2027 TCN Community Top Prospect Voting Thread

Speaking of that, I wish there was some indication that Odle was getting the walks under control, but there isn’t. As of now, its disqualifying IMO. 7.0 BB/9 over 15 starts at Peoria. Yikes. Scanning the game log, there wasn’t any improvement as he went along. I can’t even imagine what it would be like vs AA hitters. Next year is his 5th in the system, so if he is going to get it dialed in, he better git movin.

I’ve got Odle down as a reliever and a very good one. Occasionally I get a fancy that he’ll find the magic formula to stick as a starter, but then I remember that I feel more confident in about 7 or 8 guys to manage that gauntlet better and how I think he’ll crush it as a reliever. He could well be the closer in 2-3 years, with Santana as the elite setup guy.

It’s looking like I will have a full repeat vote for next round, so I’ll add my comments on a couple of guys that are very likely going to be the choices…

Sebastian Dos Santos (my #15), SS/2B 45/65, Risk High

Young Sebastian, just 18, makes for an interesting case. On one hand, I have him as a high risk prospect, as he’s so young and just made his stateside debut this year. On the other hand, he had tremendous success, looking way of out of place early on in the FCL before settling down a bit and playing good baseball, which earned him a promotion to the Florida State League for a nice stretch. While there, he seemed to take advantage of his approach as much as anything running a walk rate of 17.3%, leading to a .400 OBP despite a .246 batting average. He also had a good amount of over the wall power, which is tough to do in the FSL, popping 10 HRs in 255 plate appearances. While being young and making it to full season ball is maybe not as rare as it once was, Dos Santos still never got to step into the box against a pitcher younger than he was. His switch hitting swing is exciting to prospect evaluators, although he looked to be better from the left hand side this year. He played three different positions (2B, SS, 3B), with the most innings at shortstop. He committed 7 errors at Palm Beach in his 290ish innings there, which isn’t unusual for a young player. He stole 28 bases this year, which portends at least an average runner out there. The question is…how will he fare once he moves up a level? Is he a shortstop long term? It appears that the bat should play, but the position will tell what sort of value we can expect here. Still, along with Condon and upcoming picks Frias, Hernandez and Luna, the Cards have quite a number of 18 year olds who have the sort of potential that has already started to see results that fans and scouts will drool over. We will see who starts at Palm Beach vs Peoria next year.

Tekoah Roby (my #19), RHP, 45/50, Risk Medium

Tekoah, who came over in the Jordan Montgomery trade what feels like an eternity ago, is still plugging away in the minors. The arm talent has never been a question. When he’s healthy, he gets strikeouts, doesn’t walk a ton of batters, and looks like a future mid rotation talent. We saw that on display for the first half of the 2025 season, where he pitched great in Springfield and was just getting his footing at Memphis before succumbing to the dreaded Tommy John. He’s back now and crushing it in the Arizona Fall League, which is pretty much what an advanced prospect should do against A ball and fringy A+/AA sort of hitters at this point. Roby has a solid fastball and his slider and curve are both possible plus pitches. He has a change as well, so the repertoire is certainly that of a starter. But the cap on his ceiling and the drag on his ranking for me is the injury history. Shoulder injuries in 2023 and 2024 indicate an arm that may just not be able to handle 100 pitches every 5-6 days. The nice thing is that he could probably go the Trevor Rosenthal route, which is where I expect him to end up. His 97+ mph FB and other three pitches could make him an ideal late inning guy, with the mental side being the only real unknown. Still, this is about as high as I can go for a guy coming off a missed year and other arm troubles (see Clarke and Henderson coming up later).

15. Sandro Santana

16. Mason Molina

Both will probably debut with St Louis next year and both have the opportunity to be contributors for the next several years. That’s a better value than an A ball guy who, while young, has a long gauntlet ahead to even make it to St Louis, let alone maintain results.