End-of-2010 Top 7 Cardinals’ prospects
The Cardinals’ farm system may not offer the jewels it once did, though we’d say that Jaime Garcia and David Freese were pretty lustrous recent plucks from the collection, but we found that in coming up with our top seven prospects as part of the United Cardinal Bloggers’ September project fans have some reasons to hope. In devising the list, we placed a premium on a prospect’s major-league readiness (closer the better), age (younger the better), position (prefer rightward on defensive spectrum and starting pitchers) and recent performance. Note: In our original list, we left off Zack Cox (since added).
| Rk | Age | Player | Comment |
| 1 | 19 | Shelby Miller | Making progress as planned –12.1 K/9, 4.24 K/BB in A ball — but still at least another full year away from the big club |
| 2 | 21 | Zack Cox | The former Dodgers’ 2008 draft pick impressed in his first taste of pro ball, hitting at .471 OBP and.467 SLG in four games; age, position are pluses |
| 3 | 23 | Lance Lynn | His FIP (4.43) in first year at Memphis was actually a bit better than his ERA (4.77), but needs to get walks under control (3.40 BB/9) |
| 4 | 25 | P.J. Walters | Outstanding FIP (3.73) and peripherals –8.78 K/9, 3.53 K/BB — at Memphis in 2010 |
| 5 | 23 | Daniel Descalso | Made big strides to improve OBP and SLG (.350/.421) at Triple-A; positional versatility may let him see action in St. Louis at 2B and 3B in 2011 |
| 6 | 23 | Bryan Anderson | Rebounded from awful 2009 to post improved numbers in OBP (.341), SLG (.448) and K%; still only 23 at premium position |
| 7 | 24 | Adam Ottavino | In limited work at AAA (47 2/3 IP), lowered walk rate and FIP (3.70); in major-league callup was better than ERA (8.46) indicated (4.94 xFIP); right-labrum tear casts uncertainty |
Others receiving consideration:
- Allen Craig: Posted his second-consecutive AAA season of .400 wOBA but failed to translate at major-league level (.252) in limited action in 2010; already 25 years old
- Mark Hamilton: Posted best hitting numbers in organization at AAA in 2010, with .389/.585/.413 OBP/SLG/wOBA but age and position limit
- Fernando Salas: Dominant K rate (11.1) in limited innings at Memphis and St. Louis (8.31) in 2010; still hasn’t had enough action to warrant confidence in projection
- Eduardo Sanchez: Great ERA (1.67) hid ballooning walk rate (4.00 BB/9) but 3.42 FIP in 27 IP at Memphis is still good
September 23rd, 2010 at 11:21 pm
[...] Sports C70 At The Bat CardinalsGM Fungoes The McBrayer-Baseball Blog RetroSimba Rising [...]
September 24th, 2010 at 5:39 pm
Might be useful break out players: those drafted vs. those obtained by other means
September 26th, 2010 at 11:20 pm
[...] Fun [...]
September 27th, 2010 at 9:43 am
JCR– Good idea. In this case, all seven of my top prospects were drafted by the Cardinals.