Another amazing week of Minor League Baseball just wrapped up, and we saw a bunch of highs and lows.
We saw the 2024 draft class make their first appearance, the Baysox have an entire series where they had a team ERA under 2.00 and even saw position players pitch.
But, we also saw these prospects achieve above the rest. Here are your O’s Prospects of the Week.
Delmarva Shorebirds: Griff O’Ferrall – INF / Braxton Bragg – RHP
Some of the 2024 draft class have made their debuts, and wow, did they show out.
To be completely honest, Ethan Anderson was close, but overall, it has to be the guy that was drafted with the 32nd pick. The other former Virginia Cavalier, Griff O’Ferrall, made a huge impact to start his minor league career.
In five games, O’Ferrall slashed .429/.636/.500 with a 1.136 OPS. He collected six hits, a double and an RBI, and walked seven times while only striking out once.
O’Ferrall is known for his high on-base percentage and his insane amount of walks. In college, he had 89 walks while striking out just 88 times.
On the pitching side of things, I usually go with the thought process of finding the most dominant. This time, I want to go with someone who puts himself in difficult situations and works himself out of it. For this week, that was right-hander Braxton Bragg.
Bragg tossed six shutout innings in his start on Thursday, where he struck out four batters. But the key with Bragg was that he gave up seven hits and not a single runner scored.
Now, Bragg did have a little help from outfielders Braylin Tavera and Austin Overn, who both had outfield assists. However, when looking at the game log, Bragg put himself in situations where a run would score easily, and he got out of it with no issues.
Bragg has looked amazing this season with the Shorebirds. In 21 games and 17 starts, the 23-year-old is 4-5 with a 3.57 ERA and has pitched 80.2 innings in which he has struck out 97, held batters to a .244 batting average and has only walked 21 batters.
Aberdeen IronBirds: Jake Cunningham – OF / Nestor German – RHP
A new face takes home the player of the week for the IronBirds, and it is none other than Jake Cunningham.
Cunningham, who came into this series hitting .204, boosted his average by a total of .23 points with his 9-for-17 effort. He notched three separate three-hit, one-RBI games while also stealing four bases in one of those three-hit games as well.
Nestor German has been impressing non-stop since being called up to High-A at the start of August.
In his third outing with the IronBirds, the 22-year-old righty had his best one yet. He tossed 4.2 scoreless innings, which also included zero hits and five strikeouts, his most in High-A so far. He has now only allowed one run in 9.2 High-A innings.
Bowie Baysox: Dylan Beavers – OF / Trace Bright – RHP
With the way the Baysox played, they honestly deserve a whole article just about how they dominated. Picking the two prospects of the week was extremely difficult.
On the offensive side, both Jud Fabian, who was just promoted to Triple-A Norfolk, and Dylan Beavers had amazing weeks. Based on overall performance, I decided to go with the Eastern League Player of the Week.
In five games, Beavers slashed .450/.560/.650 with a 1.210 OPS, collecting nine hits, two doubles, a triple, four RBIs and five walks. He also stole two bases in two attempts.
Beavers this season has a slash line of .243/.346/.411 with a .757 OPS. He has 87 hits, 12 home runs, 42 RBIs and has stolen 27 bases in 30 attempts in 98 games.
While choosing the hitter was difficult, selecting the pitcher was really challenging. Out of the 16 pitchers used, only five of them gave up earned runs this past week. Overall, it was between right-handers Peter Van Loon and Trace Bright, and I went with Bright.
The 23-year-old righty got a start, and while he was one of the pitchers who gave up an earned run, Bright tossed 4.2 innings, only giving up three hits, walking one batter and striking out seven.
Bright has a 4.42 ERA with the Baysox this season in 22 starts. He has walked 40 batters, struck out 102, gave up 44 earned runs and has batters hitting .268 against him.
Norfolk Tides: Daniel Johnson – OF / Brandon Young – RHP
Although not considered a prospect any longer, Daniel Johnson was at it again as the only player who played every game of a tough series loss.
Johnson led the team in at-bats (24) and hits (seven), including a home run, and tied for the team-lead in RBIs with four. He seems to be pacing the Tides’ offense over the last few weeks and continues to show his value as an option for the Birds if needed.
For the year, Johnson is slashing .268/.335/.472/.807 with 18 home runs and 68 RBIs. He has totaled 96 hits, including 18 doubles and one triple in 94 games for the Tides.
In a series that saw Norfolk allow 54 runs to the Stripers, pitching seemed to be an afterthought to many who took the mound. Righty Brandon Young did his best to quell that notion, as he picked up the only win of the series while starting two games.
Young would combine to pitch 10.2 innings in the two games, allowing two earned runs and striking out 10 and walking only two.
Young is now 4-5 in 22 games (19 starts), with a 3.56 ERA through 86.0 innings. He has struck out 106 batters while holding opponents to a .219 average and a WHIP of 1.19.
The 26-year-old is 2-1 in four games this month, pitching to a 2.08 ERA across 21.2 innings, allowing nine runs (five earned).
Which prospects stood out to you the most this week? Let us know in the comments below! Make sure to follow The Baltimore Battery on Facebook, Twitter (X) and TikTok, and use the hashtag #baltimorebattery when sharing our content!
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