St. Louis Cardinals Minors: 2015 draft picks shining early on

The St. Louis Cardinals have now signed 28 of their 2015 MLB Draft Picks and some of these players are already starting to make their presence known.

Paul DeJong 1B/3B – Talk about hitting the cover off the ball to get started in your career.

So far, DeJong has appeared in seven games, spanning 34 plate appearances. In that small sample size, he has 14 hits, including two homer and five doubles), five walks, 11 runs batted in and has scored eight runs.

On the other side of the coin, he has struck out seven times, which comes out to just under 21 percent of his plate appearances.

It’s not a terrible measure, but it’s worth keeping an eye on as he moves up through the farm system. Regardless, he’s off to a white-hot start to his professional career.

Harrison Bader OF – Bader actually only has one game and four at-bats under his belt so far this season.

In that one game (which took place on Tuesday), Bader homered twice – an impressive way to start the campaign.

The power is a welcome sight to a Cardinals’ system that has lacked a big bat of late.

It seems that Bader is picking up right where he left off at Florida in the College World Series, where he went 8-for-23 with two homers and two doubles, driving in five and scoring 4 runs.

More from Redbird Rants

Chris Chinea C – Chinea is another CWS performer coming off a career year as a junior at LSU, where he hit .344/.376/.539 totaling 28 extra-base hits (11 home runs and 17 doubles).

The backstop drove in 58 runs, scoring 42 himself in 66 games. After being drafted in the 17th round, Chinea reported to Johnson City in the Appalachian league.

In his first five games in professional ball, Chinea, like DeJong, has gotten off to a flying start, going 9-for-21 with three doubles and a homer, while driving in six and scoring three runs.

Keep an eye on the former LSU catcher over the course of the next few weeks; being that he is a college junior he could get the call to the next level fairly quickly if he shows he is far above rookie level.

Other draft notes:

The Cardinals have come to terms with second-round pick Bryce Denton, who you may or may not know is a big St. Louis fan and one of my personal favorite picks of this year’s draft class.

Denton and the Cardinals agreed to a $1.2 million bonus, which was $264,000 over slot value, meaning that the Kep Brown selection likely won’t come to fruition due to a lack of resources.

Next: Could the Cardinals target Samardzija this summer?

More from Redbird Rants

Schedule