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.

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.

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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.

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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.

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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!

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!