Jim Callis on the Orioles’ 2020 Draft

[Frobby]

Jim Callis weighed in on our draft with Melewski today:

“I thought it was one of the deeper drafts, one of the best drafts,” said Callis. “If I remember correctly, we had Kjerstad ranked 10th on our draft list. I did hear a lot of Baltimore media getting asked, ‘How could they take the 10th guy at No. 2?’ Well, there was not that big of a gap between 2 and 10.

“Now, they got a great deal. They got him for over $2 million under slot, which allowed them to do some other things. Plus, this guy hit from the start in the SEC and was the best lefty power hitter in the draft on the college side. And I think 6 to 10 were jumbled up for a lot of clubs. You could argue they got the sixth-best player. Because he was going to go lower, they got a great deal. You have to get talent and they took a talented guy at 2 and poured that money into Mayo and Baumler.

“If they had taken Austin Martin at two, you look at what he got from the Blue Jays, they wouldn’t have saved the money to get those guys. All six of their picks are interesting. You don’t usually get six guys that are close to the top 100 and sign them all.”

Callis said there were things to like about each O’s selection.

“Kjerstad is the best lefty power hitter in the draft. Westburg, another SEC performer. Shortstop with power, profiles at third base if he doesn’t stick at short. Real interesting guy. Hudson Haskin, a really gifted center fielder. Didn’t fly under the radar, but in a normal year he might have gone higher. He’s a tooled-up center fielder who as a draft-eligible sophomore played a year and change. So, he wasn’t as heavily scouted as guys who had been around for three years. Anthony Servideo really came on this spring. Had a great spring. Slick fielder and showed a lot more with the bat. Coby Mayo has the power and arm strength you want at third base. And Baumler is a projectable, athletic pitcher who no one thought was going to be signable and the Orioles got him.

“These aren’t just like interesting guys that go into the top 30. They’re all guys with a good amount of upside. It was a pretty impressive haul.”

MLBPipeline.com’s new O’s top 30, rates Kjerstad No. 3, Westburg No. 7, Haskin No. 14, Baumler No. 19, Servideo No. 21 and Mayo No. 25.

https://www.masnsports.com/steve-melewski/2020/09/jim-callis-with-props-for-os-draft-plus-other-notes.html

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[wildcard]

22 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Jim Callis weighed in on our draft with Melewski today:

“I thought it was one of the deeper drafts, one of the best drafts,” said Callis. “If I remember correctly, we had Kjerstad ranked 10th on our draft list. I did hear a lot of Baltimore media getting asked, ‘How could they take the 10th guy at No. 2?’ Well, there was not that big of a gap between 2 and 10.

“Now, they got a great deal. They got him for over $2 million under slot, which allowed them to do some other things. Plus, this guy hit from the start in the SEC and was the best lefty power hitter in the draft on the college side. And I think 6 to 10 were jumbled up for a lot of clubs. You could argue they got the sixth-best player. Because he was going to go lower, they got a great deal. You have to get talent and they took a talented guy at 2 and poured that money into Mayo and Baumler.

“If they had taken Austin Martin at two, you look at what he got from the Blue Jays, they wouldn’t have saved the money to get those guys. All six of their picks are interesting. You don’t usually get six guys that are close to the top 100 and sign them all.”

Callis said there were things to like about each O’s selection.

“Kjerstad is the best lefty power hitter in the draft. Westburg, another SEC performer. Shortstop with power, profiles at third base if he doesn’t stick at short. Real interesting guy. Hudson Haskin, a really gifted center fielder. Didn’t fly under the radar, but in a normal year he might have gone higher. He’s a tooled-up center fielder who as a draft-eligible sophomore played a year and change. So, he wasn’t as heavily scouted as guys who had been around for three years. Anthony Servideo really came on this spring. Had a great spring. Slick fielder and showed a lot more with the bat. Coby Mayo has the power and arm strength you want at third base. And Baumler is a projectable, athletic pitcher who no one thought was going to be signable and the Orioles got him.

“These aren’t just like interesting guys that go into the top 30. They’re all guys with a good amount of upside. It was a pretty impressive haul.”

MLBPipeline.com’s new O’s top 30, rates Kjerstad No. 3, Westburg No. 7, Haskin No. 14, Baumler No. 19, Servideo No. 21 and Mayo No. 25.

https://www.masnsports.com/steve-melewski/2020/09/jim-callis-with-props-for-os-draft-plus-other-notes.html

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I watched Callis on Youtube.    He puts a big emphasis on the O's adding 6 players in the draft to their top 30.   I still have some questions about whether it was better to have Kjerstead, Mayo and Baumler over Lacy.   Lacy is listed as KC's #2 prospect.   I value front line pitching very high.   Only time is going to tell which direction is better.

[Can_of_corn]

Great but like I said the day of the draft when you are picking 1-2 and have the largest pool this should be the expectation.

My concern is if they passed on a 5 win talent for a 2 win talent at 1-2 it is going to be very hard to make that up with the rest of the draft class.

[weams]

Martin is not a five win talent. 

[HowAboutThat]

17 minutes ago, wildcard said:

I watched Callis on Youtube.    He puts a big emphasis on the O's adding 6 players in the draft to their top 30.   I still have some questions about whether it was better to have Kjerstead, Mayo and Baumler over Lacy.   Lacy is listed as KC's #2 prospect.   I value front line pitching very high.   Only time is going to tell which direction is better.

You are correct, good pitching is expensive and rare. However, I think an argument can be made, a very strong argument, that good solid quantity is better than lonely quality.
Remember the farm is being rebuilt from the ground up and you want a whole lot of 50 FV guys on your prospects, rather than one 60 and a bunch of 40s. I understand where you’re coming from but I think in this case we did the right thing.

[Can_of_corn]

2 minutes ago, weams said:

Martin is not a five win talent. 

Who mentioned Martin?

[weams]

1 hour ago, Can_of_corn said:

Who mentioned Martin?

OK!

[rudyrooster]

2 hours ago, Can_of_corn said:

Great but like I said the day of the draft when you are picking 1-2 and have the largest pool this should be the expectation.

My concern is if they passed on a 5 win talent for a 2 win talent at 1-2 it is going to be very hard to make that up with the rest of the draft class.

Who says Kjerstad is a 2-win talent?

[Can_of_corn]

6 minutes ago, rudyrooster said:

Who says Kjerstad is a 2-win talent?

I was throwing out a hypothetical.  I understand he might fall short of two wins.

[Frobby]

4 hours ago, Can_of_corn said:

Great but like I said the day of the draft when you are picking 1-2 and have the largest pool this should be the expectation.

My concern is if they passed on a 5 win talent for a 2 win talent at 1-2 it is going to be very hard to make that up with the rest of the draft class.

I think the key to Callis’ evaluation of our strategy is the following sentence: “there was not that big of a gap between 2 and 10.”    If that’s correct, then it’s a great strategy.    If it’s wrong, then it’s a lousy strategy.    I’ll be happy to discuss this again in 2027 or so.