Since it's the offseason and the offseason is the time for "what ifs," here is my random assignment for the VEB community:
In MLB history, there have been several expansion drafts. In the most recent of those drafts, the rule for protecting players was that each organization got to protect 35 players in their entire system for the first round (out of 3) of the draft. They then got to protect three more after the first round was over and three more (again) after the second round was over.
If a draft were occurring today, who would be the first 35 players you would protect in the Cardinals' organization? Who would be the first additional 3 and the last additional 3?
Category - Obvious - 21 players
Chris Carpenter
Category - Probables - 14 players (35 total)
Michael Blazek*
Category - Questionables
JC Romero
Seth Blair*
Andres Serrano*
Boone Whiting
Pete Kozma
Charlie Tilson*
Tommy Pham
So, my Obvious category added to my Probably category gives us the first 35 players I would protect, personally. My next three and last three would be:
Next 3
Tommy Pham
Joe Kelly
Robert Stock
Last 3
Charlie Tilson
Scott Gorgen
Justin Wright
Note: italics mean on the 40-man roster and * means "top 20 prospect" according to stlouiscardinals.com - also non-italic and non * are players that aren't on the stlouiscardinals.com's "top 20" but ARE on future redbirds' "top 20"
YOUR THOUGHTS?