O's add East Carolina second baseman in second round (multiple updates)

By Steve Melewski

Orioles

July 12, 2021, 9:33am

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The First-Year Player Draft resumed this afternoon and the Orioles selected East Carolina second baseman Connor Norby with their second-round pick, No. 41 overall. Norby led the nation with 102 hits this year as he batted .415/.484/.659 with 15 doubles, 15 homers, 18 steals, 64 runs and 51 RBIs. He finished eight in the nation in batting average. He was named the American Athletic Conference Player of the Year.

Norby was ranked as the No. 25 prospect for this draft by FanGraphs.com, No. 44 by Baseball America and No. 58 by MLBPipeline.com. A right-handed batter, he is listed 5-foot-10 and 187 lbs. Baseball America, in its scouting report on Norby, noted that he produced an OPS of 1.000 or more against fastballs, breaking balls and offspeed pitches.

On the MLB Network telecast, analyst Jim Callis commented on the O's pick.

"There are a lot of really good hitting second baseman in this draft and that is usually not something you say. Norby is one of the best," Callis said. "Tremendous year at ECU, led them to the Super Regionals. Really disciplined approach. I love the bat. He's got that short thing and makes a lot of hard contact. More of a gap-to-gap guy. Nothing else is a super plus tool, but he's got some power. He's got some sneaky speed that he knows how to use on the bases. I think average arm, average quickness. Probably stays at second, but he can really, really hit."

Norby becomes the fourth-highest draft selection in ECU history

Norby is one of four players in school history to earn inclusion on six All-America teams. He was a first-team selection by America Baseball Coaches Association, Baseball America and D1Baseball. He garnered second-team honors from Collegiate Baseball, National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and Perfect Game. He is one of two Pirates to be named a semifinalist for the Dick Howser and Golden Spikes awards in the same season.

Born in Brooklyn Park, Minn., he was a member of the ECU honor roll three times.

This entry will be updated after each pick today so check back often and refresh the page for the latest.

In Competitve Balance Round B: The Orioles drafted switch-hitting outfielder Reed Trimble out of Southern Miss with overall pick No. 65. This year, he batted .345/.414/.638/.1052 with 14 doubles, two triples, 17 homers and 72 RBIs. He scored 59 runs, had 81 hits and stole 12 of 14 bases.

He was ranked No. 104 by Baseball America and No. 148 by MLBPiple.com. Baseball America lists his run tool as 70.

In Round three: The Orioles added another college position player when they drafted University of Kentucky outfielder John Rhodes at No. 76 overall. According to Baseball America, when the draft was moved to July, it made him draft eligible as a sophomore for 2021. This season, he batted .251/.397/.508/.905 with 15 doubles, 11 homers, 47 runs and 36 RBIs.

Rhodes, who turns 21 on Aug. 15, gets 50 tool grades from Baseball America across the board except for a 45 with power. Baseball America notes that as a draft-eligible sophomore, he could be tough to sign.

He hit much better in the shortened 2020 season, batting .426/.485/.672 with 10 doubles in 17 games. He was ranked as the No. 134 prospect by MLBPipeline.com and No. 173 by Baseball America.

In Round four: The Orioles drafted another outfielder, Donta' Williams, from the Arizona. He batted .342/.481/.538/.1.019 with 17 doubles, three triples, eight homers, 81 runs and 49 RBIs in 62 games. He had more walks than strikeouts (50 to 40) and was hit by a pitch 17 times. He was a member of the all-Pac 12 defensive team.

In Round five: The Orioles selected their first pitcher of this draft, getting right-hander Carlos Tavera with the No. 137 selection. A big strikeout pitcher from Fort Worth, Texas, he went 3-4 with a 3.04 ERA. Over 15, games he pitched 83 innings, allowing 51 hits with 33 walks to 117 strikeouts and gave up six homers with a .177 batting average against.

Tavera was first-team all-Sun Belt and pitched the first nine innings of an 11-inning no-hitter against Little Rock. He set a school single-season record for strikeouts and ranked 25th in strikeouts in the NCAA.

First pitcher taken by O's in last three drafts:

In round eight in 2019 after eight position players were selected.
In round five of 2020 after five positon players.
In round five of 2021 after five position players.

In Round six: The Orioles added Tulane shortstop Collin Burns, a redshirt sophomore. In 55 games, he batted .353/.410/.571 with 55 runs, 20 doubles, four triples, eight homers, 20 steals in 25 tries and 50 RBIs. He was first-team all-American Athletic conference and a finalist for the Brooks Wallace Shortstop of the Year award. His 29 multi-hit games led his club.

In Round seven: The O's added University of Tennessee catcher Connor Pavolony. This season, he batted .260/.365/.442 in 49 games with seven doubles, seven homers, five steals in five tries, 29 runs and 26 RBIs. From Woodstock, Ga., Pavolony was on the all-Southeast Conference tournament team.

Callis said Pavolony is a good receiver with a solid arm that has some pop. Callis said coming into the year, he could have been as high as a third-round pick.

In Round eight: The O's added their first prep player of this draft. With the No. 227 overall selection, they drafted catcher Creed Willems from Aledo (Texas) High School. He has a commitment to Texas Christian Univerisity.

Ranked as the No. 454 player on the Baseball America top 500, Willems also pitched some for his high school team. Baseball America notes that "he has a plus arm behind the plate. He's been clocked 92-93 mph off the mound and shows some feel for pitching, too, with a promising slider."

In Round nine: The O's added third baseman Ryan Higgins from Fresno State. He batted .352/.453/.667/1.120 with 13 doubles, three triples, 11 homers, 45 runs and 41 RBIs. Higgins, 21, was announced as a third baseman but in college this year made more starts in left field (17) and first base (7) than he did at third base (6). He was ranked as the No. 230 player by MLBPipeline.com.

In Round 10: The O's wrapped up day two of the draft selecting another outfielder in Billy Cook from Pepperdine. In 33 games as a senior, he hit .298/.386/.725/1.111 with three doubles, a triple, 17 homers and 42 RBIs. He led the West Coast Conference in homers, and his total of 17 ranked as the third-most in program history and the most since 2002. He finished his career with 26 homers, ninth-best in Pepperdine history. He was all-WCC this season.

Through two days, the O's have selected 11 players, 10 from the college ranks and one from high school. They drafted one pitcher, two catchers, three infielders and five outfielders.

The draft resumes with its third and final day on noon on Tuesday for rounds 11-20.

Here are a few post round 10 comments from a zoom interview with Brad Ciolek, the Orioles' supervisor of domestic scouting operations.

Ciolek on being heavy with college players and light on pitchers: "Bottom line, we're looking to take the best available player ,and granted there is a lot of data and analytic insights with the college bat demographic that we feel very strongly and comfortable with. So we went ahead and made sure to target those guys early and often through the top 10 rounds.

"It's one of those things where we always have pitchers lined up, you know, up and down our board, and ultimately we have to make a decision and take the risk into account. But we will be looking extensively at some arms tomorrow."

Ciolek on Norby: "Norby has tremendous feel for the barrel. He has the ability to adjust well from the fastball to the breaking ball to off-speed stuff. It's a lightning-quick bat and he's shown that he can hit elite pitching. If you guys had the chance to tune into to the regional against Vanderbilt, he matched up very well against Kumar Rocker and (Jack) Leiter. We like what we are getting here in terms of the offensive potential. He's a very athletic kid, so we're excited we could get him in the second round."

Ciolek on the importance on contact skills for drafted hitters: "We always are looking for guys that have quality at-bats that won't chase outside of the zone and ultimately guys that have tools all around that will play at the next level. A lot of these guys do have the ability to stay within the zone and don't expand when they are pitched outside of the zone. So we're pretty happy with all those guys we got today."

Will O's potentially have some overslot chances on Tuesday?: "Yeah. So I'm always careful to comment on these things because negotiations are still ongoing. And some have not started to an extent. But we are always looking to get creative wherever we can and we'll try to obviously see what we can do tomorrow as well."