In case you missed it, Kevin Goldstein and Keith Law both unveiled their Top 100 prospect lists.
Goldstein’s is just a straight up list so it’s not terribly interesting. Rasmus @ 8, Perez @ 69 and Anderson @ 71. I’m totally baffled as to why Snider comes in @ 7 above Rasmus — that’s simply not right, imo. I’m not a fan of Price @ 6 either but I can understand it. Jaime Garcia isn’t in the rankings, undoubtedly because of the health concerns. Goldstein mentions in his chat that he fell just outside the top 100.
Keith Law has actually put out several things recently (and overall, my own thinking is more in line with his than Goldstein on the top 100 but they both provide good insight). First, we have the top 5 prospects at each position. Only Rasmus qualifies here but as the best centerfield prospect. Then we have the top 5 prospects in each organization, which looks like this for the Cardinals:
1. Colby Rasmus, cf
2. Mitch Boggs, rhp
3. Jaime Garcia, rhp
4. Bryan Anderson, c
5. Tyler Herron, rhp
He’s really high on Boggs. After seeing him in the AFL, Law had quite a few compliments for him. He’s never liked Ottavino as more than a middle reliever and doesn’t think Anderson can stick behind the plate which should explain the rankings a little for you.
The best part is the top 100 lists that comes with comments on each prospect (1-25, 26-50, 51-75, 76-100). Law’s top 5 are Evan Longoria, Jay Bruce, Joba Chamberlain, Clay Buchholz, Rasmus. After seeing Bruce touted everywhere as the top prospect, I’m glad to see Longoria get his due. I think Bruce, who is destined for a corner outfield position, is overrated defensively and just not as valuable as players who reside at more premium defensive positions. Maybe I’m wrong in that but I think it’s part of the continuing trend of undervaluing defensive contributions.
Rasmus’ comment is part of the free article so you can read it in it’s entirety:
Rasmus has been very quiet in his march toward the big leagues and up prospect lists. Rasmus comes from a baseball-mad family — judging by the number of Rasmuses I’ve seen at some high school showcases, I believe he has about a bazillion brothers — and has an outstanding feel for the game. His tools all project to plus; he has very quick hands and gets his bat started early, so his plate coverage (even inside) is excellent, and he should grow into plus power, especially to pull. He’s a plus runner who gets from zero to full speed quickly, so he should be an asset on the bases capable of stealing 20-plus bags a year. His arm is plus and would be playable in right, but he’s adapting well to center field and only struggles now with balls hit over his head, something that should improve in time. Cardinal fans may have been disappointed to see Jim Edmonds go, but they’ll love his replacement.
Mitchell Boggs comes in at 73 and I’m going to resist the temptation to cut and paste as it sits behind the wall of subscription. Law puts his fastball at 93-96 (I think that’s when he was throwing only 3 AFL innings at a time. Boggs, by most accounts, sits in the low 90s with his fastball.) as a plus pitch and labels the breaking ball (slider, I beleive) a future plus pitch. He does note that it’s odd Boggs has struggled to put hitters away given his pure stuff which may portend his future in the pen. Keith is much higher on Boggs than other analysts so he should be an interesting player to watch next year as he approaches the majors.
Jaime Garcia also ranks on the list at 85 with a note of concern about his elbow. I think everyone around here shares that concern as well.
Filed under: Prospect rankings
erik
azruavatar
fewgoodcards
roarke49
theredbaaron
he is extremely high on boggs. i don’t share his enthusiasm as he has never put up real good stats at any stop, but hopefully he can become an innings eater or a good set up man. i will be disappointed if we don’t see him in st. louis at some point this summer with the current condition of our pitching staff.
Since I am not an insider here is what I got for free:
73 Boggs: Boggs could pitch in the majors right now as a reliever, although the Cardinals have been developing him as a starter due to his durable frame and ability to hold his stuff through 90-plus pitches. Boggs has a plus pitch in his 93-96 mph fastball and a future-plus pitch in his sharp downer breaking ball at 82-84 mph. His fastball command, especially to his glove side, needs work and may just result from a little herky-jerky movement early in his delivery. More troubling is that for some reason he has struggled to miss bats despite his solid stuff, which would portend a move to the bullpen long term unless he finds a way to finish hitters off.
85 Garcia: When healthy, Garcia has a low-90s fastball with good sink and a near-12-to-6 curveball that could be an out pitch. However, he missed most of 2007 with a sprained ligament in his elbow, and while it hasn’t required surgery yet, elbow injuries often end up with the pitcher on the operating table.
since when is missing the final month of the season missing most of the year? sure he missed some time keith, but he still pitched over 100 innings. it sounds like being shut down was more being super cautious than anything else b/c of all the innings he pitched the last 2 years combined between the minors and winterr leagues. wasn’t he already back throwing last fall? they did the same thing with wainwright a few years ago and he seems to be doing fine since.
Hugo — that’s all there was to the comments so I guess the Insider thing was kind of bogus. Frankly, whoever is in charge of maintaining or developing the software that’s supposed to manage insider accounts does a shit-tastic job because I haven’t paid for Insider in like 5 years and I still have access. But hey, whatever.
this has nothing to do with this post, but i was looking on youtube for the hawksworth video that’s linked on the site here and found a video of hawksworth and high school teammate andy sisco competing in a dunk contest in high school. pitchers are athletes!
with some help, i’ve been able to add a couple. if you all want to pitch in some $, i’ll be able to add a lot more. maybe an announcement for another time.
it costs you money to put those videos up? is it youtube or this site?
you have to have certain software, it’s only 50 bucks. worrell and hawksworth were a favor. i’d get it, but i can’t afford it right at the moment being a cheap-o and all. maybe a week or so, i spent all my extra money on other stuff at the moment. i’m the only one working in my household right now. if some of you want to pitch in, we could put up draft videos and stuff from the memphis redbirds and AFL.
but if not, i’ll get it later anyway, so no matter
I’ll chip in if you have a pay pal link to send to
The best minor league analyst in the business is Deric McKamey, who is also an associate scout for the Cardinals. He writes for Street and Smith’s and for BaseballHQ.com. But, the difference between him and others is his track record of accuracy, the fact that he’s an MLB scout, AND that he actually sees most of the 600 top prospects each year and talks to their coaches. You can get his book for only $13 - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1891566725/
TD
Tedeman…I love mckamey. The book is on the way, I ordered it Monday.
as for the video stuff, i will get you guys my paypal info. Just email me at eriknmanning@gmail.com and what you’re willing to pay, and i’ll send you an invoice from paypal.
Erik,
I just got mine this year, and it is great once again. Only a couple of surprises in his listing of player profiles, in Oeder (38th round or something, but only a 6 potential review), and Descalso gets one as well. The only thing that I wish he would do is go team by team in listing the players, rather than an alphabetical listing, and then the teams’ Top 15’s listed in a separate section.
The rundown he does for the birdhouse every year is great. I am still excited about what he said about Mortensen in his chat over there… (paraphrased) “if Rasmus graduates to the majors, as expected this year, Mortensen will be the Cards’ top prospect… and everyone will know it.”
I’m going to threadjack my own thread (can you do that?).
That Worrell video is pretty sweet. His changeup was better than would have thought and featured some nice tumbling action as it got to the plate. The fastball just isn’t as effective against lefties though as Hoffpauir saved a base hit.
Worrell reminds me of Percival in that neither use the windup and are both stockier guys who stay hunched over while receiving the sign. Of course the deliveries are quite different. . . . . .
Law is not the only one high on Boggs. There have been comments that other teams are interested in him around the net. I don’t really get it either as his stats make him look marginal but, at least in terms of trade fantasies, we should maybe assign him more value than we have before.
az-i felt the same way. after seeing worrell, i have no question he can be effective in the big leagues. he also throws harder then i expected.