St. Louis Cardinals Top 20 Prospects for 2008

All grades are extremely preliminary and subject to change.

1. Colby Rasmus, OF, Grade A
   
2. Chris Perez, RHP, Grade B
   
3. Jaime Garcia, LHP, Grade B
   
4. Adam Ottavino, RHP, Grade B
   
5. Bryan Anderson, C, Grade B-
   
6. Tyler Herron, RHP, Grade B-
   
7. Clayton Mortensen, RHP, Grade B-
   
8. Pete Kozma, SS, Grade B-
   
9. Jess Todd, RHP, Grade B-
   
10. Allen Craig, 3B, Grade B- (judgment call on a personal favorite)
    
11. P.J. Walters, RHP, Grade B- (judgment call on a personal favorite)
    
12. Jose Martinez, SS, Grade B- (an intriguing overlooked prospect)
    
13. Mitchell Boggs, RHP, Grade C+ (I know he has a good arm but he strikes me as overrated by other experts for some reason)
    
14. Jon Jay, OF, Grade C+ (I think he will rebound)
    
15. Brian Barton, OF, Grade C+
    
16. Joe Mather, OF, Grade C+
    
17. David Freese, 3B, Grade C+
    
18. Cody Haerther, OF, Grade C+
    
19. David Kopp, RHP, Grade C+
    
20. Steven Hill, C-INF, Grade C+

Others include Luis De La Cruz, Dan Descalso, Nick Derba, Thomas Eager, Brad Furnish, Tyler Greene, Luke Gregerson, Tyler Henley, Jarrett Hoffpauir, Deryik Hooker, D'Marcus Ingram, Ken Maiques, Jason Motte, Tyler Norrick, Nick Stavinoha, Mark Worrell, and Brett Zawacki.

This is an underrated farm system that deserves more attention. Some of these ratings are rather different than in you will find from other sources, but I'm making some judgment calls here.

As usual, grades are more important than exact placement. Full reports on all these players and on over 1,000 others can be found in the 2008 Baseball Prospect Book, which can be ordered only through JohnSickels.net.