50 Days, 50 Nights, 50 Cardinals Prospects: 2018

If the organization chooses to have Pinder skip SC, the Chiefs could be looking at an OF of Hurst-Pinder-Denton. The INF could be some combination of Mendoza-YGonzalez-Kirtley-Figuera-Lopes-Yepez plus Cs Ortega and/or JLopez, that looks like a pretty good MWL team. I’m not too sure of what the rotation is going to look like but Castano-Oviedo-Summerville is a good start. This could be a championship contending team.

I’d like to see Montero, who won’t be 20 until Aug, get a season under his belt at Johnson City. The organization has made a few mistakes by pushing younger players. He can skip SC and start out at Peoria in ’19 at age 20, still young for A ball. Montero is a big kid at 6’3″, if he hasn’t added an inch or two. We will need to find the proper position for him going forward. If he can improve on his infield play, great. If not, he may be better suited for LF. Don’t forget 3B Mendoza is 21 and 2-1/2 levels ahead of him.
Certainly both are two prospects that need to be kept an eye on.

There’s a wide range of opinion of Montero. IMO, he is overrated at #26, but underrated at #47. 36ish seems to be fair, good call BW. I put him in the same grouping at #36. A good year in the mountain league will push him higher during the season.

I’ve like the #s that Ynfante has put up since his DSL days. He may have some trouble with the competition of Hurst-Pinder-Sierra-Mercado all ahead of his timeline plus Machado on his heals, but they should be looking over their shoulders for him. It should be noted that Johnson City tanked when Ynfante was injured at the end of their season. I put Wadye at #27.

I made sure to keep Poncedeleon at the same ranking of #31 when he was injured… it seemed fair to me and the right thing to do. His injury was upsetting to me because DP was off and away on his best season… and the way this event took place (a batted ball), pretty damn sad. Congratulations to Danny and all those voters for having faith in this guy to return to his ’17 form.

I read BW’s take on Robertson twice because I wasn’t quite sure how KR’s defensive prowess was transferring to pro ball. I raised my interest level in KR when Weaver was taken off the MLB top-30 prospect list in Aug. and replaced by Robertson at #30. That added some credibility to KR’s solid July numbers which continued into Aug. However, working against him was that he hadn’t showed up on any of the CN’s top-50, even on the 8-15-17 list. That would have had him following Sexton, Plummer and Williams.

It may be coincidental that the Community also placed him at #30, but being #31 & #32 by our resident experts makes the Community’s selection seem fair enough.

In the 21-25 round Black Hills was the first to put up Robertson at #25. In the next round only 5 selectors included KR but it was enough to squeak him in at #30. Entering the top 30, the voting was usually very close with just a few points separating the top 5 in each round. I usually add the 3 in front and 3 behind a prospect and consider that to be his grouping… until we reach the top 10.

What’s impressive about Tewes is that he reached Adv-A ball in his first pro season. It’s like he didn’t miss an entire season at all. Not only did he move up to Palm Beach from State College, he entered the rotation there and in Aug. pitched to a tune of 3.00 and a WHIP of 1.09. He was going deep into games and had two games with 70+ game scores.
When he was sent up to PB the Peoria rotation included Hicks-Oxnevad-Parra-Shew-Warner, Tewes was the one that was promoted after just one start there. Once at PB he actually improved on some #s from his earlier days at SC. It will be interesting to see where he is placed in ’18. There’s a crowded field in the race for Springfield’s rotation, if he makes it, the 6’5″ 200 pounder will be ahead of everyone’s expectations.

14NyquisT

I’ve like the #s that Ynfante has put up since his DSL days. He may have some trouble with the competition of Hurst-Pinder-Sierra-Mercado all ahead of his timeline plus Machado on his heals, but they should be looking over their shoulders for him. It should be noted that Johnson City tanked when Ynfante was injured at the end of their season. I put Wadye at #27.

Even more daunting for Ynfante is the immediate logjam at A/A+ ball. Carlson, Fieldler, Fennell, Plummer, Pinder, Hurst, Denton and now Woodman would all be splitting time in some way.

I don’t know how it shakes out right now. We have O’Neill, Bader, Sierra, and Garcia in AAA. (And Schafer)

My guess is Woodman (due to age) bumps up to AA and plays alongside Arozarena (?)and Mercado (??), both of whom should be in AAA too. Spitz and Drake are in between A+/AA too.

Then Carlson moves up to Palm Beach, but they have a lot of backfill with Billings, Bautista, Thomas, and Jackson there too.

Then the A ball crew of Pinder, Hurst, Ynfante, Fieldler, and Fennell.