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Yes, feel free to drop Kloffenstein. He was not tendered so it seems likely that he won’t be in the organization next year.
I’ll close it tomorrow around 10 am. It looks like Robberse and Rajcic will be the next two although their order is still up in the air. Svanson a distant 3rd with all the others right behind him as he just has 4 points.
With Kloffenstein being non-tendered, I’d like to change my vote for #14 to Bedell. If he can finally get away from the injury bug, he could very well pitch some innings at the major league level in 2025. So my votes are now:
13. Svanson
14. BedellAdam Klofenstein only pitched 1 inning in 2024. It’s possible that, like Drew Rom, he will clear waivers. If so, and if the Cardinals feel he’s a reasonable bet to stay healthy, he could resign with the Cardinals. Then, it would make sense to start him off in 2025 with Jupiter in the Florida Complex League.
Looking ahead, I am trying to do a final sort on some guys. Showalter ended on the IL with an unspecified injury, as far as I know. Does anyone have anything more on the injury? I had all the sore arms below #20 on my list, but I am not sure what to do with him. Was it an arm injury? It might be. He’s one of those live arm types who misses bats and hits the backstop two out of three times. They tend to have arm trouble.
Bling – because he’s at Palm Beach and most games aren’t televised, I have no clue. Everything just lists him as having an unspecified injury. I didn’t even know “unspecified” was a part of the human body.
The votes are in and Robberse is #13. Rajcic gets in at #14.
Final tallies:
Robberse – 10
Rajcic – 9
Svanson – 4
Bedell, Padilla, Rodriguez – 3
Prieto – 2
Showalter – 1This next vote could really go anywhere.
1. Quinn Mathews, LHP
2. JJ Wetherholt, IF
3. Tink Hence, RHP
4. Jimmy Crooks, C
5. Michael McGreevy, RHP
6. Thomas Saggese, IF
7. Cooper Hjerpe, LHP
8. Chase Davis, OF
9. Leonardo Bernal, C
10. Chen-Wei Lin, RHP
11. Gordon Graceffo, RHP
12. Tekoah Roby, RHP
13. Sem Robberse, RHP
14. Max Rajcic, RHPVoting is now open for 15 and 16.
#15 Prieto
#16 BaezPrieto is a legitimate top20
Beaz is questionable, but I still have faith in him#15 Prieto
Well, that’s it for the individually ranked players on my list. After that I’ve got them in clumps, so I have to do a final sort. I like Showalter, but we don’t know if he’s got his arm in a cast or what. Like Hjerpe. I don’t like to just take a total shot in the dark, so I have to drop him out of my top #20 and keep swirling the pan until I get down to a nugget.
#16 Won-Bin Cho
How do you pull a .343 BABiP and only hit .227 you may ask. To be honest, I don’t know and would have thought it was impossible. Didn’t hit much and struck out too much. But he’s about -2 age for level, and seems to be decently center field capable, so on our team he’s gold, at least for another year. If he’s not holding his own in AA by the end of 2025, I’ll drop him into the nope box. He did well at PB the previous year, so I’m hoping he catches up. I’m fine with slotting him in above some long shot pitchers and 2024 draftees nobody has ever seen.
Very refreshing finally seeing Maxwel Scott Rajcic (properly pronounced “rag-ic”……similar to “magic”, but starting with an “R” ) hit our esteemed board.
I’m tapping Paddy (Yairo Enrique Padilla) at #15 and…….and…….you know, I have 3 players in mind at #16, but need a bit more time to see which one separates and distinguishes himself from the pack and hits my list at #16. Like many of you, I had my top 50 list completed a couple of months ago, but am swayed to conduct a few minor changes based on the input supplied by our extremely knowledgeable posters on this thread…….thanks for all you do for enlightening this less informed and sometimes mentally challenged poster, gang!
TCN just recently selected Padilla at #38 and those people have a better idea on how the rookie leagues rate their players. I’m thinking that although Padilla’s stats were terrific the 17 year old still has a long road ahead of him. If he plays up to his potential he’ll climb quickly but I’d like to see what he can do stateside. IMO it verges on over-hyping such a young kid. I don’t exactly know if that’s what is best for him.
So, of course everyone is entitled to their opinion since this is a traditional exercise in selection. Just saying that this is no reflection on Padilla and no criticism is intended.
With that in mind my pick for #15 is Svanson and for #16 I have Showalter.
#15 – Matt Svanson
#16 – Darlin SaladinSaladin had a great year and is only 21. He has a chance to move up and make a difference! He should be up in Springfield sometime this summer if he keeps up this momentum.
This is the last vote where I feel pretty strongly about a couple guys’ chances of making the big league roster and potentially being as good as an average everyday player. Everyone after this either feels very fringy or a crap shoot.
I can’t vote for the DSL guys yet because none of us has any real clue about their skills. They are complete guesses based off untrustworthy data. I won’t vote for Prieto because he just makes no sense as a prospect to me because he can’t field a position and the bat just isn’t good enough to make up for it. Yes, he still made my list, but he’s a long ways down. Baez feels miles away, although I do have hope (and that’s about it) that 2025 will be a good year for him. Svanson is solid, but there’s nothing that screams out to me that he’ll be any more effective than Leahy or Roycroft at the MLB level, although I do still have him coming up in the relatively near future. Saladin is also coming up soon, but he’s a one-trick pony right now with a good fastball. And Bling captured my main feelings on Cho above – except that he’s really only a corner outfielder now who can play CF in a pinch. There’s also Granillo. Come on Andre, I’ve been talking you up for over 2 years now and your command just hasn’t gotten any better. But oh that slider – man do I love it. I’ll still get to him soon. For now, I’m going with the only 2 solid picks remaining, although I feel less good about the 2nd one than I used to.
15. Showalter
16. BedellPrieto because he just makes no sense as a prospect to me because he can’t field a position
Since when do the Cardinals care about that?
Glove and bat good enough for a bench role and there is a job opening there. It should be noted he hits righties decently and lefties well, and he neither strikes out nor hits into double plays. A negative for a bench guy is lack of speed on the base path.
Everyone after this either feels very fringy or a crap shoot.
Jnevel – I had a good laugh from that comment because I feel the same way. I would maybe bet a dime on any one of them being a big contributor, but I would not risk a whole quarter.
15. Svanson
16. BedellI know there is apprehension about voting for lower level guys, but I try to ask myself who I would rather than in a trade for my prospect rankings. If you ask me if I want Ian Bedell or Yairo Padilla in a trade, I will chose Padilla. At this point, even the upper level pitchers don’t have more than a small chance to be a contributor, so I will choose the upside of a lower level young guy. I also try to ask myself who would I draft at this point. An older prospect with maybe #6 starter upside or someone who has a chance to be a starting SS? The best teams are hitting it big on young players who can be starters and aren’t winning 90+ games with a gluttony of #6 SPs.
#15 Yairo Padilla
#16 Rainiel RodriquezI won’t vote for Prieto because he just makes no sense as a prospect to me because he can’t field a position and the bat just isn’t good enough to make up for it. Yes, he still made my list, but he’s a long ways down
I agree about Prieto as I don’t see it. He is old for a prospect and only has one tool which is hitting for a decent average. He is a below average defender at 2B, he doesn’t take walks, and he is a below average runner. He at least makes the top half of my list though for proximity and hit tool, but I have him at #24. It is really hard to be offensively productive when you cannot take a walk at all and you don’t have much pop in the bat even if you don’t K much.
“I know there is apprehension about voting for lower level guys, but I try to ask myself who I would rather than in a trade for my prospect rankings. If you ask me if I want Ian Bedell or Yairo Padilla in a trade, I will chose Padilla. At this point, even the upper level pitchers don’t have more than a small chance to be a contributor, so I will choose the upside of a lower level young guy.”
Very well said.
Moreover, by choosing prospects at #15/16 in a roughly average farm system like the Cardinals, all that is implied is that these particular prospects rank approximately in the 450-500 range among all farmhands in the minors. In my opinion that’s not so bold at all, really, even at the Dominican Summer League level. I’ll take:#15 Rainiel Rodriguez
#16 Yairo Padilla“TCN just recently selected Padilla at #38 and those people have a better idea on how the rookie leagues rate their players. I’m thinking that although Padilla’s stats were terrific the 17-year-old still has a long road ahead of him.”
TCN ranked Padilla #38, and Baseball America ranked him #5. While I’m sure both evaluators had some sound reasons behind those insanely divergent rankings, I suspect that the shrewdest prediction for Padilla lies somewhere in between.
“I can’t vote for the DSL guys yet because none of us has any real clue about their skills. They are complete guesses based off untrustworthy data.”
This feels like a fairly severe overstatement. With the combination of scouting reports and player performance, we know at least as much about DSL players as anyone knows about American high schoolers when they’re drafted — and some of those kids are given an awful lot of do-re-mi, based on nothing more than scouting reports and low-level player performances.
Anyway, as I mentioned in a previous post in this thread, Baseball America’s Ben Badler established some 15 years ago that DSL hitting performances do indeed have a chunk of predictive value, once we account for both (1)age and (2)plate discipline markers, i.e., their BB/K ratios. That was Badler’s conclusion back in 2009 and I have no reason to think that anything has changed in the past 15 years.
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