Archive for the “2009 MLB Draft” Category

The complaining has already begun, based on some of the names we have heard the Cardinals have brought in for workouts. Workouts! I feel like Allen Iverson. “We’re talking about…practice”.

We all want upside, that is to say we all want our favorite team to draft big leaguers. And I’m sure Cardinals front office people care a lot more about finding big leaguers than we do, after all, it’s their jobs are on the line. In order to stay level-headed, let’s just remember:

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Continuing on with erik, fewgoodcards and picklefork on more general draft questions and drafting philosophy. . .

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Bernie had an interesting interview with Keith Law today. I recommend listening to it in full, but here are the highlights:

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More rumors this afternoon:

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After selecting several of the very good questions from the thread, below you’ll find the answers from erik, fewgoodcards and picklefork.

I’m splitting this up into 2 parts because there’s so much great information here.  The first part will consist of 5 questions that are more specific to who the Cardinals could, should and will pick this year.  The second set (later this afternoon) will be more generalized draft questions and less about the magical #19.

Also, each of the responses came back to me so that you’re getting independent reactions that are playing off of each other as little as possible.

Enjoy!

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I don’t know about you, but I’m getting excited for the draft. Expect things to get a little crazy here, as so far it’s looking more and more like I’m going to be able to liveblog the draft, as my second child is enjoying the tropical weather and all you can eat buffet in my wife’s womb.

If we hear a rumor, we’ll blog it, and today there’s a pretty juicy one out there. dgoold tweets

Confirmed: Randal Grichuk was the kid cranking home runs at Busch Stadium on Saturday. Had folks talking. High school OF from Texas.

KLaw says the same thing:

The mystery team on Lamar Consolidated HS outfielder Randal Grichuk is the St. Louis Cardinals, who had him in for a second workout today. It’s still not a lock that they’ll take him, but he’s clearly in consideration for their pick.

Unclebuck44 took him in the 2nd round yesterday in the mock draft John Sickels held at his blog, so there’s one indication that he’s not necessarily a 1st round talent. In fact, Baseball America ranked him the 58th overall draft talent.  A few thoughts here: The team brought in Aaron Hicks last year and ended up drafting Brett Wallace, so nothing is certain. Grichuk is more of a 2nd round talent and perhaps the team is hoping he’ll be there when the 67th pick comes available.

If they do take him in the first round, expect them to be signing Wagner Mateo, because Grichuk will come at slot or possibly even below.

As for the player himself, Grichuk has all sorts of thunder in his bat, but he’s not fast, he doesn’t have a great arm therefore he is expected to be limited to left field. Some scouts have the idea of moving him to 2nd base where his bat would play better, and leave it to the Cardinals to share such a notion.

Here’s some video of him in the High School Power Showcase.

And here’s a non-highlight video

He’s pretty quick with the bat and has a nice looking swing from my view, power is definitely of the pull variety. If they’re looking for upside, they can find it elsewhere, but I can’t say I don’t like the bat.  I’m not crazy about defensively limited players. What say you?

I’m sure between now and Tuesday there will be more mock drafts as things crystallize. Here are who the top experts are predicting to be drafted by the Cardinals in the first round.

fewgoodcards and I differ in some areas and are similar in others . First, here is my rankings.

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The draft is less than a week away, so all the teams are probably getting their meetings under way to set up their final draft board.  I have decided to do the same, so today I am starting to roll out my final draft rankings.  In the first installment you can take a look at who I think are the top 25 prospects in this year’s draft.  Check it out and tell me what you think after the break.  Just an FYI, mlb.com has posted their draft tracker now so you can go and check out video on just about any top draft prospect you want.  Just go to the draft page and click on draft tracker at the top, and you can navigate it however you want.

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This is not a ranking of my top draft prospects, but rather the order I would draft these players if I were in charge of the draft for the Cardinals.  I only went down to #19 because at worst the Cardinals are going to have a chance to draft one of these guys.  Of course I am probably being a little too optimistic putting guys like Matthew Purke and Donovan Tate on the list because even if they do fall (as some have recently projected they might) I doubt DeWitt will be willing to match their price tag.  Of course we could always hope that he has been paying attention to Rick Porcello this season and has realized that elite talent is worth the elite price tag.  Well, enough with the negative.  Check out my list and rip it apart.  This post is designed to generate draft discussion.  Let me know your favorites.

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