Notes and quotes on the draft and more with Brad Ciolek

The Orioles selected six players the last two nights in the First-Year Player Draft and the first five-round Major League Baseball draft ever is in the books.

In a Zoom call with Baltimore reporters late last night, O's supervisor of domestic scouting operation Brad Ciolek expanded on the club's scouting and interest in top pick Heston Kjerstad, the University of Arkansas outfielder that went No. 2 overall.

"We liked him as a bat coming out of high school," Ciolek said. "At Arkansas, he added significant amounts of strength to his frame and that was conducive to hitting a lot of extra-base hits and home runs. We saw him with Team USA and scouted him heavily there over the summer. He was one of the more consistent hitters with Team USA. So we had a lot of healthy follow grades on him and scouted him heavily in the spring.

"We saw him at the Shriner's Classic at Minute Maid Park, where he hit a home run about 430 feet to dead center. Showed off a plus arm and moved well for a bigger guy. We were intrigued by the bat potential, the power and high contact in the strike zone with Heston. This year, more than in the past, with pitches in the zone, there wasn't a whole lot of swing and miss. We also looked at his exit velocities and how the ball jumped off his bat across the field. And our scouts also had plus raw power grades on him. So essentially it was a blend of old-school scouting and advanced analytics that made him an extremely attractive fit."

In the second round (No. 39) last night, the O's added Tulane sophomore-eligible outfielder Hudson Haskin. He hit .333 in 17 games this year. As a true freshman in 2019, the right-handed hitter batted .372/.459/.647 with 19 doubles, four triples, 10 homers and 52 RBIs. The 21-year-old Haskin led all freshman in college baseball in batting average and ranked third in slugging. He hit .432 in American Athletic Confereance games. He played at the same high school in Avon, Conn., as Houston's George Springer and he broke Springer's school record for stolen bases.

In round three (No. 74), the O's drafted shortstop Anthony Servideo from the University of Mississippi. The 21-year-old lefty hitter batted .390/.575/.695 in 17 games for Ole Miss this season, leading the Southeast Conference in OBP. He is considered a plus defender and gets 60 grades for his fielding and running. He posted a career .440 OBP that was .429 last year. After hitting four homers combined his first two seasons, he hit five in 17 games this spring. Servideo is the grandson of the late Curt Blefary, who won the 1965 American League Rookie of the Year Award with the Orioles and played on their 1966 World Series-winning club.

In round four (No. 103), the O's selected their fifth straight position player in this draft, but the first in the high school ranks. They selected third baseman Coby Mayo, 18, from Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. He is a big kid at 6-foot-5 and 215 lbs. He has a big arm, one of the strongest arms in this draft, with some nice raw power. With a commitment to the University of Florida, this could be an overslot signing with the amount for this pick at $565,500.

In round five (No. 133), the O's closed out their draft by selecting right-hander Carter Baumler from Dowling Catholic (Iowa) High School. He is said to have a strong college commitment to TCU. He was also a kicker and punter on the 4-A state championship football team and got college Division I offers. Baseball America states his fastball ranges from 88 to 92 mph while MLBPipeline.com says that is 90 to 94 mph.

In addition to adding Kjerstad on the first night of the draft, the Orioles selected Mississippi State shortstop Jordan Westburg with the No. 30 overall selection.

A few more quotes from Ciolek:

On the O's taking five positon players in six picks: "It's more or less kind of the same situation as last year. We just lined up our board and essentially took the best player at that time. Again, it was mostly college position players until Coby and Carter. There wasn't necessarily a philosophical approach to that (to take more position players).

"Every single one of these guys there was a balance between scouting and analytics. It wasn't just one or the other. We got together over the last month or so and harnessed in on this group of players."

The signing deadline is Aug. 1. Is there any advantage to getting players signed quickly with no games to play right now?: "We've tried to move fast in the past to get guys up and running. With the pandemic, the first concern and utmost concern is the safety of every guy. We're working with Major League Baseball to find potential avenues to get these guys processed from the medical standpoint. And we have to wait to see if there will be something, whether it's an extended instructional league or the guys will train from home. For right now, there probably isn't as much urgency as there was in the past."

Ciolek would not comment on whether the Orioles will sign any players to overslot deals or how much of their pool amount the club will spend. He did express confidence in signing both high school players.

Ciolek on soon trying to sign undrafted players: "Now with the draft concluded, we'll reconvene (today) and target guys that we think will be significant impact players even though they were not selections. We'll make every effort to recruit those guys and sell them the benefits of joining the Orioles organization. We do have a quiet period and we can't reach out to those guys and their advisors until Sunday morning at 9 a.m."

Interesting quote when asked about Kjerstad about the O's skipper indicating they need to play with more of an edge as a team: "Brandon Hyde, when he came and talked to our scouts in November, he said to keep one thing in mind. In addition to working hard and having the work ethic, his three words were, 'Nice don't play.' Heston certainly has the edge to him, and that is the type of mindset and guy we need to compete in the AL East."

The ratings are in: According to Sports Media Watch, the first round of the draft averaged 611,000 viewers on ESPN and MLB Network Wednesday night, up 101 percent from last year (304,000) and 91 percent from 2018 (320,000), when coverage aired on MLB Network alone and faced competition from MLB games.

ESPN attracted the bulk of the audience, averaging 432,000 for its first draft production since 2008. It was the network's most-watched weekday program in three weeks. With ESPN siphoning away viewers, MLB Network's audience sank to 179,000, 41 percent below its solo audience last year. The MLB draft got dwarfed in viewers by the NFL draft, which averaged 15.6 million on night one of its draft.

Here are the rankings from Baseball America, MLBPipeline.com, ESPN, FanGraphs.com and The Athletic for the O's draft picks. The Athletic's ranking went just 100 players deep. Others went deeper.

Kjerstad

No. 7 - FanGraphs.com
No. 9 - ESPN
No. 10 - MLBPipeline.com
No. 11 - The Athletic
No. 13 - Baseball America

Westburg

No. 25 - ESPN
No. 32 - FanGraphs.com
No. 33 - Baseball America
No. 37 - MLBPipeline.com
No. 40 - The Athletic

Haskin

No. 51 - The Athletic
No. 58 - ESPN
No. 74 - MLBPipeline.com
No. 76 - FanGraphs.com
No. 211 - Baseball America

Servideo

No. 55 - FanGraphs.com
No. 91 - Baseball America
No. 110 - MLBPipeline.com
No. 131 - ESPN
NR - The Athletic

Mayo

No. 67 - FanGraphs.com
No. 79 - Baseball America
No. 84 - ESPN
No. 132 - MLBPipeline.com
NR - The Athletic

Baumler

100 - ESPN
102 - MLBPipeline.com
127 - FanGraphs.com
147 - Baseball America
NR - The Athletic