THE ORIOLES' AMATEUR DRAFT HISTORY:  1987-95

We've already covered 1965-86, the first 22 years of the amateur draft, and things look like this:

(Note:  for an explanation of the ranking categories, see the draft introduction article.)

The first 22 years of Orioles drafting didn't exactly yield a tremendous number of good ballplayers.  By this ranking system, the club selected five players who became stars--Cal Ripken, Eddie Murray, Mike Flanagan, Bobby Grich and Don Baylor.  Ten players--including Doug DeCinces, Mike Boddicker and Scott McGregor--fell into the starting position player/contributing pitcher category.  This isn't a total disaster, but it's not a particularly impressive record either, especially when it's coupled with an almost complete absence of successful Latin American players (Dennis Martinez excepted) who weren't subject the to the draft.

In this final segment, we'll see a brief period of success (1987-90), followed by more lean seasons.

After seven straight miserable drafts, a record that signaled the Orioles collapse from 1986-88, the Birds finally started to turn things around in '87.  That year, the team selected Pete Harnisch in the first round.  Harnisch has gone to have a solid big league career--one that's still ongoing--though the vast majority of it was with teams other than the Orioles.  Still, Harnisch gets a "contributing pitcher" designation.  Steve Finley, who is kind of teetering between the starting position player and star categories in a career that is also still in progress, was chosen in the 13th round.  Finley has arguably played well enough over most of the past five or six seasons to be placed in the star category and we'll give him the benefit of the doubt.  His offense probably leaves him short of star caliber classification, but his defense could be regarded as putting him over the top.  David Segui, back with the O's after a long hiatus has moved himself firmly into the starting position player category.  He was an 18th round choice that year.  Those three were the only players that the Orioles drafted in 1987 who made the bigs, but that's a pretty good one-year haul...even if all three players reached their respective pinnacles somewhere other than Baltimore.

The Orioles had arguably as good a draft in 1988 as 1987.  Gregg Olson was the first round pick.  Olson spent five years as one of baseball's top closers before hurting his arm in 1993.  His career--which continues--has certainly gone south since then, but Olson was plainly a star from 1989-93, and based on that and the purpose of this exercise, we'll classify him as a star.  Ricky Gutierrez was also a first round choice of the Orioles that year, and, while certainly no star, has become a starting position player over the past five seasons.  Gutierrez never played a big league game with the Orioles, but they did draft him.  Arthur Rhodes was a second round choice in '88 and he has clearly become a "contributing pitcher" at the big league level beginning in 1996.  The club also drafted Pete Rose, Jr. that year, who falls firmly in the cup of coffee category.  

The Orioles managed to pick up some more decent players in 1989.  The first round choice was Ben McDonald, expected to be a star, but more accurately is classified as a "contributing pitcher."  McDonald suffered all kinds of injury setbacks and, even when healthy, was never as dominant as most observers expected when the Orioles drafted him first out of LSU.  Lefty Brad Pennington, chosen in the 12th round, could throw a ball through a wall...the only problem was that no one knew which wall he'd be hitting at any given moment.  Pennington bounced around for parts of five seasons at the big league level, appearing in a total of 79 games and compiling an ERA of 7.02.  He gets the cup of coffee tag.  RHP Mike Oquist, a 13th round pick, is still playing pro ball, but has never been very effective.  He goes in the journeyman category.  Catcher Greg Zaun has been a (mostly) serviceable (mostly) backup catcher for parts of six big league seasons entering 2001.  He gets the journeyman tag as well.  Infielder Keith Kessinger, son of a much more famous infielder (Don), barely made the bigs and gets the cup of coffee label.

The Orioles scored the jewel of this era of their draft history with the first round pick in 1990--righty Mike Mussina, who plainly falls into the star category.  Erik Schullstrom, another RHP, was drafted in the second round, but managed only a cup of coffee career.  Bobby Chouinard was chosen by the O's in the fifth round.  Chouinard, despite some personal problems, has turned into a serviceable big league relief pitcher, but hasn't had a long enough or successful enough career to move out of the journeyman category.  Damon Buford has done some starting, but has mostly been a fourth outfielder at the big league level.  He's platooning in center field for the Chicago Cubs these days, but hasn't played regularly (or well) enough to be considered anything but a journeyman.  RHP James Dedrick managed to appear in six games for the Orioles in 1995.  That was the extent of his career and he receives the cup of coffee designation as a result.

The Orioles drafted six more players in 1991 who reached the bigs, but none have been particularly successful.  Outfielder Mark Smith has stuck around long enough (parts of six big league seasons, more than 300 games) to earn a journeyman tag, but that's about all.  OF Alex Ochoa also gets a journeyman categorization, but has appeared to improve sufficiently over the past couple of seasons that, in time, he could move into the "starting position player" category.  For now, however, he's a journeyman.  LHP Vaughn Eshelman pitched very poorly for the Red Sox over parts of three seasons.  He ended up throwing more than 200 innings at the big league level, so he probably played too much to be considered a cup of coffee guy.  We'll call him a journeyman.  Jimmy Haynes, who's had precious little success despite many opportunities with three clubs, also falls into the journeyman pitcher category.  OF Curtis Goodwin bopped around for awhile and also fits into the journeyman category.  Rick Krivda, a lefty hurler, falls into the same category.

1992 produced outfielder Jeffrey Hammonds, who will be placed in the starting position player category, as well as cup of coffee RHPs Brian Sackinsky and Scott Klingenbeck.

Two more modest big leaguers were drafted in 1993:  outfielder Kimera Bartee (journeyman) and right-handed pitcher Rocky Coppinger (journeyman).

Two more cup of coffee types were added in 1994's draft:  catcher Tommy Davis and RHP Chris Fussell. 

Only one player was chosen in the '95 draft that has reached the bigs thus far:  outfielder David Dellucci, who could turn out, ultimately, to be a starting position player, but thus far falls into the journeyman category.

This was, in all, a pretty decent stretch of drafts for the O's, almost certainly the best segment reviewed thus far.  But note how heavily front-loaded it was:  of the nine players falling in the two highest categories, eight were chosen by 1990.  Other than Hammonds, no one chosen from 1991-95 is anything more than a journeyman, (though two--Ochoa and Dellucci--arguably have a shot at the starting position player category).

Here's the overall 31 year record:

While this doesn't look like a particularly sterling history, how can one tell?  The evaluation, in the end, must be a comparative one...how do the Orioles compare to other big league franchises?  We'll take a look at that next.

Next:  A Comparative Analysis

Previous Segments:  THE ORIOLES' AMATEUR DRAFT HISTORY:  AN INTRODUCTION
                                   THE ORIOLES' AMATEUR DRAFT HISTORY:  THE EARLY YEARS (1965-71)
                                   ORIOLES DRAFT HISTORY SIDEBAR:  WHERE THE DYNASTY CAME FROM
                                   THE ORIOLES' AMATEUR DRAFT HISTORY:  THE 1970s (1972-79)
                                   THE ORIOLES' AMATEUR DRAFT HISTORY:  THE EARLY 1980s (1980-86)