Joe Jordan on Hobgood's selection: "I am due scrutiny on that."

[bej6789]

Hindsight is always 20-20, but this is the epitome of why the Orioles haven't gotten out of the cellar in the AL east.

When you're picking that high up in the draft, flat out, you have to get talent. There can't be misses, there can't be 'value' picks... The Yankees, Sox, Phillies -- they can all outbid the Orioles for FA's. The draft is the one area where the Orioles control their own destiny. Drafting Hobgood was inexcusable then, and it's just as bad now. Jordan deserves his fair share of scrutiny. As mentioned earlier in this thread, if Hobgood was truly the BPA -- there's a bigger problem then Hobgood here.

[strik3]

If Hobgood wasnt a value pick then Jordan saw something no one else saw. Yeah it is on him what happens now.

Hobgood, would have been a better 2nd round pick. Most likely there was fear that he would not be there in the 2nd. The intrigue with Hobgood in HS was not what he could do but, what he might do some day. Here is a kid who was sitting 89-93 (I never saw him over 93), with a good CB, who looks like a 6’3” 10 yr old. You could not help but be in awe and wonder of what he could be in his adult body, which I still think he has not achieved to date. So was he solely a money pick I don’t think so, I think he was a projection pick all the way who Jordan just happen to get cheap (poor job by Hobgood’s agent) but, no one is able to look past the money and Hobgood’s performance to date. Will he mature into what we all hope???...I think this is make or break year to show something that resembles what everyone was hoping to see.

[Sports Guy]

So, not only did you reach for Hobgood and waste a top 5 pick(when it is imperative that you "hit" on those picks), you also don't follow up on him enough with his off season conditioning programs?

Wow, this just keeps getting worse and worse.

[Ruzious]

This was the last sentence of Melewski's post:

I'm assuming Jordan is just going to give stock answers and not drop any bombshells, but it will still be interesting to see how he spins it.

Yeah, basically Jordan can't win no matter how he answers that question. But if he says there were financial restraints, there goes his integrity - since he insisted at the time there were none. I don't think he'll risk his integrity.

[barellano]

Just another reason why I wonder how this entire scouting department still have jobs. It's getting old. :angryfire:

[Stotle]

Hobgood, would have been a better 2nd round pick. Most likely there was fear that he would not be there in the 2nd. The intrigue with Hobgood in HS was not what he could do but, what he might do some day. Here is a kid who was sitting 89-93 (I never saw him over 93), with a good CB, who looks like a 6’3” 10 yr old. You could not help but be in awe and wonder of what he could be in his adult body, which I still think he has not achieved to date. So was he solely a money pick I don’t think so, I think he was a projection pick all the way who Jordan just happen to get cheap (poor job by Hobgood’s agent) but, no one is able to look past the money and Hobgood’s performance to date. Will he mature into what we all hope???...I think this is make or break year to show something that resembles what everyone was hoping to see.

I don't see how "projection" was the draw to Hobgood. He had the least amount of projection of any of the prep pitchers mentioned as 1st Rd candidates. He had virtualyl no room to add size, and was already quite physically developed under his extra lbs. Maybe there is something more when he loses the weight and continues to firm up, but I don't know that an evaluator would be justified to expect that to counter all of the other factors that generally lower performance once a player turns pro (more innings, more strenuous life style, more effort needed 1-9, more effort needed on each pitch, etc.).

[BIG R]

Hindsight is always 20-20, but this is the epitome of why the Orioles haven't gotten out of the cellar in the AL east.

When you're picking that high up in the draft, flat out, you have to get talent. There can't be misses, there can't be 'value' picks... The Yankees, Sox, Phillies -- they can all outbid the Orioles for FA's. The draft is the one area where the Orioles control their own destiny. Drafting Hobgood was inexcusable then, and it's just as bad now. Jordan deserves his fair share of scrutiny. As mentioned earlier in this thread, if Hobgood was truly the BPA -- there's a bigger problem then Hobgood here.

I totally agree. You hit it right on the head. You just can't afford to totally wiff on high 1st round picks. Especially when you use no other avenues besides trades to bring in talent. Jordan has also not hit on that many big talents in any round. Britton might qualify someday.

Overall, I think Jordan's performance and track record should put him on the hot seat.

[VAB2110]

Hobgood, would have been a better 2nd round pick. Most likely there was fear that he would not be there in the 2nd. The intrigue with Hobgood in HS was not what he could do but, what he might do some day. Here is a kid who was sitting 89-93 (I never saw him over 93), with a good CB, who looks like a 6’3” 10 yr old. You could not help but be in awe and wonder of what he could be in his adult body, which I still think he has not achieved to date. So was he solely a money pick I don’t think so, I think he was a projection pick all the way who Jordan just happen to get cheap (poor job by Hobgood’s agent) but, no one is able to look past the money and Hobgood’s performance to date. Will he mature into what we all hope???...I think this is make or break year to show something that resembles what everyone was hoping to see.

Isn't this true of almost every draftee? Especially high-school kids. The bottom line is you're not going to hit on every pick no matter how good you are at evaluating talent or how close of an eye you keep on them in the offseason. And it's not like Hobgood is five years into his pro career and showing no significant improvement. He's a 19-20 year old kid who had a bad season. Everyone is so eager to jump up and down saying I told you so about a kid who can't even walk into a bar and get a beer yet.

[NCRaven]

I totally agree. You hit it right on the head. You just can't afford to totally wiff on high 1st round picks. Especially when you use no other avenues besides trades to bring in talent. Jordan has also not hit on that many big talents in any round. Britton might qualify someday.

Overall, I think Jordan's performance and track record should put him on the hot seat.

Jordan picks in the majors:

2005 - Nolan Reimold, David Hernandez (now Mark Reynolds), Garrett Olson

2006 - Zach Britton, Jason Berken

2007 - Matt Wieters, Jake Arrieta

2008 - Brian Matusz

2009 - None yet, and it doesn't look like a good draft class

2010 - None yet, but Machado and Klein both look like future ML'ers.

Jordan has his warts, but to say that he hasn't hit on that many big talents in any round seems pretty false. Snyder and Hobgood have obviously been his biggest misses. And, money didn't stop us from drafting Wieters, Matusz, or Machado in 3 of the last 4 drafts.

[ShaneDawg85]

Jordan picks in the majors:

2005 - Nolan Reimold, David Hernandez (now Mark Reynolds), Garrett Olson

2006 - Zach Britton, Jason Berken

2007 - Matt Wieters, Jake Arrieta

2008 - Brian Matusz

2009 - None yet, and it doesn't look like a good draft class

2010 - None yet, but Machado and Klein both look like future ML'ers.

Jordan has his warts, but to say that he hasn't hit on that many big talents in any round seems pretty false. Billy Rowell and Hobgood have obviously been his biggest misses. And, money didn't stop us from drafting Wieters, Matusz, or Machado in 3 of the last 4 drafts.

Fixed that for you.

[Enjoy Terror]

Berry, Givens and Townsend appear to be the only players heading towards an MLB career from Hobgood's draft class. Jury is out on Coffey, Tim Berry, Wirsch, Martin and Henry.

[maudibjr]

Berry, Givens and Townsend appear to be the only players heading towards an MLB career from Hobgood's draft class. Jury is out on Coffey, Tim Berry, Wirsch, Martin and Henry.

Gettting 3 mlb players out of a class is a good showing

[Nigel Tufnel]

Part 2 is up:

Was the selection of Hobgood dictated at all by upper management or made due to any financial constraints?

"No. I had no one telling me to do this because of the money. This was my decision and my decision only. I had the reports on file to justify taking the guy. That's the kind of evaluation we had on him.

"The fact that I did sign him for what I signed him for, gave me the ability to do some things later in the draft. So yeah, that's what I did.

"But there wasn't anyone anywhere telling me I had to do this because we could sign him for X."

Sounds like there was a strict overall draft budget, which contributed to Hobgood's being chosen.

[Frobby]

Gettting 3 mlb players out of a class is a good showing

No, getting 3 players in a draft class who go on to have a solid MLB career is a good showing. Merely getting 3 guys to the majors out of a draft class isn't good at all. The average MLB team graduates 7 players a year to the majors (a couple of whom may come from foreign scouting instead of the draft).

[Scrat1]

Who even cares? Hobgood isn't performing very well by any measure. He's not showing the velocity he had in high school, he's been out of shape, and now he has a shoulder issue (and he may have had that issue all along, I think). None of that relates to whether he was a "value pick." Even if he'd been drafted in the latter half of the first round, as many expected, his performance to date would be very disappointing and these issues would be major concerns.

I'm in this camp. I don't care one way or the other whether this was a value pick or not. Even if he wasn't a consensus top 10 pick, Hobgood still had (hopefully still has) the upside to be a solid major league starting pitcher. The disheartening thing isn't that Jordan picked Hobgood, though that might not have been the best choice, it's that just about everything that could have gone wrong has, and we're not really in the position to be pissing away first round picks, value or not.

I'm crossing my fingers that he gets this shoulder thing sorted out and takes off from there. I like the kid, but until I see some improvement on the field, I'm not getting my hopes up.