Junius Worth
David Kerr
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Andrew Martin
Jonathan C. Mitchell
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The Baltimore Orioles first pick in last year’s draft, and fourth overall pick, Dylan Bundy is putting up video game numbers in his professional debut. Bundy is only 19 years young and in the Low-A Sally League where the average age of pitchers is nearly 22 years of age.
Despite the fact that Bundy is nearly three years younger than the average pitcher in his own league, many scouts and executives thought he should have started his professional career in Double-A and definitely no lower than High-A. But the Orioles decided to take a different approach with Bundy for reasons that I cannot and will not ever know or understand.
Bundy, despite being one of the youngest athletes in the Sally League, is absolutely dominating his competition where the average aged batter is also nearly 22 years of age. Take a look at each of his eight outings so far this year for the Delmarva Shorebirds:
| Game | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
| 1 | 3.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| 2 | 3.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| 3 | 3.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| 4 | 4.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| 5 | 4.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| 6 | 3.0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| 7 | 5.0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 8 | 5.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Total | 30.0 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 40 |
Bundy has an ERA of 0.00 and a FIP of 0.93 through his first eight starts. His K/BB ratio is a ridiculous 20.0 and his BB/9 is unbelievably low at 0.60. His H/9 is simply dream worthy at 1.5 and he is also sporting a GB/FB ratio of 1.27. Left-handers are hitting .048 against him and right-handers a slightly better .058 against him.
As you can see, the Orioles have moved him along slowly but he now has back-to-back outing with five full innings pitched. I have no problem with them stretching him out and wanting to take care of such a talented arm but Bundy really needs to be moved to at least High-A Frederick very soon and end the season no lower than Double-A Bowie if he keeps pitching this way.
Hopefully the longer outings are a sign of things to come for Bundy who I believe could be part of the 2013 Baltimore Orioles’ rotation with the proper advancements, which means reaching Double-A and spending significant time there very soon. He may be only 19 but he needs to be promoted now.
-Jonathan C. Mitchell can be found writing about the Tampa Bay Rays at DRaysBay and the Florida Marlins at ESPN’s SweetSpot site Marlins Daily. You can follow him on twitter at @FigureFilbert. Be sure to follow MLBdirt at @MLBdirt
Filed under: Digging Deep - Analysis, On the Farm - Prospects Tagged: | Baltimore Orioles, Dylan Bundy
And he was promoted today.