Talking prospects and predictions

Five Orioles have been ranked among the top 101 prospects in baseball by Baseball Prospectus. Here is how Baseball Prospectus rated the five O's on its list released this morning: No. 10 - Kevin Gausman No. 15 - Dylan Bundy No. 58 - Hunter Harvey No. 61 - Eduardo Rodriguez No. 82 - Jonathan Schoop Before last season, Baseball Prospectus rated Bundy No. 4, Gausman No. 13 and Schoop No. 80. Now Rodriguez and Harvey join that list. Here is a breakdown of American League East prospects on this list: Boston, six; Orioles, five; Toronto, three; Tampa Bay, two; New York, one. When MLB.com released its list last week, just three Orioles made the top 100 with Bundy No. 20, Gausman No. 31 and Rodriguez No. 68. I'll have more on this Baseball Prospectus list later today. There is more prospect news to report this morning. John Sickels of minorleagueball.com has released his top 20 Orioles prospects list. He writes in his article that, "The Duquette administration has made progress with the farm system. The Orioles boast intriguing pitching depth but need more bats." Here is his top 20 in order: 1) Kevin Gausman 2) Dylan Bundy 3) Eduardo Rodriguez 4) Hunter Harvey 5) Henry Urrutia 6) Jonathan Schoop 7) Michael Ohlman 8) Mike Wright 9) Chance Sisco 10) Tim Berry 11) Parker Bridwell 12) Zach Davies 13) Branden Kline 14) Stephen Tarpley 15) Adrian Marin 16) Josh Hart 17) Christian Walker 18) Drew Dosch 19) Tyler Wilson 20) Trey Mancini and Conor Bierfeldt "Another middle of the pack system I think," Sickels wrote. "The Orioles have developed some very intriguing pitching depth. You have two potential number one starters in Bundy and Gausman, then a large group of arms that could fit in the middle or back of a rotation or provide some bullpen help. If Harvey pans out, he could join Bundy and Gausman among the Grade A-elite types within the next year. "As the history of the recent past in Baltimore shows, having good pitching prospects is not the same thing as having good major league pitchers. You have to get them over the hump, but the arms have to come from somewhere and it looks to me like the scouts are doing their job finding the raw material." Click here to read the article and, as always, feel free to leave some questions and comments. Meanwhile, click here to see a prediction of the 2014 major league standings. Tampa Bay is projected to take the American League East with 90 wins, while the Orioles are picked for last at 77. The projection is for the Orioles to score fewer runs that Tampa but more than New York. No one should blow any gaskets over this or, on the other hand, feel that this confirms the dire predictions for the club by some of you for 2014. It is just one take. Last year, by the way, the Pecota projections, which some fans seem to love, predicted the O's to finish 77-85. I wrote this late last March where ESPN's Buster Olney predicted the Orioles to win the AL East last year and his colleague, Jayson Stark, had the O's second. Looking back, the 77-win prediction for a losing season was off and the O's neither finished first nor second. But predictions are fun to look at and talk about, right?