Steve On Baseball Podcast

His pro career is off to a fine start for the High-A Frederick Keys.Lefty Joseph Dzierwa is 3-1 with a 2.33 ERA for Frederick. Over 27 innings he’s allowed just 15 hits with seven walks to 29 strikeouts. Showing a low-to-mid 90s heater and plus changeup, he has an 0.81 WHIP and opponents are hitting just .160 with a .497 OPS off Dzierwa.O’s fans likely first saw him when he had a dominant outing in the March 20 Spring Breakout game versus Boston. He threw three scoreless and fanned eight Red Sox prospects that night.Dzierwa is the highest-drafted pitcher by the Mike Elias front office, taken in Round 2 last year, No. 58 overall.He is rated as the O’s No. 12 prospect via MLBPipeline.com and No. 17 by Baseball America.We had a wonderful conversation taped on Friday when he and the Keys were in Brooklyn to play the Cyclones.In this podcast Dzierwa told us about the tall lefty big league pitcher that has already given him some pointers. He explained how this Ohio kid went to college at Michigan State and how he has worked with the O’s pitching coaches thus far. We went over that, his repertoire and more.He is quickly making a name for himself on the O’s watch.Take some time to get to know lefty pitching prospect Joseph Dzierwa.Yesterday in New York: Last year at this time, right-hander Trey Gibson was pitching for the High-A Aberdeen IronBirds. Right now Dzierwa is pitching in High-A ball. Could he move as fast as Gibson did and pitch at three levels this year? Well, he’s got a shot and is off to a great start this year. Enjoy today’s podcast.Here is last night’s story on Gibson pitching well in his MLB debut, yet the O’s losing again in the Bronx. Game four of the series is tonight at Yankee Stadium. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

Collin Woody, once drafted by the Orioles in Round 38 of the 2016 MLB Draft, is my guest this week on the Steve on Baseball podcast.It’s a return trip for Woody on the podcast. We first talked late last year when he was the manager of the Low-A Delmarva Shorebirds. This season Woody, age 31, is skipper of the Frederick Keys.He will lead his team as Frederick rejoins the O’s organization this year as High-A affiliate in the South Atlantic League.From Tampa, Fla. and a former player at UNC-Greensboro, Woody and the Keys will play their home opener next Tuesday in Frederick.Before 2026, Frederick’s last year as an O’s affiliate was 2020, but that season was cancelled by the pandemic. So the last time Frederick actually played as an O’s farm team was in 2019.Next week will surely be a big deal in Frederick, a wonderful baseball community.Collin provided some great insights for this podcast on the return of baseball to Frederick, managing at the minor league level and also on some of his key players.We discussed several to include pitchers Joseph Dzierwa and Boston Bateman and position players Nate George and Ike Irish to name a few.Enjoy the lastest edition of the podcast!NEW CITY CONNECTS IN BIRDLANDWhen the Orioles begin a new homestand tonight versus the San Francisco Giants, the club will also break out new City Connect uniforms.The O’s say these present a uniform “depicting the beauty of Baltimore, Oriole Park at Camden Yards, and everything in between, from the stoop to the yard. Charm, grit, and pride: every detail brings the spirit of Baltimore’s beloved stoops straight to the one place we all call home.”They are showing off pride in Baltimore with a “BMORE” written across the front of the jersey.The O’s say that “reps every neighborhood in Baltimore. The Oriole Bird is perched proudly atop BMORE, front and center. Right where it belongs.”BIRDLAND TERRITORY UPDATEWe have now recorded three Birdland Territory shows as we’ve had a great first week of our new show available on You Tube, Spotify, Apple podcasts and other outlets.Click here to get to our You Tube site and please subscribe if you have not already!Birdland Territory, hosted by the trio of myself, Tim Barbalace of 105.7 FM the Fan and former O’s reliever Brad Brach, will air three times a week during the season. That’s a lot of content to produce, but we are delighted how the first few shows turned out.The latest show features a discussion about a pretty good collective start for the bullpen, some talk of the rough news about Zach Eflin, we noted Gunnar’s decent start and chance to have a very big year and we discussed ABS challenges and how the O’s struggled to get some correct in recent games.Thanks for checking out Birdland Territory. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

For a pitcher that was signed after the 2023 MLB Draft out of Liberty University, right-hander Trey Gibson had quite the 2025 season on the O’s farm.He started with High-A Aberdeen, making nine appearances before he moved to Double-A Chesapeake and rolled through 10 starts with an ERA of 1.55 for the Baysox. He ended the year with seven starts for Triple-A Norfolk.For the full year, Gibson, age 23, went 5-8 with a 4.26 ERA in 120 1/3 innings. He fanned 12.4 batters per nine innings on his way to earning the “Jim Palmer Award” as the Orioles’ Minor League Pitcher of the Year.This spring he has made two outings for the Orioles in MLB games. That includes his three scoreless in the first exhibition game of the new season on Feb. 20 versus the Yankees. He recently added a third outing in a live BP session. Gibson keeps expanding his repertoire, this spring adding what he called a “true cutter” and that adds to the two-seamer and “death ball” he started to throw last year. Depending how you classify the offerings he throws six or seven pitches now. The “death ball” is kind of a gyro slider that has become a real putaway pitch for Gibson. It breaks down more than side-to-side and he used it all last year but it really improved for him as 2025 went on. As he will explain in this podcast, he threw and played catch with a “higher volume” this winter in the offseason and came into camp ready to pitch three innings in the first game. It was a bit of a change to his usual offseason routine. Gibson should begin this season in the Triple-A rotation and his day to make the O’s roster for the first time should be coming in 2026.Gibson is widely considered the organization’s top pitching prospect right now. Per ESPN, he is the O’s team No. 2 prospect and No. 46 via their national top 100. Per Baseball America he is team No. 3 and No. 72 in the top 100. Per MLBPipeline.com he is rated as the O’s No. 5 prospect.Enjoy the latest edition of the podcast and learn more about O’s top 100 pitcher Trey Gibson. Spring breakout rosters releasedGibson is one of 16 pitchers and 40 players named yesterday to the Orioles’ Spring Breakout roster for their game March 20 vs. Boston.The full roster is here —Pitchers:Micah Ashman LHP, Zane Barnhart LHP, Boston Bateman LHP, Braxton Bragg RHP, Luis De León LHP, Joseph Dzierwa LHP, Nestor German RHP, Trey Gibson RHP, Chandler Marsh RHP, Esteban Mejia RHP, Tyson Neighbors RHP, Anthony Nunez RHP, JT Quinn RHP, Patrick Reilly RHP, Juaron Watts-Brown RHP, Levi Wells RHP.Catchers:Ethan Anderson C/1B, Samuel Basallo C/1B, Yasmil Bucce C Creed Willems C/1B.Infielders:Wehiwa Aloy SS, Aron Estrada 2B/OF Wilfri De La Cruz SS, Cobb Hightower INF, Ike Irish 1B, Joshua Liranzo INF, Jaiden Lo Re INF, Griff O’Ferrall SS/2B, José Peña INF, Colin Yeaman SS.Outfielders:RJ Austin OF, Dylan Beavers OF, Enrique Bradfield Jr. OF, Vance Honeycutt OF, Nate George OF, DJ Layton OF, Stiven Martinez OF, Jordan Sanchez OF, Thomas Sosa OF, Reed Trimble OF.The Spring Breakout 40-man player pool rosters, which will be reduced to 27-man rosters on March 16th , were announced yesterday on MLB Network, and feature 91 of the top 100 prospects according to MLB Pipeline. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

The Orioles have back-to-back wins for the first time in the Grapefruit League after beating Tampa Bay 4-3 on Wednesday afternoon.It was a well-pitched game, as seven Baltimore pitchers combined on a four-hitter with 12 strikeouts. Reliever Andrew Kittredge allowed a three-run shot in the fourth and was the only Baltimore pitcher to give up any runs. Here is a video entry today noting good days for two O’s in lefty Trevor Rogers and minor league outfielder Vance Honeycutt.Rogers has fanned six in five scoreless frames over two games now and looks in mid-season form before we get to March 1.Baltimore pitchers have fanned 66 over six games in spring training to lead MLB.For Honeycutt, he is 2-for-2 with two homers. He had two homers over his last 33 games last season for High-A Aberdeen and has matched that with a couple of nice swings under the Florida sun.After he struggled so badly last year - a .559 OPS and 40.8 strikeout rate - over 101 games for Aberdeen, it is nice to see him do this early on for the Orioles.It should build some confidence and maybe jump-start a better season for him.Click here from the O’s X feed for the Honeycutt homer and click here for Tyler O’Neill’s RBI double in the third. He went 2-for-2 yesterday and is 4-for-6 to start his spring.Leave a comment with any early impressions you have on O’s spring training or any thoughts on the team right now. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

Just two Polish guys from Baltimore on the podcast today talking Orioles.Like myself, Dan Szymborski is from Baltimore and is a popular radio and podcast guest this time of year to discuss his ZiPS projection system which can be found on FanGraphs.com. That stands for Zymborski Projection System.Dan, a 1996 Towson High School grad and 2000 grad of Loyola College, is a Senior writer for FanGraphs.com and also still contributes to his former employer at ESPN. No projection system is perfect or completely accurate but ZiPS has been at it since 2003 and when I interviewed Dan for MASNSports.com ahead of the 2023 season, ZiPS was very accurate then on several players.The system projected Adley Rutschman for a 126 OPS+ and the actual number for that 2023 season for Rutschman was 128. He pretty much nailed it for several others then to include Gunnar Henderson, Ryan Mountcastle and Anthony Santander.Spoiler alert - ZiPS is very bullish on several O’s on offense but a bit less so on the pitchers. We get into all of that today with Dan.He feels Baltimore could have a top five AL offense and maybe a top five MLB offense.Enjoy the latest addition of the Steve on Baseball podcast! Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

At the ripe “old” age of just 31, Anthony Villa is about to begin his third season as one of the top front office members running the O’s farm system. He is the club’s Director of Player Development.Villa, hired by the Orioles ahead of the 2020 season, has been a fast riser in the organization, spending time as a hitting coach and as the O’s minor league hitting coordinator for the 2023 season. The next year he moved into his current role.Villa makes a second appearance on my podcast after joining me for an interview at Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen in the middle of last summer.If you want to go back and hear that interview from last June, click here.Villa oversees just about all aspects of the Baltimore farm, involved in everything from the staffing of coaches and managers to instruction throughout the farm. If there is a player on an O’s farm club he knows him and wants to help that young man advance to the majors.Last year Villa and his staff were proud of and thrilled for instance to see Samuel Basallo and Dylan Beavers both make the Orioles. These are two players they worked closely with from the first day they joined the organization, all the way through the higher minors and on to Baltimore.Getting a player to the “show” is a big moment for any farm system. This podcast was first a radio interview on 105.7 FM the Fan, when I recently filled in for Ryan Ripken on the “Hot Stove League” show and Villa was a guest on the show.We discussed many topics to include how the O’s keep tabs on the minor league players over the winter to a rundown of some players recently named top 100 prospects.Late in this podcast you may find his answer quite interesting when I asked Anthony how much the O’s practice bunting on the farm?The Steve on Baseball podcast is back and hopefully will become a more regular feature here as it was all throughout the 2025 season.Enjoy the interview with Villa! Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

Now that the Super Bowl is in the record books for another year, many sports fans, and certainly our baseball-loving fans here, turn their attention to hardball.O’s pitcher and catchers report tomorrow to Sarasota and the first workout is set for Wednesday.In this video entry today I discussed FanGraphs.com’s playoff odds and where the O’s are rated in addition to some Zips projections for O’s batters which are quite favorable for fans around Birdland.Please take about six minutes to watch and leave some questions and comments.Thanks for the continued support of this Substack. At the end of the month I will celebrate one year on Substack. That year went fast! I will have more to say about that later.Have a great week everyone and enjoy the fact that baseball begins this week! Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

When it comes to covering international amateur signings, few do it better and with more experience than Ben Badler of Baseball America. Ben is my guest this week on the Steve on Baseball podcast, the initial edition of calender year 2026.Next Thursday, Jan. 15, is the first day of the new international signing period. Under the Mike Elias front office the O’s have signed six players to million dollar bonuses since 2021.This year they have four such players in this one class, per Baseball America.We will get into that a whole lot more today with Ben, who has been at Baseball America since 2007.“The Orioles this year seem like they are going to have one of the better classes this year. They’ve got some big bats at the top of the class. Arms as well. I think this is going to be one of their better signing classes in recent years,” Badler said. The O’s top signee is expected to be shortstop Jose Luis Acevedo, a right-handed hitter from the Domincan Republic, who turned 17 in November. He’s got a plus hit tool and may be able to stick at shortstop as a solid defender.On BA’s bonus board - they rank these international amateurs based on the amount of their projected bonuses - he is the No. 11 player. He might set an O’s team bonus record for an international amateur. That mark is currently held by Luis Almeyda who got $2.297 million in 2023.Per the BA bonus board, the O’s are also getting players currently rated No. 24, No. 40 and No. 42. The board will be updated and expanded next week ahead of Thursday.With international players making up about 30 percent of major league clubhouses, it is a talent source a team can’t ignore and under Elias and Koby Perez, the O’s do not. They make it a priority.Once it was stunning to see even a few players from the international ranks in an O’s top 30 prospects lists. On the lastest BA O’s top 30 there are 11 international players led by Samuel Basallo at No. 1. So today’s podcast is both very timely and very informative as we were able to grab Ben as the guest. He provided some great insights. Enjoy the lastest podcast Birdland.And click here for Badler’s latest on the BA international bonus big board top 50. (subscription may be required). Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

I really enjoyed recording today’s edition of this podcast, taped about a week ago with O’s minor league player Ethan Anderson.Anderson, 22, was the O’s second-round pick (No. 61 overall) in the 2024 draft out of the University of Virgina.He just completed his first full year and second season on the O’s farm. It ended with him playing well for Peoria in the Arizona Fall League where he hit .300 with an .841 OPS in 19 games. He made the AFL’s Fall Stars game.In 2024 at Virginia, Anderson, a switch-hitting catcher and sometimes first baseman, hit .331/.435/.508/.943 and he was all ACC. For his career he walked one more time than he struck out. On the O’s farm in 2025 with 70 games at High-A Aberdeen and 20 to end the year at Double-A Chesapeake, Anderson hit .248/.338/.339/.677. He made 49 starts catching, 22 at first base and two in right field,Ethan provided some great insights for this podcast and it is well worth your time to hear him talk about the process of trying to improve and make the majors. How the O’s work with their young players, his days at UVA and how he was born in Hawaii, but then his family moved numerous times during his youth.Thanks Ethan for a great interview!Hope Birdland enjoys the latest Steve on Baseball podcast. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

Good Monday Birdland!Let’s start the week with a video entry discussing a few topics. More talking, less writing.Friday’s press conference introducing new Oriole Pete Alonso was interesting for a lot of reasons. Alonso was impressive and clearly was impressed with numerous aspects of the Orioles’ organization.He got off to a great start with his new club.Take a few minutes to watch the video and leave some comments or questions. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

Hey let’s talk more about the O’s signing of Pete Alonso which became official yesterday afternoon. Alonso will be introduced later this afternoon at a Camden Yards press conference.Once again on this podcast I am joined by my former MASN teammate Roch Kubatko of MASNSports.com.He returned from the Winter Meetings late Wednesday after a stunning day that saw the O’s reach an agreement with Alonso on a five-year deal for $155 million.Per Jon Heyman, the deal includes a $12.5 million dollar signing bonus and a 2026 salary of 18.5 million. Then Alonso’s salary is set at $31.0 million from 2027 through 2030 to complete the deal.He is a five-time All-Star, 2025 Silver Slugger Award winner, and 2019 National League Rookie of the Year, all over a seven-year career with the New York Mets.The first baseman is one of six active players with five or more seasons of at least 35 home runs and joins Philadelphia’s Kyle Schwarber and the New York Yankees Aaron Judge as the only players in the majors since 2019 with five or more seasons of 35+ homers. Since debuting in 2019, he’s driven in an MLB-high 712 runs, 33 more than any other player during that time.To make 40-man roster room, catcher Maverick Handley was designated for assignment.Today’s Oriole Park press conference is set for 4 p.m. Speakers will include Alonso, Mike Elias, Orioles President of Baseball Operations & General Manager, David Rubenstein, O’s Control Owner and Alonso’s agent, Scott Boras of the Boras Corporation.Fans can tune into the press conference on Orioles.com, Orioles Facebook, and YouTube channels. The press conference will also be carried live on MASN and MASN+. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

Took a few minutes to talk about the O’s five-year agreement for $155 million today with slugging first baseman Pete Alonso.The fans have waited for this day - the day when the O’s won one in free agency against the big boys.He’s not going back to the Mets or joining the Red Sox. Alonso is heading to Baltimore.Thank you to everyone who tuned into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

After a season that ended with the Orioles ranked 24th in MLB in runs per game and 19th in slugging, the team recently traded for outfielder Taylor Ward. He hit 36 homers in 2025 for the Los Angeles Angels to rank tied for fifth in the American League.That may not be the only big bat the O’s add this offseason.Several outlets have now reported that the Orioles are expected to meet today with free agent slugger Pete Alonso with a face-to-face meeting in Orlando at the Winter Meetings. Alonso will drive the 90 minutes from his Tampa home to meet with the O’s and Red Sox and maybe other clubs as well.Prying Alonso away from the large market, big spending Mets would be an upset on the order of Super Bowl III, but the O’s at least have a shot to pull that off.Alonso, who turned 31 Sunday, hit .272/.347/.524/.871 last season with 38 homers and 126 RBIs. He was second in MLB in RBIs, eighth in homers and 10th in OPS.The five-time All-Star and two-time Home Run Derby winner produced an OPS+ of 144 last year. Since 2021, that number is 134 and, in that span, he has averaged 39 homers and 111 RBIs.That is a very, very legit MLB slugger who would sure boost an O’s lineup that struggled for much of last year.Clearly O’s president Mike Elias is not just counting on the young core to all bounce back and improve the O’s offense in that manner. One big move has been made and others could be coming.Adding another first baseman would add to a position where the O’s already have Ryan Mountcastle and Coby Mayo.Elias said for now, that is not a concern. If they added a top bat, they’ll sort it out later.“If the player is good enough, we can figure out ways to accomodate them,” Elias told media in Orlando late Monday afternoon.The O’s continue to be linked to top free agent pitchers, including lefties Framber Valdez and Ranger Suarez.Could they add both a top bat and a top arm?“Yes, I think so,” said Elias. “You look at our payroll as it stands right now and it’s still well below where we were at last year, and we’ll just consider opportunities as they come up and have those conversions with ownership. But we do have room for more moves, multiple more moves.”Check out the video at the top of this entry for more thoughts from yours truly on the opening day at the Winter Meetings.On tap todayIt’s the MLB Draft Lottery at 5:30 p.m. today in Orlando. The first six picks for next summer’s draft will be determined via this lottery. Heading into this event, the O’s have the fourth-best odds to get the overall No. 1 pick.The Chicago White Sox are listed with a 27.73 percent chance to pick 1/1 with Minnesota next at 22.18 percent, then Pittsburgh at 16.81 and the Orioles at 9.24 percent.The O’s have had the overall No. 1 pick previously in 1989 (Ben McDonald), 2019 (Adley Rutschman) and 2022 (Jackson Holliday).UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky is rated the No. 1 prospect for the next draft by both Baseball America and MLBPipeline.com. The right to draft him is what is likely at stake today. BA calls him the “one of the better college shortstop prospect in years.” Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

Jim Duquette is one of the real bright minds in baseball media today. One reason for that may be the time he spent over the years working in MLB front offices.Today we’re all lucky he took time to do this podcast just days ahead of the start of the 2025 Winter Meetings in Orlando.O’s fans know Jim well, both from his time as Orioles’ co-general manager with Mike Flanagan in 2006 and 2007 to his time now in broadcasting.“Duq” as I call him, is an outstanding commentator and analyst and heard Monday through Friday with co-host Mike Ferrin on their “Power Alley” show on MLB Network Radio via Sirius-XM. That show airs from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET. Jim also co-hosts a Sunday show on the network with former GM Jim Bowden.O’s fans also know him from many appearances over the years on MASN and also on 105.7 FM the Fan sports radio.Jim and Mike will broadcast their show next week live from the Winter Meetings.In this podcast we covered a lot of ground and one topic we discussed was will the O’s spend big money on a free agent starting pitcher and who should they pursue?I even asked Jim if it turns out that Mike Elias is concerned that the price of pitching gets too high (after all Dylan Cease already signed for $210 million), could it be that O’s ownership actually has to sort of overrule him to get a big deal done?“I think part of that learning curve and let’s say aggressiveness and push (to spend more for Baltimore now) is coming from ownership now,” said Duquette. “Whether it’s (David) Rubenstein or (Mike) Arougheti or both. “I think for sure in those type of situations, when you have an executive who is maybe not as risk-averse as others within MLB, I think it does help that the owner is like, ‘Listen, I’m not worried about the risk on this one. I’m giving you the permission to go sign him.’”We got into a lot of topics with Jim today and even spent some time talking about Flanagan and Jim’s time working with Mike atop the O’s baseball operations department.A great guy who spent a lot of time to drop some knowledge for us today. Thanks to Duq!Enjoy this one Birdland. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

Hey Birdland and welcome to another work week after the extended Thanksgiving break. Hope many of you had a great time with your family as I did. Now back to the business of baseball, which of course continued even during the long weekend.The O’s reached agreement on two-year deal with right-hander Ryan Helsley on Saturday afternoon.Yes he pitched to a 4.50 ERA for the Mets and Cardinals last year. But over a three-year run fron 2022 through 2024 he posted a 1.83 ERA and 82 saves.Twice in that span he got National League Cy Young votes, finishing 12th in 2022 and ninth for that award in 2024.Few more notes on Helsley:He has been on the injured list just four times in his career.He was the longest-tenured Cardinal at the time of the trade.He is one of three Cardinals to ever throw an Immaculate Inning. He did so on Sept. 16, 2022 versus Cincinnati, joining Bob Gibson and Jason Isringhausen in St. Louis history.He is one of three St. Louis closers to make more than one All-Star team joining Lee Smith and Bruce Sutter. Helsley made the All-Star teams in 2022 and 2024.During the 2024 season, when he led the majors with 49 saves, he was named NL Reliever of the Month three times. He won that honor in April, June and September.A fifth-round pick of the Cards in 2015, he turns 32 on July 18.Let’s get your take in the comments below on this addition and how the O’s bullpen is coming together for next season. Plus feel free to pass on any O’s comments or questions. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

Happy Thanksgiving Birdland!In and around your family fun today or while you are traveling, hope you can find time to listen to my latest Steve on Baseball podcast.My guest is John Eisenberg, who for 23 years starting in 1984 wrote over 3,000 columns for the Baltimore Sun. He has also written about and worked for the Baltimore Ravens and is the author of 11 books.Wow, yep, 11!His third was titled “From 33rd Street to Camden Yards” which is an oral history of the Orioles.That book came out in 2001 and while writing and researching for that project, John interviewed every big name in club history and many others too.His Substack “The Bird Tapes” rolls out many of those audio interviews for readers of his Substack. It’s a can’t miss for any O’s fan that remembers watching some of the all-time O’s greats. In this podcast we spent time talking about the current team and what this winter could hold for the club in signings and additions. We also discussed his time with the Baltimore Sun. And John told some stories about covering the team then and we also talked about his current venture, the Bird Tapes. Enjoy the holiday weekend and enjoy this latest edition of my podcast. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

O’s right-handed pitching prospect Nestor German is from a school without a big name but one with a big name MLB pitcher among its former players.In 2023, German was the Orioles’ 11th-round pick out of Seattle University. In 2018, the same school sent lefty Tarik Skubal to the Detroit Tigers. They got him in the ninth round and 254 players were selected ahead of him.Now he’s the back-to-back Cy Young Award winner in the American League.German doesn’t talk about winning any future Cy Young Awards, but his strong 2025 season could lead him to talk about possibly getting a shot with the Orioles during next season. And we did talk about that and much more when he joined me for my latest podcast out today.German, age 23, pitched at three levels and in 26 games last season. First for High-A Aberdeen for six games, then for Double-A Chesapeake for 18 and he ended the year throwing two games at Triple-A Norfolk.For the three clubs he was a combined 6-7 with a 3.93 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, .220 batting average against and 10.41 strikeout rate per nine innings.He is currently ranked the O’s No. 11 prospect (and third pitcher) via Baseball America and No. 14 (and sixth pitcher) via MLBPipeline.com.Those outlets give most of his pitches 50 and 55 scouting scale grades, so pretty solid across the board.Here are German’s rankings on the O’s farm last year (min. 80 IP)1st in WHIP (1.18)2nd in innings (123 2/3)3rd in swinging-strike percentage (14.8)3rd in K/BB ratio (3.11)4th in K percentage (28.0)5th in K/9 (10.41)5th in FIP (3.54)8th in ERA (3.93)Today is the 30th episode since April of the Steve on Baseball podcast with many more to come! I hope you enjoy this interview with German, who provided some nice insights on his career and being a pitching prospect for the Orioles. One change on my Substack: This Substack will remain with a mix of free and paywalled articles. The paywalled stories can be accessed by paying subscribers to this Substack. Those subscribers have access to every story and my full archive.Also beginning today a free article will remain that way for a week and then will be behind a paywall. This is obviously one way to grow the revenue generated here and that is my goal with this move. Once again an article that is free to all will remain that way for one week moving forward. And there will always be some free content produced in this space. To everyone that subscribes and reads here, thanks for the continued support.By the way, all audio and video remains free for all and those posts do not apply to this change. That includes, of course, podcasts and videos. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

If you went to bed at a certain time last night, maybe you awoke to a surprise today in that the Orioles pulled off their first big move of this offseason late last night.They acquired outfielder Taylor Ward from the Los Angeles Angels for O’s right-handed pitcher Grayson Rodriguez in a one-for-one trade.Ward, who turns 32 on Dec. 14, has played in 156 and 157 games the last two years. He made 153 starts last season for the Angels in left field while batting .228/.317/.475/.792 with 31 doubles, two triples, 36 homers, 83 runs and 103 RBIs.In the AL stats, he ranked tied for fifth in homers, sixth in RBIs, seventh in extra-base hits, 20th in slugging and 29th in the league in OPS.Check out this video on the deal and leave some thoughts and comments below.Please keep subscribing to my Substack in addition to checking out my Facebook page for this Substack right here. My orginal story on the deal from late last night is right here. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

From the Gilman School in Baltimore to pro baseball on the farm for the O’s and Nats and now onto his media business, Ryan Ripken is the latest from a famous baseball family to make his mark.When your grandad is Cal Ripken Sr., your father is Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. and your uncle is former Oriole and current MLB Network star Bill Ripken, you may have picked up a few things about the game along the way.As a player Ryan reached the Triple-A level. He was drafted by the Orioles in 2012 and the Nationals in 2014. He played on the O’s farm from 2017-2021.A couple years ago he started Ryan Ripken media from scratch and now he hosts the Ryan Ripken show a couple of times a week via his YouTube channel which has thousands of subscribers and keeps the posts humming via his social media.He’s making his own name for himself in this famous family and doing it his way. Fans are finding and enjoying his work and he’s also a part of the great baseball coverage during the season on 105.7 FM the Fan in Baltimore.I hope you enjoy Ryan’s comments today as we discussed several players now avaiable to the Orioles and all teams via free agency and several other topics. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

Hey Birdland, a new video for my Substack readers and subscribers to watch and react to.It’s been a minute since I posted a video or produced a live video, but both are returning in full force this winter and this is the start.Today the topic - Is there pressure on the O’s to make a big signing this winter? The obvious answer is yes. Could they win without one? Yes. They had a $71 million dollar payroll and won 101 games and the AL East in 2023.But the division is so strong again and Toronto was two outs away from winning the World Series. In keeping up with Jonses in the AL East, a team has to spend some dollars.It’s time for the Orioles.Elias comments at the General Manager meetingsAt the GM meetings in Las Vegas Wednesday, the O’s Mike Elias discussed his club’s ability to pursue players and spend some of those dollars this winter.“We’re still down from where our 2025 payroll was. We’ve got quite a bit to go just to get back to 2025 levels, and I think that’s definitely a possibility if we want to go there, and we’ll assess opportunities beyond that,” Elias told reporters, including MLB.com Wednesday. “I think we’re just going to look at things on a case-by-case basis. The ownership group has a lot of willingness to invest, but also wants to win. ...“This is a group that’s really enabling us to invest. We’re going to go out in the market, see what we’re able to do to improve the team. But we’ll definitely be behaving as buyers this season, whether it’s free agency or trade.”In this article, MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand asks - “Will this be the offseason that Baltimore goes all-in?“Industry sources believe the Orioles will be aggressive in free agency as they look to return to the postseason following a disappointing 75-win season and last-place finish in the American League East.”New coachesThe local media has now reported on and confirmed three additions to the coaching staff of new manager Craig Albernaz.Yesterday, the Baltimore Sun was first to report that Donnie Ecker will be hired as bench coach. He was the Texas Rangers bench coach and offensive coordinator from 2022 through 2024. He was not their bench coach last year and, in fact, was fired May 4 with the Rangers at 17-18.He was on the Rangers staff as the team beat the Orioles in the 2023 playoffs on their way to a World Series championship. He has an extensive background as a hitting coach in the majors and minors and worked with Albernaz in San Francisco for a couple of seasons.Earlier, BaltimoreBaseball.com was first to report the O’s addition of Dustin Lind from the Phillies to serve as lead hitting coach. And the Baltimore Banner was first to report the additon of Jason Bourgeois from the White Sox as O’s first base coach and outfield instructor. Albernaz is building a staff he is quite familiar with and obviously has a lot of belief and trust in. He coached with Ecker and Lind on the Giants staff and played Triple-A ball with Bourgeois. That should make for a close-knit staff with this group already quite familiar with each other. Also last night, MLB.com and the Baltimore Banner were first to report that Buck Britton, Drew French and Ryan Klimek are expected to return and remain with the Orioles. They were on the 2025 coaching staff, but in which exact roles they return is not yet clear.MASNSports.com reported that Grant Anders won’t return as major league development coach.Please leave some comments on my video today here if you are so inclined. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

Fans around Birdland will finally hear in depth from their new manager, Craig Albernaz, during next Tuesday’s press conference at Oriole Park.We will soon start to get to know him.But Tampa Bay Rays radio broadcaster Neil Solondz has known Albernaz since his Triple-A playing days. Neil was the radio broadcaster for the Durham Bulls and Albernaz was a player there for parts of five seasons, the first three with Solondz at the mic from 2009-2011.Neil makes a great pairing in the Rays radio booth with Andy Freed, himself a long-time Rays broadcaster who grew up an O’s fan and went to Towson University. Go Tigers!Neil just completed his 14th year on the Rays Radio Network and his second as a play-by-play voice. Before that he hosted pre and postgame shows and was a fill-in play-by-play broadcaster.The Rays have some wonderful people in their media and it seems most of the O’s reporters are always happy to see an O’s-Rays matchup to get to see everyone.We covered a lot of ground today with Neil. Everything from Albernaz’s playing days with the Bulls, to what made him an outstanding minor league manager on the Rays farm to what kind of skipper might be coming to Birdland. To how he might handle the pressure to win in Baltimore. We get great insight today on this podcast from someone that knows Albernaz well.Thanks to Neil for joining me today. Enjoy this one Birdland. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

Andy Kostka of the Baltimore Banner just completed his fourth year covering the Orioles as the Banner’s lead beat writer. Andy grew up in Rockville and is a 2020 University of Maryland graduate.His introduction to O’s fans was with the Baltimore Sun for the 2022 season. He was hired by the Banner in December of that year and just completed his third season leading the Banner’s coverage.We got into several topics including his recent stories about Kevin Gausman and Trey Yesavage of the Blue Jays and how those players could be linked to the Orioles. Gausman for obvious reasons. Yesavage as the high-draft pick pitcher - a selection that the Orioles have not made under Mike Elias. We talked a bit about his career and covering a big league clubhouse at a young age. We discussed the pressures that may be facing the organization this winter to sign a free agent to a big contract. “Baltimore needs to make a splash,” said Kostka and I agreed with him. Andy is a proud winner of - the inaugural winner in fact - the John McNamara Sports Writing Award. It is named in McNamara’s honor and Andy was the winner from May of 2019 while he reported for the Diamondback student newspaper. The award is issued by the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland.Mac, as many of us knew him, died in a shooting in June of 2018 at the Annapolis Capital. He was a long-time, good friend and I saw him often covering the minors in Bowie over the years. We first got to know each other when we were starting our careers - John in Hagerstown and myself in Frederick.No doubt Andy is proud of that honor and being linked with such an outstanding reporter and person.We had a fun conversation and covered a lot of ground on the Orioles. Hope you enjoy today’s podcast. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

I believe I first met Brett Hollander when he was at the Gilman School in Baltimore and at the age of 15 was an intern at WBAL Radio where I was the Sports Director.His memory is better than mine from those days but that means, in a sense, I was there for the start of an outstanding broadcasting career.From Gilman, Brett went on to Dickinson College in Pennsylvania where he broadcast many sports and really fell in love with working in the booth. He met a classmate there named Geoff Arnold and later they would team up in the O’s booth!Brett grew up around broadcasting. His dad, Rich worked many years at WBAL-TV. I remember watching him often on Channel 11 where he was a great news reporter as we say “back in the day.”Brett worked early in his career at CBS Radio in Baltimore where he noted in this podcast, he broadcast the first sports update heard on 105.7 FM the Fan when the station switched from AM to the FM dial.He worked many years at WBAL Radio, hosting O’s pre and postgame shows, also was the host of Sportsline and at one time hosted the afternoon drive talk-show, showing he is more than just a sports guy.He was named the 2015 Maryland Sportscaster of the Year.This was a real fun conversation, mostly about broadcasting and Brett’s career, between two long-time friends.Who knew that kid from Gilman would one day wind up in the O’s booth!Enjoy today’s podcast with Brett. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

For a lot of us, growing up as an O’s fan there were many players to cheer for and admire. There were Hall of Famers like Brooks and Frank Robinson and Jim Palmer. Later there were Cal Ripken Jr. and Eddie Murray.We loved them all. Some of us loved Earl Weaver as much as we loved those players.He was a winner and he would fight for his team. He would get us fired up each time he got ejected. All 96 times.But what many of us loved most was the winning. Between 1969 and 1982, five Weaver-led teams won 100 games or more. There was the O’s incredible run from 1969-1971 when they won 109, 108 and 101 games. They made the World Series each year, winning it all over the Big Red Machine in 1970.The 2023 Orioles are the only O’s team to ever win 100 or more and not be managed by Weaver.Earl was great, he was the Earl of Baltimore.All that winning and his .583 career win percentage (that is 94.5 wins per year) led him to baseball’s highest honor - the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown in August of 1996.I was there that day - not as a reporter but as a fan. Had to be there to see Earl.So today’s podcast meant a lot to me to talk about Earl with author John Miller. His New York Times bestseller - a three-year project - was published earlier this year called “The Last Manager - How Earl Weaver tricked, tormented and reinvented baseball.”We covered a lot of groud in this interview - from Earl’s youth in St. Louis, to his minor league playing days, to his battles with players like Jim Palmer, to the many things that made him great.Earl probably had a few issues he dealt with in his life, but in Baltimore, they built a statue for him at Camden Yards.We loved him then and still do today.Hope you enjoy today’s podcast as much as I enjoyed taking part in it. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

The offseason is here for the Orioles, but the Steve on Baseball podcast continues on, games or no games.Sometimes the offseason speculation provides more interesting topics to discuss and today we got into several of them.My guest is Matt Weyrich, one of the Baltimore Sun’s beat writers. Matt joined the Sun in January of 2024 and just completed his second season on the beat. He is a 2019 James Madison University grad and a proud fan of the Dukes.We discussed the season-ending press conferences, the manager search, the struggles of the young hitters, possible roster additions, Samuel Basallo and more.We covered a lot of ground today, so enjoy the first offseason edition of the Steve on Baseball podcast! Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

This was not the first time Roch Kubatko and I were on air or any broadcast format together. Not hardly. But it was the first time he came on as a guest on my podcast!About time!And yes it was like old times as we discussed many O’s topics, including going back to how it was around the club when Brandon Hyde was fired in May. We discussed how things have gone with Tony Mansolino as interim skipper. We of course discussed next season and how close are the O’s to contending again in 2026?I also asked Roch how the job of beat writers has changed over the years.After an over 20-year career writing for the Baltimore Sun, Rocho, as I know him, a Maryland Terrapin from back in the day, joined MASN and MASNSports.com late during the 2008 season.From then through this past January, we made a pretty good team covering the Orioles, if we don’t say so ourselves. I promised good baseball conversations here with great guests, so here is another one.This was recorded yesterday in the press box at the Yard. Fresh material! Enjoy. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

Now that we are a couple of months out since the July MLB Draft where the Orioles had a whopping seven picks that first night, I wanted to check in with MLBPipeline.com’s and MLB.com’s senior writer Jim Callis.For many years Jim has been a go-to guy for me and many others, such as MLB Network, for his knowledge and insights on the draft.Jim and his colleagues do a great job at the top of the draft each year and then for, in the case of this year, one more day, Jim is part of the coverage for the rest of the draft through 20 rounds.On this podcast we discussed how the O’s did this draft and got some thoughts on some of ther top draft selections.The O’s have had a solid year on the farm in their pitching program and I asked Callis what he thinks of this crop of O’s farm pitchers?Also during this podcast, Callis provided some interesting news about Dylan Beavers and his chance to soon get into the MLBPipeline.com top 100. Beavers earlier was ranked in the top 100 by Baseball America and ESPN. Enjoy today’s edition of the “Steve on Baseball” podcast.This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Please consider a subscription to get every article, minor league features, O’s analysis and the Steve on Baseball podcast. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

BOWIE, Md. - Fresh off the presses, or at least off the digital recorder, check out a podcast taped just yesterday at Bowie’s Prince George’s Stadium.My guest is the manager of the O’s Double-A Chesapeake Baysox affiliate, Roberto Mercado.Mercado is in his fourth season with the Orioles. He managed High-A Aberdeen in 2022 and 2023 and Double-A Chesapeake (formerly Bowie) in 2023 and 2024.Through Wednesday’s game, he was 280-272 (.507) overall on the Baltimore farm.Mercado, age 45, from New Britain, Conn., managed Surprise in the 2024 Arizona Fall League. That club went 18-10 and played for the AFL Championship, but lost in the title game.In 2022, his first year as a minor league skipper, Mercado led Aberdeen to a 78-54 record and they advanced to the South Atlantic League Championship. But they lost to Bowling Green in the third and deciding game of that series. After that season, Mercado was named the winner of the Cal Ripken Sr. Player Development Award, a top honor in the O’s minors.That club included players such as Colton Cowser, Coby Mayo, Heston Kjerstad and Connor Norby.The O’s hired Mercado right out of the high school ranks, where he was varsity coach starting in 2011 at New Britain High School where he was also Dean of Students.During his time there, Mercado got valuable additional high-level experience as an assistant coach for Yarmouth in the prestigious Cape Cod League.This season, Chesapeake is 56-70 but playing better ball lately. Heading into last night, the Baysox had won three in a row and six of their past eight.The 17th manager in Baysox history, I find Mercado to be someone who truly cares about his players and is willing to do anything in his power to help each one get better and closer to the majors.In recent years he managed both Dylan Beavers and Samuel Basallo and earlier this year Jeremiah Jackson began his 2025 season with the Baysox.We touched on all three players and several others with Chesapeake this year on this podcast. Plus we got into other aspects of managing on the O’s farm.A Spanish speaker, Mercado got close with Basallo and he actually interpreted for me when I had a long one-on-one interview with Basallo late in the 2023 season when he was with Aberdeen. Enjoy the latest addition of the Steve on Baseball podcast with “Berto.” Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

The latest episode of the Steve on Baseball podcast provided me the great chance to both talk about the current-day Orioles and take a few spins down memory lane as well.Shorstop Mike Bordick, signed twice by the Orioles as a free agent, is my guest and we had a great and wide-ranging conversation.Bordick played 14 years in the majors for the O’s, A’s, Mets and Jays.In 2002 he set a major league record for most consecutive errorless games at shorstop with 110. Guess who holds the record today? Yep, Mike still does.An All-Star representing the Orioles in 2000, weeks after the game he was traded to the Mets.We talked about how the O’s front office asked Bordick to sign with the team in the winter ahead of the 1997 season and that would lead Cal Ripken Jr. to move to third base. Bordick was the guy the O’s wanted to succeed Cal at short. And Mike went into the O’s Hall of Fame in 2011.He is still a popular guy around Baltimore and on the airwaves as a regular co-host of 105.7 the Fan’s “Baltimore Baseball Tonight” and he also co-hosts the BMore Baseball Podcast.It was a pleasure to watch Bordy play short for the Orioles and in this podcast he provided his take on Gunnar Henderson’s improvements at the position.It’s always been a thrill for me to get to know guys I either covered as a reporter or watched as a fan or both. To call Bordy a friend is pretty awesome for me!Please enjoy his thoughts today on the latest podcast!This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

SALISBURY, Md. - Collin Woody can relate to his players with the O’s Low-A affiliate the Delmarva Shorebirds. He was once a Shorebirds player himself, for 115 games in 2017.An O’s 38th-round draft pick in 2016, Woody, who just turned 31, is in his second season as the manager at Delmarva. He played in 228 games on the O’s farm from 2016-2018.He spent a couple of seasons coaching in the Florida Complex League and now has settled in as manager of the Shorebirds.Just like the O’s roster got a bit of a positive jolt recently with the additions of Dylan Beavers and Samuel Basallo, the Delmarva roster recently got its own energy boost and influx of talent.On Aug. 12 the Shorebirds added six 2025 O’s draft picks. All are playing well in their first handful of Delmarva games. Now these players are with Delmarva:* O’s top pick, Auburn catcher/outfielder Ike Irish was taken No. 19 overall.* O’s second pick, Coastal Carolina catcher Caden Bodine was taken No. 30.* O’s third pick, shortstop Wehiwa Aloy was selected No. 31.* Outfielder RJ Austin was taken in round three.* Infielder Colin Yeaman was taken in round four.* Infielder Brayden Smith was selected in round 13.All the players are off to solid hitting starts. Irish is batting .333 (10-for-30), hit his first professional homer Wednesday night and has an OPS of .861 in seven games.Over eight games, Bodine is batting .333 with an .796 OPS.Aloy, the Golden Spikes Award winner while at Arkansas, is batting .333 with five doubles in six games and an OPS of .990.Austin is batting .400 (8-for-20) with an OPS of 1.000 and with three RBIs in seven games.Yeaman is hitting .263 with a .778 OPS and four walks to five strikeouts over six games.Smith is hitting .318 with a homer, five RBIs and OPS of .848 in five games.While the Shorebirds are only 43-73 on the season, Delmarva has seen numerous players promoted to High-A Aberdeen to recently include outfielder Nate George.We discussed him during this podcast and also talked about right-handed pitcher Esteban Mejia, age 18 from the Dominican Republic, who has made three Delmarva starts. With a fastball that has touched 102 mph, Mejia is already a Baseball America top 100 product, ranked No. 95. This interview with Woody was taped pregame yesterday at Perdue Stadium in Salisbury.Enjoy the latest Steve on Baseball podcast! Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

A very timely guest today on the Steve on Baseball podcast as I interview JJ Cooper, the editor-in-chief of Baseball America.He was a guest earlier and returns for the podcast being released today.Earlier this week, in the most recent update to the BA top 100 prospects list, four Orioles were ranked. Samuel Basallo was No. 7, Nate George No. 81, Dylan Beavers No. 83 and pitcher Esteban Mejia at No. 95.Beavers and George make their first appearances on the BA top 100.In this episode, JJ talks about what led BA to move Beavers into their top 100. Clearly it has ramifications for the Prospect Promotion Incentive program. A player that wins Rookie of the Year and is ranked in two of three top 100s (between Baseball America, MLBPipeline.com and ESPN) can earn his club an additional draft pick as Gunnar Henderson did when winning ROY.JJ also talks more in depth about the year both Basallo and Beavers have had at Triple-A Norfolk. He adds some thoughts too on the O’s trade deadline prospect acquisitions.Here is the updated BA O’s top 10 prospects list:1 - Samuel Basallo2 - Nate George3 - Dylan Beavers4 - Esteban Mejia5 - Ike Irish6 - Enrique Bradfield Jr.7 - Wehiwa Aloy8 - Trey Gibson9 - Juaron Watts-Brown10 - Boston BatemanClick here for the new BA top 100 and click here for the new O’s top 30 (subscription may be required for both).Enjoy episode No. 18 of the Steve on Baseball podcast!This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Hope you can sign up to get every O’s analysis piece, every minor league feature, video, the game blog and this podcast. Thanks Birdland! Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

As you know we keep you up to date on the O’s farm on this Substack and today on the podcast I interview Trey Gibson, right-handed starting pitcher of the Double-A Chesapeake Baysox.He began the year at High-A Aberdeen and while his ERA was 5.12, his strikeouts per nine innings was a ridiculous 15.59. He was showing dominance and a promotion to Double-A would soon come.This year between the two teams over 18 games Gibson, age 23, is 4-4 with a 3.28 ERA and 1.04 WHIP over 85 innings.As we release this podcast today, as of now, I would say he is the leading candidate for O’s Minor League Pitcher of the Year.In his nine starts at Double-A, he is 3-2 with a 1.75 ERA allowing just 24 hits in 46 1/3 innings. Opponents hit just .148 off Gibson who has a WHIP of 0.91 with the Baysox. He has twice been named the Eastern League Pitcher of the Week and is set to make his next start tonight at Akron.Just yesterday, Baseball America named Gibson one of the 10 breakout pitching prospects for 2025. Not bad for a pitcher that was not drafted in 2023 and signed by the Orioles after that draft. During this podcast, Gibson talks about that time and how only one other big league team showed interest in him beyond the Birds.He talks about his mid 90s fastball that can touch 97 and 98 and his four breaking balls. Yep, four.We got into several other interesting topics as well.Gibson’s ranking on the O’s farm (among pitchers with 60 IP or more)13.34 K per nine - first35.8 strikeout percentage - first1.04 WHIP - first46.4 grounder percentage - tied for second2.95 Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) - thirdEnjoy today’s Steve on Baseball podcast!Hope you consider becoming a paid subscriber to this Substack space. To sign up for a free or paid subscription, and not miss anything going on here, click below. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

It’s another solo podcast Birdland. We will resume interviewing guests next week, so check back for that.But today I check in briefly on the dismal Cleveland series that has the Orioles now 13 games below the .500 mark. The team has lost seven of its past eight games.I also provided my take on which O’s players might be most likely to be traded and mentioned why I believe that is the case.Later in the podcast I discussed one hot hitter on the O’s farm. He is a player we could see in Baltimore before the year is out.Enjoy the latest Steve on Baseball podcast.My Substack space surpassed 1,000 subscribers last night!For some reason, that milestone was meaningful for me. It was a long run of extended growth and I really appreciate O’s fans for continuing to find me and supporting what I do here on Substack. I promised this space will get better and it has been. The offseason - when we get there - will be very interesting as well. The content will stay interesting and worth your time. Promise.O’s fans also had me ranked yesterday among the top 100 Bestsellers on Substack. That was a first for me here! Thank you times a thousand! Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

The 2025 MLB Draft is in the books. The Orioles made 24 selections over two days of the draft on Sunday and Monday. Their first pick, No. 19 overall, was Auburn catcher/outfielder Ike Irish and their final pick in round 20 was right-handed pitcher Connor Gehr of Meridian Community College.The O’s selected 13 pitchers and 11 position players among their 24 picks.They drafted eight right-handers and five lefties along with four outfielders, five infielders and two catchers.The O’s have the largest signing pool of any team in the majors with a total pool dollar amount of $19,144,500.Hope you enjoy today’s podcast - a discussion of the O’s draft picks.This Substack is reader-supported. Please subscribe for a free or paid subscription. There will always be some free content on this Substack but paid subscribers will have access to every story and the full archive. We cover the majors, the minors, produce some videos and this Steve on Baseball podcast which drops on Thursdays and most weeks features some great guests. Help me get to 1,000 subscribers! Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

A great guest today for the podcast as I interview Keith Law, who has been with The Athletic as senior baseball writer since January of 2020.Law spent many years writing and working for ESPN and its various outlets from 2006-2019. Before that he worked in the front office of the Toronto Blue Jays after impressing then general manager J.P. Ricciardi during the 2002 Winter Meetings. He hired Law for the Blue Jays front office. Keith rose to the position of special assistant to the general manager before leaving for that ESPN gig. I have interviewed Keith many times over many years and always appreciate his solid insights. Some memebers of the previous O’s front office, before Mike Elias was hired, were not fans of some of Law’s opinions and would remind me often when I wrote a story with his takes.But Keith, who can have strong opinions, has always been worth hearing from in my opinion and this was a wonderful conversation today about the upcoming O’s draft and we also spent some time on the current farm system and had an extended discussion about Triple-A catcher Samuel Basallo.We ended the podcast discussing the upcoming trade deadline.Enjoy this edition of the Steve on Baseball podcast.I am closing in on 1,000 Substack subscribers so please keep signing on and joining us here. There are free and paid subscriptions and paid members have access to the full archive and any articles behind a paywall, as some are. But there is also a free element. So hope you will be here for every O’s analysis piece, minor league feature, video and podcast. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

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On today’s edition of the podcast, I am talking to and about Double-A right-handed pitcher Braxton Bragg. Time to get to better know this pitcher that has been about the best in the O’s farm system this year.Drafted in round eight out of Dallas Baptist in 2023, Bragg spent most of last year at Low-A Delmarva. And now he’s already at Double-A. He began this year at High-A Aberdeen and after three electric starts there (yielding no earned runs over 16 1/3) he quickly moved to Double-A Chesapeake.On the year over 12 games, between the IronBirds and Baysox, Bragg is 4-2 with a 1.68 ERA in 59 innings with a 1.00 WHIP.In nine games at Double-A only, he is 2-2 with a 2.32 ERA and 1.13 WHIP. He has walked 2.5 batters per every nine innings with 12.5 strikeouts.During this podcast, you will hear me ask Bragg questions about his recent injured list stint where he missed a few weeks with a right forearm strain. But he has returned to make two starts off the IL.In addition to hearing from Bragg I also include in this podcast an interview with Baysox pitching coach Jordie Henry. He provided some additional insights on Bragg’s strong 2025 season.These interviews were recorded last Friday afternoon at Bowie’s Prince George’s Stadium.The play-by-play clips in this podcast are courtesy of the Baysox as there is audio from play-by-play guys Gareth Kwok and Andre Magaro.So, if you have wanted to know more about the O’s draft pick pitcher having such a great year on the Baltimore farm, this is your day.Bragg has a career ERA of 2.89 in 162 innings on the O’s farm (photo courtesy of the Chesapeake Baysox and Joe Noyes).This Substack is reader-supported. So, to get new posts and/or support my work, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Make sure you are advised of every O’s analysis piece, minor league articles and features and this podcast. And thanks Birdland! Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

Hey Birdland, after a run of several shows with some great guests, especially from the O’s farm system, we dip back into all major league O’s topics today.This is my second solo effort on the Steve on Baseball podcast. The large majority of these shows will feature me plus a guest, but today, you’ve got just me.This podcast includes some of my thoughts up the upcoming trade deadline and the constant “buy or sell” debate that is surrounding this team almost daily now. The fans are very interested in this topic it seems. Plus a few other thoughts as well.This podcast was recorded before last night’s game, so no mention of the latest loss on the pod today. Hope you enjoy the latest Steve on Baseball podcast!Off day comes at a good time As for the team, the O’s looked a few times in recent days like a team running out of gas. Maybe the run of 16 games in 16 days that ended last night tired them out.Right-hander Jacob deGrom took a no-hitter into the eighth inning before Colton Cowser led the frame with a single. It was the only hit of the night for the O’s in a lackluster 7-0 loss to Texas. The Rangers lost Monday but won the last two in this series.The Orioles (34-46) have lost four of their past five games. They are now 6-16-4 in series play this year, going 0-2-1 the last three series.The Orioles have been no-hit through six innings in consecutive games and in three of their last five, becoming the only team to do so three times in a five-game span since 1974, per Stats Perform. The O’s have been no-hit through six innings in back-to-back games for the second time in franchise history. It also happened Sept. 11-12, 1964 versus Kansas City. They are the first MLB team to do so since the Chicago White Sox April 19-20, 2024 per the Elias Sports Bureau.In their last four losses, Baltimore batters have produced just seven runs on 13 hits.The O’s went 8-8 in their 16 straight games in 16 days span.Off today, they host the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday night.This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

Back late in the 2018 calender year, when O’s left-hander John Means went to Premiere Pitching Performance facility in St. Louis, he met Forrest Herrmann, who was then Premiere’s director of pitching development.The work Means did at that facility led to his fastball gaining velocity and his changeup developing into a real quality pitch. That work helped Means become an All-Star, an Opening Day starter and a top MLB pitcher.A few years later, one of those he had worked with there, Herrmann, would be hired by the Orioles.On the latest edition of the Steve on Baseball podcast I talked with Herrmann, who is now the Orioles’ director of pitching development. He oversees the pitching in their farm system. We got into numerous farm pitching topics in some depth and discussed this vital role for the Orioles. Every organization is looking to develop quality young pitchers and the while the O’s have not used high draft picks under Mike Elias on pitching, they have several promising pitching prospects.But it has also been a year when several of those pitchers on the farm have gotten hurt and we discussed that as well with Herrmann.In fact, since we recorded this interview a little over a week ago at High-A Aberdeen, more pitchers have hit the injured list on the farm. Just last Friday, Double-A Chesapeake put three pitchers on the IL. They were Braxton Bragg with a right forearm strain, Trace Bright with a right forearm strain and Levi Wells with right shoulder inflammation.Tough day at Double-A as three members of their rotation hit the IL. The Baysox have had the best pitching on the farm this year, ranking fifth in the Eastern League in team ERA while Aberdeen is seventh. But both Triple-A Norfolk and Low-A Delmarva are near the bottom of their respective leagues.Developing pitching is hard.But the organizations that do it the best usually go on to win in the big leagues. In this podcast we talked about this vital topic of developing pitching.Before joining the Orioles, Herrmann was a pitching strategist for the Seattle Mariners in 2019 and for the next two years worked in the minors for the Cincinnati Reds. With Baltimore, Herrmann was pitching coach at Aberdeen in 2022, at Bowie in 2023, then was their low-level pitching coordinator on the farm in 2024 and he was named the O’s director of pitching development in November of 2024.Herrmann also provides some input ahead of the draft each year on pitchers the O’s are looking at and we discussed that topic as well on this podcast. If you follow the O’s farm, I think you’ll be interested in this interview. And in the bigsThis one was both hard to believe and hard to take. The O’s opened an 8-0 lead on Tampa Bay in the second inning last night and went on to lose to the Rays 12-8.This was as bad as it gets.In scoring eight in the second, the first nine O’s batters went 6-for-8 with a walk and three homers.But the O’s remarkably went 0-for-23 the rest of the game.Staked to an 8-0 lead, starter Trevor Rogers could get just seven outs. The O’s bullpen, so good for so long, had a meltdown, allowing nine runs in 5 2/3 innings. The O’s will somehow try to regroup and win tonight to split a four-game series. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

A 19th round draft pick of the Chicago White Sox in 2016, Anthony Villa played three years on the White Sox farm. His last season as a player was 2018.Now Villa, age 31, is in his second year as the Orioles’ director, player development. He moved into that position in October of 2023.He is one of the people at the very top of the O’s minor league system. He holds a key management role. He moved up consistently on the O’s farm since joining the organization ahead of the 2020 season. He is one of many key people that helped the O’s rise to become the No. 1 organization in all of the minors.Villa works closely with Matt Blood, the club’s vice president of player development and domestic scouting, to oversee the Orioles’ player development operation.Villa’s responsibilities include staff recruitment and development, as well as implementation of player development strategies and programs throughout the entire minor league system.I have interviewed Villa a few times now and find him to be a great baseball guy to talk with. The O’s have a young, talent here and I think you will really enjoy our conversation.We got into numerous topics about the O’s farm and you will know more about the O’s operation after you listen to this.Thanks for being here for episode No. 10!O’s win big versus Detroit When the Orioles scored seven runs in the last of the eighth last night, they blew open a close game and went on to beat Detroit 10-1.Tonight they can win a series versus the club with the best record in the American League, but they are facing lefty Tarik Skubal (6-2, 2.16 ERA), the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner.The O’s scored their second-most runs all year and most since getting 12 on Opening Day at Toronto. That game also was their biggest win margin of the year as they beat the Blue Jays 12-2. Last night, a nine-run win, now ranks second.The O’s had been 0-4 scoring just eight runs versus Detroit until this win. The O’s produced a season-high 16 hits and the club’s six extra-base hits was their most since eight against Kansas City May 4.The Baltimore bullpen has put up 6 2/3 scoreless this series and has allowed just one run over 28 1/3 innings (an ERA of 0.32) the last eight games.This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This space keeps getting better, so sign up to be in on every O’s opinion piece, every minor league feature, video and podcast. Thanks Birdland! Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

When you meet Ryan Goll, the manager of the Orioles’ High-A Aberdeen IronBirds affiliate, you could mistake him for a player.He is 28 and looks younger.But he brings that youthful enthusiasm to his job. He would love to be a big league skipper one day and this is a big step in that direction. The University of Minnesota product started with the Orioles during the 2020 season. But Covid hit and the baseball world stopped. He would end up that summer working at the O’s alternate site at Double-A Bowie.He has spent three of the last four seasons as an IronBirds coach, was a coach at Double-A in 2023 and now he back as the skipper of the IronBirds.He and the his staff have a roster that features a heavy international presence and five of the club’s highest draft picks from 2024.What is it like as a first-year O’s minor league skipper? How does he handle it when the team has a tough stretch like their recent 0-6 week at Brooklyn? How much input on lineups and other decisions come from the Baltimore front office and how much is input from himself and his staff?We talked about those questions and much more with Ryan. We taped this interview yesterday, June 4, at Aberdeen’s Ripken Stadium.I hope you enjoy Episode No. 9 of the Steve on Baseball podcast.Another O’s win The Orioles played another low-scoring, close game last night and won again 3-2 at Seattle.The Orioles (24-36) have now won five in a row, eight of 10 and nine of the last 13 games. They continue to pitch well allowing just three runs in this series, eight during the five straight wins and 11 runs in their past eight wins.O’s starting pitchers have a 1.13 ERA the last five games and an ERA of 2.11 the past 10 games. The overall staff ERA is 2.40 in the last 10 games.Heston Kjerstad, hitting .185 at first pitch Tuesday night, has gone 3-for-6 with a double, triple and three RBIs in this series. His two-run triple to right in the seventh inning gave the O’s a 3-2 lead. The bullpen, with 3 2/3 scoreless, made that lead stand up. Felix Bautista recorded his 11th save in 12 chances. This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Thanks to Birdland for all the recent subscriptions and keep that coming please! Glad to have you aboard to get every podcast, not to mention every O’s analysis piece and minor league story and feature. There are new stories and fresh content every day in this space. This Substack will keep getting bigger and better. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

JJ Cooper has been with Baseball America since 2002. He’s the leader of a publication that has been an industry leader in covering the minors, majors, the draft and prospects for decades. A leader back in the day and a leader still today.JJ always provides an interesting and well-thought out perspective on the Orioles and their player development system and we’ve had many interviews over many years.This was the first time for me to talk with JJ as a guest on the Steve on Baseball podcast.To be frank, it has not been a great year on the O’s farm. Several full season clubs have losing records and there has been a rash of pitching injuries. Some young players, in the majors and minors, are not yet taking expected steps foward.What does that all mean?We get into that and several other topics with JJ on episode No. 8 on the podcast.This Substack is reader-supported. To receive every new post and support my work, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Be sure to get every story, analysis piece, minor league feature, every video and podcast with a subscription. Thank you Birdland for the support! Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

This is his third year as an O’s beat writer and it surely has not been boring for Jacob Calvin Meyer of the Baltimore Sun.In his first year on the job, the 2023 Orioles won 101 games along with an AL East title. A second playoff year followed. And now JCM has been there to chronicle this mess of an O’s season as well, one that led to manager Brandon Hyde’s firing last weekend.We discussed Hyde’s tenure as O’s skipper, from the rebuild to this year’s struggles and all in-between. And we ponder this question - if the window is closing on having a playoff year in 2025 and it may be, is the O’s window to win in the future still open?Jacob is a local kid covering the local team. He’s a 2013 grad of Howard County’s Mt. Hebron High School. He is a 2017 graduate of Waynesburg (Pa.) University, where he was a four-year pitcher on the baseball team for his Div. 3 squad.I even learned during this podcast more about his middle name and yes it has something to do with a one-time O’s shortstop.Hope you enjoy episode No. 7 of the Steve on Baseball podcast. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

Over my years working in baseball I have been lucky to develop a network of friends in the industry, who I often call on for insights, interviews, guidance, prospect ranking opinions, etc.Many I consider good friends - like today’s guest, Jim Callis.Back in the day I got to know Jim and John Manuel when they were an exceptional one-two punch of powerhouse analysts and writing talent for Baseball America. Bat them any way you want and they were the No. 3 and No. 4 hitters in a star-studded lineup.Both were involved with adding me for several years to write the O’s top 30 prospects list of the Baseball America Prospect Handbook. It was a real honor to be involved with that project. And have my name in a book!Back in the day Baseball America was mostly alone as a top national outlet covering prospects. Now the market is flooded everywhere you look.But there is Callis, still going strong since 2013 for MLB.com and MLBPipeline.com. At a time when everybody and their brother has a prospects list, Callis still heads up the pack. Because he is still a No. 4 hitter. Talented, experienced, knowledgable, driven and passionate as ever.You want to watch a master at work. Watch Jim and his colleagues cover the MLB Draft year after year for MLB Network and MLB.com. Whether it is the cream of the crop of prospects in round one, or some obscure Div. II pitcher taken in round 15, Callis has the scouting report and presents it in a concise, impressive way.I marvel at how he does it every year. I’m lucky to call him a friend and he never fails to take my call and help with any story. I mean never. He and I have done so many interviews I’ve lost count at just how many.But this was our first-ever on a podcast and not just any podcast, but my new one, so this was special. We discussed the O’s having six top 100 picks, we discussed if they will take a pitcher early on, we spent some time talking about draft models and some time looking at Jackson Holliday’s younger brother Ethan possibly going 1/1.Enjoy my latest conversation with the great Jim Callis. This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Be sure to get every O’s analysis story, every minor league feature, video and podcast! Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

Today, on episode No. 5 of the Steve on Baseball podcast, Steve talks about baseball and interviews no one.It’s a solo effort and we get back to having a guest for next Thursday’s edition. Promise.But hope you take time to listen today. I discuss at the outset a few reasons and areas that could help the Orioles turn around their season. I spent a few minutes doing something I have not done in much detail to this point. I discussed why on Feb. 27 I moved my efforts to this Substack space and talk about how its going and how it will be going moving forward. I ended my solo effort with the topic being social media criticism of the team.Hope you find this all interesting, somewhat entertaining and informative and let me know with some comments below.Thanks for reading! This post is public so feel free to share it. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

A couple of Substack Birdland teammates teamed up today to discuss the Orioles, our various Substacks and much more.Hope you enjoy the conversation with John Eisenberg, long-time columnist formerly for the Baltimore Sun. John’s “Bird Tapes” space on Substack is great, so check that out.Today we discussed the O’s series win over the Yankees, several current topics surrounding the club, the social media pressures on players in 2025 and a lot more. This Substack is reader-supported. Please consider supporting me by becoming a free or paid subscriber. Make sure you receive every O’s analysis piece, every minor league feature, every video and/or podcast right in your inbox. Thanks O’s fans! Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

I had a blast talking with my long-time buddy Peter Schmuck. Most O’s fans know him from his days as a writer and for many years columnist for the Baltimore Sun. He is no longer full-time in the business but still pens some columns on occasion for BaltimoreBaseball.com.Between us, we have seven Maryland Sportswriter of the Year awards. Pete has seven, I don’t have any!The Schmucker told some great stories during this interview. About how he inadvertently almost, became a baseball beat writer back in the day covering the Angels and Dodgers. His marital status factored into the equation! And also how in those days the writers flew on the team plane.That is how he got to know Mark Belanger, an eight-time O’s Gold Glove winner. Not as an Oriole but in his final big league season sitting near him on the Los Angeles Dodgers’ charter flights.Pete is a great guy, especially when he is not firing quips or jokes my way.He came up for air from that for several minutes recently to be on the other end of a great conversation. Pete is someone that has earned a lot of respect in baseball and several other sports circles for a nearly 50-year career in the industry. Impressive!Please enjoy and share with others, the Steve on Baseball Podcast, episode No. 4. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

ABERDEEN, Md. - The most recent Orioles’ top draft pick is outfielder Vance Honeycutt of the University of North Carolina. The club selected him No. 22 overall last summer.Honeycutt brings the O’s organization a nice blend of solid offense and defense. He was the Atlantic Coast Conference Defensive Player of the Year in both 2023 and 2024. As a hitter he led the ACC with 28 homers, added 28 steals, scored 88 runs and hit .318 with an OPS of 1.124 for a talented 2024 Tarheel squad that made the College World Series.He began his pro career last Aug. 22 at Low-A Delmarva and ended the season with High-A Aberdeen. He is back with the IronBirds this year to begin his first full professional season.In this wide-ranging interview, we discussed his time at UNC, his inside-the-park homer in the Spring Breakout game, the pressures of being a top draft pick and a lot more.Thanks to IronBirds broadcaster Michael Marcantonini for the play-by-play cuts used in this podcast. Hope you enjoy Episode No. 3 of the Steve On Baseball Podcast. This Substack is reader-supported. To receive each new post, support my work, and get alerted for every story, video, game blog and podcast, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Hope to add you to the list and thanks!Thanks for reading! This post is public so feel free to share it. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

Koby Perez, the Orioles’ vice president of international scouting and operations, was one of the first people Mike Elias hired when he joined the Orioles before the 2019 season.The club needed to build up an international program of young and talented prospects almost from scratch and Perez was the man for the job. Perez has worked in pro ball for the Cardinals, Phillies, then Indians now Guardians and with the Orioles since January of 2019.How did the club build a formidable international program? Perez discusses that and so much more in this in-depth interview all about the O’s international program. This Substack is reader-supported. To receive each new post, support my work, and get alerted for every story, video and podcast, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Hope to add you to the list and thanks! Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

Trying something new today with a video entry. Not live, but recorded as I take a look at the O’s overall, but mostly break down the hot start of center fielder Cedric Mullins and not-hot start of right-hander Charlie Morton who pitches tonight.The O’s host Cleveland to start a three-game series.During this video, I note how the results against Morton’s curveballs have been very different this season compared to last. At times this season hitters are cleaning up on that pitch. What once was his best pitch is not now. He needs to find that offering to get his season turned around.I also discussed Mullins’ hot bat. And note that, over his last 39 games, he has been the 30-30 Cedric.Take a moment to watch and leave a comment.Also my audio-only podcast is now available on both Apple and Spotify. Yahoo for that. Episode one with Dan Connolly is out now, since last Friday. Later this week I break out a great conversation with O’s vice president of international scouting and operations Koby Perez. He talks about the building up of the O’s international program. One that can now boast of 11 top 30 prospects.This Substack space is getting better! Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe