- This topic has 350 replies, 35 voices, and was last updated 1 week ago by
.
-
Posts
-
I would have McGreevy at 3 with Saggase at Davis’s 8 spot and Davis out of the top 8 with Bernal in the top 10.
https://www.baseballamerica.com/teams/2020-st-louis-cardinals/prospects/
What is going on with Chen-Wei Lin? I went to a Peoria game earlier in late April and I didn’t know what his story was but it appears he’s an interesting prospect on a team possibly lacking one.
Booyah,
Lin is a very exciting pitcher that has mid rotation upside. The Cards signed him in 23 out of Taiwan. He is a giant at 6’7″, but he has plenty of room to fill out still. Despite being so lanky with room to fill in, he consistently sits 94-97 with his fastball and easily is able to ramp it up to 99 and 100. Fangraphs has his fastball as a 70 grade pitch and BA has it at 60. For someone his height, it isn’t unexpected that Lin has some consistency problems in his delivery, but I expect that to get better and better with more innings. He needs to continue to improve his breaking pitches as well, but the changeup projects to be a 60 grade to give him 2 plus pitches.
I see Lin has only 5 games pitched and only 16 innings. I did see he was put on rehab assignment. Was he injured in the spring?
He’s 23 now in high A. So one would think if he had mid rotation upside. He’d likely need to advance soon to test that upside.
Yes Lin got hurt in spring training and missed the first few weeks. Lin is an interesting case in that he signed as an IAFA at 21 year old and is still kind of raw so he is older, but in terms of experience the level makes sense. I expected him to get through A+ quickly though and spend a couple of months at AA, but that likely isn’t the case anymore with the injury.
Two #stlcards in the top 10 – C Rainiel Rodriguez and SS Yairo Padilla. https://t.co/qBprsXLCns
— Brian Walton (@B_Walton) July 16, 2025
BA’s post draft top 100 list has Wetherholt at #10 and then Doyle at #68.
https://www.baseballamerica.com/rankings/2025-top-100-prospects/
BA has a new top 100 up. Wetherholt is up to #5 overall. Doyle at# #66.
https://www.baseballamerica.com/rankings/2025-top-100-prospects/
Some interesting comments about Wetherholt from an article on BA as well. I’m not too concerned with him trading some contact for power as the in game results have only benefited and he isn’t striking out at high rates while his excellent plate discipline and ability to foul pitches off lets him draw a lot of walks.
BA
We took a brief look at Wetherholt a couple of weeks ago and noted his new-found power and slightly surprising contact numbers, given the scouting profile. This warrants the question: Is Wetherholt now a power-over-hit type of player? Let’s go back to A-ball last year:
Early last year, after he was drafted, Wetherholt showed he was hitting the ball hard, with roughly 60-grade power. But he also had a below-average zone contact rate. Let’s compare that to what we’ve seen in Triple-A so far this season:
The metrics strongly suggest Wetherholt is sacrificing some bat-to-ball to swing harder and try to do more damage. His chase rates are elite—bordering on impeccable—with tremendous bat-to-ball when he does chase. This reads like a player who uses his “A” swing when he targets a pitch in the zone and his “B” swing to fight off pitches that he gets fooled on.
The impression coming out of the draft was that Wetherholt was a contact-oriented hitter. That may no longer be true.
BA grades the Cardinals system at “B” for their 2025 season. It was the third best score in the division.
Cubs B-
Reds C+
Brewers A+
Pirates Ahttps://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/mlb-farm-system-grades-for-every-team-in-2025/
BA released their top 10 rankings for the Cardinals prospects. They had quite a shake up from some of their earlier rankings with Tanner Franklin seeing a big jump.
1. JJ Wetherholt – summary is they think potential star
2. Liam Doyle
3. Rainiel Rodriguez
4. Joshua Baez
5. Quinn Mathews
6. Tanner Franklin
7. Ixan Henderson
8. Jimmy Crooks
9. Leonardo Bernal
10. Yairo PadillaI think BA has undermined their own credibility with this ridiculous ranking. After seeing this, I wouldn’t quote them on anything, and wouldn’t trust anything they say.
Tanner Franklin by year:
2023: 8.18 ERA in 11.0 IP @ Kennesaw
2024: 5.60 ERA in 27.1 IP @ Kennesaw
2025: 4.89 ERA in 38.2 IP @ TennesseeHe has two pitches.
I could understand the hype over Ben Joyce when he came out. I cannot understand it for Tanner Franklin.
At least they gave up on the gimpy arm crowd. Their list isn’t hugely different than ours so far, except Franklin, and its not like the guys they are putting him ahead of are rock stars.
I agree with all of you 100%, Franklin and Padilla have zero results to even consider being on this list.
Baez at 4 is well deserved which is why I hope they get a 1 year RF or LF to bridge the gap until he’s ready.Secondly, Crooks over Bernal is far from correct, his numbers in Springfield at his age, at catcher, deserve as much respect as Baez IMHO.
BA had a Cards prospects chat. Check it out if you have BA. Ortiz, Josh Baez, Franklin, Rodriguez, Doyle, and Padilla are mentioned frequently.
If I recall correctly, BA has a tradition of ranking a speculative prospect just for the heck of it. I guess it’s a way of stirring things up.
I completely agree that Padilla has next to nothing to support his high ranking other than BA’s comment ‘after discussions with plenty of scouts’. It’s almost seems like a practical joke.
Tanner Franklin does have some credentials including a 70 grade FB and a hard cutter according to MLB. He was one of our 2nd round draft picks. His biggest problem was his control. There is potential with Franklin. Whether, or not, he realizes his potential is to be determined.
Bobby Reed can be very very persuasive. I had Leonel Alejandro Sequera at #28, but have now promoted him to the coveted #23 slot. I’m poised to anoint “Gasy” Gastelum and “Pistol” Pete Hansen as my next 2 picks, but want to do a bit more research before calling it a wrap.
His biggest problem was his control.
His biggest problems are:
1) He only has two pitches
2) He couldn’t crack the rotation at Kennesaw State or Tennessee
3) His results are middling, at bestEach talent evaluator is looking at different things. And the role of a prospect evaluator isn’t to rank a player based off what they have done, but what they will do in the future at the big league level. High school, college, and minors stats are irrelevant at the end of the day.
Brandon Woodruff is a guy who immediately comes to mind for a horrible college performer but has been a very productive big leaguer.
In his draft year at Mississippi State, he only started 6 games and mostly was a RP. He threw 37.1 innings with a horrible 6.79 ERA and horrible peripherals of 29 Ks to 25 BBs. Yet in the bigs he has a career 3.10 ERA with a 29.2 K% to 6.4 BB% and has accumulated 20.5 rWAR.
Do I personally have Franklin that high? No I have him 18 but I respect the difference in opinion and one coming from a much more knowledgeable source than me. They are looking at Franklin’s upside and see the potential for a very good SP despite risks.
There is also a lot of confirmation bias in their rankings.
A player with a 6th round grade going into the draft gets drafted in the second round, all of a sudden, all the ranking sites have him ranked much higher.
The Top 10 is the same as in November, with Clarke inserted.
Cardinals Top 30 Prospects List at Baseball America has dropped.
Three players acquired this off-season join the ranks:
LHP Brandon Clarke (No. 6)
RHP Yhoiker Fajardo (No. 11)
RHP Blake Aita (No. 30) https://t.co/UY06BtwPRe— Cardinals Player Development (@CardsPlayerDev) January 7, 2026
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.