St. Louis Cardinals’ 2016 Top Prospects: #16 Anthony Garcia

The St. Louis Cardinals’ system currently lacks any high tier prospects at the top levels of the system. Could this prospect have something to say about that?

Today’s edition of the Top Prospects series, brings us a St. Louis Cardinals‘ prospect that I am higher on than most. One who has a chance to come up by the end of the season and potentially be this year’s Tommy Pham if the need arises.

While this system certainly lacks top tier offensive talent at AAA and AA, Anthony Garcia is a prospect who could prove us all wrong. He could be a player that St. Louis Cardinals’ fans come to love over the next few years and a player who gives the organization some added flexibility in the OF.

So, what makes Garcia so great?

#16 Anthony Garcia OF

Season Stats:

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

Scout Grade: Hit: 50 | Power: 50 | Run: 30 | Arm: 40 | Field: 45 | Overall: 50*

Analysis: Some people may be down on Garcia for his consistency, but I really like him. I think that he has a live bat with some good pop. I talked about this at length a couple weeks ago, when I looked at the Cardinals’ winter league performances.

Garcia had a strong comeback season and at one point was on most Cardinals’ top prospect charts before a down year in Palm Beach (pitcher’s park and league), where he shouldn’t have been.

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However, I like Garcia’s power and think he can at least be a fourth OF or bat off the bench. I think the Cardinals’ could work on him defensively to get some time at first like they did with Piscotty. John Manuel has even talked about how Garcia is a bit of a sleeper prospect now, and that he has earned his top 20 ranking in their system.

I know that many are down on “clutch” being much of anything, but if there is anything to the idea of “clutch”, Garcia absolutely has it. Not only did Garcia have a good year this year with Memphis/Springfield, but he also was the MVP in the Pan-Am games, after being MVP in the winter league championship series last winter.

Garcia has age on his hands, at age 23 he is still quite young, giving him ample time to adjust and improve and be a cog for the St. Louis Cardinals. With Brian Walton dubbing Anthony Garcia one of the “one of the best power bats in the system,” Garcia is absolutely a player to look forward to and watch out for in 2016.

Roster Prediction: AAA Memphis with a likely call up at some point in 2016

Scout grade based loosely on MLB.com’s scout grade in 2013