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In a\u00a0recent special report over at Baseball America, two up-and-coming Baltimore Orioles prospects received some love among the scouting community as sleeper prospects who should be getting more national attention.<\/p>\n
The full article is a much deeper report into the current world of scouting, including scouts’ feelings towards the current state of scouting, job security, the value of traditional scouting reports and looks in a data-driven model world, and plenty more.<\/p>\n
It’s truly a fascinating look into the current scouting environment and the full article is well worth a read.<\/p>\n
One question on the survey administered to current scouts was “Who is your favorite sleeper prospect who should be getting more attention?” Two Orioles made the list of 12 prospects mentioned, outfielder Enrique Bradfield Jr and catcher Creed Willems.<\/p>\n
A first-round pick out of Vanderbilt in 2023, Bradfield doesn’t fit the mold of recent first round Baltimore draft picks, but he’s quickly proven to be one of the more intriguing prospects in the system.<\/p>\n
The only prospect in baseball with two 80-grade tools per Baseball America (speed and defense), Bradfield reached Double-A in his first pro season in 2024, even after working through a slow start to the year and an early-season concussion.<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old left-handed hitting center fielder hit .267 in High-A with a .345 on-base percentage and a league-average 106 wRC+, but his quality of contact took a big step forward after his return from the concussion as he ended the year with a 133 wRC+ in 120 Double-A plate appearances. He also hit .287 with more walks (12.5%) than strikeouts (11.7%) with the Double-A Baysox.<\/p>\n
Bradfield very likely won’t develop much power with his game, but his 74 stolen bases and Gold Glove caliber defense give him a sturdy floor as a prospect.<\/p>\n \u2014 Orioles Player Development (@OsPlayerDev)\u00a0August 9, 2023<\/em><\/figure>\n Creed Willems’ mention in the survey continues the trend of Willems gaining more and more attention this offseason.<\/p>\n After correcting his vision, cutting more than 20 pounds, and spending some quality time with fellow Orioles prospect Jackson Holliday and his dad, former major league Matt Holliday, Willems had a bit of a breakout in 2024.<\/p>\n The 21-year-old catching prospect hit a combined .243 between High-A and Double-A, with 17 home runs and 40 total extra-base hits.<\/p>\n More importantly, as Willems climbed up the organizational ladder, he significantly cut his strikeout rate. After posting a near 27% strikeout rate between Low-A\/High-A in 2023, Willems struck out at a 20.5% clip in 2024, while maintaining a walk rate around 10%.<\/p>\n Creed took his game higher this past fall in the Arizona Fall League, hitting .338 with an .891 OPS and a pair of home runs. While the AFL is a very hitter-friendly environment, it was a positive sign to see Willems hit as well as he did against older competition after missing some time during the regular season with an injury.<\/p>\n it will be interesting to see where the 2025 season takes both of these prospects.\u00a0Is Enrique Bradfield Jr the heir apparent to Cedric Mullins in Baltimore?<\/p>\n Is Creed Willems an expendable trade piece\u00a0with the amount of catching depth in the organization? We should learn plenty more this upcoming season.<\/p>\n Should also mention a few more Orioles topics presented in the Baseball America piece.<\/p>\n According to the survey, the Baltimore Orioles were named one of the least scout-friendly organizations in baseball, while being named one of the better organizations in identifying talent.<\/p>\n No reasoning was given as to why the Orioles were not seen as a scout-friendly organization among the 26 scouts surveyed, but given the data-driven process employed by the Orioles, that could play a role.<\/p>\n Without more information and context, any guesses as to why are just speculation.<\/p>\n One final note from the piece, former Orioles minor leaguer turned scout Will Robertson was named one of the four up-and-coming scouts to know in the game right now.<\/p>\n Robertson was recently promoted to Director of Player Personnel, highlighting his contributions to the organization since moving into his post-playing days role.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In a\u00a0recent special report over at Baseball America, two up-and-coming Baltimore Orioles prospects received some love among the scouting community as sleeper prospects who should be getting… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":26333,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\n