As the dust settled on the MLB First-Year Player Draft in mid-July, the Orioles had two brand-new college bats selected with their first two picks: OF Colton Cowser (Sam Houston State), selected No. 5 overall, and 2B Connor Norby (East Carolina), No. 41 overall.
From the Cowser/Norby selections, a few things about this team became clear:
- The O’s prefer the lower-risk investment of college bats (they picked 20 college athletes to just one high schooler in 2021),
- They don’t care about hype, passing on some of the biggest names in the draft — the trio of high school shortstops Jordan Lawlar (who went to Arizona with the 6th pick overall), Brady House (Nationals, 11th), and Kahlil Watson (Miami, 16th) — before landing on Cowser.