Earlier this week when I was in Bowie, Md., to cover Kyle Bradish's first injury rehab start, I spent some time with Double-A Bowie manager Roberto Mercado to discuss his team's solid start to the new season.

It has been some weekend in Bowie with the Baysox winning Friday 5-4 over Altoona on a walk-off on John Rhodes' single in the 10th. Last night, Jud Fabian's grand slam in the last of the ninth was a walk-off winner 6-2. It was Fabian's second homer of the season and he's now batting .310 with a .944 OPS.

Bowie drew 7,159 fans on Friday and 7,988 on Saturday to Prince George's Stadium. 

Between the 2022 and 2023 seasons, the Baysox's increase in average home attendance was among the best in all of the minors and they are off to a good start at the turnstile this year.

Bowie is now 8-6 and through Friday's games had a plus-12 run differential ranked third-best in the 12-team league thus far. Bowie led the league with 77 runs scored and also with an .817 OPS. Bowie's team ERA of 4.34 was eighth-best in the Eastern League.

BOWIE, Md. - He is one of the Orioles young international players that has already worked his way among the club’s top 30 prospects. And middle infielder Frederick Bencosme, age 21 from the Dominican Republic, is off to a good start for Double-A Bowie.

Ranked as the club’s No. 27 prospect by MLBPipeline.com and No. 28 via Baseball America, Bencosme spent the entire 2023 season at High-A Aberdeen batting .246 with a .657 OPS.

This is a kid that clearly works hard to better his game and along those lines he spent two months in winter ball in the Dominican Republic with Aquilas Cibaenas. He went 3-for-10 in five games but spent a couple of months around the team, learning and gaining knowledge.

He said players like former big leaguer Melky Cabrera and current Chicago Cub Christopher Morel mentored him.

“I was working like four days a week in the weight room and practicing with them. It was a great experience. Melky was talking to me about pitcher strategies. And I also learned I have to understand what kind of hitter that I am," he said.

Today, as we continue to rollout the MASNSports.com top 20 O’s international prospects, we find out yet again that teams can get big talents sometimes out of modest signing bonuses.

Some players sign late in the process as late bloomers and beyond that, it is just hard to project what someone at age 16 will look like and play like three, four, and six years down the road.

It is also quite exciting to see a pitcher ranked so highly now on this list as left-hander Luis De León, age 20, is the No. 2 prospect on the list for 2024.

He was signed by the club for just $30,000 in December of 2021 out of Barahona, Dominican Republic. He had an ERA of 5.14 in 28 innings in 2022 in the Dominican Summer League.

But last year, over six games in the rookie-level Florida Complex League and 10 for Single-A Delmarva, he went a combined 5-1 with a 2.01 ERA in 53 2/3 innings. It was a nice breakout performance by the lefty. Even after he moved up, he allowed just a .177 batting average and 2.39 ERA in his first go-around in full-season ball with the Shorebirds. De León walked 30 with 67 strikeouts (11.2 K per 9) and had a 1.30 WHIP. Among all O’s farm pitchers with 50 or more innings last season, his ERA was second-best.

In an organization loaded with shortstop prospects – with Gunnar Henderson having signed as a shortstop and others like Joey Ortiz and Jordan Westburg and last year’s overall No. 1 pick Jackson Holliday in the pipeline – a young kid from the Dominican Republic can get overlooked.

But with a smooth-looking left-handed swing that is now producing some impressive stats, and a solid glove, we should not discount Frederick Bencosme from Moca, Dominican Republic.

Bencosme, 20, who could begin this year as starting shortstop at High-A Aberdeen, was indeed a bit overlooked before the Orioles signed him for just $10,000 on Aug. 14, 2020.

But he has put together a batting line of .311/.376/.425/.801 in two seasons on the O’s farm. He played 44 games in the Dominican Summer League in 2021 and 73 last year with two in the Rookie-level Florida Complex League, 59 for low Single-A Delmarva and 12 to end his year with Aberdeen.

Bencosme said he has gained a lot in two years on the Baltimore farm.

Sometimes on the international amateur market, because players sign at such a young age, teams can get a big talent off a small investment. Players who may not command a big signing bonus when the deadline to sign players arrives, but then mature fast or grow into solid players quickly and produce much more than their signing bonuses might indicate.

The Orioles sure seem to have such a player in 20-year-old shortstop Frederick Bencosme, a young man that I found has an engaging personality to match a smooth left-handed swing. Signed for the small sum of $10,000 out of the Dominican Republic on Aug. 14, 2020, Bencosme was among the best hitters for average last summer on the Baltimore farm, which, considering the bats they have, is saying something.

In fact, among O’s farmhands with 250 or more at-bats last year, no one outhit Bencosme’s average of .311 between his 59 games at low Single-A Delmarva, two in the Rookie-level Florida Complex League and 12 to end the year with High-A Aberdeen.

He is our No. 2-ranked O’s international prospect as today I unveil more of our top 20 international prospects rankings.

Bencosme has a sweet-looking left-handed swing and some solid contact skills. His strikeout rate was just 11.4 in 2021, when he hit .310 in the Dominican Summer League. It was just 12.4 with a 10.8 walk rate during an impressive 59-game run with the Shorebirds last year. With Delmarva he hit .336/.410/.432/.842. He moved to Aberdeen on Aug. 27. And while he only hit .154 in 12 games with the IronBirds, he would show off that smooth and polished swing in the playoffs, where he had a three-hit game. He projects to start this year as the shortstop at Aberdeen and also mix in some games at second and third base.

As the Orioles prepare for a two-city road trip that begins tonight in St. Petersburg, Fla., reliever Mychal Givens must wonder whether he's pitched in his last game at Camden Yards as a member of the team. He hears the rumors every year. Trade chip talk follows him like baby chicks. He'd probably feel lonely without it. Baseball's deadline version of separation anxiety. The Orioles were willing to move Givens last summer, but they couldn't find the right partner. The days of being...