Baseball America puts Cardinals in Top Half of Systems, Alex Reyes in the Top Ten

Ho hum, another Top 100 prospects list, another top ten finish for Alex Reyes. Baseball America released their Top 100 prospects on MLB Network on Friday night, and Alex Reyes was graded the seventh-best prospect in all of baseball. The full list is available on their website. No other Cardinals' prospects made the list, but that does not mean the publication hates the Cardinals. Despite just one prospect in the Top 100, Baseball America put the Cardinals system in the top half, ranking them 14th among Major League Baseball teams.

Alex Reyes' seventh overall ranking is the highest by a major publication this offseason. After ranking 13th on MLBPipeline's list, Reyes has had a string of top tens with Baseball Prospectus, ESPN's Keith Law, and now Baseball America have all put Reyes in their Top Tens. Reyes was suspended for marijuana use during the Arizona Fall League and we will not be able to compete in any big-league Spring Training games and will be out until the end of May. While the suspension is unfortunate, it has not hurt his prospect status in the slightest and MLB does not test for marijuana.

Baseball gave Reyes' triple-digit fastball an 80 grade (out of 80), which is an incredibly high grade. Among all pitching prospects, only the Nationals' Lucas Giolito (5th on the list) and the Red Sox Anderson Espinoza (19th) received an 80 grade on their fastball like Reyes. Only six 80-grades were given out among all players in the Top-100. They also rated Reyes' curve at 65, with just five players receiving a higher grade. Reyes' change was rated as average (50) while his control slightly below (45).

There are differences of opinion on Reyes' offerings as Keith Law indicated the changeup was a plus pitch with curve slightly behind. Reyes can succeed with what he has now, but the pieces are there to be absolutely dominant and the big-league level. Baseball America's scouting report for Reyes contains a sentence which should scare foes:

Reyes is a bigger, stronger, but slightly less athletic version of Cardinals starter Carlos Martinez.

Reyes was the only Cardinals' prospect on the Baseball America, but the team does have enough depth to rank 14th among farm systems. As most rankings have noted, the Cardinals have graduated a lot of talent to the majors over the past few years and that their talent is currently concentrated on Latin American prospects. In a bit of a surprise, they did not choose pitching as the most "well-stacked position", instead noting the outfield depth from Triple-A on down.

Baseball America listed third baseman Paul DeJong as its breakout due to his power, That potential is reflected in the red baron's scouting report here at Viva El Birdos, where he gushed a bit on the Cardinals pick of DeJong as well as his potential to move up considerably before ranking DeJong 16th in the Cardinals' system.

DeJong's best quality at this point is his plus raw power, which shows up in games as an ability to drive the ball to all parts of the field with authority. Opposite-field power is a huge predictor of success for me, and it's one of the things DeJong most excels at. He keeps his hands back beautifully, then explodes into the ball, going gap-to-gap as well as any player in the Cardinal system.

For more of our Cardinals' prospect coverage including the rankings and scouting reports for Cardinals' top prospects, visit our 2016 Prospects Hub.