Orioles’ 22-year-old, 2016 third-round draft pick, outfielder Austin Hays joined the guys today to talk about his quick rise to Double-A along with some stories about the oddities of minor league baseball including monkeys riding dogs.
Hays started the season in Frederick and after going to town on Single-A pitching he was promoted to Double-A Bowie where he has continued his torrid pace. In 64 games with Frederick, Hays hit .328 with 16 dongs, 41 RBI and a slugging percentage of .592 while hitting mostly in the two hole and occasionally leading off. Since his promotion to Bowie, in 14 games Hays has hit .339 with three homers, 16 RBI and slugging .571. He recently had a season long 17 game hit streak snapped and has hit safely in 20 of his last 22 games hitting .340 with 7 HR, 14 XBH and 20 RBI over that span. Maybe most impressively, Hays is second in all of the minor leagues in total bases with 187 trailing only former Orioles dud Christian Walker (190). Hays has proved to be a versatile outfielder playing center field in Frederick and then moving to the corner outfield positions in Bowie with Cedric Mullins in center.
Screw it. Call him up now.