2025 Minor League Players/Pitchers of the Month

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/prospect-watch-15-national-league-minor-league-players-off-to-stellar-starts-in-2025-mlb-season/
St. Louis Cardinals: C Josh Kross
The Cardinals nabbed Kross in the sixth round last summer by way of Cincinnati, where he had homered 19 times and posted a 1.076 OPS despite a concerning strikeout-to-walk ratio. It’s too early to know if he’ll go down as a steal, but he’s hitting .288/.377/.671 with six home runs (and eight other extra-base hits) in his first 19 games in the FSL. More than half his batted balls have featured an exit velocity north of 95 mph, and he’s connected on nearly three-quarters of his swing despite a swing-happy approach. Stay tuned.

I imagine this month’s choice was quite easy as Raniel was dominant. I don’t know if I agree that the Cards will pick Baez. Typically they don’t pick low level players, but I think that is more marketing as the lower level guys aren’t as well known and aren’t as good of prospects. I kind of expect them to pick Rodriguez as he deserves it and it helps create a little buzz around him.

Great to see Andre get this award. He’s long been one of my favorites. He and Ralston both, although Ralston has been devastated by injuries. Both should be in the MLB bullpen at some point. I expect Granillo to eventually be the closer unless Graceffo finds more consistency.

Brian, I agree Ralston probably goes elsewhere to play in the Majors but I still think he gets there.

It’s easier to have a hitter and pitcher of the month rather than 3 awards so I support it either way. It is difficult to compare apples to apples though with starters and relievers. Was Granillo truly better than McGreevey last month? It’s difficult to say. I do know this – Neither could have done exactly what the other did.

I was correct on Rainel.

Brian, we both know that for the actual Cardinals rankings there is publicity and politics that play into it. Roby needs a little buzz around him to hype him up. He did pitch really well and your ERA criteria may filter out some guys that should at least be in the running from the Cards perspective. The team is likely looking on the statistical side with a significant emphasis on K% and BB%. Those 2 stats have much more predictability on who will be a good major leaguer than any other pitching stat like ERA. The team is in the business of hyping of the real prospects though and likely want to recognize individuals who are showing the trends they like to see, which you can see hinted at in the comments you shared.

I did calculate Roby’s rough K% and BB% (I say rough as it doesn’t account for GIDP and caught stealing, etc for types of outs resulting in less batters faced). His K% would be 34.7% and BB% of 4.2%.

I don’t have a problem with your choice for the month, but just trying to state my thoughts on why the Cards would have picked Tekoah Roby. If I had selected myself, it would have been McGreevy. McGreevy’s K% was 30.5% and BB% was also 4.2%. Roby’s numbers are better there, but I would select McGreevy due to the better traditional numbers and SP role over Granillo. Granillo did have an incredible 42.9 K% and 5.4 BB% though.

But this award is not about predicting MLB success. It is who had the best month

I agree with that from TCN’s perspective and somewhat the Card’s org, but again part of my point is the Cards org is also concerned with the publicity aspect and are not always going to choose the best pitcher, but the prospect to hype up.

Regarding Roby’s innings, you could even more so say the same thing about Granillo out of the pen. But I’m not as concerned about Roby’s IP/ start given the injury history. Roby has been building back up from the injuries and is going deeper the last month now. He is averaging almost 6 innings and just came off a June (so not a part of the May award) start where he went 6.2