Minor League Podcast: Pohl talks 2016 O’s draft with Rajsich and Jones

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We won’t really know about the Orioles’ 2016 draft class for another three years, five years or even longer.

But it’s always interesting to hear what the organization wanted to accomplish, what they targeted and why they grabbed some of the players they did.

In this week’s “Minor League Podcast with Adam Pohl,” Orioles scouting director Gary Rajsich is the featured guest. Rajsich breaks down some of the early picks, including the three Thursday selections, college pitchers Cody Sedlock, Keegan Akin and Matthias Dietz, and third-round outfielder Austin Hays of Jacksonville University.

Pohl, who is the play-by-play announcer for the Double-A Bowie Baysox, asks Rajsich about his drafting philosophy and why the club focused on so many pitchers (27 of 41) this year.

Rajsich also gives his thoughts on seventh-round pick Preston Palmeiro, the North Carolina State first baseman and son of former Oriole great Rafael Palmeiro.

This podcast segment includes BaltimoreBaseball.com minor league expert Dean Jones Jr.’s take on the draft, and on the way the Aberdeen IronBirds roster may shape up.

Give it a listen.

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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.