So, as we approach the minor league draft–John Sickels’s annual mock draft is here–it’s as good a time as any to see what the current farm system has done this year. I’m going to start this review, conducted in Baseball Prospectus block-o-text format, with Quad Cities, the Cardinals’ low-A affiliate. (Note: underneath this post I wrote about Jason Isringhausen; scroll past this stuff if you could care less about the minors.)

Today, the hitters:

AVG
.333, C Bryan Anderson
ERA
2.54, Jaime Garcia


OBP
.415, Anderson
IP
60.1, Garcia


SLG
.565, 3B Randy Roth
W
4, Garcia, Cory Meacham


OPS
.926, Roth
K/9
11.0, Mark McCormick


HR
12, Roth
K:BB
4.64, Garcia


RBI
40, Roth
HR/9
0.15, Garcia


SB
17, SS Dan Nelson
 
 


BB:K
.65, Anderson
 
 

Bryan Anderson Catcher - 19 years old - 6′1″, 190 - Drafted in the 4th round, 2005

---

              G  AB  R  H  2B 3B HR RBI  K  BB  SB  CS  AVG  OBP  SLG  OPS
2005  RK  18 51 154 28 51   8  1  6  36 29  15   6   1 .331 .383 .513 .896
2006  A-  19 39 144 24 48  14  1  1  20 29  19   2   2 .333 .415 .465 .880

---

It’s hard out here for a hard-hitting catcher prospect in the Cardinals’ low minor leagues, ever since Daric Barton tore the Midwest League to pieces and then broke our hearts in exchange for Mark Mulder. Just ask Brandon Yarbrough, who was sharing time with Anderson until a late-May call-up to Palm Beach. After putting up a .908 OPS in 2004, the year after Barton thrashed the Appalachian League, he was expected to be a solid hitting prospect to replace him in the system. Instead, he scuffled, and now he’s a non-entity.

Anderson seems to be doing better, having hit over .320 consistently since–well, the start of his professional career. The solitary home run is worrisome, but his plate discipline is very good and at least one prospect maven–John Sickels–was impressed enough to rate him among the top ten prospects in the system. His defense is less suspect than Barton’s, but he still may eventually end up somewhere else.

Luis Cotto Infielder - 25 years old - 5′10″, 180 - Signed 5/1/06

---

              G  AB  R  H  2B 3B HR RBI  K  BB  SB  CS  AVG  OBP  SLG  OPS
2004  A-  23 53 159 19 42   9  0  1  16 32  10   2   2 .264 .322 .340 .662
2005  A+  24 64 198 20 43  10  1  1  14 39  11   2   3 .217 .265 .293 .558
2006  A-  25 28  89 14 23   4  1  0   8 22   8   5   2 .258 .340 .326 .666

---

He’s been kicking around in the minors since being a late round pick of the Royals in 2000. It’s a neat trick, lasting this long, because his first two years in the pros he put up an OPS under .550. The Swing picked him up after 2B Cal Hayes, a 3d round pick in 2002, retired, and he’s filled in around the infield since.

As I was dreaming this idea up, I thought to myself: “Should I waste several additional hours transcribing the statistics of players who have no chance at making the major leagues, ever?” And then I was reminded of these insightful words:”The world needs ditch diggers, too.” So here’s to you, Luis Cotto. Say your prayers to Stubby Clapp every night, and who knows.

Chad Gabriel Outfielder - 22 years old - 6′2″, 195 - Drafted in the 20th round, 2004

---

              G  AB  R  H  2B 3B HR RBI  K  BB  SB  CS  AVG  OBP  SLG  OPS
2004  RK  20 56 196 38 53  14  1  5  37 39  12   5   1 .270 .329 .429 .758
2005  A-- 21 56 207 30 64  13  1  2  29 44  12   6   1 .309 .353 .411 .764
2006  A-  22 17  62  6 19   3  0  1   4  9   1   2   2 .306 .328 .403 .731

---

Well, if nothing else he’s got a chance at running his 56-games-played, 12-walks streak up another year; he spent his first month in extended spring training. He’s done better than a lot of 20th round picks, in that he’s playing a third year of professional baseball, but unless he sprouts some power he’ll be spending year six of his indentured servitude as the fourth outfielder in AA Springfield, or something equally uninteresting. Note, because it has to be mentioned somewhere: he was a member of the NY-Penn League All-Star Team in 2005.

Jose Martinez 2B/SS - 20 years old - 5′11″, 175 - Signed out of Venezuela, 2004

---

              G  AB  R  H  2B 3B HR RBI  K  BB  SB  CS  AVG  OBP  SLG  OPS
2005  Rk  19 55 150 28 45   8  2  6  31 15  20   9   2 .300 .387 .500 .887
2006  A-  20 32 115 20 30   6  0  4  16 13   2   2   2 .261 .290 .417 .707

---

Came out of nowhere to show off an extremely polished offensive game in 2005, and since we were all busy watching Colby Rasmus in Johnson City we noticed Martinez, too. He spent the first month of the season in extended spring training, but he was called up following Cal Hayes’s retirement and went two for his first eighteen. His numbers since then–.289/.303/.495–are certainly nicer to look at, but the plate discipline that led Baseball America to rank him 28th–they didn’t rank Anderson at all–among Cardinals prospects has yet to appear. The power’s certainly intriguing, though.

Dan Nelson Shortstop - 22 years old - 5′11″, 180 - Drafted in the 18th round, 2004

---

              G  AB  R  H  2B 3B HR RBI  K  BB  SB  CS  AVG  OBP  SLG  OPS
2004  RK  20 42 124 20 32   9  2  0  11 31  13   6   1 .258 .336 .363 .699
2005  A-- 21 52 187 24 53  10  3  0  22 31  17   2   5 .283 .346 .369 .715
2006  A-  22 51 201 29 54   9  1  3  15 39  24  17   5 .269 .358 .368 .726

---

I could pretty much copy and paste the Chad Gabriel comment here, although Nelson doesn’t yet have an all-star pick to his name. He, too, made the leap to full-season ball in 2006, wresting the starting shortstop job from Martinez in spring training and keeping it ever since, despite hitting only .205 in April. (He hit an impressive .337/.432/.484 in May.) He’s leading the Midwest League in stolen bases, after going 8-6 on them in his first two seasons. It’s crowded from here, Dan–Tyler Greene and Juan Lucena, both shortstops and both nominally prospects, currently play for high-A Palm Beach, and 18-year-old Donovan Solano will probably be assigned to a short season club when they hit the field later this month. I’d keep up that Rickey Henderson imitation, if I could.

Colby Rasmus Center Fielder - 20 years old - 6′2″, 185 - Drafted in the 1st round, 2005

---

              G  AB  R  H  2B 3B HR RBI  K  BB  SB  CS  AVG  OBP  SLG  OPS
2005  Rk  19 62 216 47 64  16  5  7  27 73  21  13   3 .296 .362 .514 .876
2006  A-  20 53 212 30 63  14  0  5  28 39  19  13   4 .297 .357 .434 .791

---

Projectable out the wazoo, if that means a lot, Rasmus is rail-thin and possesses all five tools. In May he hit .330/.384/.470, but that’s kind of deceptive; he began 2006 in a 2-30 slump, pulled out of it and hit around .350 from April 15-May 15, and then slumped again near the end of the month and is only now recovering. A true center fielder, he’s almost certainly the Cardinals’ best prospect as soon as they come to their senses and bring Anthony Reyes up to stay. His brother Cory is probably going to go in the high rounds of this year’s draft.

Randy Roth Third Baseman - 24 years old - 6′1″, 200 - Drafted in the 10th round, 2005

---

              G  AB  R  H  2B 3B HR RBI  K  BB  SB  CS  AVG  OBP  SLG  OPS
2005  Rk  23 35 119 27 39  13  1  7  27 24   6   3   1 .328 .368 .630 .998
2005  A-- 23 32 119  8 29   6  1  3  14 21   6   0   2 .244 .283 .387 .670
2006  A-  24 54 214 31 66  15  2 12  40 31  13   8   4 .308 .361 .565 .926

---

No prospect, since he’s all of two years younger than Albert Pujols and old enough to be some of the incoming prospects’ creepy out-of-college boyfriend, but after all of the game-winning home runs he’s hit he’s probably a folk hero in the Quad Cities. I can’t imagine he likes it there as much as they like him; if he doesn’t force his way into AA next year, he’ll never be able to shake the minor-league-soldier tag.

Casey Rowlett IF/OF - 23 years old - 5′8″, 175 - Drafted in the 21nd round, 2005

---

              G  AB  R  H  2B 3B HR RBI  K  BB  SB  CS  AVG  OBP  SLG  OPS
2005  A-- 22 36 139 18 35   8  1  0   9 24  18   4   4 .252 .342 .324 .666
2005  A-  22 21  61  5 13   3  0  1  10 10   6   0   0 .213 .284 .311 .595
2006  A-  23 39 142 13 30  11  0  0  15 17   6   5   3 .211 .289 .252 .541

---

He’s played pretty much every position you could imagine, and he doesn’t hit at any of them. The main question in his baseball career, at this point, is: “Do I want to be Luis Cotto?” Because he could certainly do that; his OPS is actually higher than Cotto’s were.

A.J. Van Slyke 1B/OF - 22 years old - 6′2″, 210 - Drafted in the 23rd round, 2005

---

              G  AB  R  H  2B 3B HR RBI  K  BB  SB  CS  AVG  OBP  SLG  OPS
2005  Rk  21 13  50 11 19   3  2  2  14  7   1   0   0 .380 .389 .640 1029
2005  A-- 21  9  35  6 12   2  0  2   5  5   3   0   0 .343 .410 .571 .981
2006  A-  22 42 151 15 36   7  0  0  16 21   9   3   1 .238 .274 .285 .559

---

Seemed at first to be a favor pick, a la 2005 40th rounder Jesse Schoendienst (and, way back when, Mike Piazza), but he signed and he hit the ball well in limited time. There was even a rumor that he felt he was too advanced for that level of competition, and he certainly did well enough in spring training to start at first base for a full-season club. It’s… been downhill since then.