St. Louis Cardinals Community Top 30: Considering the Teeny Boppers* (Vote for No. 28)
TOWER GROVE — Just to get a feel for where cult hit Amaury Cazana Marti fits within the spectrum of prospects, I popped him in the previous poll and watched, a tad surprised, as he finished second. Apparently, he still has his followers. But does he fit the definition of “prospect”? Not to some.
There are baseball people who argue that the age of a player also defines his status as a prospect. When you look at the St. Louis Cardinals’ recent attempts to accelerate some of their minor leaguers so they reach the majors at, say, 24 or 25 instead of 26 and 27, that approach to ranking prospect has its merits. By that route, David Freese’s top 10 spot would take a hit because he’s 25 now and will turn 26 during the next season. Outfielder Nick Stavinoha, who is featured in today’s No. 27 poll for the Bird Land Community Top 30, wouldn’t get much consideration either because he is 26 now and turns 27 during the season. Marti is off the charts. He was probably at least 30 when the Cardinals drafted him, and if he were to make the majors this season he would instantly be the oldest outfielder out there.
Heck, he finished second in yesterday’s poll to a pitcher possibly half his age.
That pitcher was Richard Castillo — a reminder to always consider the kids.
When working on the rankings for Baseball America’s Top 30, there were two teenagers who had strong resumes and plenty of reasons to be ranked. There were Castillo, the righthanded pitcher, and outfielder Frederick Parejo — both pulled from the Cardinals’ international waters, both natives of Venezuela. Both will be starters in Quad Cities before turning 20.
Castillo was the youngest player in two leagues this season. When he went 8-4, 2.62 ERA during two stints with Low-A Quad Cities, he was the youngest in the Midwest League. When he went 1-0, 1.13 ERA in High-A Palm Beach, he was pulling a limited-inning Rick Porcello as a young turk in the Florida State League. Castillo’s minor-league debut was made all the more remarkable when you consider he leapfrogged rookie level/short-season ball and went straight to Class.
Parejo, who hit .275/.326/.328, was the youngest player and an All-Star in the New York-Penn League, and he was the only player to crank a home run in the All-Star Game. The homer makes for a nice anecdote, but Parejo is better known for speed, athleticism and his ability to play center field. The bat is developing.
And that’s the key consideration here. Developing. Keep in mind:
- Castillo will be 19 this entire season, and likely be pitching in the High-A rotation in 2009.
- Parejo will turn 19 in July, and he could have some full-season level at-bats by then.
But what to make of these two teeny-bopper prospects? Few prospects had better seasons and none had a better professional debut than Castillo (well, maybe Brett Wallace). He also developed quite a following as we worked through this poll, joining a select few who consistently received a high total of votes while just not winning the spot — until No. 27. It’s plausible to see Castillo as a top 20 prospect, what with his 88 strikeouts in 95 innings and 89-90 fastball with the chance to grow in strength as he does. It’s also reasonable to look at both he and Parejo and resist the urge to rank them until they … Do. It. Again.
Future Redbirds has a write up about Castillo and Scout.com is featuring its take on Castillo for free right now. The writeup from Future Redbirds echoes a lot that I’ve heard about Castillo:
He possesses a sharp fastball, 89-90, which is good considering he’s only 18 and listed at 5′11″, 165. As he fills out I would expect him to add to his velocity. His curveball is a very nice offering, and it is the pitch he is known for. What has made Castillo so impressive is his terrific command of both his fastball and curve, and his fearless ability to throw the curveball in any count.
While reporting for the BA Top 30, I also heard Castillo described as “loose”, “athletic” and “live” — all descriptions that fit a young pitcher with the attributes of a prospect, if not yet the frame and seasoning of one. In addition to the fastball and curve, Castillo has a good-enough changeup. At High-A, where location and access to a third pitch becomes more important for starters, Castillo struck out 19 of the 65 batters he faced.
When it comes to looking at the age of these prospect candidates, I tend to drift to the middle. A minor leaguers who is 21, 22 with good tools, high ceiling and a track record is going to shoot up the chart. On the fringes — the teens and those 25+ tweeners — I tend to look at the age as a mitigating factor. For the teens, it’s so early in their development that it’s not clear exactly what their ceiling and potential is. For the tweens, it’s the twilight of their time as a prospect, that difficult day when the labels turn to Quad-A and Journeyman.
There are a bit of both as we reach No. 28 in the poll and Parejo joins the mix. Barring a runoff, we’ll be done by Friday.
Loading …* Or, is “teenybopper” one word? Doesn’t really work with the baseball reference …
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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. 
BLAKE KING
I’ve been waiting to comment on this because I wanted to see where he’d go but….why no love for Stavinoha? He bounced back from a bad 2007 and hit .337/.366/.518 clip. He’s not a defensive wizard but was servicable in the OF. He’s also only 26. With our logjam of OF’s it might be hard for him to crack the lineup this year but I definetly see him making an impact sooner than some other guys higher up. Just my 2cents!
I am confused are we voting for No. 27 or 28? Was yesterday’ s vote canceled because Marti was included? It is hard for me to understand why Freese ranks so much higher than Stavinahoa. They are about the same age and from what I’ve seen at Memphis, Stavinahoa was a better hitter. Granted there is a log jam in the OF but if he can hit somebody will want him. Did he get hurt by the fact that he was called up and did very little in the Majors, while Freese stayed at Memphis and never revealed his shortcomings in the Majors?
The confusion was entirely on my end. It should be cleared up now. Apologies galore.
DG, thanks for the information on Castillo. Looking back on these rankings at this point next year, I’d say Castillo has a great shot to shoot up and possibly be within the top ten.
Another note that comes to mind when reading about Castillo and Parejo, is how healthy it is for the Cards to be testing the “foriegn waters” and signing international guys like Castillo and Parejo. This is a step forward I believe for the organization as a whole.
Stavinoha is a great example of “prospect fatigue”. He will turn 27 years old in May, and guys with “higher ceilings” and more potential have simply passed Stavinoha up in these rankings.
It also comes down to your rationale behind the picks. If you value stats more heavily than potential then, in my estimation, Stavinoha’s case suddenly becomes stronger. It is interesting to look at a guy like Stavinoha as it can tell so much about the different rationales behind the picks. This was discussed a few “Community Top 30″ post ago.
My rationale mirrors emc2013, so I’m again going with a youngster. Unfortunately, for a guy like Stavinoha– there is an annual infusion of players with higher ceiling (my opinion). Although he might be able to contribute at the MLB level– this is now an international pool of talent so that it becomes a numbers game. Of course, this remains an opinion poll. Another factor (in relying heavily on stats) is that many fans never get to see what talent scouts see because they never see the player on the field so all they have to measure a player is their age, stats, and level. If you’re interested in this “scouts perspective” (and you are a subscriber)– there’s an excellent article on BaseballAmerica on how scouts approach the evaluation of talent.
EDWARDS!!!
Yes. Here’s another call for Jon Edwards to appear on the poll.
I voted for Hooker here, with thoughts about Garceau. I third the suggestion of getting Edwards onto the list. I’d love to hear DG’s take on Mannbell, too! I’m a fan of youngsters….
As to Stavinoha….I hope he succeeds. He ranks lower on my list (not making the top 40) because (a) he repeated AAA and didn’t do well his first go through. Is he just adapting to Quad-A pitching?; (b) his start at MLB didn’t go very well; (c) his defense is not strong; (d) he plays a less key defensive position; and he doesn’t like the walk much, with just 79 in 1345 AB’s at AA or above in the minors. That’s about 5.8%.
In contrast, Freese plays 3B. From what I hear, he’s solid there. He *skipped* AA. He drew 39 BB in 464 AB at AA and above, about 8.4%. And he is about a year younger than Stavinoha. He clocked in around 14th on my list.
How is it a fair top 30 when certain players are only introduced once on a poll and for the first time on the polls in the late twenties? While others have been on countless polls?
My vote is still for Amaury Marti.