A look at the Orioles' 2016 draft with Baseball America's John Manuel (video)

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. - Baseball America has given the Orioles solid reviews for their 2016 draft, which featured three pitchers from the Midwest as their top three picks: Cody Sedlock, Keegan Akin and Matthias Dietz.

This morning at the Winter Meetings, I interviewed Baseball America editor in chief John Manuel to get his thoughts on the Orioles' draft.

"First, I like that Cody Sedlock has a fairly fresh arm," Manuel said. " I like that profile - big, physical, Midwest arm, fairly fresh. I like that (outfielder) Austin Hays came out and, I think, outperformed maybe what the Orioles thought they were getting and had such a strong debut. They could use a position player to get on the fast track and Austin Hays might do that.

"I really like Keegan Akin. He is short, but he's strong bodied. He reminds me of a stronger body Scott Kazmir. And he's interesting. Out of all three of these guys (their top picks), he could move the fastest. I think he's got the most polish, he's got a strikeout pitch. He's got three pitches. I don't know if he has as high a ceiling as Sedlock has, but I think he has the chance to jump on the fast track the most."

The Orioles are looking at another offseason where they will likely be ranked among the bottom 10 teams in the major leagues in organizational rankings, which are ratings for their entire minor league system. One reason for that is they don't have multiple top 100 national prospects like they once did with prospects like Manny Machado, Jonathan Schoop, Dylan Bundy, Hunter Harvey and Kevin Gausman. But they won at the major league level and that is obviously the bigger goal. Is a lower-rated farm system right now a concern?

"The thing that the Orioles have really been good in doing - they've found really good complementary pieces through their farm system," Manuel said. "They did it last year, especially with the bullpen. The left-hander, (Donnie) Hart, who came up was very effective as a left-on-left guy. Mychal Givens was another key piece.

"They are very good at finding players that have been more on the margins than future stars. But eventually, you win with stars and that is what we just don't see them developing right now.

"A big key is Dylan Bundy. Is he a future star? We've been predicting stardom for him for a while and he finally took a step last year in the big leagues. I'm not telling Orioles fans anything they don't know, but are Dylan Bundy and Kevin Gausman going to be the front-of-rotation guys? Those are the two homegrown arms. One of those guys needs to take another step forward. If both of them do, then Baltimore is going to have a rotation that will compete with that Boston rotation."

Along those lines, I asked Manuel about the Red Sox's trade for Chris Sale and the return of four players going to the Chicago White Sox. Boston has dealt a host of prospect the last two years and in the last few days.

"This Sale deal, the Red Sox emptied it out," Manuel said of Boston's farm. "Four of their top 10 prospects were traded yesterday. It's been very active in Boston. Their farm system is going from a top 10 farm system to a bottom 10 just like that. Because they emptied out the star-caliber talent.

"If you are going to empty it out, do it for Chris Sale. Don't do it for Drew Pomeranz, don't do it Craig Kimbrel. Don't do it for relievers. But Chris Sale is special. Guys have been predicting that his arm is going to fall off for six years now and it hasn't. All pitchers get hurt, but that guy is special and he has that strong compete tool that you can't measure with a radar gun."