Dan Connolly

Minor League Podcast with Adam Pohl: Maligned 2009 draft gets some retribution

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When Orioles fans bemoan the farm system’s struggles over the years, it’s easy to point to the 2009 draft as a major factor leading to those woes.

Guys like Mike Trout and A.J. Pollock and Stephen Strasburg were in that draft, but the Orioles used their fifth pick overall on California high school pitcher Matt Hobgood, who is out of the organization after not making it higher than Bowie (where he pitched six games and posted a 6.52 ERA).

Heading into this week, only one player the Orioles signed from that draft made it to the majors, and that was right-handed pitcher Mychal Givens, who was a second-round pick as a shortstop.

That dismal track record changed a little this week when the Orioles promoted 2009 fifth-rounder lefty Ashur Tolliver from Double-A Bowie. Also, infielder Ty Kelly, the Orioles’ 13th round pick in 2009 who has been out of the organization since 2013, made his debut with the New York Mets on Tuesday.

On this week’s Minor League Podcast, Bowie Baysox play-by-play announcer Adam Pohl looks at that 2009 draft and the Tolliver promotion. He then speaks with BaltimoreBaseball.com’s minor league expert Dean Jones Jr. about the recent flurry of activity in the Orioles’ system, which included the acquisition of four minor league pitchers (two from the Brian Matusz trade with Atlanta).

Pohl also delves into the Low-A Delmarva Shorebirds by chatting with their first-year announcer, Brendan Gulick.

Gulick breaks down some of the top players on the Shorebirds – the team with the best record in the Orioles’ system right now – including 2015 top picks D.J. Stewart, Ryan Mountcastle and Garrett Cleavinger, and impressive 20-year-old right-hander Ofelky Peralta.

So check it out.

Dan Connolly

Dan Connolly has spent more than two decades as a print journalist in Pennsylvania and Maryland. The Baltimore native and Calvert Hall graduate first covered the Orioles as a beat writer for the York (Pennsylvania) Daily Record in 2001 before becoming The Baltimore Sun’s national baseball writer/Orioles reporter in 2005. He has won multiple state and national writing awards, including several from the Associated Press Sports Editors. In 2013 he was named Maryland Co-Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. And in 2015, he authored his first book, "100 Things Orioles Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die." He lives in York, with his wife, Karen, and three children, Alex, Annie, and Grace.