For Big Guy, Mahoney Up To Speed On Bases

Orioles Minor League Spotlight

Joe Mahoney's statistics might be the most befuddling in all of professional baseball.

Mahoney, the 22-year-old starting first baseman at Single-A Delmarva, is 6 feet 7 and 235 pounds.

He has one homer in almost 200 at-bats this season.

And he has 18 stolen bases in 18 attempts.

The largest position player in the Orioles organization is tied for its stolen-base lead. No other South Atlantic League player has more than 10 stolen bases without having been thrown out at least once.

"I thought I signed [Seattle Mariners slugger] Russell Branyan. It looks like I signed Rickey Henderson," joked Orioles scout Dean Albany, who signed Mahoney out of the University of Richmond in the sixth round of the 2008 draft.

As a college junior, Mahoney led the Atlantic 10 Conference with 17 homers, attracting scouts.

"You'd go see him take [batting practice] in college," Albany said, "and you couldn't park your car in the parking lot behind right field because he'd hit balls out there."

Even then, Mahoney was more than a masher. He stole 16 bases in 19 attempts as a junior.

"He ran well; that was one of the things I liked about him," Albany said. "He was light on his feet for his size."

But Albany and the Orioles didn't see this stolen-base streak coming. No one did. Mahoney had just three stolen bases in four attempts in his first two years as a pro.

"I've just been working on my base-running as a whole," he said. "I try to get good reads on pitchers. It's not my first year in pro ball anymore, so I try to pay attention to the pitchers, try to get a jump on them."

Last year was tough on Mahoney. He was limited by a strained quadriceps that eventually tore. He wasn't particularly disciplined with his nutrition, and his weight ballooned to about 265 pounds.

This offseason, he decided to change his eating habits and he worked out six times a week. He dropped more than 30 pounds, now weighing between 230 and 235.

Improved conditioning is just one of the contributing factors to Mahoney's success, said former Oriole Ryan Minor, the Shorebirds' field coach. Minor said Mahoney doesn't take large leads but has a goo d first step.

"He runs on runners' counts, breaking-ball counts, and when he does run, it's not close at second base," Minor said. "Pitchers are throwing over more now. It's almost like a leadoff guy out there; they are paying that much attention to him. ... He has developed into one of the better base runners I have seen in a while."