Baseball America’s beginning it’s annual audit of the top prospects in every league, starting with the GCL. Three Cardinals were distinguished as the among the best in their league, including one that may surprise. It’s subscriber only content, so I’ll will only tell you where the Cardinal players ranked and add my own comments.
9. Luis de la Cruz, C. The 18 year old De La Cruz hit .281/.337/.385 in 96 at bats this year for the GCL Cardinals. He was an international free agent signee and played last year in the DSL, hitting .293/.360/.343. BA thought highly enough to rank him above Devin Mesoraco, the top high school catcher of the draft who was selected by the Reds 15th overall. He also ranked higher then SS Kevin Ahrens, who was picked right after Mesoraco and was an FR fav before the draft. Pretty cool stuff. De La Cruz is 6-0, 175 pounds and is drawing comparisons to Pudge Rodriguez, sans power, and Kline things there is potential for that to develop, too.
16. D’Marcus Ingram, CF. Coolness. I love Ingram as a sleeper. If you all remember, Ingram was one of the last of the draft and follows and produced some nifty results in his pro debut, hitting .333/.438/.367 in 144 PAs. He walked more then he struck out (20/15) and stole 17 bases in 22 attempts. BA compares him to Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett, due to his stockiness and ability to hit for average. Ingram is 19 and is 5-9, 170 so we’ll have to see what happens to him once his metabolism starts to slow down as he ages. He’s still a few extra large servings of chili fries and 2,304 hits away from becoming Kirby, God rest his soul.
17. Deryk Hooker, RHP. They don’t have as big of a complaint about his mechanics that Carlos Gomez had. It’s hard to argue with a 36% K per PA rate.
I’m a little surprised they didn’t have Osvaldo Morales or Mike Blazek on the list, but it’s still nice to see three Cards recognized. I can’t complain. We’ll be sure to keep a closer eye on de la Cruz going forward.
Filed under: D'Marcus Ingram, Deryk Hooker, Luis de la Cruz
erik
azruavatar
fewgoodcards
roarke49
theredbaaron
I know these kids are light years away from the big leagues, but man is it good to see three Cardinals on a list like this. To often in years past in a wide variety of lists like this one I considered myself lucky to find 1, maybe 2 redbirds. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come.
Ingram especially interests me just because we usually don’t have a ton of athletes with a skill set like he seems to have.
erik got his question answered on hooker, but kline pretty much just repeated his scouting report. i asked questions on edgar lara, osvaldo morales, and mike blazek, but i didn’t have as much luck.
lara is a guy that really intrigues me and i can’t believe i didn’t even get a question answered on him. he has a big powerful frame at 6′3″ 210 and 18 year olds that slug .500 in the GCL are rare even if they strike out a little much.
i asked on lara too, and blazek and got no response. i even tried a phony name, no dice.