2013 Season in Review, The Two Michaels, Part 7
I saw the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals Fast A Frederick Keys and Potomac Nationals play a total 13 games against Carolina League opponents, including four games against each other, during the 2013 season.The highlight of all those games was seeing Potomac CF, Michael Taylor, and Frederick catcher, Michael Ohlman play better and better each game and develop into bonifide major league prospects.Leading the Carolina League with a 313 BA, 13 HR, 113 hits, and 53 RBI in 100 GP and 361 AB, Michael Ohlman looked an awful lot like Orioles catcher, Matt Wieters both at and behind the plate when he also played at Frederick. It must be nice to have an All Star catcher on the major league club and one rising in their minor league system.With 10 HR, 87 RBI’s and 51 SB in 133 GP, the five tool Michael Taylor led his teammates to a first and second half first place finish and Carolina League championship runners up during the season.I got to know both these fine young athletes during the course of the season, in fact well enough, to tease Michael Taylor one day at Frederick that he needed to smooth his swing out, as it was too jerky for me to get a good shot of him swinging at the plate.In his first at bat, he took me to heart, swinging fluidly at the third pitch, knocking the ball high over the right center field fence.When he ran back past me to the dugout after rounding the bases, he yelled over to me, “Was that swing smooth enough for you?”It’s good to see these decent young men rise to the top of their game in Fast A, and hopefully, they’ll keep suceeding in AA, AAA, and major league baseball as we need these two first class Michaels to serve as role models for our youth.down the road.