Birds Up, O's Down: Minors

Minor League players who have played well so far....and well...not so well

Birds Up:

Norfolk:

Rhyne Hughes - He's batting .390 with 2 HR, a triple and 5 doubles.

Jake Arrieta - He has a 0.50 ERA through three starts with 12 strikeouts and 9 walks in 18 innings. Hopefully the walks come down soon...

Bowie:

Robbie Widlansky - He's batting .375 with 3 walks and 4 strikeouts. He hit .340 last season with Frederick.

The pitching staff - The highest ERA in the rotation is 3.86 (Zach Britton). Steve Johnson has 16 strikeouts in 14 IP. I was at Johnson's second start and came away pretty impressed. He definitely has some control issues, but he gets the job done with solid stuff across the board. His breaking ball is his best secondary pitch.

Frederick:

Xavier Avery - He's batting .341 with 6 walks and 9 strikeouts. He has elite speed, but he's only 3-5 on SB attempts so far (30-40 last year). James F believes Avery is on the verge of a breakout season - http://www.camdenchat.com/2010/4/14/1416795/is-xavier-avery-on-the-verge-of-a

Ronnie Welty - He's batting .303 with a 1.005 OPS, although he does have 12 strikeouts and just 4 walks.

Billy Rowell - Surprised to see him here? He's only batting .231 but has a .412 OBP. He looked lost at the plate last season but he definitely didn't when I saw him on Saturday. He was patient, worked the count and did a nice job laying off pitches outside the zone.

More ups and downs below the jump.

Rick Zagone - He has a 1.93 ERA through 3 starts (14 IP). He has 11 strikeouts and 6 walks.

Brandon Cooney - He's walked 4 batters in 6.1 innings, but has 8 strikeouts. He's one of our better relief prospects.

Delmarva:

Justin Dalles - He was batting .370 with 2 HR, 4 BB and 4K before going down with an injury. He got a concussion on a play at the plate and left the stadium in an ambulance.

Garabez Rosa (one of our top international prospects) - He;s batting .326 with a home run and 6 doubles. He's got some pop, but needs to learn how to take a walk! (8 walks in 220 PA last season).

Tyler Kolodny - He was awarded Sally League player of the week and has 6 HR and a .327 batting average.

Matt Hobgood - He has a 2.70 ERA with 14 strikeouts and 6 walks in 16.2 IP. Last night he pitched 7 shutout innings, allowing only 2 hits.

Jake Cowan (I'm a BIG fan) - He has a 2.12 ERA with 18 strikeouts and 9 walks in 17 innings. He doesn't have the best command/control, but his pure stuff is some of the best in the system.

Randy Henry - Don't pay attention to the 6.48 ERA. Henry is a stud, he has 16 strikeouts with no walks in 8.1 IP. I talked to him for a while at spring training and he feels better than ever (just finished recovering from TJ). He can run his fastball into the upper 90's and his breaking ball is an above average pitch. It's a little ridiculous how much good pitching we have in our system at the moment. The Delmarva rotation is: Ryan Berry, Jake Cowan, Matt Hobgood, Jesse Beal and Tony Butler. Bobby Bundy and Henry are in the bullpen and Vito FRabizio (who is having problems with his shoulder, but would be in the rotation) is at extended spring training. Henry told me they've talked to him about whether he'll be a starter or reliever, but there's no room for him to start right now. Hopefully Berry gets pushed up to Frederick soon and Henry can take a spot in the rotation before Vito comes back.

Dempsey's Army has some good stuff on the Shorebirds, he was really impressed with Dalles: http://dempseysarmy.blogspot.com/2010/04/delmarva-shorebirds-greenville-drive_12.html

O's Down:

Norfolk:

Chris Tillman - has an 8.38 ERA in three starts with Norfolk with 10 strikeouts and 4 walks in 9.2 innings. He's allowed 17 hits in those 9.2 innings. Ouch. Now what do you think of Hernandez winning the 5th spot?

Brandon Erbe- He has a 7.45 ERA in 2 starts (9.2 IP) with 7 strikeouts and 4 walks.

Troy Patton - Very disappointing so far. 11.25 ERA through 2 starts (5.2 IP) with 3 strikeouts, no walks and 9 hits allowed.

Josh Bell - 16 strikeouts and 1 walk so far....you don't want to see the rest of his stats

Brandon Snyder - batting .174 with 16 strikeouts and 5 walks! Better than Bell!

Bowie:

Caleb Joseph - He's batting .214, but does have 5 walks and only 2 strikeouts.

Frederick:

Ryan O'Shea - He has a 7.71 ERA in 3 starts.

Delmarva:

Tyler Kelly - He's batting .191, but does have 6 walks and only 4 strikeouts.

Michael Planeta - He's batting .204 with 11 strikeouts and only 2 walks.

Nathan Moreau - He has a 10.00 ERA (4 relief appearances).

Almost all of the top prospects at Norfolk are struggling now (aside from Arrieta), Bell and Snyder need to figure out what's going on. I wish they were closer so I could go take a look. Feel free to note any other top performers so far in the comments! And as always, I'll be covering the minors the entire season at OP.