Posts Tagged “Matt Adams”

One of the things that those who follow the Cardinals’ farm system right now have to struggle with is that the two top hitting prospects, Matt Adams and Oscar Taveras, have a very similar hitting profile but one that isn’t found among many elite players. This concern, the dearth of walks, has been a common refrain here and it’s a legitimate concern but it’s also one that we’ll simply have to adapt to.

I’ve made comparisons for Matt Adams before based on his statistical profile and while Taveras differs in his defensive capabilities, offensively, he’s not that far off from Adams.  Both players hit for elite levels of power, make consistent contact with moderate strikeout rates and don’t walk much. But what exactly does that last piece look like in the majors?

Read the rest of this entry »

This is the consolidated top 20 list rolled out last week.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Cardinals are sending 7 players to the Arizona Fall League this fall (which is also known as “Prospect Finishing School”:

1B Matt Adams

OF Oscar Taveras (will be second youngest player in the league)

SS Ryan Jackson

RHP Keith Butler

LHP Justin Wright

RHP David Kopp

LHP Tyler Lyons

Last night Matt Adams pelted his 29th and 30th homeruns to first tie and then exceed the record set by Colby Rasmus in 2007.  I’ve written about Adams with some frequency here and I think it’s safe to say that he’s a controversial prospect among readers.

Adams jumped two levels from a full year in Quad Cities to spend the full season in Springfield.  Admittedly, Springfield is a hitter’s park in a hitter’s league but there’s little argument that Adams is having a heck of a year.  With 30 HRs and an ISO hovering near .300, Adams is a legitimate first base prospect — probably the best one the Cardinals have had since Albert Pujols.

Read the rest of this entry »

The St. Louis Cardinals have upgraded their farm system in a major way the past two seasons.  Just last year Baseball America ranked their club 29th out of all 30 major league teams.  They received a relatively small bump up to being ranked 24th earlier this season after the Cardinals drafted Zack Cox, Tyrell Jenkins, and saw the beginning of the rise of a now highly touted prospect by the name of Carlos Martinez.  In 2012, it’s entirely possible that the Cardinals will receive a consensus Top 10 ranking.

Below is an updated depth chart for the top position player in the Cardinals system for each respective position.  Due to length, I’ve broken it down into two parts, the second of which will be posted tomorrow.  For each player, a breakdown of their skills is included in addition to other information and statistics that I found interesting in their stance with the big club and their current league.

Read the rest of this entry »

With the start of short season ball clubs, the Cardinals aren’t necessarily in a hurry to make midseason promotions.  The club hasn’t been shy about moving top performers though including Carlos Martinez’s promotion to Palm Beach that was announced yesterday. Here’s a list of candidates who also look like they’re ready to make the leap to the next level.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Pujols negotiations are, well, pretty boring. If you are like me, you’re sick of hearing about aimless speculation about what will happen next. So lets speculate less aimlessly, if you will, about the future at first base without Five. We’ve got a few options. One, Matt Adams, may be a little far away, but that could change with an incredibly important, and what I cautiously see as a difficult, year for him in 2011. The other two are Mark Hamilton, and Allen Craig, viable mid-20′s players that could provide what most teams want from the corners — a hitter — one being more practical than the other. Let me explain…

Read the rest of this entry »

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

Lookin’ at a whole lot of ‘meh’. Kyle Conley posted some video game numbers, putting himself on the prospect map. Maybe not a whole lot to hyperventilate over after that. Matt Adams carried over his brilliance from Johnson City. Decent performance by Ryde Rodriguez, but he was demoted from the QC and his BB/K rate is rather troubling. Ryan Jackson was more of an all-glove, no-hit shortstop than I would have hoped for.

Niko Vasquez…sigh.

10 Comments »