Baseball America's 2014 O's Top 10 Prospects

[Frobby]

It is very notable. Sounds like BA is struggling to keep it's real talent and hiring a reporter to do their top prospect list show how far they have fallen IMHO. Melewski does a good job of reporting the minor league news, but he's never been a guy I'm looking for analysis from. Like Hoosiers said, everyone assumed BA was talking to scouts in and out of the organization and the guy doing the list was not being paid by the organization.

I honestly may not buy their prospect handbook for the first time in 10 years. I've noticed the last few years they were really getting lazy. I mean, they had some embarrassing players in the top 10 over the last few years like Wynn Pelzer and Xavier Avery when it was clear they were no longer the players who were initially touted.

In a BA Chat about the International League top 20 and Henry Urrutia, John Manuel previously said "I'm doing the Orioles top 30 for the first time this year," so I'm assuming he's not relying on Melewski for the entries in the handbook, but who knows. http://www.baseballamerica.com/minor...rospects-chat/

[Tony-OH]

In a BA Chat about the International League top 20 and Henry Urrutia, John Manuel previously said "I'm doing the Orioles top 30 for the first time this year," so I'm assuming he's not relying on Melewski for the entries in the handbook, but who knows. http://www.baseballamerica.com/minor...rospects-chat/

I hope so. I'm not sure what's going on here with BA honestly. I respect Manuel.

[Redskins Rick]

Expected to see Harvey at three and not four.

You are?

I was kinda of surprised to see him so high. I know he has the potential to be a TOR, but he is just barely drafted and hardly any innings under his belt.

[Can_of_corn]

You are?

I was kinda of surprised to see him so high. I know he has the potential to be a TOR, but he is just barely drafted and hardly any innings under his belt.

The National guys love him. If there was a redraft of the 2013 class he would go MUCH higher.

[Redskins Rick]

The National guys love him. If there was a redraft of the 2013 class he would go MUCH higher.

That I didn't know, of course, with his heritage, it stands to reason, if you think about it, which I guess I hadn't.

[Frobby]

The National guys love him. If there was a redraft of the 2013 class he would go MUCH higher.

Comments from BA's John Manuel:

"The top two guys (Bundy, Gausman) are, at the very least, in the top 30 to 35. We don't speak with one voice here and a lot of people will be involved in that decision. Some will grade Bundy down for the injury, but the track record of Tommy John guys is very strong.

"Eduardo Rodriguez is a top 75 guy for me. He is close to big league ready and that helps. For me, Harvey is a back of 100 guy, maybe 75 to 100. That is often where high school pitchers just drafted with a lot of upside fall."

http://www.masnsports.com/steve_melewski/2013/12/a-look-at-the-baseball-america-orioles-top-10-prospects-list.html

[Can_of_corn]

Comments from BA's John Manuel:

http://www.masnsports.com/steve_melewski/2013/12/a-look-at-the-baseball-america-orioles-top-10-prospects-list.html

I have read some things that make me think he will be rather higher then 75-100 on some of the lists.

Won't be long till we find out.

[sbsd123]

"Steve, I'm confused on your role in this. Did you actually rank the Orioles prospects yourself, or did Baseball America give you the list and then you did the write-ups or some other way?

?Reply?Share ?

Steve Melewski Mod Bonzi77 ? 4 hours ago

I ranked them but the list was compiled with the help of scouts and people in baseball. It is a composite of their thoughts and not my opinions. I wrote the scouting reports based on information people that know the players best told me and they were very forthcoming."

This was in the comments section of the article. I don't think Melewski was very clear about his role, but I think these comment clear things up

[Tony-OH]

"Steve, I'm confused on your role in this. Did you actually rank the Orioles prospects yourself, or did Baseball America give you the list and then you did the write-ups or some other way?

?Reply?Share ?

Steve Melewski Mod Bonzi77 ? 4 hours ago

I ranked them but the list was compiled with the help of scouts and people in baseball. It is a composite of their thoughts and not my opinions. I wrote the scouting reports based on information people that know the players best told me and they were very forthcoming."

This was in the comments section of the article. I don't think Melewski was very clear about his role, but I think these comment clear things up

Translation: "I put down what the Orioles baseball people told me to put down."

[sbsd123]

Translation: "I put down what the Orioles baseball people told me to put down."

Pretty sure the word "scouts" is in there. Better than throwing a list together off of stats when they haven't even seen the players play. Personally I care more about what Brian Graham, Rick Peterson and Buck think about a player. They may have just a tad more information to go on than most people.

[Frobby]

Looks like the whole top 30 from the handbook will come from Melewski:

So, Steve, how did this all come about?

"Thanks for asking, Steve. Love your work, by the way. Well, sometime in late October, John Manuel, Baseball America's editor in chief, called me and asked if I would be interested in doing this. I jumped at the chance. John was already working on the O's list himself when another person had to drop out of working on another team. John picked up that other team and asked me to work up the O's list."

How did you compile the list?

"Good question, Steve. First, I randomly wrote down about 50 names that I felt could make the top 30. Next, I asked several people in baseball to rank their O's top 30. Amazingly, everyone I asked to do this said yes. That was great because the list is really a composite of the thoughts of the pros and not my personal opinions. This came about with huge input from people in baseball who have seen these players often.

"I submitted an initial list to the Baseball America editors and the process was then well under way. The editors provide input, too, and they tweak the final version and double-check it with scouts and others around the game. The list gets vetted a few times.

"I feel good about the list, but I also know players are humans. Over the next year, some will get better, improve, work hard and move up the list. Others will not and fall off the list. A year or two from now, we may look at the list and wonder how a certain player was ranked so high or low. That is the life of prospects. Things can change rapidly and that is expected.

"By the way, I have mentioned the top 30. Only the top 10 has been released so far; that came out on Tuesday. But the top 30 are ranked for the Prospect Handbook. Much more information will be in that book including an organizational depth chart."

http://www.masnsports.com/steve_melewski/2013/12/catching-up-with-the-author-of-the-baseball-america-top-os-prospects-list.html

[hoosiers]

Sounds like BA is missing Callis big time ...... though I expect they would have explained to Melewski their process for organizing the lists. I think the lists are normally done with heavy input from the team and some team scouts and minor league coaches- so Melewski putting out something done in concert with the Os would likely be part of the normal process. Next would be getting information from scouts and managers of other teams. I would not be surprised if a lot of this research was done during the phase of producing the league top 20s.

Not sure what sort of budget BA has, but they did not appear to be carrying much of a "bench" of their own behind Callis.

On the surface, I would prefer BA (Calis, Manuel) to produce the Os list following their program, but let's see what Melewski can put together before discrediting it too much. After thinking about it, I expect Melewski will do a decent job.

[fearthenoodle]

You are?

I was kinda of surprised to see him so high. I know he has the potential to be a TOR, but he is just barely drafted and hardly any innings under his belt.

BP has Harvey in their top 30 overall.

[Stotle]

BP has Harvey in their top 30 overall.

He has received very high accolades from the pro scouting side. The other side of that coin, of course, is that we are talking about evaluators who have seen very little of him. Next year could be a big coming out party, or he could stumble some and stay in that top 50 range. Time will tell (he was inconsistent as an amateur, but the pro folks bought in big time this summer).

[Frobby]

He has received very high accolades from the pro scouting side. The other side of that coin, of course, is that we are talking about evaluators who have seen very little of him. Next year could be a big coming out party, or he could stumble some and stay in that top 50 range. Time will tell (he was inconsistent as an amateur, but the pro folks bought in big time this summer).

Nick, any insight as to why Ohlman wasn't included on the BP Orioles top 10, and why Hart was included? Also, any thoughts generally on Berry and Davies?