4th Round - Pat Connaughton - RHP - Notre Dame

And great with herd-able mammals.

I am going to act like I did not read that. Just wipe that from my memory.

That messy delivery. Yikes!

That messy delivery. Yikes!

It's not bad for a basketball player.

I like this kid better then the one they drafted in the third round.

I like him too.

Camden Depot. Jon Shepherd. Very knowledgeable.

Ah, he got his pitches backwards it seems.

Easy to see where the wildness comes from. Cleaning up his arm circle would be a start. Threw some nice curves in the video in the OP, but also threw some that got loopy. He's got the building blocks but needs a lot of work.

Dan Duquette had some good words on this draftee - if a bit hyped - via Frobby:

I didn't hear the beginning, but this is what I heard:

- Thought the A's threw at Manny twice in a row and there's no call for that.

- (In repsonse to a question about Jones' impatience at the plate): Would like Adam Jones to be more disciplined at the plate, and Adam is aware of his issues in this regard and is vulnerable to low pitches, but he does hit over .400 on the first pitch. Jones is very effective when he is hitting to RF as he is right now.

- Very happy to get Brian Gonzalez in the 3rd round, didn't think he'd be there. Reiminds him of Sid Fernandez, throws a good overhand curve.

- High on Connaughton, expects him to play basketball for Notre Dame this winter but he will come fast once he concentrates on baseball.

- Wieters did not feel good throwing in his last session (looks like surgery coming)

- Bundy has a couple more starts in extended spring training and "should be sent out around the end of the month" (this seems a little later than was projected).

"Fourth-round pick Pat Connaughton was in attendance for the Orioles' series finale against the Red Sox on Wednesday night after having a physical earlier in the day.

If all goes according to plan, the right-hander from Notre Dame expects a deal will be announced on Thursday."

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20140611&content_id=79255482&notebook_id=79321676&vkey=notebook_bal&c_id=bal

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Pat Connaughton retires the first three batters he faces in his first professional outing. His fastball topped off at 96 MPH. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/IronBirds?src=hash">#IronBirds</a></p>— IronBirds PR (@IronBirdsPR) <a href="

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Still got a feeling the O's get more out of Connaughton then they do Brian Gonzalez.

Still got a feeling the O's get more out of Connaughton then they do Brian Gonzalez.

I doubt BGon ever hits 96mph....

I doubt BGon ever hits 96mph....

On the autobahn maybe.

Still got a feeling the O's get more out of Connaughton then they do Brian Gonzalez.

Connaughton will take a good deal of coaching to tighten his mechanics and improve his changeup, but you can't teach a live arm and there's not going to be many better athletes than him. Based on personal preference for the more polished types I'd still take Gonzalez, though.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if David Hess turns out to be the most productive draftee from this class.

Looks like pat made the right choice.  Well done kid. 

On 7/1/2014 at 10:16 PM, eb45 said:

Connaughton will take a good deal of coaching to tighten his mechanics and improve his changeup, but you can't teach a live arm and there's not going to be many better athletes than him. Based on personal preference for the more polished types I'd still take Gonzalez, though.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if David Hess turns out to be the most productive draftee from this class.

Oh, that did not age well.