Charleston RiverDogs catcher Peter O’Brien was named the South Atlantic League Player of the Week on Monday afternoon.

In six games last week, O’Brien hit .409, going nine of 22 from the plate with two home runs, three doubles, eight RBI, 12 runs scored, and seven walks.

O’Brien started the week out with a perfect 3-3 game with a double, homer, walk, and three runs scored against the Savannah Sand Gnats in Charleston.

He followed that up with a 2-4, two-RBI performance the next day. The powerful catcher capped off the RiverDogs sweep of Savannah going 1-2, with a home run, two walks, three RBI, three runs scored line in the series finale. O’Brien collected at least one hit in all six games he played during the week.

A native of Miami, FL, the 22-year-old catcher was selected by the New York Yankees in the second round of the 2012 MLB Amateur Draft out of the University of Miami.

The first place RiverDogs are in Savannah to face the Sand Gnats for a three-game series Monday through Wednesday. Charleston returns home starting Thursday for a four-game home stand against the Greenville Drive.


(postandcourier.com)

As soon as Peter O'Brien heard his named called by the New York Yankees in the second round of the 2012 MLB Draft, he knew it was time to go to work. The former first-team All-Atlantic Coast Conference catcher had been drafted in the third round in 2011 by the Colorado Rockies out of Bethune-Cookman University, but decided against joining Colorado and instead returned to school and transferred to the powerful University of Miami (FL) program.

O'Brien couldn't be more pleased with his decision. He put up stellar numbers in his only year at "The U." O'Brien finished the 2012 college season playing for legendary coach Jim Morris and batted a team-best .340 with 10 home runs and 40 RBI. Miami's season came to an early end as they were upset at home by the Missouri State Bears at Alex Rodriguez Park.

Although O'Brien and his teammates were bummed about the loss, Peter knew it was on to bigger and better things. He hoped that he could someday join the player that his collegiate stadium was named for as a star at the big-league level.

Following Miami's loss, Peter reported to the Yankees' Gulf Coast affiliate. He appeared in four games, batted .348 before quickly being promoted to Staten Island. With the "Baby Bombers," O'Brien showed why the Yankees drafted him 89th overall as he hit a whopping 10 home runs and 34 RBI in only 52 games at Staten Island.

O'Brien went into this past offseason knowing that he was ready to make another jump. This time it was to full-season ball as the Yankees assigned the bilingual catcher to Charleston.

"I worked hard all off-season and once spring training started I worked even harder," said O'Brien. "I thought everything went great."

The coaches evidently agreed as O'Brien was promoted to start the 2013 season with the RiverDogs.

"This kid works really hard and he is really smart," said RiverDogs first-year manager Al Pedrique. "He has a very strong arm and a lot of power in his bat.
"His offense is good, but it's his defense that needs work," Pedrique added. "The great thing about this kid is that he always wants to learn more. He always listens and asks questions. You can't ask for anything more from a young player."

Peter knows he is in for a long season with the RiverDogs. The 140-game schedule has very few off days, but he's ready.

"I'm in the best shape that I have ever been," O'Brien admitted. "I worked all offseason for this and now I am just ready to get out there and help this team win and learn as much as I can."

While O'Brien showed off his powerful bat a year ago with Staten Island, he still struggled a bit defensively.

"I think Peter was a great catcher for us," said former Staten Island teammate and current RiverDogs pitcher Taylor Garrison.

"Peter could no doubt hit the ball hard and far," said Garrison. "His struggles were with his batting average. I have seen him working with his hitting this spring and he's seeing the ball better. Defensively, the man has a cannon for an arm. He needs to work on receiving the ball better and, again, that's what he did while in spring training.

"I think he is a standout catcher," Garrison added. "He was great for our staff last season in Staten Island because he always called great games for us. He always knew about all of the oppositions' hitters, too. He knew where they liked the ball and where they couldn't hit it. He will do great here in Charleston, and it will be nice working with a familiar face behind the plate."

The upside is clearly through the roof for young Peter O'Brien. Now it's time to take the wait-and-see approach as he enters his first year of full-season baseball. His goal is simple: get better every day.


(milb.com)

University of Miami product Peter O’Brien continued his late-season power surge with his 10th home run and four pitchers combined on a four-hit shutout as the Staten Island Yankees closed out their season series with the Brooklyn Cyclones with a 1-0 victory Sunday night at MCU Park in Coney Island.

The Baby Bombers (28-44) snapped a three-game losing streak before returning home for a three-game season-ending series with the Connecticut Tigers beginning Monday night at the Richmond County Bank Ballpark.

Brooklyn won the season series 8-6, but dropped into a tie with the Batavia Muckdogs and Auburn Doubledays in the race for the 14-team New York-Penn League’s lone wild-card playoff berth. Batavia rallied for its ninth straight victory, an 8-7 triumph over Auburn.

Brooklyn, Batavia and Auburn all are 44-29. Batavia and Auburn are also tied for the Pinckney Division lead, while the Hudson Valley Renegades and Tri-City ValleyCats have clinched their respective divisions.

Brooklyn hosts the Lowell Spinners in a three-game series beginning Monday night. The Cyclones own the tiebreaker against both Batavia and Auburn on the basis of head-to-head competition should there be a tie for the wild-card berth.

O’Brien’s one-out blast over the leftfield fence off Rainy Lara was the only scoring of the night.

Andrew Benak (5-5) posted the win with five innings of one-hit ball for the Yankees, while rehabbing major-leaguer Pedro Feliciano worked one inning of relief followed by James Pazos and Taylor Garrison, who nailed down his ninth save.

Staten Island manager Justin Pope was ejected for the first time this season, in the top of the sixth inning by plate umpire Ben Levin.
O’Brien also had a double in a 2-for-4 night. Staten Island had five hits and Brooklyn four.

Lara (8-3) pitched seven innings and took the loss.


(silive.com)

ABERDEEN, Md. — University of Miami product Peter O’Brien blasted his ninth home run of the season for the Staten Island Yankees to set the tone for Wednesday night’s 8-0 victory over the Aberdeen IronBirds before 6,391 fans at Ripken Stadium.

O’Brien’s two-run shot keyed a three-run first inning for the 27-41 Baby Bombers, who extended their winning streak to four straight and their late-season resurgence with the 11th win in 13 games.

Starting pitcher Angel Rancon worked five innings for the win, while Tim Flight earned a four-inning save while allowing one hit.

Matt Duran continued his red-hot hitting with a 3-for-5 night, while Isaias Tejeda went 3-for-4. Exicardo Cayones and Jose Rosario added two hits apiece as the last four batters in Staten Island’s lineup combined for 10 of the team’s 11 hits.

The Baby Bombers added three runs in the fourth inning and two more in the eighth.


(slive.com)

The roads not taken could have pulled Peter O’Brien in a few different directions rather than the path he ended up on, which brought him here to Staten Island on Saturday morning.

A year ago this time, O’Brien was a third-round draft selection of the Colorado Rockies coming off his junior season at Bethune-Cookman. But by the fall O’Brien was neither a Rockie nor a BC Wildcat.

Instead, it was out of the University of Miami that the New York Yankees selected O’Brien in the second round of the June amateur draft — the 89th selection overall — and after a few games in the Gulf Coast League the catcher went right into Staten Island’s starting lineup the last two days.

In the Yanks’ 11-8 loss to the Williamsport Crosscutters Sunday at the Richmond County Bank Ballpark at St. George, O’Brien had a sixth-inning sac fly RBI that cut Staten Island’s early 10-run deficit down to three runs, followed by a ninth-inning single.

It was a rare enough move that O’Brien chose to forgo signing with the Rockies last summer, but he followed that up with his decision to transfer to Miami.

“I wanted to move back home and be with my family,” said O’Brien. “I wanted another year of college baseball.

“I don’t want to get into it too much. But it was great and it was a good decision and it was a lot of fun.”

O’Brien has chosen not to discuss publicly the reasons for his transfer, but Miami coach Jim Morris was only too happy to see a hometown kid he hadn’t recruited out of high school fall into his lap.

The only problem was waiting to see if O’Brien would be approved to play immediately, rather than sitting out a year as a transfer student. After an initial denial, his appeal was approved in January.

“I didn’t think too much about it,” said O’Brien. “I was positive with things. I kept working hard and doing everything as if I was getting ready for the first game of the season.

“Once I got approved it was a big weight lifted off my shoulders.”

O’Brien went on to lead the Hurricanes in hitting with a .340 batting average, slugging .626 with a .441 on-base percentage. He added 10 home runs and 40 RBI in 41 games.

He earned All-ACC honors even though his season was interrupted by a broken left wrist on April 15 after he was hit by a pitch against Virginia Tech. O’Brien missed the final 17 regular season games and the ACC tournament opener before returning to DH and play first base in the ACC and NCAA Tournaments.

The Yankee organization felt no need to rush O’Brien back from the wrist injury. He worked out in Florida and played four games for the GCL Yankees, hitting .357, before jumping up to the New York-Penn League.

“I went down to the Gulf Coast and got my wrist back into shape,” said O’Brien. “I hadn’t caught since April. I did a lot of drills and I caught a couple games down there and got back into the swing of things.”


(silive.com)