Posts Tagged “Brett Wallace”

Shelby Miller made the list, ranking 50th overall. Miller was the lone Cardinal representation. In other news, the Cardinal team color will remain red.

Brett Wallace ranked 27th.

In other news, Scott Bittle is probably toast. Take it away, Strauss -

Bittle’s issues are believed significant. His shoulder issue is most obvious toward the anterior (front) part of his shoulder. If surgery is required, it likely would be similar to the capsule-tightening procedure former Cardinals lefthander Mark Mulder required in 2006. Mulder made one abbreviated start with the club in two seasons after the surgery and last week at least postponed a comeback attempt.

Yep, he’s fried.

Sean “Chone” Smith has applied his TotalZone defensive metric on minor league data for the past few years, although it didn’t become available until last year at MinorLeagueSplits.com. Recently updated data has become available for games up to July 31st. While every defensive metric have their own quirks (especially metrics that depend on scorekeepers coding of batted balls as “line drives” or “fly balls”), the quirks can only be heightened when not dealing with a full season.

I’d trust the scouting reports first, then go with two or better yet three seasons worth of data before making any hard conclusions on a minor leaguer’s glovework. Or better yet, go watch them yourself for a few games.

But for what it’s worth, let’s check out some of the Cardinals’ top prospects and how their TotalZone numbers look. It’s also important to know these numbers translate a better for infielders than outfielders. Let’s start with the up the middle positions first.

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Per Leach.

JMakes sense, these two are 1-2 in my little personal prospect rankings in my head.

I’ve been talking about TotalZone and prospects the past week at BtB. (Way more often than I had planned, I’ve had way too much extra free time lately. I’ll get a job eventually, right!? Right???)

We’ve talked about some of the leaders and laggards with TotalZone before, but I thought I’d throw together this handy-dandy chart together before the season starts.

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John Vuch has been with the Cardinals ever since he was a teenager, and has has played a vital role in several departments before settling into the role of being the Director of Minor League Operations. Few, if any, know more about the Cardinals and the inner workings the farm system. After settling down in Jupiter for spring training, John was kind enough to answer questions from myself and the other writers at FR. Good stuff, as always. Enjoy.

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The Arizona Fall League is also known as “prospect finishing school”. You need only to look at the past couple of MLB All Star games and you’ll find each team is packed with AFL grads. As a rule, the dry air of Arizona makes for a hitter’s league, and for Cardinal players, the rule stuck. Let’s give out the grades.

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Ben Badler is one of the many talented writers at Baseball America, the standard bearer for all things prospects. Recently I asked him if he’d be up for some Q and A and he very graciously agreed to rap with us. I thoroughly enjoyed his answers and I’m sure you will as well. Thanks to Ben for taking the time out of his busy schedule to give us his insights on the Cardinal farm system.

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Three first rounders stock are up, while three of the Cards’ better pitching prospects are trending down.

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Gordon Beckham and Roger Kieschnick are still two of the hottest hitters on the planet. See how some of the other top college prospects did in this week’s college wrap-up. Read the rest of this entry »