The young pitchers are providing hope for the future

It has been a disappointing weekend in New York for the Orioles. But it was a real positive to see right-hander Dean Kremer have another strong outing on Saturday afternoon. He faced the Yankees again, and again threw well against them.

In two starts versus New York he has allowed five hits and two runs over 11 innings. The Yankees have hit just .135 (5-for-37) against him and he has walked six and fanned 14 in the two games.

Over the next year or two, this Orioles' rebuilding effort will depend heavily on homegrown starting pitching. To see what lefty Keegan Akin and Kremer have done should provide an entire organization with a nice lift. And I give Akin an incomplete grade for the outing Friday as his defense just let him down so badly. Hard outing to judge for me.

So the early returns for these two young pitchers are so positive. Not only did they get results and contribute to wins, they have shown poise and looked like finished or nearly finished products. The O's told us last year to not worry about or focus so much on Akin's 4.73 ERA at Triple-A because he was working so hard on improving his secondary pitches by throwing them more than he ever had. Akin told me in spring training he was getting comfortable being uncomfortable in how he was using his slider and changeup. But look at how good they look now. Impressive, and clearly Akin did work last year that is paying off this year.

That these two pitchers developed so well on the farm bodes well for others in the system. We have yet to see Zac Lowther, Alexander Wells, Michael Baumann, Bruce Zimmermann and other promising hurlers. A year or two behind them, we should see the two highest-rated O's pitching prospects in Grayson Rodriguez and DL Hall.

In the current MLBPipeline.com O's top 30 list of prospects, there are 15 pitchers. That includes one who was added this year in the draft and one that was added via the trade of Miguel Castro to the New York Mets. Here is where each pitcher is ranked.

2 - Grayson Rodriguez
4 - DL Hall
9 - Michael Baumann
10 - Dean Kremer
11 - Zac Lowther
12 - Kevin Smith
15 - Keegan Akin
16 - Hunter Harvey
19- Carter Baumler
20 - Alexander Wells
24 - Drew Rom
27 - Cody Sedlock
28 - Brenan Hanifee
29 - Kyle Bradish
30 - Luis Ortiz

By the way, Ortiz, at No. 30, is not the hefty right-hander acquired in the Jonathan Schoop trade, but a 17-year-old lefty from the Dominican Republic. He was signed on July 2, 2019 for a $400,000 bonus and is already touching the mid 90s with his fastball.

So the Manny Machado trade is finally now paying off at the big league level with the arrival of Kremer. And the O's big push in the international market under Mike Elias is starting to get noticed with this ranking of an international pitcher.

O's fans can hope and dream that Akin and Kremer continue to throw well and are just the start of a wave of young pitchers that make their way to Baltimore. A trickle becomes a more steady downpour at a later date.

If many of these pitching prospects do pan out, the Orioles would be in an enviable position. Because major league teams covet young pitchers. So you can use the young arms to win at the big league level and/or in trades to provide help for areas of weakness.

Akin and Kremer are just getting started, and initial success is not a guarantee of consistent future success. But it provides an organization with some hope. Hope that it does indeed have some talent on the farm, and hope that the club knows what to do with that talent.

As for today's series finale, John Means (1-3, 6.58 ERA) gets the start against New York. O's pitchers allowed just two runs on five hits Saturday, but the Orioles have scored just two runs in losing the first three games of this series. The Orioles have had two, four and four hits in the three games, batting .119 (10-for-84) as a team.

At 20-25, they are now 4 1/2 games out of a playoff spot. With 15 games to go, a 10-5 finish would give the Orioles a .500 season.