Tag: Shorebird of the Week

He wasn’t on our radar screen at the beginning of 2012, a fact not surprising when the sum total of Eric Wooten‘s professional experience was 7 2/3 decent innings in the Gulf Coast League.

But since his July 8 callup, Wooten has performed quite well, picking up a pair of victories in his last three outings and salvaging the one win Delmarva earned in its just-completed Kannapolis roadtrip. His five-inning spot start on Tuesday resulted in just one Kannapolis run as the good guys won 6-1.

Yet the reason the Colorado native and 22-year-old lefty out of Central Arizona Junior College was here in the first place was his utter dominance of overmatched Gulf Coast League batters in June. In 14 GCL innings Wooten allowed seven hits, walked three, and fanned 15 while giving up nary a run. Eric hasn’t been quite that successful here, but is 2-2 with a 3.70 ERA and – more importantly – a 1.03 WHIP based on walking just 4 batters and allowing 21 hits in 24 1/3 innings.

Eric got off to a slow start with the Shorebirds, pitching to a 5.54 ERA in his first six outings. But the last two have righted the ship as he’s allowed just one run and six hits in his last nine innings and hasn’t allowed a walk in August (3 appearances.) He’s come onboard at a time when the Shorebirds’ beleaguered pitching staff needed a boost thanks to injuries and callups.

Obviously the goal for Eric the rest of the way is to secure a spot on a full-season team for 2013. At 22 – he’ll turn 23 during next year’s spring training – this is certainly attainable given his progression over the few professional innings he’s thrown. Most likely he would break camp with the Shorebirds and perhaps would return to a starting role full-time. For a guy who wasn’t picked until the 15th round of the 2011 draft, that would be a solid foundation to build his remaining career on.

To say the least, Michael Ohlman has endured a rocky 2012 season.

After being injured in a single-car accident during spring training near his Florida home, Ohlman then received the embarrassment of being suspended 50 games for violating the minor league baseball substance abuse policy. And even upon his return to the Shorebirds’ lineup last month, Ohlman has served strictly as a designated hitter.

So this truncated campaign for the 11th round Oriole pick in 2009 renewed itself in Florida as Ohlman played in a handful of Gulf Coast League games in June before being reassigned to Delmarva. As a member of the Gulf Coast League Orioles, Michael made his professional debut at first base, but only played 2 of his 8 games at that position and spent the rest as DH, similar to his Shorebird experience. This despite the fact he was a South Atlantic League All-Star last season as a catcher.

Whether this venture over to first base is a result of the shoulder problems brought on by his auto accident or an effort by the Orioles to make him more versatile, the fact remains that serving almost strictly as a DH may be helping Michael concentrate on improving as a hitter, as Ohlman is quietly enjoying a much better season at the plate than he has before. A career .217 hitter coming into 2012 – including a .224/4/51/.627 OPS season here last year – Michael is swinging an improved bat to the tune of .260 with Delmarva (19-for-73) and .265 overall counting his 8-for-29 in the GCL. Along the way he’s picked up a couple home runs and 12 RBI.

At 21 years old, it’s probable this somewhat lost season won’t be Ohlman’s last. But the remainder of 2012 may determine where he starts in 2013, while work over the winter could give Michael a new position to play wherever he goes.  We already have a catcher who’s versed at first base in Wynston Sawyer, so perhaps this is a trend the Orioles are willing to try in some of their young talent. Moreover, there’s also the factor of this being Ohlman’s third stint at Delmarva, so he may have finally mastered the SAL enough for a promotion.

The photos above show the two sides of Wynston Sawyer, a player who’s been useful to the Shorebirds this season as he alternates from behind the dish and over at first base. In fact Wynston’s split time almost equally between the two, ranking second on the team with both his 27 games caught and 31 at first base.

Meanwhile, Sawyer has become somewhat of an offensive threat over the last month. Hitting just .169 at the league’s All-Star break, his .330 clip since has raised his batting mark to a more respectable .234 average. While he’s not been a stellar hitter in the professional ranks so far – Wynston’s current mark is three points higher than his career average (and peak, having hit the same .231 in both the Gulf Coast League and with Aberdeen) coming into the season – the 2010 8th round pick out of Scripps Ranch High School in California has shown an improving on-base percentage and better eye at the plate, with a nice ratio of 31 walks to 40 strikeouts in 2012.

While he was drafted to be a catcher, it seemed for a time that the Orioles were more and more interested in seeing how Sawyer does at first base. One drawback of Wynston’s so far is his lack of ability to throw would-be base stealers out, only nabbing 7 of the 50 who have tried this year after a season in Aberdeen where he only threw out 6 of 58. So the 20-year-old may be making a transition at this level to increase his worth to the team as a whole.

But trading away Gabriel Lino left a catching void in A-ball that Sawyer is attempting to fill. If the Orioles would like to keep Wynston as a backstop it may not hurt him to repeat at Delmarva in 2013 in order to build experience and a rapport with the pitching staff. It’s likely as well that Wynston will see additional time behind the plate for the rest of this year, so he gets the chance to learn and grow both as a hitter and receiver.

After a one-day detour to pitching-short Norfolk, Zach Fowler is back within the Delmarva fold.

While his cup of coffee with the Tides was nothing spectacular statistically (two runs and five hits in three innings pitched against Rochester) it didn’t take away from the solid season Zach is having with Delmarva.

One of the older pitchers on the staff, Fowler has parlayed his experience into success over his two-year Oriole minor league career. The 23-year-old lefty is a product of Texas Tech, and despite his low draft status as a 34th round selection in 2011, Zach has pitched to a career ERA of 2.33 with an outstanding 56:18 strikeout:walk ratio. In fact, with Delmarva Fowler is averaging just barely under a strikeout per inning (35 Ks in 35 1/3 innings.) And while he only has two saves, Zach is leading the team with 14 games finished – this seems to be a year where our squad has no set closer, so there have been a number of three-inning saves.

It’s not unknown for the Orioles to strike it rich with a low-round prospect, as 2011 Shorebird Jacob Pettit was a late-pick lefty from 2010 who’s advanced all the way to Bowie. And as long as Fowler can keep his WHIP in the range of 1.0 to 1.1 at each stop up the ladder there’s no telling just how far he will advance. He wasn’t ready for the International League quite yet, but in a couple seasons Zach may make a triumphant return.

If he wasn’t in uniform, there’s a pretty good chance you could mistake Zach Davies for the batboy – that’s what happens when a slender, baby-faced 19-year-old plays professional baseball. But since he made his professional debut with the Shorebirds in April, last year’s 26th round Oriole pick – who was all ready to go to Arizona State before signing at the last minute last summer – has made South Atlantic League batters aware that he’s all grown up, with a change-up to match.

The versatile Davies began the season in the bullpen, but the promotion of another Shorebird hurler placed Zach into the starting rotation, where he’s thrived. Nowhere was that more apparent than in his last appearance Tuesday evening, where he threw a career-high seven innings in shutting out the Savannah Sand Gnats. Unfortunately, he got no decision in a duel which was lost by the Shorebirds’ bullpen 2-0.

But while Davies has only started nine of his 17 appearances, he finds himself leading the team in innings pitched with 75 1/3, to go with a 3-2 record and 3.70 ERA. Zach has struck out 56 and walked 29, which gives him a WHIP of 1.34. That’s quite respectable and better than the league average; bear in mind much of his peer group is pitching with 2 to 4 seasons of college experience. He may have been a low draft pick because of perceived signability issues in that he was committed to Arizona State, but the Sun Devils’ loss seems to be Delmarva’s gain and as Zach fills out a little bit he could add a few ticks to a mid-to high-80’s fastball.

As is the case with many high school pitchers, it will be interesting to see what the plans are for Zach during the remaining seven weeks of the season. Many high school pitchers run against an innings limit of around 100 innings in their first season, which means Zach may only have 4 to 5 starts left. So if you want to watch SAL batters try to match wits with the master of changing speeds, you may want to hurry.

For the longest time, it appeared Brenden Webb would be one of those guys who had a very good eye at the plate but wouldn’t be good at making contact. In 1,063 professional at-bats (here in the States) Brenden has drawn 181 walks but fanned an amazing 305 times, including 152 strikeouts in 487 plate appearances last season. With that in mind, consider that Webb’s 64 bases on balls is second-best in the entire South Atlantic League but his 81 strikeouts are fourth-most. It is an improvement, though, considering Brenden had the second-most strikeouts in the league (152) last year – the leader had 172 but also had 110 more plate appearances than Brenden did.

But in his second time through the league Brenden has improved his average by around 40 points, and the winter spent playing professionally in Australia couldn’t have hurt. In fact, Webb is enjoying a breakout season considering he’s never hit above .227 in any of his three previous seasons and has also established career highs in doubles (17), home runs (8), RBI (33), and stolen bases (16) in barely a half-season this year. After last night’s game he was batting .255 – improving 17 points since the league’s All-Star break with a 13-for-39 streak.

Strangely enough, Webb is one of the few minor league players who’s played four minor-league seasons without experiencing a mid-season promotion or demotion – but there’s a pretty good chance that streak may come to an end before all is said and done on 2012. While his average could be a little higher, the 22-year-old out of California’s Palomar College has probably exceeded the expectations of a 30th round draft selection and may get a chance with Frederick given the season-long turmoil in the Orioles organization. Brenden’s certainly earned it with his hard work and desire to improve by spending the winter playing in Australia.

This young Dominican dominated two levels, one in his homeland and one stateside. But Miguel Chalas hadn’t gone through the rigors of a full season, and it was determined this spring that Delmarva would be that test.

Chalas, who turned 20 yesterday, has managed to survive a rough patch in the early season and is now rounding into a starter Ryan Minor can count on for quality starts. Over his last three Miguel has pitched to an ERA of exactly 2, giving up 18 hits in as many innings and allowing seven runs (six earned) during that stretch. It’s a run that has placed his overall ERA on the right side of 5 runs per nine innings after a tough April which saw him pick up three of his team-leading six wins but pitch to a 7.63 ERA – included in that was a horrific outing at Greensboro where he allowed 11 runs (7 earned) in just 2 1/3 innings.

As I noted above, Miguel had been dominant in his first two pro seasons, going 5-1, 1.78 for the Orioles team in the Dominican Summer League and 5-3, 2.93 for the GCL Orioles last season. He ended up making one start for Aberdeen last year, allowing three earned runs and seven hits in four innings (but striking out six.)

This year has been tougher but with a 6-3 record and 4.95 ERA, things are heading back in the right direction. Since that fateful April start, Miguel has gone just 3-2 but pitched to a more respectable 3.95 ERA with 23 strikeouts and 14 walks in 41 innings. His innings were limited early on as he shadowed Dylan Bundy in Dylan’s first couple starts, coming on after Bundy threw his three innings. It was a cheap way to get a decision but Miguel received a couple wins that way despite not pitching all that well in those instances.

Chalas looks to be someone Ryan Minor can count on in the second half, since he’s on a pace to perhaps throw 60 more innings in 10 or 11 more starts. If he can keep on course there’s no reason Miguel can’t make another jump next season and continue moving up the Oriole ladder.

 

He’s been quietly successful for most of the season because he’s one of several multi-inning relievers on the Shorebird staff, but Devin Jones is one of the more promising prospects on the Orioles radar screen.

A 9th round selection by the Orioles last year, Jones has followed up a forgettable season in Aberdeen last year (2-4, 6.08 with a 1.77 WHIP) with a much better second stanza this season. Even though he has an 0-4 record, Devin has pitched much better than that record would indicate. In 41 1/3 innings Devin has allowed 37 hits but just 9 walks, and now sports a 2.40 ERA as we embark upon the second half of the season tonight.

The Mississippi State product won’t turn 22 until the fourth of July but he’s beginning to turn heads by providing a dependable 2 to 4 innings out of the bullpen when he’s placed into the game, often as the first reliever. And even with these long outings, Devin has only been scored upon in 6 of his 15 appearances, and never for more than 3 runs (April 21 at Greensboro.)

The Shorebirds have a situation which is now common among minor league teams as they seek to protect prized young arms, choosing 5 or 6 starting pitchers and perhaps as many again to handle 2 to 4 innings after the starting pitcher departs, along with an 8th inning pitcher and closer. Nine pitchers have gotten a start for the Shorebirds thus far, but of the remaining 12 who have dotted the roster five are averaging over two innings per outing. Among those non-starting pitchers, Devin leads the team with 15 appearances and is second overall.

If current trends hold, Jones should have around 80 to 85 innings to be judged by this season. And while it’s not clear just how the Orioles would like to use him in the future, Devin seems to be succeeding well enough in getting batters out to be given a future role in the organization.

 

Since being sent down from Frederick in mid-May, Matt Bywater has been a bullpen stopper for the Shorebirds.

Arguably he wasn’t a particularly ineffective pitcher for the Keys, going 0-1, 5.14 in four appearances there – and fanning 11 batters in seven innings of work – but regardless he’s returned to Delmarva, where he finished last year with a run of starts which were effective in every way but producing victories for a terrible team. Matt pitched to a 3.77 ERA in nine starts at the tail end of last season but went 0-4 over his time in Delmarva. In fact, it wasn’t until Monday night that Bywater claimed his first professional win as he pitched 4 1/3 solid relief innings to secure a 6-4, 11 inning win in Lakewood.

Matt was selected in the 7th round of the 2010 draft out of Pepperdine University, but the 23-year-old Californian didn’t begin pro ball until last season. The Orioles quickly found he was too dominant for the Gulf Coast League and brought him to Delmarva in late July, where he pitched in the starting rotation the remainder of the season. Bywater now seems to have a home as a swingman in the bullpen, as his Delmarva appearances have generally been multi-inning stints. The 4 1/3 innings he pitched at Lakewood represent his high-water mark here so far this season.

But what may get him a ticket back to Frederick is the fact SAL hitters are batting an anemic .103 against Bywater; he’s allowed just 4 hits and one unearned run in his first 12 innings since his return. And it appears Matt may have addressed the biggest knock on him by cutting down his walk rate – after allowing 41 bases on balls in 60 1/3 innings last season he’s chopped the rate down to just four free passes in 19 frames thus far in 2012.

Since the starting rotation is somewhat set for now, particularly with just four games left before the three-day All-Star break, we will probably see Matt just once more before the weekend is out. But it’s possible the inevitable team reshuffling as Aberdeen begins its season may put Matt in a starting role once again.