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Baltimore Orioles: Who to draft?

By Domenic A. Vadala

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First off, let me state how happy I am that the MLB draft isn’t a production like those of the NBA and especially the NFL. While it’s become more publicized and ampped up in recent years, I hope it never reaches the level of what we see in football. However tonight the Baltimore Orioles and the rest of the league will be on the clock.

The O’s will have the 25th and 36th picks in the draft tonight. So who should the Orioles select? If you read Steve

Courtesy of Joy R. Absalon-USA TODAY Sports

Melewski’s column on MASNsports (linked here), you’d know that the draft class isn’t great this year. However that’s not to say that the O’s won’t find a few diamonds in the rough, as is Dan Duquette’s standard operating proceedure. 

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    • There are two theories on drafting; one is that you take the best player available at the time you’re on the clock. The other is that you go into it with a specific need that needs to be remedied. However both of those are tougher sells in baseball because unlike the NFL or NBA, players aren’t necessarily impacting the team right away. What you’re really doing with the draft is re-stocking your minor league system.

    But that said, I’m more a fan of having a specific need in mind and sticking with that. If you look at the Orioles right now, pitching seems to be ruling the day both at the big league level and in the minors. Again if you looked at Melewski’s article, you’d know that the guys that are expecting to be the best on the board at the time the O’s will be picking are apparently going to be pitchers.

    So what do the Orioles do? Pitching? Defense? Hitting? I would submit that given the fact that the organization seems to be in decent shape when it comes to pitching in the near future, maybe the Birds should consider focusing on a potential power-hitter or two. If they could find one that was a corner outfielder, that would be even better.

    Whomever is drafted tonight will probably end up in the Gulf Coast League, Aberdeen, or perhaps even Delmarva or Frederick if they’re lucky (presuming they sign). And that begins the process of a prospect working their way up to the big leagues.

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    Buck Showalter has said on numerous occasions that this year’s draft is of supreme importance for the O’s given the fact that they didn’t have a first round pick in 2014. My personal opinion is that perhaps they should go in the direction of hitting, however either way these are going to be prospects on which the O’s will eventually need to hit in order to ensure success moving forward.

    Next: Baltimore Orioles: Is opposing pitching really that good?

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