TOWER GROVE — While I’ve gone a little poll crazy with the new tools we have on the publishing program here in the “Blog Zone”, the one upgrade I’d like to become more adroit with is the easy-embed video. There’s no better use of these video clips then with Cardinals’ prospects.

We can talk about Daryl Jones tools and Clayton Mortensen’s sinker and Adam Reifer’s live arm, but it’s much better to show the tools, the speed, the break, the late movement, the mechanics, the swing. There are only so many things a 20-80 scale can tell you about a guy’s fastball or what the phrase “pie-thrower” really tells you about a guy’s delivery. Wouldn’t you just rather see the pie-thrower himself, Eddie Degerman?

You’ve read the descriptions. Here is your No. 2 prospect Brett Wallace’s swing:

As we move into the middle third of the St. Louis Cardinals Community Top 30 prospects, the benefit of seeing players will only add to the validity of your votes. The leading Web site on Cardinals’ prospects Future Redbirds has a host of videos on its main page (check the right side column). A search through YouTube will offer up a few more. And there’s this video of Niko Vasquez taking ground balls over at the TAKKLE site.

Vasquez, drafted out of a Las Vegas area high school this past summer, is one of four infielders in the poll below for the No. 11 prospect in the Cards Comm Top 30. Another is 2007 first-round pick Pete Kozma, seen here during an extended at-bat that doesn’t end all that well …

If you’ve got other clips of prospects you’ve seen or ones you’re interested in seeing, send them to me at dgoold@post-dispatch.com and I’ll use them as best I can or hunt them down as best I can.

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