Future Redbirds

Finishing up the series of looking at who BA ranked in their top 30 Cardinal prospects during before the season. Here is part one and two.

10. Daryl Jones- The Cardinals continue to preach patience with Jones, and at times he shows flashes of brilliance but the results are seriously lagging. He has just a .550 OPS thus far for the Swing and has 50 strikeouts in 201 at bats. I’ve seen him play, he does look like a scouts dream but so far he’s a statistical nightmare.

9. Josh Kinney- As you all know, he’s out with TJ surgery. And he lost his dog. He did just have his own bobblehead day at Springfield this week, so I guess that’s a good feeling.

8. Mark McCormick- Our own Rickie Vaughn is still out with a strained shoulder and is just starting a throwing program, according to Derrick Goold. If he still has his velocity, he’s valuable. Hopefully he’ll learn that ever important lesson of learning to be a “pitcher, not a thrower.” Darn cliches.

7. Adam Ottavino Ottavino has been pretty strong, striking out 25% of the batters he’s faced but the walks are still an issue, as he’s given up 29 walks in 59.2 innings. Perhaps Dan Nelson is a terrible 2nd baseman, because according to Ott’s batted ball chart at Firstinning.com, batters are hitting .333 against him on ground balls to Adam’s left. That’s not going to encourage him to throw sinkers. .333 also happens to be his opponents BABIP, no wonder he just wants to just strike guys out.

6. Bryan Anderson - He’s roughly done the same thing in Springfield that he’s did for the Swing last year. He still throws out base runners, has issues with passed balls, hits for good average but has limited power. He’s not a monster prospect, but at 20 years old he’s really doing something to be proud of is still a ways off from his ceiling. His .354 BABIP seems rather unsustainable but he hits lots of line drives and doesn’t strike out much, so his ability to hit for average is very real.

5. Jon Jay-Hurt his shoulder and re aggravated it promptly upon returning. Hit just .235/.333/.373 in 102 at bats, mostly due to a slow start in April but was starting to really heat up in May, hitting a 1.090 in 25 plate appearances. Hopefully he comes back soon, I fear he was vastly overrated based on what he did in low A last year.

4. Blake Hawksworth- Wow, he got hammered yesterday. Hawksworth has shown excellent control but his K/IP ratio dog low and is reason for alarm. His comeback last season was inspiring, but my gut feeling is he’s not a going to be much of a factor in the future. I hope I’m wrong.

3. Chris Perez- He’s striking out 38% of the batters he’s faced, pretty freakish. The strike against him is that he’s a severe fly ball pitcher and his walk rate is too high. In other words, he’s a Dave Duncan nightmare. He’s exciting, but makes things too exciting for his own good too often. Once he cuts those walks down, he’ll be major league ready. I’d like to image he’s destined for Memphis very soon.

2. Jaime Garcia- Not quite the extreme ground baller that he was in A ball, but his 56% ground ball rate at AA is still pretty good. When he gets the ball elevated, bad things happen, as he’s allowed 11 homers in 73.1 innings. There was some nail-biting after his strikeout rate dropped precipitously once being promoted to Palm Beach, but that has come back with a vengeance. Unfortunately, his walk rate has doubled along with the return of the K’s. Still, he’s 20, and he’s pitching in AA and doing a fine job. There’s a lot to like here.

1. Colby Rasmus- Very streaky. He hit his 12th homer last night, hopefully that’s a good omen. .734 OPS in April, 1.138 in May, .544 for June. Also just a .695 OPS against left-handers while he has a .901 OPS verses righties. Looking at this slump he’s in, he’s really had some tough luck. His BABIP is .205 while he’s hitting line drives 22% of the time. His ground ball rate went up some, and he’s doubled his K rate, so some things are his fault, too. I wonder about why he’s suddenly striking out so much, I hope it’s not because he’s been solved. Alright, enough hand-wringing, he’ll be fine. I don’t believe in jinxes, so I have no issues saying he was born to be a major leaguer, and at 20 years old he’s done some impressive things upon being promoted aggressively. Hopefully he can start catching some breaks and start waiting for hit pitch rather then hacking away.

Since we’re at the half-way point, here’s my own personal half time Top 30, without comments, just for fun.

1. Rasmus
2. Garcia
3. Anderson
4. Perez
5. Ottavino
6. Hawksworth
7. Herron
8. Mather
9. Ankiel
10. Hamilton
11. Shaun Garceau
12. Degerman
13. Tyler Greene
14. Stavinoha
15. Jones
16. Jay
17. McCormick
18. Buckman
19. Maiques
20. Jon Edwards
21. Craig
22. Pham
23. Walters
24. Boggs
25. Norrick
26. Marti
27. Furnish
28. Motte
29. Daniels
30. Worrell

I’m sure I’m overlooking someone here, just going off the top of my head late at night here.