Pretty decent draft review from VEB. I know I tend to post several of their articles. It is certainly not intended as a slight to the writers on this site. Just additional information but if I need to stop I will.
I have to admit, I was very lukewarm on this group as the draft was going on, feeling like the Cardinals made too many sacrifices in rounds 3-10 in order to make sure they could afford Baez in the second. To a certain degree, I still feel that way. But, as I dug in on these guys more deeply and actually scouted them, I came away feeling like Randy Flores and his team did a better job of finding players with intriguing tools than I initially gave credit for. There are still multiple pitchers in this draft I just don’t give much of a chance to — the guys after round ten, obviously, simply because it’s so rare to hit on those players anyway, even if you like them, but also guys like Zane Mills and Alfredo Ruiz I just don’t think have big league stuff — but there are also several players who have one or two tools or skills that could translate into a meaningful career should things break well for them.
If you gave me the option of taking this draft class versus the one I think the Cards could have had, had they not gone heavy on Baez and maybe one or two other bets, instead spreading the pool to a greater number of interesting players, I think I would choose the latter. They put a lot of eggs into just a couple baskets with this draft, and all along I felt the strength of this draft was its depth, rather than superlative talents at the top who could define a franchise should they be so lucky to draft one of those guys. But, it is also a fact that the Cardinals got a player with one of the highest ceilings in the entire draft at pick 54, and then placed several interesting strategic bets on what might have been undervalued assets due to one reason or another after that. It’s not the draft I would have conducted, but it’s a draft in which I think the Redbirds executed a gameplan they had clearly at least considered beforehand and then jumped to whenever the opportunity presented itself.
Since 2018, the Cardinals have added Nolan Gorman, Jordan Walker, Masyn Winn, and now Joshua Baez to their system through early draft picks. It’s hard to build a Cubs-style offensive core through the draft when you don’t have top ten draft picks, but you can’t say the Cards aren’t trying.
https://www.vivaelbirdos.com/2021/7/20/22584019/2021-draft-review-no-2-the-later-rounds