Baltimore Orioles: 2018 Minor League Awards
The 2018 season was not kind to the Baltimore Orioles at the major league level, but there were some positive strides in the minor league system.
As part of our continuing coverage at Call to the Pen of the minor leagues, we will be covering each organization’s top players for 2018. The coverage will go in reverse order of record. Today, we will look at the Baltimore Orioles.
We are going to review the system’s leaders for each organization statistically, then choose one hitter and one pitcher to honor for every team. This will be primarily based on statistical performance, though some “age relative to level” could come into play, so a very impressive season from a 28-year-old in AA will rank below a nearly as impressive season from a 20-year-old at the same level.
After we review each organization’s hitter and pitcher of the year, we will close out October with Call To The Pen’s Minor League team of the year. That will lead into November starting our team top 10 prospect lists. In other words, there will be plenty of minor league content on the way at CTTP, so keep coming back for more each day this offseason!!
Baltimore Orioles minor leagues
Often joked about and discounted, the Orioles have actually done a good job of building up their minor league development staff. These efforts have been specifically noted on the pitching side, where minor league pitching coordinator John Wasdin has done incredible work building up the Baltimore Orioles development program for young arms, something that once was a horrid black mark on the organization.
Before we offer up awards on the season, let’s take a look at the system’s statistical leaders:
Organization Leaders (min. 150 PA, 50 IP)
BA: Ryan McKenna .315
OBP: Ryan McKenna .410
SLG: Wilson Garcia .521
OPS: Corban Joseph .878
R: Ryan McKenna 95
H: Ryan McKenna 148
2B: T.J. Nichting 36
3B: Mason McCoy 10
HR: Aderlin Rodriguez, Wilson Garcia 23
RBI: Aderlin Rodriguez 92
SB: Kirvin Moesquit 49
TB: Aderlin Rodriguez 231
W: Keegan Akin 14
G: Tyler Erwin 50
GS: John Means, Cristian Alvarado 26
IP: John Means 157 1/3
SV: Tyler Erwin 18
K: Zac Lowther 151
ERA: Tyler Erwin 1.58
WHIP: Luis Perez 0.89
K/9: Tyler Erwin 11.1
K/BB: Cristian Alvarado 5.17