A few notes from the Orioles' 2019 draft

Over the last three days the Orioles drafted 41 players over 40 rounds of the First-Year Player draft. They selected 33 college players and just eight from the high school ranks.

Some notes on the Orioles' 2019 draft:

* They did not select a pitcher until round eight and of the 19 pitchers they drafted, just one is a high school pitcher. He was taken in round 38.

* The first 13 pitchers they selected were right-handers with the first lefty coming in round 27. In all they drafted 16 right-handers and three southpaws.

* They selected just two high school players through round 33 (and pick 34) and that was with selections in rounds two and five. Then the Orioles took prep players in six of the last seven rounds.

* Of the 22 position players they picked there are six catchers, seven infielders and nine outfielders.

* The Orioles selected three position players from Stanford in the first 11 rounds. They took center fielder Kyle Stowers with a Competitive Balance B pick (No. 71), selected catcher Maverick Handley in round six and took first sacker Andrew Daschbach in round 11.

The Orioles did draft several players that were shortstops and center fielders on the amateur level. All good teams seek to be strong up the middle and certainly it's easier to move a shortstop to second or third base and a center fielder to a corner if need be later.

In March, executive vice president Mike Elias told me for this interview he looked forward to this draft to select pitchers that would be good fits for the new analytics and data-driven approach throughout the organization and on the farm now. So it will be interesting to see how this group of pitchers is handled and advances over the next few years.

"The thing I'm really excited to do that we haven't done yet, is pair this (the analytics) up with the draft," Elias said then. "So eventually we will be acquiring guys with an idea of what we will then do with them in player development. And once you get that cooperation going, I think that's when you really get a system humming."

The heavy emphasis on position players through round 11 was perhaps due to the shortage of some top position player prospects on the farm. In MLBPipeline.com's O's top 30 right now, eight of the first 12 prospects are pitchers.

Fans are asking about the heavy drafting of college players through the first 33 rounds. Does this mean Elias thinks the Orioles can contend sooner than later? Perhaps but also the club could use an influx of some positions players at the higher levels of the minors as well and these players will get there before they reach Baltimore.

As with all drafts, keep the draft math in mind. While it is exciting to have an influx of new talent, most of these players will never see the majors. Some in the industry feel that getting three or four solid players out of any draft makes it a good year. It's hard to get stars. And you need 25 players to fill out a roster.

This first draft for Elias was always going to be an important. This group of players will join some new international players he has promised will be signed on or shortly after July 2, when the new international bonus pools reset. That is pumping a lot of new players into the farm system. It's what a rebuilding team needs, lots of young talent. The building of the elite talent pipeline moved into a new phase over the past few days.

It was a pretty exciting time in Birdland.