Brandon Waring calls 2007 "a whirlwind."
Scouts were blown away by it. His teammates simply chuckled.
The Frederick Keys corner infielder didn't think he had a chance to be drafted entering his junior season at Wofford, a South Carolina college, in 2007.
Then he hit 27 home runs, the second most in all NCAA Division I that year. The Cincinnati Reds selected him in the seventh round, signed him for $94,000 and assigned him to their Rookie-level squad in Billings, Mont.
It was supposed to be his low-pressure introduction to pro ball. Nothing special expected. But Waring homered 20 more times in 267 at-bats - that's 47 long balls in approximately seven months. In his final 10 games at Billings, Waring hit 10 homers.
"It was just one of those moments when you don't know it's happening. You're out there playing, seeing the ball and reacting," said Waring, who is batting .310 with two homers and 13 RBIs in 22 games this season at high Single-A Frederick. "Even my teammates were laughing, seeing what was going on."
Waring homered 20 more times at low Single-A Dayton last year and that raw, right-handed power stuck in the mind of former Reds general manager Wayne Krivsky.
When Krivsky was hired in November to be a special assistant to Orioles club president Andy MacPhail, one of his first tasks was to compile a list of intriguing and potentially available prospects in the Reds' system.
MacPhail was about to trade catcher Ramon Hernandez to Cincinnati for Ryan Freel and two others, and he wanted Krivsky's input on the Reds' minor leaguers. Among the handful of names Krivsky presented were Waring and second baseman Justin Turner.
"You are always looking for right-handed power. It's one of the tougher commodities to find at all levels," Krivsky said. "I came up with a list of names that would be suitable based on what we knew of the parameters, and we were able to get two of them, which I was pleased with."
Turner, 24, is now playing at Triple-A Norfolk. And Waring, 23, is considered among the top power hitters in the Orioles' system.
"It kind of came out of nowhere," Waring said of his Dec. 9 trade. "But I am excited about it, no hard feelings. I realized I have a better opportunity with the Orioles."
A shortstop in college and a third baseman mainly as a pro, the 6-foot-4, 215-pound Waring played first base in 17 of the Keys' first 22 games. He was at third in the others.
