ORIOLES DRAFT HISTORY SIDEBAR: WHERE THE DYNASTY CAME FROM
The 1969-71 Orioles--without question, the franchise's all-time salad days, and one of the best three-year clubs in Major League Baseball history--unquestionably a better club than the far more celebrated 1972-74 Oakland A's, for instance. The Orioles were known in those days for "building from within"; that's arguably an accurate description, but what's interesting is how irrelevant the amateur draft was to the teams that made up the Orioles dynasty.
Let's focus on the 1970 Orioles--the team that made up the middle unit of three, and was the one that went the distance, winning the World Series. Like most great teams--and there's no question that "great" applies to the '70 O's--there was a nucleus of perhaps 20 players upon whom the Birds depended that year to reach and maintain their lofty heights. How did these guys come to be Orioles? Keep in mind that the Orioles had participated in five amateur drafts before taking the field in 1970.
THE 1970 ORIOLES AND THEIR ORIGINS
| PLAYER | POSITION | METHOD OF ACQUISITION |
| Mike Cuellar | SP | Traded from Houston in December, 1968 |
| Dick Hall | RP | Released by Philadelphia after '68 season, signed as free agent in April, 1969 |
| Jim Hardin | SP/RP | Pre-draft Orioles signee (1962) |
| Dave McNally | SP | Pre-draft Orioles signee (1961) |
| Jim Palmer | SP | Pre-draft Orioles signee (1964) |
| Tom Phoebus | SP | Pre-draft Orioles signee (1960) |
| Pete Richert | RP | Traded from Washington in May, 1967 |
| Eddie Watt | RP | Pre-draft Orioles signee (1962) |
| Andy Etchebarren | C | Pre-draft Orioles signee (1961) |
| Elrod Hendricks | C | Selected in minor league free agent draft in November, 1967 |
| Boog Powell | 1B | Pre-draft Orioles signee (1959) |
| Dave Johnson | 2B | Pre-draft Orioles signee (1962) |
| Brooks Robinson | 3B | Pre-draft Orioles signee (1955) |
| Mark Belanger | SS | Pre-draft Orioles signee (1962) |
| Don Buford | LF | Traded from Chicago (A) in December, 1967 |
| Paul Blair | CF | Drafted from Syracuse (Intl. League) in December, 1962 |
| Frank Robinson | RF | Traded from Cincinnati in December, 1965 |
| Merv Rettenmund | OF | Pre-draft Orioles signee (1964) |
As you can see, many of the key contributors on the '70 Orioles were home grown...a couple of others were nearly so. A few others were added in key trades. But not a single member of this club--or the team that preceded or succeeded it--came through the amateur draft. It's clear that the Orioles, as a franchise, thrived in identifying, signing and developing talent in the free market that pre-dated the draft's inception in 1965. Future Oriole teams, as we'll see in later series installments, were more dependent upon draft success, but rarely with much better than mixed results and, in any event, the franchise has never put together a base of talent that matched that of the 1969-71 clubs.
Previous Segments: THE
ORIOLES' AMATEUR DRAFT HISTORY: AN INTRODUCTION
THE
ORIOLES' AMATEUR DRAFT HISTORY: THE EARLY YEARS (1965-71)