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Chayce McDermott had himself a day. | Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images Good pitching ruled the week for most of the Orioles’ minor league affiliates. When folks talk about Orioles prospects, much of the attention usually falls on the hitters. And with good reason. The Birds’ top eight prospects (according to Camden Chat’s cumulative rankings) are all position players, a couple of whom are already making an impact at the big league level. But the pitching talent in this organization is nothing to sneeze at, either. Even without as many high-profile, blue-chip prospects as on the hitting side, Orioles affiliates have gotten some quality outings all season from less heralded but intriguing youngsters. This week was a particularly fine one on the mound, as Norfolk (3.63 ERA), Aberdeen (3.00), and Delmarva (3.17) all had strong showings. Just as the Orioles’ pitching staff is finding its stride, so too are their minor league counterparts. Let’s review all the happenings of the past week on the O’s farm. Triple-A Norfolk Tides Past week: 4-2 at Nashville Sounds (Brewers) Coming week: at Memphis Redbirds (17-15, Cardinals) Season record: 16-17, seventh place (7.5 GB) in International League East The highlight of the Tides’ week came on Friday, when right-hander Chayce McDermott (CC’s #10 prospect) combined with relievers Nolan Hoffman and Kaleb Ort to throw a no-hitter, the third in Norfolk history and first since Chris Tillman in 2010. For McDermott, who’d been having a shaky year until that point — entering the night with 23 walks in 21.1 innings — that was one heck of a way to get his groove back. He mowed down the first 18 batters he faced, striking out 11, before issuing a pair of walks in the seventh. TIDES TOSS A NO-NO!!!!!!!!@Chayce_mcd99: 6.2 IP, 11 KNolan Hoffman: 1.1 IP, 2 KKaleb Ort: 1.0 IPIt's the third 9-inning no-hitter in franchise history!Tides win their 7th straight#RisingTide pic.twitter.com/l5pZE1Vs5B— Norfolk Tides (@NorfolkTides) May 4, 2024 The Tides’ other top pitching prospect, lefty Cade Povich (#9), continued his stellar season with a six-inning, one-run quality start, though he did walk four. Povich has posted an incredible 1.11 ERA in six starts — just four earned runs in 32.1 innings — along with a 0.90 WHIP and a .139 opponents’ batting average. He’s looking more and more like a guy ready for his major league debut, although the Orioles aren’t exactly lacking in quality starting pitchers at the moment. Erstwhile Oriole Bruce Zimmermann also had a nice week, making two starts and giving up one earned run in 10 innings. The Norfolk offense ran hot and cold this week, erupting for 28 runs in the first three games before being held to seven in the last three. As he’s done most of the year, Coby Mayo (#3) clobbered the baseball, hitting three home runs and driving in 10 this week. For the season, he’s got 11 dingers and is slashing .309/.370/.633. Connor Norby (#7) batted .208 for the week but homered and drew four walks. He’s OPS’ing .818 for the season. When the Orioles called up #1 prospect Jackson Holliday to the majors a month ago, I didn’t think I’d ever be mentioning him in a minors week in review post again. But he’s back at Norfolk after a failed 10-game stint with the big club. He didn’t exactly smash the ball this week — going 5-for-22 with three doubles — but Triple-A pitchers continued to be afraid of him, issuing Holliday a team-leading eight walks. Hopefully he’s at least had the opportunity to work on some of the mechanical issues the Orioles wanted him to focus on. Norfolk season stats Double-A Bowie Baysox Past week: 3-2 vs. Erie SeaWolves (Tigers) Coming week: vs. Akron RubberDucks (18-9, Guardians) Season record: 14-12, fourth place (3.5 GB) in Eastern League Southwest Well, Double-A pitchers are in for trouble now. They’ve let Samuel Basallo (#2) get hot. Basallo homered twice in this series, giving him four blasts in his last five games after he struggled to a .227/.244/.293 slash line before that. His offensive numbers are inching toward respectable and certainly won’t stop there. And in more good news, he finally started behind the plate after a stress fracture in his elbow had prevented him from catching for the first month. Basallo was the backstop for Tuesday’s and Friday’s games and suffered no ill effects, though he did have a passed ball and two stolen bases against him. Joining Basallo with two dingers this week was shortstop Anthony Servideo, the Orioles’ third-round pick in 2020 who fell off the prospect map after two injury-plagued, unproductive seasons. He’s also the grandson of former Orioles Rookie of the Year Curt Blefary, which doesn’t really mean anything but is kind of neat. Outfield prospects Dylan Beavers (#8) and Jud Fabian (#14) each homered as well. The two competitive balance draft picks from 2022 are having wildly different seasons. Beavers has impressed (.309/.400/.469) while Fabian has struck out in one of every three plate appearances. The Baysox divided the pitching load pretty evenly among their hurlers this week. Thirteen pitchers worked at least two innings but none worked more than 4.2. A tip of the hat to righty Kyle Brnovich, who pitched four scoreless, hitless innings of long relief, striking out eight and walking three. Right-hander Zach Peek, who came along with Brnovich (and Kyle Bradish!) in the Dylan Bundy trade in 2019, is having less of a good time. He landed on the 60-day injured list with a stress reaction of his right scapula. It’s another unfortunate setback for Peek, who had pitched only eight games since last year’s return from Tommy John surgery. Bowie season stats High-A Aberdeen IronBirds Past week: 2-4 at Brooklyn Cyclones (Mets) Coming week: vs. Hudson Valley Renegades (14-10, Yankees) Season record: 13-14, last place (3.5 GB) in six-team South Atlantic League North The IronBirds managed to win two games despite batting just .193 for the week, thanks to a pitching staff that held the Cyclones to a .191 average. Among the best performers was Venezuelan righty Moisés Chace, who gave up one hit in four scoreless innings, and 2024 ninth-round right-hander Zach Fruit, who struck out seven and didn’t allow an earned run in five frames. The 20-year-old Chace has been particularly impressive this season, posting a 0.95 ERA and .115 average against. His only issue has been walks: he’s issued 12 in 19 innings. Righty Jackson Baumeister (#15, tied) had a weird outing, giving up four runs, none of which were earned, while walking three and plunking a batter. The Aberdeen lineup was deprived of star power for most of the week — unless you’re fascinated by Nick Maton’s rehab assignment — but got a big boost in the series finale when Enrique Bradfield Jr. (#6) returned. He’d missed two weeks of action after getting tagged in the head April 20. He went 0-for-4 but walked and stole a base, making him a perfect 10-for-10 in steals. Beefy catcher Creed Willems didn’t homer this week (the Shorebirds hit just one all series) but did collect three doubles. The 20-year-old is slugging .605 in 23 games. Aberdeen season stats Low-A Delmarva Shorebirds Past week: 3-3 vs. Fayetteville Woodpeckers (Astros) Coming week: at Kannapolis Cannon Ballers (13-13) Season record: 6-20, last place (12.5 GB) in six-team Carolina League North Break up the Shorebirds! By going 3-3 this week, they had their first non-losing series of the season. In fact it was their first series (out of the five they’ve played) in which they won more than one game. They rattled off a three-game winning streak from Thursday through Saturday that doubled their season win total. Don’t call it a comeback! There were four Delmarva right-handers this week who worked at least four innings, struck out at least five, gave up just one hit, and didn’t allow an earned run. That group consisted of 2023 draft picks Braxton Bragg, Nestor German, and Michael Forret, and undrafted free agent Ty Weatherly. Though none are considered noteworthy prospects, all are having pretty nice seasons so far, so that’s something. The most eye-popping display came from Delmarva’s top pitching prospect, lefty Luis De León (#13), who began his Thursday start by throwing an immaculate inning: nine pitches, three strikeouts. Good morning, good afternoon and good night!@Orioles prospect Luis De León twirls an IMMACULATE INNING to open the game for the @shorebirds. pic.twitter.com/v7NVHM3cBW— Minor League Baseball (@MiLB) May 3, 2024 On offense, well, it was more of the same for the punchless Shorebirds, who rank last in the 12-team Carolina League in runs scored (74), average (.196), OBP (.276), slugging (also .276), OPS (.552), home runs (nine), and walks (84). First baseman Maxwell Costes had eight singles this week and was arguably their top performer. One thing the Shorebirds can do is run the bases, leading the league with 73 steals, and they notched an incredible 28 of them in 30 attempts in their six games this week. That included eight alone by outfielder Thomas Sosa (#27, tied). Ten of the 12 Shorebirds position players had at least one steal. Fayetteville catcher Will Bush surrendered 15 of those steals and backup Fernando Caldera allowed 13, including 10 in one game on Friday. You’ll be shocked to learn that neither is among the Astros’ top prospects. Delmarva season stats *** Last week, Aberdeen outfielder Matthew Etzel earned player of the week honors for the first time, pulling in 43 percent of the vote to beat three other nominees. With just one extra-base hit this week, Etzel isn’t a repeat candidate. We’ll have another first-timer this week to join Etzel, Povich, and Heston Kjerstad as this year’s winners.