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The ValleyCats of the Frontier League transferred Still\u2019s contract to the Orioles for the standard fee of $12,500. He planned to drive to Baltimore on Wednesday. Pending his physical, Still would sign a contract and be assigned to the Delmarva Shorebirds, the Orioles’ Single-A club in Salisbury, Md. They play in the Carolina League.<\/p>\n
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He also spoke with Kent Qualls, Baltimore\u2019s director of minor league operations.<\/p>\n
Still said he called his parents on Tuesday morning to tell them, before going to Bruno Stadium to celebrate with his teammates.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeeing them being excited for me, that made me happy,\u201d Still said. \u201cIt\u2019s just exciting. I don\u2019t know. It\u2019s just hard to describe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tagert said he\u2019d been in close contact with a couple of big-league teams about Still. They didn\u2019t have to see him in person. As an official partner league of Major League Baseball, the Frontier League shares the analytical data that is collected during games.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIn this case, they got the right guy,\u201d Tagert said. \u201cThey don\u2019t always get the right guy because sometimes the data doesn\u2019t tell you what Stephen can do in a game where he\u2019s competing. So I think it will bode well for Stephen down the road and hopefully it works out for a long career.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, a 6-foot-3 lefthander, was in his second season with the ValleyCats. He went 13-3 with a 3.89 earned-run average last season. This season, he had a league-high 18 strikeouts in 11 innings through two starts.<\/p>\n
In his most recent start, Still gave up six runs on eight hits in five innings in a 15-7 loss at Sussex County last Thursday. Coming off that start, he wasn\u2019t necessarily expecting a call from a big-league team.<\/p>\n
However, he had a good feeling about the direction of his career. He had a tryout with the Arizona Diamondbacks earlier this year through Tagert\u2019s connections.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cI threw really well out there and felt like I was in a really good spot with the numbers on all my pitches,\u201d he said. \u201cIt feels like just a matter of time, a waiting game, and keep doing my thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still throws his fastball consistently at 91 to 92 miles per hour\u00a0and mixes it with a curveball, sweeper and changeup. He said he\u2019d love to remain a starter but will fill whatever role the Orioles ask.<\/p>\n
He comes from a small-school pedigree. He pitched at Loyola University New Orleans, an NAIA program. He made his pro debut with Grand Junction (Colo.) of the Pioneer League in 2024 before signing with Tri-City last year.<\/p>\n
Still praised ValleyCats fans for being \u201camazing and super-welcoming\u201d and making Bruno Stadium feel like home. He described his teammates as \u201cmy brothers\u201d who will be lifelong friends.<\/p>\n
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\u201cJust the opportunity to be myself, that\u2019s the thing about Tagert, he wants a good clubhouse and lets guys be undeniably and uniquely themselves,\u201d Still said. \u201cWhen you feel comfortable being who you are, you can go out there and perform.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since Tri-City joined the Frontier League in 2021, 18 ValleyCats have joined MLB organizations.<\/p>\n
The drawback for the ValleyCats (3-8) is having to fill Still\u2019s spot in the rotation. Tri-City snapped a six-game losing streak on Wednesday with a 14-11 victory over the Trois-Rivieres Aigles in an Education Day game before a crowd of 3,529, mostly schoolchildren, at Bruno Stadium. Noah Estrella started in Still\u2019s place.<\/p>\n
Niskayuna High School graduate Aaron Whitley hit his first professional home run, a three-run blast, in the third inning and walked to force in the go-ahead run in the seventh inning.<\/p>\n
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Whitley\u2019s mother and girlfriend were in the crowd.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just nice family could see it and everything,\u201d he said. \u201cIt feels good to get the first (homer).\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tri-City ValleyCats starting pitcher Stephen Still works against the Quebec Capitales during Game 1 of the Frontier League…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":704287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2374],"tags":[143,47,2538,5,88507,1299,4,125,88541,185,44800],"class_list":["post-704286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-baltimore-orioles","tag-baltimore","tag-baltimore-orioles","tag-baltimoreorioles","tag-baseball","tag-latestnews","tag-local","tag-mlb","tag-orioles","tag-rensco","tag-sports","tag-valleycats"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116608991737666990","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=704286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/704287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=704286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=704286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=704286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}