Measuring character of draft prospects, advice given to position players who pitch

OAKLAND – An analytics department that’s grown exponentially since the Orioles revamped their front office, and the entire operation, following the 2018 season can’t measure every aspect of a young player. What’s inside isn’t as easy to decipher, dissect and quantify as the tools. Advanced data and modernized techniques – gasp - have their limits.

This is where the Orioles fall back on more traditional methods to grade makeup. To determine the right fits and find potential red flags.

A sport that keeps evolving, to the chagrin of many traditionalists, hasn’t dismissed all of the old school ways.

The organization is proud of the high-character young players woven through each level. How they blend, how the veterans with spotless clubhouse reputations accept and embrace.

What’s the vetting process when setting up the draft board, looking beyond skill sets and projections for physical growth?

It isn’t complicated.

“We do sit down interviews,” said executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias. “We have some questions that we like to ask in the interviews, but nothing scientific. And then, a lot of work from the scouts, coaches, just repetition of stuff, whatever. It’s very subjective and unscientific.

“It feels to me like we’re pretty decent at it, so we keep doing it.”

Bad reviews can be a tipping point in making the selection. The Orioles have been fortunate that the best available players also carried impeccable reputations.

“For me, it’s a really big deal,” Elias said. “Over my experiences I’ve seen it be an X factor in a kid making it or not making it, both in a good direction and a bad direction. What’s tough is, this isn’t something that we can measure, so we’re kind of going off a subjective evaluation. But I feel like this is where a lot of our experience kicks in, and it’s something that I trust our process and staff on in terms of judgement.

“You’re going to get some of it wrong, but I don’t think we like to knowingly sort of bulldoze into what we have read to be a bad situation, and we want to at least think that we’re getting into a good relationship with a player that we’re taking with a high pick. Or perhaps a free agent, too, though that’s a little different animal.”

The Orioles haven’t hit on every draft pick. No one bats 1.000. But the No. 1 farm system in baseball, and the best record in the American League, aren’t attained strictly with talent. The intangibles served as extra hands to pull the Orioles out of the rebuild phase.

“It sure looks like it to me,” Elias said. “I think a lot of it is good luck, maybe, but we’ve also been careful to bring in people who we thought had good work ethics, good, I use the word ‘citizenship’ in the clubhouse, whatever you want to call it. Smart guys. And it seems to be showing up in the clubhouse this year.

“Also, we didn’t pick all these guys, but we’ve been working with them for a while. (Cedric) Mullins and (Austin) Hays, I could go on. Grayson (Rodriguez) really strikes you when you first meet him. I just think we’re very fortunate right now, but it is something that we do try to emphasis. And just seeing how nice it is to have a group of this quality with good heads on their shoulders, I think it’s going to motivate us even further to try to preserve that.”

The cliques that permeated the clubhouse in other seasons, even during the playoff years in the '90s, seem to have disappeared. This has got to be one of the closest teams in franchise history.

James McCann has used the word “love” in multiple interviews detailing what makes the Orioles special. Other newcomers like Kyle Gibson and Ryan O’Hearn say they’ve never had more fun.

“That’s good to hear,” Elias said. “And if there are (cliques), I think that’s normal, too. But so far this year, knock on wood, I haven’t had a hint of interpersonal drama crossing my desk in this clubhouse, which is unbelievable. It’s just a group that seems happy to spend time with one another.”

* The Orioles have used 29 pitchers this season, if you count the three position players forced into emergency mound duty – McCann, infielder/outfielder Josh Lester and outfielder Ryan McKenna.

McCann didn’t allow a run in the eighth inning Tuesday night in San Diego, stranding two runners by inducing three ground balls. Adley Rutschman caught him and didn’t bother putting down any fingers.

“Get it over the plate, and I think for him it was, throw it as slow as you can,” Rutschman said. “When you’ve got a position player throwing, you’re just trying to get ground balls. Not just serve it up. There’s no real plan.”

Rutschman caught McKenna last season. Same advice.

“I think ideally you want to stay out of that BP fastball range, so anything with a little hump on it is probably good,” Rutschman said. “Some guys will gas it up a little bit. Anything out of that BP range.”

McCann was behind the plate for McKenna on May 26. The results weren’t as good. The Rangers scored twice in the ninth inning.

Same advice.

“I was like, ‘Do not come out playing catch with me. It’s going to be a long inning. Just try to throw as slow as you can and throw strikes.’” McCann said.

Lester tossed a scoreless inning on June 23 in a 13-1 loss to the Mariners and was optioned the next day. Thanks and goodbye.

Anthony Bemboom was the catcher. They’re teammates now at Norfolk, though Bemboom is on the taxi squad for the West Coast trip.

“I told Lester earlier in the year, the slower the better. Just lob it in and it kind of messes with guys’ timing a little bit,” Bemboom said.

“I feel like if you’re trying to throw decently hard, that’s kind of like BP speed for in the game. I think slower the better and literally try to lob it in there and clip the strike zone. That’s about it.”

Bemboom was in the cage Tuesday when McCann began to warm.

“It was pretty good,” he said. “I mean, first time out there, you never really know until you’re on the mound in a big league game how hard it is to actually get it in the zone. Especially when you’re not throwing hard. It was pretty impressive.”

No manager wants to use a position player. The game already is out of reach, with the minimum deficit eight runs. There’s the risk of further embarrassment. But teams run out of pitching.

McCann smiled as he met Rutschman along the third base line. He wasn’t excited to do it, but the scoreless frame and how he shared the moment with his family put a positive spin on his lobbed throws.

“That’s always a unique experience for guys to have,” Rutschman said, “so he probably enjoyed it.”