Shorebird of the Week – April 15, 2010

Mike Planeta looks out at his new baseball home before a game on April 6, 2010.

Standing at third, Mike Planeta consults with manager Ryan Minor. Photo by Kimberley Corkran.

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.

Shorebird of the Week – April 8, 2010

Tony Butler drew the start for Tuesday's exhibition game against Salisbury University. Photo by Kimberley Corkran.

Before his April 6 start, Tony Butler was long tossing in the outfield. Photo by Kimberley Corkran.

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.