Posts Tagged “Andrew Brown”

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.

Azruavatar did a great job below taking a look at what he thinks will happen once the calendar turns to September and the minor league teams all end their season.  The Cardinals only have two healthy minor league pitchers on their 40 man roster and considering how the Cardinals head honcho, Tony LaRussa uses pitchers, I expect more than Dickson and Cleto to be promoted in September.  After the jump, let’s look at candidates to be dropped off the 40-man and who could be brought on.

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Another thought experiment for the end of the year 2010, this one a bit darker and one I hope never comes to fruition.  If the Cardinals do not re-sign Albert Pujols at 1B, will they be able to replace him internally from the farm system?  (Odds are that the Cardinals WILL re-sign Albert, but it does not hurt to take a look at our 1B depth just in case.)

The First basemen in the Cardinals system have been blocked by Pujols ever since he moved from 3B to LF to 1B and stayed there.  Pujols has been a full-time first baseman since 2004 and any prospect that was reaching the minor leagues’ ceiling as first base needed to be moved for a player at another position.  (See Wallace, Brett who will be a permanent 1B in the majors.)  That being said, what do the Cardinals have left in the minors at first base?  The great thing about first base is that it can be played by any slugging player that does not quite have a position and the Cardinals have a few of those as well.

Obviously, no one in the universe is going to replace Pujols’ production, so we can only look at the internal candidates to replace him at 1B and how well they will do.

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