Comments on: Pre-Draft Discussion

By: Felonius_Monk

Felonius_Monk — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 11:27:02 +0000

Also – how many ball clubs have more than 3 or 4 players in the top 100 prospects in baseball? With the exception of the RedSox (who spend a ton on drafts and talent), and a group of teams who’re always picking in the top 10 because they’ve sucked at MLB level (KC, Rays etc), not too many. The default, or average, farm system has 3 top 100 talents (which is what we have, you could argue 4 depending on your view of Taveras) and maybe another 4 or 5 guys who’re quite likely to be starting major leaguers. That’s pretty much what we’ve got.

Not bad when we’re always drafting after pick 15 (and usually the mid-to-late 20s), and have traded away more talent (Wallace, Gregerson, Perez) than we’ve gained through trade (Freese and Cleto are the only ones I can recall).

By: Felonius_Monk

Felonius_Monk — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 11:23:15 +0000

“The problem is that outside of Colby Rasmus and Yadier Molina, what homegrown talent have the Cardinals kept that found success.”

“Stop looking at everything in hindsight.”

How can you answer that question without looking in hindsight? Surely you’re therefore asking “What homegrown talent have we had on the farm in the last few years that’s PROJECTED as impact talent”. Maybe not much, but the guys who’ve graduated have nearly all found a decent level of success.

By: Felonius_Monk

Felonius_Monk — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 11:17:58 +0000

The question was “what great talent has our system actually produced?” and he named them. I think it might be a bit of a fluke, but it’s hard to argue that our player development hasn’t been exceptional in the last few years. Despite always picking at the tail end of the draft and trading away more prospects than we’ve collected in trade, we’ve basically graduated half a roster’s worth of average and better MLB talent in the last 3 years.

Two stars – Garcia and Rasmus.
Two probably above-average position players – Craig and Freese (who was admittedly a trade acquisition)
Three guys who I think are going to be average MLB starters – Jay, Carpenter, Descalso.
A mostly home-grown bullpen that’ll be at least average with a couple of decent lefties added through FA – Salas, Sanchez, Motte, Boggs.
A nice group of role players who won’t look out of place on a 25-man roster – McClellan, Greene, Lynn, Cruz.

Outside of the likes of Tampa Bay (who had a bunch of top-10 picks for about 6 or 7 years) it’s hard to think of an MLB team that has produced quite so much impact talent in recent years. You could probably make a league-average MLB ballclub comprising merely guys who graduated our farm system plus maybe $30m or so of sensible free agents (mostly to fill in the rotation, bullpen and catcher), even if you don’t include older graduates like Albert and Yadi.

By: siddfynch

siddfynch — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 04:00:28 +0000

JD Drew and Anthony Reyes would be better examples here.

By: siddfynch

siddfynch — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 03:51:47 +0000

It was definitely a reach. Only logical reason anyone could come up with was that the Cards felt the Jays were going to take him before their next pick, and they REALLY wanted him.

At the time, everyone agreed he had no standout skills, and that the best attribute was being solid across the board in a Jack Wilson-esque fashion. That’s great if it all pans out, but if it doesn’t, you’re projected to be left with Jack Wilson-lite.

By: siddfynch

siddfynch — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 03:46:22 +0000

“…they obviously haven’t been keeping up with 2nd base and the Cards over the last few years.”

Not sure what this means. Are you saying they don’t realize we don’t draft 2B, or that they don’t realize we’re set at 2B?

By: RichardRich

RichardRich — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 02:07:21 +0000

Craig was NCAA guy almost 22 when drafted and still doesn’t have a true position. Greene NCAA player and has been terrible in the minors until recently once he had a good minor league year he got a shot. Jay was NCAA and misses time with injury. Boggs was NCAA guy, Motte was a NCAA guy and failed catcher and Fresse was 25 when we got him and not even in Double-A.

Any other wrong information you need to corrected on?

By: mizzcards

mizzcards — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 01:55:01 +0000

Maybe you should check the ages of Craig, Greene, Jay, Boggs, Motte, Freese, etc. etc… Thanks for the reply though Kicd…

By: RichardRich

RichardRich — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 00:29:15 +0000

By: mizzcards

mizzcards — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 00:07:35 +0000

Anyone else notice that STL org & TLR jerk the kids around several years so that by the time they can actually start getting regular playing time they are 27 or 28 years old. Which means that the team would have total control of them until they were 33 or 34 years old.