Greg Miclat reminds me of Brian Roberts although he is a little bit taller than Brian. Hopefully, he can be the same as Brian in several categories.

Too bad Avery signed a letter of intent. I woulda liked to see what he could have done.

Did you guys see the brawl between the Rays and the Red Sox? Shields vs Crisp? And Ellsbury is out with a strained right wrist. I guess, finally, the Red Sox are getting the bad news. It's a prime position for us to move up the standings, now, with the interleague games coming up.

What a big day of news today!

Joe Jordan said that Matusz was the best available, but also that the draft is deeper with position players so it is ok to take a pitcher first. Where are those impact bats? there guys don't seem like them. Are they just going to become a bunch of keith reeds?

Please,
No more critisicm of how the Orioles took a "finesse" pitcher with the fourth pick.
Because his fastball "only" hits the low 90's.

Have you all ever heard of Greg Maddux? Yeah he's pretty good and he never threw in the 90's.

I'll take one Greg Maddux over five Cabreras any day of the week.

It's about pitching folks, not how hard you can throw the ball.

And by the way, low 90's is not slow pitch softball........

So they are projecting Hudson, Hoes, Miclat and Avery as speedy top of the lineup type batters.... but none of them are really sure bets to sign.... and from what I hear about Zagone... he is a sure bet not to sign... so out of all these drafts it is plausible that the only one we sign is Matusz?

Seems that the emphasis after Matusz was position players with tremendous speed. It will be interesting to see how the "experts" rate the Orioles draft.

At 5'9" and 175 lbs. Miclat is obese compared to Fahey. I really don't understand taking two CF when they just traded for Jones.

What, no analysis of the picks...a little background perhaps??

I think its a pretty good draft for as few people as we were able to choose. My biggest issue is taking a high school kid with the second pick but he is a great prospect. Watch his swing and you will realize that he has way too many moving parts in it and he will have to be completely retooled at the plate.

Avery is probably going to play football...especially at a powerhouse like Georgia, where he may end up winning a national championship. At least that's what I'd choose. Why did they waste that pick on him and not go after a good sized infielder? I know it would take Avery like 6 years to get through the minors, but I think the outfield will be set in stone (hopefully) for longer than that.

At least we got pitching...lets just hope the O's can score runs over the next 5 years.

And Fiorentino is a waste of space at AAA. There is a reason he can't stay on a 40 man roster.

Pitching , pitching , pitching,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,you can't have enough pitching,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,you can always buy a bat or two (see Tex) but you have to give up the farm to get a good pitcher (see Seattle),,,,,,,,,,,,,,You can do a lot with a stock pile of young pitchers , don't be surprised if you see a few of the pitchers you now love , leave us in July,,,,it's going to happen , it's got to happen for the O's to return to respectability,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,I can tell you right now most of the other teams envy our young pitchers and will give up plenty to get e few of them..........Andy knows what he is doing , give him a chance,,,,,,,,,,I have more hope about the O's than I have had in a very long time,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,GEE , I can't believe I didn't mention Peter the Great.................GO O's.........

Roch, I need your amazing recall of childhood here. I keep hearing some jingle in my head, some TV ad from ages past. I think it was a wine. Something like "did you ever know anyone, who didn't like Matusz?" Is this why we picked him? Help!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sorry, you've stumped me on that one. Hopefully, you've got some nice parting gifts for me. - Roch

I agree with others that beyond the first pick there seem to be a number of signability issues. I hope Joe & co. did their HW. What really is the point of drafting a guy who has a very small chance of coming into the organization? Every team does it so ther must be SOME reason for it. I just can't believe that they can't get a solid read on someone they are willing to use such a high pick on. I also don't know what the O's board looked like but why address the middle infield so late? I also think our second rounder may be Georgia bound. His prospect video is not all that impressive either besides his speed. Oh well. I'll assume the new regime has a long-term plan until I see otherwise. Better than drafting a first-rounder who they can't sign.

Has anyone ever seen any data on what percentage of players make it to the big leagues per round? Like 60% round 1, 45% round 2, etc... that would be interesting.

Avery said he wants to play baseball. He said if he's drafted by the second round, he would sign with the team and not play football. He has already told Georgia this. I think he is a pretty good shot to sign.

jerome's got hoes in different area codes

Here's your commercial, Sheets:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mP9a7Fkq8NE

Didn't we learn our lesson about drafting football-playing outfielders with Darnell MacDonald?

H is for Hoes. Man is he gonna hear it with a name like that.

A January story on Scout.com, after Avery committed to Georgia to play football, said this about his liklihood to play baseball professionally...

"

Avery's commitment to the Bulldogs in late 2007 didn't come as much of a surprise. After taking a visit to Stanford and fielding offers from a handful of programs such as Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, Maryland and Connecticut, the talented three-star prospect picked UGA.

And while Georgia fans have no reason now to believe that Avery will not sign with the Bulldogs come National Signing Day next week, the Major League Baseball Draft still looms in the not-too-distant future. And Avery, a two-sport star that should he attend UGA will play both football and baseball, may decide to pursue baseball full time.

“Everybody would like the big dollars. You can’t fault me for wanting that," Avery said in the same article. "But everybody isn’t going in the first round. I’d be throwing away so much to go play [professional baseball]. I’d like something in return. It’s only fair.”"

The commercial was for a Portuguese wine called Mateus. I believe Matusz is pronounced differently. Here's a link to the commercial on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mP9a7Fkq8NE

Keith Law on espn.com has Matusz as the 'fastest to the majors' pick, which sounds pretty good, esp if he's the #4 starter on the 2009 O's Wildcard team.

I love the pick: a 4-pitch lefty w/ some pop in his fastball who's near majors-ready.

And you gotta believe the FO has sound evidence that Avery will sign. Who in their right mind would take a potential pro football career over pro baseball? Assuming he's a legit pro prospect in football...

Sheets: It's Mateus. It was about one of two steps up from T-Bird and Boone's Farm. It was in an oval shaped bottle and had a beige logo with some scene of Italy on it. Never tried it, as you can tell.

I have to agree, the picks after #1 seem to have..."issues" from wanting huge $$ (potter won't give guys drfated below #1 big bucks) to wanting to play other sports in college. Sure, if you throw a King's ransome at Avery & Hoes they MIGHT $ign but we know potter is gun shy on throwing MASN & MLB $$ around to draft picks outside of round 1.
We can only hope that Jordan did his homework & knows something we don't about getting these guys $igned.
I saw Miclat play this year, 3 or 4 times. He was probably the 2nd or 3rd best position player on a top 25 team. He is alot like Roberts I suppose, but I am surprised to see him go in the 5th round? I didn't see him play & think..."boy, I hope the O's can draft this guy..." Perhaps that "deep" draft thinned out quicker than expected.
Anyway, some curious early picks by the O's IMHO , consiering $igning issues & the possibility some of them may prefer to play in college if not overwhelmed by $$$$... that's not exactly potter's strong suit either.

I think the baseball draft differs from the football and basketball drafts because you don’t draft based on the current needs of the big league team. In football and basketball, this is done because there are no minor league systems for these sports. The players you draft in those sports hopefully will help you in the next season; in baseball, you draft players that you hope might help you in roughly 3-5 years. The current needs of the major league team can’t be the guiding factor for drafting. The situation can change greatly over 3-5 years, in terms of players a team acquires through trade or free agency, or how the current batch of prospects develops in that time. When you draft, you have to go with the best talent that’s available; if it’s a pitcher, you draft him even if you’re stock full of good young pitchers. If a few years down the road you’re loaded with a bunch of young pitchers that are ready for the big leagues but you don’t have a place for all of them, that’s a great predicament to be in (somehow, though, no team ever claims, we’ve got too much good young pitching).

Of course, a similar question about drafting priorities could be asked of Texas. Why did a franchise that has seemingly struggled with developing pitching for decades draft a position player in Smoak with their first pick? But if Smoak was the best player they felt was available, they did the right thing (and they didn’t have the option of picking Matusz or Crow, the two pitchers that went before they could pick).

You can tell how focused the national media is on the Red Sox and Yankees when Chipper Jones, who happened to hit his 400th home run yesterday, is hitting .418 in the first week of June and it barely gets mentioned. What if Jeter, A-Rod, Youkilis, or Manny Ramirez were hitting that right now?

YOU CAN"T RATE A BASEBALL DRAFT YOU CAN"T JUDGE A DRAFT PICK. PLAYERS ARE NOT AS PROJECTIBLE AS IN FOOTBALL OR BASKETBALL THATS WHY THERE ARE 40+ ROUNDS and 1100+ players choosen every year.

STOP COMPLAINING and COMparing. I am sure when TB took Carl Crawford who had a football scholarship in the 2nd round they knew what they were doing. Not every pick works out only 5 of the last 14 number 1 PICKS IN THE ENTIRE DRAFT HAVE MADE OR ARE ON PACE TO MAKE AN ALLSTAR TEAM.
LET THE BASEBALL PEOPLE DO THIER JOB AND DO YOURS AS A FAN AND CHEER FOR THE GUYS YOU GOT.

Looks like Orioles wanted to play it safe with Matsz rather than pick a high-risk, high-ceiling franchise type of a player. And who could blame them for that considering the fact that Rowell and Snyder are not living upto their earlier hype.

Hey Glen Burnie Joe have you heard of C. Crawford on the Rays? He signed a letter of intent to QB here at Nebraska, but TB drafted him as an outfielder and it seems to be turning out pretty well. You never know. Rest of you quit your whining about the draft and chill! You're all getting on my nerves so bad I need a smoak.

Thanks for the YouTube link and confirmation! I think we can all agree Matusz should be pronounced ma-TOOSE so we've got a jingle at the ready. And that catchy "did you ever know anyone that didn't like Matusz" line seems as good a reason as any to take him over Smoak.

Josh, quit yelling - you're giving me a headache!