More Callis: he likes our draft

[Frobby]

Callis said with Machado at the top, this draft could turn out to be a very good one for the Orioles.

"I haven't stacked up all the teams against each other and we won't know for a few years (for sure) how good these drafts are, but it starts at the top with Machado.

"He does draw comps to A-Rod because he's a shortstop with five tools from Miami. That's ludicrous because A-Rod is one of the best in baseball history.

"But Manny Machado is a stud. This guy would be the number one pick in some years in the draft. At the time of the draft when the Rays took Tim Beckham number one two years ago, and he has struggled, but if you are grading out how good Beckham was when they took him, Manny Machado is a better player than Beckham was when he was the number one pick.

"I like what they got. Trent Mummey is a guy that is kind of average, maybe a little above across the board. Conner Narron is a guy who, after his sophomore year looked like he would be a first-round pick. He's tailed off a bit, but there is a lot of upside there.

"(Wynston) Sawyer is an interesting catching prospect out of high school. Bridwell, who they gave a bunch of money to, was a three-sport guy who I think is going to get a lot better as a pitcher now that he is a baseball-only guy.

"Clay Schrader, their tenth rounder, is a guy we had ranked in our top 200. I thought he had a chance to go maybe fifth round. He's a little guy with some effort to his delivery, but when he is on he's got a mid 90's fastball with a mid 80's slider and has some nasty, nasty stuff.

"You throw in a Dan Klein and a Dixon Anderson or Matt Bywater too and I think they'll get at least a couple of those guys and I like this draft class."

http://www.masnsports.com/steve_melewski/2010/08/callis-on-machado-and-the-os-unsigned-draft-picks.html

[Moose Milligan]

Nice writeup, thanks for posting that.

Hope we get Machado locked up. Even though I think we will because we always end up signing our #1 picks, there's that lingering feeling that it just might not happen.

[usmcterp]

Nice writeup, thanks for posting that.

Hope we get Machado locked up. Even though I think we will because we always end up signing our #1 picks, there's that lingering feeling that it just might not happen.

Wade Townsend says . With that said, I think we get this done. The O's should have a good idea on what it takes to sign him, since this actually was Joe's pick.

[QBsILLEST1]

Wade Townsend says . With that said, I think we get this done. The O's should have a good idea on what it takes to sign him, since this actually was Joe's pick.

The deal gets done, I am not worried about it at all really. This draft really is pretty good, and what Callis doesn't mention is Sebastian Vader who is another decently high ceiling HS arm, and whoever else we end up signing from the later rounds. The 2 I really want is Joe Robinson and Urban.....Add both of those guys, and its the best overall draft we have had in a little while.....

[Frobby]

I'd love to see everyone get signed. I think if we run the table on signing the top 10 guys we picked, this becomes a very good draft, while if we miss out on 2-3 guys, it quickly becomes iffy. I'm confident we'll sign Machado, and after reading Callis's remarks, I'm very anxious to have him in the fold.

[section18]

With Showalter turning things around it will help us with our future draft picks and trying to sign free agents in the off season. The national attention is hard to put a price on and definitely adds value to the Orioles.