My first Minor League prospect report from 1996

[LookinUp]

8 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Brian Roberts was 2001.

Leo Gomez and David Segui were 1990.

What was that old stat people used to pull? It had something to do with prospect failure since Cal Ripken Jr. 

[Can_of_corn]

Just now, LookinUp said:

What was that old stat people used to pull? It had something to do with prospect failure since Cal Ripken Jr. 

Oh it was horrid.

But Gomez was a pretty adequate player that folks just seem to ignore.

Not sure if the O's deserve any credit for someone like Hoiles. 

[luismatos4prez]

High Desert?! I had to Google that one. Apparently they were our A-Ball affiliate in the Mojave Desert from 95-96.

[Satyr3206]

Looking back at the Orioles Farm is one of he reasons I am not eager to trade away too many prospects. Maybe I am becoming a hoarder.

[Tony-OH]

15 hours ago, luismatos4prez said:

High Desert?! I had to Google that one. Apparently they were our A-Ball affiliate in the Mojave Desert from 95-96.

Yeah, it was a ridiculously hitter favorable stadium and league. You could not take almost anything from the stats put up there besides plate discipline for hitters.

The poor pitchers were usually shelled shocked after pitching there! 

Despite a lack of real prospects, the team slashed .292/.376/.451/.827.

Jesse Garcia ended up the best prospect that played there that year and he had just 273 major league PAs slashing just .216/.241/.304/.545. He was obviously known for his defense.

[Three Run Homer]

The surest indicator of how far we've come in evaluating young players since 1996 is the fact that you didn't list player ages as one of their basic stats.  

I still think Pickering could have had a good career as a DH if he had gotten a fair chance.  The O's blocked him by signing the starched corpse of Jack Clark.  

[OriolesMagic83]

On 12/5/2023 at 8:50 AM, RZNJ said:

Click on this link if you don’t mind crying.  A history of Oriole 1st round draft picks.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/draft/?team_ID=BAL&draft_type=junreg&query_type=franch_round

That makes me sad just looking at it.  So far Elias is doing way better than the peak O's of the 60's, 70's and early 80's.  A lot of the players picked in the late 90's/early 2000's where the O's were picking early every year didn't even make the majors.  Rowell, Hobgood, Smith, Hale, yeah I shouldn't have looked at that list. 

[jabba72]

On 12/12/2023 at 10:33 PM, Three Run Homer said:

The surest indicator of how far we've come in evaluating young players since 1996 is the fact that you didn't list player ages as one of their basic stats.  

I still think Pickering could have had a career as a DH if he had gotten a fair chance.  The O's blocked him by signing the starched corpse of Jack Clark.  

I think you mean Will Clark who was productive his two years with the O's but often injured. Pickering should have had some ab's during the long stretches Clark was injured.

Tony's '97 lists of each minor league position was solid and in-depth for the year it came out. Im not sure if I read that list that year, but I very well might have. I loved looking up O's prospect information, even if it was usually underwhelming.

[Tony-OH]

3 hours ago, jabba72 said:

I think you mean Will Clark who was productive his two years with the O's but often injured. Pickering should have had some ab's during the long stretches Clark was injured.

Tony's '97 lists of each minor league position was solid and in-depth for the year it came out. Im not sure if I read that list that year, but I very well might have. I loved looking up O's prospect information, even if it was usually underwhelming.

Can't find the 1997 list but here's the Mid-season top 20 and my end of season Top 50 1998 lists:

https://web.archive.org/web/20000226134422/http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/8533/mid20pro.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20000304210752/http://www.orioleshangout.com/99minors/50pros.html

Funny thing is two of my "where did they go?" guys (Howie Clark and Rick Short) actually ended up making the majors. 

And yes, I was a fan of Pickering as well. I think he would have been given more chances nowadays.https://web.archive.org/web/20000305234001/http://www.orioleshangout.com/99minors/99picker.html