Shorebird of the Week Hall of Fame – Page 3

Two future inductees

The Shorebird of the Week Hall of Fame will have a multi-player induction class in 2011.

Tomorrow Zach Britton will take the ball for the Orioles as they wrap up their opening series in Tampa. His fate was the subject of much debate amongst fans because of a rule which allowed the Orioles an extra year of control over him if he had stayed in the minors beyond April 21. But when Brian Matusz cut short a throwing workout yesterday, it was learned he had strained his intercostal muscle and will require a trip to the disabled list, so the Britton era in Baltimore will begin tomorrow.

Britton was my Shorebird of the Week back on August 7, 2008. He’s the first 2008 season honoree to make the jump to the Show, but not the first to make it this season.

It may have been little noticed except to hardcore baseball fans, but a couple former Oriole farmhands were lost to the Rule 5 Draft over the winter – a special draft where players who have played in the minor leagues a certain amount of time but not placed on the team’s 40 man roster have an opportunity to be scooped up by another team in return for a cash consideration. The stipulation is that the player must remain on a team’s roster for the full season or be returned to the original team for half the price paid.

While pitcher Pat Egan was returned by the Milwaukee Brewers after a stint in their camp, the other major league Rule 5 pick from the Orioles indeed made his team. Pedro Beato pitched yesterday evening for the Mets, thus becoming SotWHoF member number four and the initial member of the Class of 2011. He was a Shorebird of the Week on May 10, 2007 and is the third player honored that season to crack a big league roster. Pedro is also the first to debut as a non-Orioles player, although fellow SotWHoF member David Hernandez is now property of the Arizona Diamondbacks after the Mark Reynolds trade.

In the meantime, I’ll begin working on the 2011 crop of Shorebird of the Week honorees on Thursday. It will be a bit more difficult because of my work schedule, but I’m working on making the posts better than ever.

Two former SotW players garner camp invites

Well, it’s about time. For some reason it seemed like the Orioles took forever to determine who was being invited to spring training – maybe it’s because of the question of signing Vladimir Guerrero. But Thursday they selected a total of 16 non-roster invitees and a pair of 2008 Shorebirds of the Week – picked just two weeks apart – were among them.

While Ryan Adams was an error-making machine in his season here, the guy could hit and that seems to be his ticket to the big leagues. Baseball America named him the 8th best prospect in the Orioles’ chain this year so apparently the fielding questions have been answered – of course, if nothing else the American League has the designated hitter.

On the other hand, I liked Tyler Henson‘s style of play when he was with Delmarva so I’m happy to see him latch onto the invite. He’s retreated a bit from the 20/20 I predicted he could have (just 12 homers and 7 steals at Bowie last year) but he gets his chance to shine nonetheless.

With the two additions to those already on the 40-man roster, there are ten players who at one time were Shorebirds of the Week in the Orioles’ big league camp this spring. Something tells me I may have more than one inductee to the Shorebird of the Week Hall of Fame next fall.

In the meantime, spring training starts on Valentine’s Day with the first exhibition game on February 28. Damn, I can’t wait!

Odds and ends number 23

I’m taking a day off from politics today in order to pursue some of my other interests. Hey, since I had a week unseen around here since my ‘Rushalanche‘ back in 2007, I need a bit of a break from the MDGOP race. These two news pieces aren’t really long enough to merit their own post but I wanted to share anyway.

One piece of breaking news affects my newly updated Shorebird of the Week Hall of Fame. Trading bells are breaking up that gang of mine, as 2009 inductee David Hernandez was shipped off to the Arizona Diamondbacks with fellow reliever Kam Mickolio for 1B-3B Mark Reynolds.

Of course, this also could affect the fate of fellow SotW honoree Brandon Snyder, who plays first base – he now could have a 27-year-old slugger blocking his path to a starting job.

The other piece of news regards my enjoyment of local music. Local and regional bands already have a couple radio outlets, but as part of the programming plan for a new station making its official debut tomorrow (dubbing itself as ‘the Bridge’, it sits at 88.7 on the FM dial) I’m told they plan on holding a regular show for live music from Christian bands. (A band I feature frequently on FNV called Not My Own is one of the first guests, they will be on tomorrow at 4:30 p.m.)

As you may have guessed, I’m definitely in favor of seeing local music catch a few breaks; we have a lot of talented bands around Delmarva and one thing I like to do is to promote the local scene through the videos on FNV and pictorials as part of a continuing series called ‘Weekend of Local Rock’. (I also link to a number of bands on my sidebar.)

So I hope those of you thirsty for Maryland political news indulge me with these items. I’ve gotten more appeals from would-be officeholders today and I’m sure my e-mail and snail mail boxes will stay full over the next week.

Shorebird of the Week Hall of Fame: 2010 induction

Quite frankly, I’m surprised that I only have one inductee this year for the class of 2010. Yet this man builds the SotWHoF by 50 percent, so I suppose I shouldn’t complain. It’s not all that far from the time I’ll be honoring a Shorebird player each week at 7 p.m. on Thursday (naturally this post was set to that day and time.)

So let me tell you a little about this year’s honoree.

When Brandon Snyder was first drafted in 2005 (a first round pick and 13th overall) it was a rare occasion in the last decade where the Orioles didn’t have a top-10 pick. Originally drafted as a catcher out of Westfield High School in Virginia, he first came to the Shorebirds to begin the 2006 season but struggled both at the plate and with injuries – eventually he hit just .194 here before being shipped off to Aberdeen. Quite honestly, at the time he looked more like a continuation of a series of draft busts the Orioles had endured.

But 2007 brought a more healthy and confident Snyder back to Delmarva and he hasn’t looked back since. He hit .283/11/58 in 118 games here, which was really good considering he changed positions to become a first baseman. Brandon did even better at Frederick in 2008, and aside from a brief rehab stint at Aberdeen this season has steadily moved up the chain after a position change to first base. It culminated with his September callup to the Orioles and 20 at-bats with the big club.

Along with the new inductee, I have also updated the status of the two current members of the SotWHoF, Brad Bergesen and David Hernandez. With more former SotW honorees (there are now eight, including the three already in) added to the Orioles’ 40-man roster, the chances are excellent there will have more than one in the Class of 2011.

With the page updated over the last couple days, it’s now restored to its rightful position on the blog header.