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Well folks. We have an honest to goodness tie. I had a scare for the #6 vote, but because I left the poll up longer than intended, Ivan Herrera managed to get just one more vote than the man behind him. But no such luck this time. Joshua Baez and Leonardo Bernal both got the same exact amount of votes.
And unfortunately, it’s not at all clear that the loser would also be the #12 prospect. Because combined, they had 50% of the vote. Either Bernal or Baez had 75% of the people voting not vote for them. How could I possibly assume the loser would automatically win in a vote for the #12 prospect? I could show examples from past votes where I thought a guy with the third most votes would be a favorite in two votes - only to have another player surpass him. Hell, Matthew Liberatore got more votes than Ivan Herrera and Cooper Hjerpe in a few polls, but ended up being the last of all three to get selected.
So unfortunately, I can’t skip ahead. But I don’t want this to be a wasted post, so I’ll use this as an opportunity to do something a little interesting. First, when I look through the prospects, I see a lot of prospects who I tell myself “well I should probably add them at some point.” But ultimately I’m only going to end up adding 29 people in these votes and my “I should probably add them at some point” list is longer than that. Then there are players I’m not sure if I should add but who I imagine might be a favorite of someone else. Then there’s also the order in which I decide to add them to the vote. These polls will be helpful for all of these things.
But first, why you’re all here. The tiebreaking vote. Head to head. Leonardo Bernal, the 19-year-old catcher or Joshua Baez, the 19-year-old about to play in his age 20 season. Pick one or the other. Baez, by virtue of receiving more votes in past polls, has the tiebreaker if somehow we have another deadlocked vote.
Poll
Who is the #11 prospect?
This poll is closed
-
58%
Joshua Baez, OF
(295 votes) -
41%
Leonardo Bernal, C
(206 votes)
Okay, so with that part out of the way, I have six guys left who I am absolutely adding, short of the voting trends telling me not to. That leaves three spots that I consider up for grabs. For the first vote, I’ll be giving you close to the majors players who don’t get a lot of prospect love, but this group has tended to reward close to the majors guys, so they may be huge fans of one of these players.
Poll
Pick your favorite
This poll is closed
-
43%
Mike Antico, OF
(182 votes) -
8%
Jose Fermin, SS
(37 votes) -
12%
Matt Koperniak, OF
(54 votes) -
21%
Pedro Pages, C
(90 votes) -
13%
None (if you don’t think they are deserving of a chance)
(56 votes)
And then here’s the opposite type of prospect: the super young prospect who either was at too low a level to receive significant prospect exposure or has unrealized potential. I’ll give a brief summary of the players before running the poll since you may not know them. Reiner Lopez was the highest ranked international signing the Cards signed in the most recent signing period. He is 6’8 at 16-years-old (though 2023 will be his age 17 season) and is a right-handed pitcher. He has not compiled any stats yet.
Ayelo Encarnacion is a 19-year-old 3B who repeated the DSL at age 18 and laid waste to the league in his second stint. Samil de Rosa held his own (121 wRC+) in the complex league at 18-years-old playing both 2B and 3B and is possibly targeted for Low A for 2023. Jeremy Rivas is a 20-year-old whose defense is so well-regarded that he may be in High A despite not hitting even a little bit in his short professional career (78 wRC+ in Low A last season). He was even a non-roster invitee to spring training. And lastly, Lizandro Espinoza is a 20-year-old who was about average in the complex league, but bombed out in Low A.
Poll
Pick your favorite
This poll is closed
-
13%
Ayelo Encarnacion, 3B
(47 votes) -
2%
Lizandro Espinoza, SS
(10 votes) -
31%
Reiner Lopez, RHP
(109 votes) -
7%
Samil de Rosa, 2B/3B
(27 votes) -
25%
Jeremy Rivas, SS
(89 votes) -
18%
I don’t like any of these guys that much
(63 votes)
And for the final poll, a couple players in between those two prospects, who have some statistical evidence for what they can do, but aren’t that close to the big leagues. Patrick Romeri is a 22-year-old likely to play in High A who essentially lost a season to injury in 2022. Zane Mills was a 4th round draft pick in the 2021 draft, who the Cards promoted to High A after just seven Low A starts, where he was okay but didn’t really strike anyone out. And Dionys Rodriguez is a 22-year-old with not great numbers in High A as a 21-year-old.
Poll
Pick your favorite
This poll is closed
-
31%
Zane Mills, SP
(110 votes) -
20%
Dionys Rodriguez, SP
(72 votes) -
17%
Patrick Romeri, OF
(60 votes) -
30%
I don’t like any of these guys that much
(104 votes)
Playing Time Polls
And while we’re on the subject, I might as well use a post idea I had in the same vein as Blake’s last post. Though I won’t be using ZiPS as the barometer, but playing time. Predict the playing time of some players without obvious routes to playing time at the moment. Since we’re dealing with prospects, I’ll focus mostly on prospects.
Poll
Will Jordan Walker end the season with at least the third most plate appearances in the outfield among Cardinals’ outfielders?
Basically, re-framed this question is asking if he’ll get more plate appearances than at least one of Lars Nootbaar, Dylan Carlson, or Tyler O’Neill. Why the third most? Well, the yes vote would obviously win for the 4th most plate appearances. And getting in the top 3 of plate appearances would require him to either make the Opening Day roster, someone to get hurt, or someone to get traded.
Poll
If you had to pick one player of this group to get at least 100 PAs in the MLB as a Cardinal, who would you predict?
This poll is closed
-
31%
Moises Gomez
(166 votes) -
45%
Ivan Herrera
(239 votes) -
22%
Masyn Winn
(119 votes)
Three players with similarly difficult paths to make an MLB roster given who is in front of them, but since they cover three different positions, it seems likely one of them might actually achieve 100 PAs due to injuries and/or trades. I’ll be very, very curious to see if any of them do have 100 PAs at the end of the season.
Poll
Among these players not on the 40 man roster, who will hit a home run for the MLB squad?
This poll is closed
-
10%
Mike Antico
(48 votes) -
8%
Matt Koperniak
(37 votes) -
31%
Oscar Mercado
(145 votes) -
31%
Taylor Motter
(145 votes) -
17%
Kramer Robertson
(82 votes)
Again, I’ll be extremely curious to see if any of them actually do hit a home run at the end of the year. It seems likely at least one of them will be needed at some point, even if it’s only for a little bit. Though how long that “little bit” is probably impacts the possibility of a home run.
And now a series of questions related to games started by the starting pitchers.
Poll
Will Dakota Hudson and Andre Pallante combine for 32 starts in the majors?
Tougher question to answer than you’d think!
Poll
Will Matthew Liberatore make 10 or more MLB starts this season?
Poll
Will Connor Thomas make 10 or more MLB starts this season?
Poll
Will Gordon Graceffo make 7 or more starts this season at the MLB level?
In the following poll, when I say other pitchers, I both mean pitchers in the Cardinals organization right now, and any potential pitchers who aren’t in the Cardinals organization at the moment, but (obviously) will be.
Poll
Excluding the five pitchers in the above polls and the current starting five, how many combined starts will be taken by other pitchers by the end of the season?
This poll is closed
-
26%
5 or less
(114 votes) -
36%
10
(154 votes) -
24%
15
(104 votes) -
12%
20+
(55 votes)
I think that’s about every variation I can think of for the starting pitchers, so let’s move onto the relievers. No shortage of players in the minors who are relievers for playing time polls. We’ll start with the left-handed options.
Poll
At the end of the season, which lefty will have the most games played on the Cardinals?
This poll is closed
-
31%
Anthony Misiewicz
(146 votes) -
43%
Packy Naughton
(197 votes) -
25%
JoJo Romero
(115 votes)
And this one may seem easy to you, but if I’m being honest, I don’t actually know what the Cardinals plan to do with Pallante this season or Wilking Rodriguez, so given that uncertainty, I feel like this is a good one.
Poll
Which pitcher makes more appearances out of the bullpen on the MLB team?
This poll is closed
-
73%
Andre Pallante
(344 votes) -
26%
Wilking Rodriguez
(126 votes)
And even though I was going to make it prospect-focused, I have a few players who have graduated to MLB status who have similar playing time-related questions. And the first one was actually the thing that gave me this idea in the first place and was what I asked Katie Woo on the podcast.
Poll
Which player, if both players are healthy all year, will make more starts at 2B?
This poll is closed
-
65%
Brendan Donovan
(312 votes) -
34%
Nolan Gorman
(166 votes)
And the following question probably depends on both how much faith you have in Paul DeJong and how long you think the Cardinals will carry him on the roster.
Poll
Will Paul DeJong get 150 PAs or more this season in the majors?
And I think I’ll stop at this last one, and before I give it to you, I want you to take into account potential trades or options to the minors. That’s really the purpose of the question.
Poll
Which player will be on the Cardinals’ MLB roster for all 187 days of the season?
This poll is closed
-
9%
Alec Burleson
(44 votes) -
39%
Juan Yepez
(188 votes) -
9%
Both
(43 votes) -
41%
Neither
(198 votes)
Hopefully, you enjoy this detour made necessary by this group being unable to make up its mind with prospects!
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