TOWER GROVE — Now where were we before being so completely interrupted by Las Vegas, the winter meetings, and enough blogging to leave this trusty, rusty laptop spewing consonants?

Oh, right, closing the polls on No. 18.

The St. Louis Cardinals tipped their hands with the club’s second pick of the most recent draft. Showing how much they value durability and predictability over, say, moonshots with talent or high-ceiling gambles, the Cardinals selected Ole Miss pitcher Lance Lynn. There’s a lot to like about Lynn. And all of it seems to come straight out of the Cardinals Draft Profile. In many ways, it’s like the Cardinals are typecasting pitchers. Look at some of the traits the Cardinals tend to favor:

• College pitcher.
• Durable history.
• Mechanics that pass the in-house, patent pending, test. (Check out this independent dissection of Lynn’s mechanics over ChrisOLeary.com.)
• Preferably a sinking fastball.
• Durable history.
• Did I mentioned that already?
• Sorry
• Success in a competitive conference (i.e., the SEC)
• Success that can be re-computed to predict success in a rookie-level league
• And, ideally, a second pitch to complement that sinking fastball.

Lynn is basically the prototype, the personification of so many things we’ve seen the Cardinals look for in their draft picks these past three, four years. He is their Pitcher Zero. And he is your Prospect No. 18. With 28 percent of the nearly 400 votes in last week’s Comm Top 30 poll, Lynn edged P.J. Walters, who received 25 percent of the vote.

No. 18 Prospect RHP Lance Lynn, at Ole Miss (Source: SI.com)

Lynn, while not quite the track record of Walters as a pro pitcher, is nonetheless deserving. The righthander from Ole Miss has a plus fastball when it comes to movement, an excellent slider and a good-enough changeup. At 6-foot-5, 250 pounds, he’s big and projects well. He slipped to the second round only because scouts/stats/whatnot view him mostly as a workhorse, an innings-eater. Count me among the people who believe that is a valuable skill, an asset all teams need. Lynn went 1-1 with a 1.35 ERA (because, yes, ERA does matter) and 29 strikeouts in 26 2/3 innings. His season ended abruptly because of forearm discomfort, though he’s expected to be fine and ready for spring training.

When it comes to how quickly he could move: Think, Clayton Mortensen.

Lynn was built to advance.

The Cardinals look for that, too.

With Lynn on the list and Walters a favorite to claim the next spot on the list — though nothing is guaranteed — we move on to No. 19 after a week’s hiatus for other news. Not new to the list this time around is Luis Perdomo, who San Francisco plucked in the Rule 5 draft. Instead, I followed the write-ins and the emails and added LHP Nick Additon and RHP Fernando Salas. That did cost Francisco Samuel a spot on the poll — and that comes with a certain irony. One of the names other teams asked for most as the Cardinals explored trades out there in Las Vegas was the High-A righthanded closer with the high-velocity cheese … Samuel.

Additon and Salas have strong candidacies as well. Additon is a finesse lefty and was a finalist for the organization’s internal pitching of the year award. He had a 31 2/3-inning scoreless streak this season and had more strikeouts (121) than hits allowed (103). Salas has fantastic command of his fastball and he complements that with enough movement to riddle hitters. He struck out 100 batters against just 16 walks. The Cardinals lured him from the Mexican League to the minors.

Enough introductions. Time to vote:

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Because it has been a while since we last ran a poll for the Comm Top 30, here is the list 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. Lance Lynn, RHP
19. TODAY

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MiLB.com finished its Top 30, and Cardinals’ outfielder Colby Rasmus ranked 10th. Follow this link for Jonathan Mayo’s breakdown of Rasmus and a clip of the prospect in action. One look at that page and it’s easy to see how Rasmus is the unifying player — briding the performance that the stats ilk values and the athleticism that is over-simplified as what scouts look for in a player. … MiLB.com also ran a fan poll, and it was as even higher on Rasmus than the Cardinals’ brass seemed to be in their comments at the winter meetings.

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