By Staci Wolfson

Online Exclusive

In his second year as the Orioles scouting director, Joe Jordan tried to keep the good picks coming to Baltimore in this year’s First-Year Player Draft.

The Orioles held the ninth and 32nd picks in today’s first two rounds. With their first round pick they chose New Jersey slugger Bill Rowell. As compensation for the loss of B.J. Ryan in the off season, the Orioles picked up right-handed pitcher Pedro Beato in the supplemental round.

Jordan said he and his team of nearly 30 scouts are pleased with their selections but there is no exact science when it comes to drafting amateurs. "We like what we like and when we like them we try to get them," he said after choosing Beato. "Who knows who's right? We're just gonna get them out and playing and see what we can get."

Although this year’s draft class was considered by scouts to have a considerably weaker talent pool than last year’s group, Jordan said the organization’s strategy was not need-based.

Instead the Orioles went after power-hitting Rowell, despite the fact that the major league club is currently strong through the middle of the lineup.

"We're very excited about the bat," Jordan said. "Good field to hit in. His power is easy power and that's to all fields so we're really excited to get him. He's a hitter first. This is a kid with tremendous raw power."

According to Baseball America, Rowell’s power is a 70 on a scouting scale of 20-80. He models his left-handed swing after Barry Bonds and reportedly constantly works to improve it.

The results have paid off. Before the first weekend of June, the Bishop Eustace Prep shortstop’s career batting average had reached .505. In 103 career games, Rowell had a .615 on base percentage and 157 RBIs.

At 6-feet-5-inches, scouts feel Rowell has grown out of the shortstop position. The Orioles are projecting him as a third baseman and watched him take ground balls in a work out at Camden Yards last week.

"We just feel like that's where he's going to end up," said Jordan. "We could send him out as a shortstop but we feel like if he's going to end up long term at third base we might as well put him there."

While the Orioles got Rowell for his offense, getting an arm was the next goal. Although the Mets chose Beato last year, they failed to sign him and Jordan’s staff had their eye on him for a long time.

"We felt comfortable that we had it done because we knew him out of high school so we knew a lot about him before this past year," said Jordan.

At St. Petersburg Junior College in Tampa, Beato was 6-3, posting a 2.75 ERA with 23 walks and 80 strikeouts. He had Tommy John surgery two years ago and Jordan said the Orioles are looking forward to seeing what he can do.

"He's a very strong, 6-5, 6-6 kid, going to be an innings-eater," said Jordan. "We've seen him, 95, 96 (mph) this year, plus breaking ball and changeup."

Jordan said he expects farm director David Stockstill will send Beato to begin his season with Aberdeen and that Rowell will probably start with a short-season team.

Later on in the draft the Orioles also took California shortstop Ryan Adams and Texas left-hander Zack Britton.

The Orioles will be looking for Rowell, Beato, Adams and Britton to follow in the footsteps of last year’s picks. Jordan’s 2005 choices of pitchers Brandon Erbe, Garrett Olson, outfielder Nolan Reimold and catcher Brandon Snyder have so far proven to be good picks, as the four make their way through the minor leagues.

This year Jordan did little to change his formula.

"My attitude is really to get tools, athletes, baseball players and turn them over to David Stockstill and just try to get that bats going," he said. "I'm very excited about what we did last year. We just tried to get those three ingredients in as many players as we could and going into this draft is the same."

Posted June 6, 2006