Minor League Podcast: Analyzing the Shorebirds

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We’ve made it to Round 2 of our Minor League Podcasts focusing on specific affiliates in the Orioles’ system.

Last week, Adam Pohl, voice of the Double-A Bowie Baysox, and Dean Jones Jr., minor league reporter for BaltimoreBaseball.com, dissected the Short-A Aberdeen IronBirds and the Orioles’ 2017 amateur draft.

This episode centers on the Low-A Delmarva Shorebirds, who were 59-78 overall in the South Atlantic League.

Here’s a spoiler alert: Pohl believes the 2018 Shorebirds will be the most intriguing affiliate in the Orioles’ organization. It’s his belief that there will be several high-ceiling prospects suiting up for the Shorebirds in 2018, including last year’s top pick, young lefty DL Hall.

Much of the podcast focuses on who excelled for the Shorebirds last year, including Australian lefty Alex Wells (pictured above, center), whose impeccable control helped him win the Jim Palmer Prize as the organization’s minor league pitcher of the year.

Pohl and Jones discuss Wells’ ceiling and also the uneven (but occasionally promising) years turned in by 2016 second-rounder Matthias Dietz and 2016 11th rounder Zach Muckenhirn.

There’s also an analysis here of the son of a former Orioles great, who likely will stay retired. But his son did enough to at least keep him on the organizational radar.

Check out our second installment exploring the Orioles’ minor league affiliates, and get to know the Shorebirds a little better. Listen below or download from iTunes:

Dan Connolly

Dan Connolly has spent more than two decades as a print journalist in Pennsylvania and Maryland. The Baltimore native and Calvert Hall graduate first covered the Orioles as a beat writer for the York (Pennsylvania) Daily Record in 2001 before becoming The Baltimore Sun’s national baseball writer/Orioles reporter in 2005. He has won multiple state and national writing awards, including several from the Associated Press Sports Editors. In 2013 he was named Maryland Co-Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. And in 2015, he authored his first book, "100 Things Orioles Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die." He lives in York, with his wife, Karen, and three children, Alex, Annie, and Grace.

View Comments

acd0 says:

February 8, 2018 at 7:12 pm

Nice broadcast. It made me check the stats sites for Delmarva pitchers and I found Steven Klimek. 70.2 innings pitched in relief in 2017, 2.67 ERA, 1.02 WHIP, 9 K/9, 0.38 HR/9... He's 23 but that's a nice season!
- Dan Connolly says:
  
  February 8, 2018 at 9:24 pm
  
  Especially after a rough patch in Delmarva in 2016. He adjusted well. Good payoff so far for a 33-rounder.