As fulfilling as it must be for the Orioles to have rookie John Means become their first homegrown starting pitcher to make the All-Star Game in a generation, the true measures of their rebuild’s progress will be seen Sunday at Progressive Field, as former top picks Grayson Rodriguez and DL Hall will represent the team in the All-Star Futures Game.
For an organization whose pitching development has been maligned for years, the progress their 2017 and 2018 first-round draft picks have made — especially in the new program installed by first-year executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias under hand-picked minor league pitching coordinator Chris Holt — is an early sign that this might be the wave of young pitching that reaches Camden Yards with its promise still intact.