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Making it big often depends upon getting a break. Being in the right place at the right time, with a skill set suitable for taking advantage of the opportunity presented.
With a reset year coming up, where young players will supposedly get a chance to play, there would be no better position to be in that where Loutos finds himself. The successful AAA closer, and the ML closer likely going to be traded. He does not have lightning stuff, be he racked up the saves.
We are now into the part of the countdown where I have to do more than squint to see a big league future for these guys. It’s more like viewing on long exposure in the dark. That said, there are still some worthy candidates for votes that have something of a chance to play in St Louis some day.
29. Zach Levenson, OF. He’s not going to get enough votes here, but he’s got potential power and a good 2023 to look back on. He seemed to fade off in 2024, but that’s not unusual in Peoria. We will see if he can improve on his average-ish results next year.
30. Yairo Padilla, SS. He and Rodriguez have to be back to back pretty much. Young DSL guys, both play premium positions and both had good years at the plate. I’d probably place them a little lower on proximity and a little higher on pure talent. In this case, I give Padilla the edge because of the BBA reports and the fact that the Cards themselves gave Padilla a much higher bonus ($760k vs $300k). Not super power but a good hit tool and good glove at a very important position.
I’m flummoxed to still be voting Granillo here. I think he’s our Helsley in 2026. Easily top 20 for me.
I respect your opinion here, but I’m a little perplexed by it as well. What makes you think this? Nothing I’ve read on Granillo makes me think he has 100 mph in his back pocket. He has a good, but not elite K rate. His walks have always been too high. I’m just curious what it is that I’m missing, because I see him far more likely to be our Woodford than our Helsley. Guys like Helsley and Gallegos came in either as starters who got a boost from the pen, or guys with already crazy K rates as relievers. That said, he seems like a good guy, so I hope he does pan out.
I’ve watched Andre on the mound many, many times. He gives me closer vibes all the way. Kind of a cross between Sutter and Mad Hungarian shutdown mentality. His slider is deadly to right handed hitters. Practically unhittable. His fastball is good and he can ramp it up to close to triple digits when needed. The changeup is . . . Eh, well, a changeup by definition. He has to find a better out pitch for left handed batters or just keep walking them to get to righties as it often happens.
Svanson and Loutos are ordinary successful relievers. They’ll be ok middle relief guys – maybe towards the back end someday with more experience. But Granillo has the “It” factor that’s going to make him our closer (if someone doesn’t steal him in the Rule 5 draft this week).
And since we’re talking reliever, I want to put a plug in for Jack Ralston who I’ve always been enamored with. Watch for him to impact the St Louis pen this coming season as well – if he stays healthy.
Granillo is in the right place at the right time, similar to Loutos. I have an issue with his control, but he should get a chance.
The results are in and your #29 prospect is…Yairo Padilla, IF
Your #30 prospect is…Andre Granillo, RHP
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, RHP
15. Ian Bedell, RHP
16. Matt Svanson, RHP
17. Matt Koperniak, OF
18. Zack Showalter, RHP
19. Cesar Prieto, IF
20. Darlin Saladin, RHP
21. Brian Holiday, RHP
22. Luis Gastelum, RHP
23. Won Bin Cho, OF
24. Jonathan Mejia, IF
25. Sammy Hernandez, C
26. Travis Honeyman, OF
27. Ixan Henderson, LHP
28. Gerardo (Juan) Salas, RHP
29. Yairo Padilla, IF
30. Andre Granillo, RHPVoting is now open for #31, 32 and 33. As a reminder, we are voting for three prospects this round of voting. Voting for prospects #31-33 will close on Sunday, December 15th.
For tallying the next round, your top vote (31) this round will receive 3 points, second vote (32) will receive 2 points, and final vote (33) will receive 1 point. Tiebreakers remain the same.
Voting results for this round…
Padilla 8
Granillo 7Hansen 5
R Rodriguez 4
Loutos 3
Levenson 2
Petrutz 1Positional tallies of our top 30 prospects…
Pitcher-18
-RHP-15
-LHP-3
-SP-14
-RP-4Infield-5
Outfield-4
Catcher-3
#31 – Rainiel Rodriguez
#32 – Andrew Dukanych
#33 – Riley O’Brien (is he still considered a prospect?)
O’Brien is technically not a prospect based off the number of days he has spent on a major league roster – even though for most of those days, he was injured. Drew Rom fell into the same boat this year. He went on the injured list while he was on the big league roster so all that time gets counted as big league service time. I know Brian &Blake still ranked Rom despite that fact so I’m ok with ranking O’Brien, although I will say that I took both out of my rankings because of lack of eligibility.
I’m going with a curveball here in a prospect I have rated at 25 on my list that I haven’t seen hit anyone’s list out there. That’s 19-year old Nelfry Ynfante. After 2 solid seasons in the DSL, he came stateside this year and pitched well is the FCL and at Palm Beach. He saw 21 games of action with 11 starts with a 3.17 ERA. He struck out well over a batter per inning and his walk rate was reasonable given his age. He’s also 6’3” so plenty of height for a pitcher. I see him starting at Palm Beach this season and carrying on in the line of Gary Kendall’s successful series of starting pitchers.
For my next pick, I have Ryan Campos at 28 on my list. I almost hate to pick another catcher in our list, but I can’t help it because I really like this guys’ approach at the plate. I honestly have no idea how good a catcher he is, but I’ve heard around average from scouting reports.
Levenson is 29 on my personal list. His power potential is through the roof. The rest of his game is a bit in progress. He’s a so-so defender and swings and misses far too often. I really wish this wasn’t one of our best outfield prospects, but the pond of outfielder prospects is shallow.
31. Nelfry Ynfante
32. Ryan Campos
33. Zach LevensonPositional tallies of our top 30 prospects…
Interesting observation by stlcard25. This shows that balance in our ranking just happened naturally.
31. Loutos He made a lot of improvement from 2023 to 2024. I think it’s fair to say that he will improve some more coming from 2024 into 2025. He did well in his brief stint in the majors this year. Blake sounded enthusiastic about him in his evaluation of Loutos in the TCN ranking. I feel a little uncomfortable about not ranking him a higher.
32. Dutkanych IV The success rate for TJ surgery is about 80%. Or, to say it another way, better than 3 out of 4 pitchers make it back to MLB after TJ. Based on his pre-injury success, he could soar in this ranking if he comes back healthy, and stays healthy.
33. Mejia He hasn’t shown much yet. The Cardinals gave him $2M to sign and he’s only 19 years old. He could move up considerably in the ranking next year.
Thank you.
33. Petrutz If he keeps hitting the way he did in 2024, he’ll eventually find his way onto a major league roster.
It’s to the point now where I’ll be voting for projection and hope more than expectation.
For me…
31. Zach Levenson, OF. Once again.
32. Rainiel Rodriguez, C. Another DSL guy, he hit the cover off the ball. We saw this before, but at this point in the proceedings he’s an ok flier. If he sticks at catcher and can play defense, he’ll find his way up the rankings.
33. Ian Petrutz, OF. It’s close between he and Mautz for me at this spot, but Petrutz gets the nod as he put up huge numbers at Palm Beach. He’s got some things going for him, but the launch angle crowd is going to dig in its claws before too long as we’ll see if he can make those adjustments. If he does, he could be a DH/corner OF guy.
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