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I always try to add a relief prospect by the 18th vote, and I do that because we\u2019ve actually had a relief prospect be the 18th prospect in the system twice. If I add any doubt whatsoever about adding a relief prospect, it was removed when Luis Gastelum completely dominated the vote. Like he received 123 votes and the next highest total was 12. He should be in the voting for sure.<\/p>\n
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Jesus Baez, IF \u2013 21<\/p>\n
Stats (High A): 416 PAs, .244\/.327\/.397, 10.3 BB%, 18.5 K%, .153 ISO, .270 BABIP,\u00a0116 wRC+, 121 DRC+<\/p>\n
Scouting (FG): 30\/45 Hit, 35\/50 Game Power, 50\/55 Raw Power, 40\/40 Speed, 40\/45 Fielding<\/p>\n
There\u2019s always one guy who I add to the voting too early. There\u2019s a high upside, but high variance prospect who I\u2019m not totally sure how this crowd feels about, and I add them as early as possible just so that I don\u2019t add them too late. Well Baez has been on the vote since the 6th vote and I have long since run out of things to say about Baez. You get the picture. Jesus Baez personally ran Keith Law\u2019s mother over with a car, he has a rep for chasing, and yet statistically, nothing looks bad from my eyes.<\/p>\n
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Yhoiker Fajardo, RHP \u2013 19<\/p>\n
Stats (CPX): 6 G, 20.2 IP, 31.6 K%, 9.2 BB%, 51.2 GB%, .205 BABIP, 0.44 ERA\/2.41 FIP\/3.29 xFIP<\/p>\n
Low A: 13 GS, 51.1 IP, 27.8 K%, 9.4 BB%, 50 GB%, .326 BABIP, 2.98 ERA\/2.50 FIP\/3.14 xFIP<\/p>\n
Scouting: 40\/45 Fastball, 55\/60 Slider, 30\/50 Change, 35\/50 Command<\/p>\n
It is kind of crazy to be this late in the game and have guys like Baez and Fajardo still be in the voting and it not be some gross misjustice. Like just think about the fact that there is a 19-year-old who pitched very well in both rookie league and Low A and you can still vote for this guy at 18 or 19 or 20 and I just think this guy is already on the list in the other three years I\u2019ve done this. I don\u2019t think this group was even that high on Padilla, but by 15 last year, the other options were just not that exciting. We still have kind of exciting options at 18!<\/p>\n
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Luis Gastelum, 24 \u2013 RHP<\/p>\n
Stats (AA): 46 G, 62.2 IP, 35.4 K%, 6.5 BB%, 48.3 GB%, .343 BABIP, 4.02 ERA\/2.19 FIP\/2.31 xFIP<\/p>\n
Scouting: 45\/45 Fastball, 40\/40 Slider, 65\/65 Change, 50\/55 Command<\/p>\n
Yes, Gastelum is posting those numbers with effectively one pitch. I mean yeah you can see he has other pitches, but the changeup is how he strikes out over a third of batters he faces. As one can imagine, when you imagine someone throwing a changeup in your mind, it\u2019s not going to look like Gastelum\u2019s change. It looks more like what you expect a breaking ball to do. That is in fact what Mets\u2019 announcer Gary Cohen called it in a recent spring training game.<\/p>\n
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Pete Hansen, LHP \u2013 25<\/p>\n
Stats (AA): 26 GS, 137.1 IP, 21.1 K%, 6.3 BB%, 46.2 GB%, .306 BABIP, 3.93 ERA\/3.65 FIP\/3.71 xFIP<\/p>\n
Scouting: 35\/35 Fastball, 45\/50 Slider, 40\/40 Curve, 50\/55 Change, 55\/60 Command<\/p>\n
What I find particularly fascinating about Hansen\u2019s scouting report is that one would think Fangraphs was low on him, but they aren\u2019t. They definitely aren\u2019t. They ranked him 10th in the system last season. But that 35 fastball grade kind of pops out at you. It\u2019s the kind of grade you give to a prospect that you aren\u2019t typically high on, so I suppose it provides an insight into what FG thinks of the importance of command. You don\u2019t usually see 60 command prospects.<\/p>\n
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Blaze Jordan, 23 \u2013 1B\/3B<\/p>\n
Stats (AA): 176 PAs, .320\/.415\/.513, 12.5 BB%, 10.8 K%, .193 ISO, .333 BABIP, 167 wRC+, 145 DRC+<\/p>\n
AAA: 368 PAs, .248\/.291\/.423, 5.7 BB%, 11.1 K%, .175 ISO, .247 BABIP, 83 wRC+, 101 DRC+<\/p>\n
Scouting: 40\/50 Hit, 40\/50 Game Power, 60\/60 Raw Power, 30\/30 Speed, 40\/45 Fielding<\/p>\n
The problems that Blaze Jordan needs to overcome in order to be a productive hitter strike me as very similar to the problems that Alec Burleson once had. Burleson flew through the minors, had a better hit tool, and had the platoon advantage in the majority of his plate appearances, but broadly speaking \u2013 guy who doesn\u2019t strike out much needs to be more selective with his swing choices \u2013 that describes Blaze Jordan too.<\/p>\n
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Colton Ledbetter, 24 \u2013 OF<\/p>\n
Stats (AA): 535 PAs, .265\/.337\/.378, 9.5 BB%, 23.9 K%, .114 ISO, .339 BABIP, 112 wRC+<\/p>\n
Scouting: 30\/35 Hit, 40\/50 Game Power, 55\/55 Raw Power, 50\/40 Speed, 50\/50 Fielding<\/p>\n
Story is pretty clear cut on Ledbetter. He previously had a bit of a strikeout problem, but with the strikeouts came a lot of power. At AA last season, Ledbetter managed to get his strikeouts to a more reasonable level, but it did come with significantly less power. His goal I assume will be to merge the power with a more reasonable strikeout rate.<\/p>\n
Chen-Wei Lin, 24 \u2013 RHP<\/p>\n
Stats (Low A): 12 GS, 38.2 IP, 27.2 K%, 17.2 BB%, 50 GB%, .283 BABIP, 4.89 ERA\/3.69 FIP\/4.17 xFIP<\/p>\n
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High A: 4 GS, 9.2 IP, 41.7 K%, 18.8 BB%, 50 GB%, .412 BABIP, 9.31 ERA\/4.80 FIP\/2.76 xFIP<\/p>\n
Scouting: 60\/70 Fastball, 40\/45 Slider, 40\/60 Change, 30\/40 Command<\/p>\n
The scouting is definitely reflective of a relief prospect, but by no means are the Cardinals giving up on him starting. Mostly because you can actually start if you have a 70 fastball and a 60 change, that is a lethal combo. As you can also see by the scouting, he\u2019s not there yet with either pitch. The slider isn\u2019t great, but just having a third option to go to with two elite pitches can still work as a starter. He\u2019ll need better command of course.<\/p>\n
Ryan Mitchell, 19 \u2013 OF<\/p>\n
No stats<\/p>\n
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Scouting: 25\/55 Hit, 25\/50 Game Power, 40\/55 Raw Power, 60\/60 Speed, 25\/50 Fielding<\/p>\n
No one carrying tool for Mitchell, but just an overall well-rounded profile, which also happens to be kind of a boring scouting profile. You can dream on a better power tool even if it came with a worse hit tool, but everything being average or above average all adds up to a potentially great player, just not real eye-popping in the way ranking prospects tends to reward.<\/p>\n
Deniel Ortiz, 21 \u2013 1B\/3B<\/p>\n
Stats (Low A): 320 PAs, .285\/.406\/.446, 15.3 BB%, 27.5 K%, .162 ISO, .386 BABIP, 145 wRC+,\u00a0119 DRC+<\/p>\n
High A:\u00a0130 PAs, .336\/.438\/.500, 13.8 BB%, 22.3 K%, .164 ISO, .436 BABIP, 168 wRC+, 97 DRC+<\/p>\n
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Scouting (Baseball Savant): \/45 Hit, \/55 Power, \/55 Arm, \/45 Field<\/p>\n
I will once again mention that those scouting grades are his potential, but that Savant has not posted the \u201ccurrent\u201d scouting grades. Although if you think about it, the current is not super relevant for a guy in High A. You can kind of draw your own conclusions based on the stats to some extent. Also you don\u2019t necessarily care if they don\u2019t have trouble with swing-and-miss at the lower levels, you want to know if he will have trouble. Ortiz cutting down his K rate upon promotion strikes me as a fairly good sign.<\/p>\n
Tai Peete, OF \u2013 20<\/p>\n
Stats (High A): 529 PAs, .217\/.288\/.404, 8.7 BB%, 30.6 K%, .187 ISO, .282 BABIP, 79 wRC+, 79 DRC+<\/p>\n
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Scouting: 20\/30 Hit, 30\/50 Game Power, 50\/60 Raw Power, 60\/60 Speed, 45\/55 Fielding<\/p>\n
One thing I\u2019ll note about scouting grades, and this is super relevant to Peete I think, is that the potential isn\u2019t necessarily static. That does not mean his 30 grade potential hit tool is always going to be a 30 grade. From where the hit tool stands now, the scout can\u2019t see better than a 30 in his future. But Peete can make improvements and changes. Joshua Baez probably had a 30 hit tool as his potential before last season. But he changed and made improvements.<\/p>\n
VOTE HERE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s kind of unfortunate for Yairo Padilla that he came up at the same time as Rainiel Rodriguez.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":614932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2403],"tags":[1894,5,19003,703,160,36565,26953,29990,101,58,4,41261,79599,994,3920,58973,89,673,67,4311,4310,24218,74866],"class_list":["post-614931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-louis-cardinals","tag-alec-burleson","tag-baseball","tag-blaze-jordan","tag-brandon-clarke","tag-cardinals","tag-cooper-hjerpe","tag-jimmy-crooks","tag-joshua-baez","tag-mets","tag-miami-marlins","tag-mlb","tag-nathan-church","tag-padilla","tag-prospect","tag-quinn-mathews","tag-rainiel-rodriguez","tag-red-sox","tag-st-louis","tag-st-louis-cardinals","tag-stlouis","tag-stlouiscardinals","tag-tink","tag-yairo-padilla"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116199418011693587","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}