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We again participated in the United Cardinal Bloggers’ annual with recaps of the minor league team’s seasons from Johnson City through Memphis. You’ll also find a look at the team’s 2011 amateur player draft. I’m going to unceremoniously steal C70‘s description of the annual below the fold. He led the initiative as an editor and was a driving force behind its completion.  My thanks to him for allowing us to participate again.

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Just a curious Friday question for you.  If you were General Manager of the Cardinals and you were discussing the parameters of a trade, which would include prospects, are there any prospects you would consider untouchable? The details:

• You’re trading for a good not great player. Someone around 4 WAR like a Chris Young or a Peter Bourjos who is under contract (or team control) for 2 years.
• It’s a straight prospect for MLB player trade.
• The opposing team wants the package to be centered around a single prospect with some other lesser prospects added in too.
• The team keeps asking for a better prospect in return as you slowly move up your person top 10 list.

When do you say enough is enough? Who would be an untouchable prospect for you in any realistic trade scenario?  My personal answer after the jump but I’m curious about just how protective we are of our prospects as a group.

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• 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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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.

I’ll write more extensively on this later but the short version is that it isn’t the end of the world. This will be overshadowed by the departure of Albert Pujols but it’s a big deal as anyone visiting this site knows.

Tis the season.

Glad to see Matt Carpenter get his due as the best strike zone judgment after last year’s snub.  I’d probably put Boone Whiting’s changeup against anyone’s but I’ve had more exposure to his than John Gasts.

bgh has a nice run down on the minor league players currently on the 40-man roster over at VEB. Definitely worth a full read.

The Rockies claimed outfield prospect Andrew Brown who was put on waivers to clear room for Lance Lynn. This is the second corner outfield prospect the Cardinals have moved this season after the trade of Alex Castellanos for then Dodger Rafael Furcal.

Brown, who is not really as versatile as implied in the link,  was a bat first player who put steady power numbers throughout his time in the minors. His strikeout rate and ability to cover the strikezone will be the primary concerns at the big league level as his defense will never secure him a roster spot.

Earlier in the season, Brown missed time after a nasty outfield collision with outfielder Shane Robinson.  Despite some miscues, Brown has the opportunity to carve out something representing the career path of Allen Craig.  With a .284/.382/.501 line in Memphis this past season, Brown has shown success at the highest levels of minor league baseball. At age 27, he won’t have long to prove that means success at the major league level.

Best of luck to Andrew Brown in Colorado.

Peoria 7, Phoenix 6

• Matt Adams went 2-for-5 with a double and a HR.
• Ryan Jackson was 3-for-5 with a double.
• David Kopp pitched an inning allowing 2 hits and a run.