Manny Machado the Orioles top hitting prospect and 18th ranked MLB prospect made his debut for the Frederick Keys last night. In his debut he went 1-4 with a solo homerun and turned a double play with Jonathan Schoop. Machado is quickly drawing some of the same raves and reviews that fellow first round pick, Matt Wieters, did when he was climbing through the farm system. Machado is going to be on a quick rise through the system assuming his production is close or better than his current production of a .280 ish average.

Jonathan Schoop pictured above is also proving to be a very interesting player who is looking more and more like the future double play partner of Machado’s. Schoop was drafted in the 2009 draft and is currently 19 and with Machado 18 the Orioles seem determined to try and keep these two paired up in their development as long as both produce.

I would suspect that we are watching the opening day double play tandem for the 2013 season. It is not out of the realm of possibility to see these two promoted to Double A Bowie at some point this season, with thoughts that they see majority playing time at Triple A Norfolk during the 2012 season will a potential for a mid/late season call up.