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Good call on Gastellum Gagliano. He shouldn’t be on our list as he is no longer rookie eligible. He came us July 8 and never went back down. He’s far past the 45 day eligibility mark.
I am very encouraged by Doyle, Franklin, Molina and by most Springfield prospects. There are a ton of prospects I am looking forward to 2027 minor leagues.
I just wanted to confirm we are still considering Gastelum? He’s spent more than 45 days on the MLB roster–called up July 8, so as I understand has used up his rookie eligibility.
Traditionally we have used only the innings pitched or plate appearances cutoff. Will Brian and Kyle have him removed from their rankings? If so, we will match with that. I’m not sure how to get Brian’s attention to confirm.
I think we should consider Gastelum in the voting. The only thing is that has more than 45 days on the STL roster since he was added July 8th. But I agree matching whatever Brian and Kyle do.
When we started doing rankings BA was about the only site doing rankings and they did not consider service time for eligibility so neither did we. Now everyone ranks and most consider it. This site switched to considering it somewhere along the way
Gastelum had 82 service days. Others graduating this year were Winquest as he had 48 service days and Prieto with 61 service days.
Winquest and even Prieto I would be okay putting on the list as they barely went over (wouldn’t vote for Prieto though). But Gastelum spent half the year on the roster. By practical terms of rookie he would be no longer eligible. RP barely throw more than 50 IP in a whole year.
I’ll take Rai-Rod at #1, please.
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“Now for the negatives. First, he may not end up the long term catcher. If he’s a future .900 OPS guy at catcher, that’s an immense value. If he’s doing that at 1B, is that really much better than what we have with Burleson out there now?”
I guess it all depends on your definition of “much better.” Over the past two seasons Burly has hit .284/.343/.466 for an OPS of .809. Very solid numbers — and they’d be even better if his manager limited his exposure to tough southpaws. But anyway, I would personally say yes, .900 is much better than that. Even at first base, .900 is pretty darn great. I mean, Freddie Freeman doesn’t have a lifetime .900 OPS and neither does Paul Goldschmidt, and they’re a pair of future Cooperstown members.
What I expect will happen is that Rainiel will split the backstopping duties with Leo Bernal (each starting somewhere between 60 and 100 games there), and Rai-Rod will play the other games as either first baseman or DH. What I’d much more prefer, is that they try the teenager at 3rd base over the winter, in a low-key setting, just to see if he has any natural aptitude there. Because although I do think Blaze Jordan can be a 2-3 WAR guy at the hot corner for the next several years, Rainiel’s bat gives him a higher potential by a fair margin.
Relief pitchers are far more likely to hit up against the service time eligibility rule first before they get to the innings threshold. I think we have removed guys in the past who got there so I think we should stay consistent and remove Gastelum, Prieto, and Winquest. I had no idea Winquest was there! I guess the Yankees helped that along even though he never got in a game!
I would like first and foremost to be consistent with the site rankings of Brian and Kyle if possible. We did have a mixup over Victor Scott a couple years back, but otherwise I don’t think we’ve ranked guys that BW and Co haven’t. So I’ll wait to decide until he checks in.
Brian, what’s the rule?
Prior to our August site re-ranking, we removed Gastelum, Torres, Prieto, Jordan, Crooks, Rajcic, etc.
Of course, this is your list so you can do as you choose.
Thanks for the prompt response, BW!
Based on this, the following rules apply as an amendment to the first post in this thread (I’ll try to post this occasionally for all to see):
Ineligible players from last year’s list: JJ Wetherholt, Jimmy Crooks, Nathan Church, Blaze Jordan, Luis Gastelum, Bryan Torres, Cesar Prieto, Cade Winquest, Max Rajcic
Guys who made MLB debuts who remain rookie eligible: Quinn Mathews, Joshua Baez, Leonardo Bernal, Brycen Mautz, Hancel Rincon
Guys who are no longer in the system: Andre Granillo, Matt Pushard, Matt Koperniak, Jeremy Rivas, Zack Showalter, Miguel Ugueto
This year is tough! I am trying to fit 75 worthy names into 60 slots. It feels criminal to leave any of them out. And in addition to those 75, there are still additional guys like Miura or Honeyman or Kross who would have easily made it onto a past prospect list – albeit in the 40’s. Those guys now would be in the 80’s on my list if I went that far.
Deciding our number 1 prospect was pretty much unanimous. But I would expect the next few picks to be coin flips. It’s only going to get more interesting.
Right you are 27. I expect to see 4 or maybe even 5 different names put out there for the organization’s #2 prospect in our next round of voting.
OK, since I don’t think there will be too many votes trickling in at the end here, I will go ahead and call the vote while I have some time. Coming in *with checks* notes 100% of the vote, your 2027 TCN Community #1 Prospect is Rainiel Rodriguez, C.. Rainiel well earned his ranking with a Texas League leading .328 batting average and an overall line of .324/.413/.574 and slamming 28 HRs while driving in 87 between High A and AA. Congrats to Mr. Rodriguez on this high honor!
1. Rainiel Rodriguez, C
Voting is now open for the 2027 TCN #2 Prospect. Voting closes at 12 PM CT/1 PM ET on Wednesday, October 7th.
#2 Liam Doyle, LHP 55/60 (FV/FV80), Risk Med
Here’s where it gets a little more difficult. You could make a solid case for quite a few guys here, as there is enough talent, proximity, ceiling and floor in the upper end of the system that you could squint and see us with probably 7 guys who have above average MLB capability in their reasonable outcomes just from the AA and AAA ranks, along with a couple who have moved up to MLB.
Anyway, I’m going with Mr Doyle here, as he showed up in a pretty big way in the last month or two of the Springfield season. He was still occasionally wild, but he was also pretty much unhittable down the stretch. From late June on, he had an ERA in the low 2s while maintaining an excellent K rate, and his walk rate got a little more under control as the season went on. His batting average allowed was .183 in July and a paltry .147 in each of August and September. Only Kade Anderson and (potentially) Ryan Sloan were consistently better than Doyle in the Texas League, and they are two of the top 5 SP prospects in the game. Doyle has a reliever role as a fallback, where his stuff would play up even more in short stints. Such is why I have him at a 55 FV, because I think he’ll be in St Louis in the coming years and a useful role almost assuredly.
Why just a 60 ceiling, with his stuff? It’s the athleticism again. Maybe he’ll show up next year in better shape, but some of his inconsistency probably stems from his less than ideal body condition. Hopefully that’s something the Cards will work on, and he’ll take more seriously this offseason. He really could make the rotation a lot better in 2028 if he’s hitting that #2 starter ceiling.
#2 Quinn Mathews
Mathews and Doyle could be a nice duo for us the next several years but I am going with Quinn right now since he has a few big league innings under his belt.
Gscottae beat me to being the first to vote Quinn.
Quinn pitched like a mid rotation SP this year in his time at the bigs and I think he has better results down the road. He struggled with toying with hitters at times rather than just attacking. If he can continue to improve there, I seen him as a #2/3 type.
Him versus Doyle here is a tough call but for me Quinn has much less risk and has a slightly lower ceiling (60) compared to Doyle’s 65. Quinn has the advantage of having performed at the big league level now though.
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