With all the buzzing going on in the land of the Baltimore Orioles because of the ALDS they are playing in against the New York Yankees, I’m sure that the Arizona Fall League beginning its season went fairly unnoticed last night. Each team in baseball sends a handful of players to participate in the AFL and here are the seven that are currently on the roster for the Mesa Solar Sox:
Pitchers
Mike Belfiore
Chris Petrini
Clay Schrader
Mike Wright
Catcher
Brian Ward
Infielder
Jonathan Schoop
Outfielder
L.J. Hoes
Of this group, only three managed to get into the game last night and it was a mixed bag in regards to their performances.
Brian Ward started the game at catcher and had one official at-bat, a strikeout, but he did walk twice and even stole a base. Because Ward missed the first 50 games of the regular season due to a 50-game suspension (second violation of the Minor League Drug Prevention and Treatment Program), he was apparently popped for using a drug of abuse, he lost a considerable amount of development time in the minors.
When he did return he began his season with Double-A Bowie, after having shown a good amount of improvement with Single-A Frederick (he batted .254/.339/.382 with seven homeruns and 22 doubles) in 2011, but it was pretty apparent that missing out on the first 50 games of the season really hurt him. He batted just .217/.324/.267 in the 50 games he played in with Bowie, and given the fact that he will be turning 27 years old in just seven days; his offensive development in the AFL may likely determine his future going forward, as his plus defense behind the plate won’t hold his spot in the Orioles organization forever.
He’s also going to be eligible for the Rule V draft if not placed on the Orioles 40-man roster by the deadline to do so, which I don’t expect them to do unless he has a strong offensive showing. If he’s not on the 40-man roster by the time he’s required to be to avoid being available in the Rule V draft then I wouldn’t be surprised if he were selected by a team looking to take a chance on him as a backup catcher because of his defensive prowess.
Jonathan Schoop, one of the Orioles best remaining infield prospects in the organization, managed to get into the game as a pinch hitter in the seventh inning where he lined out in his only at-bat. He ended up staying in the game after that where he played third base (interesting position to be playing if that was the plan heading into the AFL).
I find it unlikely that the plan was for Schoop to play third base full-time in the AFL, especially given the Orioles pressing needs to find a second baseman for next season (his best defensive position), but it’s just the first game of the AFL so we’ll see where he’s playing at throughout the rest of the season.
The last player from the Orioles organization that managed to get into the game last night was pitcher Mike Belfiore, and his performance was a little good and a little bad.
The good was that Belfiore came on with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh and induced a double-play to get out of the inning. That sort of moxie to get out of jams like that will serve him well if or when he ever gets called up to the big leagues, especially considering relievers are typically brought on when someone isn’t doing so hot.
The bad was that Belfiore was unable to finish the next inning he started after giving up a leadoff walk, a double (which scored the runner who walked), and a triple which scored a second run. Those two runs were the deciding factors in the game as the Mesa Solar Sox went on to lose by a score of six to five.
All hope is not lost for Belfiore though, as this is just one game, because he performed very well in 2012 after the Orioles acquired him from the Arizona Diamondbacks in that Josh Bell trade – a trade that I believe is the most underrated trade of the season for Dan Duquette in regards to our minor league system and prospects. Belfiore pitched in 28 games for Double-A Bowie and posted a 2.85 ERA over 47.1 innings of work, walking 21 batters while striking out 50.
As you can see, the potential is there for Belfiore to contribute as a reliever in the big leagues with a little more development time and depending on how the rest of the AFL goes for him, we could very well see him with the major league club during Spring Training 2013.
