Johnny Rizer is playing all three outfield positions for Double-A Bowie. That versatility might bode well for a potential callup to the Orioles late this season.
“I am covering ground, being able to play left, center, right,” Rizer told BaltimoreBaseball.com. “I am not too nervous. I am just having fun and just seeing the ball. I think it’s pretty easy. I’ve gotten exposure at all three [positions]. I am probably most confident at center.”
Rizer spent just one month at High-A Aberdeen, where he batted .288 with six doubles, three homers, and eight RBIs in 15 games. He was promoted to Bowie on June 1st and went 12-for-28 (.429) with a home run and a triple in his first week with the Baysox.
“I was just going out there in Aberdeen and, if they wanted to promote me, then I was ready for it,” Rizer said. “Coming from Aberdeen to Bowie, it’s like, ‘wow, they’re two great teams that match pretty well.’ It’s very exciting. We have a lot of prospects and a lot of great players coming up through the ranks. In the next couple of years, it’s going to play out very well.”
Rizer was selected in the seventh round (198th overall) by the Orioles in the 2019 Major League Baseball draft from Texas Christian, where he slashed .315/.383/.535 with 11 home runs in his senior year. He was the third outfielder taken by the Orioles in that draft behind Kyle Stowers and Zach Watson.
In 2019, Rizer played 63 games between Aberdeen, which was then a short-season club, and Low-A Delmarva and batted .308/.365/.456. He only struck out once every 5.27 at-bats and hit for the cycle with the IronBirds against Staten Island.
“Just getting in the box and competing,” Rizer said. “That’s a big part of my success — every time I step into the box, it’s a big at-bat. You just don’t want to give at-bats away. I’m just going to keep working hard and whatever happens, happens.”
Rizer has made a smooth transition to Double A.
“You can definitely tell the difference with the pitchers throwing strikes and commanding their offspeed or trying to attack with the fastball,” Rizer said. “They’re trying to expose my weaknesses, which I would say I am swinging at some pitches out of the zone, maybe some that are offspeed,” Rizer said.
If Rizer keeps producing, he could be a late-season call-up. That prospect is on his radar.
“My goal is as soon as possible,” Rizer said about a potential promotion to the Orioles. “Keep on hitting, keep on doing well and maybe a September call-up would be awesome. If not, maybe next year.”
Leyba stays hot: Third baseman Domingo Leyba homered in three consecutive games for Triple-A Norfolk. He also had four RBIs in an 8-0 win over the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp on Friday night.
Leyba, 25, was claimed off waivers from Arizona on June 4th and made his debut for the Tides two days later. He is a switch-hitter who can play shortstop, second base and third base.
Leyba hit a grand slam and had an RBI single on June 9th, followed by a solo home run the following day. He drove in 10 runs in three games for the Tides before going 0-4 on Saturday.
He appeared in 34 major-league games (54 plate appearances) for the Diamondbacks, batting .149 with five RBIs, two doubles and a triple.
Sedlock dominates: Bowie right-hander Cody Sedlock has allowed two runs in the last 16 2/3 innings and has a 1.08 ERA in his last four starts.
Sedlock was selected by the Orioles in the first round (No. 27 overall) of the 2016 draft and finished last season ranked as the No. 25 Orioles prospect, according to Baseball America.
Sedlock is 1-0 with a 3.43 ERA and one save in six appearances (four starts) this season.
“Sedlock is a starter and he’s going to pitch multiple innings,” Baysox manager Buck Britton said. “Whether it’s the front end of a tandem or the back end, it may rotate, but he’s definitely a guy who’s going to throw a lot of innings for us.”
Streak for Hernaiz: Delmarva infielder Darell Hernaiz has reached base in 26 consecutive games. During the streak, Hernaiz is slashing .296/.328/.698 with two homers and 15 RBIs. Hernaiz plays multiple positions in the infield — second, shortstop and third.
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Bla bla bla I’m tired of hearing bout all these potential stars for us. Bring them up, if we are going to keep losing let’s do it with our future players not one year ones
Bee! Succint ... to the point and spot! Where have you been for the past 3 years? I'm with you bra, bring on the future already.
Yes! Definitely! Let's lose a year of club control of a player during the Orioles future glory days by bringing up players too quickly to the MLB club so Bumble Bee can watch the Orioles lose with future players! Yes! Definitely!
Just curious U-O. Timing is everything, of course. You seem to me, based on your comments, fully sold (bought in) on Elias's rebuild plan. Delaying a year, for the sake of "player control", can't help but also lengthen the rebuild time. The rebuild time matters to a lot of us on this thread. Matters A LOT. The owners reluctance to fund a decent payroll is the engine driving (stalling ?) this rebuild.
If we less patient fans have to endure this AA (I believe Bowie could take us best of 7) team for 4 more years ..... don't begrudge our wish to see glimpses of our AA stars. Bring up the young guys. Let's see what they can do in the bigs. If we're drafting & developing correctly, players we lose control over are replaced quickly by the pipeline. Forgive the verbosity. Succinct be damned
Have you considered that these players aren't ready to face the Gerritt Coles, Lance Lynns and Tyler Glasnows? Refer back to the article. "You can definitely tell the difference with the pitchers throwing strikes and commanding their offspeed or trying to attack with the fastball.” Riser's talking about the difference between High A and Double A! Let him and the others master Double A pitching and experience winning before bringing them up to a losing major league clubhouse. You want to see them now? Drive to Bowie. It's probably a lot safer then traveling through Baltimore on the way to Camden Yards.
Pitching. Rodriguez, Sedlock, D L Hall, and maybe Grenier
Read the article ? No one mentioned Rizer. Player control and starting the clock. Read the comments. On some of that AA pitching....yes start the clock.
And throw in Rutschman ! He's a defensive improvement over now, but he'll struggle to hit at some point. Everyone does.
Hallbe, I was simply using Rizer's comments to support my claim that rushing players to the majors (which is what the comment thread was about) might be setting them up for failure.
Agree BB, ignore the negativity, best way to find out if they can or not...go O’s...
They bring players up from AA to majors all the time… ex: Manny for one. You forget that a year was lost due to the virus. Once again , Elias was left with a mess. You wanna blame somebody, blame Danny and Bucky
Remember though every team lost that year to COVID...go O’s...
Rizer seems to be a Cedric Mullins type. Good hitter some speed and a good defender. Sedlock needs to stay healthy. Seems like he could pitch in any role. I think obviously you try him out as a starter and if that doesn’t work put him the bullpen. He was a reliever in college. Leyba is another depth piece. He was 0-22 to start the year with Arizona. He got dfa by a team that is surprisingly worse then we are. Just call up Jones and be done with it
Sedlock was a reliever his first two seasons at Illinois and then started 14 games with 0 relief appearances in his last season at Illinois in 2016.
That's a racist statement.
Hallbe, I was using Rizer's comment to support the fact that rushing prospects for the future (which is what the comments were about) might be setting them up for failure.
I understand Raveonjo
Or it might be the start of a HOF career....go O’s...
Rizer=McKenna part 2,Leyba a replacement for Franco?--doubt it but worth watching(how's his D Todd?),Sedlock-the real story here. Can he? That would be awesome. Worth watching.
His defense is solid — definitely a player to keep an eye on.
His defense at SS is pretty suspect IMO. Might rate "solid" at 2B and 3B.
Lumping his MLB stats across two seasons into single batting average doesn't show the whole picture. He had an 0.807 OPS over 30 PAs in 2019 and then went 0-22 with ARZ earlier this season. 2019 showed some promise...feel free to stealth edit this comment TK
Picking on the Eastern European decendents AGAIN UO? How racist.
You mean...the numbers don’t show the whole picture, seems that has been said before & you discounted it....maybe you should try the eye test...lol...go O’s...
Thanks Todd for a solid article and good information. I wish these young guys the best. Of course, the process can’t go fast enough.
Valaika and Wilkerson have shown they are marginal at best MLBers. Why not give Leyba a chance to show he is better
Sedlock should get promoted to Norfolk and get a taste of Baltimore this year. Same with Baumann. Get them primed for the big leagues soon.
You see the stats for Baumann's first 3 games with Bowie this season?
But the numbers don’t tell the whole story here either...lmao...go O’s...
Agree Bman
Sedlock should be fast tracked. Lost year last season and injury before that, but he’s already 25. Time to find out if he’s got what it takes to stick.
Exactly. They need time to develop but some of these “older” guys need to be fast tracked to the big leagues.
Not so fast my "friends"...Sedlock's WHIP at Bowie is a robust 1.667 so far this season and Baumann had three poor outings at Bowie before yesterday's nice outing.
And Ramon Urias had a robust .967 OPS last year in 25 at bats for the Orioles. Where is he today? (hint: a city somewhere in coastal Virginia)
But the numbers don’t tell the whole story...lol...go O’s...
Bman, someone brought this up earlier, but our young guys aren’t as young as other squads, their youngens are 20, 21, 22 while ours are 25, 26, hard to maybe call them youngens, but that seems to be part of Mikeys plan...go O’s...
Ray, the Orioles are the third youngest team in baseball. Their average age of their players is 27.3 and the average age of their pitchers is 25.3.
The reason other teams have younger rookies is that they invested in international players, something the Orioles didn’t do until 2018.
It’s likely that next year’s team will be younger.
Rich - They're going to be even younger this year when they finally waiver 36 year old César Valdez, waiver/trade 32 year old Matt Harvey and a trade deadline trade of 31 1/2 year old Freddy Galvis and bring up even more rookies.
And the International market has only been open for the Orioles since really 2019 when Mike Elias came on board in November of 2018. But all the good prospects already had deals/commitments with other teams because the Orioles were unwilling to build relationships or invest in key markets to help build up the level of talent in the organization. For crying out loud (Misery and Company know a lot abut how to do that! Lol) in a recent "top 5" all time overseas list of signings, the Orioles had Sidney Ponson on it and it wasn't for punching out someone (Mayor I believe) on a beach somewhere in Aruba or wherever he was.
The club has not developed a homegrown Dominican player this decade, and it has never developed a player from Venezuela. Just saying that is unbelievable! Now, all of that has been changed for the better. Mike Elias has been building Baltimore’s presence in countries like the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, which now the talent level they sign will be even better and younger!
Here's to the O's grabbing some of that young talent in the Caribbean & developing them into future major leaguers.
Baltimore is tied for 3rd, youngest Toronto Bluejays....go O’s...
Also, the Bluejays youngens are learning to win at young age, they’re dangerous as hell, O’s, not so much...go O’s...
Just curious how 19 year old Hernaiz is viewed by scouts? The average and steals are good, but he doesn't walk much, strikes out alot and OPS is low.
However, he's young so he can always improve and the power has chance to get better, but the lack of walks is disconcerting.
Some people don’t want the O’s to bring their youngens up for fear of starting their clock, wouldn’t it be detrimental to bring them all up later making their contractural obligations all come up at the same time? Wouldn’t it be more prudent to bring some up now, some next year & some the next to spread the $ out, or will they just be gone when eligible?...go O’s...
Well said. What I have been preaching all along. Don't rush them, bring them up when they're ready and not until then. So they brought up the players who somewhat proved they are ready. Akins, Mountcastle, Kremer, Lowther, Santander, Harvey. Zimmerman, Hays, Mullins, Stewart and Ryan McKenna all in the last 3 plus years. Just to name 11! Wow that many! And a lot more after the trade deadline next month. A lot of them have struggled from time to time adjusting to the Major Leagues. Some have been sent down and back up again due to their struggles but the Orioles are giving them their chance. They need to "seize the moment" while their time is here.
Correction. MOST have been sent back down and brought up again due to their struggles but the Orioles are giving them their chance.
Jack Leiter on the mound now for Vandy (vs. ECU) in the Super Regionals. Looking dominant against College bats.
Top 5 pick in this year's draft. If he's there at #5, hope the O's take him.
I believe that was yesterday’s game, Vandy advanced, Lester looked incredible, hope he’s around for the 5th pick, not sure he will be though...go O’s...
Damn...thanks CP
Not a problem, he was pretty cool to watch, I watched most of the game again!...go O’s...
Hallbe, I was simply using Rizer's comments to support my claim that rushing players to the majors (which is what the comment thread was about) might be setting them up for failure.
Or a HOF career....go O’s...
I read the dozens of articulate comments above debating the wisdom of the fast track vs. slow track approach to promoting promising prospects to the O's. I have found neither side to be persuasive because both suffer from a key error of omission. Above and beyond OPS, WAR, ERA, WTF, WHIP, etc., there are essential mental and emotional variables. Baseball uniquely has a multi-year, multi-level farm system to prepare players to perform this most complex of games at the highest level. How quickly someone is ready to succeed in the majors depends to a significant degree on such intangibles as emotional intelligence, ability to learn, ability to shrug off the inevitable bad days, grace under pressure, and so on. As Yogi said, "90% of the game is half mental." Therefore I am content to sit back, chill, and defer to the minor league managers and coaches, scouts, and farm team overseers to determine how fast or slow to promote promising prospects to the majors. They are the ones in personal day-to-day contact. I am assuming these guys are better at their jobs than those responsible for assembling an inexcusably sub-par varsity roster.