Was at the Aberdeen game Wednesday evening and was especially interested in Ironbirds starter Mark Blackmar and first baseman Christian Walker, the club's fourth round pick this year out of national baseball power South Carolina.

Blackmar is 20 years old and was drafted in the 16th round last year out of Temple (Texas) College. He's listed at 6'3" and 215 pounds, and the 6'3" part seemed pretty generous to me. None of the pitches he featured are possible putaway pitches in the future; he was mostly his fastball and had some problems commanding his breaking ball. He only had two strikeouts (just didn't miss many bats), but was able to get 18 outs without much of an issue with the help of a few groundball double plays. If Blackmar is to have any success in the future, it'll be because he can induce groundballs (eight groundouts to no flyouts on Wednesday). His delivery could use some work; he's a little mechanical and stiff, especially out of the stretch, and he's stiff when he lands. I like to see pitchers use their lower half as a driving force to finish off their delivery. Blackmar stiffened and recoiled upon landing, cutting his delivery a bit short. If you watch Bundy, he finishes off his delivery by driving his lower half towards the plate.

Christian Walker is a first baseman so that means he has to mash pretty good to have a shot to be a quality regular. You'd like your first baseman to be a middle of the order bopper. The jury's out on whether Walker can be that or not, but he mashed lefties in college and there still may be a role out there for him as a platoon bat if his bat doesn't totally develop. Walker has a very good approach -- he walks a lot -- but also has a good idea w/r/t pitch identification. I think he'll hit for average and get on base, but we'll see on the power. I'd push Walker (328/416/493) and 3B/OF Torsten Boss (270/391/423), both 21 years old, to the Carolina League soon to challenge them against kids that are their age or older than them and get them out of their comfort zone. These are both college hitters who have performed at high levels in the past, so they should be able to handle it. Force them to be more aggressive in picking out pitches to drive and challenge them against quality breaking stuff and changeups that they won't see in the New York-Penn League. The O's may just want those two to get their feet wet in the organization and be challenged next spring. We'll see.

Blackmar has a lot of pieces moving and is certainly a little raw (as with most NYPL guys obviously) Wonder if he ever tacks on any more velocity. He's a guy that probably isn't going to wow anyone, but gets the job done. Very curious to see him at Delmarva next year.

And you know my take on Boss and Walker. I think it's silly they are in NYPL, but every team seems to keep a guy or two there that should be moved up.