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Socnorb11 wrote:

jim wrote:I'm listening to a BA podcast and a question was asked to one of the editors which team surprised you most/least from the teams and the guy originally said the Cardinals for their lack of depth past 4. "Amazingly thin" is what they said. They went on to say not a criticism etc... but felt that the Cards were really thin.

I've been saying this for quite awhile. The Cards are obviously young at the MLB level (which is great), but they really need some of their 2013 picks to develop, and they need a strong 2014 draft. When Taveras graduates to the MLB level this spring, the Cards may not even have a top 20 farm system.

Which is to say...nothing. the cards organization was 29th or 30th at a time they had....

Miller, lynn, martinez, rosenthal, Kelly, craig, adams, freese iirc, garcia, jay, etc. I mean a lot of that is 09 talent that wasnt appreciated, so a big 14 draft would be nice...but still. They don't need need it. Like their 2018 playoff berth is on the line.

Good point AW, and in that podcast they said the same thing going back the Cardinals had a terrible farm system but produced one mega star, and that being top heavy isn't a bad thing - i.e. you would rather have a crappy system that produced one Albert Pujols than just about anything else.

btw - they weren't suggesting they had Pujols pegged that high, although I checked and they did have him in their top 50. Here is kind of an interesting table, seeing where they were ranked and where they ended up:

http://www.ocregister.com/angels/strong ... table.html

AWvsCBsteeeerike3 wrote:

Socnorb11 wrote:

jim wrote:I'm listening to a BA podcast and a question was asked to one of the editors which team surprised you most/least from the teams and the guy originally said the Cardinals for their lack of depth past 4. "Amazingly thin" is what they said. They went on to say not a criticism etc... but felt that the Cards were really thin.

I've been saying this for quite awhile. The Cards are obviously young at the MLB level (which is great), but they really need some of their 2013 picks to develop, and they need a strong 2014 draft. When Taveras graduates to the MLB level this spring, the Cards may not even have a top 20 farm system.

Which is to say...nothing. the cards organization was 29th or 30th at a time they had....

Miller, lynn, martinez, rosenthal, Kelly, craig, adams, freese iirc, garcia, jay, etc. I mean a lot of that is 09 talent that wasnt appreciated, so a big 14 draft would be nice...but still. They don't need need it. Like their 2018 playoff berth is on the line.

Adams, Rosenthal, Kelly, Martinez and Miller started their professional careers in 2009. So you're basically agreeing with me.......... as I said, the 2013 draft picks need to develop. That's all.

No, soc. I am going to disagree w you. Whatever you're saying. Winky winky.

I just realized that the Angels took Grichuk in front of Trout. Not a big deal because they had back to back picks, but still...

I think Trout's #1 black mark coming into the draft was he was from New Jersey.

Trout was projected as high as 3...I liked him quite a bit (I'm a noted Northern player fan), but I will openly admit I wanted Shelby Miller and would've been mad had they taken Trout instead.

Whoops.

The Cardinals farm system isn't as strong, and I agree that after Taveras makes it to the major leagues there will not be much star potential. I understand that players like Adams, Craig, Rosenthal, etc. all panned out...but that is not a sure thing to happen again. If some of these other prospects don't develop, the Cardinals could be looking at a weak farm system moving forward. That's just my thoughts.

STL_Cards wrote:The Cardinals farm system isn't as strong, and I agree that after Taveras makes it to the major leagues there will not be much star potential. I understand that players like Adams, Craig, Rosenthal, etc. all panned out...but that is not a sure thing to happen again. If some of these other prospects don't develop, the Cardinals could be looking at a weak farm system moving forward. That's just my thoughts.

You can say the same thing almost every year. But, there's also a draft every year. I still think that people believe we don't have much talent lower in the minors because we rarely look behind the talent that's right in front of us. And we've had a rare streak of guys that were very hard to look past. When Miller was close a few years ago, we didn't have many stud starters behind him. Then we drafted Wacha and Martinez has developed. Now, we're about to graduate Miller, Martinez and Wacha, but we have Marco Gonzales, Kaminski, and especially Reyes to look toward. Taveras and Wong are going to graduate the system, but we have Piscotty coming. And there's another draft coming up in June and you'll have a whole new group of names to talk about.

We had an unheard of # of players in the top 100 this past season with 4 of these 5 in the top 25 -- Wong, Wacha, Martinez, Miller, Taveras. This coming season, even if we graduate all of them out of prospect status, I would bet we have at least three that finish in the top 100 -- Piscotty, Alex Reyes, and Gonzalez -- and that doesn't include anyone we draft this year. We're still deep enough that #1 prospects on other clubs aren't cracking our top 10.

Farm systems that produce one star every few years and solid players every year are the envy of the league. That's what we are.

Trout's problem wasn't locational geography, as much as it was competitive geography. NJ doesn't matter. Small school, not much competition is what brought him down.

It's fine for BA to call the system thin. It is thin. The quality of this bunch, like the quality of the 2009 bunch, will depend on how well the development team finishes them. They have the track record to get the benefit of the doubt, but it's a fair statement that there isn't a ton of talent to be excited about the way there was the last few years.

Fat Strat wrote:

STL_Cards wrote:The Cardinals farm system isn't as strong, and I agree that after Taveras makes it to the major leagues there will not be much star potential. I understand that players like Adams, Craig, Rosenthal, etc. all panned out...but that is not a sure thing to happen again. If some of these other prospects don't develop, the Cardinals could be looking at a weak farm system moving forward. That's just my thoughts.

You can say the same thing almost every year. But, there's also a draft every year. I still think that people believe we don't have much talent lower in the minors because we rarely look behind the talent that's right in front of us. And we've had a rare streak of guys that were very hard to look past. When Miller was close a few years ago, we didn't have many stud starters behind him. Then we drafted Wacha and Martinez has developed. Now, we're about to graduate Miller, Martinez and Wacha, but we have Marco Gonzales, Kaminski, and especially Reyes to look toward. Taveras and Wong are going to graduate the system, but we have Piscotty coming. And there's another draft coming up in June and you'll have a whole new group of names to talk about.

We had an unheard of # of players in the top 100 this past season with 4 of these 5 in the top 25 -- Wong, Wacha, Martinez, Miller, Taveras. This coming season, even if we graduate all of them out of prospect status, I would bet we have at least three that finish in the top 100 -- Piscotty, Alex Reyes, and Gonzalez -- and that doesn't include anyone we draft this year. We're still deep enough that #1 prospects on other clubs aren't cracking our top 10.

Farm systems that produce one star every few years and solid players every year are the envy of the league. That's what we are.

Again Fat, that's kinda what I was getting at. The farm system still has an opportunity to be good. However, I think it's asking quite a bit to expect Piscotty, Reyes and Gonzalez to develop like Miller, Wacha, Martinez, Taveras, etc. I hope that some of those guys land in the top 100, but I think it's far from a guarantee.

Definitely need some progression, along with a strong draft. As some of you guys have pointed out, the organization deserves the benefit of the doubt.