Four Cardinals rank in BA’s Texas League top twenty
Posted on October 2nd, 2008 by erik in Daryl Jones, Fernando Salas, Jess Todd, Jon JayIn what appears to me to be a bit of a down year for the Texas League, four Cardinal prospects ranked in Baseball America’s top twenty. Jess Todd ranked 7th, Daryl Jones 13th, Jon Jay 16th, and Fernando Salas 18th.
For whatever hand-wringing we were doing about Todd’s velocity, BA’s scouting report has him topping at 94. They seem to be fairly sold on him becoming a starting pitcher in the big leagues despite his size and they praise his strike-throwing ability and how he does a good job of keeping the ball down. Four pitch mix with fastball, slider, sinker, and a “squirrely” circle change. Todd was the third starting pitcher in the top twenty, with Vin Mazzaro (A’s) and Daniel Cortes (Royals) ranking just ahead of him.
Jones was omitted from the FSL top twenty, but again he came in 13th overall here. They praise the strides he has made in patience, power and base-stealing ability, but knock him for having a noodle of an arm and lack of instincts to play center field.
What BA liked about Jon Jay is his hands and ability to get the bat through the zone quickly, along with his solid center field defense. They again bring up his unorthodox approach but don’t seem to be concerned. With Colby and Ankiel ahead of him in the depth chart, he may need to move over to left field, where his power (or lack thereof) doesn’t profile well.
I was somewhat pleasantly surprised to see Salas at the back of the list, but I think I like Allen Craig better as a prospect. They say Salas gets by more by being a strike thrower then by being overpowering, although with his short arm delivery his 91-92 MPH fastball can sneak up on hitters. His curve is also an effective weapon, but certainly not isn’t a devastating pitch. He ranked sandwiched between Kevin Jepsen, who is on the Angels playoff roster, and Casey Weathers, the 8th overall pick in 2007.
While I’ve belly ached about some of the rankings this year, I do look forward to reading them as they come out. Agree or disagree with them, they do get us talking.
Entries (RSS)
Thats amazing, they have Salas ahead of Casey Weathers. By the way what does Allen Craig have to do to become noticed by these people. He’s done nothing but hit home runs since being drafted, but they still don’t like him.
Jones not on the FSL top 20 is still driving me nuts. He gets 200 more at bats there over AA; plays in a black hole of a park for hitters; hits comparable rate stats to his AA line; and if I am reading these article correctly played against better talent in the FSL–yet still didn’t crack the top 20. Wow…
I doubt the team will move Jay to left because of DJ. DJ is going to make it to the majors as a left-fielder–it is just what he profiles as so might as well play him there as much as possible. Sort of a really poor mans Ricky Henderson. I think Jay is the trade chip, so moving him out of center will diminish his value. Speaking of Ricky Henderson, I wonder if Daryl Jones refers to himself in the third person. “Daryl’s getting angry. Daryl needs a cheesebuger.”
Daryl likes his chicken spicy! I hope he does do the the whole Rickey speak thing, that would be amazingly entertaining.
@ KD–I didn’t notice that at first. How Weathers ranks behind Salas is beyond me.
How is Chris Davis eligible for this list? He was in the majors for 2/3 of the season.
Agree with BJM’s summation of the upper farm outfield situation. Don’t mind seeing Jay traded when we’ve got Colby and Dynamite Daryl coming up.
What would you guys guess “squirrely” means for a change up? Really slow? Deceptive? My first thought was knuckleball-ish. Does that match what we’ve heard/seen about The Destroyer’s change?
Free Allen Craig! He gets over 50 extra-base hits and has a .374 OBP as a 3B. Top 10 in the TL in AVG(8), H(3), R(6), 2B(9), HR(6), RBI(7), TB(3), SLG(8), and OPS(8) and doesn’t make the top 20? I find that suspect…glad to see the others on the list, though…how good has our farm system become in the last two years?
I would guess that squirrely refers to the movement on the ball; ie it’s unpredictable and has quite a bit of tail to it.
FWIW, I saw Todd twice this year and he did have a better changeup than I had been expecting. It wasn’t all that consistent, to be frank, but there were a couple that were just flat out nasty. At its best, it drops almost straight down, sort of like a forkball.
Completely random…..but can we get the Walrus t-shirt in the style of the Razzle shirt?