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Well folks, the time has come upon us to undertake the time honored tradition of matching wits with one another, the site stewards and prospect raters at large…this is the official 2025 TCN St Louis Cardinals Top Prospect Voting Thread!!
Jnevel and I will be tag teaming this effort as we will do our best to stay on a schedule…Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday starting next week, October 29, will be the end times for voting. I will be handling the Tuesday and Thursday tallies, while Jnevel will be doing Sundays. I’ll set the time to close out the voting as noon Central Time each date. This should give folks time to check in and make their picks. I will post a full schedule in the next post for reference.
Last year’s rankings, for clarity’s sake:
1. Winn
2. Saggese
3. Hence
4. Roby
5. Scott
6. Hjerpe
7. Graceffo
8. McGreevey
9. Davis
10. Bernal
11. Rajcic
12. Robberse
13. Cho
14. Kloffenstein
15. Crooks
16. Showalter
17. Hansen
18. Bedell
19. Mautz
20. Honeyman
21. Rom
22. Pages
23. Baez
24. Prieto
25. Granillo
26. Nunez
27. Matthews
28. Antico
29. Levenson
30. Paniagua
31. Mejia
32. Rincon
33. Gómez
34. Cornwell
35. Svenson
36. Mendlinger
37. Koperniak
38. Baker
39. Redmond
40. Dunn
41. Fernandez
42. Willis
43. Iadisernia
44. Santos
45. Thomas
46. Siani
47. Yeager
48. Love
49. Church
50. RivasOne note on eligibility criteria. A player is not eligible as a Rookie anymore after they have 130 MLB plate appearances or 50 innings pitched or more than 45 days on a MLB Roster. Obviously, players no longer with the organization are not eligible as well. Therefore, we cannot choose several guys that we got to pick from last year. Here are some key names from last year who are NOT eligible:
Masyn Winn, Victor Scott, Pedro Pages, Ryan Fernandez, and Michael Siani.
Last year’s site #50, Guillermo Zuniga, exited the system. Luken Baker, Jose Fermin and James Naile (also gone) were declared ineligible last year. If anyone knows of any others who are ineligible this time that we might vote on, please let me know.
One final note on the voting before we unveil the schedule: everyone here is free to participate. It is even encouraged. Please list not only your player you will be voting for, but also why you are voting for them. It’s a lot of fun to see why others have their opinions and I hope that we can have some friendly banter as we dream on the Redbirds of the future. Enjoy!!
Rules on the votes where will vote for more than 1 player (I’ll refresh this when we get there):
We will vote past #10 on a weighted ballot system. Each set of votes will give “points” to each prospect in descending order of the group we are voting on (if we are voting for 3, the top vote gets 3, second gets 2, last gets 1). As a practical example for votes #31-33:
Player A gets 5 votes at #31, 3 at 32 and 2 at 33 (23 pts)
Player B gets 4 votes at #31, 4 votes at 32 and 2 votes at 33 (22 pts)
Player C gets 1 vote at 31, 1 at 32 and 2 at 33 (7 pts)
Player D gets 0 votes at 31, 2 at 32, 3 at 33 (7 pts)
In this example, A is #31 because they got the most points. B is #32 because they got 2nd most. C is #33 because although C and D tied in points, C got more votes at the higher spot. D goes back into the hopper for the next round.
Voting Schedule
Oct 29 #1
Oct 31 #2
Nov 3 #3
Nov 5 #4
Nov 7 #5
Nov 10 #6
Nov 12 #7
Nov 14 #8
Nov 17 #9
Nov 19 #10
Nov 21 #11-12
Nov 24 #13-14
Nov 26 #15-16
Nov 28 #17-18
Dec 1 #19-20
Dec 3 #21-22
Dec 5 #23-24
Dec 8 #25-26
Dec 10 #27-28
Dec 12 #29-30
Dec 15 #31-33
Dec 17 #34-36
Dec 19 #37-39
Dec 22 #40-42
Dec 24 #43-46
Dec 26 #47-50
Dec 31 HM (vote for 5, additive list)Voting for the #1 prospect is now open. Voting will close at 12 PM CT/1 PM ET on Tuesday, October 29th.
#1 isn’t as clear cut as maybe it has been the last couple seasons.
You have JJ Wetherholt who we just picked 7th overall who had a promising start. He had a chance to go #1 overall. He’s really good with all the tools in the world. You can tell that pitchers already fear him and were pitching around him as best they could. But he also just started in the Minors. Maybe for some he hasn’t earned the top pick quite yet.
You have Quinn Mathews who just won the Minor League Pitcher of the Year. Not just the Cardinals Minor League Pitcher of the Year. Not just the AAA pitcher of the Year. He was all of Minor League Baseball’s Pitcher of the Year. Over 200 strikeouts is incredible. He advanced 3 levels. Had he not run out of gas pitching the most innings of his life, perhaps he would have mastered Memphis too. But it’s only one season and as Bing is apt to remind us, a lot of guys look good in AA.
You have Tink Hence who many evaluators had as our #1 throughout most of the season. He did incredibly well at AA when he was healthy. His stuff is tantalizing and his arsenal is deep. But he didn’t advance and he kept missing starts for numerous cautionary reasons.
You also have Thomas Saggese. He was the Texas League Player of the Year last season. He started off a bit slow in Memphis this year, but he came on strong after the midpoint. He then advanced to St. Louis and is now off in the Arizona Fall League with an OPS over 1.000. Plus, he learned to play SS – which is where he spent much of this season. On the downside, he didn’t hit well in his MLB cameo, he strikes out a little more than you might like, and he’s probably not really a SS even if he can fill in.
You also could bring Victor Scott, Jimmy Crooks, Leonardo Bernal, and maybe even Cooper Hjerpe into the #1 discussion if you were so inclined. Maybe even McGreevey or Chase Davis might push themselves into this foray. Like I said, there’s not a clear #1. We have around 10 really strong prospects.
All that said, I’m going to put my vote in for the Pitcher of the Year:
1. Mathews
From #27 to #1…….that’s quite a leap forward, Jnevel. I don’t think we’ve ever had a player advance that far to the #1 slot in just one year here at The Cardinal Nation. Sneak peak……I’ve got the Quinnster at #3.
1. Quinn Matthews
I usually go with production over pedigree and this guy produced and jumped levels like you rarely ever see in a minor league season.
Jnevel you did not mention McGreevy even though he’s has made it to MLB, kicked butt and took names while he was there, and will have a slot in the ML rotation on opening day with 100% certainty. That is the brass ring to which all starting pitchers aspire and he has achieved it. As a prospect there is no higher rung.
I agree that Mathews looks like a phenom and has much higher ceiling, but also more risk. He has to get AAA hitters out and he has to stay healthy for more than one year. Either is a tall order and he must do both.
Wetherholdt is too far away for one thing. He also does not look like a middle of the order impact back which is what we desperately need. A couple guys, including him, look like they could be very good complementary players, and some are much closer to the show.
If Hence was a closer he could be a top prospect. I have no idea if they are going to continue spoon feeding him IPs hoping for a miracle.
I’ve talked about Saggese already and I don’t see anything else #1 worthy. I’ll vote once I see some more discussion from you worthies.
edit: I see McGreevy did get a mention. Sorry.
Mcgreevy
Good numbers in AAA plus success in the bigs (small sample size).
Mathew’s had a phenomenal year but struggled in AAA with an ERA over 6 (again small sample size).
Hello everyone, the long-awaited moment has arrived and I am happy to be able to participate in this interesting topic with all of you, who are so knowledgeable. I will try to bring my point of view as a passionate fan who lives overseas. Forgive me for any mistakes because my English is far from perfect.
This year the number 1 is not clear.
Mathews had an excellent 2024 but will have to confirm himself in 2025.
Tink Hence is a pure talent and is managed very, well without squeezing him. He will be a star.However, I think that having a potential #1 draft pick in the organization must be rewarded with our trust.
It is true that in the few weeks played in the PRO world he has not yet shown exceptional numbers but my number 1 is JJ WheterholtI will preface this voting by stating that last year was the most excited I had been about the depth of the Cardinals system. I had my Top 30 in my head without really thinking about it. This year, nearly everyone took a step back, and the system no longer seems to have any depth.
For me, the #1 is clear. Quinn Mathews is the only Cardinal minor leaguer who advanced quickly through the system. He went from Low A to AAA in a single season. He dominated at Low A and High A, and had a two game adjustment period at AA before once again dominating. I expect him to make the adjustment to AAA next year.
My vote at #1 is Quinn Mathews.
Good luck, everyone. Hopefully, this advertisement will bring in a few other participants.
In addition to new daily content posted at The Cardinal Nation, our forum community just started their annual #STLCards top 50 prospect ranking. Get a free userid and join in the voting! https://t.co/Lf2lWlWxJZ pic.twitter.com/DQl8iaKsOJ
— Brian Walton (@B_Walton) October 25, 2024
I have to say that it was exciting to follow Matthews all season. With his early success at Palm Beach I couldn’t wait for his spot in the rotation to come up. With a step up to Peoria his stats improved and I for one like to see the challenge of a promotion met with consistent effectiveness.
What?…. now he’s at Springfield? It was clear that the organization was really pushing him and he responded again. His first four starts in July were just mediocre but in August he was back to being dominant. With the the promotion to Memphis in September he had some moderate success and I think if the season didn’t end he would have figured it out.
We haven’t seen this kind of level jumping with a prospect and all without missing a turn all season in some time.
Mathews at #1.
Jnevel and I (stlcard25) will be tag teaming this effort
Akin to having TLR and Whitey simultaneously at the helm.
His big show resume is not an extensive one, but oh my it’s eye popping. We’ve seen his type before…… fairly decent minor league stats, but a glorious ML career. The bigger the stage the better they perform. Wait until we see this fellow pitch in post season play. My #1 selection is an easy one…..Michael Steven McGreevy.
Flattery does not make your vote get counted double, Pugs!
You never know, we might be more equivalent to Larry and Curly.
Unlike for some others, McGreevy isn’t in the running for me for the #1 spot. However, it’s the first year I can recall where there’s legit debate between three players for the #1 selection. First, you have Tink Hence, the top prospect on most sites for most of the 2024 season. He’s got elite stuff and when he pitches, he backs it up with elite results. Unfortunately, he’s a bit fragile. I don’t think he’s doomed, but he may be a shorter inning starter at best. Then you have JJ Wetherholt, the top pick, who’s probably the first guy we got who had some talk as the #1 pick since…JD Drew? He put up good numbers in Palm Beach, as well.
My pick for #1? “Mighty” Quinn Mathews, the lanky lefty who left opposing batters flailing all season long. If there was a minor league Cy Young award, he’d have probably won it. He’s good against lefties (.180/.295/.273) and righties (.179/.251/.274), durable, good command, and has swing and miss stuff. What’s not to like? I think he’s got a Cole Hamels sort of vibe, and it would be good to see him take a spot at the top of the St Louis rotation as soon as 2026. I’m looking forward to seeing him dominate Memphis next season.
I have to agree with the majority that this year the #1 pick isn’t as clear cut as previous years. I have gone back and forth between Wetherholt and Mathews for my #1 choice. Wetherholt has great potential but a minimal track record as a pro. I agree that Mathews will adjust to AAA and the big leagues when given time. He has shown great strides in a short time! I hope Wetherholt advances this quickly in 2025! The Cardinals need a top strikeout pitcher! (a couple of them, actually!)
Therefore, my pick for #1 is Quinn Mathews.
1. Matthews – for all the reasons already stated. But I’m still hoping that Hence will finally mature physically and be able to pitch multiple innings without having to sit out. He’s still only 22 years old and was listed at 5’10” and 175 lbs when drafted. Now they’re saying he’s 6’1″ and 195 lbs.
You never know, we may be more equivalent to Larry and Curly.
Larry Bowa and Curly Lambeau would be a favorable combo too, Jnevel. Very nice seeing LouisEU back in the community saddle! I’m getting the distinct feeling that this year’s voting is going to be one for the ages.
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