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Is it time for a new draft philosophy

vab

By vab
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vab All-Star

vab

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With the draft coming up tomorrow and reading that Duquette is focused on pitching, I'm wondering if there's not another way to come at this thing. This organization has had very little success drafting and developing starting pitching (or any pitching really, but especially starting pitching). Is it time to stop using high draft picks (at least the top 5 rounds or so) on pitchers and go exclusively with position players? My thought is they could stack the system with position player talent and use that to not only supplement the lineup but also to trade for pitching that is already developed or mostly developed by other organizations (top pitching prospects in the high minors or young major league talent). 

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vab All-Star

vab

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2 minutes ago, birdwatcher55 said:

Duquette is your problem. Going forward, every day he is here is a day that pushes this franchise back further.

This goes back way before Duquette. 

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TINSTAAPP Perennial All-Star

TINSTAAPP

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To be honest, I think Rajsich has done a pretty good job as the scouting director. He got Mancini in the eighth round, Hart was a 27th round draft pick who's been a 1.0 WAR player so far, Mountcastle, Hays, Mullins, and Sisco all seem like promising prospects. Plus Harvey looked like he was well on his way to being a top prospect before arm injuries derailed his progress. And Harvey could still turn out to be a very productive ML pitcher. He's only 22 years old. The main problem is that the Orioles have lost a number of first round draft picks to ill-advised free agent signings so a lot of their highest draft picks have been late first round or sandwich picks. It's hard to have a stocked farm system when you keep losing first round draft picks, your owner refuses to invest in international free agents and the GM keeps trading away prospects for a temporary fix. 

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sportsfan8703 Hangout Grand Counsel

sportsfan8703

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We've actually been drafting really well over the last few years.  However the draft is just 1/2 ways that teams acquire amateur talent.  We don't participate enough in the Latin American market.  So even with having good drafts, we still have a weak, thin, minor league system.  

To the OP's point, I think the whole "Grow the arms, buy the bats" philosophy hasn't worked out.  Pitchers get hurt more than position players.  We haven't been great at developing or even recognizing our own talent.  

Our lack of pitching "prospects" are a joke.  It's basically Scott, Sedlock, Akin, Dietz, Wells, Phellufo, Peralta and that's it.  The rest are fringey starters that are having terrible seasons or fringey relievers that serious question marks.  

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billw76 Major Leaguer Cup of Coffee

billw76

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I don't think the draft philosophy is bad, but there are some things I would like to see change. We have to know when to move on from some players so we can start getting the extra compensation picks, stop trading the competitive balance picks to save a few dollars.

I think the biggest change that needs to happen is that this team needs to spend more money in Latin America. I'm not saying we need to give out the huge contracts to Cuban players, but something has to be done better. We need a constant influx of young talent to develop and relying solely on the draft isn't enough.

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Tx Oriole Hangout Grand Counsel

Tx Oriole

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1 hour ago, vab said:

With the draft coming up tomorrow and reading that Duquette is focused on pitching, I'm wondering if there's not another way to come at this thing. This organization has had very little success drafting and developing starting pitching (or any pitching really, but especially starting pitching). Is it time to stop using high draft picks (at least the top 5 rounds or so) on pitchers and go exclusively with position players? My thought is they could stack the system with position player talent and use that to not only supplement the lineup but also to trade for pitching that is already developed or mostly developed by other organizations (top pitching prospects in the high minors or young major league talent). 

I go along with that.

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Chavez Ravine Hangout Grand Counsel

Chavez Ravine

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I don't think the arbitrage works. Everyone wants pitching; trading for cheap/good versions of it for position prospects you are inherently taking a hit in terms of relative value. It can be a useful strategy at times, but it helps if you have a wealth of other resources for filling out the rest of the lineup with high level talent.

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bpilktree Hangout Grand Counsel

bpilktree

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14 minutes ago, ORIOLE33 said:

Draft athletes. Guys that can get on base and RUN.

That is the last thing I want us to do.  We did that for years and it was terrible. We used to draft the guys like Darnel McDonald, Xavier Avery and Josh Hart.  We  have changed that approach lately and draft guy that can hit the ball but maybe don't have a position or will need to be moved from where they were drafted and that seems to be working.  Guys like Mancini, Sisco, Mountcastle and even Stewart.  They are guys that can rake but may not be able to stay at their position.  If you hit you can find them a position.

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Can_of_corn Hangout Grand Counsel

Can_of_corn

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11 minutes ago, sportsfan8703 said:

We might being seeing a new philosophy.  Lots of HS guys picked.  Our top 2 two picks.  

It might just be where the value is this draft.  I think we would need to see a series of draft go a certain way before we could assign a change in overall strategy.

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