Some news on the prospect rankings front...

Keith Law released his list of top farm system graded 1-30 today. The birds clocked in at no. 22 on the list. Worth noting that the O's DID graduated Gausman and Schoop from last year's list, traded Eduardo Rodriguez, and didn't have a 1st or 2nd round pick in the 2014 draft.

Do you think that is a fair evaluation of the current state of the farm? Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with how the farm system has progressed under Duquette's watch?

Also, fangraphs released their grading of the Orioles top 20 prospects a few days ago. The list was compiled by Kiley McDaniel, a well respected mind in the scouting community who recently joined the fangraphs team.

The Dariel Alvarez placement on his list stands out the most. What do you make of Alvarez? Do you think the Orioles organization is justified in how highly they view Alvarez as a prospect or do you think McDaniel has it right in grading out Alvarez as a marginal prospect?

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/evaluating-the-prospects-baltimore-orioles/

Keith Law released his list of top farm system graded 1-30 today. The birds clocked in at no. 22 on the list. Worth noting that the O's DID graduated Gausman and Schoop from last year's list, traded Eduardo Rodriguez, and didn't have a 1st or 2nd round pick in the 2014 draft.

Do you think that is a fair evaluation of the current state of the farm? Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with how the farm system has progressed under Duquette's watch?

Also, fangraphs released their grading of the Orioles top 20 prospects a few days ago. The list was compiled by Kiley McDaniel, a well respected mind in the scouting community who recently joined the fangraphs team.

The Dariel Alvarez placement on his list stands out the most. What do you make of Alvarez? Do you think the Orioles organization is justified in how highly they view Alvarez as a prospect or do you think McDaniel has it right in grading out Alvarez as a marginal prospect?

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/evaluating-the-prospects-baltimore-orioles/

For one, I take the OH list as a better and more well rounded evaluation. Certainly some huge disparity there.

22nd doesn't surprise me too much. Everyone below our no. 3 prospect is pretty iffy and we are especially weak in position prospects.

Frustrating to see us ranked this low but not a big surprise. It could definitely be worse, given the guys who have graduated to the majors, prospects traded, and draft picks traded/given up. I'd expect to see us much higher in 2-3 years given the number of comp picks that we will be able to aquire. I do like last year's class.

22nd doesn't surprise me too much. Everyone below our no. 3 prospect is pretty iffy and we are especially weak in position prospects.

Dan Duquette utterly dismissed that yesterday.

Didn't KLaw put Harvey ahead of Bundy?

Of course knowing KLaw he might have done that for dramatic effect.

Seems odd considering how very high he was on Bundy before the injury.

Didn't KLaw put Harvey ahead of Bundy?

Of course knowing KLaw he might have done that for dramatic effect.

Seems odd considering how very high he was on Bundy before the injury.

Law was also very high on Harvey and was so earlier than most. He had him ranked highly in his first-half rankings last summer and this just continued that trend.

The Dariel Alvarez placement on his list stands out the most. What do you make of Alvarez? Do you think the Orioles organization is justified in how highly they view Alvarez as a prospect or do you think McDaniel has it right in grading out Alvarez as a marginal prospect?

Keep in mind who Dariel Alvarez is. He's almost the exact same age as Travis Snider and Snider has played 7 seasons of Major League Baseball. When you think about what Alvarez can possibly bring to the table, it's power and contact. He doesn't run fast, his defense isn't much better than serviceable, he doesn't take walks and consider that (like Henry Urrutia) when he got to AAA, his power was completely gone. He hit 1 homerun in ~180 plate appearances. His career OPS is less than .700.

I think it's easy to see a guy who hit .309 in AA last year and get excited, but he's 26 years old. Schoop was an arguably better player in AA at 21 playing a premium position.

Keep in mind who Dariel Alvarez is. He's almost the exact same age as Travis Snider and Snider has played 7 seasons of Major League Baseball. When you think about what Alvarez can possibly bring to the table, it's power and contact. He doesn't run fast, his defense isn't much better than serviceable, he doesn't take walks and consider that (like Henry Urrutia) when he got to AAA, his power was completely gone. He hit 1 homerun in ~180 plate appearances. His career OPS is less than .700.

I think it's easy to see a guy who hit .309 in AA last year and get excited, but he's 26 years old. Schoop was an arguably better player in AA at 21 playing a premium position.

Well, I think it's tough to blame Alvarez for the fact that he was 24 years old by the time he got out of Cuba and was able to get on the field. He was 25 last year, not 26, when he was playing AA, and he did make a pretty decent transition to AAA for the final 44 games.

I also have to say that, although I consider Schoop to be a much better prospect than Alvarez, it's partly because, as you said, Schoop plays a premium position. Alvarez's hitting at AA (and AAA for that matter) was not comparable to Schoop's, it was much better. It's really apples and oranges considering the differences in age and position and opportunity to play MiL baseball.

Well, I think it's tough to blame Alvarez for the fact that he was 24 years old by the time he got out of Cuba and was able to get on the field.

I'm not saying it's his fault, but 25 is 25. And that's why he's not a better prospect.

Really enjoyed the fangraph article. McDaniel really did a good job going through each player. I'm impressed.

Saying that, I disagree a bit on a few guys but hey, that's normal.

Well, I think it's tough to blame Alvarez for the fact that he was 24 years old by the time he got out of Cuba and was able to get on the field. He was 25 last year, not 26, when he was playing AA, and he did make a pretty decent transition to AAA for the final 44 games.

I also have to say that, although I consider Schoop to be a much better prospect than Alvarez, it's partly because, as you said, Schoop plays a premium position. Alvarez's hitting at AA (and AAA for that matter) was not comparable to Schoop's, it was much better. It's really apples and oranges considering the differences in age and position and opportunity to play MiL baseball.

Baseball lawyering 101, school is out sucka . Our system has been very top heavy for sometime. We graduated two and traded erod plus Hader had another killer season and he is in the top 100. Where would we have been without some of those trades though. I think its a fair assessment, the bottom half of the league.

Really enjoyed the fangraph article. McDaniel really did a good job going through each player. I'm impressed.

Saying that, I disagree a bit on a few guys but hey, that's normal.

Yeah, it was a great read. I came away very excited about Garcia and Hess. I've watched a couple of Notre Dame basketball games - Connaughton chose the right sport (I assume he realizes baseball is his better bet), but he has a great temperament and gets everything out of his talent in basketball - 2 good traits for baseball.

Keep in mind who Dariel Alvarez is. He's almost the exact same age as Travis Snider and Snider has played 7 seasons of Major League Baseball. When you think about what Alvarez can possibly bring to the table, it's power and contact. He doesn't run fast, his defense isn't much better than serviceable, he doesn't take walks and consider that (like Henry Urrutia) when he got to AAA, his power was completely gone. He hit 1 homerun in ~180 plate appearances. His career OPS is less than .700.

I think it's easy to see a guy who hit .309 in AA last year and get excited, but he's 26 years old. Schoop was an arguably better player in AA at 21 playing a premium position.

Gotta disagree here. Right now all the reports I've gotten is that he has a plus right field arm (some say plus-plus) and is above average in teh corners and serviceable in center field with only his foot speed keeping him away from being good defesnive center fielder.

Baseball lawyering 101, school is out sucka . Our system has been very top heavy for sometime. We graduated two and traded erod plus Hader had another killer season and he is in the top 100. Where would we have been without some of those trades though. I think its a fair assessment, the bottom half of the league.

Where is Hader in the top 100? The only "major" list I've seen is mlb.com, and he's not listed there. Kiley McDaniel of fangraphs ranks him the no. 14 prospect in the Astros' system. John Sickels has him 7th. BA ranks him 8th. I do think Hader's a good prospect, but I doubt he'll show up on any top 100 lists.