Submitted by Eddie, Aug 19, 2007 20:32

I'm not defending the Orioles but, you're obviously relying on scouting of the Orioles farm system that dates back to around '00...but as far as the Os system being one of the worst in baseball, this just aint true.

The Oriole farm system rates higher than the Yankees. Baseball America rates them at about the same level as the Braves which is roughly #12...off the top of my head they have extreme high potential position guys like Rowell, Weiters, Reimold...those who have reached the majors are Markakis who looks like a future .300/30 HR/20SB guy ...as far as pitching goes the Yankees don't match it...Loewen, Bedard, Guthrie, and Cabrera form the core of the major league young starting pitching just starting to come into their own...right behind them they have Erbe, Penn, Liz, Beato, and Olson who any number of them (except Olson) could be top rotation starters...though even if you consider Olson to be the worst of the bunch, he is still perhaps as better than John Maine was at the same age so take that for what it's worth...out of the 9 names I just mentioned, 8 of them have the potential to be #1 starters eventually of which Bedard is already there (and maybe Guthrie too)...their are few teams in the majors who can start matching the kind of high potential depth they've been building since '00...

...and as far as the roster having not that many homegrown players that just aint true either...it's true that they seem to have either very old guys or very young ones...but, off the top of my head, I think the majority of the roster is homegrown...maybe they are guys you never heard of before so the Millars, Tejadas, and Jay Paytons stick out the most...but they do have Bedard, Markakis, Loewen, Roberts, Ray, and maybe 4-5 other guys from their farm...

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