Current Overall SB ranking for 2010 shown in parentheses.
LHP, STL (#24 overall)
The Cardinals stole Garcia in the 22nd round of the 2005 amateur draft on the whim of a scout who saw his curve while watching a Mexican junior national team game. His fastball never leaves the low-90s, but the plus nature of his complementary pitches give him a good career potential. St. Louis is hungry for pitching, and good at developing it, so he could be moved up quickly.
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RHP, STL (#68 overall)
The Cardinals first round pick in 2009, pitcher Shelby Miller is a raw but talented prospect with a wicked-hot fastball that has excellent and natural late movement. The Cards will probably start him out at A-level Quad Cities in 2010, but he could move up a notch or two soon after that, since his raw stuff is probably good enough to overpower lesser hitters. At higher levels, he'll need to lean on his 12-6 curve and the extra sink he can put on his two-seam fastball to succeed. With a projectable body that could probably add muscle in the years to come, he looks like a good workhorse candidate in St. Louis come 2014 or so, though he'll probably get a look-see a bit sooner than that.
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3B, STL (#103 overall)
The Cardinals' first pick of the 2010 Amateur Draft (25th overall), Arkansas' Zack Cox is a toolsy player with a high-end mix of baseball instincts and work ethic. He abandoned pitching to focus on hitting as a college freshman, and he hasn't looked back since. His bat speed is exceptional, and allowed him to turn on even the best heat in college ball while also letting him adjust to off-speed pitches with an ease seldom seen in NCAA. His contact rate isn't terrific, however, so he'll need to work on that if he's to be more than an all-power hitter. He's also a bit rough defensively, but he'll have time to mature as a pro player while waiting for his MLB career to begin.
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RHP, STL (#122 overall)
The Cardinals' minor league pitcher of the year, righthander Michael (Lance) Lynn is a 6-6, 260lb monster out of U Mississippi who frustrates opposing hitters with a hard sinker mixed with an effective change and curve. More of a smart, pitchability type than a power pitcher, Lynn exhibits plus command of all his pitches and has shown a knack for keeping hitters off balance. If he can hold up to the workloads of pro ball, he could be a real innings eater for the Cardinals in a year or two.
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3B, STL (#124 overall)
A onetime Padre asset, current Cardinal prospect David Freese is a mature infielder with a compelling blend of speed, power and strike-zone discipline. He's not an all-star anything, but he's competent enough at every aspect of the game that he won't hurt you no matter where he plays on the field. A super-utility candidate.
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C, STL (#146 overall)
He's slipped in the prospect standings over the last season or two, but the slugging left-handed catcher who hit .302 as a 19-year old A-baller and .298 as a 20-year old in AA is still seen as the catcher of the near future in St Louis. Assuming he can right himself, he should get a look late in the season, and be competing for a 2011 roster spot.
More Scouting Book Info on Bryan Anderson >
LF , STL (#156 overall)
The Cardinals' minor league player of the year in 2008 when he hit .383 across two levels of play, ex-football standout Jones is a rising star in St. Louis. The best speed threat in the system, Jones has begun to turn on his batting eye, raising his average by almost 200 points while learning to be more selective and choose which balls to drive into the gaps.
More Scouting Book Info on Daryl Jones >
RHP, STL (#197 overall)
A fastball and slider specialist, Sanchez is a lights-out reliever simmering in the St. Louis system. The young Venezuelan ended his 2009 with the Double-A Springfield Cardinals, and now projects as a nasty late-inning weapon for the Cardinals, perhaps as soon as 2010.
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C, STL (#217 overall)
A converted pitcher, Robert Stock is getting a chance behind the plate for the Cardinals in order to mainstream his plus batting eye and lefthanded power bat, so that's how we'll treat him for now.
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OF, STL (#242 overall)
A powerful third baseman when he was drafted out of college, Craig showed a plus bat with solid corner power at each stop in his career. Questions about his ability to stick at third base (a move to first isn't exactly an option in St. Louis) led the Cardinals to recast him as an outfielder, at least temporarily, but he did make Brett Wallace expendable, which shows you how much the team's brass thinks of his bat If the infield experiment is truly shut down for good, he might still have a chance to crack right field in St. Louis, but he'd have an even better chance on another roster somewhere. Either way, he's a year or two away from making an impact, and his defense will let us know when he's ready to make the leap.
More Scouting Book Info on Allen Craig >
RHP, STL (#271 overall)
A tall, lanky Canadian righthander who was the Cardinals top-rated prospect as far back as 2004, Blake Hawksworth is now a mature prospect on the cusp of landing a full-time job in major league baseball. After posting a 5-4 record (3.58 / 1.11 WHIP) for the AAA Memphis in 2009, Hawksworth got a taste of MLB, going 4-0 in 40 innings of mop-up duty. His 2.03 ERA while handling that low-leverage trial demonstrated enough ability to gain the righthander consideration for bullpen or spot-starting duty in 2010. He won't be a Cy Young winner, not even with Dave Duncan around, but he could be a capable and effective major league pitcher for most of the next decade, given the opportunity.
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OF, STL (#296 overall)
A 2006 draft pick out of the University of Miami, outfielder Jon Jay is a stocky fireplug with a plus bat but below-average power and speed. While he's no superstar, he has all the tools needed to be a significant bench asset in MLB, and his bat could help him work his way into a starting lineup soon thereafter.
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RHP, STL (#375 overall)
A tall, lanky righthander with a nice moving fastball and a deceptive delivery, pitcher PJ Walters is one of the high-upside but low-spotlight players developing in the Cards' system. St Louis's 2007 Minor League Pitcher of the Year, he slipped a bit in 2008 and 2009, when his ERA and WHIP jumped sharply. On the other hand, he also seemed to rediscover his strikeout pitch, increasing his K/9 to almost exactly 9.0. He's not the best raw talent in St. Louis, and he looked positively overmatched in a late season cup of coffee, but he might be the most big-league ready pitcher available, and opportunity can do wonders for a young man.
More Scouting Book Info on PJ Walters >
RHP, STL (#378 overall)
Selected 30th overall by the Cardinals in the 2006 draft, Ottavino dominated hitters at Northwestern University with a K/9 rate over 10 and a notable ability to handle tough left-handed hitters. He projects a promising mix of confidence and stuff, and scouts see him as a future middle-of-rotation starter. He's had a rocky time in the minors so far, but his advanced mental game and advanced skills should come together sooner or later.
More Scouting Book Info on Adam Ottavino >
RHP, STL (#386 overall)
A fifth-round pick in the 2005 draft, Boggs is a durable righthander in the Cardinal system. Working primarily with a 95mph fastball and a splitter-slider that he's still learning to master, Boggs is still working to find pitches that he can throw with movement and for strikes at the same time. While Mitch could probably do a fine job in the bullpen very soon, using nothing but his heat, the Cardinals want to keep developing Boggs as a starter in the hope that he can become a major league workhorse. He projects as a middle-to-back-end starter, but a reliable one, in the Joe Blanton category.
More Scouting Book Info on Mitchell Boggs >
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