Cup of jO's: Recapping Day 1 of the Draft

The Orioles won last night in Major League play.  The score was good, but it certainly is difficult to win games by stringing singles together.  No extra base hits were hit last night.

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With the fourth selection in last night's draft, the Orioles chose Dylan Bundy (RHP, Owasso HS OK) who is the younger brother of Oriole farmhand Bobby Bundy.  There was much hand ringing and gnashing of teeth before the selection as many thought the Orioles would pass on the "30 million dollar man" and instead select the "20 million dollar man," Archie Bradley.  It would have been disappointing to have selected Archie Bradley, but the different in talent and the likely signing bonus is not much between the two.  I personally am disappointed with Dylan Bundy because I see better options.  That said, both Bundy and Bradley are potential first selection picks some years in the draft.  This year's talent is just deep.  A prospect in year's past, like Deck McGwire, would have dropped from being a top 10 pick to going in the supplemental round.  That is how much talent there is in this year's draft.

In real time, Gerrit Cole, Danny Hultzen, and Trevor Bauer went off before the Orioles' selection.  Anthony Rendon was available, but the Orioles chose to pass.  I am of the opinion that you do not pass on elite positional talent.  The report on his shoulder injury might be worse than I am aware, but it is difficult to pass.  To me, it is unquestionable that Rendon has the best chance of anyone in this draft to become a star.  With our Shadow Draft (we have done a real time shadow draft for several years now), we selected Anthony Rendon with our unprotected pick (we chose Karsten Whitson last year and he did not sign with the Padres, so we received compensation) and prep bat Bubba Starling.  We are also targeting prep LHP Daniel Norris in the second round.  He is asking for over 3MM to sign.

The reason we went big in our Shadow Draft is largely due to Boston and Tampa having a plethora of picks in the first and first supplementary rounds.  The Rays selected ten players yesterday and most of them have the potential of being above average or star level.  Boston chose an amazing collection of for talents.  For these reasons, the real Orioles should also be willing to go big in the second round today.  That might mean throwing down money for Josh Bell (LF, Jesuit Prep HS) or Daniel Norris (LHP, Science Hill HS).  The Orioles need to be aggressive and they need to collect as much falling talent as possible because other teams in the AL East have the benefit of taking great quantity of high quality talent.

Do I think the Orioles will overslot like mad?

No, I don't.  I think you will see them put their eggs in the Bundy basket and then apply themselves to Jordan's typical fringe overslots peppered in with slot college bats and arms.  I am expecting to write about my disappointments tomorrow morning.

Here is a good interview with the for-all-intents-and-purposes new Oriole Dylan Bundy.  It should also be mentioned that Dylan's older brother, Bobby, pitched well for Frederick last night going 7 IP with 1 run and 6 strikeouts.  We have long been a fan of his and are excited to see him finally putting it all together this year.  It would not surprise us to see both Bundys in the O's rotation in 2014.  Bobby profiles as a 3 slot and Dylan could be an ace.