Baltimore Orioles: Looking at the 12 Outfield and DH Candidates

March 20, 2012; Mesa, AZ, USA; Texas Rangers center fielder

(20) knocks down a line drive in the third inning against the Chicago Cubs at HoHoKam Park. Mandatory Credit: Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports

At the moment, the Baltimore Orioles are looking to have 12 outfield candidates at spring training. I say “at the moment” because I am counting Tyler Colvin in that number … though by the time this article posts and is online briefly, it may eventuate that he will not be coming to the Orioles. It has now been a week since an agreement “pending a physical” was reported to be happening. It has not been finalized, and yesterday Jerry Crasnick of ESPN tweeted:

“From the ‘not this again’ department: Source says #Orioles are claiming there are issues with OF Tyler Colvin’s physical.”

Of course this references the controversy surrounding the Grant Balfour deal. One thing seems certain – you are going to be checked over quite thoroughly if you sign anything with the Orioles. I’ll leave it to other columnists to debate the merits and ethics of that. All I’ll say is that whenever I spend multiple millions of dollars on anything, I check it out rather thoroughly as well! Maybe it’s just a bad habit that I have?

The moniker of Dumpster Diving Dan Duquette (DDDD) seems to be becoming more common amongst Orioles fans. Agree with him or not, there are some common threads to his method or madness. One of them is that he picks up guys who were highly regarded at some earlier point in their career, but who may have dropped out of favor and productive sync. Quite a number were high draft choices at the very beginning – indicating a high level of talent and athleticism. Including longtime Oriole outfielders Jones, Markakis and Reimold, here is a list of the 12 current OF/DH names and where they were drafted. Notice that five of them were first-rounders …

Delmon Young – by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the 1st round (1st pick) of the 2003 amateur draft.

Nick Markakis – by the Baltimore Orioles in the 1st round (7th pick) of the 2003 amateur draft.

Tyler Colvin – by the Chicago Cubs in the 1st round (13th pick) of the 2006 amateur draft.

Julio Borbon – by the Texas Rangers in the 1st round (35th pick) of the 2007 amateur draft.

Adam Jones – by the Seattle Mariners in the 1st round (37th pick) of the 2003 amateur draft.

Nolan Reimold – by the Baltimore Orioles in the 2nd round of the 2005 amateur draft.

Xavier Paul – by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 4th round of the 2003 amateur draft.

Quintin Berry – by the Philadelphia Phillies in the 5th round of the 2006 amateur draft.

Steve Pearce – by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 8th round of the 2005 amateur draft.

David Lough – by the Kansas City Royals in the 11th round of the 2007 amateur draft.

Henry Urrutia – Signed by the Baltimore Orioles as an amateur free agent in 2012.

Francisco Peguero – Signed by the San Francisco Giants as an amateur free agent in 2005.

I think that is a very interesting list, as it demonstrates there is a lot to pick from. It would stand to reason that the Orioles should be able to find six of these guys (or four in addition to Jones and Markakis) who can contribute at a high level of performance in 2014. And it is interesting that what is perceived as the most likely candidate to get the most reps in left field – David Lough – would be the last person you would expect from this list.

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