The Orioles have signed first round pick Colton Cowser with a $4.9MM bonus, per Jon Heyman of the MLB Network (via Twitter). Cowser was selected with the #5 overall pick, which carries a slot value of $6,180,700.
As with their first round pick last season, Heston Kjerstad, the Orioles chose Cowser with an eye on signing him to a below-slot value, which should enable them to spend more money further down in the draft. Of course, just because Cowser signed for under slot doesn’t mean he’s not worthy of the pick. Cowser spent three seasons at Sam Houston State University, winning the Southland Conference Player of the Year Award in his junior season, slashing .374/.490/.680 with 16 home runs.
Baseball America ranked him as the No. 11 prospect in the draft, calling him “a rare safe harbor who provides a long history of hitting.” Keith Law put him at No. 14 in his draft preview for The Athletic, while Fangraphs was more bullish, placing him at No. 6 overall with a 50 Future Value. Cowser’s contact is a plus tool, and he’ll unlock his ceiling if he continues to display power while playing centerfield.
I really like the Cowser pick.
Yowser, I like Cowser
Seems like he will have a good future.
Now Mr. Elias. Where is the Pitching going to
come from??
Pitching comes from the scrap heap, as evidenced by the 112 or so loss pace this season.
Elias might be going the Theo route.
Draft and develop hitters. Sign proven pitchers.
MT in Baltimore: Grayson Rodriguez says “Hi, I’m your 1st rd pick from 2018 drafted out of high school and I’m already in AA”. I’ll be pitching at Camden yards next spring.
If you develop position players well enough, you can trade for pitching
A team “only” needs to be able to develop at least 1, in theory
Buy arms. Draft bats. It doesn’t make sense to buy good arms right now until the team is ready.
Given our history in developing pitching, we are better off stocking up on bats. Buy/trade for pitching once another team has already made them successful.
See: Hayden Penn, Adam Loewen, Jake Arrietta, Brian Matusz, Dylan Bundy, Matt Hobgood, Kevin Gausman, Cody Sedlock, Hunter Harvey.
John Means, Erik Bedard, Josh Hader and Chris Tillman say hi. And really the Os deserve much of the credit on Arrieta since he figured it out only a year after he left Baltimore
Lmfao
Josh Hader pitched in the Baltimore Org in rookie ball. Arrieta wasn’t allowed to throw his cutter in Baltimore. The Orioles gets absolutely no credit. Tillman is the only one and he didn’t even go through the Baltimore minor league system.
This is a horrendous post.
International is where the arms will be found
Reminds me a lot of Nick the Stick.
Might be a good idea to learn about what’s in the system before commenting. Other than Means none of top 6 pitching pitching prospects will see Baltimore this year. Seems like they finally have a plan