Houston is has been a terrible terrible terrible drafting place for the last 3 years or so. 2007 was particularly pathetic.

No we don't get another pick for Kyle Russell. Only the first 3 rounds. (Although if those clubs that get extra picks for not signing last years draftees, fail to sign who they draft with THAT pick, they do not get an additional pick next year for THAT pick.)

several of the FR contributers have started projecting the top 15 picks in an effort to get an idea who they think the Cardinals my end up with. (I'm not one of those people. I remain ignorant compared to those 4 about the draft.)

BA will have more info as draft day nears.

milb.com has a lot of draft profiles, and adds new ones about every wednesday or so.

These guys are doing a great job looking at select prospects.

And as AZ said, at FR we have College Mondays, when we look at top performances, and we may even do a mock draft of our own as June nears.

judging by the cardinals recent history, in the first round they will either take a polished college pitcher like Fresno St.'s Tanner Scheppers or Tulane's Shooter Hunt. However, with the emphasis on "classic mechanics" they could have someone else in mind, I don't know. Or they could a high school hitter like Harold Martinez.

the reason we got a pick for percival is because he singed with tampa before we had to decide if we would offer him arbitration or not. Thus, by rule, tampa had to give us a pick. We did not break our agreement, and still got the pick. Best of both worlds. :)

as each year's draft approaches, john sickels at Minor League Ball holds a 5-round mock draft ----- great exercise, in which FR contributor fewgoodcards has established a nice track record.

kevin goldstein at Baseball Prospectus had a free article up the other day previewing the draft (part 1 of a series) ---- i think it only looked at college players though.

obviously Baseball America will have extensive coverage. here's a link to their draft blog, which includes news / notes about college and high-school draft prospects.

But the profile on Crow is pretty much wrong on MiLB.

Semantics first: Fastball is 91-94 touching a 96...to say "fired his fastball up to 96 mph" is a little deceiving, he might hit 96 every other/third game. That and he doesn't just show "some life", the thing has HEAVY sink.

Slider isn't a power slider at all and I bet the gun was just off catching an 87. Slider is 80-84 tops. It's a big-time college pitch and has huge potential but he does need to tighten it up just a bit IMO.

I don't think I'd call his changeup plus, with projection I'd say it can be above average.

I haaaaate the obsession with the "wrap" on his arm action, seriously Zito is probably worse at that, Penny does the same thing, Sabathia does the same thing. That's not the issue. At all. Hell, cock your wrist like that. Feel any stress?? Nope. I'd be probably 10 times more concerned with how high his elbow gets and more importantly stays in the arm action. Get your elbow real high. Feel any stress? Yeah.....

But his command of three pitches makes everything play up, and the one thing I'd agree with is "agressive, going right after hitters."