TOWER GROVE — A year ago, Mark Worrell ranked No. 22 in the Baseball America survey of the St. Louis Cardinals’ Top 30. Where he would have ranked this season, after a successful second turn in Triple-A, we’ll never know. But the trade does offer another chance to measure the Cardinals system against a peer’s, much like Brian Barton and David Freese did a year ago.

Freese came to the Cardinals from San Diego, where BA had him ranked as the Padres’ 15th-best prospect. He probably would have charted at No. 13 or No. 14 for the Cardinals had the book not already been published. Barton, by contrast, was acquired in time to make the Cardinals’ top 30, and he surged from a top-10 prospect with Cleveland to No. 4 for the Cardinals.

The way the Padres are talking about Worrell, it’s seems like he could hit their top 30. As we speed toward conclusion here on the Bird Land Community Top 30, we’ll have a good idea if he would have rated in this top 30, too. Compare. Contrast. Debate.

There was little debate who the voters considered the No. 17 prospect in this list.

Then, Greene could have just been on everybody’s mind yesterday.

Infielder Tyler Greene received 40 percent of the 260-plus votes in yesterday’s poll for No. 17 on this Comm Top 30. He edged a couple pitchers, P.J. Walters and Lance Lynn, both of whom at one point late last night were tied for second place.

Joining the poll today after much deliberation between adding a pitcher or adding a position player … is outfielder Shane Robinson. (Though I will consider arguments for Fernando Salas and a few others). Robinson hit .352 in Double-A last season and advanced to hit .220/.245/.284 in Triple-A before getting an invitation to the Arizona Fall League. He’s a scrappy outfielder who can play all three positions and has speed to turn a slashed single into a double. He also has that undersized-ballplayer chip on his shoulder.

I wanted to include a position player because the Padres have one position player on their list of PTBNL to choose from, and who that position player is (heck, who the pitchers are) will offer greater clarity for just what kind of deal the Khalil Greene was for the Cardinals.

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This weekend and all next week, we take the blog and the poll on the road: Live from Las Vegas.

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Your Top 30 so far:

1. Colby Rasmus, OF
2. Brett Wallace, 3B
3. Chris Perez, RHP
4. Bryan Anderson, C
5. David Freese, 3B
6. Jason Motte, RHP
7. Daryl Jones, OF
8. Jess Todd, RHP
9. Mitchell Boggs, RHP
10. Jaime Garcia, LHP
11. Niko Vasquez, SS
12. Clayton Mortensen, RHP
13. Pete Kozma, SS
14. Allen Craig, INF
15. Jon Jay, OF
16. Adam Reifer, RHP
17. Tyler Greene, INF
18. TODAY

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