Previewing the draft as the major league team looks to regroup

Major League Baseball's First-Year Player Draft begins tonight and runs through 40 rounds of selections on Wednesday. It is a chance for all teams to add a host of new talent to their organizations.

The Orioles have 11 picks in the first 10 rounds, with four of the first 98 selections and 41 picks overall. The Orioles pick in the first round with selection No. 21 tonight. They also have Nos. 60, 74 and 98 through the third round. Tonight the draft begins at 7 p.m. ET and it will be televised on MLB Network as they draft through competitive balance round B. The O's will make their first three selections tonight.

I asked scouting director Gary Rajsich what his focus will be with the O's first selection.

"Well, we are always looking for an impact player with our first pick," Rajsich said. "A major leaguer. Someone that can help us out with the big club. But we are always looking for pitching. We are always looking for left-handers. We are always looking for quality high school position players that we can develop. Really it depends what falls to us."

How does the top 100 look this year?

"It's good, it's good. They'll be players there that we like I think for each of our first four picks. And even beyond. The second day there are some nuggets there we really like and even the third day. So, I think this is shaping up to be a pretty good draft. We just have to get the right ones," Rajsich said.

This is Rajsich's sixth draft as O's scouting director. His first selection has been a pitcher four times.

Rajsich's previous top picks with the Orioles:
* 2012 - RHP Kevin Gausman, No. 4
* 2013 - RHP Hunter Harvey, No. 22
* 2014 - LHP Brian Gonzalez, No. 90 (third round)
* 2015 - OF DJ Stewart, No. 25
* 2016 - RHP Cody Sedlock, No. 27

This is the World Series for the Orioles' amateur scouts. They have scoured the country, watched hundreds of games, talked to many players, filed thousands of reports and now it all culminates over three days of selections.

"We are pretty important at this time of year," Rajsich said with a laugh. "Otherwise we like to stay behind the scenes. It's fun. There is where we get a chance to bring 40 or so new players into the organization. It's like Christmas in June."

Read more here: Earlier I wrote more with Rajsich and O's executive vice president Dan Duquette on the draft here and here.

Gausman and O's staff struggles in New York: Proving that you need more than velocity, Gausman had another struggling outing on Sunday in New York. Whether it is lack of consistent command, inconsistent secondary pitches or something else, Gausman allowed seven runs over 3 1/3 Sunday. He wanted to stop the Yankee onslaught, but could not.

He was not alone over the weekend. Gausman and Chris Tillman combined to allow 11 runs in the first inning of the last two games. The Orioles scored eight runs in the entire series. It was that kind of weekend, one where of the 12 pitchers that took the mound for the Orioles, 10 gave up runs. Only Richard Bleier and Mychal Givens did not. O's pitchers allowed 12 homers and 38 runs in the series.

Yankee hitters have battered O's pitching in their home ballpark this year. Over six games they have hit .357, scoring 68 runs in those games. New York has homered 22 times over the six games.

So yeah, the Yankees look like the much better team right now. And the Orioles are fading and now have fallen into fourth place.

This stat should be concerning: Since the team began the year 22-10, they are 9-20 with a starting rotation ERA of 6.44.

Maybe a series in Chicago will get the team pointed back in the right direction. The Sox are 26-35 and have lost nine of 11 games. The Orioles swept three straight from Chicago in early May in Baltimore.

A four-game series begins tonight. The O's got crushed in New York. Tonight they try to begin to pick up the pieces in the Windy City.