SAN DIEGO - Few if any know the First-Year Player Draft and the Rule 5 draft better than Jim Callis of MLB.com and MLBPipeline.com. With the Orioles holding four picks among the first 73 selections next June, I asked Callis today at the Winter Meetings about the 2015 draft. The O's highest picks are currently No. 26 and No. 33. If more teams sign players that received qualifying offers, the 26th pick could get even higher. "There is depth in the draft," Callis said. "You'd always rather pick higher, but you don't want the record that comes with that. But having four picks in the middle of the top rounds is going to be good. "Last year, you were asking me about people being worried they lost some picks, but the No. 1 thing is to win at the big league level. (Nelson) Cruz could not have worked out better. You got a guy for $8 million that helps you get to the ALCS. You gave up a pick to get him, but now you are going to get one back anyway. So you just really deferred the pick a year. I can't remember the last time the Orioles had this many picks at the top of the draft."

The Orioles are also going to have a much bigger budget for the 2015 draft. Major League Baseball now allots each club a certain amount of money to sign its top 10 round picks. Each individual pick is assigned a value. Because they didn't select until the third round last June, the Orioles had the smallest total allotment of any team at $2,204,400. This year, they will blow by that amount with just their first two picks. The No. 26 pick was slotted at $1.87 million last June and No. 33 was allotted $1.68 million. "By having four picks in the first couple of rounds, it will give them much more flexibility," Callis said. "That 26th pick is probably (going to be slotted at) $1.8 to $2 million. You don't have to pay the guy that. Maybe you sign a guy for $1.5 million, then you have $500,000 for later in the draft." The Orioles are expected to make another selection in tomorrow's Rule 5 draft. In recent years, they added infielder Ryan Flaherty and pitcher T.J. McFarland that way. "There were only I believe nine guys drafted last year in the major league phase (of the Rule 5) and only three stuck (with their selecting teams all year)," Callis said. "So the Orioles, it's been a little unusual." Each year, it seems there is some fan concern about players the Orioles could lose to another team in the Rule 5 draft. This year, some players that have been left unprotected and off the 40-man roster are pitchers Mychal Givens and Parker Bridwell, catcher Brian Ward, outfielder Glynn Davis and infielder-outfielder Garabez Rosa. "I mean, you could lose some of those guys," Callis said. "Three of those guys were in the (Arizona) Fall League. Givens was out there, he's a full-time pitcher now. Bridwell, I saw him strike out three guys with changeups in the Fall Stars Game. He hit 94 on the gun, but he's been inconsistent. Saw Rosa play out there. "It is like the regular draft. It just takes one team. It's not like there are 30 teams saying, 'Man, we'd love to have Rosa.' But if there is one team that likes him and thinks he can fill a role, they take him. "You never want to lose a player. But if you do, most of the time you will probably get him back and it is a guy you didn't deem worthy to be on the 40-man roster. Even if the Orioles do lose a player on Thursday, it's probably not a guy that is going to come back and haunt the franchise."