Viva El Birdos Cardinals 2018 Prospect Rankings: Caleb Lopes

Editor’s Note: A.E. Schafer aka the red baron has once again compiled a rather impressive list of Cardinals prospects doing a write-up on 40 individual prospects. As a convenience to our readers, he releases the list in a couple big chunks so everyone can read about all of the prospects at once. While that is a convenience to all of us who eagerly await the arrival of prospect lists, it might not be as convenient if you are looking for a player’s particular scouting report. So, as a further convenience, we are putting the individual scouting reports in separate posts to make individual players easier to find. You can find the full lists on our 2018 prospect page here. —CE

Caleb Lopes, 2B — Lopes is short (5’8”), thick-bodied (195 lbs), and limited to second base, where he gets defensive reviews like, “He’s fine.” (That’s a quote from an email.) He also has virtually zero power, with a .045 ISO this season at State College. In other words, there are plenty of reasons to doubt Caleb Lopes.

And then, of course, there’s the fact he walked more than he struck out his first season in pro ball after being a 33rd round selection in 2016. He went to Johnson City and walked 30 times, while whiffing only 24. He advanced to the New York-Penn League this season, collected 136 plate appearances, and struck out only ten (10) times.

He walked eighteen times.

Yes, he’s probably the latest version of Mike O’Neill. And yes, the tools will probably, eventually, prove unequal to the task of advancing up the ladder.

But isn’t it fun to have some completely weird player to follow?

Last short write-up of the year. Feast your eyes on this line:

Here’s this as well: