Baltimore Orioles: Where Is The Bowie Baysox Offense?

The Bowie Baysox have four of the Baltimore Orioles top hitting prospects.  Despite that fact, the team’s offense is quite anemic.

The Bowie Baysox, the Baltimore Orioles Double-A affiliate, currently have a record of 4-16.  The team is in last place in the Eastern League’s Western Division, and based on winning percentage (.190), are the least successful team in the entire league.

The Baysox also own the distinction of having been no-hit twice this season.  The Harrisburg Senators (Washington Nationals affiliate) were the first to do so and the Erie Seawolves (Detroit Tigers affiliate) did so on Wednesday.

As a team, the Baysox are currently hitting .191/ .264/ .272/ .537, numbers that put the team in last place in the twelve team league.  They are near the bottom in many other stats, such as hits (29% of which have been of the extra-base variety), RBI, home runs, etc.

Four of the Orioles’ top hitting prospects according to MLB Pipeline-  Yusniel Diaz, Ryan McKenna, Rylan Bannon, and Brett Cumberland, are on the Baysox roster.  Their performance, to date, has been a mixed bag.

Bannon’s .269 batting average currently leads the team while the averages of Diaz (.221) and McKenna (.175) put them mid-pack; Cumberland (.000) has played just two games since joining the team after spending time in extended spring training.  As a point of reference, Bannon’s average is 32nd in the Eastern League.

As of this moment, Diaz and McKenna have both been disappointing and are not measuring up to their previous numbers.  Considered the centerpiece of last year’s trade of Manny Machado to the Los Angeles Dodgers, Diaz is not finding the same success in the Eastern League that he saw in the Texas League.  His batting average with the Baysox is about 100 points lower than what he produced for the Tulsa Drillers.

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McKenna had a breakout year in 2018, both in Frederick (A-Adv.) and in the Arizona Fall League, but is not living up to those performances, either.  He is currently almost 200 points below his averages at those stops.

Overall, six Baysox hitters are hitting .200 or below.  A look up and down the entire roster shows a team of players who, for the most part, are currently hitting below their 2018 numbers to various degrees.

To be fair, the Baysox have faced two of the top pitching staffs, Harrisburg and Richmond (San Francisco Giants affiliate), in the Eastern League so far this season.  This may help to explain the Baysox lack of offensive success, somewhat.

An old baseball adage says that hitting is contagious.  Hopefully, the Baysox top prospects will find their collective strokes and that will trickle down to the rest of the team.  This Baysox roster is too good to stay down for long.

The Baysox began a seven-game homestand on Thursday.  Maybe some home cooking will help turn the season around. Over their last six games, the Baysox have scored just four runs.