Orioles Hangout Top 10 Prospects - #10 - Zach Britton - LHP

[Frobby]

What a glut of pitching talent. Absolutely insane.

Fine, but wake me up when the "glut" results in a team that isn't 13th out of 14 in ERA, as it has been the last two years. I have been hearing about this "glut" for about five years now with no major league results to show for it.

[HoodGuy007]

Fine, but wake me up when the "glut" results in a team that isn't 13th out of 14 in ERA, as it has been the last two years. I have been hearing about this "glut" for about five years now with no major league results to show for it.

If by no major league results, you mean the injuries to Loewen and Penn, and a poor first shot by Olson and Hoey based off of very small sample sizes, than I guess you're correct. Let's completely forget how the Tigers, Twins, A's, Yankees (back in the mid 90s), and Florida Marlins became contenders. It's a growing process for all of these young guys, and we, as fans, will soon be reaping the rewards for being so freaking patient for these guys to come around.

[HoodGuy007]

No Beato on that list?

I agree with your statement regarding Hernandez. If he proves last year's discovery of a change-up was truly the epiphany it seemed to be, he'll rocket up the charts AND through the O's minor league system in my opinion.

Personally, I'd like to see it happen sooner than later because I was there for the 18 strikeout performance last year and the subsequent 6 strikeout, 1 run, 7 inning job that followed. Both outings were impressive, but most impressive was David himself. Nice guy, well spoken, and very intelligent, all of which make him easy to root for.

No Beato on the list... :shrug:

Same thing with Pope... Im not very impressed with either of them. I expect Blake Davis to also move up the list, especially if he can play a season with Paco Figeuroa.

[orioole28]

If by no major league results, you mean the injuries to Loewen and Penn, and a poor first shot by Olson and Hoey based off of very small sample sizes, than I guess you're correct. Let's completely forget how the Tigers, Twins, A's, Yankees (back in the mid 90s), and Florida Marlins became contenders. It's a growing process for all of these young guys, and we, as fans, will soon be reaping the rewards for being so freaking patient for these guys to come around.

I agree 100% with Hoodguy007, ERA in A ball can be misleading. The defense isn't that good and lets face it Keys did win the championship and their pitching didn't pitch like they were the 13th best out of 14!! They won it with excellant pitching, so their is hope and they aren't as bad as you think Frobby!!!

[Frobby]

If by no major league results, you mean the injuries to Loewen and Penn, and a poor first shot by Olson and Hoey based off of very small sample sizes, than I guess you're correct. Let's completely forget how the Tigers, Twins, A's, Yankees (back in the mid 90s), and Florida Marlins became contenders. It's a growing process for all of these young guys, and we, as fans, will soon be reaping the rewards for being so freaking patient for these guys to come around.

You misinterpreted my post. I'm not skeptical that there is a lot of pitching talent in the organization. I am just VERY, VERY impatient with waiting. We've been waiting 5 years since drafting Loewen. We've been waiting 3-4 years on Penn. We've been waiting 4 years on Daniel Cabrera. We've seen numerous guys who were thought to have top-to-middle of the rotation stuff fall by the wayside, such as Matt Riley, Kurt Ainsworth and others. We've seen Julio and Parrish fizzle and Ray get hurt.

So yeah, I will continue to be patient, but don't talk to me about the "insane" "glut" of pitching talent in this organization, until I see the results on the field.

[HoodGuy007]

I will continue to use insane glut, because even if half of them pan out to be major leaguers, that is still a bullpen, or a rotation. That is why it is an insane glut. Where in the past we only had Matt Riley and Kurt Ainsworth to hang our hats on, we now are arguing whether "X" is better than "V", "W", "Y", and "Z". Also don't forget about "T" who had a bad year, but is better than most in the league playing against competition 3 years older. That is what makes it a "glut".

[JayGibbons31]

Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus has released his ranking of the Orioles farm system. He had some good things to say about the pitchers. Its premium content but here is the order he ranked them:

Five-Star Prospects

1. Matt Wieters, C

Four-Star Prospects

2. Chorye Spoone, RHP

3. Radhames Liz, RHP

Three-Star Prospects

4. Jake Arrieta, RHP

5. Nolan Reimold, OF

6. Billy Rowell, 3B

7. Brandon Erbe, RHP

Two-Star Prospects

8. Garrett Olson, LHP

9. Pedro Beato, RHP

10. David Hernandez, RHP

11. James Hoey, RHP

Just Missing: Bob McCrory, RHP; Scott Moore, 3B/1B; Brandon Snyder, 1B

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=6894

[hoosiers]

That's an interesting list.

It's interesting to me that BA in its research for the Sally league top 20 would put Snyder ahead of Rowell and, in addition, Snyder is younger and holding his own against Wieters against the very same pitchers in Hawaii, and yet is outside of KG's list and possibly the OH list.

I know Snyder has stuff to work on, but ......

[Elbren]

1a)Weiters

1b)Rowell

3)Reimold

4)Olson

5)Liz

6)Hoey

7)Snyder

8)Hernandez (I'm REALLY, REALLY big on him)

9)McCrory

10)Britton (apparently:))

No Erbe? I know he had a pretty mediocre year, but I think his age and upside is definitely enough to keep him in the top ten. My top 10 is/would have been:

1. Wieters

2. Rowell

3. Liz

4. Reimold

5. Erbe

6. Snyder

7. Hoey

8. Beato

9. Spoone

10. Arrieta

11. Henson

12. Hernandez

13. Britton

14. Bascom

15. Tripp

Of course, I'm already wrong on two of these seeing as how we already know #10 is Britton and Spoone isn't a choice for #9.

[Frobby]

I will continue to use insane glut, because even if half of them pan out to be major leaguers, that is still a bullpen, or a rotation. That is why it is an insane glut. Where in the past we only had Matt Riley and Kurt Ainsworth to hang our hats on, we now are arguing whether "X" is better than "V", "W", "Y", and "Z". Also don't forget about "T" who had a bad year, but is better than most in the league playing against competition 3 years older. That is what makes it a "glut".

Meanwhile we are giving starts to Victor Santos, Victor Zambrano, Kurt Birkins, Jon Leicester and Brian Burres. We are using 12 starters and 23 pitchers in a single season because almost nobody is doing the job at the big league level. I really like the guys who will be at Bowie and Frederick this year, but to me there is no "insane glut" until we have age-appropriate pitchers dominating at AAA and can't find room for them in the majors.

[orioole28]

Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus has released his ranking of the Orioles farm system. He had some good things to say about the pitchers. Its premium content but here is the order he ranked them:

Five-Star Prospects

1. Matt Wieters, C

Four-Star Prospects

2. Chorye Spoone, RHP

3. Radhames Liz, RHP

Three-Star Prospects

4. Jake Arrieta, RHP

5. Nolan Reimold, OF

6. Billy Rowell, 3B

7. Brandon Erbe, RHP

Two-Star Prospects

8. Garrett Olson, LHP

9. Pedro Beato, RHP

10. David Hernandez, RHP

11. James Hoey, RHP

Just Missing: Bob McCrory, RHP; Scott Moore, 3B/1B; Brandon Snyder, 1B

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=6894

There is a good and a bad with this list. First, the good we have 8 pitchers on this list which is a plus and the down side is that we only have 3 positional player and those that just miss either play 3B or 1B and the last time I check is that there is only 1 (3B) and 1 (1B) play at a time.

[HoodGuy007]

Meanwhile we are giving starts to Victor Santos, Victor Zambrano, Kurt Birkins, Jon Leicester and Brian Burres. We are using 12 starters and 23 pitchers in a single season because almost nobody is doing the job at the big league level. I really like the guys who will be at Bowie and Frederick this year, but to me there is no "insane glut" until we have age-appropriate pitchers dominating at AAA and can't find room for them in the majors.

But honestly Frobby, how often can we expect to not have a single person in the starting rotation that began the year there? (OK, we had DCaBB) But to lose Benson, Wright, Bedard, Loewen, Olson, Penn, Guthrie, Ray, and even Baez is a complete freak fluke. There is no other team that I can think of in recent memory who had this many long-term injuries to the starting rotation. I bolded the hometown gluts that we would have had.