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!

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 Bateman

Click 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!

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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 - first

35.8 strikeout percentage - first

1.04 WHIP - first

46.4 grounder percentage - tied for second

2.95 Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) - third

Enjoy today’s Steve on Baseball podcast!

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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!

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!

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.

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!

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.

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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 bigs

This 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.