The Orioles high Single-A Aberdeen affiliate continues to roll with a record of 33-16 (.673) which is the best mark in the South Atlantic League and the second-best among 30 high Single-A teams throughout the minors.

The IronBirds have a roster dotted with some big names and one that features two of the O’s top 10 rated prospects in outfielder Colton Cowser and infielder Coby Mayo.

Lesser known with players more unheralded and mostly unranked is the Aberdeen pitching staff that has produced a team ERA of 3.76 to rank fourth in the league. In May when Aberdeen was 17-7, its pitchers ERA of 3.21 ranked first in the league.

I recently talked with Aberdeen pitching coach Forrest Herrman about some of his “length” pitchers - those that are getting the most innings whether that comes as a starter or out of the bullpen. This group has done a strong job all year for Aberdeen.

Herrmann also is new to the Orioles, in his first year with the organization. He was the Seattle Mariners pitching strategist for their entire organization in 2019 and was pitching coach for the Cincinnati Reds at Single-A Daytona Beach in 2021. He has his own youthful look going and could easily be mistaken for a pitcher on the team and not a coach. But he’s also got plenty he brings to the organization and he has past ties to both Driveline Baseball and to the P3 Premier Pitching Performance center in Missouri where he spent some time working with current O’s pitcher John Means.

Baseball's lockout and the slamming of brakes on offseason business only impacts the major league side. The minors are proceeding as usual, with their Winter Meetings in Orlando going along uninterrupted. And largely in silence. If an event is held and no one is there, does it make a sound? It used to be for the minor league people anyway. The majors crashed the party and took over, with media descending upon the hotel site and crowding the lobby area while team executives worked trades,...

The lockout that occurred seconds after the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement could produce the largest gap between an Orioles free agent agreement and actual signing in franchise history. Pitcher Jordan Lyles accepted the terms of his one-year, $7 million deal, which also contained an $11 million club option for 2023 and $1 million buyout. But the ink hasn't dried on the contract because a pen never touched paper. The transaction is pending a physical that can't be done until...

We now have the facts as they relate to pitchers and the Orioles in the 2021 First-Year Player Draft. We do know they drafted just one pitcher in the first 10 rounds and then took eight from rounds 11 through 19. A run broken up only when they selected Florida Southern first baseman Jacob Teter in round 13. Over time we will find out if waiting to draft all those pitchers was a wise move by the Orioles. If Kumar Rocker wins a couple of Cy Young Awards - OK, if he is even a plus starting pitcher...

Matt Harvey has pitched in some tough luck this season, as Orioles manager Brandon Hyde mentions with great frequency. Tonight, he pitched in confusion. Mark it on the Matt Harvey bingo card. Umpires ruled that left fielder Ryan McKenna made a diving catch of Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s sinking liner after the first two batters reached. Marcus Semien was tagged after rounding third base, the call requiring him to go back to second, and two runners stood on first. A double play? A triple play? The...

Excellent pitching, timely hitting, a curtain call and a win. Pretty good Friday night in Birdland. Cedric Mullins hit his sixth career leadoff homer and third this year, and then produced his third career two-homer game, with all three coming this year. He and the pitchers led the Orioles past Toronto 7-1. When Mullins blasted a three-run homer in the eighth he put an exclamation point on a win to snap an eight-game losing streak. He had a 3-for-4 night with his first four-RBI game and...

The Orioles added two right-handed starting pitchers today in the major league phase of the Rule 5 draft. And they added two-right handed pitchers and a catcher in the Triple-A phase of the draft. While it cost $100,000 to make a pick in the major league phase and that player must stay on the selecting team's big league roster all year or be offered back to his former club, no such rules apply in the minor league phase. Each selection costs $24,000 there and the player is now fully part of the...

The Orioles again made two selections in today's Rule 5 draft and they again focused on pitching. The fifth overall pick turned into right-hander Mac Sceroler, the nephew of former Orioles pitcher Ben McDonald. The Orioles took right-hander Tyler Wells in the second round to fill out their 40-man roster. Sceroler, 25, came from the Reds organization, where he posted a 3.69 ERA and a 1.111 WHIP in 26 games (20 starts) at high Single-A Daytona in 2019 and averaged 9.8 strikeouts per nine...