Down on the Farm – May 31, 2022

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 the Orioles top prospects.

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

On Fire

Isaac Bellony – .375/.483/.667 (1.150), 9 R, 2 doubles, 1 triple, 1 HR, 5 RBI, 5 BB, 10 K, 24 AB (A Delmarva)

Bellony continues to show that his hot start to the season for low A Delmarva was not a fluke. On Sunday he hit for the cycle and a walk and an extra single on top of it to raise his OPS to .866 on the season. That includes power 17 extra bases including six homeruns, a fantastic 14.8% walk rate, and a 141 wRC+. He has even stolen three bases without being caught even though that isn’t a big part of his game. The 20 year old outfielder is one of the last remnants of the Dan Duquette era as one of the few International signings that the previous regime made. Most of his development has come under the watchful eye of Mike Elias, Matt Blood, and the DSL coaching staff but Duquette does get credit for bringing him in. Hes a big guy listed at 6’2”, 220 pounds that has shown power and plate discipline throughout his early career. It will come down to how the hit tools plays as he continues to rise through the system. He is striking out a third of the time which would typically rise at high A where he would see more quality breaking pitches so I would expect him to stick with Delmarva for most if not all of the season as he continues to develop. If there is a level that the Orioles will let a guy get consistent at bats for an entire year it will be low A for guys that are very young for the level like we saw with Darell Hernaiz in 2021. He even returned there to start the year, showed off the improvements he made over the offseason and has since been promoted and continued to produce. Bellony has put himself in a good position, we’ll see if he can keep it going while cutting down on the strikeouts.

TT Bowens – .429/.652/.571 (1.223), 3 R, 2 doubles, 2 RBI, 7 BB, 7 K, 14 AB (A+ Aberdeen)

Bowens is a 24 year old first base/DH prospect in high A who was an undrafted free agent following the five round 2020 MLB draft so he is going to have to mash the ball and finish the year strong in AA if he is going to really get on the radar heading into 2023. So far so good. Last year saw Bowens make his professional debut and he had some high highs and low lows. Ultimately he put up a .786 OPS and 110 wRC+ for low A Delmarva and .772 OPS and 107 wRC+ for high A Aberdeen with 18 homeruns combined between the two levels. He has plus raw power that is on full display when he really connects with a ball. Repeating high A this year we haven’t seen a big power spike yet but that hasn’t stopped him from posting an .870 OPS and 142 wRC+ with the Ironbirds so far this season. He has nine doubles to go with three homeruns but the most notable improvement in his game (and this has been something on display throughout the system) is much better plate discipline. He has more than doubled his walk rate from 2021 at 17.6% compared to 8.1%. He is still striking out a little more than 30% of the time but a power bat that can draw walks during cold stretches is a good way to provide value at a position that doesn’t add much defensively. Andrew Daschbach and JD Mundy are splitting first base duties currently at AA Bowie and neither are lighting the world on fire so with his age and performance Bowens should see a promotion around the all-star break.

Dean Kremer – 0-0, 0.00 ERA, 7 IP, 1 H, 2 BB, 13 K, 0.43 WHIP (AAA Norfolk)

I didn’t think I would reach a point where I would be excited to see Kremer back in the majors after recovering from an oblique injury that he suffered right before the season started after he had made the opening day roster but here we are. After a promising debut at the end of the COVID shortened 2020 season Kremer was one of the biggest disappointments of the 2021 campaign as he struggled mightily to a 7.55 ERA over 53.2 major league innings and wasn’t too much better in AAA putting up a 4.91 ERA over 62.1 innings for Norfolk. He came into spring training and while the numbers were still rough you could see glimpses of the pitcher who looked to be a rotation mainstay just over a year ago. While he was recovering there was another player that should give fans hope that Kremer can still rebound and be an effective pitcher at the major league level, his fellow 2021 disappointment Keegan Akin. The lefty went from pitching to a 6.63 ERA mostly as a starter over 95 innings with a 1.58 WHIP to a guy used strictly out of the bullpen in 2-3 inning stints and providing a 1.71 ERA over 31.2 innings with a 0.85 WHIP. If nothing else Kremer is doing everything he could be at the minor league level as he works his way back. He has looked confident and his delivery smooth as he has yet to give up a run over nine innings of work. He is striking out a ton of batters (18) and has only walked two. I’m not sure what the plan is for him when he is activated but I wouldn’t mind seeing him be put in a similar role to Akin and see how he looks. I’m higher on him as a starting pitcher than the lefty, who I would prefer to keep in the role he is in, so I wouldn’t mind seeing him make some starts at some point if things go well.

Ice Cold

Robert Neustrom – .067/.222/.067 (.289), 2 R, 1 RBI, 3 BB, 6 K, 15 AB (AAA Norfolk)

Neustrom is having a solid if not spectacular season as an age appropriate outfield prospect in AAA even after a rough week. He is entering this week with a .244 batting average, .768 OPS, and 103 wRC+. He has 12 doubles and eight homeruns, five steals in six tries, and has made some good plays in the field with both his arm and his glove. The walk rate is down from 2021 but is still slightly above average at 9%. Meanwhile the strikeouts are down to 16.5% which is really good. The batting average is a little low but so is his BABIP at .250 so that would explain that. Neustrom is in the same outfield every day as top 10 prospect Kyle Stowers so while he doesn’t have the ceiling of a guy like that he is certainly someone that could provide plenty of value at a corner outfield position or even DH at the major league level. He isn’t forcing the issue with a week like this but if the Orioles need someone in a pinch for a short term solution due to injury or what have you, I would expect Neustrom to get that call over Stowers who I would think they want to bring up in a more permanent role when he is ready.

Moises Ramirez – .105/.190/.105 (.295), 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 8 K, 19 AB (A Delmarva)

Ramirez made some top prospect lists for the Orioles over the offseason and we did see some pushback when we left him off of ours but I did include him on my follow up of five guys who could make the mid-season update. That most certainly will not be the case anymore after posting a .147 batting average, .423 OPS, and 31 wRC+ over 107 plate appearances to start the year for low A Delmarva. In rookie ball last year he hit over .300 with some power for an OPS over .800 but only walked around 3% of the time. If there is one good thing I can say about his season so far is that he has more than doubled that walk rate up to 7.5%. He has also doubled his strikeout rate from around 20% to 40.2%. I can’t even blame it on bad luck because while it is a little low, his BABIP is still doesn’t stand out sitting at .264. He is still only 20 years old so I can’t rule out a bounce back over the next few months but as a bigger guy who has already shifted from third base to more of a first base/DH type defensively he will need to really pick it up with the bat like I talked about with TT Bowens earlier. The continually growing depth in the Orioles minors puts a little more pressure on a guy like Ramirez who saw one of his teammates released from the organization a couple weeks ago who was similarly struggling in Josue Cruz. I hope he can at least salvage his season enough to not have the same fate.

Zach Peek – 0-1, 16.20 ERA, 1.2 IP, 4 H, 1 HR, 3 BB, 1 K, 3.00 WHIP (AA Bowie)

Its really not even fair to put Peek in this spot after coming back from being on the injured list for non-injury reasons and not being stretched back out yet. He did struggle, especially in the second inning of his first start back, but he wasn’t even allowed to try to get out of a bases loaded jam leaving with two outs in the inning. Tyler Burch came in and allowed all three runners to come across the plate, inflating Peek’s ERA. I like to put at least one hitter and one pitcher on each side of these lists and at least this gives me a chance to write about his season to date. The 24 year old right handed pitcher has a 4.82 ERA over five starts covering 18.2 innings but his FIP is more than a run lower at 3.67 and he had his season disrupted for a few weeks right when he was getting into a routine. I’m still high on Peek. He doesn’t walk many batters (7.5% this season) and the stuff will strike out batters at any level (over 30% between low and high A last year). I would look for him to come out this week and bounce back in a big way, the guy has a competitive edge that will only help him in situations like these.