FCL Orioles 2023

[Tony-OH]

The FCL Orioles season starts on 5 Jun. Who are some of the guys you should watch out for?

OF - Braylin Tavera (#21 prospect at end of 2022 season) - It would be a real pick me up if Tavera gets off to a hot start in his first taste of US pro ball.

INF - Aron Estrada (#23) - Nobody hit the ball better in the DSL last year in the Orioles system. It will be interesting to see where he plays mostly.

SS- Edwin Amparo (#29) - Switch hitting SS who should fight for playing time with SS prospect Leandro Arias (#30) and Maikol Hernandez.

SS - Leandro Arias #30) - Switch hitting SS who should fight for playing time with SS prospect Edwin Amparo (#29) and Maikol Hernandez

RHP - Raul Rangel (#40) - Disappointingly did not make a full season once again so is looking for a healthy year and maybe a mid-season promotion to Delmarva.

SS/INF - Cristian Benavides (#50) - Made the FCL team over Arias despite being younger so this bodes well for him after a solid DSL year last year. Youngest player on the team.

RHP -  Zach Showalter (#61) - Overslot high schooler will get his first chance at pro ball.

OF - Raylin Ramos (#67) - Should be a priority play out in the outfield after a nice DSL debut last year.

OF - Thomas Sosa  (#71) - Didn't have a great debut in the DSL but impressed enough to get the promotion. Good power, but have to see if the contact issues improve.

RHP - Harif Frias (#75) - Big time swing and miss stuff last year in the DSL. It will be intersting to hear if his velocity has jumped from the 92-95 last year.

SS - Maikol Hernandez - Former top prospect and big money guy has failed to hit in his career. This will be his last chance and it will be interesting to see what kind of playing time they find for him with so many infielders that have actually hit.

 

[Billy F-Face3]

Thanks for the reminder Tony! I hope they give Zach Showalter a few At Bats, because he was a 2 way player. Although Elias has already shot that down. But I mean, we've seen successful 2 way players recently so maybe one day they'll give it a shot!

I'm also expecting good things for Braylin Tavera.

[Frobby]

Awesome intro, @Tony-OH!   I recall there had been some speculation that our big 2023 signee Luis Almeyda, who was raised in New Jersey until a couple of years ago, might skip the DSL and go straight to the FCL.   I guess that didn’t happen.  

[Tony-OH]

7 hours ago, Frobby said:

Awesome intro, @Tony-OH!   I recall there had been some speculation that our big 2023 signee Luis Almeyda, who was raised in New Jersey until a couple of years ago, might skip the DSL and go straight to the FCL.   I guess that didn’t happen.  

He's on the DSL Orange team so no, they didn't have him make the jump. It's rare for a guy to make that jump mid-season mostly due to VISA issues so I don't think we see him stateside until next year. 

Still, lots of interesting guys in the FCL this year offensively. Pitching like throughout the system looks to be the weak point. We'll see. Maybe some guys surprise.

[Tony-OH]

8 hours ago, Billy F-Face3 said:

Thanks for the reminder Tony! I hope they give Zach Showalter a few At Bats, because he was a 2 way player. Although Elias has already shot that down. But I mean, we've seen successful 2 way players recently so maybe one day they'll give it a shot!

I'm also expecting good things for Braylin Tavera.

It would be really good if he and Estrada got off to hit starts and amazing if they found a way to get promoted to Delmarva at some point. Elias has shown a willingness to jump guys if they need to be challenged. Still, sometimes players struggle with that jump to American pro ball. 

It's always interesting to see how these guys do. Will they have a Basallo type adjustment, or a Hernandez type falter? 

[Frobby]

8 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

He's on the DSL Black team so no, they didn't have him make the jump. It's rare for a guy to make that jump mid-season mostly due to VISA issues so I don't think we see him stateside until next year. 

Still, lots of interesting guys in the FCL this year offensively. Pitching like throughout the system looks to be the weak point. We'll see. Maybe some guys surprise.

I’n pretty sure he’s a US citizen, so I doubt he’d have visa issues.  Anyway, good luck to him in the DSL.

Edited June 5, 2023 by Frobby

[Tony-OH]

4 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I’n pretty sure he’s a US citizen, so I doubt he’d have visa issues.  Anyway, good luck to him in the DSL.

That's a good point. Hopefully this is a situation where they are using an abundance of caution in order to get him off to a good start vs he didn't look good down in extended spring training and wasn't able to make the FCL. He's still very young though but it would have been nice to see him play in the FSL at 17 years old like Basallo did though it's worth noting that Basallo is really 4 months younger than Almeyda so he appears to play a year younger by baseball cutoff date of 1 July.

[glenn__davis]

Nice start for Showalter - 3IP, 2H, 6K, 0BB.

WHY ISN'T HE IN DELMARVA YET!!!!!

[btdart20]

22 minutes ago, glenn__davis said:

Nice start for Showalter - 3IP, 2H, 6K, 0BB.

“Throw strikes and trust your stuff”!  

[Chaka Garcia]

39 minutes ago, glenn__davis said:

Nice start for Showalter - 3IP, 2H, 6K, 0BB.

WHY ISN'T HE IN DELMARVA YET!!!!!

Any velocity readings? I saw somewhere he’s in the 90-92 range- hoping that gets better.

[MurphDogg]

On 6/4/2023 at 11:50 PM, Tony-OH said:

SS - Maikol Hernandez - Former top prospect and big money guy has failed to hit in his career. This will be his last chance and it will be interesting to see what kind of playing time they find for him with so many infielders that have actually hit.

Hernandez is 3-5 today with two doubles. Perhaps more telling is that he has batted leadoff in each of the first two games, so it looks like he will still be a priority play.

[Tony-OH]

1 minute ago, MurphDogg said:

Hernandez is 3-5 today with two doubles. Perhaps more telling is that he has batted leadoff in each of the first two games, so it looks like he will still be a priority play.

Yep. He started at SS both games even with Leandro Arias on the roster, so clearly they think he's ahead of Arias. 

The one thing I'll never understand with the Orioles is their insistent on getting low-tier rehab players PAs in these games instead of the new guys. With only one team, you would think they would prioritize guys like Estrada and Tavera instead of the Craig's and Higgins' of the world. 

I don't think they realize the importance to players psyche when they know they will be in the lineup everyday vs getting a few games a week where a few bad games can start weighing on them. 

[Frobby]

1 hour ago, Tony-OH said:

The one thing I'll never understand with the Orioles is they’re insistent on getting low-tier rehab players PAs in these games instead of the new guys. With only one team, you would think they would prioritize guys like Estrada and Tavera instead of the Craig's and Higgins' of the world. 

I wonder if Tavera and Estrada are unavailable right now for some reason.  You’d think those are the last guys they’d stick on the bench even if there are a couple of older guys getting sone rehab time.   

[RZNJ]

21 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I wonder if Tavera and Estrada are unavailable right now for some reason.  You’d think those are the last guys they’d stick on the bench even if there are a couple of older guys getting sone rehab time.   

I think they were both available.   The rehab guys should be gone soon.

[Tony-OH]

Nice to see Estrada getting going today. Went 2-for-4 with a double, HR and walk. seems they've settled on him playing 2B which probably makes the most sense based on some of the reviews of his defense and arm.

But the biggest story may be the hitting of Maikol Hernandez so far. Went 3-for-4 playing 3B today as Arias got SS time today. He's batting .462 so far while batting first as a priority play everyday. If he keeps it up he could move up to Delmarva to unjam the SS position in the FCL.