John Manuel looks at team’s draft expenditures, and it looks like the Cards are in the middle of the pack, spending $5,542,000, up from $4,641,500 spent last year.
- Tyler Greene, this time playing 3B, went 2-4 with a homer. So far he’s played three infield positions, I am starting to think the plan making him a super utility player. That’s great and all, but not what you hope for when you draft someone in the first round. Of course, if he keeps hitting in Arizona…
- Adam Ottavino struggled to get the ball over the plate consistently. He walked three and threw a wild pitch over 2.2. He allowed a hit, two earned runs and struck out one. It took him 54 pitches to go as far as he did.
- Brad Furnish struck out two and walked one in 1.1.
Honolulu’s game was postponed due to rain.
The Venezuelan teams started play last night, unfortunately they are ridiculously slow at updates. Info as it comes. David Freese plays for Anzoategui Caribes, Luke Gregerson is on the Margarita Braves and Jose Martinez plays for the Aragua Tigers.
Entries (RSS)
Going just a little off topic, but on something I think justifies the direction of the Organization to lean to the minors–How about D’Rays!
My gawd, I wasn’t sure about their chances considering the whole “secret sauce” formula–but when you are scoring runs in bushels closers and bullpens don’t mean too much.
Well yes Tampa is great…… They have done a great job with the high draft slots they have received from being awful over the years…
STL doesn’t draft like Tampa though. STL seems to draft more safely, and I don’t see our system having nearly the amount of high ceiling guys Tampa has had over the years…
1. Josh Hamilton (this is the best player Tampa has drafted)
2. Longoria
3. Upton
4. Price
5. Jacob McGee
6. Reid Brignac
I don’t know if the Cardinal system has the type of impact talent Tampa drafts.
IC your are right of course in the fact that Tampa has drafted high to develop thier impact talents. The Cardinals are going to have to deploy a different flavor of youth movementl, but it will be a youth movement. The Twins might be a better model for the team. In that they draft well and occasionally find an impact talent by drafting high (Mauer), but they also aquire assets by targeting younger players in trades–not older players as LaRussa pines for. The Twins are willing to trade youth to get youth back and they love to trade aging players to get youth back.
Comparing our drafting to the Rays seems a little unfair. Its not as if we would have passed on Longoria or Price or Upton those guys would have gone off the board had the Rays passed. It wasn’t amazing scouting that got the Rays where they are today. It was straight up horrible ugly baseball for many years that got them where they are. Everyone knew they would turn it around, no one could have predicted it would happen in one year.
We passed on Porcello, why not those guys?
BIGJAWNMIZE-
Agreed the Twins are probably a better model to look at. The Twins are competative and draft well. I think it comes down to your scouts and the organizational philosophy on what type of players you draft. You have to be conservative but at the same time a risk taker.
ROBERT-
Agree, Porcello was more of a “high upside” guy than Kozma for sure….. I guess it depends what the Cards feel there most pressing need will be in a few years when they draft….. However it gets old watching them draft guys who project to be #4, #5, and bullpen arms.
As regards Porcello, it would be very interesting to know just what the consequences of paying grossly over-slot would have been. St. Louis has usually followed the MLB “party line” in labor issues, etc., not just under De Witt but (particularly) under the old regime. To meet Porcello’s demands, it would have been necessary to break severely with the “slot” formula that was out there, and no way was a conservative, Selig-friendly ownership going to hold still for that. The question is, would there have been HARM in making that break? That’s something that it’s hard for us outside the business to know for sure.
The Twins are undoubtedly a better model in terms of maximizing draft value (since, like the Cardinals, they generally haven’t had first-5 choices to work with), and another is the Dodgers. They’ve done an admirable job of getting young talent into their organization, even though they’ve not had top draft choices very often.
Just relooked at those draft amounts … we ranked 26th in $ per signed pick ($131,952) for what it’s worth. We also signed the most (T-1 with Mets). So while we did end up in the middle of the pack as far as total amount spent, the total is misleading since we signed the most. Perhaps we need to draft fewer raw college pitchers that will sign cheap.
But I can’t really argue with what we got towards the top of our draft with Wallace and Nico.