mychal back, and the nearly continuous baseball he played from last June on should help him learn the game and advance.

The youngest member of the Shorebirds is not some highly touted pitcher, but his occasional batterymate.

As he turns 19 today, Venezuelan Gabriel Lino has emerged as the Shorebirds’ top backstop, playing the bulk of the time despite the team having other, older catchers with more minor league experience. The Orioles may be high on Lino because of a nice 2011 season he put together in the Gulf Coast League, hitting .282/2/11/.832 OPS in 28 games – granted, it’s a small sample size but they apparently like the bat and the fact that over his three seasons in the minor leagues Lino has erased 30% of opposing runners with a strong, accurate arm.

So far in 2012 Lino has held his own in his first full-season experience. After yesterday’s game Gabriel was hitting a respectable .245 with 2 home runs (both in the same April 15 game, a 19-2 blowout of Greensboro) and 12 RBI. His OPS isn’t as good as last year’s, but hovers close to the league average at a .681 mark. One thing he will have to work on, though, is cutting down on strikeouts – his 35 Ks is second on the team. The pitching here is certainly of a much better caliber than it was in the Dominican Summer League, where in 2010 Lino piled up 28 walks vs. 21 strikeouts in 54 games.

Since he is so young, a repeat course of low-A ball may not be out of the question for Lino even if increases his average to the .280 neighborhood he inhabited last season. One thing he will have to develop as he moves through the system is the ability to learn his pitching staff and call good games, and a lot of that can only come from experience. There’s plenty of time for Gabriel to move up the system, so he may as well get used to the grind of a 140-game season here.

It’s highly unusual for a player just out of high school to make his pro debut with a full-season team. In the case of the Orioles, kids out of high school are generally ticketed for the Gulf Coast League Orioles, where the games are played during the day in front of sparse crowds.

But this year the Shorebirds are counting on three players who have made the jump from high school, and this week the position player of the group, Nicky Delmonico, is the Shorebird of the Week.

Delmonico didn’t sign until the last possible day in 2011 as he weighed the choice between taking the Orioles’ offer and playing at the University of Georgia. He opted to turn pro, but once he signed the Orioles saw little point in sending him to a minor league team for just a couple weeks so he’s making his debut here at Delmarva.

And since Delmonico comes from a baseball family – his father Rod was a coach at the University of Tennessee and his brother Tony is a Dodgers farmhand, with a second brother, Joey, playing at Georgia – it’s obvious the Orioles felt he could handle the full-season debut.

So far Nicky has done fairly well. After a bit of a slow start, his bat heated up to post current numbers of .264/2/18 with an OPS of .776 and 16 walks to go with 25 strikeouts. Plate discipline was thought to be one of Nicky’s strong points and he’s shown a decent eye at the plate for a raw rookie. Last year’s 6th round pick is just 19 (he’ll turn 20 in July) and the Tennessee native is holding down the first base position reasonably well considering he was drafted as a third baseman and projected as a catcher.

Those positions may well be in his future yet in all but three games he’s played in the field this year he’s played at first, with the remaining games at second base.

Obviously the Orioles don’t have to be in a hurry to move Delmonico up and unless he suddenly blooms into a .330 hitter it’s likely he’ll spend the 2012 campaign with the Shorebirds. Expect to hear a lot of ‘Crazy Train’ around Perdue Stadium because Delmonico selected it as his plate introduction song and he’ll be playing a lot.

While the starters have grabbed all the attention from a Shorebird pitching staff that’s near the top of the league, the fact that several starters are on a fairly strict inning limit makes long relief a valuable position to be in. Trent Howard is an example.

Take Monday’s 4-1 Shorebird win as a case study. While starter Dylan Bundy grabbed the headlines with a superb four-inning performance, the game came down to an excellent five-inning stint from Howard. He got the win while scattering six hits and allowing one run; more importantly he gave the rest of the bullpen a breather after a Sunday doubleheader.

Howard hails from Hammond, Indiana by way of Central Michigan University. The former Chippewa was a 7th round pick in last year’s draft by the Orioles and pitched well enough at Aberdeen (3-2, 3.48 ERA with a 1.23 WHIP, fanning 45 while walking 14 in 41 1/3 innings) to merit a promotion. And while Trent isn’t a member of the rotation, 3 of his last 4 outings have backed up Dylan Bundy’s starts, making him sort of a shadow member of the starting six.

Obviously the Orioles liked something about the 22-year-old lefty and have chosen to place him in situations where he pitches multiple innings per outing. Presumably if Howard can stay healthy and other expected events take place, he can move into the starting rotation easily enough. By season’s end he may be one of the better pitchers in the SAL based on the 2-0 record, 1.86 ERA and 1.19 WHIP he’s compiled thus far.

He won’t make you forget that guy he tends to back up, but in his own right Howard has a chance to be a solid lefty starter as he works up the Orioles system.

For all but three games, John Ruettiger‘s brief 40-game professional career has been spent at Delmarva.

One of the few bright spots from a wretched second half of 2011 where the Shorebirds staggered home with a 20-50 record and a 14-game losing streak, the Illinois native and product of Arizona State University has a pretty famous uncle named Rudy but is trying to establish his own name in a different sport.

And the Orioles are noticing, as the younger Ruettiger went 4-for-11 in 12 spring training games with the big club. Perhaps they’ve seen the fact that John is sporting a .316/0/15/.771 OPS in his 37 games with Delmarva dating back to last year. And since Ruettiger won’t turn 22 until after this season, he’s at a professional level which is probably appropriate for his development but one where’s he hitting for a high average. He may be moved rather quickly, though, given that he was an eighth round selection last season by the Orioles (he was also picked in the 35th round by Texas in 2008, but chose to go to college.)

One area where John has improved his game from his initial campaign is utilizing his speed. While he went just 2-for-6 in steals last year, Ruettiger is tied for third in the league (and leads the Shorebirds) with 8 stolen bases, being caught just once.

Rolling on a nine-game hitting streak – a stretch where he’s hitting .400 – John may not make it though the entire Delmarva season without being plucked by the Orioles and promoted to Frederick; fortunately for Delmarva fans the Keys outfield is holding its own so far. But that may not last, and it’s beginning to look like Ruettiger will need a new challenge soon.

Washington Nationals farmhand Billy Burns may never get to the big leagues, but there’s a good chance he may become an answer to a trivia question etched as part of Orioles lore: who was the batter that ended the string of 26 consecutive hitters retired by Dylan Bundy to begin his professional career?

Normally when I do the Shorebird of the Week I have to look up a number of statistics, but since the younger Bundy (his brother was Shorebird of the Week on August 5, 2010, making Dylan and Bobby Bundy the first brother combination to be so honored) just began his professional career this season, the numbers are easy – 9 innings pitched, no hits, runs, or earned runs, no record, and 15 strikeouts to go with that lone Burns walk. The WHIP is a sick 0.11.

How else can you describe a phenom whose first professional game experience came in a major league exhibition game? Kid, welcome to pro baseball – now get big leaguer Jacoby Ellsbury out.  He did, but he walked the next batter – some former MVP named Dustin Pedroia. That was the only blemish on his inning pitched, just like Burns was the only blemish on his first nine innings in A ball. I guess Dylan needs to work on that control.

Something the Shorebirds are doing differently with the 19-year-old Oklahoman, as well as their other starters this season, is working in a six-man pitching rotation. The stated reason is so they can have two bullpen sessions between starts, but Bundy is also on a limit of 120 innings pitched this season. This explains why he’s only thrown three innings per start, although plans are to allow him four in his next start scheduled for Tuesday.

There’s little doubt that Bundy has the stuff to compete at the major league level, with the question only being when he gets there. My gut instinct is that we may not see Dylan beyond what would be his fifth scheduled start on April 30, with the question then becoming whether he only moves up to Frederick or has dominated the South Atlantic League to such an extent that a jump to Bowie is warranted. Since he would only have about 17 innings of work in, I tend to believe the former will be the case.

Fortunately for Delmarva fans, if the rotation holds his next two starts would bookend the upcoming homestand so you might just want to get out there. Something tells me the 2,672 fans who saw his home debut will swell to 15,000 or more (to hear them tell it, anyway) once Dylan arrives at The Show.

Making his second tour of duty with the Shorebirds and now holding down second base for the team, Sammie Starr has lived up to his name thus far on an offensive level.

The diminutive Ontario native – listed at 5′-8″ –  played his collegiate ball at the University of British Columbia, which may have factored into his low selection in the draft; Starr wasn’t picked until the 34th round back in 2010. After a reasonable inaugural season at Aberdeen (.242/0/6/.615 OPS) where he got into 35 games, Starr began his 2011 exploits with 3 games at Frederick, going 1-for-9. Overmatched there, Sammie came to Delmarva for a few weeks and hit .194 in just 9 games here before returning to Aberdeen and putting up a solid .284/2/15/.828 OPS in 23 games. Starr, who will turn 24 at the end of May, has yet to appear in more than 35 games over the course of a season so his starting job with Delmarva may turn out to be an extended audition to see if he can handle this level of play and advance his career.

And after initially holding down the ninth place in the order, the hot start by Starr has been rewarded with a push to the number 2 slot in the lineup in last night’s series wrapup at Kannapolis. While he went 0-for-4 in the 2-hole, that still leaves Starr leading the team with a .333 average (7-for-21) in the early going – more importantly, he still has an on-base percentage of .500 and maintains a .476 slugging percentage (for an OPS of .976). Part of his knack in getting on has come from being hit-by-pitch 4 times this season already – all in 3 painful days at Asheville.

As long as he continues to be a pain for opposing pitchers to get out, we won’t care just how Sammie gets on base.

Since it’s fairly likely that Glynn Davis will be among the top choices for batting leadoff for the Shorebirds this season, it seemed fitting he bat leadoff as Shorebird of the Week. Because we open on the road, it’s quite possible he’ll step into the batter’s box in Asheville tonight tomorrow night to unwrap the 2012 Delmarva campaign.

Davis is another diamond in the rough sort of player – plucked from Catonsville Community College after being passed over in the amateur draft, the 20-year-old Baltimore native impressed the brass enough after his inaugural season to appear in a half-dozen contests with the big club during spring training, where he went 1-for-6 with an RBI. (Only seven of the 27 on the “break camp” roster can claim the distinction of appearing in at least one spring training contest with the O’s.)

And while Glynn has just the 69 pro games under his belt, mostly with Aberdeen, he put up some extremely good numbers in 2011, batting .284/2/16/.713 OPS and making the New York-Penn League All-Star team. He was one of the few bright spots in an otherwise dreadful Aberdeen season as he swiped 23 bases for the IronBirds, placing fifth in the league. If not for a handful of games where he dominated the Gulf Coast League (going 10-for-23 in 6 games) and a one-game cup of coffee at Frederick (1-for-4) he may have led the league in steals.

Obviously this will be a stronger test for the rookie as he embarks on a full 140-game season, but it looks like Ryan Minor is going to pencil him in to patrol center field. A good season puts him on the prospect radar screen, and who knows? Perhaps someday he’ll suit up with the Orioles in a game that counts in his hometown.

Ryan Minor, who enters his third year as manager, will be with Class A Delmarva, along with pitching coach Troy Mattes and field coach Einar Diaz. Athletic trainer Will Lawhorn is back for a second year in Delmarva and his fourth in the organization.

Both Minor and Mattes came to the Shorebirds for the 2010 season, and Minor has a 114-166 record in two seasons as Delmarva’s skipper. Having said that, though, Ryan has also gone through two tumultuous seasons insofar as personnel is concerned. In the 16 year history of the team, only the 2004 edition (57) has suited up more players than Ryan did last season, with the 1999 squad also featuring 53 players. Ryan’s 2010 team is right behind with 52.

Diaz returns to the dugout after a season away, since he managed the former Bluefield Orioles in their final two seasons as a Baltimore affiliate (2009-2010.) The former catcher played 11 big league seasons, mainly with Cleveland. (I won’t hold that against him.) It’s the third season in a row the Shorebirds required a new field coach; Jose Hernandez was field coach in 2011 and Mike Devereaux held the job in 2010. Ryan Minor held the job for the previous two seasons before being promoted, making this his fifth season in a Delmarva uniform as a coach and sixth overall since he starred here in 1997.

At the end of next weekend’s Super Bowl, I’ll have only one thing to say regardless of who wins: the Super Bowl is over so you know what that means? FOURTEEN DAYS UNTIL PITCHERS AND CATCHERS REPORT! Woohoo!

In order of their first MLB appearance, the class of 2011 is:

• Pedro Beato, who made his debut with the New York Mets on April 1;
• Zach Britton, who debuted with the Orioles on April 3;
• Ryan Adams, whose Oriole debut was May 20;
• Blake Davis, making his first Oriole appearance June 22;
• Matt Angle, brought up to the Orioles on July 17;
• Kyle Hudson, a September callup who made his Orioles debut on the 4th, and;
• Pedro Florimon, Jr., whose first game was September 10th. He may have the record for shortest Oriole tenure for awhile since he only played in four games for Baltimore and is now property of the Minnesota Twins.

Florimon’s rapid change of scenery illustrates the fickle nature of professional baseball – in the three seasons that the SotWHoF has existed, the members are already in three other organizations aside from Baltimore. David Hernandez was traded last winter to Arizona, Pedro Beato came to the Mets via the Rule 5 Draft in 2010, and Florimon was acquired by the Twins earlier this month after the Orioles waived him from their 40-man roster.

So which former Shorebirds of the Week may be in the Class of 2012? In most cases, the next crop comes from players who are already on the team’s 40-man roster. A look at some former Shorebirds protected as such by Baltimore shows that pitcher Oliver Drake and infielder Joe Mahoney are possibilities.

Others the Orioles could be persuaded to give a shot come from the ranks sent to the Arizona Fall League. Mahoney was in that league along with pitchers Sean Gleason and Cole McCurry as well as outfielder Xavier Avery.

If you judge by that peer group, the Class of 2012 may be somewhat smaller than this year’s crop. But impressive Spring Trainings and player movement could open up other opportunities. For example, three former SotWs were involved in a pair of trades during the Winter Meetings, one which sent Jarret Martin and Tyler Henson to the Los Angeles Dodgers and the other sending Greg Miclat along with former Shorebird Randy Henry, who wasn’t here and healthy long enough to be a SotW, to the Texas Rangers.

My prediction at this stage is that I’ll have another five or six players to add to the SotWHoF next year, and at least one won’t be on this list of possibilities. For example, Blake Davis came out of nowhere this year.

It gives us baseball fans that much more incentive to await the beginning of the 2012 season, both here and at the big league level.

St. Louis had the worst record of any of the eight teams entering the post-season but managed to make the playoffs and get hot – beating teams that finished well ahead of them in the standings. But because they happened to have the home field advantage in the World Series, it may have been enough to catapult them to a world championship. Granted, Texas couldn’t pitch their way out of a paper bag in the last two games but perhaps the result would have been different had they been at home for games six and seven.

(Not that the designated hitter would have made much of a difference, but it is a slight advantage to National League teams when American League pitchers have to hit. I just would prefer pitchers get to hit in the American League.)

But I like the NBA and NHL models, where the better team gets home-court or home-ice advantage throughout. I wouldn’t even mind a model where a team with a better record only has to break even to advance (say, win two of four or three of six.) Back in the old days it was the best team in each league, based on their performance during an entire 162-game season, that played for the title. On the other hand, St. Louis has won their last two titles based on pedestrian regular-season performances but getting hot at the right time. Can’t take it away from them, but sometimes rewards should go to those who did best in the long run.

We’ll see how things go in 2012. Yet one thing we learned is that each game, each inning, each strike really matters. Just ask Texas; if they had one more strike – twice – they would be celebrating their first title. But they couldn’t get it.

But even earlier, events during the season added up. I went to one big league game this year, when I saw my Tigers play in Baltimore. This was the one game that Doug Fister lost as a member of the Tigers as the Orioles won that day 8-5. But the impact turned out to be huge, as a Tiger win that day would have changed the following:

• Instead of the Tigers playing the Yankees and Texas against Tampa Bay, the opponents would have been reversed: Texas vs. New York and Detroit vs. Tampa Bay.
• And instead of the Rangers having home field in the playoffs based on a better record, the Tigers would have had home field based on winning the tiebreaker – they were 6-3 against Texas in the regular season.

Everything counts. Orioles fans celebrated a day of otherwise playing out the string on the last day of the season as if they won the World Series because they rallied in the last inning to beat Boston, knocking them out of playoff contention because Tampa Bay came back from 7-0 down to beat the Yankees. Of course, New York had already salted away a division title so the game didn’t much matter to them.

I guess I’m a traditionalist at heart, and seeing a team that couldn’t even win its division based on a lengthy 162 game schedule get the whole ball of wax irks me. Yankee fans brag about their 27 world championships, but how many were won back in the period before playoffs began? There’s a pretty good chance they would have been knocked out of contention in many of those seasons had the rules of today been in effect.

So next year my Tigers have a little unfinished business to attend to – get the home field advantage and keep it all the way to a world championship. By the way, the Yankees won 20 titles in the pre-playoff era.

And in all honesty, the problem may run deeper than a few cosmetic changes. Let’s look at some numbers for comparison’s sake – I actually found numbers for the entire 16-year history of the club but for simplicity I’ll just put up years 1, 6, 11, and 16.

• Year 1 (1996): 315,011 – 4,846 per game
• Year 6 (2001): 268,143 – 3,886 per game
• Year 11 (2006): 217,980 – 3,406 per game
• Year 16 (2011): 211,993 – 3,072 per game

In both actual attendance and average (not to mention on-field performance) this year was the worst in Shorebirds history. Having said that, though, the Shorebirds still ranked sixth in the league in average attendance and once again was tops among the three 7th Inning Stretch (the LLC which owns the Shorebirds and two other minor league clubs) teams in both average and actual attendance. This is the fifth season the Shorebirds have been owned by the group but the eighth straight year attendance has settled into a narrow range between this year’s low and the 2008 peak of 226,754. That edition happens to be the last team which was good on the field, as they compiled a 78-61 record that summer.

With that in mind, I think I can make an assumption that having a good team would improve attendance perhaps 10 percent. It’s probably not in the cards that we’ll see another attendance record like 1997′s 324,412 (the all-time record here) unless the overall economy improves and the area begins to grow again. True, we won the SAL title in 1997 but we did so again three seasons later and attendance wasn’t markedly better than the previous two campaigns.

So what can be changed? Well, the facility is what it is. One thing which didn’t really dawn on me until recently is that, while 7th Inning Stretch owns the team, they don’t own the ballpark – it belongs to all of us who live and pay taxes in Wicomico County. Besides the annual upkeep on the stadium, it’s not likely we’re going to see a wholesale improvement in the facilities for awhile given how the county claims to be perpetually strapped for funds. That’s too bad because I (and probably thousands of others) would like to see a new video board to replace the relic we have now.

Likewise, there’s probably not a lot we can change about the food service, which to me is a bit subpar compared to other venues. Maybe Ovations needs to find a new food supplier and upgrade some of their staple items, but it’s quite possible they’re handicapped by the onsite food service equipment – and that’s a county change. My guess, though, is that they simply need to rethink their supply chain and see if we can get better products.

And since we’re not going to get the CCTV system I’ve suggested for the concession stands anytime soon I think it would be a suitable compromise if they employed roving vendors, at least for the games with fireworks and promotions. (I have seen this employed on a couple occasions this season.) Since the concessions are on a concourse with a view of the game (unlike some other parks, like Camden Yards) a CCTV system is a low priority. But could you at least make sure the radio speakers in the restrooms work?

Speaking of food service, here’s a suggestion to consider. Often I hear that some local restaurant provides the press box food for a certain night. Perhaps LORA could have a monthly event in the Hardball Cafe or Executive Club available to the public. They get more opportunity to expose themselves to a larger crowd and Ovations can concentrate on servicing the other fans.

But there are gripes I’ve long held besides the state of the facility.

Let’s take the “Bird Pen” for example. It seems to me that the idea behind the little building was to have a place where fans can interact with Sherman and the players. Well, Sherman doesn’t hold court in there and that’s fine because he should rove around the stadium. But I can count on one hand the times I recall players sitting there pregame and signing autographs. Maybe that’s up to the field management, but if you’re not going to use the building why is it there? I have no idea what its function is otherwise.

The other idea needs a sponsor (ideally a radio station) to step up, and I’m pretty sure this happens in other parks like Hagerstown. Back in 2005 there was a Thirsty Thursday postgame concert series of local/regional bands which was sponsored by what was then 96 Rock. Message to 93.5 the Beach: if you really support local music, let’s make this happen again. There are 11 Thursday nights next season – even if you skip the chilliest two in April that’s still nine bands which can get some exposure.

But don’t get me wrong – there’s a lot more good than bad about the Shorebirds, and I want to point those things out. After all, they weren’t an award-winning organization for nothing.

It starts at the top – Chris Bitters is a caring and excellent general manager who is always receptive and helpful to the fans. I salute him as well for taking the time and addressing our Fan Club meetings. They’re after hours and he doesn’t have to be there; I know it takes time away from his young family. But he listens to our concerns and if he can address them he does. I’m sure he’s reading this post because he follows my Shorebird of the Week but even if he didn’t he’d have my respect for a job well done, and he sets a good example for what I find to be a most excellent staff. I’d hate to lose the guy but I suspect someday a bigger organization is going to want him for their operations.

I also want to give a shout out to Marcellus, our on-field host. He had big shoes to fill (inside joke) but he’s stepped in and done a great job. With one exception over the seven seasons I’ve attended Shorebird games I think we’ve been blessed with a series of great on-field personalities – Marcellus continues that standard.

There’s a policy I’d like to point out as well. Those of us who are full- and half-season ticket holders get some good perks, and I’m not sure they are played up when the drive for ticket sales is made over the winter. For example, we don’t pay the $3 to park so right there it’s a savings of at least $105 a year. We also get all the promotional items as sort of an exemption from the “first x number of fans” rule, and on cold or rainy evenings when the suites aren’t being used we’re allowed up there.

On the whole, it’s apparent that if I didn’t like baseball I probably wouldn’t be a Shorebirds fan, let alone have a Shorebird of the Week or Shorebird of the Week Hall of Fame. As long as health and finances allow, I’m happy to be a season ticket holder through thick and thin. While I don’t mind the nights there’s maybe 500 in the stands, I’m sure the team owners would have a different preference.

But Opening Day next year could be special. I bet you didn’t know that a decent night’s attendance (this year’s average would be enough) will send the 4 millionth fan through the Shorebirds’ turnstiles on April 12, 2012. Yes, according to my figures the Shorebirds have had 3,997,080 watch a regular season game there.

Maybe the days of over 300,000 fans a season are gone since the novelty of the team has worn off and, let’s face it, we’re probably in challenging economic times for the next few years. But getting back to the days when seats were hard to come by for at least the weekend games would be a refreshing change. Come on, it’s less than 10 bucks a person to be entertained for two or three hours on a nice summer evening, and you may see the next baseball superstar in the making.

Besides, it’s quite likely you’ll find a certain blogger there as well, yelling “see ya!” when someone on the other team strikes out. (Yep, that’s me.) I’d like to hang around in Section 111 on warm summer nights for many years to come, but that’s up to you as well. I don’t want to be a Kinston, North Carolina and face the prospect of a summer without baseball.