UCB Project: Top 7 Prospects

It's been a little while since the United Cardinal Bloggers have gotten together for one of our famous (in our own minds) projects, but today we tackled the farm system as we list out our top 7 guys that will someday be future Redbirds.  You can find links to all the participating blogs on this post.

Before I get into this year's crop, I wanted to take a look back and see who I ranked last year and where those players may have wound up.  Here's the post from last September, but a quick review:

1) Colby Rasmus--finally got the call and spent all year in the bigs.  Not eligible for 2009.
2) Brett Wallace--traded to Oakland for Matt Holliday.  Not eligible for 2009.
3) Jamie Garcia--had surgery and missed most of the season.  Eligible for 2009.
4) Jess Todd--the PTBNL in the Mark DeRosa deal.  Not eligible for 2009.
5) David Freese--had a chance to make the big club in the spring, but dealt with injuries this season.  Eligible for 2009.
6) Daryl Jones--battled injuries and wound up back in AA for a while.  Eligible for 2009.
7) Bryan Anderson--again, injuries.  Eligible for 2009.

There were actually more guys eligible for 2009 than I thought before looking back over the list.  Still, the Cardinals did quite a bit of housecleaning with promotions and trades this season, moreso than past years.

So let's take a look at this year's crop:


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1) Shelby Miller

2009 stats: 0-0, 3 IP, 2 ER, 2 K, 2 BB, 6.00 ERA (Quad Cities)

Miller was the Cardinals first-round draft choice this summer and immediately moved to the head of the class.  While the Cardinal system has been able to generate some mid-level starters, it hasn't had that dominant, sit-up-and-take-notice guy in a long while.  Miller gives them that, as some ranked him the second best pitcher in the draft (behind the Nationals draft pick, can't quite remember his name....)

While Miller wanted to sign, the negotiations took to the very end (mainly because the Cards were going over slot to sign him and didn't want to be out there drawing the eyes of the commissioner's office until the very last minute) and that meant little pitching experience.  That wasn't a bad thing, as he was coming off a high school season, so the Cards sent him to Quad Cities and let him get his feet wet.

Miller isn't the closest to the majors on this list, but he represents the most potential in the organization.  It may be hard for Card fans to be patient enough to let him work his way up the system.

2) Jamie Garcia

2009 stats: 2-2, 37.2 IP, 12 ER, 41 K, 14 BB, 2.87 ERA (three levels)

For a guy coming off of Tommy John surgery, Garcia is making remarkable strides.  The stats above don't count his postseason contributions, including 6.2 scoreless innings against Sacramento and Wallace in the PCL championship series.

Garcia also has the benefit of being a lefty, something the Cardinals really could use in their rotation.  He's sampled the bigs before and, if his return is any indication, he'll be a strong contender for either a slot in the rotation in the spring or the first guy up from Memphis when injuries hit.  It will be interesting to see if, after the PCL championship is over, Garcia doesn't get at least a callup to sit around St. Louis and be a big leaguer for a week or two.

3) Wagner Mateo

2009 stats: None

The most speculative name in the Cardinal organization.  According to John Mozeliak, he'd have been a top 10 guy if he'd been eligible for the major league draft this year.  He said that he thought Mateo could be a quick mover.  Cardinal fans look at someone like Justin Upton making an impact before he's 20 and dream about having someone like that in their system.

While Future Redbirds noted he's been compared to Carlos Beltran and Curtis Granderson, he's also possibly more of a line drive hitter than a power guy.  (Then again, Albert Pujols is a line drive hitter, just that some of his drives leave the park.)  All we have are some videos of him practicing.  His future may depend on how fast he adjusts to the professional game and if he fills out any more than he already has.  There's a whole lot of potential there, though, and Mateo and Miller are going to be the focus of the farm system for some time to come.

4) Daryl Jones

2009 stats: 335 PA, 50 R, 82 H, 14 2B, 3 3B, 3 HR, 29 RBI, 7 SB, .279/.361/.378 (Springfield)

I'll admit that my rankings are not anywhere close to scientific, as I don't follow the minors as closely as I probably should.  I feel pretty good about my top three, that they should be there in some order.  After that, though, my confidence level goes way down.

Jones, in some regards, gets a boost because of his great '08 and the fact that he did have some injury problems this season.  Jones, in some regards, is the Mateo prototype, a toolsy guy that they weren't sure how well he could play but hoped the tools translated.  (Mateo is farther along on that translation, I think, than Jones was at that age.)

If Jones can get back on track, though, he could become a nice option at the end of next season and perhaps free up John Mozeliak to trade off someone like Ryan Ludwick at the end of the 2010 season (assuming that they've resigned Holliday).

5) Allen Craig

2009 stats: 521 PA, 78 R, 152 H, 26 2B, 1 3B, 26 HR, 83 RBI, 3 SB, .322/.374/.547 (Memphis)

By any measure, Craig had an outstanding year.  He never let the fact that he was slighted in spring training affect him, nor the fact that the big club kept running out apparently sub-prime options while he toiled in Memphis.

This is the second year that Craig has put up good power numbers and there's really not a fault to be found in his offensive game.  There's two reasons he's ranked this low on my list, though.  One, he's a little older than you'd like to see, having played his Age 25 season in 2009.  While that doesn't mean he still can't be a productive major leaguer, his upside is a little less than some of the others on this list.

The other reason is that, apparently, he's on the doghouse list for one reason or another.  The team that seemed willing to put up with Wallace's defensive lapses at third hasn't extended the same courtesy to Craig.  Even when he went to the outfield to add flexibility to his game, he still didn't get the call.  Right now, it appears that the Cards might have been able to get as much production out of him as they did Mark DeRosa and, if so, they'd still have Chris Perez and Todd.

I would expect Craig to possibly be traded this offseason, especially with David Freese looking like he may want to claim third if DeRosa isn't resigned.

6) Eduardo Sanchez

2009 stats: 2-1, 75 IP, 82 K, 25 BB, 2.28 ERA (two levels)

For a while this summer, it looked like Sanchez might make the leap up to the big leagues to give the Cardinals a jolt in the bullpen.  While that would have been an outstanding jump for a 20-year-old, it wasn't exactly unprecedented in baseball history.  However, the Cards went out and got John Smoltz and put an end to that kind of talk.

Sanchez still is intriguing, however, with a power arm that racks up over a strikeout an inning, a very good feature for a bullpen guy, especially a potential closer.  His major drawback at the moment is a lack of command.  A quick skim of his game log indicates that, more often than not, he's walking at least one in an outing.  He can usually get away with it at that level, but he'll have to be sharper to be successful in the bigs.

7) Robert Stock

2009 stats: 189 PA, 26 R, 50 H, 9 2B, 2 3B, 7 HR, 24 RBI, .294/.333/.482 (two levels)

I realized that this last entry might be a bit of a stretch and I well may be the only one putting him on the list, but something about Stock intrigues me.  He hit extremely well after being the second Cardinal selection in the draft, being able to move up a level before the end of the season.  The power potential at the catcher position is definitely something to keep an eye on.  Granted, it's a terribly small sample size, but I expect we'll hear more from Stock next season.

Honorable mentions: Bryan Anderson, David Freese, Lance Lynn, Francisco Samuel.