Four 2012 Keys in intrasquad starting lineups (updated)
Four 2012 Frederick Keys found themselves in the starting lineups of intrasquad games at O’s spring training on Wednesday. Photo courtesy of MLB.com Orioles reporter Britt Ghiroli.
The Orioles played their first intrasquad games of spring training this morning, a pair three-inning contests that began around 10 a.m. To fill out the lineups, six minor leaguers were called up from their minicamp to fill out the starting lineups, four of whom were Keys last season.
Outfielders Glynn Davis, Brenden Webb and Johnny Ruettiger and infielder Ty Kelly started today’s contests after spending time in Frederick in 2012, along with O’s farmhands Buck Britton, a 2011 Key, and 18-year-old Adrian Marin, who finished 2012 in Delmarva and has yet to reach Frederick. Another 2012 Key, catcher Allen de San Miguel, also played in today’s games.
*I’ll update with any Keys-related info from the intrasquad games as it becomes available.
–Davis was the only 2012 Key to make it into MASN writer Rock Kubatko’s notes from the intrasquad game. Kubatko noted that Davis struck out against Baltimore free-agent acquisition Jair Jurrjens. His article is here.
–Marin, who could potentially see time in Frederick this year, caught O’s manager Buck Showalter’s eye today. Here’s his quote about the Orioles’ 2012 third-round pick in another Kubatko story:
“You can see why everybody’s so high on him. He’s got nice actions, real calm,” Showalter said. “He’s got a little Bordy (Mike Bordick) look to him.”
–Eduardo Rodriguez, one of our 40 potential Keys for 2013, is slated to pitch in Thursday’s six-inning intrasquad game, according to MLB.com’s Britt Ghiroli.
–Ruettiger reached base and nearly scored, but was gunned down by fellow minor leaguer and 2010 Key L.J. Hoes. San Miguel made a nice scoop and applied the tag, according to Baltimore Sun reporter Ed Encina and columnist Peter Shmuck. Shmuck’s take is here.
A few more bits and pieces on this Wednesday:
*Another reminder that the Keys Job Fair will be held Tuesday and Wednesday Feb. 26 and 27 from 6-8 p.m. each night at Harry Grove Stadium. More info here and here.
*The Keys opening weekend ticket package is on sale. Four tickets to any of the three games, four Esskay hot dogs and four drinks for a low price. Check it out here and reserve your seats.
*2012 Key Dylan Bundy, baseball’s top pitching prospect, got some more media love today. Read Steve Melewski’s story here.
*Britt Ghiroli wrote a good, lengthy piece on Nolan Reimold (Frederick Key in 2005 and 2006) working back from the career-threatening neck injury that ended his season in 2012. Read it here.
*The No. 10 promotion in our countdown of 2013′s top 10 promotions at Harry Grove Stadium was unveiled yesterday. No. 9 will be released on the blog this afternoon.
Shake your Keys.
Minor’s brief pro basketball career
2013 Keys Manager Ryan Minor starred for the University of Oklahoma basketball team and had a brief pro career on the basketball court. This is his NBA rookie card.
A two-sport star at Oklahoma, Ryan Minor had two obvious career options during the summer of 1996 — move to Philadelphia and try to make it in the NBA or join the Orioles’ minor league system and pursue the majors.
Eventually, Minor settled on baseball and had a brief major league career. But in ’96, the 2013 Frederick Keys manager actually gave both pro sports a try.
Minor, named the Keys manager in January, was a basketball star at Oklahoma. He started for three years as a Sooner and averaged 14 minutes per game coming off the bench as a freshman. Listed as a 6-7, 220-pound forward, Minor was named an All-American as a junior after he averaged 23 points and eight rebounds. Led by their big man, the ’95 Sooners went 23-9, 15-0 at home and earned a No. 4 seed in the NCAA tournament, though they were upset in the first round by Manhattan College.
Had Minor, a forward with a soft touch from 3-point land, left for the NBA after his junior year, speculation suggested he’d have been a lottery pick. But Minor chose stay in Norman for his senior year.
Obscured by the basketball hype surrounding Minor was his ability on the baseball field. A member of the OU team that won the 1994 College World Series, the Mets selected Minor in the seventh round of the 1995 MLB draft. Again, he chose to stay in school.
In 1996, Minor became the first player in Oklahoma history to score 1,800 points, grab 700 rebounds and total 150 steals in his career. His draft stock, however, fell and he was taken in the second round by the 76ers. The Orioles, who also drafted Minor as a shortstop out of high school, also drafted him that summer, in the 33rd round.
Minor played 25 games with the O’s rookie league team in Bluefield, W. Va., — missing workouts with Philadelphia to do so — and hit .253. Then, he decided to give basketball a try. He signed a one-year, non-guaranteed contract with the Sixers, played in seven preseason games and was cut.
He averaged 2.4 points in less than eight minutes per game and shot just 18.5 percent from the field in his brief, preseason NBA career.
News of Minor’s release led to speculation that he might return to Oklahoma to play in the Continental Basketball Association, which is exactly what happened. Saying he was “focused completely on basketball,” Minor spent the end of ’96 with the Oklahoma City Cavalry (rocking a fantastic 90s practice jersey) but didn’t stick.
In February of ’97, he re-signed with Baltimore.
*In 45 days, Minor will begin his Keys managerial career (barring rain, of course). He also played for the Keys for two games, both on the road, in 2000.
*You may have read the former Key and current Oriole Manny Machado missed workouts yesterday at spring training. No worries, folks, it was apparently just acid reflux. Thank goodness.
*No. 10 in our countdown of the Keys’ Top 10 Promotions for 2013 will be on the blog this afternoon. Make sure to click over to that.
*For all you longtime O’s (and Keys) fans, you’ll enjoy this column from MASN’s Steve Melewski. Check it out: What defines a great Orioles fan?
Shake your Keys.
Former Frederick Friday Feature – Jovanny Sosa
Last week’s Former Frederick Friday player Jovanny Sosa played just half a season with the Keys. After being promoted from Delmarva, the 6-2, 200-pound outfielder from the Dominican Republic hit .179 for Frederick in 64 games in 2001.
Sosa had played well in Delmarva, hitting .274 with five home runs and 18 RBIs in 36 games, but his transition to high-A ball in Frederick was a rough one. In addition to batting below .200, Sosa struck out 72 times. The highlight of his time in Frederick, his only year in the Baltimore system, was his power from the right-handed batter’s box. He slugged seven homers despite only racking up a total of 37 hits.
Before his season with Delmarva and Frederick, Sosa spent three years in the Pirates organization, capped by a two-season span in which he hit a combined 40 dingers, and spent his final year in the minors, 2002, with the Clinton Lumber Kings. For his five-year minor league career, Sosa hit .235, clubbed 67 home runs, drove in 226 runs and struck out a whopping 556 times.
Sosa’s career stats can be found here.
This is the 2nd annual Former Frederick Friday contest. Throughout the offseason, a picture of a former Key is posted on our Facebook page on Fridays. The first person to correctly guess who the former Key is will have his or her name placed the running for a Keys Luxury Suite during a game in 2013. We are currently in our 14th week of the contest. Congratulations to Willard Rudy for correctly guessing Sosa, and doing so quickly, on Friday.
Frederick Flashback: The Presidential Visits
President George H.W. Bush dons a Keys hat while at Harry Grove Stadium on August 14, 1992.
On June 8, 1991, the Frederick Keys played the Durham Bulls in front of a crowd of 7,912.
Among those in the stands at Harry Grove Stadium — and the reason they were so packed that day — was serving U.S. President George H. W. Bush.
On the 22nd Presidents Day since the 41st President’s inaugural visit to the ballpark in Frederick, let’s look back at his two trips to the Grove.
It’s no secret that the Bush family are avid baseball fans. Bush’s son and former President George W. used to own the Rangers. George H.W., an Astros fan, has been spotted at major league games in recent years. Back in 1947, he played in the first College World Series as a first baseman at Yale. Though the Bulldogs would fall in the best-of-three series to California, he fondly recounted playing in the championship in this 2007 Sports Illustrated article.
George H.W. Bush in his Yale baseball uniform.
President Bush trekked from Camp David, the presidential retreat located in northern Frederick County, to the Grove twice during his presidency — for the Durham game in ’91 and again on August 8, 1992. (Camp David’s only about a 26-mile drive from the Keys’ stadium.) For his second Keys outing, Bush brought along the First Lady and several of his grandchildren.
President Bush watches the Keys take on Durham on June 8, 1991 at Harry Grove Stadium with M.J. Grove, son of the stadium’s namesake.
Bush sat in the suite level at Harry Grove Stadium for both games. Obviously, security at the ballpark increased during his visits, with Secret Service agents manning doors and scattered elsewhere throughout the stadium.
The President’s security detail was particularly cautious with one Orioles Scout who came to the park with his radar gun in 1991. Jim Gilbert’s story, as told by The Baltimore Sun’s Pat O’Malley, is here. An excerpt from O’Malley’s July 28, 1991 column:
Gilbert, who resides in Hagerstown, was scheduled to work in Frederick that night and rate a pitcher. He shows up at a backdoor to the clubhouse only to be met by some huge, hulking guy who wanted to know what he wanted.
The guy happened to be a Secret Service agent, but Gil, unaware of the president’s visit, had no idea why he was guarding the door.
An argument ensued, and when the Secret Service man wanted to look in Gil’s black bag, all hell broke loose.
Gilbert told the guy that he had a radar gun (to clock the velocity on a pitcher’s fastball). With that, the agent shouted out, “A radar gun? What kind of gun did you say, a radar gun?”
Within seconds, Gilbert was surrounded by about 10 agents who wanted to see his radar gun. According to Gil, the agents didn’t have a clue what it was for.
As they started tugging at his bag, Gil grabbed the radar gun and ran across the room shouting “Wherever the gun goes, I go!”
Despite the Keys’ close proximity to Camp David, President Bush remains the only Commander-in-Chief to stop by the Grove for a ballgame.
Regarding non-presidential matters:
*Baltimore’s spring training minor league mini-camp opened today with 29 farmhands slated to participate. That list includes several former Keys and several more who will likely don Frederick orange and black this season.
*The Keys Job Fair will be held next Tuesday and Wednesday (Feb. 26-27) from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. each night in the Mattress Warehouse Club at Harry Grove Stadium. More info about the job fair is here.
*2012 Key Kevin Gausman found a high-calorie surprise in his locker at O’s spring training this weekend. Baltimore’s pitching prospect had a well-publicized habit of eating powdered mini-donuts before taking the mound in college, which Orioles center fielder Adam Jones parlayed into this clubhouse prank.
*46 days until opening night at the Grove.
Shake your Keys.
Five for Friday: Potential Keys, reading for the weekend and other stuff
Buried beneath yesterday’s bosom-filled blog broadcast was a link to the second installment of The Frederick 40 Countdown, a series that takes look at 40 prospects who have the potential to wear a Keys uniform this season.
If you missed it, I understand, given the distracting photo directly above it.
The good news is part two of our countdown is the first of this week’s Five for Friday, a quintuplet of Keys-related information to carry you through the weekend.
1. Frederick 40 Countdown: Part II – Nowak back for more hacks in 2013?
Among this week’s five potential Keys is Frederick’s 2012 leader in batting average and doubles, Jeremy Nowak (pictured above). Among the highlights of Nowak’s baseball career is his one season at Mount Olive College in North Carolina. Nowak was a one-year D-II monster, hitting .446, racking up 99 hits — including 17 homers — and driving in 81 runs for the Trojans. He started the season with a 35-game hitting streak and left his mark on the Mount Olive record book.
As for the rest of the bunch in part two:
Matt Bywater – A lefty who led the NCAA in complete games in 2010. Also had a strong mustache on picture day last season.
Parker Bridwell - Starred at a high school in Texas with teams nicknamed the Whitefaces. Don’t get offended, a whiteface is another name for the Hereford breed of cattle.
Devin Jones - One of two Mississippi State athletes with his name during his time in Starkville. The potential 2013 Key played baseball, the other football. The baseball Jones was probably the better Bulldog as far as on-field performance goes.
Joe Oliveira – Named to the Johnny Bench Award Watch list three years while at the University of the Pacific.
By the way, part one of the countdown is here.
2. Some Keys-related reading
*MASN’s Steve Melewski has been all over the former-Keys beat in the last week. Three links to his stories are below, two on Kevin Gausman — O’s first-round pick last year and major pitching prospect — and one on Bobby Bundy — also a pitcher. Gausman had a brief stint with the Keys late in the season. He also came to the O’s Caravan event in Frederick in January. Here are the two Melewski stories on Gausman:
- Searching for a third plus pitch, Kevin Gausman just may have found one
- Kevin Gausman on his innings limit, high expectations and powdered donuts
Bundy, the brother of top-pitching prospect and 2012 Key Dylan Bundy, spent a large chunk of 2011 dominating hitters with the Keys. He’s coming off elbow surgery after a disappointing 2012. Here’s Melewski’s story:
- After surgery, Bobby Bundy looks to recapture the form he showed with Frederick
3. Meet Frank Key all over again
We just added a Frederick Keys video relic to the website. It’s called “Frederick Meets Frank Key” (YouTube link) and it’s worth watching. The comments about Frank Key’s knickers make the video.
4. Newsletter time
The newest Keys newsletter has been published. It is here.
5. Former Frederick Friday Contest
Head over to the Keys Facebook page this afternoon for another edition of our weekly Former Frederick Friday Contest. We post the picture, you guess who it is, if you’re the first to name that Key, your name will be entered into a drawing to win skybox tickets at Harry Grove Stadium this season. We’ll post a brief feature on the this week’s former Key on the blog on Monday.
As always, shake your Keys.
Frederick Flashback: The Kissing Bandit
In the name of St. Valentine, let’s go back to Harry Grove Stadium in 1991.
Pictured above is former Key Randy Berlin, about to receive a wet one from Morganna the Kissing Bandit.
Morganna Roberts, described in a 2003 Sports Illustrated article as a woman with “measurements like a first-place hockey record, 60-24-39,” is from Louisville, Ky., and by all accounts now — or lackthereof — lives a normal life. But for three decades, the busty Kentuckian became famous for running onto fields, courts and rinks to smooch lucky athletes.
Her first on-field caper came in 1971 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati, when she went for a jaunt across the infield to plant a kiss on all-time hits leader Pete Rose. She became a traveling sideshow at major league parks across the country, soon expanding her repertoire to include NBA and NHL arenas and minor league venues. In doing so, she compiled an impressive list of smooch-ees that includes George Brett (1979 All-Star game at the Kingdome in Seattle) Cal Ripken, Jr. (1988 at Camden Yards) and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1989 before a Lakers-Rockets game).
So, 20 years after Morganna made her debut with Pete Rose, Sr., she came to Frederick to add Pete Rose, Jr. to her list. She got him, and Berlin’s kiss was just a bonus cherry on top of that romantic evening at the Grove.
The Kissing Bandit, who worked as an exotic dancer when she wasn’t storming fields and rushing athletes lips-first, hung up her kissing lipstick in 2000, according to this Seattle Post-Intelligencer article.
Here’s a Morganna highlight video, which opens with her Baltimore encounter with The Iron Man. A signed Morganna photo dug out of the Keys archives is below. Happy Valentines Day.
In non-kissing news:
*Part two of our Frederick 40 Countdown is up on FrederickKeys.com. This week’s five include the 2012 Keys’ leader in batting average and doubles and two highly-touted pitching prospects. Check it out by clicking here or on the link above.
*We’re going to start counting down the top 10 promotions of the upcoming season shortly. Stay tuned for that. What would you like to see at the Grove?
*50 days until opening night in Frederick.
Shake your Keys.
Hot Keys Down Under
While big-league spring training is just getting under away and minor-league camp is right around the corner, three Orioles prospects just finished a championship-series run on the other side of the world.
Former Keys Allan de San Miguel and Brenden Webb and 2012 Delmarva Shorebird Michael Ohlman played in last weekend’s Australian Baseball League Championship Series as members of the Perth Heat. The Heat lost in the ABL’s world series two games to none, falling to the Canberra Calvary 6-4 on Friday and 7-6 on Saturday.
Ohlman, who will likely don a Keys uniform this season, had the best campaign down under of the three Baltimore farmhands who had hoped to lead Perth to its third-straight ABLCS crown. In 43 regular season games, Ohlman, 22, hit .317 with six home runs and 27 RBI. In the postseason, he hit .467.
Ohlman’s name was in the news for all the wrong reasons just under a year ago. He injured his shoulder in a car accident during spring training and soon after received a 50-game suspension for violating the minor league drug policy. But Ohlman rebounded nicely after those setbacks, hitting .304 in 51 games with Delmarva, doubling 16 times, homering twice and driving in 28 runs while serving as the Shorebirds catcher. He and San Miguel split time at first base and behind the plate with Perth.
Webb, A 6-3, left-handed outfielder with good speed, played in Frederick at the end of 2012. He hit .270 in 23 games with the Keys after hitting .251 in Delmarva before being called up. Webb also stole a career-high 19 bases in 2012 and had a personal-best on-base percentage over .400 despite striking out 138 times in 124 games.
Webb joined Perth in early January and hit .190 with five home runs in 18 games during the regular season. He struggled in the playoffs as well, hitting just .091. The 27th-best prospect in the Orioles’ system according to Baseball America, Webb will likely start 2013 with the Keys.
San Miguel, a native of Bentley, Australia, has played for the Heat in the last three ABL seasons and played 30 games for Frederick in 2012. The right-handed Aussie hit .294 during the ABL regular season, slugging five homers and driving in 30 runs, and hit .286 in the playoffs. Barring a setback, odds are San Miguel has already played his final game as a Key.
Steve Bumbry, a Key in ’11 and ’12, started the ABL season with Perth but left the team in early December.
In other news:
*Webb and Ohlman will report early to spring training for a minor league mini-camp on Monday (Feb. 18). Minor league pitchers and catchers don’t report until March 2 and position players don’t report until March 7. A full list of the 29 O’s farmhands heading to Sarasota for the mini-camp can be found here on Orioles beat writer Britt Ghiroli’s blog.
*The Keys annual job fair will be held Feb. 26-27 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The team will be interviewing for its gameday positions at the event, which will be held in the Mattress Warehouse Club on the suite level in Harry Grove Stadium. The full release on the job fair is here on the Keys’ website.
*We’re 51 days away from opening night at the Grove. Single-game tickets will go on sale March 30 at KeysFest (click to see release). Ticket plans, however, are on sale right now. All the info regarding Keys ticket plans, which range from a 10-ticket flex-pack that can be used when and however the buyer chooses to a full-season package, is at this link on FrederickKeys.com.
Shake your Keys.
What’s that smell? It’s baseball.
Let it waft into your nostrils. The smell of freshly cut grass, broken-in leather, dirt, pine tar and sunflower seed spittle.
As of today, baseball begins in 2013.
Pitchers and catchers reported to big-league camp today in sunny, warm Florida and Arizona. It’s a sunny, crisp 46 degrees in Frederick.
In less than 53 days, the Keys open their season at Harry Grove Stadium against Salem. (A countdown to the 2013 Keys baseball season is here.) So, let’s get caught up on some off-season happenings with the Keys.
*The Orioles announced Frederick’s coaching staff for 2013 last month. Orlando Gomez, the Keys’ all-time winningest manager, will not be returning for his fourth season. He’s headed down to Florida to lead the O’s rookie-ball Gulf Coast League team. Stepping into his shoes in Frederick is Ryan Minor, former Oriole and Delmarva Shorebirds manager. Minor managed low-A Delmarva in 2010, ’11 and ’12. He’ll be joined by pitching coach Kennie Steenstra, who held the same position in Frederick in 2009, and hitting coach Torre Tyson, who’s new to the O’s system.
*The full release on the Keys’ 2013 staff can be found on the Keys’ website.
*The Frederick News-Post’s Greg Swatek talked to Minor, who famously replaced Cal Ripken in the lineup when he ended his consecutive games streak, after he was announced as Keys manager. Read his story on the FNP’s website.
*The Orioles Caravan came to Frederick in January. Swatek was there for that event, too. Read his story from the event here. He also gave his take on the bigger-than-expected turnout on a rainy winter day on his FNP blog. An excerpt from that post:
It wasn’t a horrible day by January weather standards. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t without misery (rainy, cold, getting dark). Yet there were hundreds of people in line, waiting to get inside the recreation center almost an hour before the doors opened for an Orioles’ Caravan/FanFest event in Frederick.
Read the whole thing on his blog.
*Our 40-man countdown of prospective Keys for the 2013 season has begun. I’ve penned short bios of the first five, which are in no particular order. Check out The Frederick 40 Countdown: Part I. Seven more installments to come, typically on Thursday afternoons.
*Speaking of Thursdays, here is last week’s Keys newsletter. Get on the newsletter email list by signing up online.
*In case you haven’t heard, 2013 will be the Keys 25th anniversary season. In honor of the silver anniversary, we’ll be posting Keys history-related items in this space all season long.
*2012 Keys Brenden Webb and Allan de San Miguel and potential 2013 Key Michael Ohlman just played in the Australian Baseball League Championship Series. But we’ll get into that and a few other things later this week.
Shake your Keys.
Former Frederick Friday Feature – Dalton Maine
Welcome to the Keys 2nd annual Former Frederick Friday contest. Throughout the offseason on specific Friday’s, a picture of a former Key is posted. The first person to guess it right will get their name in the running for a Keys Luxury Suite during a game in 2013. We are currently in our 13th week of the contest. The latest former key to be selected was right handed pitcher, Dalton Maine.
It took a while on Facebook for Maine to be guessed, which isn’t surprising, considering this bushy-browed right hander only saw time in Frederick for 19 games out of his total 93 in his minor league career. His baseball career began in the independent league, with the Mason City Bats in 1994. His 1-6 record and 4.93 ERA wasn’t anything superior, but none the less, the Orioles picked him up as an undrafted free agent in ’95 and he didn’t disappoint in his first season in the system.
After a one game stint with this Bluefield O’s, the University of Richmond alumni found himself with the GCL Orioles. In 18 games, he showed that he may have been worth the pickup after all. In 18 games, he was 1-0 with a 2.08 ERA. That was enough for him to skip low ‘A’ and head to Frederick to finish out his 1995 season. He didn’t do too badly with the Keys either, pitching 22 innings, compiling a 3.68 ERA and 1-1 record.
In 1996, he found himself in the California League with the Orioles minor league team at the time, the High Desert Mavericks. After posting a 1.50 ERA over 12 innings, he was moved to the Bakersfield Blaze, a Co-Op team at the time. He pitched 47.1 innings with Bakersfield before being moved to Bowie, where he posted a 5.06 ERA in 21+ innings to finish off the ’96 campaign.
His minor league career ended after just 11 games in ’97 between the GCL Orioles and the Baysox.
Former Frederick Friday Feature – Allen Plaster
Welcome to the Keys 2nd annual Former Frederick Friday contest. Throughout the offseason on specific Friday’s, a picture of a former Key is posted. The first person to guess it right will get their name in the running for a Keys Luxury Suite during a game in 2013. We are currently in our sixth week of the contest. The latest former key to be selected was right handed Pitcher Allen Plaster.
Allen was born on August 13, 1970 in Kernersville, North Carolina. Plaster attended the University of North Carolina- Charlotte until he was drafted in the 20th round by the Orioles in the 1991 draft. He started his career within the Orioles farm system with Bluefield where he pitched in 10 games and accrued a 2.44 ERA. He was then promoted to Frederick where he appeared in only 4 games and had a 11.0 ERA. Allen spent all of 1992 with the Frederick Keys and had a much better pitching performance. He ended the year with a 2.87 ERA in 150.1 innings pitched and a 9-12 win – loss record.
After a solid year in Frederick, Plaster spent 1993 and 1994 in Modesto, California. 1994 seemed to be Allen’s best performing year. He was able to obtain a 1.93 ERA in 51.1 innings pitched. Ultimately, Plaster ended his career after the 1996 season in Double A with the Bowie Baysox where he had a less than stellar year.
His career numbers as a member of the minor league system for seven seasons was a 24-22 record with a 3.39 ERA in 151 games and 428.0 innings pitched.
Make sure to “Like” Us on Facebook to have your chance at the next Former Frederick Friday, which will take place on December 21st!
Former Frederick Friday Players
November 2nd: Ron Kitchen
November 9th: Scott Conner
November 16th: Mark Gibbs
November 30th: Chris Lemp
December 7th: Feliciano Mercedes
December 14th: Allen Plaster
Brandon Apter
jpkurkjian
Mike Mueller
Frederick Keys Baseball
Recent Comments