Baltimore Orioles: A Look At The Delmarva Shorebirds Torrid Start

The Delmarva Shorebirds have the best win-loss record among the Baltimore Orioles minor league affiliates.  They also have the best record in the entire South Atlantic League.

The Delmarva Shorebirds (Baltimore Orioles Single-A affiliate) have a record of 16-2 and as such, sit in first place in the South Atlantic League’s Northern Division; they are 3.0 games ahead of the Hickory Crawdads (Texas Rangers affiliate).  The team is undefeated (11-0) at Arthur W. Perdue Stadium this season and have won 14 of their last 15 games.

The team has had a ten-game winning streak (4/9-4/18) so far in 2019 and is currently in the midst of a four-game winning streak.

The Shorebirds have found many ways to win.  They are 4-1 in extra-inning games, two of which they won in walk-off fashion; overall, they are 3-1 in games decided by a walk-off.  They are 6-1 in games decided by the last at-bats.  The most impressive last at-bat win this season has to be the game against the Lakewood BlueClaws (Philadelphia Phillies affiliate) on April 13th.  In that game, the Shorebirds were two outs away from being no-hit when Ben Breazeale doubled to start a 7 run outburst that culminated in JC Encarnacion‘s game-winning, walk-off grand slam home run.

When opponents do not secure the lead by the 7th inning, they typically lose against Delmarva. The Shorebirds are 13-1 when leading after the 7th inning.

The roster is well-stocked with top prospects; seven of the Baltimore Orioles top-30 prospects according to MLB Pipeline call Salisbury, Maryland home.  They are RHP Grayson Rodriguez, RHP Blaine Knight, LHP Drew Rom, 3B Encarnacion, SS Adam Hall, SS Cadyn Grenier, and RF Robert Neustrom.

As expected, those top prospects are among the team leaders in many categories.  Offensively, Adam Hall (.365/ .467/ .429, 15 runs scored, 9 RBI, 7 stolen bases) paces the Shorebirds in runs scored, hits (23), batting average, on base percentage, and stolen bases, while Rodriguez (3-0, 16.2 innings pitched, 0.54 ERA, 28 strikeouts) leads the pitching staff in ERA, innings pitched and strikeouts.  Rodriguez has one quality start as well (a win over Lakewood on 4/12).

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In addition to Hall, C Daniel Fajardo (.349/ .378/ .349), Neustrom (.298/ .423/ .509) and CF Doran Turchin (.291/ .400/ .545) have helped to led the Shorebirds’ offense.  Turchin, Baltimore’s 2018 14th round draft pick, has been a pleasant surprise and leads the team in RBI (15), extra-base hits (8) and slugging percentage.

The pitching staff is led in wins by Tyler Joyner with four, games appeared and saves by Tim Naughton with seven and four, respectively, and WHIP by Knight (0.64).

Strikeouts have been the norm for Delmarva pitchers; the staff’s 207 are second only to Charleston’s (Yankees affiliate) 215.  The Shorebirds are averaging a little more than 12 strikeouts per game in 2019.  The team has had four instances in which a pitcher tallied double-digit strikeouts in a game as Rodriguez and RHP Ofelky Peralta have each done it twice.

Delmarva is off to a great start and no matter how you view it, they are following the simple formula of scoring more runs than you allow: the team is scoring almost six runs per game on average while pitching to a team ERA of 2.81.

These are exciting and fun times to be a Shorebirds fan.  Imagine how exciting it will be in Baltimore in a few years once these “Baby Birds” grow together within the organization.