John Sickel's Orioles prospect list

Sickels is working on his Orioles top 20 list, and is drawing from 38 players he considers candidates for his list. http://www.minorleagueball.com/2014/11/25/7285495/baltimore-orioles-preliminary-prospect-list. Looks like Garabez Rosa isn't under consideration but everyone else on Tony's list is.

Sickels is working on his Orioles top 20 list, and is drawing from 38 players he considers candidates for his list. http://www.minorleagueball.com/2014/11/25/7285495/baltimore-orioles-preliminary-prospect-list. Looks like Garabez Rosa isn't under consideration but everyone else on Tony's list is.

Garabez Rosa

Quietly had a solid season with AA Bowie and held his own in the Arizona Fall League. He?s a Grade C type but can play a variety of positions and it wouldn?t surprise me if he carved out an MLB career as a UTL guy who can also hit a little.

Senior Content Editor @ orioleshangout.com

by Chris Slade on Nov 26, 2014 | 1:56 PM reply

John Sickels

good call on Rosa. I will put him in.

by John Sickels on Nov 27, 2014 | 5:26 PM up reply

Garabez Rosa

Quietly had a solid season with AA Bowie and held his own in the Arizona Fall League. He?s a Grade C type but can play a variety of positions and it wouldn?t surprise me if he carved out an MLB career as a UTL guy who can also hit a little.

Senior Content Editor @ orioleshangout.com

by Chris Slade on Nov 26, 2014 | 1:56 PM reply

John Sickels

good call on Rosa. I will put him in.

by John Sickels on Nov 27, 2014 | 5:26 PM up reply

Slade is a smart young man!

Here's Sickel's list:

http://www.minorleagueball.com/2014/12/1/7312039/baltimore-orioles-top-20-prospects-for-2015

1) Dylan Bundy, RHP, Grade A-

2) Hunter Harvey, RHP, Grade B+

3) Chance Sisco, C, Grade B

4) Christian Walker, 1B, Grade B-

5) Dariel Alvarez, OF, Grade B-

6) Tim Berry, LHP, Grade C+

7) Zach Davies, RHP, Grade C+

8) Jomar Reyes, 3B, Grade C+

9) Mike Yastrzemski, OF, Grade C+

10) Brian Gonzalez, LHP, Grade C+

11) David Hess, RHP, Grade C+

12) Stephen Tarpley, LHP, Grade C+

13) Oliver Drake, RHP, Grade C+

14) Tyler Wilson, RHP, Grade C+

15) Mike Wright, RHP, Grade C+

16) Steve Brault, LHP, Grade C+

17) Parker Bridwell, RHP, Grade C+

18) Mike Ohlman, C, Grade C+

19) Pat Connaughton, RHP, Grade C

20) Henry Urrutia, OF, Grade C

I hope Berry and Davies end up better than C+. Also, have more confidence in Davies being more productive than all those in slots 4-6.

Pretty decent list and the write-ups seem on point. I think he places Walker too high and Davies too low, and Berry probably isn't as high as 6th, but as between Berry and Bridwell I side with Sickels that Berry ranks higher at this point, though arguably Bridwell still has more upside.

Oliver Drake at #13! That's crazy. He's about 27-28 years old, throws low 90's, and didn't dominate AA. How is he ahead of Mike Wright, Tyler Wilson and Brault? I could make a case for Drake not being a top 30 guy. The O's thought enough of him to add him to the 40 man but that's about the only reason I see for putting him on a top 20 list, let alone at #13.

Someone sees him as a closer.

Oliver Drake at #13! That's crazy. He's about 27-28 years old, throws low 90's, and didn't dominate AA. How is he ahead of Mike Wright, Tyler Wilson and Brault? I could make a case for Drake not being a top 30 guy. The O's thought enough of him to add him to the 40 man but that's about the only reason I see for putting him on a top 20 list, let alone at #13.

Anyone past 10 on the O's is a bit of a crapshoot. #30 is probably close to # 13. Unless you're related to one of the players, I wouldn't get excited.

Anyone past 10 on the O's is a bit of a crapshoot. #30 is probably close to # 13. Unless you're related to one of the players, I wouldn't get excited.

I suppose you could similarly say from team XXXX that any prospect ranked below #13 I wouldn't get too excited about though right?

However, I am kind of excited to see about Ofelky Peralta as well as the Cuban pitcher Leyba(?) we signed. Connaughton is another one to watch for IMO. One thing to keep in mind is that because we do have depth of the "C" type prospects, some of the higher floor guys in Sickels case are ranked higher than some of the higher ceiling guys that we have a limited track record on to go off of.

My questions is going to be for the disparity between the Hess and the Connaughton ranking. They seem to have similar stuff, and looking at the stats, Hess at first glance has the higher K rate, but then you realize that his overall K rate is inflated by the fact he pitched a few innings in the GCL while Connaughton started and finished at Aberdeen where they missed bats at a fairly similar rate...in an INCREDIBLY small sample size. With Connaughton focusing more specifically on baseball once the college basketball season is up, couldn't an argument be made for him having more room for improvement? If nothing else, should they be that far apart in rankings?

We are going to lose Bridwell.

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We are going to lose Bridwell.

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The Orioles will only lose him if he is taken in the Rule V draft and sticks with his new team all year. Possible, but unlikely.