AP article on Penn and some site notes

Link: 'Orioles pencil in Penn as future star'

The thing about Penn is, he's really not a great prospect. John Sickels has him graded as a B-. I'm not saying anything is the gospel truth or that scouts/GMs/managers/people like John Sickels/people like me or you are always right or always wrong, but Penn is not any kind of phenom prospect.

But, he's the most advanced of our pitching prospects, so he basically gets the default billing of being kind of a big deal, and hitting the majors at 20 last year didn't hurt (or help, depending on your perspective.

Just off the cuff, my top ten O's prospects:

1. Nick Markakis, OF
   
2. Brandon Snyder, C/3B
   
3. Nolan Reimold, OF
   
4. Val Majewski, OF
   
5. Garrett Olson, LHP
   
6. Adam Loewen, LHP
   
7. Brandon Erbe, RHP
   
8. Hayden Penn, RHP
   
9. Jeff Fiorentino, OF
   
10. J.J. Johnson, RHP

It's basically the same ten you'll see most people list. I have Penn as our fourth-best pitching prospect, but I think the top five of them are all pretty similar potential-wise for the time being. I rate Majewski that high still based on what he'd done before the injury, and Fiorentino's somewhat rough 2005 knocks him down some. Good draft class makes all the difference in this top ten compared to last year's, where I was putting Nate Spears in just because I liked him.

Site Notes: There are a couple of features coming this week. Yesterday I had the chance to participate in an AL East roundtable discussion with the writers of our SB Nation sister sites (Bluebird Banter, DRays Bay, Over the Monster and Pinstripe Alley), and the Baltimore part of that will be up here soon, with the other team portions posted on their sites. Marc Normandin of Beyond the Box Score mediated. I think my answers about the other teams were probably more interesting than my answers about the O's, which I attribute to talking about the Orioles all the time and having said everything I think at least twice, but you'll get to see what the other team's reps think, too. I should have saved the transcript just to include a special feature I would have called, "Scott's Uncut Feelings on Domed Stadiums."

Additionally, we'll be starting what should be an interesting (or some other adjective) look back on Orioles history with The 40 Greatest Orioles of All-Time. I'm only going to include players from the Baltimore years, because no offense to Ye Olde Base Ball, but I don't think any of us particularly care where Baby Doll Jacobson ranks among the greatest in franchise history. It would be pretty well up there, by the way.