Fangraphs Ranks Cardinals system #1

[Cranny]

several things (early apologies for length) :

1) Jimmy Crooks III, Tink Hence and Quinn Mathews in the Top 100...should tell you a lot about it: Fangraphs' lazy/poor ranking system, and/or the quality of prospects in all of the minor leagues (all 30 orgs)...I'll let you choose...but the right answer is : a bit of both...but leaning towards "Crooks, Hence, Mathews"....come on, they shouldn't be in the Top 100...Fangraphs missed big time there...no one else has them ranked Top 100.

2) Trades in the last 3 seasons have been a huge reason for our rise....specifically, and I've been arguing/shouting this for it seems like a decade : Our mid tier or "C" Tier propects (35, 35+, 40, and 40+) prospects have been sorely lacking. Even when we were severely top heavy and ranked a Top 10 farm system in 2021 with Walker, Winn, Donovan, Hence we were starving for mid tier prospects. Crooks, Hjerpe, Bernal helped ...but 2 of those graduated to B tier and B+tier, while the other became "The Elbow". We also had several high prospects flounder or graduate and no one was there to take their place...that happens in every system (most notably the Cubs the last 2 seasons, extremely top heavy and no one to take their Super 7's place in the rankings)

Like I said "Trades"....we picked up Roby, Saggese (graduated), Jesus Baez, Blaze Jordan, Mason Molina, Nate Dohm, Robberse, Rom, Svanson.....that was a large chunk of Mid Tier prospects injected to our system the last 3 seasons.

3) Rule 5 drafting got MUCH better...Ryan Fernandez, Miguel Ugueto, Ricardo Velez, etc

4) Steady train of QUALITY DSL prospects coming stateside....and we didn't overspend to do it...save Strop, we did pay a pretty penny for him. Hunter, De Los Santos, Padilla and Rodriguez ....The Brewers' recent MLB success and Prospect Rankings are highly attributed to 2-3 DSL players making the Bigs and climbing the Prospect rankings every 2-3 seasons...we're starting to see that with the Cards. Oh....and their DSL pitching is about to stateside in the FCL next year. Leonel Sequera was a surprising gem with Palm Beach this year....Peoria test coming up, we'll see how the 6'0" does.

5) Lastly...remarkable improvement the last 2 years on the developmental side (only thing I can HONESTLY give credit to Bloom and Bloom alone).... the likes of Church, Mautz, Hansen, Josh Baez, Mathews (gaining 3 MPH on FB, in 2024 vs. College) improving significantly the last 2 years that all helped.

Give credit to Mo for Rule 5 drafting, Bloom for the R&D part, Mo for the Trades from 2023-2025, and someone needs credit for the Sudden influx of quality talent from the DSL since 2024...not sure what happened there....we had a LONG drought from there...all the hitters turned into 600 OPS free swingers, or crashed and burned as pitchers in Peoria.

we still need HUGE help in drafting...the scouting department needs an overhaul...we've had a few gems like Mathews and Ortiz the last two drafts (23,24)....it's not hard to draft JJ and Doyle when you have Top 10 picks...picking for Dummies, anyone can do that. But we've had too many Hjerpe, Davis, Holiday, Honeywell, Campos, etc for me to stomach

Very well done, detailed synopsis. I would lower the expectations for Mathews somewhat and raise the expectation of Hjerpe. Hope both solve their medical issues. Along with Hence, Robberse, and especially Roby.

[cardstatman]

Mathews wasn't wild until he hit AAA. In 2024 they wrote it off as being the end of a 143 IP season but it continued in 2025 where "discomfort in the shoulder" was the new reason.

12.68 K/9 3.08 BB/9 2024 Quinn Mathews
10.45 K/9 6.73 BB/9 2025 Quinn Mathews

15.0 K/9 2.9 BB/9 34 IP A
12.0 K/9 1.9 BB/9 44 IP A+
12.0 K/9 2.6 BB/9 52 IP AA
10.5 K/9 7.2 BB/9 111 IP AAA

I'm holding out hope 2025 was the fluke and someone helps him get healthy and mechanically sound over this offseason.