Baltimore Orioles Draft Analysis: Potential First-Round Selections for O's

Amateur draft day in MLB is almost upon us.

It's an exciting time for baseball fans, as they get to watch young talent from across the nation be gobbled up by their favorite major league teams. The players beginning their professional baseball careers provide hope for the future success of the fans' beloved teams.

The draft begins on Monday, June 8, and the Baltimore Orioles have the 25th overall pick in the draft. The team didn't have a first-round (or second-round) pick in the 2014 draft as compensation for signing Ubaldo Jimenez and Nelson Cruz, so it's something of a big deal for the O's to be picking in the top 25 this time around.

It'll be tough to project who the O's will choose considering that there are 24 other teams making picks prior to the Orioles, but there are a general couple of guys the team could go with.

One of those players is left-handed pitcher Nate Kirby out of the University of Virginia, whom Kiley McDaniel of FanGraphs projects the O's to take with the 25th pick. Kirby was projected as a top-10 pick before the year started but has since fallen due to missing two months with a lat strain.

John Manuel of Baseball America actually has the O's taking Kirby with the 36th overall pick (a compensation pick they'll receive for losing Nelson Cruz to the Seattle Mariners in free agency this past offseason), showing that missing a large chunk of time due to injury really impacted Kirby's value.

A guy who is more likely to be taken by the O's is third baseman Ke'Bryan Hayes out of Concordia Lutheran High School in Tomball, Texas. Hayes isn't projected to become a typical power-hitting star third baseman, but he's believed to be able to develop his bat into a solid offensive weapon in time. However, he does need to improve his defensive game.

If the O's draft Hayes and it takes him about three years to develop into a major league starter, that would put him in line to take over the hot corner from Manny Machado in 2019, the first year Machado would not be an Oriole unless he's extended and/or traded by that point in time.

Going back to Manuel's article for Baseball America, the writer actually has the O's going with D.J. Stewart, an outfielder out of Florida State University, with their first-round pick.

Being a college player, Stewart would present a more advanced presence development-wise in the organization, which is much-needed, as two of its last three first-round picks were high school pitchers. The O's position-player prospect list is quite short, so taking a college-level position player may be the best way to go for the team.

Stewart is seen as someone with an outstanding approach at the plate and a line-drive swing with the ability to hit to all fields, but his fielding is subpar. While he takes good routes to balls, his below-average arm strength and lack of athleticism could ticket him to left field or even first base.

A move to first could make sense for the O's organization, as they do have a few outfield prospects, a position that might be the most well-stocked position in the minors for the club.

These are just three examples of who the O's could go with in the draft, but they could also end up with none of these three, as drafts are a fluid thing, and there may be other options presented to them at the time of their pick.

Only one thing is for sure: The O's are looking to improve their minor league system as best as they can, and hopefully, they'll be able to do just that. The team sorely needs it.