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Thin?
Middle infield :
Dejong
Wong
Garcia
Gyorko (if deal for 3b)Valera(maybe a stretch but not much)
Sosa
Edman
SeferinaSchrock
MunozThat’s aa or higher with guys who should be at least backups in the bigs. We dont have stars but we have waaaaay too many numbers when guys like seferina have to repeat aa to get pt.
..and I know I forgot someone I did this off the top of my head.
Our high end minors just has too many players right now.
I should add… What I mean by guys that should be at least backups (eventually)..
They’re age appropriate prospects who have had decent success at some point.
Hell the biggest stretches on that list (valera and sosa) both have major points in their favor. Valera hit well in aaa despite his limitations and sosa is on the 40 for a reason.
…and I knew I forgot carpenter can play 2nd if we need. Not well but still.
BW, I want the prospects that are MLB ready to be playing in Busch and not for other teams or AAA ball. I’m sorry if I didn’t make that clear enough. I think the “cream of the crop” has risen to the top. We have an abundance of prospects hitting the point of being able to succeed at the MLB level. I’ll just add that MLB has put Alcantara as the Marlins top prospect, numero uno. I think that he could of been able to fill a spot in the Card’s bullpen instead of playing with the Marlins. Folks here want to add more bp help… we just traded some away. I don’t want to trade them, I want to play them.
Pads, there are prospects that could step up right now for an injured player and I made reference to that. But it seems like that’s the only way they can get to the bigs. I’ll bet that there are prospects in our system that would out hustle and out produce some of the players that will go North with the team (starters included).
Our starters are all questionable and have issues, except for CM, and he isn’t a true #1. We sign a guy out of Japan to strengthen the rotation. I would feel more comfortable penciling Flaherty into that slot to be honest with you. We have to wait to see how Reyes works out… but he is still our #1 guy. Most feel he will be ready for MLB. Will he have to wait until a starter falls down?We signed Fowler for umpteen years and a heavy paycheck, don’t you think that he will HAVE to play. That’s blockage in my estimation. Did he play up to what we are paying him? Actually, NO.
Prospects that don’t produce get released. You will see who they are when camps break and assignments are given out… someone takes their place. That’s how the system keeps the line moving. Presently, there seems to be a glass ceiling at the top and the line has stalled.I can empathize with that pov as well… Just still going to point out again that we have too many players to play them all.
If you put flaherty in the spot the guy from japan got and dump fowler thats almost 20 million for a true difference maker (assuming we have to eat some money).
Our organizational penchant for signing middling players millions instead of going for real difference makers is insane.
Yeah.. occasionally we will look smart. That’s great. It still isnt enough to be much more than a wild card team this year and we have the assets to be significantly better.
It is not out of the question that Munoz would be our starting shortstop next year, and we are improved at that position. He could be the real deal with a 70 arm, a good hit tool, great hands, and speed. Think about Dejong at 3B with Gyrko as super sub with the guy we dreamed Diaz would become suddenly standing there in the form of Munoz. Sefarina is the real deal, too. Shrock is the real deal. Both of these guys should pass Valera (who can flat out hit) and Tovar. We have a lot of MLB ready depth when you add Mejia.
14NyquisT, I do not agree with the logic that keeping Alcantara for the 2018 bullpen would have been better than the alternative – using him as the centerpiece to acquire Marcell Ozuna.
I do not see an Ozuna-comparable batter currently in the Cardinals system.
Which prospects do you think are ready to fill the offensive void for St. Louis who are being held back?
O’Neill, who had a 27% K rate in his first year at Triple-A?
Bader, who fanned at a 25% rate at Memphis and had a .659 OPS in his first 92 PAs with StL?I could go on, but I am not after bashing anyone. I can just see that every prospect at Memphis would not be hurt by more time at Triple-A.
Dejong doesnt have much value at 3rd compared to ss…
People get fixated on his homers and forget his bat doesnt compare as well at 3rd. I dont think he would be better than gyorko.
Fowler was kind of mixed up last year with injuries and uncertainty about where he belongs in the lineup and on the field. He still hit 18 HR’s with a .851 OPS. I think he could hit 20-25 HR’s. I don’t agree with the notion that his defense will not improve. I don’t know why he wasn’t getting the jumps and running the routes that he should have during his first season in St. Louis. But I think his defense will greatly improve. I like the way he plays the game. I’m glad he’s on this team, and I’d hate to see him get traded.
With regard to signing difference makers, all I can say is we sure dodged some bullets in the last several years. Pujols, Heyward, Price, were all difference makes who we almost signed. I’m glad we’re not stuck with any of them. And, as we all know, Stanton is not a proven commodity. We might find out that we dodged a bullet there, also, before its all over. Also, we could add Wainwright and Peralta to a list of difference makers that we did sign, but did not produce much of a return. Free agency on the whole is based on wishful thinking rather that common sense and an honest assessment of what’s there in front of you. Its as gamble that seems to return more disappointment that success.
I agree that Fowler has a good chance of improving defensively. If he can continue to hit like he did last year he could be a real asset. And personally, I dont care whether he or Carpenter leads off.
Isn’t the key question what Carpenter would be comfortable doing? I hate that I finally had to admit this, but it seems a real concern.
It almost sounds like we are saying that any prospect we call up will perform to their expected stats but any free agent or traded for player will play to below their expected stats.
I hear people questioning Ozuna’s ability to repeat 2017. Then saying that O’Neill will come up and still hit 30 HRs and have an over .800 OPS despite almost every prospect needing to adjust to the majors when they are called up.
If all of our prospects came up and performed like they did in Memphis, it would be great. To expect it is being unrealistic. We don’t know who will perform to expectations and who won’t.
I would love to trade for Freddie Freeman, Nolan Arenado and Andrelton Simmons to solve all our issues but that is unrealistic.
Do I think we need to make another move, yes, for a closer. Do I think we need to thin out our system, maybe just a little. I would also like to hold on to what we have unless we can get another good upgrade. At the trade deadline or before, we should be able to make a major splash, if needed.
As for Fowler, he posted the 2nd best OPS+ of his career in 2017 at 122. His best was in 2016 at 123. He posted a career high in HRs and RBIs. From June 1 to the end of the season, Fowler hit .289/.395/.526/.921 in 296 plate appearances.
The knock on Fowler wasn’t his offense – it was his -9.9 UZR/150 and -18 DRS, both 2nd worst among qualified center fielders
Any guesses who was resistant? I bet the analytics guys were all over the problem long before the season was over. Heck, all they had to do was watch.
I think Fowler made it pretty clear he only wanted to play CF, which allowed Mozeliak to show is he has a sense of humor
From the outside it seems the inmates are running the asylum at times. In this particular case, they wouldn’t have had to travel to Las Vegas to have the discussion. They could have done it in StL at any time during the second half and had an especially good opportunity when Fowler came off the DL. Of course, he could have said he had been slowed by his injury and would pick it up upon his return. Hard to know for sure without being on the inside…
You know, I’m still angry about the Cards having to give up three draft picks in June. However, to look on the brighter side, we got in their stead three top-50 prospects for virtually free. They were there along. I’m talking about Mercado, Tewes and Young.
Mercado had fallen off the radar as far as being an elite prospect. He had been running on the potential fuel since his early days. But it started to run out and he was coasting on fumes after another sub-par season in ’16. Moved to the OF, his ranking were too low to even be mentioned. Enter the ’17 version of Mercado, who never really put up good offensive numbers in his prior 4 seasons, who got off to a great start with numbers well over .300. HRs were up, 13, as compred to 8 previously. Of course people noticed, stories were written about his resurrection and Oscar was back. #19 is a good spot for someone who had been higher but fell off the table. He fell back into our laps… for nothing.
Tewes, an 8th round pick in ’16, was selected with the organization knowing that he’d miss all of that year due to injury recovery. So as the higher picks that year were making progress, Tewes was mostly out of sight and nearly out of mind. So he started ’17 at State College with little notoriety, pitched well there moved up to Peoria, pitched well there and ended the season at Palm Beach and also pitched well there. People were watching…. so much so that Sam was selected #29 in our poll. Oh, THAT Sam Tewes. Where did he come from? Almost no additional cost to us.
And then there’s Andy Young, the 38th rounder in ’16 out of Indiana State. Young had been a utility type guy with State College ’16, moved off SS because of the presence of Tommy Edman there. His numbers were OK, enough to get him to Peoria in ’17. He found full-season ball to his liking and became the heavy for Chiefs… outstanding power numbers and .545 SLG. He was dispatched to Palm Beach, and as Brian W. likes to point out, his numbers fell off a bit, it was PB remember, but not enough to put him in Springfield for 2 Sept. games.
People were reading about him and so they put him at #45 on the TCN poll. Almost for free.Brian’s assessment of Sam Tewes (pronounced ‘Tavis’ according to Brian) in the TCN countdown was very intriguing. Could he one day be pitching as well as, say, Dakota Hudson? Sleepers are fun regardless. Mercado was, in fact, originally a second rounder. His day is still on the way. Andy Young? Let’s hope so.
Knowing what I know about tewes? He was a second round or so talent that was a friday night guy (college ace) at wichita state before he blew out his elbow. He throws mid 90s when healthy.
Dont be shocked if he jumps into our top ten next fall is all I will say. He might not… But we stole him where we got him. He was too low at 29 but understandable given everything involved. Either way we will see what we have this year for sure.
I never got the whole story on the injury to Poncedeleon and what it was like to be a young guy looking for answers about his baseball future. Its by Jenifer Langosch but still worth a read.
https://www.mlb.com/cardinals/news/daniel-poncedeleon-returning-form-brain-injury/c-263827670
Well, the Cubs drafted Alex Lange with the Fowler pick. He’d probably be on the cusp of the top 10. We lost the pick around where the Tigers drafted Alex Faedo and the Mets got David Peterson. I think all three would be on that cusp of the top 10, likely ahead of the Gallen, Helsley, Gomber trio, but below the Hudson, Alcantara, Hicks group.
Then again, if we held onto the pick, MLB could’ve taken that one and left us 2nd and 3rd round picks.
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