masn-baseballs-orioles.jpgWe are now less than a week from the First-Year Player Draft. The Orioles have the No. 11 pick in round one and they have two other selections in the top 100, with picks at No. 37 and No. 87.
Major League Baseball has set the Orioles’ allotted total pool for signing their picks in the first 10 rounds at $8,754,400, the 13th highest amount of any club. The allotted amount to sign the No. 11 overall pick is $4,375,100.
This will be Gary Rajsich’s seventh draft as Orioles director of scouting….

We are now less than a week from the First-Year Player Draft. The Orioles have the No. 11 pick in round one and they have two other selections in the top 100, with picks at No. 37 and No. 87.

Major League Baseball has set the Orioles’ allotted total pool for signing their picks in the first 10 rounds at $8,754,400, the 13th highest amount of any club. The allotted amount to sign the No. 11 overall pick is $4,375,100.

rajsich sidebar.jpgThis will be Gary Rajsich’s seventh draft as Orioles director of scouting. The No. 11 pick will be his highest since his first draft with the club, when he selected pitcher Kevin Gausman No. 4 overall in 2012. The Orioles’ top selection last year was prep lefty DL Hall, taken at No. 21.

Several pre-draft stories have suggested the Orioles will take a pitcher first.

“Well, it’s a pitching-heavy draft, but we are going to take the next best player or pitcher when we pick,” Rajsich said during a recent phone interview. “If it’s a pitcher, so be it. While we do try to get pitching, and this is a pitching-heavy draft, if there is a (position) player there we can’t pass up, we can do that too.”

Has having the second-highest top pick since he’s been with the Orioles changed anything about the club’s draft prep this year? And how many players are the Orioles targeting for that No. 11 selection?

“Probably five or six,” Rajsich said. “We probably have a better idea of the top five, as opposed to the next five. It doesn’t change much for us. We are still approaching the draft as we have in the past. When it is our turn to select we are going to try and select the next best available player or pitcher.”

Rajsich said the Orioles could use their entire allotted amount toward their first pick, but of course it’s also possible they will instead use some of that money on other selections.

“We won’t know until it’s our turn to pick. Different draftees have different needs or desires. This is the most we’ve had for our first pick, even more than when we picked fourth and took Kevin Gausman,” he said.

The draft begins next Monday at 7 p.m. EDT with rounds one and two and both competitive-balance rounds and compensation picks. The Orioles will make two picks that first night. The draft resumes on Tuesday at 1 p.m. EDT with rounds three through 10. It concludes at noon on Wednesday with selections in rounds 11 through 40.

Rajsich and some his top scouts recently met in Dallas to begin final draft preparations. Some of that group had arrived in Baltimore by Sunday and have resumed meetings to go over medical records and begin to set up the club’s draft board.

The Orioles have a shortage of top middle infield prospects. Will that be a focus during this draft?

“Yeah, we have some organizational needs,” Rajsich said. “But if we start drafting for needs, by the time these kids are major league ready, those needs may not exist anymore. So again, we are going to maintain our strategy to take the next best player.”

Last year the Orioles drafted 41 players and signed 34. Rajsich estimated the club would sign 32 to 34 of its picks this year.