The Orioles as soon as once more have baseball’s No. 1 prospect.
Gunnar Henderson is atop Baseball America’s newest listing of the sport’s high 100 prospects, with the Triple-A Norfolk infielder occupying that spot not lengthy after Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman, who has since graduated from prospect standing. Five different Orioles minor leaguers made the rankings, with right-hander Grayson Rodriguez the perfect pitcher on the listing at No. 4.
Henderson, 21, was Baltimore’s second-round draft decide in 2019, the identical 12 months the Orioles took Rutschman with the draft’s first general decide. This season, he’s dominated within the higher minors, batting .304 with a .985 OPS between Double-A Bowie and Norfolk, hitting 17 dwelling runs and stealing 16 bases. The efficiency has allowed him to dash to the height of the listing, having begun the 12 months ranked 57th. In the span of a few week, Henderson hit for the cycle, celebrated his twenty first birthday and represented Baltimore within the All-Star Futures Game.
Now, he represents the group as its and baseball’s high prospect. Rodriguez, nursing a Grade 2 proper lat muscle pressure that might delay his main league debut till subsequent season, will not be far behind. The 22-year-old earned his standing as the sport’s high pitching prospect by posting a 2.09 ERA and hanging out 80 batters over 56 innings with Norfolk earlier than his harm. He was Baltimore’s first-round decide in 2018.
Jackson Holliday, the 2022 first general decide, ranked third each amongst Orioles’ prospects and this 12 months’s draftees at No. 41; Druw Jones, Arizona’s second general choice, is ranked twenty first, with Holliday one spot behind Brooks Lee, who Minnesota took with the eighth decide. The 18-year-old has but to make his skilled debut within the Florida Complex League.
DL Hall is listed at No. 61, the fourth-best left-handed pitching prospect. On Sunday, Hall, 23, bounced again from latest powerful outings by hanging out eight in 5 1/3 innings. In his first 4 begins of July, the 2017 first-rounder allowed just one earned run in 20 2/3 innings whereas hanging out half of the batters he confronted earlier than he allowed greater than twice as many runs as innings he pitched over his subsequent three begins. Hall’s electrical stuff and mercurial command has resulted in an up-and-down season and a 4.76 ERA for the Tides.
Narrowly making the reduce at No. 97 and No. 98, respectively, are Bowie outfielder Colton Cowser and Norfolk infielder Jordan Westburg. Cowser, final 12 months’s fifth general draftee, acquired off to a comparatively sluggish begin at High-A Aberdeen however has dominated since a transfer to Double-A, because the 22-year-old is hitting .355 with a 1.122 OPS for the Baysox. Westburg, 23, was taken thirtieth general in 2020. He slugged .702 for Norfolk in June after a promotion however cooled considerably in July.
These six prospects account for the highest of a farm system thought-about one of many sport’s greatest, one which has prompted government vice chairman and basic supervisor Mike Elias — who drafted 4 of the six — to declare “it’s liftoff from here” for the Orioles’ rebuild.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com