Cardinals sign Zack Cox as draft deadline nears

which team will he be playing 1B for in 2012?

i know i haven’t been around much lately. odds are i won’t be until this weekend. i’m currently one of 5 people in my dorm (no lie). golf practice is at 4:30 every day so i don’t know how much of the games i would catch, plus the person’s laptop i’m borrowing won’t let me get to streamtorrent. might be a while before i watch a cards game again. hope all is going well here.

-zoomzoom

this draft gets a boring B+
I was never a huge fan of the Cox pick since he doesn’t hit for enough power or defend well enough for my tastes. But kudos anyway to the Cards for a solid draft.

besides miller and carpenter

assuming he won’t be there long, though.

Gallaraga tries to pull a Carp-Boog tunnel

keith law

Cox is a draft-eligible sophomore and one of the most advanced college bats in this year’s draft. He’s very strong, including strong hands and wrists, and is very short to the ball, hitting line drives to all fields, but with the ability to drive a ball on the inner half.

He was criticized after his freshman year for his strikeout total and cut down his swing to make more contact, with more walks than strikeouts this year. At third base, he has an above-average arm but heavy legs, although he makes up for the latter with good instincts and an aggressive style of play.

The fact that Cox could make such a significant adjustment at the plate in one year is impressive, and we’ve now seen him hit for power and for average and show the ability to get on base; when he puts all of that together in one season, he’ll be an All-Star.

baseball america

Cox is the best pure hitter and top sophomore-eligible player in the draft. He hit just .266 as a freshman on Arkansas’ College World Series team a year ago, but improved as the season went on and adjusted his pull-happy approach when he arrived in the Cape Cod League. He hit .344 with wood bats and ranked as the top position prospect in the summer circuit, setting the stage for a breakout spring in which he was hitting .446/.532/.631 through mid-May. Cox has very good hands, a short, lefty stroke and nice command of the strike zone. He has an uncanny ability to hit the ball with authority to the opposite field. There’s some debate as to how much power he’ll have in the major leagues, but he has the bat speed to do damage once he adds more loft to his swing. He has plenty of strength, as evidenced by a titanic shot he blasted off the top of a 90-foot-tall scoreboard at the 2009 Southeastern Conference tournament. Six feet and 215 pounds, Cox is a decent athlete with fringy speed and range at third base. Not all scouts are sold on his defensive ability. He does have a strong arm—he threw in the low 90s as a reliever a year ago—and will put in the work to improve his reactions at third base. He also has seen time at second base, and one scout said his actions looked better there, but his athleticism is more suited for the hot corner. Cox turned down an $800,000 offer as a Dodgers 20th-round pick out of high school, and he’s in line to make two or three times as much as a top 10 choice this June.

http://www.futureredbirds.net/2010/06/07/cardinals-draft-3b-zack-cox/

unfreakbelieveable

why did they do that? Shelby’s not even on the 40man & he’s a lot better than Cox

there has to be one out there who won’t cost an arm & a leg who’s better than Floppy

Lack of position players comment. We certainly don’t have any colby rasmus grade blue chip talent, true.

Our outfield prospects are fairly intriguing and our depth is pretty good. I mentioned henley, pham, and chambers on saturday; luna is another good name to look at going forward. That’s on top of jay and craig who’ve made their debuts.again, no certifiable all-stars like colby, but good prospects.

We just lack any depth in the infield (unless you count 1B). At short we have pete kozma who is a tolerable prospect but nothing special, and ryan jackson who is a great defender, but whose bat has a long way to go. His upside is like boog but with even more awesome defense.matt carpenter and dan descalso are pretty much it organizationally for 2b/3b, unless you’re still riding the niko/nico vasquez bus or you believe steve hill can play 3b or if luna could be put back at 2b.

Whatever cox can contribute, he clearly fills an area of serious organizational need.

Just had to tell someone, and it’s 4:45. Wheeeeeeeee.

I see someone has already rated the draft as a B something. I say none of us have any idea. Please go back and look at the last 6-7 drafts, and you will see that First Round picks don’t often make it, and there are upside and downside surprises. It is still a fact that it is more difficult in baseball than in other sports to project how someone will do going up several levels in the system. Even in football, the top state prospect out of high school is often a college bust(This happens in even the best programs). It brings up the question, which organization has the best record at succeeding with there top three picks?

seems unusual at 25, and maybe necessary for bouros
at 21 though, it seems he either is what he seems to be and therefore wlll be in the show in <3 yrs, or he isn’t
and we just go ahead and wash the money away
not thrilled with the guy, didn’t think he was the best on his team even (like eibner better)

But was anyone else suprised the Pirates

Acidentally posted to soon