Raph Rhymes, for instance, doesn’t walk enough and has quite poor isolated power. Virtually his entire offensive value comes from his batting average (in other words, he’s Shane Robinson junior). There’s no way he keeps up his AVG in higher levels of ball, and unless he can hit over .300, he won’t have much value in MLB.

I know that the Tampa Rays (at least early in their organization) were very big on tools, and of their 13 1st rounders through 2009, 8 were high schoolers, yet 2 of their college 1st rounders with insane college stats (Evan Longoria and David Price; Longoria also destroyed the Cape Cod league) have produced almost double the WAR for the Rays as all their high school 1st rounders combined (Josh Hamilton is a stud now, but the Rays got absolutely 0 value out of their investment in him; seems that the character & maturity that fans who focus on tools tend to pooh-pooh do matter a little after all).

2. Zack Cox was age-21 when taken, and age matters more than school year. I agree that Kolton Wong was young.

3. Since Luhnow took over, Brett Wallace, Lance Lynn, Chris Perez & Jon Jay have been taken with 1st or 2nd round picks (Tyler Greene as well). All college guys. All contributors at the major league-level.

This isn’t rocket science.

I don’t disagree with you – the blind bitching (which some people enjoy for some reason) is just as boring as the blind trust in the FO. Personally, I try and add some rationale to my position because I enjoy real debate.

And I suppose stating that no one else was going to take Ramsay in the first round is a little silly because that is something that is impossible to know. I suppose the better point is that I haven’t seen or heard anyone talking about him as though he was a possible pick in the first round.

The very best prospects in the Cards system are former high school guys with big-time tools (Shelby Miller, Tyrell Jenkins) and international FAs signed young (Martinez, Taveras). Moreover, by far the best prospect the Cards have produced under their recent “track record” is a late first-round HS guy with big tools – Colby Rasmus. The evidence to rebut your points (which are irrelevant anyway) is staring you in the face.

Even the college guys are not like Ramsey – Wong was very, very young for a college player, Cox and Swagerty were draft-eligible sophmores.

You keep mentioning guys like Allen Craig or Matt Carpenter – but these guys weren’t early round picks – Craig was an 8th Rd pick and Carp was a 13th Rd pick. These guys prove my point, not yours. The point isn’t that Ramsey was drafted at all, it’s that he was drafted at #23 in the 1st round and given a close-to-slot bonus.

So all you’re left with is a worthless appeal to authority in the face of contradictory evidence.

Hopefully Ramsey ends up being a great player; but you have no more evidence of that than I do or anyone else does at this point.

We have scores of data showing that Springfield is a hitters paradise and hitter after hitter comes through there and has his best power years there.

I’ll take the word of players/coaches/scouts over the word of Boyd’s World telling me that Hammons Field is a pitchers park, and Florida State has a neutral field.