A few thoughts on tonight's draft

So on the first day of the 2015 First-Year Player Draft, the Orioles will make three picks tonight, much different from last year when they didn't make a pick until the second day in the third round.

Scouting director Gary Rajsich and his staff and scouts have been at the Warehouse at Camden Yards in meetings and final draft preparation for several days now.

Tonight, the Orioles have the 25th, 36th and 68th overall picks, and all selections will be televised on MLB Network.

Analysts have continued to link the Orioles to college bats. Rajsich has said several times he intends to take the highest rated player on his draft board when it is his turn to make a selection. So, that may not necessarily be a college hitter.

But, the O's will probably wind up with a player at No. 25 who they have ranked higher than that, perhaps much higher, on their draft board. The draft is in the eye of the beholder, and a player one team ranks as the 25th best, another may have No. 12.

This happened two years when the Orioles drafted high school right-hander Hunter Harvey with the 22nd pick. They had him ranked higher as he was at least among the top 15 on their board, maybe top 10. They were delighted to see him out there when they made that pick.

The four injured pitchers that we've discussed here in recent days are wild cards tonight. Everyone is curious to see where Brady Aiken, Michael Mattuela, Nathan Kirby and Kolby Allard will go.

Teams will be assuming some risk when they select these pitchers, but the upside could be high. One scout felt all four could be gone when the O's pick at No. 25. From what I've heard, the O's are open to taking any of the four, but at what spot? A player they may not be comfortable with picking at No. 25 they may be at No. 36.

It also appears that the Orioles will be unlikely to draft a player at No. 25 to save some money on that pick to spend eleswhere. They are not necessarily looking to sign a player under the allotted slot amount, and to get the best possible player there, a team would likely have to spend the slot amount on that selection. The Orioles seem prepared to do that.

According to Baseball America, here are the allotted slot values for the Orioles' 11 picks in the top 10 rounds of the draft:

Round 1 (#25) - $2,064,500
Round 1 (#36) - $1,711,900
Round 2 (#68) - $907,000
Round 3 (#102) - $559,300
Round 4 (#133) - $414,700
Round 5 (#163) - $310,500
Round 6 (#193) - $232,600
Round 7 (#223) - $178,300
Round 8 (#253) - $166,400
Round 9 (#283) - $155,500
Round 10 (#313) - $149,700

So, the three players the club drafts tonight could account for around $4.68 million of a total budget of $6.85 million to sign the picks in the first 10 rounds.

Here are the five largest bonuses in team history:

Matt Wieters, 2007 - $6,000,000
Manny Machado, 2010 - $5,250,000
Kevin Gausman, 2012 - $4,320,000
Dylan Bundy, 2011 - $4,000,000
Adam Loewen, 2002 - $3,200,000