Yet another close vote. Mitchell Boggs beat out Clayton Mortensen by a total of five votes, and Kozma wasn’t all that behind the two pitchers. Because the voting was close between the three, I’m going to move things along in the Reader Top 20 by giving #12 and #13 to Morty and the Koz-Whiz and we’ll now jump to another tier of prospects, if you will.
Despite their lack of proximity to the big leagues or long track record, Niko Vasquez, Lance Lynn, Francisco Samuel and Adam Reifer all made some prospect guru’s top ten because of their upside. Niko arguably had the best pro debut of any high school hitter in the draft and the best debut of any high school Cardinal hitter since Rasmus. Lynn to many is a sure-fire workhorse. Then you have Reifer and Samuel, two relievers with the stuff to close. And in contrast with the hype, you have a player who is all track record in Allen Craig.
I’m really enjoying running through this exercise so far, more so than I thought I would. The choices you have all the way down at 14 are pretty good, so yeah, I’d say I feel pretty good about the system’s depth.
1. Rasmus
2. Wallace
3. Perez
4. Jones
5. Anderson
6. Motte
7. Garcia
8. Todd
9. Freese
10. Jay
11. Boggs
12. Mortensen
13. Kozma
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If you’re gonna vote for a write in candidate, then it would probably help to write the players name in the comments.
It has got to be Craig. He’s basically Freese’s clone.
not necessarily. maybe they are similar as hitters, although i think craig will hit for a bit more power, but from the sounds of things craig is going to be moved to the outfield while freese should be an asset defensively @ 3b.
You gotta give Craig some love here…
I hope you guys are right on Kozma. I haven’t seen anything of him, but the briefest of clips. Nevertheless, it seems awfully generous to put him so high. You could probably argue that every single guy in the current poll for 14th is a better prospect.
A +defender with a league avg bat as a SS? I’m starting to think we may have him too low. Those aren’t very common. If you look around the minors at SS you won’t find many that had as good of year at The Koz at any level offensively and defensively.
I think the “league average bat” is still seriously in doubt. That’s why I am skeptical. We’ll see how 2009 goes for him.
as much as i’m bullish on kozma, i think that’s a very understandable stance to have towards him. however i would urge some patience if he doesn’t find his stroke in high a at Roger Dean immediately.
I went with Niko because I love the potential. Although in my top 20 I have Criag 10 Niko 11 and Lynn 12. So I think all of those guys should be higher than we have them.
I voted for Craig here, but back to Kozma. He’s one of those guys that just does not do a lot to stand out when you watch him play. I’ve seen him on several occasions and he never did anything to get my attention even though I was watching him pretty close to see what it was that warranted a #1 pick. However, with that being said, there is an awful to be said for a guy that “just gets the job done” without being flashy or spectacular. Especially at SS.
like the info on kozma. like some i havent seen him so i appreciate others who have sharing. stats can be misleading. usually people who know baseball can see major league talent and from what ive read hes got a 50/50 chance of being a starter. i see middle infield as our only weakness for position players going forward so if between kozma and vazquez we have one starting ss that would be great. we only need a league average ss really with albert, wallace, and our outfield.
on a side note i dont think guys that have done nothing should get nicknames. i like luddy, welley, waino, and yadi because those guys have contributed to cardinal victories. i think u shoulds have to earn a nickname so im against the koz, the walrus, or any other minor leaguer with a nickname. your nickname cant be greater than your accomplishments imo.
The Walrus earned the triple crown for the PAC-10 2 years in a row(!!!) that is a pretty great accomplishment good enough to be drafted in the 1st round and make most top 25 prospect lists after his first minor league season in which he man-handled A and AA ball all of which is probably more than Wellemeyer will ever do in his career.
i went to 3 games that welley pitched last year and won for us. i paid my money to sit in seats(usually good ones) and he came through with a performance good enough to win. until wallace does something in pro ball(and to be specific for the cardinals) he gets no nickname.
on a seperate but related subject kip wells owes me money. not only did he pitch terrible in every game i saw him in in 07, in 08 he pitched for the rockies against the cards in the opener and only allowed 1 run in 5 innings. i heard he was going to start because of the rainout and thought that was money and he owed me. that son of a gun. he has a nickname but i cant share it here.