I can understand your loyalty for a guy that you like (and maybe you know him personally?). You have to understand, though, that everyone that writes here hopes that all of the Cardinals prospects succeed. At the same time, we try to be objective and honestly write about the abilities and limitations that we see in each player. Trust me, we will be the first ones to acknowlege if we’ve missed on our analysis - and like Erik said, we will be very happy if we are wrong about any negative analysis.

Thanks for dropping by, but if you want to keep commenting here, lose the snark. Thanks.

http://futureredbirds.com/2007/01/27/sleeper-pj-walters/

In high school PJ drove almost two hours to and from school every day because his hometown coach was an idiot. He then made good grades, had a .66 ERA, and completely dominated teams. Not just bad high school teams but he dominated Hialeah who was the number one team in the country at that point.

He then went to pitch at South where he was given books (3% scholarship) and was expected to redshirt his freshman year. By midseason he was carrying the pitching load throwing 9 inning games and still dominating. Im sure you know most of his college achievements which include his 9 inning shutout against Auburn and his 11 inning win over FSU. Heres some info from from warchant.com on the second win:

“Walters was phenomenal for the Jaguars. After pitching eight innings Friday in a conference game, the junior came back and threw all 11 innings striking out 11 and issuing just one walk. He threw 147 pitches and allowed just the two runs.

“(Walters) was better the seventh through the 11th than he was at the start of the game,” said Ryne Malone when asked about the Jaguar ace. “That was something I have never seen before. He is a great pitcher. You have to tip your hat to him and give him all the credit in the world.”

After college he was then drafted behind two of his fellow pitchers from South and went in the 11th round. He was given a break because the cardinals wanted to rest his arm, and then in his first year back he put up the numbers you guys saw last year moving up through the minor leagues in a hurry.

Looking back at that quote from Warchant, something most of you guys have never seen is him throw 90+ consistently in the late innings of a game. I know what your thinking, but im dead serious, he picks up velocity as the game goes on. In the 11inning game that night he threw 90+ from the 7th inning on. He might as well have been unhittable by the 11th inning. Did you guys think his college coach just let him throw 9 innings all the time because he looked tired?

So, the point is, that at every level he has been doubted and had to go out of his way to prove himself. This is the same stuff as last year and the year before and the year before that…

It sounds like the upside is to discover that Walters has a 40-year-old brain in a 23-year-old body. It’s not out of the question; after all, he’s been succeeding so far. I’d still rather see him find an extra 2 or 3 mph lying around in his mechanics. I’ve never seen him in person; are his mechanics “mature”? And is he COMPLETELY reproducible with them, no matter what he’s throwing, so that he doesn’t tip pitches at all? If the answer to the first question is “no” and the second one is “yes,” there may still be possibilities here.