2024 Aberdeen Ironbirds

[Just Regular]

De Leon and Forret tandem strikes out 13 in 7 innings.

[Rbiggs2525]

11 hours ago, Just Regular said:

De Leon and Forret tandem strikes out 13 in 7 innings.

Great bounce back for both of them.

[Tony-OH]

On 6/19/2024 at 9:09 PM, Just Regular said:

De Leon and Forret tandem strikes out 13 in 7 innings.

Terrible angle on the cameras for that game, but those are the top two pitching prospects on that team. Looking forward to getting better looks at them with better camera angles.

[Frobby]

Slightly past the halfway mark of their season, the Ironbirds stand at 36-33.  They’re 6th of 12 teams in the Sally League at 4.83 runs scored per game, which is exactly league average.  The I-Birds are 7th in OPS at .693 (.701 league average average). They’ve allowed 4.64 runs per game, which is 8th in the league despite being a tad better than the 4.83 league average, as there a couple of really poor-pitching teams who skew the league average.   Similarly, they’re 7th in ERA at 4.17, though below the league average of 4.34.   Defensively, they are 8th in fielding percentage at .969 (.971 league average), and 5th in unearned runs at 42 (45 league average).

The Ironbirds continue to be super aggressive on the bases, stealing 195 so far, 54 more than the second place team and 93 more than league average.  They’ve also been caught by far the most often (44 times, next is 30).   Their overall success rate of 81.6% is slightly better than league average 81.2%, but when you’re being successful that often, you may as well attempt steals as often as possible.   

With Matthew Etzel (.857 OPS at Aberdeen) recently promoted to Bowie, the top Ironbird hitters are Creed Willems (.785 OPS), Mac Horvath (.737) and Enrique Bradfield Jr. (.700).  Willems leads with 11 homers and there is so little power on the team that Coby Mayo is tied 4th on the team, with 3 homers in his 4 rehab games there.  Bradfield leads the Sally League with 34 steals.

The top Ironbird starters/quasi-starters are Edgar Portes (2.32 ERA in 54.1 IP), Jackson Baumeister (2.61 ERA in 51.2 IP,  Moises Chace (3.16 ERA in 37.0 IP), and Zach Fruit (3.88 ERA in 53.1 IP.   Luis De Leon (4.37 ERA in 22.2 IP) has struggled a bit since his promotion to Aberdeen, but has shown flashes.  Reliever Yaqui Rivera (1.88 ERA in 28.2 IP) has been effective despite a modest K rate for a reliever (8.5).   Michael Forret was recently promoted and doesn’t have his land legs yet (5.59 ERA in 9.2 innings), but is whiffing a lot of guys (14.9 K rate so far).   

Overall, there’s a few guys worth watching on the Ironbirds but nobody who’s really blowing me away right now.  I think the pitchers are more interesting than the hitters for the most part.   
 

Edited June 24 by Frobby

[86this]

 

 

[sportsfan8703]

Kudos to them on the No No. 

[86this]

2 hours ago, sportsfan8703 said:

Kudos to them on the No No. 

This no-hitter makes up for being no-hit in early June.

[Frobby]

Aberdeen finished the season 67-65, the only O's full season club that will finish over .500 this year.  As mentioned elsewhere, they also set a minor league record for most steals in a season, with 363 (against only 83 CS).   

Other than the stolen bases, they were a pretty average team in all respects - 7th of 12 in runs/game, OPS, ERA and runs allowed.   Despite finishing just above .500, they were outscored on the season 603-595.   

Enrique Bradfield let the team in runs, hits and stolen bases, while Creed Willems led in HR, RBI and total bases.  Among players with 264+ PA (2 per game), Bradfield led in BA, Doug Hodo in OBP, and Willems in SLG and OPS.   Bradfield's 59 stolen bases led the Sally League.   

[733baseball]

We hit - I believe - two home runs in the final 24 games.