What’s wrong with the Orioles’ farm system? | MAILBAG

Question: How concerned should we be about the state of the Orioles’ farm system? Right now every team is playing under .500, and the four teams are more than 30 games below .500, and it’s only May. I realize that teams often harvest their best players for the bigs, but that’s a tough pill to accept given how bad the Orioles are right now. We were told that one of Mike Elias’ successes was “rebuilding the farm system,” but right now they look pretty bad, so I’m confused. Can you provide some clarity? From: Mike Petrick from Silver Spring

Answer: Mike, a similar question was asked by Brian Bergsetter. What’s concerning is not the poor records of the affiliates or the overall drop in the farm system, but the lack of top pitching prospects. One of the better prospects, Patrick Reilly, who was at Double-A Chesapeake, recently had Tommy John surgery, and there aren’t any starting prospects close to the majors.

Chayce McDermott, who pitched for the second time this season on Tuesday night, is the third-ranked prospect, but he is having control issues, and he’s back at Triple-A Norfolk.

There are some good position-player prospects — Samuel Basallo, Dylan Beavers and Coby Mayo, who are at Norfolk, and Enrique Bradfield, who is at Chesapeake — but their lack of attractive pitchers is perhaps the main reason the affiliates’ records are unimpressive.

Question: You answered a reader question about the potential rehiring of Buck Showalter by opining that it was unlikely because Mike Elias and Showalter have different styles. I’d be interested in more details on how their styles contrast. From: Skip Mark

Answer: Skip, while Buck appreciates analytics, he is also an old-school manager who likes to make judgments using his experience and what he sees from players. He also has great knowledge of a team’s minor league players and wants to be a major part of the decision-making process in the organization.

Few of today’s managers are that involved, and general managers have much larger front offices with more data available than in the past. Elias is not unique in his reliance on analytics, and having watched both over the years, I don’t think they’d work well together.

Most weekdays, I’ll be answering at least one Orioles question. If you’d like to submit a question, send it to: Rich@BaltimoreBaseball.com. Questions may be edited for clarity, length and style.