Former Second Round Pick Xavier Avery Continuing Progression with Baysox

Even back in high school, L.J. Hoes could tell Xavier Avery was anything but your average athlete.

“When I saw him run for the first time, I knew,” said Hoes, a third-round pick of the Orioles in 2008, who first played against Avery during a summer league in high school. “Not too many guys out there can run the way he does.”

And ever since high school, Avery—the Orioles’ second round pick in that same 2008 draft class and the current starting center fielder for the Baysox—has been renowned for that rare speed and athleticism, not only on the baseball field but also in football. A Georgia native, Avery was a Rivals.com four-star recruit as a running back and defensive back and had actually committed to play college football at the University of Georgia before deciding to focus solely on baseball and to sign with the Orioles.

Yet for as much as he has always been lauded for those physical skills—he ran a 4.4 in the 40-yard dash while in high school—he was, and still is, viewed as being relatively raw on the baseball field, and still very much a work in progress.

Avery is batting just .235 (16-of-68) in his first 17 games for the Baysox this season, although he is 12-of-13 on stolen base attempts.

He also hit just .234 in 34 games with Bowie last year after being promoted from Single-A Frederick, where he had batted .280 with 35 extra-base hits (25 doubles, six triples, four home runs), 48 RBI and 28 stolen bases in 109 games with the Keys.

He batted .262 with 25 extra-base hits (15 doubles, eight triple, two home runs), 36 RBI and 30 stolen bases for Single-A Delmarva in 2009.

But while Avery has struggled thus far in Bowie, Kevin Goldstein, a national analyst for both Baseball Prospectus and ESPN, thinks the 21-year old has made significant progress since the Orioles drafted him in 2008.

“I think he may be a little bit over his head in Double-A [at Bowie] right now,” Goldstein said. “But I’m surprised to see him at Double-A this quickly. You’re talking about a kid that was drafted purely as an athlete that the Orioles hoped to turn into a baseball player. And I think he still has a really long way to go. But at the same time, from where he was when the Orioles took him, there’s been a ton of progress.”

And Avery is looking forward to continuing that progress with the Baysox, even despite the less than ideal start to the season.

“I’m off to kind of a slow start,” Avery said. “But I’ve been in this position before and I’ll be alright. I’m just getting adjusted to the pitching [at this level]. The pitching gets tougher [at every level]. But I feel like I’ve improved in every area of my game—base-running, fielding, hitting, everything—[during the last four years] and my number one goal now is to become more consistent at the plate.”

Bowie manager Gary Kendall believes Avery has the tools to do just that, even comparing his upside to that of former all-star Kenny Lofton, who was widely regarded as one of the top leadoff men in baseball during the 1990’s.

“He’s a really gifted young man,” Kendall said. “He has a lot of bat speed and is learning how to bunt for base hits. He’s learning how to make adjustments offensively and has also got a tremendous amount of ability in the outfield, has really good range and has a good throwing arm.

"And he’s also got very good speed and can cause havoc on the bases. He has a lot of tools, we’re extremely happy to have him and he’s a kid that has a future, possibly, in Baltimore with some more innings and some more experience, and he’s going to get a lot of both here.”