Three Orioles prospects make the MLB.com top 100 list

Three Orioles are among the sport's top 100 prospects according to MLB.com and MLBPipeline.com. In its ranking of the game's top young players released tonight, pitcher Dylan Bundy was ranked No. 20, pitcher Kevin Gausman No. 31 and pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez was ranked No. 68. When this list was released last January, Bundy was ranked No. 2 and Gausman No. 37 by MLB.com and Rodriguez was unranked as the O's had just those two players on the list. On the MLB.com list from last summer, Gausman was No. 14, Bundy No. 15 and Rodriguez was No. 85. The 21-year-old Bundy is rehabbing after undergoing ligament-reconstructive surgery on June 27. He went 9-3 with a 2.08 ERA at three levels of the minors in 2012, reaching Double-A. In 103 2/3 innings, he fanned 119. Bundy even became the fourth player from his 2011 draft class to reach the big leagues, as well as the fourth 19-year-old to pitch in the majors in the last decade, when he made two September relief appearances for the Orioles. Gausman, who turned 23 on Jan. 6, went 3-5 with a 5.66 ERA for the Orioles last year, pitching to an ERA of 7.66 in five starts and to a 3.52 ERA in 15 relief appearances. In the minors, between Double-A Bowie and Triple-A Norfolk, he went 3-6 with a 3.51 ERA. Gausman fanned 82 in 82 minor league innings and 49 in 47 2/3 innings in the majors. In September with the Orioles, he walked four and fanned 21 in 13 1/3 innings at a time when he felt his delivery and stuff were peaking. A native of Valencia, Venezuela, the 20-year-old Rodriguez began this season at Single-A Frederick and went 6-4 with a 2.85 ERA. He was promoted to Double-A Bowie, where he went 4-3 with a 4.22 ERA over 11 starts. But it was his last four Baysox starts where Rodriguez pitched probably his best ball of the year, going 3-0 with a 0.36 ERA. Baseball America ranked Rodriguez as the No. 8 prospect in the Carolina League and rated him No. 9 in the Eastern League. Rodriguez also pitched in the Futures Game this year, the California League/Carolina League All-Star game and Arizona Fall League's Fall Stars game. He pitched three shutout innings for Surprise as the Saguaros won the AFL championship in November. Not bad for a kid that won't turn 21 until April 7. In a morning entry here, I'll pass along some comments from MLBPipeline.com's Jim Callis about the O's ranked on this top 100 list. Here is a link to a story on the top 100 and the complete list.