2021 Draft Review No. 2: The Later Rounds

Last time, we went through the first five rounds (six picks), of the Cardinals’ draft class of 2021, from their first-round selection of Michael McGreevy, to their moonshot taking Josh Baez, and through the compromises they made after that, sacrificing some value with each subsequent pick to ensure they could meet the bonus demands of their upside play. Today, we’ll be working through the rest of the picks, from round six through twenty, covering both the back half of the first ten rounds, when bonus space matters so very much, down to the later rounds where there’s a little more freedom, if still a fairly limited quantity of it.

Since we last spoke, Baez himself came to terms with the organisation on a contract, and his bonus actually turned out to be a reported $2.25 million, well short of the three million or so I personally expected it to take to sign him. That’s still nearly a million over slot for the 54th pick, but not nearly as steep a price as I believed he would require to forego Vanderbilt. That’s definitely a good thing, because at $3 million for Baez I had serious concerns about the club’s ability to sign Alec Willis, their seventh rounder covered in this column, but at $2.25 they should have plenty of room. They will still probably end up into the penalty phase in that 100-105% of their pool allotment, where they pay double the overage, but they shouldn’t have any trouble getting all their players signed, with possibly still the exception of their 20th round selection.

With the above in mind, my calculus from the previous column doesn’t really change all that much. The actual price tag on Baez is a little lower than expected, but they still clearly went hard underslot at multiple other picks to afford him, meaning the general strategy was still the same. They still sacrificed value elsewhere to get one player they clearly believe heavily in, and I still don’t know if I could have brought myself to pursue that same strategy were I running the scouting department, knowing it would cost me at multiple other spots. Still, it’s slightly surprising to see Baez go for less than expected, and reassuring there won’t be any serious drama over the club having possibly cut things a little too close.

It’s also interesting to note that, at least for now, it appears the organisation considers Baez a center fielder. He is specifically called out as a center fielder in the story on the Cards’ website, and all the talking points surrounding Baez from people within the org have had him as not just an outfielder, but a center fielder. Now, obviously, that doesn’t necessarily mean he stays in center long term; guys who have the speed to handle center at eighteen end up in a corner at 23 all the time. But, at least for now, the Cards’ newest monster upside bat in their growing collection also just happens to be listed with ‘CF’ next to his name.

Anyway, on to the rest of the picks. We have a long way to go before we sleep, as they say.

Round 6, #181: Alfredo Ruiz, LHP, Long Beach State

Up to this point, I haven’t loved every pick the Cardinals made, but I thought all were pretty defensible. This one, though, I have real reservations about, even understanding where the organisation was coming from. Ruiz signed for $50,000, against a slot value of $270K, so this was obviously a huge pool savings pick for the Baez/Willis combo, and from that perspective I understand it. But this is very much the kind of pick I would hate to make, and why this strategy just wouldn’t be my cup of tea in all likelihood.

Ruiz is a solid college performer, who pitched as part of one of the better starting rotations on the West Coast this spring for Long Beach State. He’s not the biggest guy at six feet even, and his velocity is pretty pedestrian at 88-92 with the fastball. He does, however, have plus movement on both his fastball and changeup, with excellent fade and good sinking action. There’s a little Jaime Garcia in Ruiz if you squint, and if the game turns back toward sinkers and ground ball contact he could look better in a couple years. His breaking ball is a decent curve, but it can get lazy, with a hump, and needs some work. He does have good control and mostly puts his average repertoire where he wants it, so there is solid feel for pitching here.

I don’t mean to sound too down on Ruiz, but there were multiple players still on the board in the sixth round who I really liked, including Grant Holman, one of my personal favourites in the draft who, admittedly, did not have the best spring from a performance standpoint and slipped because of it. Going this cheap on a sixth rounder to save elsewhere isn’t the end of the world, but this feels like a real sacrifice.

via The Prospect Pipeline:

Round 7, #211: Alec Willis, RHP, Regis Jesuit HS (CO)

Here is the Cards’ other big upside bet, and a pretty good one, all things considered. I don’t know what it will cost to sign Willis; it’s possible that, with Baez at $2.25, the Cardinals may have actually undershot things a bit. On the other hand, it looks like they could go all the way up to close to a million bucks to sign Willis if that’s what it takes, and maybe he’ll require a bonus larger than I initially thought, just to counterbalance my overestimation of Baez.

I didn’t cover Willis this spring, unfortunately; he was on the to-do list, and had I gotten in one more batch of high school right-handers he would have been in there (along with Coleman Willis and either Eric Silva or a third, possibly made up pitcher with the last name Willis, allowing me to replicate my New Jersey homage, only with Die Hard and Moonlighting references rather than Sopranos, Goodfellas, and Bruce Springsteen bits). Ranked 130th by MLB Pipeline and 143rd by Baseball America (not ranked in the top hundred by FanGraphs), Willis will likely require not only a bonus more in line with those rankings, but probably also even higher, given his commitment to a strong college program in Minnesota. long-term potential upside, and overall leverage. He isn’t the high school arm I personally would have most wanted to take a shot on signing if I had one more overslot bet to place — Chase Burns would have been my guy, but he ultimately lasted until the 20th round and, I’m certain, will head off to college — but he’s still very much the kind of guy you’re looking for if you want an upside play.

Willis is huge — listed at six-five or -six, depending on where you look — and uses his height well, employing a 1:00 arm slot to generate good plane on a four-seam fastball, and also getting far enough down the slope of the mound that the pitch gets on hitters even quicker than his velocity would dictate. He’s around 94 pretty consistently already, and he’s got room still to grow, giving him good projection for mid- to upper-90s velocity down the road. It wouldn’t surprise me at all to see Willis throwing 94-97 a few years from now, and the fastball has very good ride at the top of the zone, missing bats at a high rate.

His best offspeed pitch is an above-average curveball that also has some room for growth, as he gets around the pitch and loses the spin on it more often than you want to see. His arm slot is high enough he should be getting true 12 to 6 spin and action on the curve, but he doesn’t stay on top of it. It’s already a good offering, though, and there’s real growth potential if he can improve his release and spin direction on the pitch. He shows good feel for a changeup, too, but it’s very much a pitch still in a nascent state, as is the case for most high schoolers. It’s not bad for a guy who has probably never really needed a third pitch for much of anything, though.

What Willis really lacks is a track record of playing against high-level competition, and that, more than anything else, explains why he was ranked in the 130-140 range, when his stuff would seem to dictate a ranking 50 spots higher. He’s from Colorado, which isn’t quite as much the hinterlands of high school baseball as some areas of the Northeast or other cold-weather areas, but it’s still not a place where the best talent finds it easy to compete against other high-end players. He was also injured his junior year of high school, and missed competing on the showcase circuit over the summer. That’s usually the best chance scouts have to see pretty much all the high school kids, but especially those from non-California/Florida/Georgia/Texas areas of the country. You can watch Willis throw for ten minutes and get a feel for what the stuff looks like, but without those showcase appearances it’s tough to see how that stuff plays against legitimate prospects, rather than just rank and file high school kids.

All of that is to say that Alec Willis is already an exciting prospect, but also a bit of a mystery. He’s a very good, very intriguing bet to place if you’re looking for real upside down in the seventh round, and have the money to get him signed. It appears the Cardinals will, and so I have to say I like this pick. He’s one of the real sources of upside in this draft, and it’s going to be very interesting to watch over the next couple years to see if the Cards’ strategy of concentrating upside in just a few picks in this draft will pay off in the form of one to three star players, or if it’s just going to feel like they passed on multiple good players shooting for the moon on a few who didn’t pan out.

via MLB.com:

Round 8, #241: Mike Antico, OF, University of Texas

An even bigger budget pick than Ruiz in the sixth round — Antico signed for just $20,000, against a slot of $171K — I nonetheless actually really like Antico, and think he has a shot to make it to the big leagues as a sparkplug fourth outfield type. He came so cheap because he had zero leverage as a fifth-year senior, though he spent only a single season at Texas after struggling to get noticed for four years at St. John’s, especially frustrating after a junior season in 2019 in which he posted an OPS of 1.098 but went undrafted. He struggled in 2020 prior to the shutdown, then decided to transfer to Texas for a fifth season to try and up his profile. He played very well, ending the season with a .273/.434/.489 line in the Big 12, and while he certainly didn’t get paid, he did get drafted.

Antico is already 23, which is the bad news. The good news is he has 70 grade speed, an instinctive feel for stealing bases (he swiped 41 bags in 46 attempts this spring), and hit ten home runs and sixteen doubles in just over 300 plate appearances for Texas this year. He was also one of the most patient hitters in college baseball, walking in better than 20% of his trips to the plate. He also plays a very good center field, utilising that plus-plus speed to cover vast swaths of ground out there. I haven’t seen him play enough to have much of a feel for his arm strength, but he can go and get it as well as just about anyone.

All of which forces us to ask the question: why was Antico so lightly thought of that he couldn’t get drafted out of the Big East, and had to take twenty grand as an eighth-rounder this spring after putting up some very intriguing numbers? The honest answer is, I don’t really know. He’s probably smaller than his listed 5’10”, and is very much maxed out physically, with a stocky build and thick legs, so maybe teams just didn’t like the body? I really don’t get it. The strikeout rate was a little high up to this year for a guy who has some power but isn’t exactly a slugger, but that improved markedly this season and he posted a 63:43 walk to strikeout rate. Maybe teams were just overly leery of a 23 year old in the draft, and thought that age had more to do with his success than talent, and don’t see much growth potential. Whatever the case, I’m quite excited to see what Antico looks like in the minors, even if he’s behind the eight ball a little already because of his extended stay in college.

via NCAA Championships:

Round 9, #271: Trent Baker, RHP, Angelo State (TX)

I’ll be honest; I don’t have a whole lot on Trent Baker. He was a big part of Divison II Angelo State making it to the semifinals of the College World Series (the Division II series, that is), and holds several career records there, but he wasn’t really on my radar prior to the draft.

Baker has a plus fastball, thrown from a 2:00 arm slot with up to 96 mph velocity, and has a pretty good changeup. His third pitch is a slider, not a very consistent one, and long-term he feels like a relief arm to me. Still, you can’t teach 95+, so there’s that, and he put together a 121:18 strikeout to walk ratio this spring for Angelo State, so there’s that, too. He was a college senior, signed for 75K (about half the slot value for the ninth round), and was really good for a very solid Division II program. I can’t complain.

Round 10, #301: Osvaldo Tovalin, 3B, Azusa Pacific

Another $50,000 bonus guy, saving nearly a hundred grand against slot, Tovalin is an intriguing player all the same. He played four years at Azusa Pacific, having been set back in 2020 by the pandemic-shortened season, and very much feels like a guy who fell through the cracks. The more I look at this draft class Randy Flores and his department put together, the more I feel like there are a couple of really good picks like this, where guys either just got overlooked, or the timing of the lost season really hurt them, or whatever the case may be.

Tovalin isn’t the most athletic-looking player, but the Cardinals apparently liked what he showed at multiple positions on the field in a workout at Busch Stadium, and so they appear to be leaning toward developing him as a utility player. He’s not so different in that way from Brendan Donovan, currently tearing up Double A, who came out of South Alabama as a slightly older guy seen as a middling athlete but who could really hit. And, yes, Osvaldo Tovalin can really hit. He’s got a smooth left-handed stroke, geared more for contact than loft, but he still managed to hit ten homers and fifteen doubles in just 173 at-bats this spring for Azusa, while hitting .387 with a 17:16 walk to strikeout ratio. He also stole nine bases in twelve attempts, just to prove he can do a little bit of everything.

Tovalin is 22 already and Azusa Pacific isn’t in the SEC, so there is some question about what he looks like playing against pro-level competition. Still, the bat is really intriguing, and he’s got enough athleticism in his 6’2” frame to move around the diamond some. Again, for a tenth-round bonus savings guy, Flo and Co. did a remarkable job finding some very interesting players here and there.

via Humberto Tovalin:

Round 11, #331: Mack Chambers, SS, New Mexico

I like this guy. I don’t know if it will take an extra bit of inducement to get him to sign (remember, any picks after the tenth round you can go up to $125,000 without it counting against your official bonus pool), but I suppose it might. Regardless, I like Mack Chambers quite a bit, and am really intrigued to see what he looks like in pro ball.

Chambers should be able to stay up the middle, his arm is strong enough he has pulled double duty pitching and playing the field at both New Mexico and Seminole State, where he began his college career, and he’s a good-looking athlete just in general. He’s a switch-hitter, and has outstanding feel for the barrel of the bat, striking out just over six percent of the time this spring. He’s not the most patient hitter, with a walk rate only a little higher (8.2%, to be exact), but he has great natural feel for hitting and doesn’t expand his zone, so I’m not really concerned with his plate approach. Chambers has solid power, hitting seven homers and sixteen doubles this spring (196 PAs), en route to a .624 slugging percentage. Now, that’s in New Mexico, which has both elevation and a lack of humidity helping to juice the offensive environment (thought not as bad as at New Mexico State, which is like playing on the moon), so take the power numbers with a grain of salt. Still, I think Chambers should hit lots of doubles long-term, even if the over the fence power is somewhat limited.

I like Mack Chambers. I really hope he signs.

Round 12, #361: Chris Gerard, LHP, Virginia Tech

Another pick I’m pretty excited about, Chris Gerard has a little bit of Connor Thomas in him, in that he’s an undersized lefty who lacks wow stuff but just gets results with multiple solid offerings. Unlike Thomas, Gerard’s fastball is of the four-seam variety, coming in around 90-92, with surprising carry and a little bit of cut. His slider is his best pitch, an above-average breaker he can manipulate in both speed and break, and is murder on left-handed hitters. He also throws a bigger-breaking curveball, but it’s a little too slow much of the time, and he’ll need to tighten it up long-term, I think. His changeup is about average, with some potential for improvement, and he either throws a cutter or is manipulating his slider into one, but I’ve only seen a couple of those. There’s a lot of feel for the craft here, with multiple useful pitches. He could probably ditch the curve entirely (I’ve only seen a few, and it just looks kind of slow and lazy), and still have enough weapons to get the job done.

Gerard missed a big chunk of this spring with a groin injury, which probably hurt his draft stock some. Still, he posted a 48:12 strikeout to walk ratio in 41 innings for the season, and I think with a full spring to perform he would have ended up raising his profile significantly. Another good bet on a guy who fell through the cracks a bit.

via Bryant Johnson:

Round 13, #391: Hayes Heinecke, LHP, Wofford

Now we start getting into territory where I really don’t know a lot of these players. Hayes Heinecke has an 80-grade name and goes to a basketball powerhouse school, where he posted a 43:11 strikeout to walk ratio in 43 innings this spring. That’s all I’ve got at the moment. If I can dig up more down the road I will try to update everyone, but unless you actually know the area scout who looked at some of these guys, you just aren’t going to get a lot on them.

Round 14, #421: Andre Granillo, RHP, UC Riverside

Another guy I wasn’t at all familiar with before the draft, Granillo barely pitched this spring, working only 10.1 innings out of the bullpen for Riverside, the alma mater of Joe Kelly. Granillo is a big, physical righthander who comes after hitters with power stuff, including a mid-90s fastball, and he got his name on the draft radar of teams by pitching in the Cape Cod League this summer, which actually occurred before the draft, unlike in previous years. He dominated in his time with Cotuit, and teams took notice, mostly of the 17:2 strikeout to walk ratio he put together in a dozen innings.

Round 15, #451: Alex Cornwell, LHP, USC

I don’t know much about Cornwell, though I do have a contact who can probably help me out with a USC pitcher when he’s not so busy. In the meantime, Cornwell missed his first two years of college entirely due to injury, barely pitched in 2020 (like everyone else), and then threw a full slate of fifteen starts and 79 innings this spring. He wasn’t very good in those innings, but he was also working off a very, very long layoff. I’m told he has a good curveball.

Round 16, #481: Aaron McKeithan, C, UNC Charlotte

There was a pitcher named Bryce McGowan from UNC Charlotte who I really liked, and was hoping the Cardinals would select. Instead, they got me his catcher, which is like getting a Sega Genesis for Christmas instead of a Super Nintendo. That’s right, Sega kids, you can suck it.

McKeithan is a solid defender behind the plate, but isn’t going to hit much. He played at three colleges in three years, beginning at Tulane, transferring to a Juco for 2020, then moving to Charlotte this year, and it looks like he left Tulane because he just didn’t get much playing time and struggled, badly, in the time he did get. He’s a strong maker of contact, but there’s no real ability to drive the baseball here. He could make it to the majors as a backup catcher, but the more likely outcome is he becomes a system catcher, hanging around the minors and helping to groom pitching prospects as they come through. No word on whether Susan Sarandon will show up at some point.

Round 17, #511: Elijah Cabell, OF, Florida State

Now here, ladies and gentlemen, is an interesting draft pick. Not because I’m convinced Elijah Cabell is an overlooked breakout prospect waiting to happen, but because Elijah Cabell is just a flat-out fascinating player. I do not, in any way, shape, or form, think he has a real chance to make it to the big leagues, but man, he is fascinating.

Cabell was actually a very well thought-of prospect out of high school in 2018, probably the only high schooler in that draft whose power potential exceeded that of Nolan Gorman. He was also a plus runner (6.62 60), had a plus-plus arm in the outfield (96 mph throws), and just generally looked like a guy who could put it all together and become a star. In short, Elijah Cabell in 2018 looked a little like Joshua Baez in 2021.

Just one problem: Elijah Cabell can’t hit.

No, seriously. He. Can’t. Hit.

Actually, I suppose it’s not entirely fair to say Elijah Cabell can’t hit. He does, in fact, hit the baseball incredibly hard, quite often. Often enough, in fact, that he posted a .560 slugging percentage and a .944 OPS this spring at Florida State, which is actually quite good. So yeah, Elijah Cabell actually can totally hit. I don’t know why I said he couldn’t.

Please don’t look over at that line that says strikeout percentage, where you’ll see the number 40.2.

Seriously, I’ve never seen a player with a strikeout problem like Cabell’s at the collegiate level. I’ve only ever seen a handful of players who strike out 40% of the time in the minors, and they have all washed out. You really don’t want to know what the translated stats for a 40% K rate in college all the way up to the majors looks like. It ain’t pretty, let me tell you.

Cabell swings and misses at everything. He swings and misses at fastballs. He swings and misses at breaking balls. He swings and misses at changeups. Dr. Seuss wishes he were still alive, so he could write a book about all the pitches Elijah Cabell swings at and misses. He struck out over 40% of the time in 2019, just over 39% in 2020, and went back over 40% this year. Players simply do not swing and miss this much in college, with a metal bat.

On the other hand, he did hit fifteen home runs in fewer than 200 plate appearances this spring, he walked nearly 16% of the time, and he never ran a BABIP below .400 in college, because he just hits the ball so ungodly hard. On the other other hand, he also hit just two doubles and no triples, so his season consisted of 25 singles, fifteen dingers, 31 walks, and 78 strikeouts. His three true outcomes percentage this year was 64%. He’s like Joey Gallo, but more.

I really have no idea if a player like Cabell has any chance of succeeding, or if the Cardinals think they can substantially remake his approach. But if you’re looking for a really interesting and probably extremely weird batting line to keep track of, just look for Cabell’s once minor league stats start rolling in for him.

via Kyler Peterson:

Round 18, #541: Andrew Marrero, RHP, UConn

Interesting pick here. Marrero is a draft-eligible sophomore, having turned 21 just before the draft, but because of the Covid shutdown he’s actually classified as a draft-eligible redshirt freshman, not exactly the most common of draft demographics. Marrero is a reliever already, and a relief-only prospect going forward, but he’s got a mid-90s fastball and a really good, tight slider that he uses to strike out lots of batters. He’s undersized at 5’10” and about 190, but he throws hard, has pretty good control already, and should be signable here, I think, considering the 125K you automatically are allowed for guys past the tenth.

Round 19, #571: Thomas Francisco, 1B, Eastern Carolina

This is a really good pick, I think. The Cards were so happy with Alec Burleson from the 2020 draft that they decided to go right back to East Carolina and draft the guy who is basically his successor in Thomas Francisco. Like Burleson, Francisco is an outstanding contact hitter who posted an even strikeout to walk ratio (both just above 8%), this spring for ECU. Unlike Burleson, who was almost entirely walk- and contact-oriented in college before shifting his focus in the pros to hit for more power at the expense of some contact, Francisco already hits for a solid amount of power, slugging thirteen home runs and eleven doubles in 282 plate appearances this season.

He hits with a similar stance to Burleson as well, hitting without any real stride or leg kick, which is an interesting thing that it appears they teach at ECU. It’s not the way I would personally teach hitting, but it definitely seems to be working for that program, so feel free to tell me to shut the hell up. Also like Burleson, Francisco isn’t much of an athlete, so you are very much buying the bat here and just trying to figure out the rest of it down the road somewhere. You can always find something to do with a guy who can hit, though, and Francisco can definitely hit. He signed already for $100,000, so he should be putting up numbers in the minors very soon.

via R McElhaney:

Round 20, #601: Xavier Casserilla, 3B, V.R. Eaton HS (TX)

I expected this draft to be a little college-heavy for the Cardinals, but they went way over the top that direction, drafting only three high schoolers in the entire class. Joshua Baez will grab all the headlines, Alec Willis has the potential to be a difference-maker in a couple years, but Xavier Casserilla, the third of that group, is an extremely interesting player in his own right, albeit one I have a feeling will probably make it to campus at Wichita State.

Casserilla is listed as a third baseman, but he has been a two-way player to this point, and he has hit 96 off the mound while working in relief for his high school team. If you’re looking for a kid who after three years of college could be 2024’s Spencer Schwellenbach, Casserilla wouldn’t be a terrible pick, providing he’s allowed to continue pitching in college. As interesting as Casserilla is as a two-way guy, though, it’s the bat that will likely have the higher value in the long run, as he has both solid feel for the bat and good natural strength already. He’s built like a tank at six feet even and 210 pounds, and will probably add another ten or fifteen pounds down the road, which should make him even stronger, but could slow him down to the point it becomes an issue. He’s already a below-average runner but not a problem yet.

The arm is an obvious plus, allowing him to make all the plays at third base, and he is quick, even if he’s not fast, which plays better at the hot corner anyway. The glove looks pretty good overall, and he has some really interesting power projection at the plate. I would be fascinated to see him developed as a third baseman and relief pitcher in the Cards’ system, but more likely we’ll watch him do (hopefully), both at Wichita State and just have to see where he lands in a couple years. He’s on the young side for a high school senior, so he fits the Cards’ rubric for a draft pick in that area as well. I wonder, with Baez coming in lower than expected, if they could pull together enough cash to get Casserilla signed. I would be happy if they did.

via Donald Boyles:

So here we are, at the end of this draft writeup. Twenty-one players covered, some in, admittedly, more detail than others. I have to admit, I was very lukewarm on this group as the draft was going on, feeling like the Cardinals made too many sacrifices in rounds 3-10 in order to make sure they could afford Baez in the second. To a certain degree, I still feel that way. But, as I dug in on these guys more deeply and actually scouted them, I came away feeling like Randy Flores and his team did a better job of finding players with intriguing tools than I initially gave credit for. There are still multiple pitchers in this draft I just don’t give much of a chance to — the guys after round ten, obviously, simply because it’s so rare to hit on those players anyway, even if you like them, but also guys like Zane Mills and Alfredo Ruiz I just don’t think have big league stuff — but there are also several players who have one or two tools or skills that could translate into a meaningful career should things break well for them.

If you gave me the option of taking this draft class versus the one I think the Cards could have had, had they not gone heavy on Baez and maybe one or two other bets, instead spreading the pool to a greater number of interesting players, I think I would choose the latter. They put a lot of eggs into just a couple baskets with this draft, and all along I felt the strength of this draft was its depth, rather than superlative talents at the top who could define a franchise should they be so lucky to draft one of those guys. But, it is also a fact that the Cardinals got a player with one of the highest ceilings in the entire draft at pick 54, and then placed several interesting strategic bets on what might have been undervalued assets due to one reason or another after that. It’s not the draft I would have conducted, but it’s a draft in which I think the Redbirds executed a gameplan they had clearly at least considered beforehand and then jumped to whenever the opportunity presented itself.

Since 2018, the Cardinals have added Nolan Gorman, Jordan Walker, Masyn Winn, and now Joshua Baez to their system through early draft picks. It’s hard to build a Cubs-style offensive core through the draft when you don’t have top ten draft picks, but you can’t say the Cards aren’t trying.

Next up is the 2021 shadow draft, in which I pretend I’m smarter than a multi-million dollar operation devoted entirely to baseball (whereas I am a multi-thousand dollar operation devoted primarily to feeding my cats, apparently, with baseball writing somewhere in there as well), and make my own picks in place of the Cardinals. At some point this summer, I would also like to try and place the prospects drafted into the context of a prospect list, but I don’t know if I will do so, or wait until the offseason when I do my annual list. (Well, I say annual, but I didn’t ever actually make one this past offseason, because I never could figure out what the hell to do with a minor league system where there was no minor league baseball played for a whole year.) Maybe once the players get going and we hopefully get stats and reports and the like.