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. @kyler416 and I unveil our #stlcards Top 50 Prospect List for May, starting with two articles. The free one shows the prior (offseason) rankings and the new. The subscriber one has our individual votes, those entering the list, others leaving and many more details.… pic.twitter.com/0JMcCUrsBf
— Brian Walton (@B_Walton) May 10, 2026
Mlb has doyle over raniel but not by much. Kind of amazing at such a young age hes surpassing those a little older. Will be interesting to see if he stays there as he goes up the ladder. Seems to generate lots of pop for someone not too big. Quick hands, geat bat speed are always good indicators of offensive potential.
Ibteresting thing about doyle is that many still expect him to end up a reliever. I would rather our highest ranking pitching prospects be those that predict to be a starter. Not sure what this says about the rest of our pitching prospects.
Great fun…great list. I loved all the moving and shaking. If Luna gets that much love, then whois the recent pitching signee who got some organizational mention this spring. I would like to see him BOR.
Campos, Mensoza, Heath and Flores seem undervalued, and I would further push down any injured A ball guys for they are far less likely to produce than position guys who add significant defensive value.This list is similar enough to my own so it’s hard to quibble. Maybe Elissalt at 34 seems a bit high. I took him out of my top 50 following his injury, but he may come back strong. I think Uegueto has made enough improvements where he certainly deserves an honorable mention or a spot in the top 50. I think that’s the only “miss” here. I missed ranking Emanuel Luna. Just completely forgot him!
I didn’t rank Hence, but he’s still in my top 70. I’ve typically been the low person on him for years (other than Bling!). I also put Clarke in the 50-70 range too because I don’t trust he can stay on the field. His injury history is just too long.
Really interesting read for the top 50 update and Kyle’s lefty comments.
For the update, I would be pushing Fajardo probably to the 6 spot. He has been dominant at a very young age and is generating plenty of swing and miss while commanding the ball very well. Fajardo is incredibly advanced for a 19 year old.
The other player I would still have further up is Leonel Seguera. The surface level stats are bad to be blunt. But like Fajardo, he is still very advanced for a 20 year old. Seguera’s underlying metrics are looking good though with him having a 26.4 K% and 6.9 BB%. He is getting plenty of swing and miss with a 15.4 SwStr%. I would probably have him around 35ish.
For a position player I would have higher, it would be Cameron Nickens. He has performed very well and his he is showing good plate discipline. He rarely swings out of the zone. Time will tell if he is just more passive but for now he is swinging at a decent amount of in zone pitches but it could be higher. His batted ball profile is quite interesting as he does a good job hitting line drives and fly balls. But what is interesting is Nickens inside out approach as he goes oppo at a very high rate.
Doyle I am not concerned about as he is really working on his offspeed pitches and trying to improve overall as a pitcher at the expense of results. I am really curious to see how some of these FCL guys like Hernandez and especially Dos Santos do and how they progress.
Won Bin Cho has become the new Josh Baez to dream on, and if he keeps his current pace, he will garner national attention.
After viewing one of Brian’s pics from Spring Training a few months ago I made the comment that Cho now looked more like a grown man instead of a scrawny kid. I still have high hopes for him.
Brandt Thompson with a great start again tonight. 9 k’s through 4 2/3 on about 80 pitches. He’s the other guy (besides Uegueto) who I was surprised not to see make Kyle & Brian’s list who made mine. His stuff is far from exciting but he continues to get excellent results at each level. He’s kind of a little guy with not much of a FB.
Its not surprising at all. If you want to be a top prospect you have to A) have a whiffle ball arm, B) do regular IL stints, and C) not be a late rounder from Missouri State. Any success Thompson has will come from staying on the mound enough to learn the art and get guys out with what e has. Hopefully he will resist efforts to have him add a tic until his arm blows out.
Tink Hence has thrown more innings in each of the last three seasons than Cooper Hjerpe, but Hjerpe is still in the Top 11?
Roby and Clarke can’t stay on the field, either.
Hjerpe is still in the Top 11
There seems to be a big difference between Hjerpe, on one hand, and Roby and Hence (and others) on the other. So far as we know, Hjerpe’s arm trouble is limited to elbow trouble, which can often be fixed. Hjerpe lost a year trying to avoid TJ, but an eventual return to previous form is plausible. Roby and Hence have multi year history of unsuccessfully searching for pitching mechanics that their body can tolerate.
Well I’d say the great purge of the 2023 roster for prospects has been a flat out bust. We got John King and some salary relief.
There come’s a point you have to start pushing guys down the rankings when they can’t take the field for multiple years in a row.
Here’s a snapshot of how our ranked pitchers are doing to date:
#2 – Liam Doyle – 21 years old, AA, 9 starts in 2026, 34.0 IP (average 3.8 innings per start), 5.82 ERA; 1.56 WHiP; 70% of the pitches thrown in college were fastballs
#5 – Quinn Mathews – 25 years old, AAA, 10 starts in 2026, 39.2 IP (average of 3.9 innings per start), 5.22 ERA, 1.61 WHIP; his third year at Memphis
#6 – Tanner Franklin – 22 years old, A+, 10 starts in 2026, 34.1 IP (average of 3.4 innings per start), 3.93 ERA, 1.34 WHIP
#8 – Jurrangelo Cijntje – 22 years old, AA, 9 starts, 41.2 IP (average of 4.6 innings per start), 5.18 ERA, 1.44 WHIP
#9 – Brandon Clarke – 23 years old, AA, hasn’t pitched in 2026, 38.0 professional innings, 14 starts (average 2.7 innings per start), career ERA 4.03, career WHIP 1.16
#10 – Tekoah Roby – 24 years old, AAA, hasn’t pitched in 2026, 301.2 professional innings, 31.1 innings at AAA, 6 GS started at AAA (average 5.2 innings per start), 4.02 ERA at AAA, 1.31 WHIP at AAA
#11 – Cooper Hjerpe – 25 years old, hasn’t pitched since 2024, 93.1 professional innings
#12 – Ixan Henderson – 24 years old, hasn’t pitched in 2026, 0 innings at AAA
#14 – Yhoiker Fajardo – 19 years old, A+, 37.1 IP, 9 games pitched – 7 starts (average of 4.1 IP per game), 3.38 ERA, 1.37 WHIP
#15 – Brycen Mautz – 24 years old, AAA (made MLB debut this week), 40.1 IP, 9 starts (average of 4.5 innings per game), 2.90 ERA at AAA, 1.36 WHIP at AAA
#17 – Chen Wei-Lin – 24 years old, AA, 35.1 IP, 9 games pitched – 6 starts (average 3.9 innings per game), 4.58 ERA, 1.50 WHIP
#18 – Mason Molina – 22 years old, AA, 39.2 IP, 9 starts (4.4 innings per game), 3.18 ERA, 1.26 WHIP
#20 – Braden Davis – 23 years old, AA, 37.0 IP, 9 starts (average 4.1 innings per game), 6.08 ERA, 1.54 WHIP
#23 – Luis Gastelum – 24 years old, AAA, 26.1 IP, 22 games, 0 starts, 3.76 ERA, 1.22 WHIP
#24 – Hancel Rincon – 24 years old, AAA, 29.1 IP, 15 games, 3 starts, 5.83 ERA, 1.57 WHIP
#28 – Cade Winquest – 26 years old, AAA, 6.2 IP, 6 games, 0 starts, 6.75 ERA, 1.05 WHIP
#29 – Tink Hence – 23 years old, AAA, 8.1 IP, 8 games, 8.64 ERA, 2.28 WHIP
#30 – Jacob Odle – 22 years old, A, 33.0 IP, 9 games – 7 starts (average 3.7 innings per start), 1.91 ERA, 1.27 WHIP
I don’t love the direction of the lack of SP innings pitcher, but I don’t think it is a deal breaker. The Brewers have one of the best performing rotations and they have the 3rd least SP innings pitched.
If you can accumulate enough talent you can deal with short starts as the SP can go more effort for better results and a RP come pitch multiple innings. I would like the Cards to give some of these guys like maybe Mathews a shot at being a Aaron Ashby type who pitched 2 or 3 innings out of the pen.
I don’t know how long it will take for Crooks to figure out how to hit at the major league level. But I like how he looks behind the plate. He looks confident and in control I also think he carries a kind of fierceness in his demeanor…. Just sayin’
I don’t love the direction of the lack of SP innings pitcher, but I don’t think it is a deal breaker. The Brewers have one of the best performing rotations and they have the 3rd least SP innings pitched.
The problem is, Marmol does not know how to let relievers pitch more than one inning at a time. If our starting pitchers get to the point they can only go three innings (as we are seeing in the minor leagues), he will use one reliever per inning the rest of the game, and have zero relievers available for extra innings.
I have no idea what you’re saying this time LA. Is that even a skill set? How can he not know how to do that? Heck, he’s done it 4 times in the last 5 games including twice yesterday. And in one of those games, the starter covered 7 of the 8 innings we pitched. Maybe he could do it more, but saying he doesn’t know how to do something that he regularly does is just a bad take.
There come’s a point you have to start pushing guys down the rankings when they can’t take the field for multiple years in a row.
You need to take pitcher ranking with a grain of salt because it does not correspond to actual reality. It does not matter at all if a pitcher can light up a metrics spreadsheet if his body cannot tolerate what it takes to light it up. To be a prospect at all, a pitcher has to be able to stay on the mound. That is the first bar to clear. No one is a top prospect unless they can clear it. That is reality. If a pitcher can pitch in a way his body will tolerate so that he can stay on the mound, then the next bar is he has to figure out how to pitch effectively whilst still pitching in a way his body tolerates. That is the core of what becoming an MLB pitcher is all about, and it is disregarded when it comes to evaluating and ranking pitchers.
Bling, I’m curious who your top 5 Cards pitching prospects are? I generally know who you don’t like and the only pitcher I recall you liking is Cornwell. I thought you liked Hansen as well but you made a comment recently his one injured once for a brief period and you included him in the injured group.
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