TOWER GROVE — By definition, any list of the top 10 or top 30 prospects within the St. Louis Cardinals system is flawed. The concept itself has one glaring weakness: Cardinals prospects are compared only against Cardinals prospects, leaving the reader to wonder if a top-10 talent here is a top-five talent in Cleveland? Maybe a top 20 talent in Boston … and so on.

Rankings prospects within an organization has value. It just doesn’t have the desired context.

Later this afternoon, Baseball America will reveal its list of the Top 10 Prospects in the Cardinals system, and as the author of this top 10 I’ll host a chat at 1:30 p.m. St. Louis time on the BA website. Since BA asked me to write the prospects reports for The Handbook about three years ago, we’ve been discussing in this blog how to better understand the rankings. That Blake Hawksworth was a top-five prospect for the Cardinals spoke well of his recovery from injury and his place within the system, but where did he compare against other organization’s pitching prospects? Ditto with, say, Pete Kozma, the Cardinals’ first-round pick in 2007. We know where he stands as the Cardinals’ top middle-infield prospect, but how does the Cardinals’ depth at those positions compare to Milwaukee’s?

Would it mean something if we could say the Cardinals had two of the top three prospects within the NL Central, by one measure? Or, by those same rankings, argue they had more prospects in the Central’s top 30 than any rival?

That’s what one new ranking showed.

A way to gain better context for a club’s minor-league talent is the organizational rankings. The Cardinals will rank No. 8 this year, a sign of their increasing quantity of prospects if not the quantity of elite-quality prospects. Another way is the rankings with the individual minor leagues. The Cardinals did well here with the top-rated prospect in the Pacific Coast League in Colby Rasmus and a handful of others (including Kozma, No. 15 in the Midwest League and the second-highest ranked shortstop).

Those rankings gave me an idea.

While it’s helpful to look at the overall rankings — like BA’s top 100 or MiLB.com’s top 50 — the pool of candidates is too large to truly weigh where one system’s prospects ranks. Sure, you’ll see six or seven players from one team and know its system is elite, but there is also that one organization that has three in the top 100 but would have 10 in the top 200. That’s impossible to see. I believed the better way to get a micro look at a system within a macro format was to rank prospects by division. Take the prospects from the six teams in the NL Central, throw them into the ranking stew and see what bubbled up.

My bet is it would show a snapshot of not just an organization’s high-end talent and depth, but how it compares in developing and drafting against its chief rivals.

Jim Callis, the editor of Baseball America’s Prospect Handbook and a guru of rankings, was kind enough to play along. Even has he published and chatted about the top 10 prospects in the Cubs system (for subscribers),  Callis took all of his personal rankings for the teams in the NL Central and re-ranked the prospects as a whole. What emerges is a much more precise look at where the Cardinals are with their improved system.

Two of Callis’ top three prospects in the Central are Cardinals — Rasmus and Brett Wallace.

Within his top 30 — and it should be stressed that these are his rankings, not the BA rankings that are the product of an editorial consensus — here are the team totals:

1. Cardinals … 7
2. Cincinnati … 6
3. Milwaukee … 6
4. Pittsburgh … 5
5. Cubs … 4
6. Houston … 2

The Cardinals edge both Cincinnati and Milwaukee for the most prospects on Callis’ list. But even that is misleading. While the Cardinals have two of the top three prospects, Milwaukee has the better high-end total. The Brewers claim three of Callis’ top 10. Cincinnati has five of the top 20 in Callis’ list. As further evidence of the kind of depth the Cardinals’ have in the system, they have four players ranked between 21 and 27.

“My Top 30 list for the NL Central shows how the Cardinals stand out compared to the rest of the division,” Calllis wrote in an email that accompanied his top 30. “They’ve got the best up-the-middle prospect in Colby Rasmus and two of the three best prospects in Rasmus and Brett Wallace. When I put this together, I was surprised how hitting-heavy the division is. Chris Perez is my top pitching prospect in the NL Central, and the Cardinals also led all clubs with seven prospects on my Top 30.”

Without further prelude, here is Callis’ NL Central Top 30 (with Nos. 31, 32 and 33 as lagniappe):

1. Pedro Alvarez, 3b, Pirates — Signing-bonus snafu delayed his debut, but Pirates are prepared to push their No. 1 pick (No. 2 overall) all the way to Class AA out o spring training.
2. Colby Rasmus, of, Cardinals
3. Brett Wallace, 3b, Cardinals
4. Alcides Escobar, ss, Brewers — Made MLB debut after hitting .328/.363/.434 in AA.
5. Andrew McCutchen, of, Pirates — Considered the second-best prospect in the International League behind Cincinnati rookie Jay Bruce, who exhausted his eligibility for this list. Plus runner who will hit for average.
6. Josh Vitters, 3b, Cubs — Drafted third overall in 2007, was top prospect in Northwest League. Prototypical third baseman gets first extended look at full-season baseball this summer.
7. Mat Gamel, 3b, Brewers
8. Yonder Alonso, 1b, Reds
9. Brett Lawrie, c/3b, Brewers — Became highest ever Canadian position player selected in the draft when Milwaukee took him 16th overall. He ranked ninth this year on The Toronto Sun’s annual list of most influential Canadians in baseball.
10. Todd Frazier, inf, Reds

11. Jason Castro, c, Astros — A polished player fresh from college, Castro was the top-rated prospect in the New York-Penn League and then hit .333/.438/.487 in Hawaii this winter.
12. Chris Perez, rhp, Cardinals
13. Jeff Samardzija, rhp, Cubs — Wide receiver. Notre Dame. Setup or starter. You know.
14. Jose Tabata, of, Pirates — Was the No. 3 prospect in the New York Yankees organization a year ago; acquired in Xavier Nady deal and took off after change-of-scenery with .348/.402/.562 line in 22 games with Pittsburgh’s Altoona affiliate.
15. Jeremy Jeffress, rhp, Brewers
16. Drew Stubbs, of, Reds — Worth repeating correctly: When I first wrote this I blended my stories, and I apologize for that. OK. Take 2: Stubbs was the first-round pick in 2006, and Jay Bruce was the player the Cardinals coveted in 2005. It was the interest in Bruce that sent the Cardinals on search that landed Rasmus. A year later, Stubbs comes along as another guy the Cardinals eyed as more polished outfielder prospect to add and the Reds took him, too. Got my stories straight. Apologize for the blending. Head’s swimming with prospect names today.
17. Brad Lincoln, rhp, Pirates
18. Andrew Cashner, rhp, Cubs
19. Chris Valaika, ss, Reds
20. Neftali Soto, 3b, Reds

21. Jess Todd, rhp, Cardinals
22. Angel Salome, c, Brewers — Added to the Brewers’ 40-man roster. Nicknamed “Pocket Pudge,” Salome was suspended 50 games after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug. He returned and hit .360/.415/.559 in 367 at-bats (98 games) at Class AA.
23. Neil Walker, 3b, Pirates
24. Daryl Jones, of, Cardinals
25. Bryan Anderson, c, Cardinals
26. Dae-Eun Rhee, rhp, Cubs — Signed out of Korea to a $525,000 bonus in July of 2007, Rhee allowed one run in his first three minor-league starts and then had elbow trouble. That led to Tommy John surgery and 2009 will be spent recovering. He’ll turn just 20 in March.
27. Clayton Mortensen, rhp, Cardinals
28. Bud Norris, rhp, Astros
29. Lorenzo Cain, of, Brewers
30. Juan Francisco, 3b, Reds — A product of Cincinnati’s efforts in Latin America, Francisco finished fourth in the Florida State League with 23 home runs in 2008. In 2007, he led the Midwest League in homers and he has 48 total in his past two seasons. Raw power compares well to recent Reds’ rookies. And then there are his 284 strikeouts in the past two seasons.

31. Kyle Lotzkar, rhp, Reds
32. Ross Seaton, rhp, Astros
33. Jason Motte, rhp, Cardinals

The list is top heavy with recent draft picks. Callis’ No. 1 was the No. 1 pick for the NL Central from this past season’s draft and three others in the top 10 were just drafted — Wallace, Alonso and Lawrie. But that stocked draft of 2005 (see: Ryan Braun, Troy Tulowitzki, Matt Garza, Ryan Zimmerman) is still holding on. Rasmus was taken 28th overall in that 2005 draft, and Pittsburgh’s McCutchen was taken 17 picks earlier.

With Callis’ help, the exercise provided exactly what was requested — a clearer, focused understanding of the rankings. It arguably is as precise a look at the talent in the system we’re going to get besides the Trade Deadline, that annual referendum of who-wants-what-they-got. The Cardinals are climbing, and they are doing so with a handful of prospects that compare well against other systems’ prospects. They don’t have the caliber of Milwaukee’s prospects or perhaps the high-ceiling of Cincinnati’s, but the Cardinals may harvest more contributors from the system.

The real danger of putting up this list a few hours before the release of the Top 10 is that the sharpest eyes of the group will now know eight of the names in the Cardinals’ top 10. I’m not telling if they’re in the same order.

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