The Cardinal Nation blog » Top Prospects

Vote now for your Cardinals top prospect list

Brian Walton — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 00:16:06 +0000

Have you ever read St. Louis Cardinals top prospect lists posted across the web and thought, “I could do better than that!”? Well, now is your chance to act.

TheCardinalNation.com’s message board community has begun its free, sixth-annual selection process of the top prospects in the Cardinals minor league system as decided by you, the fans.

The process is easy and anyone can participate. Follow the discussion on a special thread on the message board. It began with a community vote starting with prospect number one. Simply make a post specifying your choice. After several days of voting, the player with the simple majority of votes cast will be proclaimed the winner. Voting for prospect number two followed immediately will continue through 50.

In addition to having been the first Cardinals prospect list of its kind, the community voting will again be included in the blended tabulation of the official The Cardinal Nation Top 40 Prospect List for 2012. Its annual rollout will begin shortly after Thanksgiving. The past six years’ lists can be viewed via links located in the special area at the lower left of The Cardinal Nation’s home page.

The Cardinal Nation Top 40 will not only be featured on the website, but it will also appear in the 2012 FOX Sports Fantasy / Scout.com Prospects Guide. This annual magazine will arrive on newsstands across the country next spring and is provided free to annual subscribers to The Cardinal Nation.

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More St. Louis Cardinals talent inventory rankings

Brian Walton — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:16:10 +0000

In his “Young Talent Inventory”, now in its third year, famed sabermetric analyst Bill James compiles a list of the top 20 young players across Major League Baseball. Not surprisingly, the inventory, published in “The Bill James Gold Mine 2010”, does not include any St. Louis Cardinals prospects. 23-year-old hurler Felix Hernandez of Seattle is the “most valuable property” at number 1.

James goes further to rank all young MLB talent by organization. In this measurement, the St. Louis Cardinals dropped from number 14 last year to 24 in 2010.

2010		2009
1	Tampa Bay Rays	3
2	Colorado Rockies	8
3	Minnesota Twins	1
4	Arizona Diamondbacks	2
5	Boston Red Sox	10
6	San Francisco Giants	22
7	New York Yankees	29
8	Texas Rangers	19
9	Chicago White Sox	25
10	Florida Marlins	4
11	Los Angeles Dodgers	13
12	Philadelphia Phillies	20
13	Atlanta Braves	9
14	Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim	11
15	Kansas City Royals	5
16	New York Mets	16
17	Chicago Cubs	26
18	Seattle Mariners	18
19	Milwaukee Brewers	6
20	Baltimore Orioles	24
21	Oakland A’s	12
22	Toronto Blue Jays	28
23	Washington Nationals	23
24	St. Louis Cardinals	14
25	Pittsburgh Pirates	17
26	Cleveland Indians	7
27	Cincinnati Reds	15
28	Detroit Tigers	27
29	San Diego Padres	21
30	Houston Astros	30

Last week, Baseball America posted an article reviewing international signings by organization that they view as being top prospects in their annual Prospect Handbook. The focus is not just this year, but cumulative. It is apparently over the last five or six years, but exact timeframe is unclear.

Also, they don’t list all the names, just three from each organization. Still you can get an idea of where BA’s thinking is. The Cardinals are near the bottom with five such prospects, in a four-way tie for 21st. The best is the Yankees with 12 and worst are Marlins and Pirates with two each.

For the Cardinals, the three players listed are all pitchers: Eduardo Sanchez (pictured), Francisco Samuel and Richard Castillo.

A week later, BA came back with a point-in-time comparison to five years ago. In total, there are 21 more international prospects now than five years ago, an increase of 10-12 percent.

Still, the Cardinals improvement is evident by the fact that Juan Lucena was their only player listed in 2005. That one international prospect ranked St. Louis’ system dead last.

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Links to Cardinals “Best of” Lists

Brian Walton — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 13:53:45 +0000

To help pass the time over the various off-seasons in recent years, we compiled lists of some of the top current Cardinals minor leaguers and past major leaguers as well as engaged in some very interesting debate as a result.

Following are the links to these lists:

Top 20 Cardinals Stories of 2011

Top 20 Cardinals Stories of 2010

Top 20 Cardinals Stories of 2009

Top 20 Cardinals Stories of 2008:

Top 20 Cardinals Stories of 2008: #16-20

Top 20 Cardinals Stories of 2008: #11-15

Top 20 Cardinals Stories of 2008: #1-5

Cardinals Minor League Players and Managers of the Year

2011

Starting pitcher, reliever and position players by level and system-wide

Top winners: Brandon Dickson, Keith Butler and Matt Adams