It's soon going to be time to ask whether Toronto made a wise move by signing B.J. Ryan. This link doesn't contain his updated stats (2.95 era and the walkoff homerun given up to Jason Giambi today).

http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/individual_stats_player.jsp?cid=mlb&playerID=124805&statType=2

Drop Adam Stern.

Who do we take in Round 2? Too bad ESPN2 does not continue coverage.

Ahhhhhh another Weaverism takes affect at Norfolk.... deep depth.
Don't you guys see it? This is a tale tail sign..... Terrero will probably be the guy coming up now, maaaaaybe Salazar.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but does not Guthrie have four more years, before free agency, after this season?

Brian - Good point about Smoak dropping to 11th. Six other GM's bypassed him, some of which would have passed due to picking based upon need. Most interesting was Alonso going befor him at 7 and the Nationals bypassing him at nine.

Baseball America had Matusz as #2 overall, only behind Beckham. He has the best change-up in the draft
and is expected to make it to the majors before any other college player. His fastball ranges from 90-93. As several have mentioned here he will allow pitching to be traded for a major league ready position player. This maybe more than anything should be MacPhail's focus at the trade deadline. I'll bet he gets at least on player in the mold in July.

That is great! He was my son's 2nd favorite BaySox player. 2nd behind Oscar Salazar.

I'm glad to see him back.

could someone please post BA/HR/RBI for Luis Terrero, Tike Redman, Chris Roberson and Adam Stern? Or suggest a web site where such info can be found?

Wow, thanks Roch. We really appreciate the up to the minute updates on Fiorentino. I mean there is a draft going on but so what. Great work. Do you have a status on Brandon Fahey's favorite BBQ joint? I will keep hitting the refresh button until I see some info on that. Yay!

Whatever happened to Adam Stern anyways? I havent heard his name in a long time. Is he doing anything? I thought we'd see him in ST but I never heard a word.

Glad to have him back. Don't know if it means much, but he seemed like a cool guy. Can't imagine Adam Stern having much of a big league career; I expect he'll spend more time on the bench as a result of this acquisition.

So in the second round they pick Xavier Avery who is a left handed center fielder from Cedar Grove HS in GA. The problem is, he is currently slotted to go to Georgia on a football scholarship, lets hope the O's can toss enough bonus his way to change his mind.

In the third round its a local boy, 2nd baseman Jerome Hoes from St Johns HS in MD, hmm 6'1" good size for a HS 2d Baseman. He was #2 2008 MSASB Pre-Season All Maryland Team, they have him listed as an OF tho.

So anyone see this Hoes kid play?

Roch -

Where do you project Matusz at? Will he start at Double-A and work his way up? Or will he just immediately be put at Triple-A and be a step away from the parent club?

In your opinion, do you think the Orioles got a great pick for this year or should they have went with Smoak?

Yeah I know, we can never have enough AAAA ballplayers.

A little more digging into Avery, seems his day back in January thinks he will pick baseball if drafted high.

"Griffin hinted that his son will be a lock to turn pro if he is a first or early second round pick in June’s major league baseball draft.

“And I kind of get the feeling that baseball is going to draft him high,” Griffin said. “Scouts from the Phillies, Padres, Pirates, Dodgers, Yankees and Royals have all come to our house.”"

So Roch - can you shed some light as to why the O's drafted 2 centerfielders in the first 4 rounds? I thought Adam Jones was our CF for now & beyond...

Most pichers operate off the fastball. If you're going off the curve you better be Camilo Pascual. Otherwise MLB hitters wait on your slow stuff and you get killed. Matusz is a finesse pitcher who operates off his slow stuff.

The purpose of rebuilding is to acquire/develop good young players for our pitching staff and positions who will be around a good while. By 2010 we are going to have about 15 pitchers on which to make decisions. Matusz will be one of the mix.

Positionally we will have Scott/Reimold, Jones, Markakis in the outfield, and Wieters at C. We have a desparate need at 3B, SS, 2B, and 1B. Picking a finesse pitcher and a light hitting outfielder with these needs is a joke.

On to the 4th round, and they pick, a left handed CF that plays football...

Well this one is a college kid, Kyle Hudson played at Illinois. Needless to say he seems to be a top notch athlete and more polished then thier pick in the 2nd round. Doesn't have a lot of pop but has + speed and can get on base at the college level.

Can anyone explain how the MLB draft works? How does a team get one of those supplamental picks at the end of the first round, and why don't the O's have a 2nd or 3rd round pick?
Thanks.

So we can add another dreck to our dreck-filled outfield at AAA.

Dave >
I am so glad you are not the GM. Seattle could use you though.....

if you keep Fiorentino, drop Fahey. If you keep Fahey, drop Fiorentino. it's pretty simple. Neither are/will ever be MLB players. none of them have any of the tools necessary to play any role on a team.

One is the illegitimate son of Ronald McDonald. The other alternates between expressions of complete indifference and crying. I don't want to look at either of them.

I just want to echo what I've heard - it's fairly evident MacPhail is stockpiling, and he's planning on doing the Tejada trade in reverse, trading prospects for someone else's established big bat.

I trust him, it's just that it seems risky to say what we presently have in the minors is enough to fill every position player need that we have, at first, third and short. Rowell, Moore and Snyder are the answers as far as corner infielders. That's what's being said.

Right? I mean that's what it sounds like.

Lauren. One possible answer is the they could be moved to either LF or RF, presuming that CF is the hardest to play, so the other OF positions should come easy.
I watched the Texas/Clev game(slow night on the Jays' channel) and the announcers were raving about Smoak and how lucky they were that he was still around at #11. They even showed some footage of him, stating how much he already looked like an MLB player.
I'm still surprised about the O's picks-reminds me of a Detroit Lions draft-failure to address obvious needs. I know players are a crapshoot but we have a surplus of young promising pitchers but a severe shortage of corner IF and power OF. We can't even dig down in the minors and get a half decent replacement.
Ironically, Smoak was a high-school teammate of Weiters, so if he's as good as advertised, would have been a good twosome and chance to add some chemistry.

To Tom in Seattle: You can get all of the current and historical major- and minor- league stats (for free) at http://www.baseball-reference.com/

Tom in Seattle - you can get minor league stats from multiple places. I usually go to baseballamerica.com, but milb.com also has them. You can get player profiles, too, in the basic sense (it's good to check how old they are, since 28 year olds tearing up AAA aren't really prospects but still could be useful depth).

I think I'd have gone with Smoak, but it's not like I'm a trained professional who gets paid to scout players. Keith Law (ESPN, formerly Baseball Prospectus and Toronto Blue Jays) tabbed Smoak as the steal of the first round. But as others have noted, six clubs after Baltimore passed on him. The positive light is that if Smoak really is a special but lesser recognized talent, the Orioles knew it enough to have whittled down their #4 pick to Smoak or Matusz. Texas always needs pitching, so we'll acquire Smoak eventually anyway. ;)

TomT,

Team get supplemental picks based on players lost to Free Agency. I believe we got Beato a couple of years ago when Ryan left for Toronto.

The Orioles have the 4th pick in every round, including the 2nd and 3rd.