New Top 30 prospects out

[82birds]

Some notables:
Roby is still ranked 10 but won't pitch at all this year. Odd.
Big drop for Hence to #15, and it mentions they will probably want him in the pen.
Blaze Jordan is only #27. Some were led to believe he'd be one of our next sluggers when he was acquired. Looks more like another whiff.
Lo is the highest of our trade acquisitions at 5. I wish we would see more of him in ST.
RaRod at 3 is now well ahead of Crooks and Bernal, really wonder if they shouldn't be labeled expendable. (otherwise, why isn't one of them truly in the running for starting C this year over Pages?)

link?

[craviduce]

--

[craviduce]

Some notables:
Roby is still ranked 10 but won't pitch at all this year. Odd.
Big drop for Hence to #15, and it mentions they will probably want him in the pen.
Blaze Jordan is only #27. Some were led to believe he'd be one of our next sluggers when he was acquired. Looks more like another whiff.
Lo is the highest of our trade acquisitions at 5. I wish we would see more of him in ST.
RaRod at 3 is now well ahead of Crooks and Bernal, really wonder if they shouldn't be labeled expendable. (otherwise, why isn't one of them truly in the running for starting C this year over Pages?)

link?

https://www.mlb.com/milb/prospects/cardinals/

it's the new Top 30 list for Preseason 2026 from mlbpipeline/mlb.com

[82birds]

Some notables:
Roby is still ranked 10 but won't pitch at all this year. Odd.
Big drop for Hence to #15, and it mentions they will probably want him in the pen.
Blaze Jordan is only #27. Some were led to believe he'd be one of our next sluggers when he was acquired. Looks more like another whiff.
Lo is the highest of our trade acquisitions at 5. I wish we would see more of him in ST.
RaRod at 3 is now well ahead of Crooks and Bernal, really wonder if they shouldn't be labeled expendable. (otherwise, why isn't one of them truly in the running for starting C this year over Pages?)

link?

https://www.mlb.com/milb/prospects/cardinals/

it's the new Top 30 list for Preseason 2026 from mlbpipeline/mlb.com

thx Duce

[Melville]

Some notables:
Roby is still ranked 10 but won't pitch at all this year. Odd.
Big drop for Hence to #15, and it mentions they will probably want him in the pen.
Blaze Jordan is only #27. Some were led to believe he'd be one of our next sluggers when he was acquired. Looks more like another whiff.
Lo is the highest of our trade acquisitions at 5. I wish we would see more of him in ST.
RaRod at 3 is now well ahead of Crooks and Bernal, really wonder if they shouldn't be labeled expendable. (otherwise, why isn't one of them truly in the running for starting C this year over Pages?)

Appreciate the thread.
I was going to also reference the new top 30 list - but you beat me to it.
Let's take this in a slightly different direction.
Cijntje #5.
Clarke #9.
Fajardo #13.
Three of the top 15 now ranked in the system - and each with at least one significant red flag - were acquired in the Gray, Contreras, and Donovan trades.
Not one of the acquisitions remotely close to the top 3 of Wetherholt, Doyle, and Rodrigues - there is a significant drop off after that.
That is an extremely paltry return considering that stated goal of restocking and increasing the quality of the minor league prospect pool.
STL already had 12 of the current top 15 on hand - making it impossible to realistically claim the system has been improved all that much.
It is true that Bloom correctly and wisely added much needed depth to the MLB rotation depth in Fitts and Dobbins.
But he significantly underperformed in his claimed objective to add high end prospect talent.

[Hoosier59]

Some notables:
Roby is still ranked 10 but won't pitch at all this year. Odd.
Big drop for Hence to #15, and it mentions they will probably want him in the pen.
Blaze Jordan is only #27. Some were led to believe he'd be one of our next sluggers when he was acquired. Looks more like another whiff.
Lo is the highest of our trade acquisitions at 5. I wish we would see more of him in ST.
RaRod at 3 is now well ahead of Crooks and Bernal, really wonder if they shouldn't be labeled expendable. (otherwise, why isn't one of them truly in the running for starting C this year over Pages?)

Appreciate the thread.
I was going to also reference the new top 30 list - but you beat me to it.
Let's take this in a slightly different direction.
Cijntje #5.
Clarke #9.
Fajardo #13.
Three of the top 15 now ranked in the system - and each with at least one significant red flag - were acquired in the Gray, Contreras, and Donovan trades.
Not one of the acquisitions remotely close to the top 3 of Wetherholt, Doyle, and Rodrigues - there is a significant drop off after that.
That is an extremely paltry return considering that stated goal of restocking and increasing the quality of the minor league prospect pool.
STL already had 12 of the current top 15 on hand - making it impossible to realistically claim the system has been improved all that much.
It is true that Bloom correctly and wisely added much needed depth to the MLB rotation depth in Fitts and Dobbins.
But he significantly underperformed in his claimed objective to add high end prospect talent.

I might add Mel, why didn’t he include some of our redundant players in those trades to increase the return? Add a catcher to one trade, a lefty starter in another?
Many on here will argue, even vehemently i might say, that Bloom did really well. But to me and some others, he got a few possibilities, but mostly all he did was reduce the payroll, and that it is what he was brought in to do!

[hugeCardfan]

Also, the Cardinals #3 pick from last year (Gurevitch) is down to #30.

he was overmatched, along with the rest of the hitting draft class in Palm Beach late last year. Those 18 and 19yo wild hurlers baffled the young birds.

That being said, I think they all repeat PMB, and I think they'll hit better this time around....they can't get any worse. The K rates those kids racked up were disturbing. Moving on Flores was good, but his scouting crew needed to go with him.

Its weird how we often heard what a genius Flores was at scouting and drafting, and yet there was so relatively little successful progression into stars or even high producers for several years now.

Not willing to blame Flores for all of that. Our total lack of development shares significant responsibility for that.

[Red7]

Also, the Cardinals #3 pick from last year (Gurevitch) is down to #30.

he was overmatched, along with the rest of the hitting draft class in Palm Beach late last year. Those 18 and 19yo wild hurlers baffled the young birds.

That being said, I think they all repeat PMB, and I think they'll hit better this time around....they can't get any worse. The K rates those kids racked up were disturbing. Moving on Flores was good, but his scouting crew needed to go with him.

Its weird how we often heard what a genius Flores was at scouting and drafting, and yet there was so relatively little successful progression into stars or even high producers for several years now.

Luhnow was great at drafting, but lousy at development. When he focused on scouting and drafting and left development to others, he was much more successful.

[Carp4Cy]

Some notables:
Roby is still ranked 10 but won't pitch at all this year. Odd.
Big drop for Hence to #15, and it mentions they will probably want him in the pen.
Blaze Jordan is only #27. Some were led to believe he'd be one of our next sluggers when he was acquired. Looks more like another whiff.
Lo is the highest of our trade acquisitions at 5. I wish we would see more of him in ST.
RaRod at 3 is now well ahead of Crooks and Bernal, really wonder if they shouldn't be labeled expendable. (otherwise, why isn't one of them truly in the running for starting C this year over Pages?)

Appreciate the thread.
I was going to also reference the new top 30 list - but you beat me to it.
Let's take this in a slightly different direction.
Cijntje #5.
Clarke #9.
Fajardo #13.
Three of the top 15 now ranked in the system - and each with at least one significant red flag - were acquired in the Gray, Contreras, and Donovan trades.
Not one of the acquisitions remotely close to the top 3 of Wetherholt, Doyle, and Rodrigues - there is a significant drop off after that.
That is an extremely paltry return considering that stated goal of restocking and increasing the quality of the minor league prospect pool.
STL already had 12 of the current top 15 on hand - making it impossible to realistically claim the system has been improved all that much.
It is true that Bloom correctly and wisely added much needed depth to the MLB rotation depth in Fitts and Dobbins.
But he significantly underperformed in his claimed objective to add high end prospect talent.

I agree. He ending up going after quantity, not elite quality. And maybe we weren't going to get elite for the trades we Did make, but if you start by identifying the prospects you need (Wainwright, Renteria - not a prospect but a budding young star), then ask what it takes and trade out of our own quantity that elite player.

[ICCFIM2]

Some notables:
Roby is still ranked 10 but won't pitch at all this year. Odd.
Big drop for Hence to #15, and it mentions they will probably want him in the pen.
Blaze Jordan is only #27. Some were led to believe he'd be one of our next sluggers when he was acquired. Looks more like another whiff.
Lo is the highest of our trade acquisitions at 5. I wish we would see more of him in ST.
RaRod at 3 is now well ahead of Crooks and Bernal, really wonder if they shouldn't be labeled expendable. (otherwise, why isn't one of them truly in the running for starting C this year over Pages?)

Appreciate the thread.
I was going to also reference the new top 30 list - but you beat me to it.
Let's take this in a slightly different direction.
Cijntje #5.
Clarke #9.
Fajardo #13.
Three of the top 15 now ranked in the system - and each with at least one significant red flag - were acquired in the Gray, Contreras, and Donovan trades.
Not one of the acquisitions remotely close to the top 3 of Wetherholt, Doyle, and Rodrigues - there is a significant drop off after that.
That is an extremely paltry return considering that stated goal of restocking and increasing the quality of the minor league prospect pool.
STL already had 12 of the current top 15 on hand - making it impossible to realistically claim the system has been improved all that much.
It is true that Bloom correctly and wisely added much needed depth to the MLB rotation depth in Fitts and Dobbins.
But he significantly underperformed in his claimed objective to add high end prospect talent.

I agree. He ending up going after quantity, not elite quality. And maybe we weren't going to get elite for the trades we Did make, but if you start by identifying the prospects you need (Wainwright, Renteria - not a prospect but a budding young star), then ask what it takes and trade out of our own quantity that elite player.

To me the trades of Contreras and Gray were not going to get a huge return. The fact that he received two pitchers that are ML ready, Fitts and Dobbins, plus 2 guys in our top 15 makes both of those trades winners. Fitts is turning heads in spring training so far. Where I was disappointed was trading our best chip, Donovan more for quantity than quality, albeit, Cijntje is #5. I would have liked to see him get another player at least as good as that if not a bit better. I was hoping they would get Michael Arroyo along with Cijntje for Donovan.

Lets face it, look at the Dodgers, they always have 15-20 ML arms each year and always seem to be short of pitching due to injury. Already on this list, Clark #9, Roby #10, and Hjerpe #17 are currently hurt, while Hence #15 has never been healthy. I would like to see more hitting prospects. But, they have enough pitching prospects, they can trade some of that if they remain healthy to fill in the line-up. Lets give this time to see how it goes. 6 grade 55 or better prospects in the system is the best they have been in a very long time. 4 or 5 of these guys have a chance to be stars in a manner we have not had in a decade come through the system.

[cardstatman]

You cannot trade your way to a great farm system. Teams don't trade away great prospects unless you are offering great players... which is what you hope the prospects you acquire might become, but most of them won't.

Good scouting. Good development. Smart trades.

Slow and steady wins the race.
Don't fall in love with players.
Don't promote players too quickly.
Don't use MLB as a development team.
Don't trade away a prime age 29 season just so you can watch an unprepared player struggle through an awful age 23 season.