Whenever an Orioles pitcher gives up a homer - and they've allowed the most in the majors this year - there is always a catcher on the other end waiting for a pitch that never gets to his mitt. The catcher can be just as frustrated as anyone that the pitch went out and Pedro Severino has been there, done that this year for the Orioles. "We all feel really bad because we don't want to miss (the location of) pitches," he told me recently. "This is the big leagues man, we are making mistakes...

As the Orioles are looking for some solid starting pitching - they don't have a quality start over their last 11 games - John Means provided an encouraging outing on Sunday at Boston. Means went five innings, allowing four hits and one run with one walk and three strikeouts in Boston's 4-0 win. He took the loss and is now 1-2 but has a 1.98 ERA over five outings. In 13 2/3 innings on the season, he has walked four and fanned 13. Means threw 82 pitches Sunday, averaging 91.5 mph on his 50...

The Orioles may not be playing as well as all fans had hoped, but there is some good baseball being played down on the farm. Two of the lesser-known outfield prospects in the organization, Ademar Rifaela and Ryan McKenna, are off to fantastic starts. Rifaela, 23, has been in the organization since 2013, when he played for the Rookie-level Dominican Summer League Orioles as an 18-year old after being signed by the O's as an international free agent out of Curacao. As his body matured, so too...

If there was ever a good time for a rainout, maybe last night was it for the Orioles. They were scheduled to begin a three-game series with Tampa Bay but got washed out at Camden Yards. The Orioles are trying to reverse a 6-17 start that has seen them lose nine of 10 and 11 of their past 13 games. They are just 3-7 at home, where they've scored only 19 runs in 10 games. Maybe a day away will be beneficial. With a 2-1 loss to Cleveland Monday night, the Orioles ended a stretch in which they...

When you talk about outfield prospects on the Orioles farm, he can get overlooked among players like Austin Hays, Cedric Mullins and DJ Stewart. But Ademar Rifaela had a breakout 2017 season. Producing much better stats than he had earlier in his career, the 23-year-old corner outfielder was named the Carolina League MVP at Single-A Frederick. Over 126 games, he hit .284/.358/.500 with an OPS of .858, which was well above the .717 he posted in 2015 or the .713 from 2016. Rifaela hit 23 doubles,...

We have heard it many times before that "good pitching beats good hitting." We have also heard the narrative that home runs "don't play well in the postseason." So far that has not been true. We are talking about a small sample size. In the wild-card games the four starting pitchers were Ervin Santana, Luis Severino, Jon Gray and Zach Greinke. They combined to pitch 7 1/3 innings allowing 20 hits and 15 runs and gave up five home runs. There were nine homers hit in the wild card games. As...

The Orioles minor leagues had a good year in 2017. That is the opinion of several national analysts I have spoken to in the last week. Starting today we'll roll out some of their opinions and comments on the O's farm from those interviews. It was a year where outfielder Austin Hays moved from Single-A Frederick to Double-A Bowie and then to the majors. He was a finalist for Baseball America's Player of the Year award. The Orioles had four players ranked among the top 20 prospects in the...

The Orioles' playoff hopes for 2017 were dashed a while ago. But it became official last night that they will not make the postseason. It had looked in the last few days like a losing season was in the offing for the Orioles. That became official last night as well. Double dagger. With their 9-6 loss to Tampa Bay, the Orioles are 74-82 with six games left. They are assured of their first losing season since 2011. With the team having lost 17 of their last 23 games, the Orioles are basically...

All but one of the Orioles' minor league affiliates have completed the regular season after Monday's games. Short-season Single-A Aberdeen (40-33) still has three games to play and is three games behind in the New York-Penn League wild card race. Single-A Frederick (68-71) and Double-A Bowie (72-68) will begin the playoffs at home on Wednesday night. While Frederick finished three games under .500, its second-half record (37-33) got the Keys in and they will host Lynchburg Wednesday and...

About two weeks ago in this space, I wrote about the big year Orioles minor league outfielder Austin Hays is having, and that he may be underrated by national analysts. There may be another O's minor leaguer who fits that bill in Double-A Bowie third baseman Ryan Mountcastle. Like Hays, Mountcastle has some stats that compare favorably to other prospects who are rated much higher. While Hays moved up from Single-A Frederick to Bowie and continued to rake, Mountcastle moved up also, but did not...

Before he was a one-man wrecking crew against the Orioles last night, Toronto designated hitter Kendrys Morales had not been doing too much recently at the plate. Heading into Thursday's series opener, Morales was batting .221 in August and he had just one homer and four RBIs his last 21 games. Then he bashed three homers and drove in a career-high seven runs last night as Toronto beat the Orioles 11-8. Morales hit a two-run homer in the third off Jeremy Hellickson, a three-run shot in the...

Single-A Frederick outfielder Ademar Rifaela has been named the Most Valuable Player in the Carolina League. Rifaela leads the league with 24 homers and ranks among the league leaders in several other categories. The 22-year-old from Willemstad, Curacao, is batting .280/.350/.499 with 21 doubles, a triple, 24 homers, 78 RBIs and an OPS of .849. He becomes just the second player in Frederick's 29-year history to win this award. Brandon Waring was the first in 2009. Rifaela ranks first in the...

In 2013, Orioles right-hander Chris Tillman was an American League All-Star. In the 2014 through 2016 seasons, he was the Orioles' opening day starter. From 2012 through 2016, his ERA was under 4.00, but now he sports an ERA of 7.75. Tillman's continuous struggles is one of the biggest mysteries of the 2017 season. He has contended several times he is not hurt. If he is not, why is he pitching so badly this late into the season? If Tillman or the Orioles had that answer, they would have fixed...

We write here often about some of the top players in the O's minors. Often they are players well-known because they were high draft picks and/or have played well for a long time. Today let's take a look at a few players flying under the radar. This is by no means a complete list but some of these players should start getting noticed more. At Single-A Frederick, young outfielder Ademar Rifaela from Curacao has had a solid season. He is putting up better numbers than in his previous four...

The latest chapter during this miserable extended stretch of baseball by the Orioles where no lead is safe and there is seemingly no end to the poor play was written last night. The Orioles led 6-0 after the third inning in Minnesota. By the end of the fifth, they trailed 7-6. They lost 9-6 to fall to 40-46. The Orioles have been outscored 33-13 during an 0-5 road trip that has a chance to get to 0-7. They have lost 30 of the last 45 games. They are 18-36 since they had the best record in the...