St. Louis Cardinals Community Top 30: Vote for No. 14
TOWER GROVE — Back from a break for Turkey, the St. Louis Cardinals Community Top 30 picks up where it left off — with a pinch of controversy.
I received a few emails suggesting the voting for No. 13 was swayed by what I wrote leading into the poll. While that’s probably true, I’m at a loss as to how to stop it from happening. I would imagine many of the people voting are being swayed by some form of media, be it the articles written in Baseball America (some by me), in The Post-Dispatch (some by me), or over at Future Redbirds (none by me). There are also the comments that come from fans who have seen these players in person, and yes that too pushes the poll.
Influence is everywhere.
I tend to believe that’s a good thing. Makes for a more informed Top 30.
New to the poll, RHP Tyler Herron. (Source: Scout.com)
The Bird Land Community’s pick for the No. 13 prospect in the Cardinals’ system was shortstop Pete Kozma, whose unexpected slip out of the top 10 was the topic of that day’s introduction. Kozma received 32 percent of nearly 1,100 votes, an excellent and appreciated total of participants. But know that there is always room for debate and discussion. Don’t be handcuffed by the poll or the intro. I use each poll to help shape the next one. For example: big-arm prospect Adam Reifer was mentioned in several top-10 polls but has slid off because of lack of support. I could see legitimate lists that include him as a top-12 prospect … wait, there I go again. Think of each poll as the primaries for the next one.
The addition to today’s poll is youngster Tyler Herron. A righthanded pitcher the Cardinals plucked out of the cradle of pitching, Florida’s Wellington High School, Herron reached the Class-AA rotation this past season. He had a 2.76 ERA in 62 innings with Palm Beach before the promotion, and he finished 5-5, 5.53 ERA in 81 1/3 innings at Springfield. He was the No. 10 prospect in the system last year according to the Baseball America rankings. Not that I’m saying anything about where he belongs this year.
Before a little clip of top-10 prospect Jess Todd warming up in the bullpen, here’s the poll for No. 14. No intro. No lobbying. No suggestions. Just your votes.
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Derrick Goold said he was going to Mizzou for capital-J journalism, but after growing up in the Time Zone Baseball Forgot he was really drawn to MU sitting between two major-league cities. Goold joined the Post-Dispatch in 2001 after working for The Times-Picayune and Rocky Mountain News, covering sports from LSU to NHL and every level of baseball in between. 
I went with Craig. You’ll will probably find a lot of people will have him rated higher than Freese. I think the two are pretty close, I think this poll has rated Freese too high and Craig too low. I think Freese’s gaudy numbers are somewhat canceled out by his age.