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Baltimore Orioles turn to offense in the draft

By Domenic A. Vadala

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The Baltimore Orioles hope that they helped to fill a need in the future, which appears to be fairly pressing in the present. They made their first draft pick in the MLB draft a corner outfielder in the form of DJ Stewart from Florida State. Stewart, the first outfielder taken first in the draft by the O’s since Nick Markakis, was the 25th pick overall. Listed at six feet and 230 lbs, Stewart was the 2014 ACC player of the year. This past year he hit .318 with 15 homers. 

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    • Courtesy of Joy R. Absalon-USA TODAY Sports

    After being drafted, an emotional Stewart came off as incredibly thankful for the opportunity that is being bestowed upon him by the Orioles (quote courtesy of Brittany Ghiroli of mlb.com):

    "It was an awesome feeling, just a lot of emotions throughout the day, but to finally hear my named called, I cried because this is something that you dream of your entire life. To see your name come up is just awesome, I am happy Baltimore selected me."

    The Orioles also selected Florida high school SS Ryan Mountcastle with the 36th overall pick – which was a supplemental pick from Seattle. In round two they used the 68th pick to select Ryan Hughes, who’s a high school pitcher in Georgia. So if you look at the draft picks the Orioles made, there was an emphasis put on power, defense, and pitching. That’s fairly consistent with what the Orioles were saying in the lead up to the draft. The final rounds will begin at 12:30 this afternoon.

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