Down on the Farm – May 10, 2021

Welcome to ‘Down on the Farm’, a minor league spin-off of my weekly article ‘3 Up, 3 Down’. Every week I will highlight the three hottest and three coldest players in the Orioles minor league system from the previous week. Hopefully this will help in keeping track of the progress of the prospects playing for the Norfolk Tide, Bowie Baysox, Aberdeen Ironbirds, and Delmarva Shorebirds. Also be sure to check out my threads on the message board that are tracking both pitching and hitting statistics for our prospects.

(You can discuss this on the BSL board here.)

On Fire

DL Hall – 0-0, 0.00 ERA, 4.1 IP, 2 H, 2 BB, 1 HBP, 10 K (AA Bowie)

There has never been any doubt that Hall has major league quality stuff. Its all about the command with him to see how far he can take his natural talent. He said on a pre-season Zoom interview that his command is much improved after nearly two years away from games that count, having only walked three batters during minor league spring training. Manager Buck Britton and future hall of famer Adley Rutschman had nothing but raves for him in the same media session. His first start at AA certainly lived up to that hype. He did walk two batters and also hit a batter but he looked nearly unhittable. His fastball was sitting 97-99 mph and all three of his secondary pitches (slider, curveball, change-up) look like major league quality. The Pirates AA prospects looked like they had blindfolds on there were so many swings and misses en route to a 10 strikeout performance over only four and a third innings. They’re going to be careful with pitch counts and innings limits this season in the minors but if this is how its going to be more times than not with Hall then he is not going to be held down in Bowie for long.

Joey Ortiz – .348/.444/.565 (1.010), 3 R, 1 double, 2 triples, 3 RBI, 23 AB (A+ Aberdeen)

One of the last things I read in anticipation of the minor league season kicking off was farm director Matt Blood singing the praises of Ortiz and how much he has improved at the plate since he saw limited action with then short season Aberdeen following being drafted in the fourth round in 2019 out of New Mexico State. He already had a major league quality glove at shortstop but didn’t look comfortable at the plate when I saw him following the draft. A little bit of good weight added and a re-worked swing does seem to be paying off early on albeit after only six games. Unfortunately Aberdeen is the only Orioles affiliate without a consistent video stream on MiLB TV but his batting suggests he is finding the gap. There has been a recent influx of talent up the middle of the infield from the past couple drafts but Ortiz has the most surefire glove of the bunch so if he can hit that would give him an early leg up on the competition for 2023 starting shortstop of the Baltimore Orioles.

Patrick Dorrian – .333/.529/.917 (1.446), 5 R, 1 double, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 2 SB, 12 AB (AA Bowie)

Dorrian was acquired in 2019 from the Pirates in exchange for RHP Yefry Ramirez. The 24 year old infielder isn’t a big name prospect but he has hit pretty well throughout his brief minor league career and has played all four infield positions, most recently third base. He has only played in four of AA Bowie’s six games but he has crushed the ball when he’s in there. Not only does he have three extra base hits including two homeruns but he has four walks. Bowie is filled with guys who are lacking in top 30 prospects (outside of Hall and Adley Rutschman of course) but its also the land of opportunity when it comes to position players. So far it has been Dorrian and outfielder Robert Neustrom who have made the most of that opportunity. Playing time will be harder to come by as the higher end prospects get called up from high A Aberdeen towards the middle of the minor league season. Time will tell if a hot start is enough to keep these guys having their name written on the lineup card.

Ice Cold

Cody Sedlock – 0-0, 81.00 ERA, 0.1 IP, 3 H, 2 BB, 0 K, 15.00 WHIP (AA Bowie)

When the minor league rosters were announced I was surprised to see that Sedlock was repeating AA even after bouncing back to perform so well between Bowie and high A Frederick in 2019. I thought for sure he would start the year in AAA Norfolk’s bullpen and be this season’s Dillon Tate. Maybe the Orioles front office still has faith in him as a potential starter and don’t want to limit him to a relief role just yet. He got the start on Saturday on a day’s notice with Brenan Hanifee being pushed back a day (to a game that eventually rained out). Sedlock must not have been thrown off by the short notice because he couldn’t make it out of the first inning. He could barely record an out before giving up three runs on three hits and two walks. I’m certainly willing to chalk it up as a bad outing and something that hopefully looks like an aberration at the end of the season but its certainly not the way you want to start your season. Five or six shutout innings next time out and his ERA looks much more normal. It was a great week overall for the pitchers on the farm (AA and below at least) so that makes Sedlock’s start stick out all that much more.

Yusniel Diaz – .200/.222/.360 (.582), 3 R, 1 double, 1 HR, 6 RBI, 25 AB (AAA Norfolk)

While there were certainly worse performing players in the opening week than Diaz, he stands out for being the highest rated prospect who is the closest to making his major league debut. He also ended the week by injuring his ankle and needing to be helped off of the field after hitting a double. Since coming over as the centerpiece in the Manny Machado trade from the Los Angeles Dodgers he has been a little disappointing for lacking in offensive explosion a bit and also for not being able to stay healthy. Hopefully this lower leg injury isn’t as bad as it sounds but either way it is not a notch in the win column for proving he can stay healthy in 2021. He’s starting to remind me of Austin Hays in that way but also in the way that he is streaky due to his aggressiveness. When everything is clicking, like it was leading up to the Orioles trading for him, he looks like a potential star but when its not he can look like a bust. Monday’s are off days for all of minor league baseball so I’ll be spending my evening keeping an eye out for an injury update on Diaz before week two of the minor league season kicks off.

Alexander Wells – 0-1, 22.50 ERA, 2 IP, 7 H, 0 BB, 1 K, 3.50 WHIP (AAA Norfolk)

Wells is in that Bruce Zimmermann, Zac Lowther, Kevin Smith group of non-flame throwing lefties who have performed well throughout their minor league careers to become top 30 prospects. Some of those guys use deception in their delivery or better than expected off-speed pitches to achieve their success. Wells uses great control and working fast to keep hitters off balance. There is some worry that his fastball that barely touches 90 mph will be good enough against the lower minors but he’ll have a hard time continuing to consistently get outs at the major league level. Sunday’s start did not help assuage those fears. He didn’t walk anybody but got hit around over two innings. To be fair to him he had a rougher 2020 than most Orioles players when it comes to development. I’m sure he made strides and worked on things on his own with instruction from coaches but he got stuck in Australia, not able to travel during the pandemic. I will be patient with Wells early on. He seems like a guy that needs to be in a groove in order to get things clicking all at once. Or maybe he is reaching the ceiling for how high his skillset will take him. Its way too early to know, only time will tell.