Farm Watch -- The Ankiel On Pace for 54 HR/162 RBI!!! Thread

[bigboy1234]

What a suprise Reyes goes down, Reyes kills the competion. Who would have thought? Allowed no walks, 3 hits, 1 run, with 4 SO in 7 IP last night. Oh, and like usual got the loss.

[mizzoupacers]

The Cardinals' treatment of Reyes has been pretty disappointing this year. I don't like this stuff I read about Duncan/La Russa trying to force him to be a type of pitcher he is not (a low-strike-zone groundout inducer).

Then again, Reyes has been pretty disappointing himself, what with his ERA of 6.08.

But at even at 6.08, I'd rather see him in our rotation than Kip Wells.

[bigboy1234]

Wooooo, draft day is here. Can someone please tell the Cardinals FO to draft just high schoolers? We did it in 2005 and it has been a beautiful thing.

My hopes are so high, but I just know once they announce the 18th pick I'm gonna be disappointed.

[mizzoupacers]

Who do you want us to get at #18? In the rest of the draft?

I don't follow amateur baseball, so all the prospects are just names on a page to me. All I ask is that we spend every pick on either a five-tool everyday player or a pitcher who throws it through brick walls with pinpoint control. I'm sure when the draft is over the Cardinals will announce that they have done just that.

[bigboy1234]

My dream is to have Matt Harvey fall to us and select him at 18. And if somehow Rick Porcello or Matt Wieters fall to us, grab them up so quick.

This could give you an decent amount of knowledge of who the best players are.
http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/dr ... nk=tracker

Also, the leader in amateur baseball PG (perfectgame) ranks the top 10 HS players like this:
1. R. Porcello
2. J. Heyward
3. J. Vitters
4. M. Harvey
5. Madison Bumgarner
6. Josh Smoker
7. Blake Beaven
8. Jarrod Parker
9. Justin Jackson
10. Michael Main

http://www.pgcrosschecker.com/hsprospec ... pects.aspx

Then theres brewerfan.net who ranks there top 30 players.

http://www.brewerfan.net/ViewDraftArchive.do?draftId=5

[mizzoupacers]

Thanks bigboy, I'll check those sites out. I'm hoping to keep tabs on the draft today if the workday does not keep me too busy.

The draft starts at 1 p.m. and will be televised on espn2. Numerous Web sites will also be tracking the draft.

The Cardinals have their highest pick in years, plus they get a couple of extra picks as compensation for losing Jeff Suppan. Their picks are at #s 18, 36, 72, 83, then every thirtieth pick after that.

[bigboy1234]

Oh, just to let everyone know, heres a site that does a scouting report for pretty much the top 100 prospects in the draft.

http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb ... mc=tepesch

I set it on the guy I hope falls to us at #83, although I have a feeling he'll go before that. I've seen him a couple times, and he's quite good.

Also with our second pick, I hope we pick Justin Jackson or Andrew Brackman. Brackman is a kid who is a high risk, huge reward guy. But if both of these guys are gone I also like Kozmo and Burgess.

[bigboy1234]

I hate the Cardinals.

[mizzoupacers]

The Cardinals select Peter Kozma, a high-school shortstop from Oklahoma.

profile

I'll look forward to seeing him play. In 2012.

[bigboy1234]

Such an overdraft, this kid doesn't even have a high upside for HS player. Probably could have gotten him or Justin Jackson (who I like more) at #36.

Seriously 10M isn't even that much money, Porcello is the best pitching prospect since Beckett. When your the Cardinals that money shouldn't stop you from getting such a good player in Porcello.

[mizzoupacers]

At #36 Cardinals take Clayton Mortensen, pitcher, senior at Gonzaga. Scouting reports say he throws a sinker in the low nineties as well as a slider and a changeup. Sounds like a Dave Duncan "pitch to contact" kind of guy. He's already 22, so hopefully he moves quickly through the minors (assuming he is any good). Scouts say even though he is 22 he is still "filling out his frame" and thus is a legitimate "prospect"--I guess that means they think he could still add a few mph to his fastball.

[bigboy1234]

My thoughts that I posted on another website:

Wouldn

[pacerfan]

Wow, that's a harsh analysis. Have no idea if it's true or not.

[bigboy1234]

Harsh, but true.

We could have ended up with this:

18. Rick Porcello - The best HS pitching prospect since Josh Beckett.
36. Justin Jackson/Michael Burgess - Both huge HS athletes at the top of there class coming into the year but slid a little since.
71. Nevin Griffith - A top 10 HS pitcher, who had been underrated.
82. Matt Harvey - In my opinion the 3rd best HS pitching prospect.
112. Kyle Russell - Kyle Russell maybe the best power in this draft, is a sophomore who is draft eligable and killed the HR record at Texas but some worry about his SO.
142. Jake Arrieta - Arrieta came into the season as one of the top RHP college pitchers and top 15 overall pick, had a down year but still should have went top 50.
172. Will Middlebrooks - A HS 3rd baseman compared to Chipper Jones and Scott Rolen.

Then could have picked great talents such as Jack McGeary, Kentrail Davis, Cole St. Clair, Greg Peavy, Julian Sampson, Tanner Robles, Chris Carpenter, Yasmani Grandal, and Nick Tepesch today, but instead we end up of a bunch of players who will amount to nothing and Russell and Kozma who will be average at there position. And thats even if the Cards feel like paying Russell.

Maybe it

[mizzoupacers]

Here's a listing of the seven guys we picked yesterday:

link

According to the Post-Dispatch, the Cardinals could draft as many as 44 more players today. And chances are pretty good that some of them will be better than most or perhaps even all of the guys we took yesterday. Extreme example of that: Albert Pujols, drafted in the thirteenth round in 1999.

I have no opinion on the guys we took yesterday. I'm willing to suspend judgment until they have had a chance to play professionally for several years.

It will be a looooooonnnnnnnggggggg time before we know whether this year's draft is good or bad. In the same year we drafted Pujols, we also drafted Chris Duncan. Duncan has turned out to be a pretty good pick...but it took seven years to know that.

[bigboy1234]

http://www.stltoday.com/blogs/sports-bi ... /#comments

Here's a little PR damage control that Luhnow did this morning. As you can see I posted my thoughts. It amazes me, that Luhnow actually thinks some fans are so dumb and don't cover amateur baseball that they somehow think the Mortenson pick is actually good, and somehow better for than the team, then a potential ace like Matt Harvey.

[bigboy1234]

I have no opinion on the guys we took yesterday. I'm willing to suspend judgment until they have had a chance to play professionally for several years.

A good amount of them should have very nice AAA careers.

[bigboy1234]

Oh, and in 2 starts in AAA so far Reyes has a 1.93 ERA, 10 SO, 2 BB in 14 IP. And over at vivaelbirdos, lboros does a comparison of our SP.

Also Rasmus had a bad series against Tulsa going 2-14 with 5 SO.

[mizzoupacers]

A good amount of them should have very nice AAA careers.

1. That's pretty much par for the course.

2. Predraft projections of who will ultimately succeed and who will not turn out to be wrong a pretty high percentage of the time. I feel safe in predicting that some of the guys you like right now will never develop into major-leaguers, and some of the guys you don't like will. If only I knew which ones!

[bigboy1234]

How dare you question my eye for talent, all the guys I like will be super-duper-stars. I've been told my scouting ability rivals that of Miss Cleo.