Category: Delmarva Shorebirds

My adopted hometown team.

Shorebird of the week 6-7-2007

Jeff Moore eyes his catcher in a recent start. Moore is one of four Shorebird players named to this year's SAL All-Star Game.

The Shorebirds are sending four players to the SAL All-Star Game June 20 in Rome, Georgia. Previously three of these players (Brandon Tripp, Chris Vinyard, and Brad Bergesen) were named as my SotW honorees, so All-Star number four gets his due this week.

Jeff Moore wasn’t a highly touted prospect because, well, he’s not the biggest pitcher out there. That meant his name wasn’t called by the Orioles until the 17th round in the 2005 amateur draft. But he did have some polish as a college pitcher (out of UNC-Wilmington) so the O’s took a chance that the kid could develop. So far he has done well for himself; in 11 starts this year he’s gone 3-1 and leads the team’s qualifiers with an ERA of 2.01. Of his 11 starts, 4 are considered “quality” starts (defined as 6 or more innings pitched and 3 or fewer earned runs given up.) Most of the rest were short by an inning or so, which is the trend among Delmarva hurlers – generally they’re on a pitch count so starts don’t often extend past 6 innings.

What amazed me in looking up his stats for this post is how much control he had last season at Aberdeen. Jeff pitched 78 2/3 innings and walked FIVE. That may explain why he was 6-2 with a 2.29 ERA down there and why he was ticketed for the Shorebirds this season. A few more starts like he’s been coming up with here and he may be on to the next step up in his career. At 24, the Orioles may want to move him a bit faster up the chain if they like his progress in Delmarva.

June standings report

It’s the start of another month, and time to do my little feature I call the standings update. So I’ll put a shout out and update the readers on my favorite teams and the other local ones too.

Let’s start in my adopted hometown with the Shorebirds. The good news is that they’re out of last place now. But the bad news is that they’re stuck in seventh with a 22-29 mark, 14 games in back of the pacesetting West Virginia Power. The Brewers affiliate looks like a pretty good bet to win the first half of the league schedule as they’re 7-1/2 games clear of the second-place Greensboro Grasshoppers. With the number of games both teams have remaining in the half, the “magic number” for the Power is now 9. Behind Greensboro, Lakewood is 9-1/2 back of the Power, Lake County 11-1/2 behind, Lexington 13-1/2 in arrears, and Hagerstown is just a couple percentage points ahead of the Shorebirds. Only Hickory trails us by 1 game. But the first half pennant race could be over for us as soon as tomorrow.

And if you like teams with “Lake” in the name, you’ll love the Shorebirds. After the Hagerstown series concludes Sunday, it’s a solid month of Lakewood and Lake County as opponents. The only other SAL team with a similar block of games is Lakewood, who can complain about only playing Maryland teams for a month as they alternate between Delmarva and Hagerstown.

I’ll stay in the minor leagues for now and check up on my old hometown team, the Toledo Mud Hens. As they were at the end of April, they’re trailing the IL West leading Indianapolis Indians, now by 3 games. But at 29-25 they have the lead in the IL wild card race by a slim 1/2 game over the Rochester Red Wings. The schedule this month starts with a trip to IL East leading Buffalo. They also have trips to Syracuse, Ottawa, Durham, and Louisville in this month leading to the All-Star break, with return trips from Syracuse and Ottawa among the home games. Other teams the Hens host will be Baltimore farm club Norfolk along with 7 home games against their 3 IL West foes, including 4 with Indianapolis June 22-25.

Looking around the big leagues, it’s worth noting that Baltimore has crept back to the .500 mark with 6 straight wins. Granted, 3 were over the woeful Royals, but they all count the same in the standings. So the O’s hit the 1/3 pole with an even 27-27 mark and are actually second in the AL East. (Okay, they’re 10 behind Boston but they’re in second.) Leading up to the All-Star break, the O’s continue their West Coast trip in Los Angeles and Seattle before an interleague homestand with Colorado, Washington, and Arizona. Then it’s back out west to wrap up interleague play with a trip to San Diego and Arizona. Toward the end of the month the O’s host the Yankees and Angels before wrapping up the first half out in Chicago against the White Sox and at Texas.

Meanwhile, the Nats slog on in last place in the NL East, but they’ve improved enough to not be the NL’s worst team. At 22-32 at least they’re not on pace to lose 100. Empty RFK seats will greet the Padres and Pirates before the Nats hit the road, off to Minnesota, Baltimore, and Toronto. They then host Detroit (in a midweek series, dammit) and Cleveland to finish their interleague schedule. A trip to Atlanta and Pittsburgh and home games against the Cubs and Milwaukee wrap up the traditional first half. One thing I like about the Nats is that they’ve become a repository for ex-Tigers (Robert Fick, Nook Logan, and Dmitri Young play for the Nats now.)

Speaking of the defending AL champions, the end of May was as tough as I predicted. The Tigers have slid down somewhat but retain second place in the AL Central, trailing the archrival Indians by 3-1/2 games with a 30-23 record. They still lead the wild card by 2-1/2 over the Mariners and Twins though. (Baltimore is 3-1/2 out of the wild card, by the way. Start the playoff talk now?)

For the Detroit nine, 3 more games in Cleveland (after last night’s loss) await, then it’s off to Texas. But waiting at Comerica Park will be two current NL division leaders, the New York Mets and Milwaukee. Two other good NL East teams are visited on the subsequent roadtrip as they visit Philadelphia, Washington, and Atlanta. However, the Tigers will have an opportunity to make up ground as they host a season-high 12 game homestand heading into the midseason break. They’ll get to greet Texas, Minnesota, AL Central leader Cleveland, and AL East leader Boston – so they can immensely help their playoff hopes with a 10-2 or 11-1 homestand.

The next two standings reports will be split as I’ll do the Shorebirds at their All-Star break June 20 and the rest at the major league break in July. I’ll have an additional feature with both of these reports before the two are reunited (and it feels so good) at the end of July.

Shorebird of the week 5-31-2007

Stu Musslewhite at the plate in a recent game aginst Lakewood.

Who da man? Stu da man!

On any good team, and even some not-so-good ones, there’s a guy like Stu Musslewhite. He’s the guy who you place in the open spot in the lineup knowing that you can give the normal starter a day off and not lose a whole heckuva lot on offense or defense. While Stu’s not burning up the SAL offensively, he’s not killing the Shorebirds either because his hits seem to be timely. Last season with the Shorebirds Stu was among the leaders with 53 RBI’s, quietly racking up decent numbers despite only having a .237 average.

So far this season Stu has started games at third base, shortstop, and behind the plate. One game he caught was a complete seven-inning game (a 3-hitter) by Brad Bergesen so obviously he’s learned a bit about catching in his short time there. (Last season he played almost exclusively infield.) Unfortunately, all that bouncing around may be affecting his plate performance since he’s hitting just .194 thus far in 39 games. Strangely enough, Perdue Stadium is killing his average as he’s only 6-for-56 at home, while he’s a very respectable .265 hitter away from Delmarva.

Hopefully Stu can get the bat going in front of the home folks and bring that average up to a better level. With this onetime TCU product turning 25 later this season, it may be put up or shut up time for him careerwise.

Shorebird of the week 5-24-2007

2006 Orioles first round pick Billy Rowell gets ready for his Shorebirds debut, May 23, 2007.

Last night Delmarva fans were treated to something they anticipated back in April, the Shorebird debut of last year’s first rounder Billy Rowell. After tearing up two leagues last season (overall a .328 average, 3 home runs and 32 RBI in his pro debut, mostly with Bluefield) this 18 year old from New Jersey was expected to start the season here. Unfortunately an injury delayed his progress and last night was his first game of 2007.

Rowell started out quite well, getting an opportunity to put Delmarva in the early lead and coming through with a 2 run single in his first plate appearance. Overall he finished with that hit in four trips, striking out twice and contributing a stolen base as well. He also legged out a fielder’s choice that kept the third inning alive. So a pretty decent start to what’s hopefully a good remainder of the season for the Baseball America Rookie All-Star from 2006.

Shorebird of the week 5-17-2007

Wilfredo Perez warms up before his Shorebirds debut, May 6, 2007.

The young Dominican lefthander Wilfredo Perez is my choice as this week’s Shorebird of the Week. Despite the fact he’s had just three outings since being brought up from extended spring training May 6th (when this photo was taken it was his Shorebird debut), he’s done an impressive job in two of the three, not allowing a hit until he took the loss Monday at Hagerstown. Very impressively he’s managed 14 strikeouts in just 7 2/3 innings, while allowing just 2 hits.

The 22 year old worked a limited time with Aberdeen last season, appearing in 7 games (5 as a starter) and wrapped up 2006 with a 1-1 record and 3.28 ERA. So this is his first experience at a full-season level, and thus far left-handed hitters in the SAL don’t like him much because they’re batting a big fat zero against his offerings. Based on 3 1/3 innings pitched against lefties with one unearned run allowed, that leads me to surmise they are 0 for 11 against Perez, the run reaching on an error.

If Wilfredo continues to eat up lefties like this, don’t be surprised if he’s not in an Orioles uniform in a few seasons. Guys who can get lefties out are always in demand and if Perez stays healthy there’s no reason to doubt he’ll have a long career if he can excel at that specialty.

Shorebird of the week 5-10-2007

Shorebird hurler Pedro Beato pitches in a May 3rd contest.

This week I’ve selected Delmarva hurler Pedro Beato as my Shorebird of the Week. Expected to be an anchor of the starting staff after putting up good numbers at Aberdeen last season (3-2, 3.63 ERA and a 1.23 WHIP in 57 innings), he has not disappointed in his seven starts here – with the possible exception of having no decisions yet through those starts. Through last night’s start at Hickory Pedro is 0-0 but has a solid 2.83 ERA and his WHIP total has only increased slightly to 1.34. (For non-stat geeks, he’s walked 16 and allowed 31 hits in 35 innings pitched. WHIP is walks + hits divided by innings pitched, and a 1.34 WHIP is considered a little above average.)

The tall (6′-5″) Dominican native was a sandwich pick in last year’s draft (as compensation for the Orioles losing a free agent), the 32nd overall selection out of St. Petersburg Junior College in Florida. So obviously the Orioles brass has high hopes for Pedro and, much like Brandon Erbe last season, may give him the kid glove treatment in 2007. Just 20 years old, he’ll be given some time to develop.

If the rotation holds (admittedly a guess in minor league baseball) the next chance to see Pedro would be the Sunday afternoon game in the next homestand (May 20th). Between Pedro and another of the year’s SotW honorees, Brad Bergesen (also a Tuesday Daily Times article subject), the ‘Birds have two good pitchers who you may have to see quickly this season before they head up the ladder to Frederick and beyond. Both are pitchers I enjoy watching because they work quickly and throw strikes.

Shorebird of the week 5-3-2007

Chris Vinyard awaits action from his first base position in a recent Shorebirds contest.

Because I’m planning on being at the game Thursday night, I’ve picked my Shorebird of the Week a couple days early. It’ll be published at the normal time though based on Tuesday’s stats.

And those stats have Chris Vinyard as the secondary source of power to last week’s SotW Brandon Tripp. He’s the righty in a deadly right-left power combination.

One of a few really low-round selections on the Shorebirds club (picked 38th in the 2005 draft), he played an extra year of college ball at Chandler-Gilbert CC in Arizona before signing and starting his pro career last year in Aberdeen. While he was drafted as a catcher, Chris’s 6′-4″, 230 pound size makes him a good fit to play first base and that’s where he’s landed, splitting time with Brandon Snyder at first and playing DH on other nights. In 2006 Chris was a solid contributor to the IronBirds’ success, landing a spot on the NY-Penn League’s midseason All-Star team and garnering the loop’s Player of the Week honors last August. For the season he batted .284 in 73 games, hitting 8 homers and knocking in 47. The home run total tied for the short-season league’s lead while the RBI total was second overall.

Vinyard has kept pretty much on pace thus far this season, although the average sits at only a .247 mark. He has knocked in 21 runs in just 24 games to go with 5 homers, so the power is there. As the nights get warmer and balls carry better out of Perdue Stadium, he should easily double his home run total from last season.

April standings report

Having just wrote up my pick for this week’s Shorebird of the Week (to come up at its usual Thursday night time slot), I’m in a baseball mood. So I’m taking a break from watching my Tigers play the Orioles (2-0 Orioles, get on it guys!) to update the standings as I do on a monthly or so basis.

I’ll start with our hometown Shorebirds. April was not a good month for them, nor was the first of May (since they’ve already completed today’s loss to Greensboro, their seventh straight.) Right now Delmarva is last in the SAL North with a sad 8-16 record. What makes it worse is that West Virginia has gotten off to a blazing 18-4 start so the Shorebirds are already 11 games in arrears at a point where this half is barely 1/3 completed. Possibly the only solace is that we trail cross-state rival Hagerstown by just 1/2 game (they’re 9-16) so we can put a little bit of daylight behind us by passing them this weekend as the Suns come to town. Current opponent Greensboro is second in the SAL North, trailing the WV Power by 4 1/2 games despite playing .600 ball so far (15-10). The rest of the North in standings order: Lake County, defending league champs Lakewood, Lexington, and Hickory in 6th, followed by the Suns and Shorebirds.

Their prospects in May might be a little better. When the preliminary schedule for this season came out at the tail end of 2006, the Shorebirds were slated to begin an almost half-season stretch of consecutive games this weekend with either Hagerstown, Lakewood, or Lake County. We got a slight reprieve in the revised schedule, as our next roadtrip which begins after Hagerstown departs this coming Sunday takes us to Hickory and a return series at Hagerstown. That series with the Suns begins what’s now 59 straight games against our three familiar division foes. For the rest of the month after being at Hagerstown, we host Lakewood and Lake County before a month-ending roadtrip to Hagerstown and Lakewood.

I’ll briefly mention the Shorebirds’ parent club, as the Orioles sit in 3rd in the AL East with a 12-14 mark. They got off to a pretty good start but have faded as their pitching has worsened, particularly in the walks department. They do have some opportunities to make up ground this month though. After tomorrow afternoon’s matinee at CoPa they head home to tangle with the AL Central leading Cleveland Indians before a midweek series next week against Tampa Bay. Then it’s off on a nine game roadtrip to Boston, Toronto, and Washington, followed by Camden Yards visits from Toronto and Oakland. For Memorial Day the Baltimore nine head out on a west coast swing – first stop Kansas City to face the Royals before going into June out in Anaheim against the LA Angels. That trip extends to Seattle before the Orioles head home June 7th.

It seems to me that my Toledo Mud Hens started out last season slowly as well. Right now they’re 11-13, third in the IL West behind Indianapolis (3 back) and Louisville (1/2 game behind the Bats.) But the two-time defending Governor’s Cup champions have several of the IL bottom-feeders on their docket this month, with the exception of IL East leader Rochester for a four game set. That series is the sandwich of a 10 game trip starting with 2 in Columbus and ending with 4 in Pawtucket. They’ll begin this roadtrip after wrapping up four with the Yankees’ new AAA affiliate, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. The Hens also close the month at Scranton, and have a home-and-home series with Columbus over Memorial Day weekend. Also featured in May will be a homestand with Louisville and Charlotte in mid-month after the swing east.

Well, no one said it would be easy. The AL Central is probably the most loaded division in baseball and this year it’s already a dogfight. My Tigers are 14-11 and 1 1/2 games back of Cleveland – but once again they’re leading the wild-card chase along with the 14-11 Twins. And this won’t be an easy month for the defending AL champions. They start out by finishing the Baltimore series, then a quick roadtrip to Kansas City. The Mariners provide a little better competition, but then the gauntlet begins as they travel to Minnesota and Boston before hosting a World Series rematch with St. Louis. After the Cardinals depart, the homestand continues with the LA Angels and Cleveland. At month’s end the Tigers start a grueling roadtrip to Tampa Bay, back north to Cleveland, then right back south to Texas.

And now the Tigers lead the O’s 3-2. Keep it up!! My next standings report will be at month’s end.

Shorebird of the week 4-26-2007

This Shorebird has the hottest bat in the South Atlantic League.

There are hot starts to the season and then you have this week’s Shorebird of the Week. In Tuesday night’s win over Lakewood he knocked in the winning run in the bottom of the 12th inning, padding his league-leading average. Going into tonight’s game with the BlueClaws this 12th round pick in 2006 out of Cal State-Fullerton had the following gaudy statistics:

  • Leads the league in batting (.437), on-base percentage (.506), slugging percentage (.789), and OPS (a sick 1.295 – .900 is considered excellent).
  • He’s also right near the top in runs (20), hits (31), RBI (21), total bases (56), doubles (10), and home runs (5).

And to boot, he’s on a 9 game hitting streak, wearing out opposing pitching at a .474 clip.

In other words, Brandon Tripp is a worthy Shorebird of the Week (as well as reigning SAL Player of the Week for last week.) It’s odd because Tripp wasn’t that successful in Aberdeen last season, hitting just .221 in 43 games. But sometimes a player suddenly “gets it” over the course of a minor league career and Tripp has found something in this 18 game Delmarva span.

As the season wears on, eventually the averages will catch up to Brandon – those seeing-eye singles will find opposition gloves or those liners up the gap will just come into the reach of a speedy outfielder. But there’s no question that the potential is there for a season not unlike Jason Fransz’s 100+ RBI season two years ago. A big bat is something the Shorebirds lacked last year, so hopefully we can take advantage of it while we can.

Shorebird of the week 4-19-2007

Shorebird catcher Victor Castillo returns to the plate after a mound conference in a recent contest.

While the picture is a touch fuzzy, (it’s better now, I got a decent picture today) this week’s SotW has shown he has a clear idea of the strike zone thus far. In the 5 games Victor Castillo has played, his on-base percentage is a robust .600, aided by 7 walks in 20 plate appearances. Otherwise, he’s 4 for 12 on the young season, a good .333 clip.

The 22 year old Venezuelan is being called upon to share the Delmarva catching load this season. Last year in Aberdeen he hit a solid .261 in 43 games and showed a little bit of RBI ability, knocking in 15 to go with his one home run (in 134 at-bats). Also, Victor showed he could be useful in hit-and-run situations, only fanning 19 times all season.

More usefully to Shorebird manager Gary Kendall, Castillo is a switch-hitting catcher. This is likely some of the reason the Shorebirds only carry two catchers on the roster, although Brandon Snyder could don the tools of ignorance in a pinch.

As the summer develops it will be interesting to see how Victor handles playing in a full-season league for the first time. Despite the cold weather, the hitting has come out well – hopefully as the weather warms the bat will stay torrid as well.

Delmarva Shorebirds 2007 home opener

Local radio host John Robinson shares a pose with Salisbury News blogger Joe Albero.

…and you never know who you might meet!

Geez, I had just seen John Robinson not three hours before (more on that in a later post) and here he is with Joe Albero, who also stopped by for awhile before his next newsworthy event, the Bluelight Special show downtown. That’s one reason why I couldn’t be a politician or do news coverage like Joe does; when it comes to a game I’m there until inning number 9 or later.

But I had a good time watching the opener and getting back to baseball again. I also rectified an oversight from last year, now I’m a paid member of the Shorebirds Fan Club. And there were two things that I liked about the new ownership. One is not raising the ticket or food prices this year, at least not that I noticed. The second thing is the improved sound system, although the field hostess could use a little bit louder mike. But there were almost 7,000 folks there and I had a loud group of kids behind me, so maybe that was the cause.

On the lighter side, I know Joe has a picture of this and so did I (just not cropworthy) but Mayor Tilghman did throw a pretty horrible first pitch. I actually got a pretty good shot of Brad Bergesen’s first home pitch, one I may see how it prints.

Obviously another thing I enjoy doing at games is take photos. (Where do you think I get my SotW photos from? I have most of our right-hand hitters now, plus a few field shots.) But I also take photos of the visiting players, in this case the West Virginia Power.

The West Virginia Power battery discuss their strategy before a game against Delmarva. Left is pitcher Zach Braddock and right is catcher Andy DeLaRosa. Braddock pitched 4 1/3 scoreless innings in the Power's 2-1 victory.

I just thought that was a pretty cool shot. Normally I don’t sit on the visitors’ side so I took advantage of the opportunity.

Unfortunately, at least for this game, the struggles that characterized 2006 continued – good pitching done in by poor hitting and an untimely error. All three runs in the game were unearned, ours scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the ninth. So here were the unhappy totals:

The scoreboard shows the bad news for the homestanding Shorebirds.

Finally, one thing I like about my camera is the ability to do rudimentary video shooting with it. This seems to really work well with fireworks. So enjoy this brief snippet. You have 18 more chances at fireworks this season and (hopefully, although tomorrow’s forecast is pessimistic at best) 69 more home games as well.

Shorebird of the week 4-12-2007

This photo from last June shows Brad Bergesen in a flaming Harley uniform. On Sunday he was just that hot in securing Delmarva's first win of 2007.

At the conclusion of last season I wrote about this week’s Shorebird of the Week:

When healthy, (Brad) Bergesen was as solid as any of the other starting pitchers Delmarva sent out; in fact, of the group he likely had the most pinpoint control – allowing just 10 walks in 86 1/3 innings. But Bergesen lost two large chunks of the season to various maladies and that put a damper on what was otherwise a decent season. Bergesen finished 5-4 with a 4.27 ERA and typical of a pitcher who stays around the plate, gave up 97 hits in that 86 1/3 innings…Brad is another pitcher who I’m thinking the Shorebirds will be counting on in 2007, at least to begin the season.

On Sunday Brad proved me to be a prophet as he picked up Delmarva’s first win of the 2007 season. Bergesen threw six sparkling shutout innings, allowing just 4 hits and 2 walks. Obviously his sinker was effective as Legend batters amassed 12 ground outs (vs. 2 flyouts) and the Shorebirds racked up 3 double plays on the day. So the Orioles’ 4th pick in the 2004 draft out of California’s Foothill H.S. gets the nod as Shorebird of the Week.

More starts like this and somebody in Frederick will soon be picking Brad as the Key of the Week.