Grade the draft so far

[mcneck]

Simple what do you think about the picks so far?

[mcneck]

Oops I got happy with the question marks. Mods feel free to edit.

[Gurgi]

Should have another choice. A I dont know pick. Because frankly with the 1500 or so guys getting picked how can anyone have a real opinion?

It really comes down to if our top picks match up with some published mock draft. No one will really know for three or four years.

[Frobby]

Really tough to know. Certainly we picked a lot of guys well before their BA ranking would have suggested, including 3 guys not ranked in the BA top 500.

From a strategic point of view, we went heavily with college kids, so I guess DD is feeling the need to get some help for the big league club sooner rather than later.

[theobird]

I agree that it will take a few years to know the real answer to this, or any other, draft. But here are my takes on the first few rounds. It is hard to argue with Gausman in round one. I think they reached too far for Kline in round 2. I really like the HS SS in round 3 and just hope they can get that kid signed. And I love the looks of the big kid at round 4. Power needs to develop but it sounds as though he has the hit tool.

I love the draft, it breathes new hope into the organization. My overall gut feeling is that the orioles did well overall, so I guess I would be ok with a B rating at this point. But I am hoping for A+ results down the line:thumbsup1:

[QBsILLEST1]

The question is who we end up signing in actuality, however, I am pleased with the quality we went with. I am also glad to see that we are mixing in some upside with the JuCo guys which we seemed to lack last year and seem to be of good value for later rounds. I understand in the end your better guages for a successful draft are to see how we did vs other teams, but just comparing to the last draft which may go down as a historical one, I like our picks far better in this far weaker 2012 draft thus far.

[hoosiers]

Sadly, I have not followed the draft from this much distance since 2000.

Seems like a very solid draft, IMO, based on the write-ups.

The new rules have really created a change -

- no longer are teams held hostage to the Delmonico-types. Those kids needed to be honest about their signability or they fell in the draft. If you look at the top BA kids after 15 rounds, it is mostly HS kids - several still in the top 75.

-some teams drafted college seniors to sign to low signing bonuses in order to draft HSers outside the top 10 rounds - with the first $100k of their signings NOT counting against their draft pool.

All this makes the "financing" aspect of the draft very fluid and important. If a team is able to sign a top talent for less than slot, it can create huge opportunities later in the draft. So, not only is the bonus demand or range necessary to know up front, but actually re-confirming the range or an exact bonus after taking the player is also critical. I expect teams are counting their pennies tonight to see which remaining HSers have old or new/lower demands that can be met with remaining $ under the pool. Hopefully, the Os are as or better prepared than most teams. Thankfully, we draft early in the 16th round. It will be interesting to see how many $1M signing bonuses exist for guys outside the to 10 rounds - perhaps not many, but maybe many guys getting $300k-$500k.

We did see in the 15th round the Os pop a BA top 75 guy. That is the kind of additional talent the organization could use if we are able to sign him. IMO, one or two more of those would really help.

[GoldGlove21]

I think that the Orioles did well and I lied how they picked up offense and pitching. I think that Kline in round two might be an easy sign and Marin in round 3 will be a difficult sign. They only have so much money and I think that they left themselves some wiggle room to get things done. I really like what the Orioles did in the first 6 rounds.