Which minor leaguers are you keeping an eye on in 2010?

[Moose Milligan]

I'm enjoying Tony's annual top 10 countdown and it's making me wonder who I'll be keeping an eye on in our system for the 2010 season.

Do you have any favorites? It's kind of hard not to get excited about Cameron Coffey after Tony's glowing reports.

It'll be an intriguing year. We've graduated Matusz, Tillman, Bergesen, Wieters, and Reimold. IMO, Kam should be in the bullpen to stay. It's possible that Bell, Snyder and Arrieta will be up by the ASB next summer.

So who are you most interested in and why?

[Stotle]

I'm enjoying Tony's annual top 10 countdown and it's making me wonder who I'll be keeping an eye on in our system for the 2010 season.

Do you have any favorites? It's kind of hard not to get excited about Cameron Coffey after Tony's glowing reports.

It'll be an intriguing year. We've graduated Matusz, Tillman, Bergesen, Wieters, and Reimold. IMO, Kam should be in the bullpen to stay. It's possible that Bell, Snyder and Arrieta will be up by the ASB next summer.

So who are you most interested in and why?

Bundy, Welty, Drake, Hoes, Avery, Miclat.

Townsend to see a bounceback from a disappointing NY/Penn season.

Tolliver to see if he can maintain low-90s velocity.

Ryan Berry to see how stuff plays at pro level -- could move quickly.

For 2011, Ohlman, Givens and Coffey. I'm not really concerned with what any of those three do next year, though I think it's important for Coffey to be healthy and throwing a fair number of innings to get his career going.

[allstar1579]

I'm enjoying Tony's annual top 10 countdown and it's making me wonder who I'll be keeping an eye on in our system for the 2010 season.

Do you have any favorites? It's kind of hard not to get excited about Cameron Coffey after Tony's glowing reports.

It'll be an intriguing year. We've graduated Matusz, Tillman, Bergesen, Wieters, and Reimold. IMO, Kam should be in the bullpen to stay. It's possible that Bell, Snyder and Arrieta will be up by the ASB next summer.

So who are you most interested in and why?

Welty - to see if he can become more of a typical RF.

Bell - to see if he can fix his splits or abandon RH hitting.

Waring - to see if he can respond to advanced pitching.

Frederick's pitching staff - to see who the next Britton is.

Avery - to see if he is another Crawford or another Lastings Milledge.

I could keep going...but point is there are at least little things about most of them I'm watching for.

[McLovin]

I'm really interested in Patton and Spoone's hopeful return to form.

[clarence]

Arrietta, Snyder, and Bell. We really need all three to be the real deal.

After that, Erbe and Britton.

[QBsILLEST1]

Ill be interested in:

Erbe to see if he can pick up where he left off

Britton to see if he can continue to improve his secondary pitches and K's

Coffey to see if hes as strong, less strong or stornger when he comes back...

Randy Henry to see if the glowing reports on him are accurate....

Jacob Cowan to see if he can maintain his success at higher levels...

Aaron Wirsch and Jesse Beal to see if/how much more they filled out this year and if they added any velo..

Ditto with Tim Berry...

Snyder to see if he can rebound from a poor AAA stint....

Tolliver to see if he can maintain his success in the pros.

Avery to see if he can get better from 09

Hoes to see if his discipline comes back

Bundy to see if he can start pitching the way we know he should

Hobgood to see if he can get his arm strength back up and to see what pitches he improves and if he can make his secondaries more efficient.

Spoone to see if he can get back to where he once was

Ditto for Patton

Arrieta to see him dominate AAA before kicking the door down to the MLB...

Ohlman to see him hit and refine his behind the plate skills

Caleb Joseph to see if he can maintain production for the whole year and gain some more power...

Webb and Hoppy to make a name for themselves

Jarret Martin to prove why he was on a list of top 10 draft eligible HSers in 08.

Ryan Berry to see him return from injury and act as our 3rd 1st rounder taken in 09 draft.

Givens to see if he can refine his bat and glove...

Miclat to see if he can bounce back....

Adams to see if he can have a full healthy season and show us his potential and improve his glove...

Waring to see if his bat and power is legit in the higher levels...

Rowell just to see if we see anything at all from him...

Lebron and Perez to watch them make their last stop in AAA then come to Baltimore

Watch Bell see if he can make his splits better and watch him rake in AAA

To see if Noel has improved any since being stuck out of the country the whole season...

Interested in relief pitcher James Brandhorts to see if he can become our next legit relief prospect....

See if Vito Fabrizio is a true prospect...

Watch Welty become a real prospect...

Theres more than this that Ill be following in the minors next year, but this is the majority of what Ill be into. I love the minor league season!

[Enjoy Terror]

Ryan Palsha

Year Age       Team      G  W L IP   TBF H  2B 3B HR R  ER BB K  ERA  WHIP RA9 2009 19 Rookie Bluefield 11 2 1 27.0 112 27 4  1  1  14 13 6  40 4.33 1.22 4.67 

Year Age       Team      BB/PA K/PA  BABIP GB% HR/Air FIP  BsRA9 2009 19 Rookie Bluefield 5.4%  35.7% .400  51% 3%     1.89 3.53

Not much said about this guy, but he's got the makings so far of a solid pitcher. He's one of the youngest guys in the system too.

FIP of 1.89, great GB%, almost no fly balls, crazy K/BB ratio. Only 27IP though. His unlucky BABIP is really hurting him, but that should normalize with better fielding over time.

[hoosiers]

IMO, next year, there will be significantly more prospects with "potential" in our system worth following than in a long, long time.

Avery, Hoes, Bundy, Welty, Waring, Joseph, Bell, Angle, Hudson, Coffey, Ohlman, Givens, Cowan, Wirsch, Berry, Berry, Hobgood, Givens, Townsend, Adams, Webb, Martin, Beal.

The strength in the system prospect-wise appears to be mostly in the lower minors and I expect it will be fun to watch.

[QBsILLEST1]

IMO, next year, there will be significantly more prospects with "potential" in our system worth following than in a long, long time.

Avery, Hoes, Bundy, Welty, Waring, Joseph, Bell, Angle, Hudson, Coffey, Ohlman, Givens, Cowan, Wirsch, Berry, Berry, Hobgood, Givens, Townsend, Adams, Webb, Martin, Beal.

The strength in the system prospect-wise appears to be mostly in the lower minors and I expect it will be fun to watch.

Yes, itll b a ton of fun to watch. Im gonna be very interested to see how the logjam in Delmarva's rotation will pan out. Normally it wouldnt be a big deal, but its the 1st level of full season ball, and you want all of your prospects to get to full season ball as soon as theyre ready to get them more developmental time. So, is someone gonna be penalized and not be allowed to full season ball, and sent to Aberdeen instead or will they jump some guys up to Fredrick who may have enough polish or who have already played at higher levels, like Ryan Berry, Tolliver and even Cowan.

Pitchers who SHOULD be in the Delmarva rotation:

Hobgood

Bundy

Beal

R. Berry

Tolliver

Cowan

Henry

Fabrizio

You may be able to add Martin to this list though Im not sure. He played JUCO ball I believe, but hes only 1 year removed from HS. But, Cowan also played JUCO and went straight to Aberdeen so I dunno.....

[LookinUp]

There are too many guys to list, so my top 5 to watch will likely be:

1. Bell - between AFL and early next season, his progress will be key to our future.

2. Arrieta - He'll start the year in AAA, but for how long? Will he be our 5th starter or our closer? We're going to find out what we have here in the next year.

3. Erbe - he's about to be a fixture for the O's in some capacity. This will be really interesting to watch unfold.

4. Snyder - unless he's traded, I think he'll be in the majors very soon either as a 1b or DH. His AAA stats really confused me (low avg., high LD%). I'm not sure whether to be bullish, bearish or just hopeful.

5. Britton - he should probably be 4th on this list, but it's not a prospect ranking. Since he's theoretically a little farther away than the others, next year isn't in the same make or break category. Still, if we have a future ground ball machine on our hands, who's a lefty and gets a lot of innings, I'll be ecstatic. The walk rate bears watching.

These next guys have also piqued my interest, but I won't over react one way or the other if their seasons are great/terrible...

1. Bundy - ok, he didn't have it all together last year. Tony's take on this guy is scary and would be a real shame if he doesn't have his head on straight. Hopefully he'll display an amazing desire to succeed and become the guy we all hope he'll be.

2. Spoone - I'll believe he's a factor when I see it. Expecting nothing, unfortunately. We should learn a lot from him in 2010.

3. Waring - will he be either destroying AA or promoted to AAA by next August? If so, we may have found our diamond in the rough. If not, he'll probably be what most of us expected, a AAAA player.

4. Hoes - I haven't given up on this kid. Unlike Avery and Miclat, he seems to have the right hit tool to allow him to refine his game to the point that he may be our answer for Roberts' eventual departure.

5. Hobgood - Duh.

[Arthur_Bryant]

Snyder, Arrieta, Bell, Erbe, Lebron for the obvious reason that they are potentially on the threshold of MLB. (I expect Mickolio to stick with the O's, I'm not convinced that Snyder will start the season at AAA).

Britton, Waring, Joseph, and Florimon to see how they make the jump to AA.

Avery and Hoes to see whether talent starts to translate translates into production. This pretty much covers my hopes for the 2008 draft class, though Beal and Bundy could play their way onto my screen.

Among last year's draft class, Hobgood and Ohlman for sure. I would say Coffey but I'm not sure that he will be 100 p.c. to start the season.

These are the names I expect to be looking for when I check the boxes every night. Beyond that I'm just waiting to see how the Class of 2009 sorts itself out at the lower levels.

[Os_Watcher]

Nicholas Haughian-Had himself a good year in Aberdeen and his WHIP was a sick 1.085 If he catapults himself in Delmarva and gets to Fredrick and has good year everyone will begin talking about him.

Timothy Bascom-He got into AA Bowie and didn’t get hammered. If age weren’t a factor I think he could have himself a Brandon Erbe type boost in stock in 2010. However he will need to really step it up he wants to play in the Majors at some point.

Steve Johnson-He doesn’t have much left to prove at the AA level. If he can get to AAA Norfolk and prove he isn’t over matched, his label of Josh Bell trade dressing is suddenly lost.

Brandon Waring-He left A Fredrick with nothing left to prove. If he has a really strong season at the plate and First Base he could be another option besides Brandon Snyder. The biggest question really is how fast he can progress and push for AAA. He will be 24 January 2, 2010.

Zachary Britton-Lots to like about his 2009 season and looks like his next stop is AA Bowie. However he did have a lot of Wild Pitches (21) at A Fredrick. If his GO/AO 3.38 holds up he really will be exciting as a prospect.

Tyler Townsend-His season in Aberdeen was nothing to excite fans. However he was a third round pick and likely will look much better with a full season assignment to judge him on.

Ronnie Welty- If he gets assigned to High A Fredrick and keeps his average high his value will jump. He will be 22 when play begins again.

Xavier Avery- His power hasn’t shown up yet, but in 2009 his first fill season he did show that he can steal bases. If he can improve his average and a little more power he becomes an exciting prospect.

[NCRaven]

Two higher level guys that almost never get mentioned but could contribute at the ML as soon as this year - Luis Lebron and Eddie Gamboa. They're both relievers, so they won't get the attention that guys like Arrieta, Erbe, Britton and Johnson get. But they are as likely as any of these guys to play an important role for the O's this year. Tanaka is another guy that could figure into the bullpen this year. Fringy guys that could take a big step up this coming year.

[Os_Watcher]

Two higher level guys that almost never get mentioned but could contribute at the ML as soon as this year - Luis Lebron and Eddie Gamboa. They're both relievers, so they won't get the attention that guys like Arrieta, Erbe, Britton and Johnson get. But they are as likely as any of these guys to play an important role for the O's this year. Tanaka is another guy that could figure into the bullpen this year. Fringy guys that could take a big step up this coming year.

Ahhh, your right but... There is already too many folks slated as relievers at this point. Some will likely get moved this winter to reduce numbers and bolster talent at other areas.

[wildcard]

Perez, Thall and Britton. Lefties could move fast with a void at the top.

Arrieta and Bell. Next up.

Erbe, Johnson and Perrault could be up 2nd half.