Saturday was a must-visit for FSS Plus given a few factors in play at the newly renovated Heritage Financial Park in Wappingers Falls, N.Y. One?
Kyle Carr and Moises Chace were set to make up a prospect-heavy pitching matchup, with the latter arm for the Aberdeen Ironbirds still a bit under the radar despite a hot start to his 2024 season.
And two? A first look at Enrique Bradfield, Jr., last year’s first-round pick for the Baltimore Orioles who most have as having two 80 tools as both a runner and a defender in the outfield.
Unfortunately, those looks were pretty short.
Enrique Bradfield, Jr., OF (No.6)
Bradfield is, no doubt, a potential game-changer, and his impact will come down to how much he can get on base. We got to see just two at-bats before he was removed from the game for precautionary reasons after a hard tag on a play at the plate, but his speed particularly pops from the left side.
He’s as aggressive with his legs as he should be with those kinds of wheels, and essentially singlehandedly generated a run on a hustle double, a steal of third, and then scored a run on the aforementioned play at the plate on a routine ground ball despite the infield being in. He’ll go as far as his bat can take him, and his legs will do the rest.
Moisés Chace, RHP
After a fairly pedestrian start to his pro career in the Orioles system that was comprised of two years in Low-A Delmarva, Chace quickly made some noise with 15 K’s over just eight scoreless innings of work in his first two outings of the season, allowing just three hits.
Anticipation was high on Saturday to see just how he was doing it, but command issues on his offspeed offerings plagued him through what turned out to be a short outing.
Chace walked six in three innings of work and also gave up his first runs of the year, including a solo homer off a fastball by Roc Riggio. He was most effective when working off that fastball, and was sitting between 92-96 with what appeared to be a pretty free and easy delivery to get there.
Still only 20 years old. There’s not much projectability on the body, but I can see the stuff taking a tick up as he continues to learn how to pitch against better hitters.
Mac Horvath, INF — (No. 12)
Horvath went No. 53 overall just last year out of North Carolina, and remains somewhat under the radar even despite that lofty status given what Baltimore has at the upper levels of their system. Horvath will get there in due time. He showed some power with a fairly long home run on Saturday, and also handled third base quite well for Aberdeen.
The Orioles have used him all over thus far — he’s played second, third, left field and right field since being drafted, and also played in center for the Tarheels when needed — and he’s proven to be a valuable, interchangeable piece for them thus far.
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