The Double-A Bowie Baysox have a record that is under the .500 mark at 43-47. But they are just a ½ game out of first place in the second half. And since May 19, they have been playing .589 ball at 33-23.

Infielder Coby Mayo was a big reason for that. He had an OPS of 1.027 in 78 games with Bowie until his recent promotion to Triple-A Norfolk. On July 14, the Baysox added shortstop Jackson Holliday, now ranked as the No. 1 prospect in the sport by both Baseball America and MLBPipeline.com.

But as the Baysox have played better since a slow start, three somewhat unheralded position players with varying levels of success on the stat sheet, have been fixtures in the lineup. Billy Cook, who can play all over the diamond on defense and outfielders John Rhodes and Donta' Williams have all had some nice stretches of play for Bowie. All three are members of the Orioles’ 2021 draft class.

After a slow start – and he was hitting under .200 well into May, Cook’s bat has heated up big time. Baltimore’s 10^th-round pick out of Pepperdine in that 2021 draft, Cook posted an OPS of .885 in May, .909 in June and it’s 1.017 in July. So yeah, that bat is hot.

“He started out with some struggles and now he is one of our top offensive producers,” manager Kyle Moore said in a recent interview. “Made some good adjustments. I feel like this staff was doing some of our best coaching earlier when our team was struggling. John Rhodes has done tremendous making some adjustments, Donta Williams, OPS over .800 in June and earlier he scuffled badly.

The Orioles' high Single-A Aberdeen IronBirds affiliate, at 28-12, has produced one of the best records in minor league baseball this year. There are obvious reasons for that, to include one of the best offenses in the South Atlantic League. The IronBirds score, on average, 5.56 runs per game through Wednesday’s contests.

Then there's a team ERA that ranks third in the league at 3.84 with an unheralded but solid rotation.

And there are more hidden reasons for Aberdeen’s success. Like the club’s tremendous ability to steal bases.

They have stolen a whopping 74 bases this year and have been caught just 13 times for an 85 percent success rate. They rank second in the league in steals, and the “go-go” IronBirds have four players with 11 or more steals and 14 players with at least one stolen base.

In the minor leagues, pitchers can only make a pickoff move toward a base twice per plate appearance. On a third try, the runner will be awarded second base if not picked off. That helps, but manager Roberto Mercado said the club's success in swiping bases comes mainly from talented players employing a good process, not from a rule.

He said he was a bit shocked to be drafted by the Orioles. But now that he is here, he's very grateful to be wearing the orange and black, and he added that he patterns parts of his game after O's center fielder Cedric Mullins. In one interview with low Single-A Delmarva outfielder Donta' Williams this week, it is clear that he is a confident player and believes he can on day join Mullins as an Oriole. You have to admire the confident outlook of Williams (first name pronounced Don-tay), who,...

John Means made his return to the Orioles and their rotation tonight and didn't immediately slip into his ace attire. A proper fit wasn't a reasonable expectation given the long layoff. The velocity was fine. The hard contact was not. And there was more of it than usual. Starting his first major league game since June 5, Means allowed two runs in the first inning, Randy Arozarena's solo homer in the third and Francisco Mejía's two-run shot in the fourth, and the Rays erupted again late...

The First-Year Player Draft resumed this afternoon and the Orioles selected East Carolina second baseman Connor Norby with their second-round pick, No. 41 overall. Norby led the nation with 102 hits this year as he batted .415/.484/.659 with 15 doubles, 15 homers, 18 steals, 64 runs and 51 RBIs. He finished eight in the nation in batting average. He was named the American Athletic Conference Player of the Year. Norby was ranked as the No. 25 prospect for this draft by FanGraphs.com, No. 44 by...