Tag: Delmarva Shorebirds

Few people have as high of expectations placed on them as the son of a big league ballplayer. Add in the pressure of being drafted by your father’s former team and there’s no doubt that thousands of Oriole fans were expecting to hear the name Steve Bumbry in an Oriole lineup, most believing it would occur sooner rather than later.

But the younger Bumbry has a long way to go. Drafted out of Virginia Tech last year in the 12th round, thus far the fact that he was a Hokie during the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting tragedy has drawn nearly as much attention as his exploits on the baseball field. Then again, hitting only .234/2/10 at Aberdeen in 45 games isn’t particularly noteworthy.

Steve has finally picked up his stride this year, though. Through nearly the same number of games (42 vs. 45) Bumbry has matched or exceeded almost all of his offensive numbers from 2009 – only his lack of home runs sticks out, but that will likely change as the weather warms and ball carries better. Carrying a .280 average through last night’s game, Steve has shown that he has some power potential with 11 doubles and 3 triples scattered among his 40 hits.

As with most young hitters, the keys to success for Bumbry will be having him cut down on strikeouts (54 so far) and perhaps becoming more observant as one quite familiar with his development noted on the Shorebirds blog. Since Steve just turned 22 right before the start of the season he’s nicely on pace with his development.

But when you note that his dad was drafted in a similar round (11th round/1968)  and took several years to develop before he arrived in the bigs for good (1973 Rookie of the Year), it’s not out of the question that there may again be a Bumbry in the Orioles’ oufield (for the first time since 1984) in two to three seasons.

Any good team has a good closer, but even teams which start out mediocre like the Shorebirds have so far in 2010 can have a go-to guy as well. On this team, the position is well-held by Josh Dowdy.

Josh holds the team lead in saves with 4 (out of 5 so far this season as a team) and is second in games finished with eight. But more importantly from a career standpoint is the stellar strikeout-to-walk ratio Dowdy has put up – in 13 2/3 innings Josh has fanned 19 while walking just 2. To put this in perspective, 19 of the 41 outs recorded (nearly half) have come from strikeouts, which is a fantastic ratio. For example, in a two-inning stint against Hagerstown (when the photo above was taken) Josh recorded five of the six outs via the K.

Perhaps that’s why has WHIP is a microscopic (and team leading) 0.88 as he’s given up just 10 hits in his appearances.

While Josh wasn’t highly thought of out of college (the Florida native was drafted in the 38th round last year from Appalachian State) his numbers last year at Bluefield and Aberdeen suggested he could be a fine reliever. Over 31 innings Dowdy fanned 33 and walked 12, racking up 10 saves between the two teams.

At 23, Josh’s development seems to be right on schedule for continued advancement; in the meantime Ryan Minor seems to have found someone reliable to shut the door when the Shorebirds have a lead to protect.

Making his second tour of duty with Delmarva after spending part of the season here in 2009, Brian Conley has played like a guy on a mission so far this season. Fans may recall he struggled at the plate while in a Delmarva uniform last year, hitting just .156 (10-for-64) in 29 games. The well-traveled Conley also turned in 4 games with Bowie (.143 with a hit in seven at-bats) and 31 games with Aberdeen, where he hit a much more respectable .263 in 99 at-bats.

But last year’s struggles seemed to have turned into this year’s successes as Brian has doubled his 2009 Delmarva average and then some so far, hitting .324 in 102 at-bats thus far and solidifying the right field spot for manager Ryan Minor. While Conley isn’t a power hitter, he has enough speed to be among team leaders with 3 triples and 7 doubles.

Perhaps the one knock on the Maryland native who attended Towson University is that he’s a little older than the league peer group – Brian turned 24 earlier this month. But the 17th round pick in 2008 hasn’t played anywhere for a reasonable length of time since his initial campaign at rookie-level Bluefield, so collecting a decent number of at-bats in one place may help him in the long run.

Yet if one of the outfielders at Frederick goes down with an injury or is promoted, look for Brian to perhaps continue his tour of Orioles’ affiliates by making his debut with the Keys.

The first thing you notice is the glasses. Not a lot of ballplayers wear them and his look like they’re straight from the 1980’s. But if you’re not comfortable in contact lenses glasses are the best alternative and Ryan Berry seems like he’s found a comfort zone here in Delmarva.

Including last night’s masterful 7-inning performance, in Ryan’s last 26 innings he’s allowed but one run (April 29 at Asheville.) It’s not being reflected in his won-lost record because the Shorebirds have scored just 3 runs in those starts. Overall Berry is 0-1 with a sparkling 2.23 ERA in 36 1/3 innings. More importantly, Berry has found his punchout pitch as he’s fanned 36 while walking just 7 in his 6 starts. Combined with allowing only 33 hits, his WHIP is an impressive 1.10.

Delmarva marks Berry’s professional debut, as the 21-year-old Texan from Rice University didn’t pitch professionally in 2009. He was picked in the 11th round in the draft but the Orioles chose not to assign him to a minor league affiliate, probably because Berry missed part of the college season with a strained rotator cuff. This may affect whether Berry pitches a full season here or is shut down after a particular number of innings later this summer as occasionally happens with prized young prospects.

It’s telling, though, that Berry was tabbed as Delmarva’s #1 starter ahead of other prized prospects like first-round pick Matt Hobgood. Certainly Ryan is holding up his reputation so far and shutting down SAL batters in the process.

You may recall the cup of coffee Garabez Rosa had here last season, but this year he appears determined to continue his climb up the Orioles ladder by putting together a solid season. So far he’s had a torrid start.

After last night Garabez was hitting .353 (24-for-68) in 18 games, with a home run and 10 runs knocked in. With 11 doubles and an outstanding .925 OPS, the lanky 20 year old shows signs of becoming a power threat. It’s a far cry from the measly .125 average he posted here in 11 late-season games last year. He also has a flair for the dramatic, as his home run ended a 1-0 game against Greensboro on April 20.

Rosa, a native of Cotui in the Dominican Republic, signed at the age of 17 and after a summer in the Dominican Summer League he came to play here in the U.S. in 2008. He’s spent time with the GCL Orioles (2008), Aberdeen (2008-09) and now Delmarva – this season is his first full-season test.

But by bunching multi-hit games together he may assure himself yet another move before season’s end. Since the Orioles are thin at shortstop and will eventually need to replace 32-year-old Brian Roberts, continuing his impressive hitting may put Rosa on the Orioles’ radar screen for future middle infielders before too long.

Whenever one of our players merits selection as South Atlantic League Player of the Week, you can bet that a SotW berth isn’t far behind if he hasn’t already received one.

Certainly Tyler Kolodny was deserving right out of the gate – even though he’s cooled off just a bit against Greensboro, Kolodny holds a number of league-leading ranks: home runs (6), triples (tied for first with 3), total bases (45), slugging percentage (.818), and OPS (1.215). His 13 runs scored rank 3rd in the loop and he’s ninth in RBI with 11.

Most avid Shorebird fans recall Tyler held down the third base position for the majority of the 2009 season, and his current .327 average is over 100 points better than the .226/9/42 numbers he posted last year in 107 games. This year he’s also worked a little bit at first base to improve his value down the line.

The 22-year-old Californian was picked in the 16th round of the 2007 draft out of El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills and has slowly progressed up the organization during his prior 3 years, so it wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine him in Frederick before season’s end if he maintains a reasonable facsimile of his efforts so far. Given the work ethic I see out of Tyler, I think it’s doable.

There’s nothing that getting a couple bloop hits to fall or a streak of three or four hits in a row wouldn’t do to right my SotW’s ship. A lot is expected of Mike Planeta based on his solid season last year at Bluefield.

While Planeta is off to a .160 start on the young season (4-for-25 in 6 games) he is tending to score when he gets on and make productive at-bats: in each of his six starts he has either scored or knocked in a run despite the four hits.

But at Bluefield last year the 27th round pick out of Surprise, Arizona (and Glendale Community College) put up good numbers: in 61 games Planeta hit .288 with 3 home runs and 29 RBI – he also scored 29 times and had a nice .717 OPS (on-base percentage + slugging percentage.) At 21, Mike is also the youngest on Delmarva’s outfield roster.

It looks like Planeta will be part of a four-outfielder platoon this season as the Shorebirds have some good talent out there. As I noted, once a couple hits fall in Mike’s average will be more respectable but so far he’s been quite productive nonetheless in Delmarva’s 5-2 start.

For the second year in a row, my first Shorebird of the Week hopefully turns out as a feelgood success story after a season of adversity the year before.

In 2008, we had Tony Butler for a few months before an injury ended his season. He was part of an outstanding 2008 preseason trade which sent Eric Bedard to Seattle – in return the Orioles got their current starting center fielder (Adam Jones), their closer for a season and a half (George Sherrill), another starting pitcher in waiting (Chris Tillman) and a possible new closer (Kam Mickolio.) Of the quintet only Butler has yet to see major league service.

The 2008 injury led to an abbreviated 2009 season where Tony languished for most of the time in the Gulf Coast League (0-1 in 11 appearances, 12.1 innings and a 2.89 ERA.) A brief stint in Aberdeen was a disaster as Butler allowed 5 runs in 2/3 of an inning, giving up 5 hits and 2 walks.

But the onetime third round pick out of Oak Creek High School in Oak Creek, Wisconsin still has time on his side at the age of 22. At that age, it’s not unusual for a prospect not to have progressed beyond low-A ball so a good, injury-free campaign for Tony could place him back on track and once again on the Orioles’ radar screen. Imagine getting 5 major league players for a pitcher who’s won 11 games in two seasons since his trade.