With the June Amateur Draft quickly approaching (June 6th – 8th), Orioles Hangout has reached out to Mr. Joe Jordan – the Director of Amateur Scouting for The Baltimore Orioles for some of his pre-draft thoughts.

Orioles Hangout: “Gerrit Cole and Anthony Rendon are expected to go 1st and 2nd in this Draft. Are they 1,2 on the O’s board?  If either were to fall to the O’s at 4th overall, would they definitively be the pick?”

Joe Jordan: “Obviously I wouldn’t give you specifics about how we like certain players.  We have scouted both and believe they would be options we would entertain.”

Orioles Hangout: “Assuming Cole, and Rendon are not on the board when you select, how many players are seriously being looked at by Baltimore? In the 3rd party Mock Drafts, we have seen the O’s recently tied to Danny Hultzen (LHP, Virgina), Jed Bradley (LHP, Georgia Tech), Trevor Bauer (RHP, UCLA), Sonny Gray (RHP, Vanderbilt), Dylan Bundy (RHP, HS), Bubba Starling (OF, HS), George Springer (OF, Connecticut), and Tyler Anderson (LHP, Oregon). Without naming them outright, are any of those eight players not under consideration? Without naming them, are there players not mentioned above, that are being considered?”

Joe Jordan: “We currently have as many as 10 players still being discussed.  Until me get inside our draft room there isn’t a great deal of incentive to narrow our efforts more than that.  We have the staff to keep things wide at this time.”

Orioles Hangout: “It is thought that there is a general internal preference with the O’s is to select the best available College arm. Is that perception accurate?”

Joe Jordan: “There are some good college options and we have scouted them all very thoroughly.  If a college pitcher/player is the right fit given the opportunity we will select them.  Our options will not be only college players – there are some very good hs options as well.”

Orioles Hangout: “When we spoke last August, we talked about how the O’s had spent $8.8M on the ‘09 draft picks, and similar money in ‘10. We asked if your budget was raised to $15M for ‘11, would there be a corresponding change to your draft strategy. You replied that the overall philosophy would not change, but it would be fun, and you could entertain a lot of scenarios.

The 2011 Rule 4 Amateur Draft will be the last draft held under the current Collective Bargaining Agreement. There appears to be some industry-wide belief that the 2012 Draft could feature the ‘Hard Slotting’ that you previously said you were not a fan of.

If it is possible that this may be the last year you are able to go ‘Over Slot’ in later rounds, does that give further incentive to the O’s to drastically increase this years spend?”

Joe Jordan: “My feelings on this haven’t changed – we usually get the budget we need to sign the players we want to sign.  Every draft is different and some years you get more opportunities to do those things.  We will see how it plays out.”

Orioles Hangout: “In January it was announced that you and the O’s had added former Texas Rangers Scouting Director Ron Hopkins as a Cross Checker, and 5 other Scouts to your staff. Has that investment in the Department, provided you with the more complete coverage you sought? Specifically, what changes have their additions brought?”

Joe Jordan: “Ron has been a very good addition – the fact we have a seasoned, experienced scout running the country with Matt Ruebel and myself has been a good thing.  We did not add 5 scouts to our overall number but instead replaced 4 scouts no longer on our staff.  Our total number of area scouts increased by one.”

Chris Stoner
Chris Stoner

Owner

Chris Stoner founded Baltimore Sports and Life in 2009. He has appeared as a radio guest with 1090 WBAL, 105.7 The Fan, CBS 1300, Q1370, WOYK 1350, WKAV 1400, and WNST 1570. He has also been interviewed by The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore Business Journal, and PressBox (TV). As Owner, his responsibilities include serving as the Managing Editor, Publicist, & Sales Director.

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