The Orioles Fundamental Rot - Errors And Unearned Runs - Is Marring Them At Every Minor League Level, Too

I have a confession to make – I have not watched the Orioles farm teams nearly as much as usual this year, in person or on MILBTV.

My youngest’s youth sports seasons went longer than usual and I’m writing O’s game live for this website quite a bit and, more than anything else, there ain’t much to see and Mike Elias’s ongoing grift and inability to develop players takes a lot of the fun out of the process.

And the farm system has largely sucked for two years and the few interesting position players they have anywhere have been hurt a ton. But two very, very prominent people in the baseball biz – people you absolutely know and absolutely respect and have very strong ties to the Orioles (maybe I’ll tell you who if they one day if they are cool with it), told me to start compiling the records of the affiliates.

These individuals, sick and fed up with the garbage baseball Elias fields, reminded me of just how crappy it is at every level of this organization. How the rot we watch in MLB has deep roots in how they run their minor league teams. And with the dust settled on the trade deadline, I promised these esteemed gentlemen I will take a more thorough look.

And, yeah, it’s ugly. Real ugly.

Minor league records aren’t a direct indicator of any sort, but these two men who know more baseball than most people on the planet, sure think it means something. They think a culture of winning down there can and should matter and if you were actually playing ball The Oriole Way down there and not The Elias Way down there, some of these numbers would look different than they do.

“The Oriole Way was developing winning ballplayers through the minors by playing winning baseball,” is how someone who knows this phenomenon incredibly well put it to me.

If they think it matters, it matters. And Elias, mind you, being a feckless fraud probably doesn’t care at all. He infatuated not with quality of play, but his minor league rankings soaring after he sold MLB contracts for future lottery tickets yet again.

Let’s take a peak at how things looked down on the farm entering play Wednesday, where the Orioles are near the very bottom in baseball in winning percentage:

Norfolk

The Tides were 38-69, a mere 25 games of the pace. Yikes

They are the worst team in the International League and it’s not all that close. They have a .696 OPS, which is worst in the IL. They have a 5.08 ERA that is 14th out of 20 teams. And I know you aren’t going to believe this … but they lead the league in errors. Because of course they do.

They have the worst fielding percentage in the 20-team league. Because of course they do.

Because this front office that should have been fired years ago has no idea how to develop fielding and teach fielding and they don’t care about defense. Which Elias copped to among other things around the trade deadline. This really is a sad time to root for this franchise.

In terms of position players, outside of Enrique Bradfield Jr., who is hurt quite a lot, there is not much to see here.

Chesapeake

The Baysox went into play Wednesday with a 47-54 record, 9th among 12 teams in the Eastern League. They are a cool 13.5 off the pace in their division.

They are short on real prospects, though Aron Estrada has been interesting to watch. They have a .720 OPS, which is second-worst in the league.

But, hey their 4.73 ERA is middle of the pack, so there’s that! And this starting staff is very interesting with the org’s new top prospect from the Adley Rutschman deal – Anthony Eyanson – joining their prior top prospect, Joseph Dzierwa, in the rotation.

Hopefully those kids don’t want or expect any help from the defense – and they’re not going to get any once they reach the majors, anyway, as long as Elias is here – because of course the Baysox lead the Eastern League in errors (seven more than any other team), and they have the worst fielding percentage in the league.

Frederick

Thank goodness for the Keys, who were leading the South Atlantic League at 60-39. This team had the best prospects, though sadly it’s been mostly a lost year for outfielder Nate George, their top position prospect prior to this latest draft, and Ike Irish is out for the year after showing well at the plate.

They are second in the league in ERA and in the top half in OPS. However, of course they among league leaders in errors – four off the “lead” – and in the bottom three in fielding percentage.

Delmarva

The Shorebirds have been a very tough watch all season and there isn’t much there. They sported a 36-67 mark, 27.5 games off the pace and by far worst in the Carolina League.

They are second-worst in the league with a .700 OPS and second-worst with a 5.69 ERA.

Do we even have to ask about the error department? Do you have the stomach for it?

The Shorebirds had 202 errors in 103 games – they had 63 more errors than any other team in the Carolina League. Yeah, 63! They have a .946 fielding percentage as a team, and whatever you may think of that metric, that’s abject failure.

It’s going to take a helluva lot more than sending Cal Ripken to some minor league games to curb this ongoing ugliness now going into year nine of Elias eroding any fabric and fiber of winning baseball at every wrung of the way, backed by the 16 minions he got raises and promotions for, armed with a legion of calculators and super-computers, wreaks

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