Orioles No. 30 prospect Billy Cook is tearing it up with the Triple-A
*Cover Photo Credit: Kate Kirsch
They should not have let him cook.
When the Orioles promoted their No. 30 prospect to Triple-A Norfolk, utility man Billy Cook, I wrote a nice little preview/welcome letter to Tides fans (and a warning to the rest of the league) promoting the player and person that Tides nation had just received.
Cook had already established himself with Double-A Bowie dating back to April 2023. He posted a 20 home run 20 stolen base season for the Baysox last year, and he's a lifetime .251 hitter with 91 RBI and a .775 OPS at the Double-A level.
Now he is at Triple-A, and he has been on a completely different planet since arriving.
In 21 games for the Tides, Cook is a .325 hitter (26-for-80) with 2 long balls, 11 RBI, and 6 doubles. His 13 walks have contributed to his .429 on-base percentage, and he has a .929 OPS. Some of his best performances with the Tides so far include a 3-for-5, 4 RBI showing on May 10 at Memphis, and a 2-for-4, 2 RBI display last night against Lehigh Valley.
Cook is putting up the numbers, but he is doing so with laser-sharp focus at the plate. A player who both studies and teaches the art of hitting according to his business Instagram @swingsyncbaseball , the 25-year-old is making necessary adjustments and working with each pitch that he sees. Whether he pokes an outside fastball the other way on a line or whether he yanks the inside pitch for a home run over the left field wall, Cook appears to be doing all the right things to be a successful hitter just like he did in Bowie.
Billy won all of us Baysox fans over with his offensive onslaught and his enthusiastic, fan-friendly personality. Quite frankly, we still miss him back up here in Prince George's County, and we all speek in unison as we wish him well with the Tides.
"Billy is one of the best personalities on the team, hands down," said Evan Johnson, the on-field host for the Bowie Baysox. Johnson is also the man behind the commonly heard "Let Him Cook!" chant that began in Bowie last season. Johnson and the Baysox fans used this chant everytime Cook came up to bat.
"PLEASE tell me y’all do the let him cook chant too!" he said to Tides fans, "because I’m really proud of myself for making that up!"
"He just needs to keep doing whatever that's working and the chips will fall where they may," said Orioles fan and Maryland native Nelson Poole.
Tides fans, I hope you're enjoying the Billy Cook show so far. No, he may not be a Top 10 poster boy prospect. However, he's a talent on the rise and a human being that you just cannot not love in this game. Take my word for it. Us Baysox fans spent a year with him and we loved him. I hope you are enjoying him just as much as we did.
Let him Cook!
Comments