Walking in Memphis: A visit to Cardinals' scrutinized prospect pipeline

Best Podcast in Baseball

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Sports, Baseball

4.8 • 673 Ratings

🗓️ 8 June 2024

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When it comes to evaluating a farm system, few things offer a better glimpse of the external view than the trade deadline and nothing gives greater clarity on the internal view than when there's a need at the major-league level.

Consider the Cardinals.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch baseball writer Daniel Guerrero recently visited Memphis, Tennessee, to scout just that -- how actions at the big-league level relate to the production and development of top prospects at the higheset affiliate. Guerrero returned with stories for StlToday.com on Jordan Walker, Thomas Saggese, Victor Scott II, and several pitchers. And he joins the Best Podcast in Baseball and baseball writer Derrick Goold to discuss if there's advancement coming from Memphis or just idling talent in Memphis.

An injury to Steven Matz at the beginning of May opened a spot in the Cardinals' rotation, and as they await the lefty's return they have at least twice had a chance to promote a prospect from within to make those starts. They did not. Actions always speak louder than rankings, and for the Cardinals their actions at the big-league level have suggested they feel it's more important for some of their prospects to continue developing in Class AAA Memphis than have their routine upset with a spot start, or, in some cases, that they're not ready to contribute to the majors even in a spot start.

It's a telling decision from the team that also strikes at their situation in the outfield.

The Cardinals are going to need contributions from the the organization in both the outfield and on the mound, and how they utilize their top affiliate is a chance to scrutinize the prospect pipeline and player development.

The two baseball writers conclude the episode by making their picks to represent the Cardinals in the Futures Game.

The Best Podcast in Baseball, sponsored by Closets by Design of St. Louis, is a production of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, StlToday.com, and Derrick Goold.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The best podcast in baseball is brought to you by Closets by Design.
0:05.6	Update your closet, garage, office, pantry, and more.
0:09.0	Imagine your home totally organized with closets by design.
0:12.6	Call 1-800 by design.
0:14.4	That's 1-800-by-design.
0:17.1	That's obviously a question.
0:19.2	I mean, of kind of where the cardinals pitching pipeline is at
0:21.8	because like you mentioned there was a void here at the major league level and there were guys who
0:26.1	were body of work at triple a guys who are 40 men eligible on the 40 man roster yeah but we're not
0:32.1	here like you said actions speak louder than than words and you do get a sense of like okay when is
0:36.2	you know this guy going to take the next step okay when is this, okay, when is, you know, this guy going to
0:37.7	take the next step? Okay, when is this going to happen for him? And, you know, is this the
0:41.4	outing he's going to build on and kind of launch, you know, up the system? Yeah.
0:53.1	Hello, everybody and welcome to the best podcast in baseball brought to you by closet by design of St. Louis.
0:56.9	I'm St. Louis Post-Dispatch baseball writer Derek Gould joined this week by another St. Louis post-dispatch baseball rider,
1:03.1	one of the guys who has probably the most to cover on the baseball beat, considering he works with us at the ballpark where we're sitting
1:11.3	today and also covers the minor leagues with his daily recaps of everything that's going on in
1:16.1	the Cardinals organization. And that is, of course, Daniel Guerrero. Daniel, you recently went to
1:21.5	Memphis, the AAA affiliate of the Cardinals. What were some of the things you were looking to see
1:26.9	there? What were some of the things that you wanted to, when you popped down there, spent some time looking at?
1:32.5	Yeah, well, first off, thanks for the invite on the podcast. It's always a pleasure.
1:37.0	It's my pleasure to have you here. This is great. I know you're a busy man. So, you know,
	...

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