Jackson Holliday headlines latest round of Orioles prospect promotions

The Baltimore Orioles next round of prospect promotions has been announced, and stop me if you've heard this before, but it's headlined by Jackson Holliday. This coming week, Holliday will play in his fourth minor league level of baseball this season. He will now be on the doorstep of Oriole Park at Camden Yards, and he's still just 19 years old.

Jackson Holliday has been promoted to Triple A after starting season in Single A

A lot has been made of Holliday's age this far but the common statement being made about him is that he is a very mature 19. I can't say anything about him personally but as far as baseball goes, he's clearly mature beyond his years. Holliday has dominated at every level he has played at this season and looks to continue that trend with the Triple-A Norfolk Tides. He started the year with a stellar spring training, and he hasn't slowed down since.

In an interview with Andy Kostka of the Baltimore Banner back in March, Holliday said his goal for this season was to get to Bowie and to get to Baltimore in two to three years. He certainly was setting the bar high for himself, but he backed up his comments with his play. He dominated with the Low-A Delmarva Shorebirds and was advanced to High-A Aberdeen after a mere 14 games.

He spent the majority of his season there while working his way up the prospect leaderboard. After 57 games with the IronBirds, Holliday was hitting .314/.452/.488 with 11 doubles, five triples, five home runs and 17 stolen bases. At that point, Holliday achieved his goal for this season and got promoted to Double-A Bowie.

To everyone's amazement, Jackson not only continued to succeed in Double-A, he actually produced even better numbers. His walks are down a bit, but his batting average and power numbers went up. The only thing Holliday did not do much of in Bowie was steal bases. He was two for three in stolen base attempts, but his speed is there for the five tool talent and the steal will come.

Not to mention, he also has a .969 fielding percentage while spending time at three positions. The odds of Holliday putting on an Orioles uniform this season are very low. The team is currently in a heated playoff race with an overload of talented infielders already in Baltimore and Norfolk, but he is way ahead of schedule.

Jackson is not the only Orioles top prospect on the move. The Birds top two draft picks from this year's draft will be moving from Delmarva to Aberdeen. Enrique Bradfield Jr, the Orioles #8 prospect, and Mac Horvath, the teams #13 prospect, will join Samuel Basallo in Aberdeen giving the IronBirds a solid core. Bradfield is known for his speed, and rightfully so.

He has made spectacular plays in Delmarva's outfield, stolen 20 bases in just 16 games and just recently scored from second base on a bunt single. He's able to run so much by getting on base at an astounding rate. In 19 professional games, across two levels, Bradfield is batting .345 and has a 11/21 K/BB ratio leading to his eye popping .530 OBP.

Horvath has been equally as impressive. In his first professional games Horvath is slashing .351/.465/.614 was a 1.079 OPS. With the aforementioned overload of talented infielders ahead of Horvath in the Orioles farm system, the Orioles have looked for ways to add versatility to the young talented slugger.

While he was drafted as a third baseman, Mac has gotten the majority of his playing time at second base and also spent time in right field. If he continues to hit the way he is, the Orioles will find a spot for him somewhere when he's ready.

Other baby birds on the move, as reported by MASN's Steve Melewski, are pitchers Nolan Hoffman, Dylan Heid and Trey McGough, as well as outfielder Matthew Etzel. The Orioles have promoted several top prospects this season but have been able to maintain baseball's best farm system. With this much talent still in Single A and Mike Elias's record of quality drafting, the Orioles should be a force to be reckon with for years to come.