Feast or famine — can the farm system fill the big league club’s needs? I’ll approach the question erik posed yesterday a little differently.

Middle Infield — The short answer is no.

Jarrett Hoffpauir had a thoroughly mediocre season although it’s not entirely his fault.  He hit more line drives and flyballs but his BABIP dropped and his ISO took a dip.  His walk rate was down slightly although it remains healthy above 10%.  If the Cardinals were a cellar dwellar at the moment, he’d be an interesting propsect to take a chance on (remember that Memphis is a pitcher friendly park too) given his walk rates.  The power of Springfield looks more and more like a fluke.  At best, he’s a offensive minded backup for 2B — not something the Cardinals are looking for.

Brendan Ryan also had a down year with little in the way of consistent playing time or position.  Whether that contributed to his struggles, it’s hard to say.  There’s still reason to believe that he’s an excellent fielding shortstop perhaps even similar to Izturis in terms of run prevention.  He’s probably not an everyday starter given the weak bat but as a utlity player with a good glove, there are worse players to keep around.

The club needs someone who can man the middle everyday and the farm just isn’t stocked to provide it.  Kozma and Vazquez remain the likeliest answers to the problem . . . trouble is that their still 2-3 years away.

Lefty Relievers – The short answer is no but in a less bleak outlook than the middle infield.

In 2006, the farm produced Tyler Johnson somewhat unexpectedly.  While not a good reliever overall, his slider allowed him to retire left handers on a consistent basis.  There’s no Tyler Johnson in the system right now, in part because the brass seem overly hesitant to give up on left handed starting pitching.

Justin Fiske raced through the system last year from Quad Cities all the way to Springfield.  He was dominant in large part to the fact that he allowed just 5 homeruns in 85 innings.  The Cardinals moved him from relief to starting in Springfield — something that I disagreed with at the time and continue to do so.  The possibility exists that he could make the jump in Spring Training to the bullpen but the Cardinals won’t count on that, not should they.  It’s possible that if the Cardinals shifted him back to relieving and put him in Memphis that he could be ready by mid-season.  He induces groundballs and popups from his same handed counterparts and wouldn’t need to expand his arsenal to succeed in the bigs.  Expect him to stay as a starter in Springfield despite the obvious need though.

Remember when the Cards released Eric Haberer despite the lack of any left hander (except Jaime Garcia) in the high minors?  They did this without trying a switch to the pen.  Maybe they had a valid reason but it seems like an obvious fit for a need.  Keep an eye on Brad Furnish whose struggles as a starter continue.  A move to the pen might make sense (except he has a significant reverse platoon split — not sure what to make of this).  The Cardinals would be wise to look at moving some struggling starters to the relief corp and dropping projects like Kelvin Jimenez and Ron Flores.

Starting pitcher – Maybe. A backup plan would be nice.

Ideally, the Cardinals will sign a rehabbing pitcher to pair with their minor league starters and hope that by throwing enough crap against the wall, someone sticks.  Mitchell Boggs, Jess Todd, PJ Walters and Clayton Mortensen all have a chance of contributing in 2009 but all could benefit from further work in the minors.  We’ve discussed this in depth before so I won’t rehash it but there’s some depth to fill out the back of the rotation in the farm.  I’ll toss out McClellan’s name again as someone who should be considered for the job.

Impact bat – Maybe.  There’s an impact player and potentially an out of position impact bat.

The obvious answer is that Colby Rasmus has the potential to be an All-Star caliber player worth 3-4 wins counting for offense or defense.  That’s potentially a 2 win upgrade over someone like Schumaker but it isn’t something that many should expect from a rookie.  (The vaunted Jay Bruce finished 2008 with a .767 OPS.  Conversely, Longoria finished with a .875 OPS.)  A large part of Rasmus’s value would be derived from his glove though and this isn’t, be it right or wrong, what the club appears to be looking for.  Instead, they’re looking for another All-Star caliber bat for a reason that escapes me on a team with Ludwick and Glaus.

If they want strictly a bat, Brett Wallace in left field might make some sense from that perspective.  It would almost certainly be a mistake though given that Wallace hasn’t played LF and he isn’t well suited for patrolling vast expanses of ground.  Putting a player drafted just this year directly into the lineup seems like a recipe for disaster but that’s the only impact bat in the system outside of Rasmus (and, arguably, Daryl Jones).

Feast or Famine? It’s not quite “bloated belly orphaned African child on TV” famine but the pickings are pretty slim.  This isn’t an indictment of the front office, which has made significant improvements to the farm system, but it does show a seeming difficulty to develop certain types of players.  The opportunity remains for the team to convert areas that it’s done well (RH relievers, 3rd basemen, outfielders) into these needs but a direct promotion from the farm seems unlikely to yield the desired results.  For 2009, the Cardinals would seem to be well served by addressing their need through the free agent market.

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