TOWER GROVE — The consensus is that while this draft may have the biggest headliner baseball has seen in a long time — San Diego State pitcher Stephen Strasburg is being billed as “Best Prospect Ever?”, always with that essential question mark — the overall depth of this draft is seriously lacking.

There are some good pitchers, enough to fill out the first round. There aren’t many position players, especially coming from the college level.

One thing is sure: 2005 this is not.

The St. Louis Cardinals have hinted at that in some of their draft comments in the past week. VP/farm director Jeff Luhnow said that most teams probably all have the same five or six players at the top of their draft board, but after that — and certainly after the top 10 — the opinions probably stray wildly. Teams could overdraft on a few high-school position players because the college guys just aren’t there. Teams could veer toward the high-school pitchers earlier, despite the rumored asking prices of some of these arms. Clubs like the Cardinals, who are picking 19th overall, are waiting to see if there’s a top-10 pitcher who drops because of signability concerns, injury concerns, or recent performance concerns.

The depth of this draft will impact the quality of player available at 19, but the history of picking 19th in the draft is fairly strong, despite the last time the Cardinals picked there. Seems like a good place to start today’s Draft Day 10@10 …

1. The last time the Cardinals picked 19th overall was in 2004, or “The Lost Draft”. That was the year that the Cardinals lacked the staffing and went without national cross-checkers. They also were in the beginning, the wobbly-toddler phase, of their the transition to using more analytical information. If there is a draft that branded the Cardinals as a college-oriented team it was 2004, when they selected Chris Lambert with the 19th pick. Lambert, once considered the top arm in the organization, was traded for Mike Maroth a few years ago — the kind of get-ultimately-nothing-for-something trade that has popped again recently. (High school pitcher Philip Hughes was the near pick for the Cardinals in 2004; he went 23rd to the Yankees.) Nineteenth has been better in other drafts and for other organizations. Some the last 10 taken at 19:

• 2008 … Andrew Cashner, RHP … Cubs … Currently in High-A
• 2007 … Joe Savery, LHP … Phillies … Currently in Class AA
• 2006 … Brett Sinkbeil, RHP … Marlins … Mo. St. alum currently 1-6 in Class AAA
• 2005 … John Mayberry, OF … Rangers … Recently made MLB debut with Philly.
• 2004 … Chris Lambert, RHP … Cardinals … Currently in Detroit’s Class AAA
• 2003 … Conor Jackson, 1B … Diamondbacks … Stalwart outfielder for Arizona.
• 2002 … James Loney, 1B … Dodgers … Starting 1B for LA.
• 2001 … Mike Fontenot, 2B … Orioles … Regular infielder for Cubs.
• 2000 … Sean Burnett, LHP … Pirates … Reliever for Pittsburgh.
• 1999 … Alex Rios, OF … Blue Jays … Five-tool clod, playing way out of Toronto.

For kicks, and for kicks only, here are some other famous 19s taken in the draft since the 1960s: OF Shannon Stewart (1992), INF Steve Lyons (1981), C Mike Scioscia (1976) and the most famous of them all … In 1982, the Boston Red Sox, with the 19th pick overall, selected Texas RHP Roger Clemens.

2. Tonight the MLB draft goes primetime, the latest in attempts to build the draft’s brand recognization and make it more of an event and less of the conference call it used to be. It will be spread over three days (instead of two) and tonight will be broadcast from the posh, trip-the-light-fantastic MLB Network studios. But is setting and timing the only way to make the draft better? Are there rules (ahem, trading picks) that need to be explored or adopted to really make the draft more attractive and also more important to teams and their fans? Could doing away with high school picks bring an immediacy to the draft picks that exists in basketball and football? (Those drafts actually pick players who will … play! … in the next season.) That’s today’s poll:

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3. So the Arizona Diamondbacks nab Blaine Boyer off waivers Monday and add the briefly-Cardinal to their major-league bullpen. It’s not a surprise, really. But it does continue an odd trend for the Cardinals. Outfielder Brian Barton joins pitcher Anthony Reyes as two players the Cardinals traded only to end up with … nada, nothing, zilch … because of their 40-man roster moves. Circumstances dictated the Boyer move. Choices dicated the move that left Luis Perdomo, the spoil of the Reyes trade with Cleveland, exposed in the Rule 5 draft. Whatever the route, it’s the same result. The Cardinals entered the season believing they had significant depth on the right side of the bullpen, and these moves speak to two things: Either they are so confident in that fact that they can afford to trade players for righthanded relievers and then lose said players for nothing in return … Or, they are losing players with value through roster moves without getting a return. Like the Lambert-Maroth deal under the previous front office, these trades are either indictments on the true quality of talent the Cardinals are willing to deal (Reyes, Barton), the talent the Cardinals are getting in return (can’t be great if it’s so easily gone), or the handling of the roster (esp. Perdomo).

4. Light a candle, the Cardinals are sitting vigil for their next three-run inning. If you are keeping count, the Cardinals have had three three-run-or-more rallies in their previous, well, now it’s 234 innings. Those three rallies were of 3 runs, 3 runs and 4 runs. For context: David Eckstein hit a pinch-hit three-run home run in the ninth inning for San Diego this past week to force extra innings in an 18-inning loss to Arizona. With one swing, Eckstein produced as many runs as the Cardinals have seen in just three innings in the equivalent of their previous 26 games.

5. Has Albert Pujols done it again? There is a lot of hand-wringing in Philadelphia about their previously phlawless close, Brad Lidge. He blew two games this past weekend against the Los Angeles Dodgers, and he’s blown four of his past nine save opportunities. He has a 7.27 ERA this season. Wrote Sporting News: “Uh-oh.” What went wrong for the righthander? Well it could be another home run by Pujols. On May 5, Lidge pitched a meaningless inning in a Philadelphia victory and Pujols flat crushed a home run off of him. You decide:

BEFORE THAT HR … 0-1, 4 saves, 1 blown save, 6.52 ERA, 12 K, 9.2 ip

AFTER THAT HR … 0-2, 9 saves, 5 blown saves, 7.71 ERA, 16 K, 16.1 ip

6. Yadier Molina collected the 500th hit of his career Sunday, and 496 of them have come while he’s playing catcher. Since Molina took over as the everyday starter at the position for the Cardinals he has the third-most hits of any catcher in the National League. Only Brian McCann (526) and Russell Martin (477) have more at the position. Their slash lines and triple-crown stats:

• Yadier Molina … .262/.318/.362 … 31 HR … 212 RBIs
• Brian McCann … .298/.362/.503 … 76 HR … 317 RBIs
• Russell Martin … .281/.372/.418 … 42 HR … 241 RBIs

7. FARMNIK REPORT: Shortstop Khalil Greene fouled of a series of pitches before striking out in his final at-bat Monday as he returned to action on a rehab assignment with Triple-A Memphis. Greene went 1-for-4 in his return, starting at shortstop and batting sixth. … Catcher Matt Pagnozzi went 2-for-2 in the 2-1 loss to the New Orleans Zephyrs (nee Denver). Jarrett Hoffpauir hit his fourth home run of the season to produce the Redbirds’ lone run. … P.J. Walters allowed two runs on eight hits and two walks in five innings. He also struck out six. And the bullpen, topped by Matthew Scherer, pitched four scoreless innings and held the Z’s to one hit and two walks. … Class AA Springfield lost, 6-3. Steven Hill went 2-for-3. And shortstop Mike Folli, Mr. Tiki Bomb, hit a home run in his only at-bat after a double switch. … Eduardo Sanchez struck out four in two scoreless innings of relief after starter David Kopp left the game. Kopp allowed three runs (one earned) on eight hits and three walks in six innings. … Lefty Tyler Norrick hit a speedbump, allowing three runs on three walks and one hit in 1/3 of an inning. … High-A Palm Beach was shutout, 9-0. … Outfielder Adron Chambers went 2-for-4 in the leadoff spot. He had two of PB’s five hits. … Brian Broderick struck out five and didn’t walk a batter, but he took the loss after allowing three runs (all earned) on six hits in his six innings. … Low-A Quad Cities got rocked, 16-2. In his four innings, starter Kevin Thomas allowed eight runs (seven earned) on nine hits, including two home runs. Reliever Scott McGregor followed and allowed seven runs (four earned) on seven hits in 1 2/3 innings. The River Bandits went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position and they committed three errors, including two by shortstop Niko Vasquez, a 2008 draft pick.

8. A quick programming note: Same as it was the past three years, Bird Land will be writing live from Busch Stadium this evening during the draft. The blog will be up and running around 5 p.m. St. Louis time and it will track the draft — with emphasis on the Cardinals’ selection, the Cardinals’ comments and other stories that develop. Also for quicker hits, try the Twitter feed (@dgoold), where Baseball America (@baseballamerica), ESPN.com’s Keith Law (@keithlaw), Baseball Prospecus’ Kevin Goldstein (@kingclip), and use the “hashtag” #mlbdraft to keep up with @mlb and some of the draft picks who are on Twitter.

9. Colleague Stu Durando has an interesting story on Mizzou ace Kyle Gibson in this morning’s paper, the tent-pole story for the Post-Dispatch’s 2009 baseball draft coverage. Gibson could be one of two Mizzou pitchers to go in the top 10, as Aaron Crow returns to the draft after not signing last year. … As final prep for tonight’s draft here are a few of the final mock drafts by the folks who dare do such Sisysphean tasks. ESPN.com’s Keith Law has Gibson going 17th overall to Arizona in his last mock draft (Insider required). He has the Cardinals taking taking Rex Brothers. (See video of him in yesterday’s two-part 10@10.) Baseball America’s draft guru and tireless writer Jim Callis also has his final mock draft up, and you can find that here. He’s got the Cardinals landing prep pitcher Matthew Purke (another lefty you can see in yesterday’s 10@10). The surprise in Callis’ mock is where he sees Westminster Christian Academy pitcher Jacob Turner going. And Baseball Prospectus’ Kevin Goldstein offers a handy take on his top 50 players available in the draft. … And fresh this morning, Jonathan Mayo has his first-round projection up at MiLB.com.

10. Most folks in these parts know that Jason Isringhausen wore No. 44 as a Cardinal and No. 44 in his career because that was the round he was taken in the draft. Twelve players on opening day rosters this season were drafted in the 40th round or later, including Brad Ausmus (48th round), Kyle Farnsworth (47th round), and All-Star Orlando Hudson (43rd).

Any guesses on which player on an opening-day roster was drafted in the lowest-round?

Hint: It was in the 57th round, a round doesn’t exist anymore in the draft.

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