How Does the Pirates Farm System Match Up? Cardinals Edition

As the Pittsburgh Pirates are beginning to work towards a top ten farm system, we kicked off this series yesterday looking at the Bucs compared to the Brewers.  If you missed it here it is

We headed over to Seedlings to Stars and checked out their new Top 100 Prospects list. It became apparent that several teams in the NL Central have solid farm systems. Based on how your beliefs surrounding prospects, some rankings show that the Bucs might not even have the best farm system in the NL Central.

The Pirates have two players within the Seedlings to Stars Top 15 as Jameson Taillon checked in at number nine and Gerritt Cole ranked number fifteen. Robbie Grossman and Josh Bell also cracked the top 75 for the Pirates.  (Jordy noted yesterday that Starling Marte is absent from the Top 100)

The team we will look at today is the St. Louis Cardinals.

Number 8:  Shelby Miller yeh, just what the Cards need, another ace.  He is 21.  He looks like the real deal, and if he can refine his change, look out.  He will be that ace.  The Pirates can only pray there number 9 prospect Jameson Taillon pitches this well at the upper levels of the minors.

Number 28:  Oscar Taveras yeh, just what the World Champs need.  A young outfielder who is a hitting machine.  He owned A ball.  Pssst… he did it at the young age of 18 and 19 years.  He has to prove he can maintain, but damn, he looks tough.  Even when he goes down swinging in this video from the AFL.

Number 37:   Carlos Martinez yeh, another pitcher.  At least we shouldn’t expect this one to be setting down Bucco hitters anytime soon, he was in high-A this year at a very young age.  He isn’t huge which causes some to question his longevity, but damn, that arm is a lively out machine.

Number 85:  Maikel Cleto Another arm.  Pure Smoke.

Number 92:  Trevor Rosenthal  A feel good 21st-rounder for the Cards.  Yeh, another pitcher, but it would be hard for us to believe if the Cards can pull this off.  Can their development of pitchers be that much better than the Bucs?

He struck out 11 of the first 12 batters he faced in the game below.

In one season, the Cards sure did turn their farm system into something somewhat desirable didn’t they?  The Baseball America Top 10 for the Cards has six pitchers.  We also think a certain slugging first baseman will help the Red Birds eventually as well.

Here is the complete S2S list:

Be sure to check out Pirates secondbaseman Neil Walker on our latest podcast by clicking the story below: