Elias on draft, Orioles’ skid, Holliday, Mayo

BALTIMORE—The Orioles have the 22^nd pick in the first round of the Major League Baseball draft, which begins Sunday night. They also have the 32^nd pick, a prospect promotion incentive selection, which they received when Gunnar Henderson won the Rookie of the Year Award.

Executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias called the draft quality “fine. Nothing … noteworthy in one direction or another. It is a thin high school class in the first round. A lot fewer high school players being talked about in the first round than normal. It’s looking much more likely that there’ll be more college players to choose from.”

Elias also spoke to the media on Saturday about the slumping Orioles and prospects Jackson Holliday and Coby Mayo.

On the Orioles’ recent play: “The last couple of weeks, we’re in a funk, and our pitching staff hasn’t had its best, and also our position players haven’t been getting hits with runners in scoring position. That’s going to happen over a baseball season, but when both of those things happen at the same time, you’re going to lose games.

“It’s been our worst stretch, and that’s concerning. You don’t’ want to take it lightly, but you’ve also got to remember teams are allowed to have some stretches like this. Hopefully, that’s all this turns out to be. I would be lying if you told me in Sarasota you guys can be in first place on July 13^th, take it or leave it, we’ll take that. There’s a lot of season left and it’s going to be really close, and these guys [Yankees] in the other dugout are really good. We’ve got to focus on the second half.”

On Jackson Holliday: The Orioles rested baseball’s top prospect at Triple-A Norfolk because of right elbow inflammation. Lately, he’s been the designated hitter.

“He’s hitting well. His elbow was sore, and that’s dissipating and right now the full anticipation is that he’ll be back playing in the field right after the All-Star break, pretty quickly thereafter. That’d be great.”

On Coby Mayo: “We’ve got a lot of players, but him basically at the top of the list, producing really well at Triple-A. We’re really mindful of that, and just like we’ve done with a lot of players up here, we are very careful to not let somebody who’s been playing as well as he has in Triple-A stay there too much longer, but there’s also a major league team here that’s playing games every night that has 13 really good position players and a lot of guys with different defensive profiles, defensive abilities, and a player’s got to fit into that in order to get into the lineup.

“He is in an exceptionally good spot. We talk about him all the time. He’s very close. He’s going to help us this year. It’s about the right moment and the right opportunity and the right runway for something like that to happen, and there’s moving parts and there’s a lot going on here.

“I think he’s doing a good job at third base, and I think that when he comes up to the major leagues, he’s going to be able to offer help at third base and play other positions, too.”