January and February are prospect season by default; there’s little in the way of new news, aside from the occasional winter league breakouts and breakdowns, but it’s not like anything else is happening. If it weren’t for prospects, sportswriters would be left with nothing to do but churn out asinine, inflammatory, semi-literate straw-man teardowns for their own amusement. And we can’t have that.

Baseball America christens the season, as always, with the publication of their prospect handbook. Along with the annual Baseball Prospectus it’s the guide for looking unusually informed over the course of the season. The Cardinals’ top thirty is out, and most of the names are familiar. I have nothing to add about the top names on the list; I haven’t seen them play, I haven’t stuck a radar gun out, I haven’t guessed at their grit and hustlin’ tendencies. When push comes to shove, if you’re going to predict a guy as the next best thing you have to take a look at him, see how he does what he does. But those aren’t the only players that make the bigs; I do have time, and the internet. So: for your edification, and for our desire to ferret out the next Trey Hearne-sized internet sensation, the not-top-twenty Cardinals prospects.

I’m going to team-by-team. Up tomorrow are the short-season leagues.

Before we begin with the real baseball, though, a note: the Cardinals have a Venezuelan team. This was news to me, delivered via MiLB.com, so I figured I would relay it. Further research turns up the fact that this was the club’s first year, and it shows; only one position player on the team with more than a hundred at-bats hit over .260, and the pitchers aren’t much more interesting. The Cardinals’ best summer leaguer from last year, outfielder Jose Ramirez, only got into a few games before losing the year to injury.

But one pitcher stands out enough to not only make the Not-Top Twenties on an exception, but to be the official Get Up, Baby! Longshot Prospect of 2007. Our patron saint, if you will, since I’ve heard exactly one sentence about his abilities from someone who’s seen him play. And that player is Wladimir Mendoza. His numbers–which admittedly need to be taken with a huge grain of salt–speak volumes:

  IP   H  BB   K  HR    K/9  BB/9  K:BB   ERA
75.2  50  47  89   2  10.59  5.59  1.89  2.26

That appears to be the work of a live arm. But ten of his runs allowed came in two miserable outings. Let’s take those out, and see what we have left.

  IP   H  BB   K  HR    K/9  BB/9  K:BB   ERA
66.0  38  36  82   2  11.18  4.91  2.28  1.23

So he was old for his league–20–and his control was still pretty bad, but when his command wasn’t totally off he was off-the-charts dominant. According to an interview of Jeff Luhnow, VP of player development, that Scout.com conducted a while back, he’s got a fastball that sits in the low-90s and “the makings of a good breaking pitch.” In the Liga Paralela, a Venezuelan winter league, he allowed one earned run and struck out nineteen in fifteen innings pitched. We probably won’t hear from him again until short season leagues open up in June, but when that happens he’ll get the first sidebar spot since I tracked Rick Ankiel’s first season as an outfielder. Let’s hope this goes a little better.