Baltimore WAUrioles Top 20 Prospects

I'm not going to be nearly as in-depth this year as the last couple, so maybe that will help me actually follow through with these.  Bottom line is this: I'm going to be going through each system and posting the Top 20 prospects, with my own personal grades for those prospects.  I'm not going to add individual player commentary this year, but I will post system commentary to go along with the lists.

We'll start this off with the Baltimore Orioles, who recently traded blue-chip OF Mike Stanton.



Baltimore Orioles Top 20 Prospects
Grade: A-
1.) Jacob Turner, RHP, DET

Grade: B-
2.) Joe Gardner, RHP, CLE
3.) Will Middlebrooks, 3B, BOS
4.) Scott Barnes, RHP, CLE
5.) Tommy Pham, OF, STL
6.) Jeremy Moore, OF, LAA

Grade: C+
7.) Mark Trumbo, 1B, LAA
8.) Joseph Mahoney, 1B, BAL
9.) Jesse Beal, RHP, BAL

Grade: C
10.) Eddie McKiernan, RHP, LAA
11.) Xavier Scruggs, 1B, STL
12.) Brandon Cooney, RHP, BAL
13.) Justin Miller, RHP, LAD
14.) Ty Morrison, OF, TAM
15.) Richard Zagone, LHP, BOS
16.) Ryan Schimpf, 2B, TOR
17.) Tim Berry, LHP, BAL
18.) Pedro Baez, 3B, LAD
19.) Ashur Tolliver, LHP, BAL
20.) Aaron King, LHP, SF

System Commentary:
The Orioles have an extremely thin system here.  It was difficult to find 20 guys truly worth mentioning.  That being said, the Top 6 prospects are fairly interesting, and I do really like Pham and Moore.  Obviously, the current jewel of the system is Jacob Turner.  He was one of my favorite guys in the 2009 Draft, and the one I was honestly hoping to land with my #6 pick (he went fifth).  Assuming that Detroit doesn't push him too aggressively (which is obviously a tough assumption to make given their recent history), he projects as a front of the rotation starter in the long-run.  Even with him, though, Baltimore has a lot of work to do to make this farm system even average.