Future Redbirds

Of course it’s far too early to judge a draft by the first month and a half, but for fun let’s take a look at some of the early returns on some of the Cardinal draftees and see some of the early surprises and disappointments.

• Clayton Mortensen- I was surprised as most of you were that the Cards took Mortensen in the supplemental round, but so far he’s acquitted himself rather nicely. In 20 innings pitched for Batavia, Mort struck out 27.7% of the batters he faced and had a nifty 72% ground ball rate. He did struggle a bit with walks (11). Since promoted to the Swing he has a 5.63 ERA in just 8 innings, but he’s struck out 9 and walked just 1 batter, and has a crazy BABIP against of .542. Carlos Gomez gave him a favorable review, and I’m liking the pick far more then I thought I would. He also came $205K under slot.
• David Kopp - Earlier landed on the DL with an ankle injury, only pitched 4 innings so far. A sinkerballer, 17 of the 19 balls put in play against him have been grounders.
• Jesse Todd - He’s struck out 30% of the batters he’s faced and has a 59% ground ball rate over 35.2 innings for Batavia. One of my favorite picks of the draft, he’s probably ready for the next level.
• Daniel Descalso - From day one I said this was a totally insane overdraft, and Descalso is proving me right so far. He has one XBH in 118 at bats and a .501 OPS for Batavia. While you could say his BABIP of .235 is unlucky, he’s killing worms, hitting the ball on the ground 60% of the time when he puts it in play, and has a lowly 12% line drive rate. On the plus, he hasn’t struck out much so I expect some progression. Did I mention it was early? No need to call him a total bust yet, but he needs to figure out how to hit with wood. I just don’t see why they picked him so high when scouts saw him in the 6th to 10th round. Xanadu.
• Thomas Eager - I’m thinking as a general rule of thumb, the Cardinals need to stop looking at Cal Poly pitchers. Gary Daley has been hurt, but hasn’t really done anything that special when healthy. Eager has a 4.65 FIP in 25 IP thus far, not that great so far pitching for Batavia.
• Oliver Marmol -He has 10 errors in 26 games and an OPS of .583 for Batavia. I don’t want Oliver Marmol, just enough for my pancakes.
• Deryk Hooker - So far, so good. For the GCL team, he has 23 K’s and just 3 walks over 16 innings. One of the few high school picks, glad he’s doing well so far.
• Beau Riportella - In case you didn’t know, Beau knows baseball. Beau also has a posse. He must be pretty fast, because he’s hitting the ball on the ground 57% of the time yet is hitting .356. Turns 20 next month, and while he’s doing well on the surface, his periphs are not that exciting, low ISO .115 and walk rate 6.3%. He still is a pretty interesting pick to me, given the scouting reports of his speed and fielding ability.
• Steve Hill - Easily one of my favorite picks, Hill was off to a great start for Batavia, posting a 1.203 OPS in 45 plate appearances. Hit somewhat of a wall for the Swing as of a late, but still slugging .480. Now if they could find him a position.
• Josh Dew - Has struck out 27.4% of the batters he’s faced out of the bullpen while walking just 3 batters in 12 appearances.
• Charles Fick - Has a 1.29 ERA, but a 3.61 FIP. 69% ground ball rate and is missing bats. Our nepotism claims have been shot to shreds, at least so far.
• Arnoldi Cruz - Solid line drive rate and ISO support the numbers on the surface thus far. The man, the myth, the legend. Arnoldi Cruz once scissor kicked Chuck Norris into Narnia.
• Nick Derba - 1.121 OPS for QC. 23% line drive rate and and 18.4% walk rate at 2 levels so far.

There are others that missed mention; DeJesus and Hage to name a couple. These are just some of the early standouts and laggards. De-slacko could start to tear it up and guys like Derba could fall off the face of the earth, and few would notice.

Notable MIAs:

Kozma, who signed almost a week ago and has yet to play a game, as well as Kyle Russell, Mike Stutes, Tyler Henley, Brett Zawacki, Adam Reifer (who has signed, just hasn’t played, probably because he had bone spurs removed from his elbow earlier this year…will he need TJ, too?) 1b C. J. Zeigler and RHP Dan Thomas. Just playing the waiting game with the way that MLB has put the kibosh on handing out crazy bonuses like Jolly Ranchers, hopefully most of these guys will come into the fold by Aug. 15th if they aren’t in already.