St. Louis Cardinals Preliminary Prospect List

Has been released by the Cardinals and picked up by the Rockies, he was on our 40 man and when we brought Lance Lynn off the 60 day DL, we had to make room for him and believe Brown was the man that had to be let go. It will be interesting to see what his stick could do in Colorado’s very hitting-friendly environment though : ].

I think that he is ‘comment worthy’.

John, did you consider him in your original list of 59? Quite young still, raw but with athletic frame, and managed a 94 wRC+ this past year in rookie ball in his age-18 season.

Not saying he should be on the final book list (I’d prefer R de la Cruz), but it would be nice to see a scouting report on him to pair with the numbers.

Breyvic Valera & Tyler Rahmatulla had very similar Appy League performances, but Valera is 2 1/2 years younger, and was also excellent in 2010.

Admittedly, Valera’s outstanding Appy numbers came in a microsample—-but again, he was awfully good last year, too, and BA describes him as a kid who can really fly, as well as provide decent MI defense. At 5’ 11" and 165, the young man could certainly add strength & mid-level power to his ability to hit for average.

Valera would be in my personal top 20-25 St. Louis prospects. Upside is a .300/.360/.430 middle infielder with very good glovework/baserunning—-and I think the superb plate discipline, multiple solid hitting performances while young for his leagues, and raw speed significantly increase his chances of reaching that ceiling.

Jenkins was a J. Sickels B grade before he had an excellent Appy performance—-high K’s, tons of groundouts, and few walks. Has to be upgraded, does he not?

Miller, Martinez, Taveras, Jenkins, Cox, Wong. Top five system?

When a starting pitcher (namely Cleto) is 21 years old on Opening Day, throws mid-upper 90’s, and advances all the way to AAA, and is NOT one of the top 6 or 7 pitching prospects in a system, that’s excellent depth.

I also see 4 or 5 position players who could reasonably be placed on a top 100 overall prospect list—-Taveras, Wong, Cox, Adams, and supersleeper Anthony Garcia. Beyond that there’s Matt Carpenter (worth 5.6 wins this year in AAA in a 5-month minor league season according to B-Pro), slick SS Ryan Jackson (who’s hit just fine other than his disastrous ’09 season), cannon-armed 18-year-old DSL rightfielder Amaury Capellan, speedy kid infielder Breyvic Valera, and talented-if-oft-injured CF Tommy Pham.

Mucho depth.

The point about Carpenter was that his high-OBP plus exceptional defense, married to a solid batting average and decent pop, makes for a Jeff Cirilloesque third baseman (i.e. much better than he superficially appears).

Garcia? And why not? A .407 OBP this year, after a .406 last year, both while age-appropriate for his leagues. Garcia showed plus power this year as well, with an ISO of nearly .230. As a converted catcher, he likely has the arm strength for a solid outfielder, and it looks like he runs okay—-just one GIDP this year, 8-for-10 in steals for his young career. Rookieball kids are always a risky proposition, I’ll grant without hesitation…but the plate discipline and pop make Garcia much less risky than most. ;)