Orioles take Texas prep pitcher in Round 5 (draft updates)

Orioles take Texas prep pitcher in Round 5 (draft updates)
In the fifth round of the First-Year Player Draft, the Orioles selected a left-handed pitcher from a Texas high school. They selected Colin Poche with the 162nd overall pick. Poche is a 6-foot-3, 190-lb. hurler from Marcus High School in Flower Mound, Texas. He has a college commitment to the University of Arkansas. He was rated as the 99th-best prospect in the state of Texas by Baseball America. He becomes the second high school player and third pitcher the Orioles have taken in this...
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Nationals love pure power and Giolito delivers

Nationals love pure power and Giolito delivers
The Washington Nationals' first-round selection, right-hander Lucas Giolito, is another in the long line of big power pitchers that general manager Mike Rizzo and his staff covet. And as it seems every year in early June, Rizzo finds a way to get his man. "We have been on this guy from day one," Rizzo said. "The reward outweighs the risk. He is a power body with a power arm with three plus pitches."
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Kevin Gausman talks about being drafted by the Orioles

Kevin Gausman talks about being drafted by the Orioles
Kevin Gausman, the LSU pitcher drafted fourth overall by the Orioles tonight, has heard scouting reports that call him quirky. He doesn't dispute that notion."My quirkiness, well, I've always been a little weird, really," the 20-year-old right-hander said. "You know I like sci-fi movies. I eat four donuts in between every inning. So you know, that's a little weird. It is something I started back in middle school, so I've been doing that for a while now. The way I live my life, I like to be a little different than other people,"On a more serious matter, Gausman has heard criticism of his breaking pitches also in those scouting reports on him."I think I definitely have it in there. I really just started throwing a true curveball this season. So, I haven't had much time to develop it," he said. "My slider has been a good pitch for me lately. That is another breaking pitch I have in my arsenal. Some days I really feel comfortable with it and other days I have to work to find it."I think my development as a pitcher and going forward is going to kind of depend on that. I'll be a fastball-changeup guy my entire career, but what is going to make the biggest difference is which breaking pitch I will decide to throw and which will be my bread and butter, and which one I may do away with."The guy at LSU working with him on all his pitches has been Tigers pitching coach Alan Dunn, a former Orioles bullpen coach and minor league pitching coordinator."A.D., he really came in here and hit the ground running with all the guys on our pitching staff. I have a great relationship with him and he definitely had something to do with this. His background with the Orioles is good and no one has a bad word to say about him," Gausman said."It has been huge for me coming here (to LSU) and I couldn't imagine being in the minor leagues at 19. I was pretty immature and didn't know anything about pitching and didn't have a pitching coach. Coming here and playing two years in the SEC, I think the best conference in all of baseball, has been huge for me. Every Friday night, we get about 9,000 here and it's pretty crazy. I've matured leaps and bounds since high school, not just on the mound, but as a person and in every aspect of my life."Gausman has heard his name linked to the Orioles for a while now but he said he still wasn't sure which team would call his name tonight when the draft began."This day has kind of been a roller coaster. I didn't sleep very much last night and woke up this morning and didn't know what to think. I really didn't know what was going to happen. It was a little weird to sit back and watch. I was kind of shocked that I was taken by Baltimore. Obviously I'm very honored," he said."The last (LSU) pitcher taken this high was Ben McDonald and he was an Oriole, so that is something I am excited about. I've met Ben before and he has great things to say about Baltimore. I keep hearing about the crabs, so I'm excited about that."With (Stanford pitcher Mark) Appel falling and everyone saying that he was the best pitcher, I obviously expected him to go before me. I'm just really honored they decided to pick me and see where this goes."Gausman was asked about signing with the Orioles and if he feels he will pitch in the minors for the club this summer at some point. Gausman has thrown 115 2/3 innings so far and LSU is in the NCAA Super Regionals this weekend. If the Tigers win that best-of-three series, they will advance to the College World Series."It kind of depends on how I feel and how many (more) innings I throw. I could end up throwing another 25, maybe even 30 innings. It kind of depends on that. I've been going at it for about two years straight and that has something to do with it. We'll sit down and figure that out in the later months," Gausman said."I feel confident (about signing). They feel strongly about me or they would not have picked me. I think they will get a deal done and I feel confident about it. I'm truly honored to be selected by Baltimore, an organization that is so well known and has been around baseball so long."Note about the minors: As I mentioned in an earlier entry, Norfolk catcher Luis Exposito, who was with the Orioles less than two weeks ago, suffered a broken hamate bone today and will be out four or more weeks for the Tides.I have learned that the Orioles will send catcher Caleb Joseph from Double-A Bowie to Norfolk to take his roster spot there and that Brian Ward, whose 50-game suspension ended over the weekend, will be going to Bowie.
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O's scouting director Gary Rajsich: Gausman was top player on team's draft board

O's scouting director Gary Rajsich: Gausman was top player on team's draft board
Orioles scouting director Gary Rajsich was asked tonight on a conference call with Baltimore reporters about his decision to select LSU right-hander Mark Appel fell down the board and was available at four. What was the deciding factor between the two pitchers for Rajsich? "There were appealing things about both pitchers, although we feel we got the one we really wanted," Rajsich said. Rajsich told MASNsports.com tonight that Gausman was the highest-rated player on his draft board when it...
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Orioles draft LSU pitcher Kevin Gausman (with quotes)

Orioles draft LSU pitcher Kevin Gausman (with quotes)
BOSTON - In the end, the Orioles couldn't resist the allure of a college pitcher. And they had their pick of the best ones. Despite strong interest in high school left-hander Max Fried and San Francisco right-hander Kyle Zimmer, and the unexpected availability of Stanford's Mark Appel, the Orioles chose LSU right-hander Dylan Bundy in 2011,
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With a few hours to go, uncertainty remains atop the draft (update)

With a few hours to go, uncertainty remains atop the draft (update)
As of about 3:30 this afternoon, it appears that Orioles officials are still not certain who the top three selections in tonight's First-Year Player Draft will be and they are hoping to learn that before the draft starts so they can determine their best move with the fourth pick. In some past drafts, those top few picks were known among scouting directors with hours to go before the draft but not this year. No one seems certain even which player Houston will take with the draft's top pick....
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Nats preparing for a different type of draft

Nats preparing for a different type of draft
The Nationals have an off-day on the schedule today, but for nearly everyone in the organization with the exception of the players, today is no day off. The First-Year Player Draft is tonight, making today Nats general manager Mike Rizzo's favorite day of the year. He calls it his Super Bowl Sunday. This draft is very different for the Nationals than ones in seasons past, largely because, due to their improved record last season, they will no longer be picking within the top 10. It will also...
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What if ... the Nationals hadn't drafted Ryan Zimmerman?

What if ... the Nationals hadn't drafted Ryan Zimmerman?
Long before the hope embodied by Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper, Ryan Zimmerman was the face of the Nationals. When the team was still trying to gain a foothold on the D.C. sports scene, when vestiges of the Expos hadn't yet been eradicated from towel carts and equipment bags, it was Zimmerman who provided optimism for the future. His selection as the transplanted team's first draft pick in 2005 was a watershed moment, an opportunity for then-general manager Jim Bowden to select a player...
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So who will the Nationals go for at No. 23?

So who will the Nationals go for at No. 23?
So we have gone over a few possibilities for the Nationals with the No. 6 selection in the Monday draft. Let us now look at a few picks later on. There still will be a ton of talent on the board at No. 23, which is the Nationals' second pick in the first round. And, if the Nationals dig into the fruitful college pitching available in the top 10, would they turn to a position player, specifically an outfielder, with that No. 23 choice? Jim Callis, executive editor at Baseball America, says...
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Will Buck Showalter have input in the Orioles' draft?

Will Buck Showalter have input in the Orioles' draft?
There have recently been some rumblings in baseball circles and some reporters have been wondering whether Orioles manager Buck Showalter will have any input into the team's selections in the upcoming First-Year Player Draft. The theory is that Showalter wants to win now and doesn't have time to wait around for a high school player to get to the majors. Thus, he would want the Orioles to draft a closer-to-ready college player with the fourth pick of the first round "The X-factor for the...
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Will Yoder: An early look at the June draft

Will Yoder: An early look at the June draft
The last two seasons have been unique for the Nationals in that they have realistically had to do little to no research for their first-round pick in the June first-year player draft. They became the first team in history to have back-to-back first overall selections, and they were fortunate enough to have those picks somehow coincide with two of the most hyped pre-draft prospects of all time. As a result, in 2009 and 2010, the question was never who the Nats were going to pick, but whether or...
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