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• 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.

I’d have a really hard time moving any of my top four prospects in a scenario like this. Shelby Miller, Carlos Martinez, Tyrell Jenkins and Oscar Taveras would all be off limits. I’d be pretty hesitant with Matt Adams, Kolten Wong and Trevor Rosenthal but would probably make the trade.

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

I had intended to do a write up about Luhnow and possible successors but for various reasons decided it wasn’t in my (or Future Redbirds) best interest to just crown anyone or leave anyone off a list.The short version is that I was always extremely impressed with Jeff Luhnow. I found him to be very intelligent, generous with his time and sincere in his open-mindedness when it came to “new media”.  To characterize the Cardinals success as just Jeff would be inaccurate, and I think he’d be the first to tell you.

Jeff helped to build a better process and install the right people in the right places to succeed. He was fundamental (along with support from his boss) in re-orienting the structure and way the scouting department did things. Additionally, he was very much a believer in incorporating statistics something that the Cardinals organization embraced a little more strongly after his arrival.

Luhnow embodied what the organization became but he was not the organization itself. That involved a lot of smart people and a lot of those smart people are still in the organization that Luhnow helped to build. In short, Jeff was important but neither infallible nor irreplaceable.   And I hope none of that is construed as a slight toward Luhnow who, again, I have the utmost respect for.

Today, Keith Law name dropped Dan Kantrovitz as a possible successor. He’s in the family, so to speak, but is with the Athletics right now.  Here’s a pair of articles that you might find interesting: The Crimson, LaptopMag. Also, for those of you who follow The Book Blog with former Cardinal consultant and UZR creator Mitchel Lichtman (mgl), he seems to approve of Dan (in a very general way).

Have a happy holidays. Jeff and I will be putting together the 2012 FR top 20 shortly. I think I’ll have a few more posts in me before the new year as well.

• 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.

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.

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.

• 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.