During the season, I typically peruse the Orioles' minor league stats once or twice a week.  Recently, however, I checked them for the first time since I left for Maine on May 10.  It wasn't pretty when I left, but things are arguably even uglier now.  

Leaving out major league players on minor league rehab assignments, a combined grand total of nine players on the franchise's four full-season minor league affiliates have compiled an OPS of at least .800.  It's worth pointing out that an .800 OPS at the minor league level isn't exactly the stuff of future phenoms.  It's also notable that only three players have an OPS of .850 or better and that seven of the nine players on the list are at least relatively old for the leagues they're playing in...and that three of these guys haven't accumulated as many as 100 at bats this season to date.

Here's the full list:

There is exactly one player in the organization right now who has the combination of age/level and performance needed to be considered a real, live prospect, and that's Nolan Reimold.  Dustin Yount is on the fringe of that description.  That's it.  No one above the A-level fits that portrayal.  Keylor turns 27 in August.  Tracy and Tatis are long past prospect age.  Terrero's days as a serious prospect probably came to an end with the Diamondbacks about two years ago.  Maestrales is an organizational-type player who spent two years in the Atlantic League.  Tucker and Finan are both low round draft picks (20th and 21st respectively) who are both fairly long in the tooth for the South Atlantic League (remember the huge season Ryan Minor had down there at age 24?) with unremarkable college pedigrees.

Other would-be prospects are suffering through injury-plagued and/or ineffective seasons thus far this year.  25-year-old Val Majewski, attempting to return after missing the entire 2005 season with a serious arm injury, has been hurt part of the time and has struggled when he's been out on the field with AAA Ottawa.  In 62 ABs, Majewski has posted a .629 OPS (two walks).  Jeff Fiorentino (23) has spent part of the season on the disabled list at AA Bowie and when he's played (156 ABs) has managed an OPS of .650.  One-time 3B hopeful Tripper Johnson (24) spent a month at extended spring training with an injury and then was assigned to Bowie where he's managed a .585 OPS in 85 ABs.  The O's first pick in the 2005 draft, catcher Brandon Snyder, is only 19, but has looked badly overmatched at low A Delmarva (when he's been healthy enough to play), with a .646 OPS in 107 ABs (39 of which have been strikeouts).

Where's Mr. Barfy when you need him?

It goes without saying that until and unless the seemingly endless minor league position player dearth is seriously overturned, this organization will have little if any chance of fielding a competitive major league club, regardless of how much pitching depth exists.  Even a couple of players at each level who actually look like prospects--a very unimpressive number, by the way--is necessary for purposes of organizational depth, to plug holes when injuries crop up and give the franchise the hope that it doesn't have to patch three or four big league lineup holes each and every year.  The Orioles don't even have that--not even close, in fact.

One-and-a-half interesting players on an A-ball team...that's an embarrassment.  

The Orioles do have Nick Markakis on the big club this year...and did dip down to plug a hole for a couple of weeks with Brandon Fahey, but the organization, if it's to be taken seriously at all, needs numerous players who at least appear, at some point, that they might be able to make an impact at the big league level.  The Orioles simply don't have anything close to that, and haven't for ages.  Until and unless that changes, we'll remain on the same slow, endless carousel.

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