Some prospects make it some fail, but they are more likely to fail if you move them up before they have mastered the level they are at. That is why you bring in guys like Hunter and Romak and Canhan, because you don’t want to move Springfield guys up before they are ready.

Who could have moved up to fill the OF hole in Memphis? Could have been Tommy Pham but he’s gone for the year. Taveras’s development is 100 times more important than filling a hole in Memphis. Who could come to Memphis to be the backup catcher? Iguess Perez could be he’s still somewhat of a prospect and Debra looks like he’s Rosenthals personal catcher. Both much more important than having a back up at Memphis.

We have had guys that have jumped levels and played very well this year so far. Mostly pitchers. Gast, Maness and Castillo have all been outstanding at there new levels.

Talent at the lower level? Quad Cities is plenty talented but again a long way away as they should because they are Low A. Palm Beach is filled with guys who won the Midwest League title last year. Ronny Gil is a legit SS prospect. Siegrist is outstanding and a lefty, Jonathan Rodriquez has put up good numbers but has struck out too much. Not so much a prospect but still a 1st baseman putting up good numbers similarly to what Xavie Scruggs did last year.

I’m a very wealthy man, I just don’t have any money.

We have talent, just not many results at this point.

The talent level in top heavy in Memphis, which is why we can absorb the injuries in STL. What talent do we have lower down; Colin Walsh and Luis Mateo for sure. Tilson and McIlroy? O’Neill can hit but his upside is akin to Aaron Miles or Shane Robinson. That’s my point.

I would use the first three picks on a catcher, shortstop and power hitter and the next two on pitchers. I sure wouldn’t pass up on a pitcher that may slip to us, however, on the whole, I’d lean toward position players.

Pitching depth we have throughout the system.

As for the discussion of drop off in draft talent. The whole thing is a crap shot. We all know that the 30th pick could turn out to be better then the first pick. How many of our star players were first rounders?

As for the business about “considerable drop off between 19-25 and 25-30″, you can feel that way if you want to, but saying it doesn’t make it true. In an earlier thread here, I have posted statistics over the lifetime of the draft for the probability of guys in these slots reaching the Show, and their overall contributions once they did. The data simply do not show that “considerable drop off” during the last third of the first round. If you don’t believe me, go look at Baseball Prospectus; they looked at this carefully a few years ago and reached the same conclusion that I did.

Was 2002 the worst draft in franchise history? Bad enough to give away our 2nd-round pick for Tino Martinez. (Don’t mind losing the first rounder for Izzy.) Imagine if we had kept that pick and selected Curtis Granderson, who went 9 picks later.

But to then draft 10 guys before we get to a single guy who made it to the majors? (Reid Gorecki, the 12th rounder.)

When your 25th rounder is Kyle McClellan, and he’s the best of the entire class, that’s a pretty sorry performance. (Marty Maier was scouting director that year, FWIW.)

After that , I might be more willing to agree with you. However, the cards seem to have a successful system in place. So I give a little bit more credence to their system of ranking BPA than most teams.

I would really call it a gap. Lots of players have been promoted and there are lots of injuries. Its nice that the club can call up its own talent to fill in holes. Its also nice that we have developed a skip shumaker instead of having to go out and find a skip shumaker.

Things will change in a vit when guys start coming back from injury. Not sure if Adams will stay up, and Robinson and Chambers will probably return as well.