AZ and I will discuss our differences and how we arrived to our list probably early next week. As you can see, there are quite a few. We both sort of agree so far on Martinez and Haerther, and we have some vast differences, like Eddie Degerman and Blake King, and where Pete Kozma fits. But that’s another subject for another day, and it adds to the fun of all this. All your input is appreciated as well.
On to the list, 11-15.
15. Jess Todd. The first 2007 draftee for me to rank is Todd. I love the K/BB, K% and groundball ratios in his early returns, and he’s got nothing but praise from the scouting community. Carlos Gomez went so far as to say that he likes him much better then his former Razorback teammate and St. Louis native Nick Schmidt, who was picked in the first round. The general consensus is that his ceiling is a fastball/slider set up man, but I am hoping he sticks in the rotation. We’ll see.
14. Jason Motte. You have to like his story. He went from a no-hit, all glove catcher to one of the most dominant relievers system. His K% rate was nearly as high as Chris Perez’s, and he wasn’t as wild. He’s nearly all fastball right now, pumping it in at the mid to upper nineties, but reports are his slider is developing. It’s hard not to root for him.
13. Jarrett Hoffpauir. Watching Dustin Pedroia make all kinds of plays for the Red Sox this past postseason has got me a little excited about the outlook of seeing Hoffpauir in a big league jersey. No, I’m not crazy enough to say he’s equally as good as Pedroia, but they have striking similarities. Hoff gets the most out of his ability despite his size, he rarely strikes out, he takes his fair share of walks, he laces line drives and even shows a little bit of pop from the 2B position, a la Pedroia. Goldstein ranked him the #9 2B prospect in all of baseball, while BA thinks he’ll wind up as a utility IF. I just pray he permanently displaces Aaron Miles.
12. Mark Hamilton. Bryan Smith of BP thinks he’s the second coming of Ryan Klesko, which is a pretty nice accolade. Unlike Klesko, it doesn’t look like he’s going to be tried out in LF anytime soon, but I’d like to see that. Hamilton was drafted because of his power potential, and he began to show it in Palm Beach to the tune of a .230 ISO in 244 plate appearances. He struggled mightily in AA, but started to show signs of life the last few weeks of the season. He’s struggling down in the AFL right now, but I have faith he will come around. The obvious problem is he has nowhere to go with Pujols in his way, making him a likely throw-in in a deal. Goldstein ranked him the 9th best 1B prospect in the game.
11. Allen Craig. Arguably the best-hitting prospect the Cardinals have outside of Rasmus, but I’ve read numerous accounts that scouts are not that sold on him. For me, it’s just too hard to squabble with the stats. He went yard once in every 18 at bats, which is something for a FSL hitter. He also hits line drives at a very good clip and doesn’t strike out as much as most power hitters. He profiles to hit power and average in the Bigs, and I’ve heard one of you readers (can’t remember who) aptly compare him to Garret Atkins. Like Atkins, Craig is allegedly a butcher at 3B, but I can’t confirm that yet. The PB defense was well above average with him playing mostly at third, so maybe the reports on his D are overblown. His value hinges largely on if he can stick at third base.
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erik
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I wonder how good Motte can be if he doesn’t develop a good second pitch? So far, it han’t seem to hurt him too much.
Todd’s “reliever” tag comes not only from his repetiore of pitches but also because he puts a lot of effort into his delivery (similar but not as extreme as Perez). Most experts seem to think that is hard to sustain for an entire game.
Just to put the Pedroia comparison in context
Pedroia was in high A within a month of starting his professional career. Since then he tore it up with the exception of one half season at AAA.
Age 20:
A+ (130 ABs) .336/.417/.523
Age 21:
AA– .324/.409/.528
AAA– .255/.356/.382
Age 22:
AAA– .305/.384/.423
At 23 he was starting at 2B in the big leagues.
Hoff had a breakout year last year repeating AA at 24 and then continued that in AAA. I’m not saying he won’t be a useful player, but I don’t think he’s going to be league average at 2B.
why is it so hard to believe hoffpauir’s breakout isn’t real? i’m not stupid enough to say he will equally as good as pedroia, i’m just stating both have similar peripherals and are sorta smallish, and play 2B. obviously, pedroia has been good for sometime while hoffpauir has been middling until now, but it doesn’t mean his breakout cannot be real. what basis are you making this judgment? look past their AVG/OBP/SLG numbers and dig a little deeper and I don’t think you will find they are worlds apart, but i guess we’ll see.
The breakout of Ryan, Hoff, and several others this year are quite interesting for me. I have heard that Ryan attributes a lot to Eckstein’s coaching but since Hoff started hot at AA you can’t say it was Rick doing something there too unless maybe Eckstein was working with him in spring training. I really think Eckstein could be a factor being overlooked, who was the AAA hitting coach before this season? Was he any good? I don’t know that information and you guys probably do. Personally I think McRae should be gone and Walker or another coach should come in his place (heck why not try to grab the Yankees hitting coach right now?). I don’t read too much into a breakout year, was it a fluke or was it real? We won’t know that until the following season but it at least shows us a flash of potential and that is something a coach can work with sometimes and maybe this time we had the coachs/managers to work with it. Wasn’t this also Pop’s first season at AA? That could be part of what Hoff got was a different style. Numbers say a lot but not everything for me.
I’ve actually heard more good things about the Springfield hitting coach Derrick May than Eckstein. Heck, maybe we have two good ones.
Maybe, all I know is that Skip did better this year at the major league level then he has before, Ryan did better then his norms, Ankiel actually had a full season so how much of that is him vs coaching who knows, Ludwick had a great AAA and ML year, hitter wise the guys that started at AAA didn’t do that bad it was the pitching that doomed that team.
it was me that made the atkins comp, and i still think it is pretty accurate
it is a good comp.
I think the hitting coach gets too much credit when hitters do well and too much scrutiny when the hitters don’t. When I was playing, I didn’t think it was the coach that hit the ball - it was me. My hitting coach would tell me not to be a dead pull hitter - hit some balls up the middle, take one to right on a hit and run. They can watch film and give you advice, but the best way to have a good hitting team is to have good hitters. How do you know McRae isn’t a good coach? I don’t think results prove it, it would have to be based on something else. Duncan has gotten more out of his talent under McRae - is that McRae or Duncan?