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Baltimore Orioles: These are not your same old O’s

By Benjamin Chase

MINNEAPOLIS, MN - JULY 5: Pitching coach Roger McDowell #40 of the Baltimore Orioles visits pitcher Andrew Cashner #54 and infielders on the mound during the sixth inning of the game on July 5, 2018 at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images)
MINNEAPOLIS, MN - JULY 5: Pitching coach Roger McDowell #40 of the Baltimore Orioles visits pitcher Andrew Cashner #54 and infielders on the mound during the sixth inning of the game on July 5, 2018 at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images) /
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OMAHA, NE – JUNE 26: Arkansas’s Blaine Knight (16) pitching against Oregon State during the first game of the finals in the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska. Arkansas beats Oregon State 4 to 1. (Photo by John Peterson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

Baltimore Orioles pitching development

The history is there. The Baltimore Orioles drafted 15 high school pitchers and 22 college pitchers from 2000-2013 in the first 5 rounds of the MLB draft. Of those 37 pitchers, 17 made it to the majors for even one appearance.

The best of that group is not a guy who did his best work with the Orioles, as Jake Arrieta has the highest bWAR of any first 5 rounds pick in that era with 23.2 bWAR. However, he contributed only 0.1 bWAR as an Oriole. In total over 37 pitchers drafted, even with guys like Arrieta added in, the Baltimore Orioles have drafted that produced 63.1 bWAR, or roughly an average 1.71 bWAR per draft pick in the first 5 rounds, which is where you hope to draft your “superstar” players.

This has been an issue in the past, and the Baltimore Orioles knew it. They needed to change, and they did. It started in January 2017 with bringing in John Wasdin as the director of pitching development in the Baltimore Orioles minor league system. Immediately, the type of pitcher the Orioles were targeting changed.

The 2017 draft was a great example. In 2016, the Orioles selected three college arms with their first three selections. While those picks had some level of upside, they passed over plenty of upside along the way to go with the “safe” arm. They did not do that at all in 2017!

The first pick at #21 was DL Hall, a Georgia lefty with a beautiful curve, but with a small-ish frame that scared off some teams in spite of grades that would have him as a top-10 level guy. In the second and third rounds, Zac Lowther and Michael Baumann were picked, and both were college arms that had upside. They also drafted a personal favorite in the 2017 draft, Jack Conlon, a high school righty from Texas, but Conlon chose not sign.

The 2018 draft kept up that work, grabbing Rodriguez, one of the highest ceiling high school arms with the 11th pick, grabbing Knight in the 3rd round out of Arkansas with plenty of physical development left, and then also grabbing some very projectable young arms in high school lefty Drew Rom out of Kentucky and high school righty Yeancarlos Lleras out of Puerto Rico (technically Lleras was in the 6th round, but still).

The work Wasdin is doing is coming through as well. Six full-season starters have pitched all season and have under a 3.00 ERA. There are also three starters with 100+ strikeouts, and the Orioles have three starters with a WHIP under 1.10.

The full-season pitching staffs have been influenced as well. While the overall numbers have their moments, but it’s not surprising that each league leaderboard has a member of the Orioles affiliate in their pitching top 5 or so.

So, pitching has a different mindset in the organization, but the team is still going after their traditional three true outcome players, correct?

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