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It’s here. It’s really here. We’ve got the top 20 for 2012 running over the next several days. There was a great deal of consensus between my list and Jeff’s with just 4 players appearing on only one list — two of which, you’ve already read about in Adron Chambers and Tyler Rahmatulla.

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Tyler Rahmatulla

Age – 22
Stats
34th Round of 2011 Draft

This may be the 2011 version of my Nick Longmire pick last year but I’ve been a fan of Rahmatulla since draft day.  He has the defensive chops to stick at second base but his calling card will be his bat. Injuries and academic problems derailed his college career but the Cardinals took a late round flier on him. He was impressive in 2011 but there should be skepticism about a 21 year old tearing up Johnson City. He ended 2011 with the best OPS on the club (outside of 22 at bats by Charlie Tilson) showing his ability to take a walk, hit for average and hit for power.

Kolten Wong  will certainly suck up the prospect oxygen in the room when discussing the Cardinals future second base posiibilities but keep an eye on Rahmatulla when he hits full season minors.  He’s worth watching.

• Baseball Instinct is running their top 360 prospects and, yes, I’m extremely skeptical of anyone’s ability to rank 360 prospects. There’s Cardinals prospects in here though with notes on them that make for interesting reads. It’s a fun exercise but I wouldn’t worry about a 342 rank versus a 341 rank.
• Matt Adams did a Q&A with MiLB.com.  Adams has a clear opening with the departure of Albert Pujols and a big year consistent with his previous efforts could help his chances at landing the 1B job in 2013.

Update on Jan. 4th, 2012

Joe Strauss reports the hiring is official. Dan Kantrovitz (get used to spelling that) is the new Director of Amateur Scouting.  If there was a candidate who, on paper, should make you feel like they will be able to replace Luhnow, this is him. As so often is the case, it will be years before we get a good feel for how effective he’ll really be.

Now to see how blog friendly he is . . .

Originally Published on Dec. 22, 2011

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This is the full compilation of 2011′s top 20.

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In the minor league portion of the draft the Cardinals selected Shooter Hunt from Minnesota and Barrett Browning from Anaheim.

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A few links for your morning reading:

• Baseball Instinct’s Shelby Miller Scouting Report (from June) – The change in groundball rate when he moved to Springfield was not happenstance but a very concerted effort on the part of the coaching staff and Shelby to keep the ball down in the zone. The four seam fastball up and out of the zone is still a swing and miss offering but groundballs are king in St. Louis.
• Prep Baseball Report & Lance Jeffries (h/t nmstar) – The Cardinals really got into drafting speedy outfielders this year.
• Baseball Instinct’s Zach Cox Scouting Report – I think the differences between Matt Carpenter and Cox on prospect lists is quite interesting and almost entirely a function of draft position.

There’s not much to be found about Erik Komatsu, the former Nationals’ outfielder selected by the Cardinals in the Rule 5 draft. He’s 24 years old (DOB 10/1/1987), left-handed at the plate and in the field, average height (5’10″) and weighs 185 lbs.  He was traded from the Brewers to the Nationals last year for Jerry Hariston Jr. after Richie Weeks was injured.

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