Quote:
Originally Posted by Ocotillo
Baseball America has the Cardinals going college middle infielder again in the amateur draft in its latest mock draft.
5. Cardinals — Marek Houston, SS, Wake Forest
We’ll talk about “profiles” a lot in today’s mock draft. In lieu of hitters teams are enamored with, there might be a flight to historically-safe profiles like no-doubt up-the-middle defensive players with contact skills. Houston fits that to a tee. He’s being viewed as one of the safest profiles in the class. While he might not have the typical upside associated with a first overall pick, his reliable shortstop defense and track record of making a ton of contact should get him off the board inside the first 10 picks. If he does, that’ll be three straight years for Wake Forest producing a top 10 pick. The Cardinals also seem to prize hitters who make tons of contact in the zone in recent drafts.
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Citing the recent history of a team that essentially fired its entire player development team into the sun doesn't mean a lot to me.
I mean maybe they take him -- sure. But just because they've gone for high hit tool guys over the last few seasons, that doesn't mean the new regime is going to focus on those same things.
I think they'd love to get Jamie Arnold but could see them taking Bremner instead. Seth Hernandez is a possibility, but the HS arm thing just feels a long way away -- I think they want to see someone that can contribute in 2-3 years.
Hard to get too amped up whatever direction they choose, though. This system needs a MASSIVE infusion of talent and any one draft just isn't going to accomplish that. They are just so far behind most of the NL including everyone in their own division.
Chase Davis breaking out will help if it's legit, but they need to find another 2 or 3 top 100 guys out of this system to really start to find some hope. I'm not seein' it...