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Hey Kevin!

How about them Cardinals?

Tyrell Jenkins has had an up and down season in the Midwest League. Control seems to be his big problem. But, he's awfully young and his K and HR rates still look really good. Is his stock rising, falling, or holding steady? Where do you think he'll start next season?

Why are you lower on Martinez than most?

Do you think we'll see teams retain and develop their own prospects more because of no draft picks for mid-season pick ups?

Kevin, what are your thoughts about leagues with extreme run environments? Do you think that heavy hitter's or pitcher's leagues can hurt player development(either by ruining confidence or by hiding weaknesses), or do they just obscure the true talent that will eventually surface regardless?

Raining frogs in Magnolia- genius or madness?

Shelby Miller is supposed to be a potential ace, but he's been getting lit up this year in Memphis. What is your perspective on where he is developmentally and what sort of contribution he is capable of making in the big leagues? Is he just experiencing a few bumps in the road, or should we be worried?

Also, what do you think about this new prospect on the Sugar Land team in the Atlantic League - Rohgher Creamens or Clearens or something like that? Will he amount to anything?

I like the fact that it's easy to get tickets to see my second team - the Twins. But I'd like them to be competitive again, too. What prospects do the Twins on the farm have that may be able to make an impact in the next year or two?

What's the deal with your neighbor's garbage?

The Cards farm system has generally been rated at best middle of the pack, yet it seems year after year we grow key contributers to winning teams. My questions are these:

1. Have the Cardinals outperformed expectations?
2. If they have, what's going on? Just getting short changed from the experts? Something happening with teaching at the lower levels that is unique to this organization? Tony LaRussa/Dave Duncan?

Here is a list of players that have contributed or provided important returns with trades at the MLB level. I put in parens the rating of the team by Baseball America or the individual players ranking within the Cardinal organization. This seems like good production from a farm system, more than what I would have expected given the organizational rankings.

2007 (23)
- Colby Rasmus (1) - Largely the reason we were as high as 23, Rasmus hasn't lived up to his potential yet at the MLB level. St. Louis seemed to recognize something, trading him at the deadline for bullpen help that was instrumental in the 2011 WS.

- Jaimie Garcia (2)
- Chriz Perez (3) - again provided good returns.
- Jon Jay (5)
- Mitchell Boggs (11)
- Shane Robinson (28)
- Skip Schumaker (29)

2008 (13)
- Rasmus (1)
- Perez (2)
- Garcia (5)
- Boggs (9)
- Jay (11)
- Allen Craig (15)
- Kyle McClellan (19)
- Jason Motte (24)
- Mark Hamilton (27)

2009 (8)
- Rasmus (1) and Brett Wallace(2) were big reasons for the higher ranking. We turned Wallace into Matt Holliday.
- Perez (3)
- Motte (8)
- David Freese (9)
- Jay (12)
- Garcia (13)
- Boggs (14)
- Lance Lynn (15)
- Fernando Salas (20)
- Craig (26)
- Robinson (28)

2010 (29)
- Shelby Miller (1) - still waiting but he is the reason we weren't ranked dead last.
- Garcia (2) *
- Lynn (3) *
- Freese (5) *
- Eduardo Sanchez (6) *
- Craig (7) *
- Daniel Descalso (9) *
- Jay (13) *
- Joe Kelly(21)
- Mark Hamilton (26)

Look at that! The 29th ranked farm system had 7 guys that were on the WS roster (denoted by *). That's pretty impressive.

2011 (24)
Miller (1)
Craig (5)
Lynn (6)
Sanchez (7)
Kelly (10)
Matt Carpenter (11)
Descalso (12)
Salas (14)
Adron Chambers (16) * - the 8th guy that was on the WS roster.
Tony Cruz (25)

...