Steve On Baseball Podcast

Fans around Birdland will finally hear in depth from their new manager, Craig Albernaz, during next Tuesday’s press conference at Oriole Park.We will soon start to get to know him.But Tampa Bay Rays radio broadcaster Neil Solondz has known Albernaz since his Triple-A playing days. Neil was the radio broadcaster for the Durham Bulls and Albernaz was a player there for parts of five seasons, the first three with Solondz at the mic from 2009-2011.Neil makes a great pairing in the Rays radio booth with Andy Freed, himself a long-time Rays broadcaster who grew up an O’s fan and went to Towson University. Go Tigers!Neil just completed his 14th year on the Rays Radio Network and his second as a play-by-play voice. Before that he hosted pre and postgame shows and was a fill-in play-by-play broadcaster.The Rays have some wonderful people in their media and it seems most of the O’s reporters are always happy to see an O’s-Rays matchup to get to see everyone.We covered a lot of ground today with Neil. Everything from Albernaz’s playing days with the Bulls, to what made him an outstanding minor league manager on the Rays farm to what kind of skipper might be coming to Birdland. To how he might handle the pressure to win in Baltimore. We get great insight today on this podcast from someone that knows Albernaz well.Thanks to Neil for joining me today. Enjoy this one Birdland. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

Andy Kostka of the Baltimore Banner just completed his fourth year covering the Orioles as the Banner’s lead beat writer. Andy grew up in Rockville and is a 2020 University of Maryland graduate.His introduction to O’s fans was with the Baltimore Sun for the 2022 season. He was hired by the Banner in December of that year and just completed his third season leading the Banner’s coverage.We got into several topics including his recent stories about Kevin Gausman and Trey Yesavage of the Blue Jays and how those players could be linked to the Orioles. Gausman for obvious reasons. Yesavage as the high-draft pick pitcher - a selection that the Orioles have not made under Mike Elias. We talked a bit about his career and covering a big league clubhouse at a young age. We discussed the pressures that may be facing the organization this winter to sign a free agent to a big contract. “Baltimore needs to make a splash,” said Kostka and I agreed with him. Andy is a proud winner of - the inaugural winner in fact - the John McNamara Sports Writing Award. It is named in McNamara’s honor and Andy was the winner from May of 2019 while he reported for the Diamondback student newspaper. The award is issued by the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland.Mac, as many of us knew him, died in a shooting in June of 2018 at the Annapolis Capital. He was a long-time, good friend and I saw him often covering the minors in Bowie over the years. We first got to know each other when we were starting our careers - John in Hagerstown and myself in Frederick.No doubt Andy is proud of that honor and being linked with such an outstanding reporter and person.We had a fun conversation and covered a lot of ground on the Orioles. Hope you enjoy today’s podcast. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

I believe I first met Brett Hollander when he was at the Gilman School in Baltimore and at the age of 15 was an intern at WBAL Radio where I was the Sports Director.His memory is better than mine from those days but that means, in a sense, I was there for the start of an outstanding broadcasting career.From Gilman, Brett went on to Dickinson College in Pennsylvania where he broadcast many sports and really fell in love with working in the booth. He met a classmate there named Geoff Arnold and later they would team up in the O’s booth!Brett grew up around broadcasting. His dad, Rich worked many years at WBAL-TV. I remember watching him often on Channel 11 where he was a great news reporter as we say “back in the day.”Brett worked early in his career at CBS Radio in Baltimore where he noted in this podcast, he broadcast the first sports update heard on 105.7 FM the Fan when the station switched from AM to the FM dial.He worked many years at WBAL Radio, hosting O’s pre and postgame shows, also was the host of Sportsline and at one time hosted the afternoon drive talk-show, showing he is more than just a sports guy.He was named the 2015 Maryland Sportscaster of the Year.This was a real fun conversation, mostly about broadcasting and Brett’s career, between two long-time friends.Who knew that kid from Gilman would one day wind up in the O’s booth!Enjoy today’s podcast with Brett. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

For a lot of us, growing up as an O’s fan there were many players to cheer for and admire. There were Hall of Famers like Brooks and Frank Robinson and Jim Palmer. Later there were Cal Ripken Jr. and Eddie Murray.We loved them all. Some of us loved Earl Weaver as much as we loved those players.He was a winner and he would fight for his team. He would get us fired up each time he got ejected. All 96 times.But what many of us loved most was the winning. Between 1969 and 1982, five Weaver-led teams won 100 games or more. There was the O’s incredible run from 1969-1971 when they won 109, 108 and 101 games. They made the World Series each year, winning it all over the Big Red Machine in 1970.The 2023 Orioles are the only O’s team to ever win 100 or more and not be managed by Weaver.Earl was great, he was the Earl of Baltimore.All that winning and his .583 career win percentage (that is 94.5 wins per year) led him to baseball’s highest honor - the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown in August of 1996.I was there that day - not as a reporter but as a fan. Had to be there to see Earl.So today’s podcast meant a lot to me to talk about Earl with author John Miller. His New York Times bestseller - a three-year project - was published earlier this year called “The Last Manager - How Earl Weaver tricked, tormented and reinvented baseball.”We covered a lot of groud in this interview - from Earl’s youth in St. Louis, to his minor league playing days, to his battles with players like Jim Palmer, to the many things that made him great.Earl probably had a few issues he dealt with in his life, but in Baltimore, they built a statue for him at Camden Yards.We loved him then and still do today.Hope you enjoy today’s podcast as much as I enjoyed taking part in it. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

The offseason is here for the Orioles, but the Steve on Baseball podcast continues on, games or no games.Sometimes the offseason speculation provides more interesting topics to discuss and today we got into several of them.My guest is Matt Weyrich, one of the Baltimore Sun’s beat writers. Matt joined the Sun in January of 2024 and just completed his second season on the beat. He is a 2019 James Madison University grad and a proud fan of the Dukes.We discussed the season-ending press conferences, the manager search, the struggles of the young hitters, possible roster additions, Samuel Basallo and more.We covered a lot of ground today, so enjoy the first offseason edition of the Steve on Baseball podcast! Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

This was not the first time Roch Kubatko and I were on air or any broadcast format together. Not hardly. But it was the first time he came on as a guest on my podcast!About time!And yes it was like old times as we discussed many O’s topics, including going back to how it was around the club when Brandon Hyde was fired in May. We discussed how things have gone with Tony Mansolino as interim skipper. We of course discussed next season and how close are the O’s to contending again in 2026?I also asked Roch how the job of beat writers has changed over the years.After an over 20-year career writing for the Baltimore Sun, Rocho, as I know him, a Maryland Terrapin from back in the day, joined MASN and MASNSports.com late during the 2008 season.From then through this past January, we made a pretty good team covering the Orioles, if we don’t say so ourselves. I promised good baseball conversations here with great guests, so here is another one.This was recorded yesterday in the press box at the Yard. Fresh material! Enjoy. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

Now that we are a couple of months out since the July MLB Draft where the Orioles had a whopping seven picks that first night, I wanted to check in with MLBPipeline.com’s and MLB.com’s senior writer Jim Callis.For many years Jim has been a go-to guy for me and many others, such as MLB Network, for his knowledge and insights on the draft.Jim and his colleagues do a great job at the top of the draft each year and then for, in the case of this year, one more day, Jim is part of the coverage for the rest of the draft through 20 rounds.On this podcast we discussed how the O’s did this draft and got some thoughts on some of ther top draft selections.The O’s have had a solid year on the farm in their pitching program and I asked Callis what he thinks of this crop of O’s farm pitchers?Also during this podcast, Callis provided some interesting news about Dylan Beavers and his chance to soon get into the MLBPipeline.com top 100. Beavers earlier was ranked in the top 100 by Baseball America and ESPN. Enjoy today’s edition of the “Steve on Baseball” podcast.This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Please consider a subscription to get every article, minor league features, O’s analysis and the Steve on Baseball podcast. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

BOWIE, Md. - Fresh off the presses, or at least off the digital recorder, check out a podcast taped just yesterday at Bowie’s Prince George’s Stadium.My guest is the manager of the O’s Double-A Chesapeake Baysox affiliate, Roberto Mercado.Mercado is in his fourth season with the Orioles. He managed High-A Aberdeen in 2022 and 2023 and Double-A Chesapeake (formerly Bowie) in 2023 and 2024.Through Wednesday’s game, he was 280-272 (.507) overall on the Baltimore farm.Mercado, age 45, from New Britain, Conn., managed Surprise in the 2024 Arizona Fall League. That club went 18-10 and played for the AFL Championship, but lost in the title game.In 2022, his first year as a minor league skipper, Mercado led Aberdeen to a 78-54 record and they advanced to the South Atlantic League Championship. But they lost to Bowling Green in the third and deciding game of that series. After that season, Mercado was named the winner of the Cal Ripken Sr. Player Development Award, a top honor in the O’s minors.That club included players such as Colton Cowser, Coby Mayo, Heston Kjerstad and Connor Norby.The O’s hired Mercado right out of the high school ranks, where he was varsity coach starting in 2011 at New Britain High School where he was also Dean of Students.During his time there, Mercado got valuable additional high-level experience as an assistant coach for Yarmouth in the prestigious Cape Cod League.This season, Chesapeake is 56-70 but playing better ball lately. Heading into last night, the Baysox had won three in a row and six of their past eight.The 17th manager in Baysox history, I find Mercado to be someone who truly cares about his players and is willing to do anything in his power to help each one get better and closer to the majors.In recent years he managed both Dylan Beavers and Samuel Basallo and earlier this year Jeremiah Jackson began his 2025 season with the Baysox.We touched on all three players and several others with Chesapeake this year on this podcast. Plus we got into other aspects of managing on the O’s farm.A Spanish speaker, Mercado got close with Basallo and he actually interpreted for me when I had a long one-on-one interview with Basallo late in the 2023 season when he was with Aberdeen. Enjoy the latest addition of the Steve on Baseball podcast with “Berto.” Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

The latest episode of the Steve on Baseball podcast provided me the great chance to both talk about the current-day Orioles and take a few spins down memory lane as well.Shorstop Mike Bordick, signed twice by the Orioles as a free agent, is my guest and we had a great and wide-ranging conversation.Bordick played 14 years in the majors for the O’s, A’s, Mets and Jays.In 2002 he set a major league record for most consecutive errorless games at shorstop with 110. Guess who holds the record today? Yep, Mike still does.An All-Star representing the Orioles in 2000, weeks after the game he was traded to the Mets.We talked about how the O’s front office asked Bordick to sign with the team in the winter ahead of the 1997 season and that would lead Cal Ripken Jr. to move to third base. Bordick was the guy the O’s wanted to succeed Cal at short. And Mike went into the O’s Hall of Fame in 2011.He is still a popular guy around Baltimore and on the airwaves as a regular co-host of 105.7 the Fan’s “Baltimore Baseball Tonight” and he also co-hosts the BMore Baseball Podcast.It was a pleasure to watch Bordy play short for the Orioles and in this podcast he provided his take on Gunnar Henderson’s improvements at the position.It’s always been a thrill for me to get to know guys I either covered as a reporter or watched as a fan or both. To call Bordy a friend is pretty awesome for me!Please enjoy his thoughts today on the latest podcast!This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

SALISBURY, Md. - Collin Woody can relate to his players with the O’s Low-A affiliate the Delmarva Shorebirds. He was once a Shorebirds player himself, for 115 games in 2017.An O’s 38th-round draft pick in 2016, Woody, who just turned 31, is in his second season as the manager at Delmarva. He played in 228 games on the O’s farm from 2016-2018.He spent a couple of seasons coaching in the Florida Complex League and now has settled in as manager of the Shorebirds.Just like the O’s roster got a bit of a positive jolt recently with the additions of Dylan Beavers and Samuel Basallo, the Delmarva roster recently got its own energy boost and influx of talent.On Aug. 12 the Shorebirds added six 2025 O’s draft picks. All are playing well in their first handful of Delmarva games. Now these players are with Delmarva:* O’s top pick, Auburn catcher/outfielder Ike Irish was taken No. 19 overall.* O’s second pick, Coastal Carolina catcher Caden Bodine was taken No. 30.* O’s third pick, shortstop Wehiwa Aloy was selected No. 31.* Outfielder RJ Austin was taken in round three.* Infielder Colin Yeaman was taken in round four.* Infielder Brayden Smith was selected in round 13.All the players are off to solid hitting starts. Irish is batting .333 (10-for-30), hit his first professional homer Wednesday night and has an OPS of .861 in seven games.Over eight games, Bodine is batting .333 with an .796 OPS.Aloy, the Golden Spikes Award winner while at Arkansas, is batting .333 with five doubles in six games and an OPS of .990.Austin is batting .400 (8-for-20) with an OPS of 1.000 and with three RBIs in seven games.Yeaman is hitting .263 with a .778 OPS and four walks to five strikeouts over six games.Smith is hitting .318 with a homer, five RBIs and OPS of .848 in five games.While the Shorebirds are only 43-73 on the season, Delmarva has seen numerous players promoted to High-A Aberdeen to recently include outfielder Nate George.We discussed him during this podcast and also talked about right-handed pitcher Esteban Mejia, age 18 from the Dominican Republic, who has made three Delmarva starts. With a fastball that has touched 102 mph, Mejia is already a Baseball America top 100 product, ranked No. 95. This interview with Woody was taped pregame yesterday at Perdue Stadium in Salisbury.Enjoy the latest Steve on Baseball podcast! Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

A very timely guest today on the Steve on Baseball podcast as I interview JJ Cooper, the editor-in-chief of Baseball America.He was a guest earlier and returns for the podcast being released today.Earlier this week, in the most recent update to the BA top 100 prospects list, four Orioles were ranked. Samuel Basallo was No. 7, Nate George No. 81, Dylan Beavers No. 83 and pitcher Esteban Mejia at No. 95.Beavers and George make their first appearances on the BA top 100.In this episode, JJ talks about what led BA to move Beavers into their top 100. Clearly it has ramifications for the Prospect Promotion Incentive program. A player that wins Rookie of the Year and is ranked in two of three top 100s (between Baseball America, MLBPipeline.com and ESPN) can earn his club an additional draft pick as Gunnar Henderson did when winning ROY.JJ also talks more in depth about the year both Basallo and Beavers have had at Triple-A Norfolk. He adds some thoughts too on the O’s trade deadline prospect acquisitions.Here is the updated BA O’s top 10 prospects list:1 - Samuel Basallo2 - Nate George3 - Dylan Beavers4 - Esteban Mejia5 - Ike Irish6 - Enrique Bradfield Jr.7 - Wehiwa Aloy8 - Trey Gibson9 - Juaron Watts-Brown10 - Boston BatemanClick here for the new BA top 100 and click here for the new O’s top 30 (subscription may be required for both).Enjoy episode No. 18 of the Steve on Baseball podcast!This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Hope you can sign up to get every O’s analysis piece, every minor league feature, video, the game blog and this podcast. Thanks Birdland! Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

As you know we keep you up to date on the O’s farm on this Substack and today on the podcast I interview Trey Gibson, right-handed starting pitcher of the Double-A Chesapeake Baysox.He began the year at High-A Aberdeen and while his ERA was 5.12, his strikeouts per nine innings was a ridiculous 15.59. He was showing dominance and a promotion to Double-A would soon come.This year between the two teams over 18 games Gibson, age 23, is 4-4 with a 3.28 ERA and 1.04 WHIP over 85 innings.As we release this podcast today, as of now, I would say he is the leading candidate for O’s Minor League Pitcher of the Year.In his nine starts at Double-A, he is 3-2 with a 1.75 ERA allowing just 24 hits in 46 1/3 innings. Opponents hit just .148 off Gibson who has a WHIP of 0.91 with the Baysox. He has twice been named the Eastern League Pitcher of the Week and is set to make his next start tonight at Akron.Just yesterday, Baseball America named Gibson one of the 10 breakout pitching prospects for 2025. Not bad for a pitcher that was not drafted in 2023 and signed by the Orioles after that draft. During this podcast, Gibson talks about that time and how only one other big league team showed interest in him beyond the Birds.He talks about his mid 90s fastball that can touch 97 and 98 and his four breaking balls. Yep, four.We got into several other interesting topics as well.Gibson’s ranking on the O’s farm (among pitchers with 60 IP or more)13.34 K per nine - first35.8 strikeout percentage - first1.04 WHIP - first46.4 grounder percentage - tied for second2.95 Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) - thirdEnjoy today’s Steve on Baseball podcast!Hope you consider becoming a paid subscriber to this Substack space. To sign up for a free or paid subscription, and not miss anything going on here, click below. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

It’s another solo podcast Birdland. We will resume interviewing guests next week, so check back for that.But today I check in briefly on the dismal Cleveland series that has the Orioles now 13 games below the .500 mark. The team has lost seven of its past eight games.I also provided my take on which O’s players might be most likely to be traded and mentioned why I believe that is the case.Later in the podcast I discussed one hot hitter on the O’s farm. He is a player we could see in Baltimore before the year is out.Enjoy the latest Steve on Baseball podcast.My Substack space surpassed 1,000 subscribers last night!For some reason, that milestone was meaningful for me. It was a long run of extended growth and I really appreciate O’s fans for continuing to find me and supporting what I do here on Substack. I promised this space will get better and it has been. The offseason - when we get there - will be very interesting as well. The content will stay interesting and worth your time. Promise.O’s fans also had me ranked yesterday among the top 100 Bestsellers on Substack. That was a first for me here! Thank you times a thousand! Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

The 2025 MLB Draft is in the books. The Orioles made 24 selections over two days of the draft on Sunday and Monday. Their first pick, No. 19 overall, was Auburn catcher/outfielder Ike Irish and their final pick in round 20 was right-handed pitcher Connor Gehr of Meridian Community College.The O’s selected 13 pitchers and 11 position players among their 24 picks.They drafted eight right-handers and five lefties along with four outfielders, five infielders and two catchers.The O’s have the largest signing pool of any team in the majors with a total pool dollar amount of $19,144,500.Hope you enjoy today’s podcast - a discussion of the O’s draft picks.This Substack is reader-supported. Please subscribe for a free or paid subscription. There will always be some free content on this Substack but paid subscribers will have access to every story and the full archive. We cover the majors, the minors, produce some videos and this Steve on Baseball podcast which drops on Thursdays and most weeks features some great guests. Help me get to 1,000 subscribers! Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe

A great guest today for the podcast as I interview Keith Law, who has been with The Athletic as senior baseball writer since January of 2020.Law spent many years writing and working for ESPN and its various outlets from 2006-2019. Before that he worked in the front office of the Toronto Blue Jays after impressing then general manager J.P. Ricciardi during the 2002 Winter Meetings. He hired Law for the Blue Jays front office. Keith rose to the position of special assistant to the general manager before leaving for that ESPN gig. I have interviewed Keith many times over many years and always appreciate his solid insights. Some memebers of the previous O’s front office, before Mike Elias was hired, were not fans of some of Law’s opinions and would remind me often when I wrote a story with his takes.But Keith, who can have strong opinions, has always been worth hearing from in my opinion and this was a wonderful conversation today about the upcoming O’s draft and we also spent some time on the current farm system and had an extended discussion about Triple-A catcher Samuel Basallo.We ended the podcast discussing the upcoming trade deadline.Enjoy this edition of the Steve on Baseball podcast.I am closing in on 1,000 Substack subscribers so please keep signing on and joining us here. There are free and paid subscriptions and paid members have access to the full archive and any articles behind a paywall, as some are. But there is also a free element. So hope you will be here for every O’s analysis piece, minor league feature, video and podcast. Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe